Firefighters arrested on suspicion of first-offense DWI will no longer be immune from losing their jobs.Of course almost everyone else was subject to termination. But Marty - in one of his more stupid and petty attempts to cause Berry trouble - made a quick agreement with IAFF President, Diego Arencon that allowed firefighters to go largely unpunished.
Effective immediately, city officials will stop honoring an agreement with the local firefighter's union that kept those firefighters on the job. Instead of termination, they faced demotion and lost $1 of hourly pay but were eligible to have it reinstated after a year. They also had to complete a counseling program.
It's obvious that the MOU was patently unfair to other city employees and just plain wrong, but the MOU itself could obligate the city to abide by the Formerly Almighty Alcalde's agreement. The question is - will the IAFF return to court in order to protect a few drunken firefighters from termination?
We'd be willing to bet that Mayor Berry and Public Safety Director Darren White would be more than happy to defend the decision in court and in the media.
"It's clear that this pilot project was a miserable failure because it has not stopped the number of DWIs," Public Safety Director Darren White said Tuesday.
"We want to protect the public's trust," said Fire Chief James Breen. "That's why we're taking this stand."Frankly, the move is the right thing to do. Creating disparate groups subject to different punishment for the same offense will cause nothing but problems and is probably not legal anyway. Kudos to the administration for taking a stand and striking down another MOU.
Now... if they were only willing to take on the other infamous MOU that allows former CAO, Ed Adams to keep working over at DMD at his CAO salary. Hey, we're just sayin'.
20 comments:
Berry's only going after Fire because they went all in for Marty. It's retaliation.
Berry was trying to re-hire a bus driver who was fired for molesting a two-year old and was going to give him two years of back pay. Berry only backed off when the Journal called him on it. If RJ could have helped out THAT union, he would have.
And don't hold your breath waiting for Berry to go after Ed Adams. Dave Campbell will never let that happen.
Welcome to Albuquerque. STILL a "Sanctuary City"!!
The MVD stands on the idea that one is guilty before AND after one goes to court to prove innocence of a DWI charge. It doesn't matter if your case is dismissed, and you are never convicted, MVD still punishes you regardless of the trial outcome. Even a judge has no jurisdiction over the matter if you are not proven guilty of DWI. You are still punished by the MVD. Why shouldn't the city stand by a practice that makes no sense? The practice is illegally being enforced under the current governor's watch. Why even go to court?
Why dont they (the city) just eliminate Adams position? Or place him on anomal disposal duty at the zoo. Just wondering...
The last thing I want when I need rescued from a burning home is to smell alcohol on the Fireman's breath. What was Marty thinking?
I too agree that the dwi policy for afd needed to be tweaked a little. but the statement that we lose a dollar an hour and will be reinstated after a year is a downright lie.... ask former captain ortega who is now a pipeman, last time i looked thats 3 ranks. by the way he is no relation to former chief ortega. I think we need to be held to a higher standard and most would agree, i just cant believe how this admin. lies and the media jus runs with it.
Well, not a Darren fan but he did say something that made sense.(unlike most of the stupid things that come out of his mouth)
"These guys SEE the carnage that drink & driving cause". So...... are the lights on and nobody's home?
Berry won't go after or challenge anyone without checking with his boss Campbell. Besides, Adams & Campbell are butt buddies.
Berry will have to look the other way.
"We have serious business to take care of. Darren take Berry for a ride to some ribbon cutting and get him the hell out of here. Union guys are coming in after lunch. he doesn't need to be around for that"
Once the firemen stop drinking, look at all the money the city will be loosing from the gross receipt taxes on alcohol. There goes the new fire truck. What was the Mayor thinking?
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Who said anything about priviledges or rights? Lets talk about the U.S. constitution. That's where I get my rights from ... where do you get yours?
"Frankly, the move is the right thing to do. Creating disparate groups subject to different punishment for the same offense will cause nothing but problems and is probably not legal anyway."
This is EXACTLY what striking this MOU down is going to do. Striking this MOU down essentially reverts back to the old way of doing things prior to (November 2007).
Anyone within AFD who knows the history of DWI and punishment. It was based on family ties to the Fire Chief, political ties, whether you were the Mayors friend, you had close knit relationship with anyone on the 11th floor so forth and so on.
The policy (MOU) now sets all that aside, regardless of "ties" all are treated equally.
It will not be long before one of the "connected" gets arrested for something, and then we will see a return to the old way of doing things in AFD.
AFD can celebrate. A return back to hypocrisy, lies, deception, back door deals on punishment, disparate treatment.
