Elks Building Decisions... Delayed
From the Tacoma City Manager’s website:
As a result of the court granting the City’s motion for continuance, the trial date for the Old Elks Temple has been rescheduled for December 4, 2006. City staff continues to refer interested parties to the family. The family has received at least six offers on the property, but no word has been received as to the family’s acceptance of an offer.
In the email we received with this tip:
I would like to know why the city keeps stalling on proceeding with the lawsuit since the Zimmerman family now has offers coming in above their asking price and they still don’t accept them. What gives!?
Exactly. I have nothing new to add myself. Anybody?
6 comments
P Published Author RR Anderson May 14, 2012
Jesus christ more money for parking garages.
J JB May 14, 2012
Great! Let’s pour some more money into our fire department! These guys have an inordinately huge budget already- if you aren’t in the longshore union, then the next best gig is to be a firefighter. They are hardly ever at work, get paid a ton, and occasionally have to use that expensive gear we are always purchasing for them. Let’s build a new and improved boathouse for our Canadian fire boat! C’mon Tacoma- wake up and quit filling the boot for these jokers.
J jd May 15, 2012
Let’s see here…how many things can I find wrong with JB’s uneducated, angry, lunatic ranting? Our firefighters hardly ever work? They put in a minimum of 46 hours a week (without over-time between 40 and 46 hours, for a non-OT rate total of approx 300 hrs a year), on a department that is according to all assessments grossly under-staffed and over-extended. The days of sleeping through 24 hour shifts is long gone. They handle all fires, all emergency medical calls (including all advanced life support transports), all hazardous materials responses, all technical rescue events. They retire earlier than the average worker because their bodies are broken, then have a shorter than average life-expectancy after they retire.
You make it sound like a bad thing that we don’t ask them to have to use all that expensive gear more often. Remember one minor point…if it’s being used, it’s because someone is in danger. I’m guessing that if it were you needing their help, you’d be more than happy to see them show up with all their expensive equipment.
As for the fireboat, it was made with so many American made products that it passed the qualification requirements with ease. As I recall, the engines, the pumps, the jet-drives, the FLIR camera, the navigation equipment, hell, even the aluminum for the hull was from America.
I can definitely see your problem with them. On top of everything else, these lazy, greedy “jokers” slow traffic one day a year, at one intersection in the entire city to ask for help raising money for kids with Muscular Dystrophy.
Sounds to me like someone’s angry for not being bright enough to pass their test!
C Che May 16, 2012
Sounds as if jd is a firefighter.
C Che May 16, 2012
The City’s own budget report states that the fire department costs nearly 25% of the general fund budget (which comes out to be roughly 50 million every year). As a citizen, I hear that firefighters still trade shifts to maximize time away from the job and are regularly approved overtime pay to accommodate these schedules. As far as for the above comment that their “bodies are broken”, I have a hard time feeling compassionate- it is the profession you are being paid to do. I don’t hear the framers and carpenters (who work way, way harder than a firefighter ever will) crying about their broken bodies.
No matter how you cut it, 50 million a year is a huge budget, and times are lean. There has to be a more efficient way to deliver fire services than the current model.
F fredo May 16, 2012
Could Tacoma have a non-union fire department staffed by dedicated and brave firefighters at a lower cost in terms of salary and benefits than the current arrangement?
The short answer is ….probably yes.
During a recession, should the city council in charge of providing fire services to it’s citizenry look at the possibility of providing these services at lower costs?
Again the short answer is…probably yes.