Seven Seven Three, Two-Oh-Two...

Maybe if the city had called Luna (or Empire) the carpet on the Mezzanine level wouldn't have taken two weeks to install. We've seen whole houses come along farther in two weeks than the half-level's worth of carpet has.

But for everyone who's asked and complained aloud, access to the Mezzanine should be restored by the end of this week. Two weeks - that's a shorter time than it's taken them to fix the westernmost elevator before.

So now, when are they going to replace, or at least clean, that nasty ass carpet on the Operations Floor? And they could clean out the consoles while they're at it, seems they skipped over that part the last time they installed new carpet. How many years ago was that? Three? Four?

Big screen TV

From an e-mailing reader:

To make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

The 2 giant screens in the room on the fire side have not been operational in , let's see. ummmm , about 5 - 7 years! Only comments I ever heard was that a 'bulb' was out & it was very very expensive to replace! But wait...........what anonymous generous donor mysteriously gave us a new bulb or whatever part was needed to make those 2 GIANT , ENORMOUS, MONSTEROUS screens work again just in time for SUPER BOWL SUNDAY?

We don't know. But we thank him/her/them. We just hope the TVs won't get turned off for another four years right after the Super Bowl.
And speaking of TVs, if they can turn on the 1,000+ inch TV screens again over there, can someone replace that 12 year old TV in the break room that finally stopped working two days ago?

Here we go again.

Good evening.

The Sun-Times ran an article on the front page of yesterday's paper identifying a CPS employee who owes the city over $20,000 for overdue parking tickets. Don't we get threatened with suspension for just one unpaid ticket that's reached "Final Determination?"

Together, Board of Education employees have piled up $722,849 in outstanding debts, including parking tickets, water bills, administrative hearing fines and cost recovery debts.

And we get harrassed if we pay our tickets off and the city thinks we still owe the money. Threatened with suspension until we prove with receipts that the tickets have been paid, no less.

Lords' case has been referred to the school system's inspector general for possible disciplinary action, according to Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Celeste Garrett.

How cute, it takes a CPS employee $20,000 worth of city debt to get "possible disciplinary action." But we won't beat a dead horse with that one.

Also amusing is the fact that Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd Ward) had 21 tickets totalling $1,030. He "promptly" paid them off and said "I apologize to the public. We're not privileged."

Right. Because it didn't take being called out in public for your ass to pay what you knew you owed. And last time we checked, making practically twice our full-times salaries to work a part-time job while you run outside ventures, making more money on the side, is pretty damn privileged.

We publish this to warn our fellow PCOs and other city workers; Pay up and get your old receipts out, people. The city's sure to make a huge publicized effort to "correct" its employees' actions behind this. We all know what happened when the Sun-Times published an article about illegally parked police vehicles, and we all know how the city screws its civilian employees more quickly than Police and Fire employees.

We predict that the hammer will drop within the next two weeks. We also predict that the Sun-Times becoming the next mayor when Daley retires, since said newspaper obviously can simply sneeze and city policy is redrafted.

Update on squad car towing

It's no longer a rumor. Squad cars have been towed by Streets and San. We said we'd search for the Illinois Compiled Statutes that make exceptions to laws for public safety officers in the performance of their duties.. Thanks to an anonymous poster over at Second City Cop, we've found it. Here's the pertinent portion. If you want to read the whole thing, go to the website and look it up. We're not going to do all of your bidding for you.

(625 ILCS 5/11‑205) (from Ch. 95 1/2, par. 11‑205)
Sec. 11‑205. Public officers and employees to obey Act‑Exceptions.
(c) The driver of an authorized emergency vehicle may:
1. Park or stand, irrespective of the provisions of
this Chapter;

2. Proceed past a red or stop signal or stop sign,
but only after slowing down as may be required and necessary for safe operation;

3. Exceed the maximum speed limits so long as he
does not endanger life or property;

4. Disregard regulations governing direction of
movement or turning in specified directions.

So, again, The State of Chicago, U.S., has decided that it's exempt from the laws of the state of Illinois, in which it sits. But having state law written so you're exempt from some laws brings about the arrogant belief that you're exempt from them all.

Would the Fire Department begin towing its own vehicles if the Scum-Times ran an expose on a member parking illegally with a CFD-owned M-plate vehicle? We doubt it. In fact, we know they wouldn't. Could this be a parallel between the City of Chicago and OEMC, one of its smaller entities? The city seems to love the Fire Department when it's compared to the Police Department - and OEMC seems to love the fire dispatchers when they're compared to the police dispatchers.

The FOP has been relatively mute, given the outrage it should've expressed. All of you who think we should get out of IBEW and try to join the FOP (they wouldn't have us anyway)? Think again.

Do we need afterschool English tutors?

From a Let's Talk Chi Town 911 thread:

anonymous said...