YOU DRINK, YOU DRIVE, YOU LOSE... unless your related to the Chief, D. White, Berry, Cambell, have political pull, a protected employee,..........
What about AFD LT Martin Salazar? The guy clearly has a drinking problem and a problem with authority.....yet he is still on.
What's crazy is that this policy is not fair across the board. A day care provider at one of the city child care centers was also recently arrested for dwi and nothing happened to her! It was just swept under the rug. It angers me to think this woman is responsible for the lives of young children while their parents are working and no one cares! This woman is a city employee, why wasn't this policy applied to her? Oh yeah, I guess it's who you know that matters.
I am a republican and I regret voting for Berry. I wish Chavez had got out more and not though he was a shoe in. You want to compare Berry to Chavez. New city attorney $20k raise, hired John Martinez $50k every 6 months so that is a $20k raise over Lawerence. He kept the made up job of Public Safety Officer, really we were fine 5 years ago without it, so another $130k. Then he made a job for Sal Barriolga to come back to the city at whatever he is making. This is the same old politics but with increase in pay. Ken Sanchez is a fair upstanding citizen and he will have my vote if he runs in the next election.
March 17, 2010 2:31:00 PM MDT
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Mayors Office needs to look into two city employees who got in a fender bender out at Pino. The security dept. is trying to blame the water dept. Lets see the LT. and the Sgt. are married and the Sgt. has not been with the city very long. Please mr. Mayor there is a video.
March 17, 2010 7:00:00 PM MDT
And to expound on the security department, there is one supervisor for every 4 employees. The supervisors say we need that many because how else would they be able to take time off? And yet the officers can't get a day off for love or money because they are so short only 2 people can be let off per shift....instead of having so many supervisors, what should be done is what used to be done, the supervisor upgrades one of the officers for the shift. It gives the officers experience, saves money, and there only needs to be two supervisors per shift instead of 4 or more. It's not like the officers patrol the city, they are posted in specific places and aren't allowed to leave even to pick up lunch. And yet we have so many supervisors, that they are having to micromanage just so they can justify their positions.
We have three times as many supervisors, a third as many officers as we need, our entire budget is going to pay for the supervisors, new vehicle, and mismanagement, none for training, equipment or the tools they need to do their job, and yet they keep hiring/promoting management that has no clue how to actually do the job, but try to enforce their "ideas" of how things should be done, with no concept of what the job really is....And we're talking a least a couple HUNDRED thousand that could be saved in supervisory salaries....
DON'T PAY THE RED LIGHT OR SPEED CITATIONS. IT'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND MOST ARE BOGUS; JUST ASK DARREN.
Hey news people; don't bother asking anyone at City Hall for answers; they'll just refer you to the Eye on Albuquerque.
Hey on that security guard problem I hear it's just the opposite, too many officers... A little birdie told me that the city has gone out to bid for a private contractor to provide security at city buildings. I hear it's a mulit-million dollar contract for the next 3-5 years and the bids will be opened this Friday!!! So it would appear that you may get what you have asked for, nobody to watch over you anymore while you sit at home. Good luck & we'll see you on the unemployment line...
Sal Barriolga job is a M-18. Its a classified position. They fired the person that had that job to make room for sal. When city hall realized that they messed up by firing a classified employee they went back and transferred him to the airport. I wonder if they even did any interviews when they hired Sal Barriolga? They should of. I wonder if Sal Barriolga has the degree that the high paying position calls for. The job Sal Barriolga got appointed to is not a appointed position. Can you say cronyism?
Re: Security, maybe someone needs to look at how much is spent on supervisors, vs. officers. The officers actually work, the supervisors don't do anything but cruise around in their brand new vehicles, trying to justify their positions.
If the dept is privatized, the city will get what it pays for, and they've tried it before and got hosed, no background checks, no training, no consistancy, and no accountability for the employees making minimum wage and stealing city property to make ends meet. You go Mayor Berry, doing away with an entire dept is a huge mistake, when all the money is just going for supervisors. Get rid of them, you could hire 25 more officers, and the supervisors left really would have a job then.
Two comments up Re: Sal Barriogla.
This mayor is worse that Marty when it comes to deception and insincerity.
THE PUBLIC IS STARTING TO FIGURE OUT THAT YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING.
Berry started off his administration with appointing a Public Safty Director. What does darren white do besides go on T.V. and make campaign appearances! That position was created by the Chavez administration that way Pete Danali could have a 120k a year job. That position should have been eliminated to save the tax payers money. Instead tax payers ended up not only having to fork out 120K a year for darren whites job, but another 90K a year for Sal Barriogla job. If the city starts to lay people off, Maybe they should start from the top.
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