Marc Shaw - Deputy Mayor is a TOTAL A$$

With a sixth sense for insensitivity, Deputy Mayor Marc Shaw stepped out of the dust and funerals of Sept. 11 during Saturday's annual budget conference of the Citizens Budget Commission to declare that firefighters are a group of layabouts who 'only fight fires 5% of the time' and 'hang around doing nothing 95% of the time.'

Is he for real??? I doubt he could handle a firefighters job for 1 tour. What does he do all day?

Comments like this get me sooooo angry,

What an A-S-S!!! I'd like to see HIM put on a uniform and be a fighterfighter for just one good working fire and THEN tell us what he thinks.

'only fight fires 5% of the time' and 'hang around doing nothing 95% of the time.' What a dumb comment! Would it be better if there were more fires? Really, firemen work hard! What a fireman does in a day, Marc Shaw probably does as much work in a month since I'm sure he has a few assistants and secretaries. Please! Comments like this make me sick!

I cannot believe him either. From a family of firefighters I am outraged...for those who haven't read the article....

The following is an article that was recently published in the New York
Daily News on Sunday, December 8, 2002:

Mike aide: 8 firehouses to close

By MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

Mayor Bloomberg's top deputy blasted the Fire Department yesterday as a
bastion of inefficiency and made it abundantly clear that the administration
will move forward with plans to close eight firehouses.
'The Fire Department is a place where every efficiency that's been done, I
think, in the last 20, 30 years has been a total failure,' said Marc Shaw,
deputy mayor for operations, during a daylong budget conference sponsored by
the Citizens Budget Commission.

Last month, the administration and the City Council compromised and
forestalled the closing of eight firehouses, creating a blue-ribbon
commission to study the issue. Shaw called the move a 'political punt,'
suggesting the closings - which would save the city $2.5 million - were
inevitable.

Councilwoman Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn), chairwoman of the Council's Fire
and Criminal Justice Services Committee, said she disagreed.

'They're saving lives,' she said, adding that the closings may not be 'as
inevitable as Deputy Mayor Shaw says.'

Just hanging around

In unusually blunt language, Shaw said firefighters spend the most of their
day doing nothing.

'The prior administration decided, 'Well, since we can't get these guys to
be any more productive in fighting fires' - since they only fight fires 5%
of the time, they're hanging around doing nothing the other 95% of the time
- 'let's find other things for them to do,'' he said.

FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon said, 'Members of the department are the best
at what they do - saving lives and property. We'll continue to do that while
actively working to find ways to do more with less.'

A Uniformed Firefighters Association spokesman didn't return calls for
comment.

The deputy mayor also took aim at the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association,
lambasting the union for blocking the administration's proposal to alter
workdays. The administration proposed cutting the daily shift by 20 minutes
and adding 10 days a year.

'The PBA made a decision that we don't want to be productive in New York
City right now,' Shaw said. '[We'll] hopefully come back to the PBA when
they're more rational.'

PBA spokesman Patrick Lynch said through a spokesman, 'It's irrational to
suggest that it's productive to put police officers in danger 10 extra times
a year.'

Originally published on December 8, 2002

If you feel as strongly about this subject as I do please feel free to email
your comments and concerns to:

http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html

This is Mayor Michael Bloomberg's email address, or at least the email
address all of his aides view. Considering Mr. Shaw is one of the Mayor's
top administration, I consider his views to be synonymous with that of the
Mayors.

You may also contact City Hall using the following means:

Write: City Hall
New York, NY 10007
Call: (212) 788-9600
Fax: (212) 788-2460