I don't want to start ragging on pco1's here, but when, as a dispatcher you get a horribly written ticket, do you ever look up to see just what idiot sent it over? And does everyone else seem to find that it's the SAME horrible calltakers ALL the time!!

Not to leave dispatchers out, but sometimes when they are working in a call-taking capacity, they TOO send over crappy tickets. Sometimes I think we NEED to have Spell Check on our computers!!! And how long does it really f'n take to RE-READ what you just wrote to make sure that it actually makes SENSE and matches the event type that you just made it !!?????

Now, there's a thought. Yes, we find ourselves guilty of looking to see who sent a ticket, and with all the messages that go around to zones asking "What the...ev# xxxxx," we assume that we have plenty of company. Yes, we find that certain calltakers and dispatchers send over "horribly written tickets" more frequently than others. But we don't need to have Spell Check, we need more focus in the hiring process on English and "grammer (sic)," as one of our readers mentioned.

However, we've all had our mishaps and lapses, some people just have them more often than others, while some just have them all of the time. Noone's perfect, blah blah.

But some of the tickets are perfectly pathetic.

Reader suggestion

Our e-mail link works again. A reader writes,

In the unlikely event that the blog administrators are unaware:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/nyregion/18cameras.html?pagewanted=print

He's referring to an article in the New York Times which publicizes the mayor of New York City's announcement that their 911 and 311 call centers will be able to receive digital photos and videos from callers.

“If you see a crime in progress or a dangerous building condition, you’ll be able to transmit images to 911, or online to nyc.gov.”

We can just see the inappropriate pictures coming in now. We hope that Daley won't follow suit and try to bring "Sex, Lies, and Digital Video" to Chicago to appease citizens around election time. We already get invited to orally sample enough people's body parts as it is. And can you imagine the self-important callers who complain about non-police matters having the ability to send pictures?

We'd be receiving pictures of cold McDonald's fries.

"c? no steem coming frm frys. want $$ back, dmand to c plice. NOW"

We have truly seen it all.

The day has come when a war between city departments has been officially sanctioned.

The 1st Deputy's office has made it official, police department vehicles which are illegally parked may be towed by Streets and San. towing personnel. We predict a major fallout, evidence of which can be seen over on an SCC thread.

The official documentation states that Ops Command will make the determination on whether or not a squad car will get towed, but rumor has it (see above link) that squad cars have already been towed on Taylor St. Also sad is that Streets and San. workers are going to catch hell for doing their jobs, because the police surely can't target the brass' cars. At least not if they want to keep their jobs.

The documentation also states that police officers whose vehicles are seen in illegal parking spaces, should be prepared to justify parking illegally, even if it's during the course of a response to an emergency situation. Does that include in-progress calls and "Officer down/needs assistance" calls? We know how public safety bosses operate - all it'll take will be for a citizen to complain about how many squad cars were parked in front of fire hydrants, or packing into a side street and inconveniencing the citizen, who has to drive a whole city block out of his or her way.

We'll watch the drama unfold as we search for the Illinois Compiled Statute(s) that exempts police officers from certain laws "in the performance of their official duties." Or maybe we're wasting our time, because the State of Chicago, U.S. is exempt from Illinois laws.

Can anyone confirm this for us?

Taken from a comments section over at Second City Cop:

Anonymous said...
Hey a streets and San employee driving a city van and talking on the cell phone hits a OEMC dispatcher then fled the scene. How come thats not on the news hmmmmm

1/22/2007 12:41:26 PM

Supervisors can't get away from management, either

Everyone's heard that the Supervising PCOs' furloughs were picked for them by management without regard for bid, right?

Well, in case you hadn't heard, they were.

Some of them have decided that they're not going to take the full furlough segments given to them. That's surely their prerogative. Many a PCO takes a few days short of the full segment, and even more PCOs work their RDOs during furlough. In fact, as OEMC employees in good standing, even on furlough they're free to enter and leave the building as they please or need.

The supervisors must be different. Seems that one of the supervisors got screwed with 1B and 2A furlough segments for 2007, and decided not to use all of his/her vacation days during the consecutive segments. Well, the Deputy Director decided that just won't do, and said supervisor is BARRED from the building during 1B. The DD went so far to say that if this supervisor is seen in the building during 1B, he/she will be removed from the building.

We foresee legal action, although the DD has weathered such before, more than once.

The Teamsters (the supervisors' union, pending a judge's ruling) contacted Corporation Counsel (the law office that taxpayers pay to agree to costly settlements in cases against the city). Corporation Counsel not-so-politely instructed the Teamsters to call back when they have the judge's ruling, which is rumored to be on the way late this month.

We anxiously await the outcome.

Speaking of supervisors...

