VERY Interesting Rumor

Popping up in more than a few places:

• Anybody hear the rumor that Tiny Dancer 9.5 is going to use a parliamentary maneuver to circumvent the contracts and put the CPD back on 6 and 2s and 56 day rotating watches due to manpower and equipment shortages. This is taking on a life of its own.

"Life of its own" is right. We were ready to write this one off and the ramblings of a madman, when this other one popped up:

• Interesting news from the Command staff meeting. They are not happy with the 4 & 2. Thousands of man hours wasted every day with the shift change and not enough cars/Beat Tags. J-Fled is being blamed for trying to curry favor with the rank and file(didn't work).
  
  New schedule is being worked out and this will include rotating for the guys with less time on. They feel it is a better Officer that works all three shifts. Rotation to be more than the old 28 days.
  
  That which is old is new again. Should be an interesting contract negotiation time.

A few points:

1. The 4 and 2 is a great schedule (in our opinion). The FOP should fight tooth-and-nail to keep it.
2. Our readers pointed out that the overlap and equipment situation would be the major stumbling block of this schedule. It doesn't function well at all. The City said time and time again that the total number of hours worked in a year wasn't a stumbling block to a new work schedule, but then came up with this inane 9 hour day that results in literally thousands of hours wasted every month. What was the matter with 8-hour days if hours weren't the issue?
3. Rotation - good things and bad things associated with rotating. Last time we rotated, we went the wrong direction which screwed up everything. We also rotated every 28 days which was too short a recovery period.

We have no concrete opinion at this point, so try not to accuse us of taking one side or the other. We would like to hear all sides of the debate - hair gel, no gel, no hair, even retirees recollections of times past. Some people swear by rotating. Many departments still do it. Others figure we've moved beyond those days and wouldn't go back for anything.