Sent to us by a follower, what are your thoughts?
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have.Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie.
How dare our fire chief pretend that he wants to honor our fallen brother (big Dave) by asking our department to be smoke free. This is what he says in a letter to the department: "it seems that the best way to continue that support is for each of us to pledge and commit ourselves to making RFD a smoke free fire department for big Dave". Our local 995, yes the one that Big Dave Pulliam lead for 25 years, has asked numerous times for the Creecy administration to consider a no tobacco policy. Pulliam and Andes have both supported the no tobacco policy on behalf of the members of 995. This idea was effortlessly dismissed by our fire chief. The 995 supported it because of the cancer presumption bill that effects firefighters. Almost all of the surrounding FD's have tobacco policies and have done so for many years. You might be able to fool the mayor Chief, but you can't fool the members.
The local 995 has asked numerous times that the Creecy administration support CPAT, (which he openly says is discriminatory against blacks and females, even though it is backed and certified by the international association of fire chiefs) Fit For Duty, yearly physical fitness testing, mandatory on duty PT, and a yearly CPAT or RPAT test. All of these have been denied by his administration and he wants us to believe that he cares about our well being and health? Come on man!! Now he will tell you otherwise, and that all of these things are "in the works" and that someone (the xo) is "bird dogging" it, and that he is try to find the data to support the programs and meeaasure the results. No more buzz words and BS Chief!! Make a decision, stop playing politics, take care of the troops (requested by big Dave right before he passed), and get it done. Take notes from one of your mentors, ex-Chicago fire commissioner Robert Hoff. He was a fireman's chief, he stood up for his men, and when he was asked by the mayor to go against his morals and values and to jeopardize his men's safety, he handed the mayor his badge and said not on my watch.
This is so true...we as a local have asked the fire chief for a smoke free ppg..we were told no. I would like to invite our chief to the march meeting so we can stand as one and say no to all tobacco products....chief again I know you read this...do come to our meeting. And stand with us on this one thing......my name is sack and I love this post...let's play nice in the sand box.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's his m.o. All glory be to Fire Chief Creecy. The leper messiah.
ReplyDeleteThis is, hands down, the best post on the 411. Well said brother or sister!
ReplyDeleteWell, I'd like to ask the fire chief what his present relationship is with Tri Data- the firm that was contracted to sensationalize personnel issues and tell us we have a problem. The same firm that has gained criticism from fire leaders nationwide for their attempt to downplay and turn around the presumptive cancer bill. Conflict of interest? Where does his loyalty lay? It must still be a strong enough relationship to prioritize a trip to Chicago over the graduation of a class of recruits- but that's okay, they'll get the robotic anniversary notices in their city e-mail.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how CPAT would be openly discrimatory against blacks and females. Last I checked, skin color or gender didn't prevent you from getting into the shape required to pass the test. To say otherwise is an insult to blacks and women itself, because it indicates that one feels that blacks and women should not be held to the same standard that others are because they would not be able to reach it.
ReplyDeleteSo by trying to appear not prejudiced, you're actually being more prejudiced than you know.
^^^^Co-sign^^^^
DeleteJust posting an alternate view - but I will throw out there that if we were hiring the right folks for the job we wouldn't need incumbent testing, formal pt programs, etc...Folks who take this job seriously understand the importance of taking care of themselves and how that affects their ability to do their job.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that the department should encourage good health habits - the personal choice is yours and yours alone. Most of us are only on the job for 10 days an month; what you do on the other 20 is completely up to you. If you need RFD to mandate good health choices you are truly in trouble...
Personally I am not in favor of ANY kind of incumbent testing - given the fact that this place is so bad at being ablt to take care of the things that should come naturally would YOU trust them to both mandate a program but to also be fair with the potentially negative results that would follow?
I don't...
WOW!
ReplyDeleteNothing has changed in over 3 years. What a shame that the once mighty RFD is now the bottom of the professional departments in the state and from what I can tell in my travels the entire east cost. There are so many volunteer fire departments that have a more professional inclusive fire chief and for free. No smoking, CPAT, not using consultants who mirror what the FC wants, these are things that have been common practice for over twenty years in most other fire departments. Wait a minute you guys and gals still are a total quint department, enough said.
I agree and disagree with the smoke free policy. Anything used to extremes will hurt you. Eatting, drinking, smoking and so forth. But lets all remember this is the USA. It is your right to smoke. The dept cannot and does not have the right to control what you do at home. With our economy the way it is and our own brothers and sisters having there own money issues and home troubles, smoking may be there stress relief, just as drinking, or gambling may be for someone. No I do not smoke, but I do not hold anything againts anyone that does. Its there right as a free American!!! Lets work as a Union to fix the big problems in our dept, trucks, raises, cdp, training and so on. Stay safe brothers!
ReplyDeleteReally...we have so much more to worry about right now than tobacco use. Tobacco use is way low on the priority list, or at least it should be. How about mismanagement of funds, lack of transparency for said funds, promotion of individuals undeserving and/or unqualified for the positions they are in...so on and so forth.
ReplyDeleteRead the post moron, it starts off with the definition of hypocrisy. The comments he made in the letter to the department right before big dave passed and his position on a proposed tobacco policy are completely opposite. This was just an example of how this man is running the department. The concerns you list above are very real and are top concerns. Unfortunatley his smoke and mirrors leadership style has kept him in his job. I think recent issues have shed some light on who the REAL RAC is.
DeleteClearly that guy was posting saying he agreed with the entire blog post. If anyone is a moron, it's you..he's agreeing 100% with everything you just said, and you're calling him names. Way to go genius.
DeleteLet's stay professional on here and not start the name calling. I have spoken to several people around the state and the one comment that everyone makes is how we keep to the facts and the professionalism. Let's keep the focus strong. Stay safe and look out for your brothers and sisters.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Anonymous name calling doesn't help anyone. Frustrations are high (understandably) and people can get mad, but keep your cool.
ReplyDeleteCurrently there is no mandate for physical fitness within the Richmond Fire Department. There is no minimum standard being enforced nor is there a movement towards one. Physical fitness and ability is left to each individual to maintain. Even as a company officer you are unable to mandate exercise or healthy eating and are left with recommendations and peer pressure as your only option. Please explain to me how mandating someone to meet a minimum set of job related physical standards is racist or bias in any way. Our job is physically taxing to say the least. I am not sure why the Chief of the RFD has forgotten this but he has. Chosing to have a department capable of tackling any task both physical and mental is exponentially more important than our current focus. This must change! Even though our physical agility test during pre hire is a joke there is an obvious reason why we have one. A bank does not have candidates perform a physical test prior to employment for a reason. Why do we stress fitness during the 22 week academy but then require no further testing after graduation? How is it possible to be a fire fighter but not be able to perform 1 push-up? How about allowing people with pace makers to continue responding to fires... Now we all know the people who love this job and truely do it for the right reasons will maintain their health and physical fitness level. They will also perform 90 percent of the work at the fire scenes. The question is when will they start getting the support of 201 and get a chief who holds others accountable. Why is there so much support for people who do nothing but cause trouble and get in the way. As a civilian what's more important to you, a persons appearance or their physical ability and knowledge to rescue you during a life threatening emergency? I know my choice. And for the family members of our fire fighters how do you feel that the person next to your loved one has no ability to save them if something goes wrong? That probably does not bother you as long as no one was offended during your husband or wifes death.....right? The choice to mandate preparedness for any emergency our citizens have has nothing to do with race, sex, age or religion. Please make the right choice 201. Do what's best for the fire fighters and the civilians that you work for.
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