This could be fun.
If you were Mayor, what phrases might you ban? In Russia, one mayor banned some phrases for City workers, saying he doesn’t want any more excuses about why employees aren’t customer friendly.
Admittedly, the person who sent this article to me is on the city-is-anti-business-and-we-need-better-services-for-businesses bandwagon, but it is an interesting concept. Since it’s budget time, and we are essentially being blackmailed into approving a request for 30 new police officers and the Mayor has already agreed to it, I think one of the phrases to be banned is particularly interesting – “There’s no money”.
When one department has nearly 25% of the over $200 million budget, isn’t required to make 3% cuts like other departments, is essentially off limits to questioning and tells us its none of our business how new officers are used, we have a problem. The council made a huge mistake last year when we gave in to the police department’s temper tantrum and decided we didn’t need to be part of the police staffing report process.
Now, we have no answers to our questions about how we use our police resources, an unprecedented request for new officers and no choice but to say “yes”? Or will the Council find its backbone and stand up and ask some serious questions about this plan? And if they do, will Chief Wray tell us to mind our own business again?
I guess that new plan for neighborhood policing didn’t work out so well, eh? At least, the public didn’t fall for it. And that plan to cut back on neighborhood officers? Now maybe some of those neighborhoods will get their neighborhood police officers back? Or are neighborhood police officers only for white middle class people? And what happened to promises made last year when we added 10 officers, did that end up being effective?
p.s. No, Mayor Dave isn’t banning phases, the Mayor in Russia is.
