Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took the easy and yes lazy way out in appointing Douglas L. Barry as permanent L.A. Fire Department chief.
Mayor Villaraigosa Took The lazy Way Out in Scrapping Hunt for Fire Department Chief
Douglas L. Barry is a pleasant, well-meaning person but he is the wrong fit as permanent chief. He is an insider who has been part of the very system that desperately screams for a top to bottom shake-up. His appointment won’t settle the mountainous lawsuits, the loads of complaints of harassment and racial and gender bias in the department that the city and taxpayers are saddled with.
The crying need is for a permanent chief who can and will say that harassment and bias won't be tolerated, and mean what he or she says. That chief can only come from the outside.
Villaraigosa should have done what former Mayor James Hahn did when he replaced LAPD Chief Bernard Parks, a consummate insider. He went outside the department and brought in William Bratton. He didn't have any good old boy insider baggage and could look at the department with fresh eyes. Bratton's been a good fit for the LAPD.
But it's really no surprise that Villaraigosa took the easy way out with Barry. It would take a real, hands on, personal involvement by him in the selection process. That means more than dumping the selection job on staff . It meant him scouring the country talking to officials in other cities, identifying potential candidates, and personally interviewing them, meticulously scrutinizing their performance record, and sounding out those that they managed to get a feel for their management style and whether they're really pardon the pun the man or woman who can put out the fires in the department. That required behind the scenes sweat, and toil--not showy press conferences. And we all know that that's not Tony's style.
The challenge for Villaraigosa is still the same and that's to make the creation of a functional workplace not a goal but a fact within the Los Angeles Fire Department. The appointment of Barry will not accomplish that.
I don't know much about Barry, but when I heard about the announcement, my one concern was how long he would stay, since he'd been planning to retire at the end of the year as a 32-year veteran. So you may well get your wish for a new permanent person in a couple of years after all.
If Barry has the respect of the firefighters, as he seems to, having gone to every single firehouse to give them his zero-tolerance speech, and being a black man who started when the climate was much rougher, I see no reason why insiders always have to be bypassed in favor of outsiders.
Bratton, with his track record in New York, may have been an exception.
And I'd rather the Mayor try to work on bigger issues like getting transportation funding for easing traffic congestion and mass transit, and gangs and cops. Nothing wrong with delegating to all those Deputy Mayors he has.
But I hope he DID make the decision because he believes in Barry, not just because it's the lazy way out. He seems like once he's established chemistry with someone, he can leave the details to someone else.
Antonio Villaraigosa is a recognizable politician from Los Angeles.He is involving many social activities in USA.Lauren Slater (KOOZA ICON) with Our Thankful Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa conducting the impending Cirque du Soleil show "Kooza" in Santa Monica.
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