VoB SELECTS: INVESTIGATIVE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WEB
City Council President Jack Young took the city’s fire chief to task Thursday for not defending his department’s budget.
MAYOR CALLS PROPOSAL TO KEEP FIRE STATIONS OPEN
‘UNADVISABLE, UNWORKABLE AND IRRESPONSIBLE’
As protesters gathered outside City Hall Thursday afternoon to protest the planned closing of three Baltimore City fire stations as a result of budget cuts proposed by the mayor, the president of the City Council took the fire chief to task for not doing enough to support firefighters and “not defending” the Fire Department budget.
With Fire Chief James S. Clack on the hot seat in the council chambers, Bernard C. “Jack” Young termed the mayor’s planned closings “unacceptable to me,” adding, “I want to know why you as the fire chief are not defending your budget, you’re the fire chief.”
Clack countered, saying he does his job but not “in public” and not “in front of the media,” as Fox45’s TV cameras rolled.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 closes a $48 million shortfall, but it won’t prevent the closure of three city fire companies, the television station reported.
According to the Baltimore Sun, the mayor is terming Young’s budget proposals “unadvisable, unworkable and irresponsible” and has said she “cannot support them.”
In a letter to council members in which she criticized Young for various recommendations she considers fiscally irresponsible, Blake said the $4.8 million in cuts proposed by the council president to the city’s $2.3 billion operating budget would result in the elimination of key programs and nearly two dozen layoffs.
“I encourage the Council to act responsibly and reject any actions in their furtherance,” the mayor declared.
Said Young with regard to the mayor and her advisers: “They can find the money [to keep the fire stations open]. They find it for everything else, they can find it for the Fire Department.”
His remarks received loud applause from observers in the council chambers.
— VoB Staff report
CHECK OUT FOX-45’S COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE, including a video report (click here) as well as The Sun‘s critique of Young’s budget recommendations (click here).
