December 21, 2007
Guess We're Stuck with It, Then
Could there be a better expression of Rhode Island's erroneous mentality than EMT's comment to Marc's post on the triple-dipper union fireman?
So why is this only OK for union presidents who don't rock the boat?All you conspiracy theorists REALLY believe that Cicilline didn't feed this straight to the Journal, who are trying to anoint him Governor?
He broke no laws, and he can't even be brought up on department charges because it's been past practice- a key labor law term.
The State Police laughed this out of their office. It's only an issue because the mayor is desperate for leverage against a union that his yes-man Farrell can't dictate to.
I suspect I'm not alone among Anchor Rising types in not caring how this information came to light and in not believing that the same behavior used to be OK.
It's a travesty that it's taking the utter collapse of the state's finances to spur this sort of intra-insider contention. That it appears unique against the historical backdrop indicates how out of kilter Rhode Islnd's public sector has been. Such political wrangling is built into our system precisely to make it in everybody's interest to watch for excesses from everybody else.
It's disheartening that even relatively reasonable pro-union folks can't bring themselves to see the fault in Doughty's behavior.
"I suspect I'm not alone among Anchor Rising types in not caring how this information came to light and in not believing that the same behavior used to be OK. "
Of course it was ok. Otherwise it would have been George Farrell or any one of the dozens of past union presidents getting assassinated in the Journal. I bet you think today's article on firefighter pay is a coincidence too.
The difference here is under Paul's leadership, 799 has been winning in court and in arbitration regularly. They also prevented the mayor from being involved in Hillary Clinton's campaign. He was obviously counting on that for future endorsements and influence.
Cicilline can't stand having a union president hold him to his own campaign promises- that he would sign a contract with 799 within one year of election.
The other issue, in case nobody knew, is that Farrell was appointed city Fire Marshal when he was union president, and thus had to leave the union. 799 and the city were deep in contract negotiations at that time, and Farrell fed the entire union bargaining position straight to City Hall in payment for his new job.
Even with questionable job practices, Paul Doughty has more integrity in his pinky finger than George Farrell and David Cicilline combined.
Posted by: EMT at December 21, 2007 3:02 PMHe's not nearly as much of a scumbag as the corrupt mayor? That's a selling point?!
Posted by: Greg at December 21, 2007 3:18 PMMy mistake, I'll rephrase.
"There is no equivalence whatsoever between the legal, contract-compliant actions of Paul Doughty, and that of Mayor Cicilline's average day."
My apologies for the misunderstanding.
Posted by: EMT at December 21, 2007 4:26 PMImagine how corrupt this union is to make that mincing, fat, arrogant degenerate actually look good for not totally capitulating to them.
Posted by: Mike at December 21, 2007 7:21 PM