Déjà vu all over again…

This morning I woke up, popped over to the Omaha World-Herald’s Web site and saw that the fight for four fire fighters manning rigs isn’t over. City Councilman Franklin Thompson will introduce a bill that’s similar to Councilman Ben Gray’s which also called for a city ordinance defining how many firefighters would man a fire truck.

Thompson cited the city’s worsening financial picture, as well as the mayor’s
proposed tax increases and the potential for city layoffs, as reasons for taking
a second look at the repeal so soon after Gray’s effort failed.

“We must
at least have the opportunity to examine efficiencies in this department, as has
been done in every other department,” he said.

That bill was voted down 4-3 last week, according to the OWH.

I just got off the phone with Buster Brown, Omaha’s City Clerk, and he said the only thing different in this bill when compared to Gray’s is striking a requirement that had police reporting certain arrests and convictions.

In July 2007, the Matrix Consulting Group found “exceptionally high” levels of staffing at OFD; it recommended reducing most of the four-man rigs to three, with an estimated savings of $5.14 million per year. Other studies have shown the staffing reduction would cause a drop in service quality.

So is it productive for a city council to introduce and vote on the same legislation over and over again? This is the only thing the city council sees as practical?

(NOTE: Bryan Cohen contributed the graph on Matrix Consulting Group’s findings)