Didn't the Supervising PCO bids close some time in the beginning of October, 2006? We're moving towards February, 2007, and haven't heard a peep from the city about acceptance of applications, a test date, or anything of the sort. And to think, POs have been complaining about not getting the results from the second part of the sergeant's exam.

Maybe they're waiting for one of their "favorites" to meet the 3-year requirement for promotion to Supervising PCO. This is the City of Chicago, after all.

Three posts for the price of one

We've heard plenty of rumors recently about who might be behind the creation and upkeep of this blog. We assure you that it's noone we've heard mentioned. Thank you for your support.

Go Bears

We hope the Bears make us proud today in the NFC Championship game against the New Orleans Saints.

Don't forget that Bears logo apparel is authorized for dress today. And Midnights, don't forget that your Bears-dress day was *Saturday* night for Sunday.

Employee parking revisited

A couple of posts down, we mentioned that a dispatcher had called for a squad car to come write tickets on cars parked in front of the building at roll call time on a day when the parking lot was busting at the seams. Someone apparently representing as said PCO has seen the post (and the comments that followed) and posted in kind. We present the reply here:

anonymous said:

Seems like I have created a monster. My intention was to ask that management keep the tow zone clear of cars for the sole purpose of safety at our work place. I never ever thought that the cars parked there last Thursday were employee's vehicles. I did not look at windshields I assumed that the cars were from the Palace or from Johnny's Icehouse. I reported the parking problem to the security guard who didn't care, then to a supervisor, who didn't care and then to a watch manager, who didn't care. This angered me and I went to zone 13 and asked that a beat car come out. Good intentions but poor judgement since I can see that the only person this issuse was bothering was me. I am sorry for any inconvenience that this caused my co-workers and I promise to curb any thought of taking on an issue by myself in the future. The fact remains that I sometimes feel that if you want something done you have to do it yourself but in this case I have led a lot of people to believe that it was done on purpose against them personally. Nothing could be further from the truth. Believe what you will, you are all entitled to your opinions but I am writing this so you know the story and maybe come to a different conclusion.

--

Comments will be closely monitored, and any mention by full name, and any threat, will be deleted. But we know you're all mature enough to not resort to such.

After midnight

We hope the 1st Watch personnel have their uniforms ready. Seems that some of them, in support of Da Bears, extended the "Casual attire as long as there's a Bears logo somewhere" decree to this a.m.

All watches were allowed to dress out of uniform, as long as they had on Chicago Bears apparel, for Sunday, 14January2007. It officially was to end at 0300 hours on Monday morning, at the end of 5th Watch. When 1st Watch people showed up in Bears apparel at roll call Sunday night (they work until 0600 hours), they were told by the Watch Manager, in no uncertain terms, that their services would no longer be required for the night if they were still out of uniform as of 0300 hours.

Will they be sent home without pay? Oops.

Our flags are correctly flown at half-staff.

President Gerald R. Ford passed away on December 26, 2006, and the flags outside of our building have been flown at half-staff ever since. There have been comments and questions around the job about whether or not they should be back at full-staff.

We present an excerpt from a Presidential Proclamation:

...I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, in honor and tribute to the memory of Gerald R. Ford, and as an expression of public sorrow, do hereby direct that the flag of the United States be displayed at half-staff at the White House and on all buildings, grounds, and Naval vessels of the United States for a period of 30 days from the day of his death.

So yes, it is appropriate for the flags to be flown at half-mast until 24January2007, in honor of the late President.

Employee parking

Amazingly, a PCO complained today about people parking in the tow zone in front of the building. An 012 District unit was sent, and wrote tickets on some of the cars, including those of some employees. We guess there's no "thin blue line" with civilians. But then, that PCO didn't do anything that bosses haven't done. Anyone remember tickets being written on cars parked in aisles in the parking lot because there were no parking spaces left? Glad today wasn't one of those days, our fellow PCO would have had a field day watching so many cars get ticketed.

But there's not much of a "thin blue line" among POs, either. In one district today, the district commander ordered the park car to write parking tickets on POs' cars parked in the lot. Seems they'd parked in some "marked" spaces because there were marked and unmarked squad cars hogging half of the spaces for personally-owned vehicles.

Say nothing about inconveniencers, and punish the inconvenienced. Why not?

Watch Manager rotations

Well, now we've all had a few days to get adjusted to the new assignments. Watch Managers have changed shifts, and we won't complain. Not to say that we had problems with the previous assignments, but we're also happy with what we have now.

However, many of you are not.

We've heard the usual rants about "He's pickin' on me," "He don't like me," and such from the likes of people who try to get by doing as little as possible, and who are upset now that the guard has changed and they can't do what they used to. Or, can't just not do what they used to not do.

But if we can't laud the administration for much else, we'll go out on a limb and say we think they made good choices for WMs. They may all have their quirks and pet peeves (who doesn't), but overall, they're fair.

