Mayor Jerry Abramson met for an hour yesterday with leaders of the Metro Police Fraternal Order of Police. Everyone was expecting either fireworks or some type of astounding revelation. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems that there is nothing new from Abramson's perspective.
Everyone was anticipating that this meeting with the labor organization that threw down the gauntlet first over his fiscal irresponsibility and trying to cover everything up by making the workers pay for it would lay new groundwork or present solutions that would be amicable to both sides. Alas we are once again disappointed by Mayor Abramson.
it seems this meeting was nothing more than a formality because Abramson had already met with each of the other union leaders last week. He was unable to meet with the FOP leaders because President McGuire was out of town.
The Fop and other union officials have voiced the thoughts of many people in our community this week by asking the simple question: ?Can we have the books examined by a neutral third party?? On Monday, leadership for all five unions met and issued a joint request that Abramson provide more details on the cause of the budget deficit, as well as more details about what else is being done to address it.
The Mayor said yesterday that there is no time for outside analysis and tough decisions must be made relatively quickly. What? Let me pause while I think about that statement. Didn't the Center City proposal get jammed down our throats in a similar manner? I seem to remember a "just trust me, we don't have time to review this" approach from the Mayor on other issues as well.
Some members were concerned over a statement made by FOP President John McGuire after yesterday's meeting that there would not be another vote by the union membership. McGuire clarified that statement today by disclosing that there was nothing new to vote on. Abramson offered us nothing new. He hasn't changed his stance on anything and he is still wants the employees of Metro Government to bail him out. When Metro Government gets to a point where they have shown us the books and we agree there are no other areas that can be trimmed, then we will have discussions on any concessions that may need to come about. Then and only then when we have a reasonable offer will our members be asked to vote.
Abramson offered nothing new to the police or to any of the other unions. He is still claiming that Metro Government is broke and he needs to ?pass the hat? to get us back in the black. That is very sound financial planning Jerry! ;)
When this crisis first started the first people he came after, not to, were the police. He never asked for help from anyone. He made unreasonable demands, threats and innuendo about what was going to happen if we didn't play ball.
November 24th the FOP held an emergency meeting and over 800 members attended and sent a resounding message to him that we would not accept his threats and demands. We are willing to help somehow, but not at the expense of our families or the safety of the community. The other unions agreed and their members have also told him no.
Our FOP leaders went into the first meeting with Chief White and offered other solutions and cost saving members but all of their ideas were dismissed. Abramson had his plan and wasn't going to listen to anyone else.
Since then he has amazingly found almost 10 million dollars in cuts. Dig deeper Jerry. I am sure the solution is out there. This is exactly why everyone is raising their eyebrows and wondering why we can't see the books? What are you hiding Mr. Mayor? Why were you so willing to go after the employees of Metro Government first?
Right now we are interested in finding other areas that you can scale back to save layoffs and pay cuts. I am sure there are a lot more pet projects of yours that you are protecting.
I would like to finish with an impassioned plea to the Metro Council to find out what is really happening to our city. We are not getting truthful answers from Abramson or his staff. I would like for them to find out why Metro Governments Chief Financial Officer Jane Driscoll suddenly resigned December 1st. There is something seriously wrong here and Jerry is trying once again to rush things through without giving anyone the full story.