Corruption: A Fire Plug for Chicago's Budget Gap?

By JoshMogerman in News on Dec 19, 2010 8:00PM

Here’s an idea for the Chicago Fire Department to help fill that huge City budget gap---home renovations. Bear with us on this one. Local home sales numbers remain mired in the dumps, so people are going to need more work done on their houses. Apparently, some firehouses are filling the downtime between blazes with training to address that need.

According to Trib and Sun-Times reports today, the CFD is fielding allegations that 10 firefighters stripped aluminum siding off the house of another firefighter’s home in the summer of 2009. They claimed it was OK to do the work on-the-clock, with city equipment, because it was a training exercise. The Inspector General (and we would guess, most Chicagoans) thought it looked a lot more like demolition for the home renovation project that followed, particularly since they did not follow protocols or get approvals normally required for “training exercises.” The inspector General suggested three department members be suspended without pay for 30 days, but Department officials downgraded the penalty to a pair of three-day suspensions and the Union is appealing:

A spokesman for Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 said the union is contesting the suspensions, but declined to discuss the specifics of the case. Spokesman Tim O'Brien did, however, suggest "there are greater things for the inspector general" to focus on.

We agree. Where the Inspector General sees all-too-common, irritating, petty, unacceptable, Chicago-style corruption; we see opportunity. Since the City is privatizing everything else, why not jump on this? Take advantage of the downtime between fires. Why let all the equipment, man-hours, and apparent woodworking experience go to waste, when we could start renting out engine companies for “training exercises” on non-CFD staff renovations instead?

Seriously, we know only a few bad apples were involved here and this idea is not likely to take hold, so a word of advice for other firefighters looking to help out their pals---it is tough to keep a low profile in a big red truck with flashing lights and sirens… The investigation started as a result of neighbor complaints---Chicagoans are sick of this stuff.