What does the future hold

As was reported by the media (including
Sun-Times and ABC 7 News), Alderman Arenda Troutman (20th Ward) was arrested yesterday morning for "allegedly" accepting bribes. According to news stories, she's had quite a few embarrassments over the years, but Daley stuck behind her, even in spite of an arrest for shoplifting back in 1978. Case dropped, but whatever. Could it be that it was a sign of things to come? "Accepting bribes" seems to somehow fall in-line with a graduation of sorts from petty theft.

And speaking of Daley...

Is there any chance that the feds (or hopefully already have been) eyeing him and his other flunkies in the city council? If only the feds could get someone with power to flip on Daley...

The shaft

This time, we're not talking about getting shafted by bogus CI numbers. We're talking about the elevators.

That elevator all the way to the left of the main elevators, why is it always "out of order?" It's been a regular problem for years. And if an elevator is going to go out, you can bet money that it'll be that one.

A coworker has actually gotten stuck inside of that very same elevator before (probably more than one coworker, but we haven't heard any other stories). The elevator went out on Friday, so we figure it'll be back to working order some time around 01February.

Maybe if the city inspected the elevators more often, since they're to be inspected "at least once every twelve months," it wouldn't be a common occurrence. They finally inspected them towards the end of 2006. Before that, the certificates were dated "January, 2004."

If we as lowly city workers let any of our properties lapse like that, or avoided inspection on them, we'd be fined, suspended, and probably fired.

Who ever would have guessed?

We thank an anonymous reader for this link in the comments section.

The Sun-Times reports on an "emergency communication report." Seems that 75 metro areas around the country were tested and graded on "their emergency agencies' ability to communicate during a disaster."

Also seems that Chicago's at the bottom of the pile:

The lowest scores went to Chicago; Cleveland; Baton Rouge, La.; Mandan, N.D.; and American Samoa. The report included large and small cities and their suburbs, along with U.S. territories.

So, over 5 years after 9/11, a major metropolis, the "Second City," no less, is perceived to be ill-prepared for a disaster. We even got one of the lowest scores out of 75.

Chicago, Cleveland and Baton Rouge, for example, were judged to have accomplished the early stage of government coordination.

That's probably related to the fact that we haven't had any special training, unless Ethics Training was supposed to help prepare us for a disaster aside from the Mayor's office suffering more blows from hiring scandals and the like.

Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said the agency had not seen the report and declined immediate comment Tuesday evening.

In an overview, the report said all 75 areas surveyed have policies in place for helping their emergency workers communicate.

If there's a PCO who's been briefed on this policy, please speak up & enlighten us. We know no details about it, or whether or not it truly exists.

Mandan, N.D., and the territory of American Samoa were both found to have gotten to the early stage of their actual usage of interoperable emergency communications and rated intermediate in governance and procedures.

Tammy Lapp, the emergency coordinator for Mandan and Morton County, N.D., said she was not surprised by the low ranking.

"We knew with our limited funds, we were going to fall short," she said.

And yet they made at least some headway in two categories.

With all of the money Chicago has, what's our excuse?

A reader wonders:

"Why did 833 flash their light on 4 cars to blind them this past night? One of the cars had an accident. Ouch."

Just passing a message along.

Triple Jeopardy

Well, as we volley the ball back and forth;

Let's Talk ChiTown touched on our Happy New Year post & took it a step farther. He/she reminds us of the problems with our Complaint Investigation process, and we agree wholeheartedly with the post. Our money and lives are being heavy-handedly altered by a seriously flawed "investigation" process.

What sense does it really make to have the same person whose name is affixed to many complaints against PCOs (after the initial complaint is deemed "unfounded" or "not sustained," of course), REVIEWING OUR GRIEVANCES WITH THE AUTHORITY TO APPROVE OR DENY THEM? Doesn't that tilt the scales of justice just a *little* unfairly?

Really, we can't imagine that many of our non-PCO readers would agree with an arresting police officer being the judge in his/her own arrestee's trial. But that's about what our situation amounts to. We realize OEMC isn't a democracy, but we don't think "triple jeopardy" should apply, either. #1, We can get slammed for an incident. #2, Once we're cleared of allegations, and get slammed again for a "separate detail" within the same incident. Then, #3, once we're sacked with 3 days for first-offense "rudeness" when our contract and the city's Personnel Rules dictate that discipline should be "progressive," we file grievances which are denied across the board. By the complainant in the incident. And which sit in limbo for up 3 or 4 years.

How one person with axes to grind can continue to play judge, jury, executioner, and appeals board in a blatantly flawed and biased process is beyond us.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Mass suspensions are soon to come, probably by the end of the month but definitely by the end of February. They tend to get handed down during non-peak seasons. There's a sizeable pile of them just waiting to be distributed. You heard it here first.

Good tidings to you all for 2007!