- Chicago’s Inspector General is out with his latest list of options that could help the city reduce its nearly $300 million budget shortfall.
[...]
“They’re absolutely not recommendations in the sense that we’re endorsing any one or more,” Ferguson said.
For example, he said the city could save more than $5 million by reducing the number of paid holidays for city workers.
That's a negotiated item - isn't (or shouldn't) happen automatically:
- He also resurrected an old, controversial idea – reducing the minimum staffing on fire trucks from five firefighters to four. That move could save $71 million a year, according to Ferguson’s report.
“In many instances, the same level of safety and operational efficiency can be achieved with four on a rig,” Ferguson said.
Safe - except for the part about someone watching the equipment while everyone else is in the fire. Or running the ladder while teams of two go in. And after CFD gets gutted, guess who's next?
- .... The police side of the ledger – civilianizing positions in the various administrations of the Police Department – we estimate preliminarily that could save as much as $3.6 million a year,” Ferguson said.
You can tell the police side of things has been gutted pretty badly when the listed "savings" is around one-twentieth of what the CFD reduction is. We're only burying forty bodies a month and patching up 140 or so, all directly attributable to budget cuts and no police. And they still want more.