In August, days before the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, Duluth firefighters, with their gear and their trucks nearby, fanned out to busy intersections around town to collect donations to help find a cure for muscular dystrophy. They were unfairly criticized for their act of charity. Yes, they were on duty, as a disapproving city councilor quickly and publicly pointed out. But the firefighters were still ready to respond, at a moment's notice, to any fire or other emergency.
And in collecting an estimated $30,000 for charity, the firefighters showed they were not only caring, giving human beings, but perhaps Duluth's most valuable employees. They demonstrated they can find the time and have the wherewithal to take on and complete tasks not normally associated with their profession.
And isn't that just what Duluth needs now? Versatile city employees willing and able to pick up some slack during their down time as the city reels from a fiscal calamity that has caused layoffs and drastically reduced public services?
Unfortunately, as News Tribune reporter Brandon Stahl detailed in a story Sunday ("Firemen to write parking tickets?"), talks between the city and the firefighters union over taking on new responsibilities have broken down. A union leader said the tasks should be assigned to employees better trained to carry them out.
And maybe some of the tasks under consideration should be. Sending a firefighter on beach patrol, for example, could jeopardize public safety should he or she wind up too far from the rig to quickly respond to an alarm. And can anyone imagine firefighters, with their big trucks, enforcing alternate-side parking along Duluth's narrow residential roads?
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But what about some of the other tasks being bandied about? How much special training is needed to shelve books at the library, provide security at a crime scene or paint over graffiti, all of which could be done with gear and fire rigs at the ready?
Firefighters -- and other city employees -- could better serve the community by putting aside politics, keeping an open mind and doing work that needs to be done -- even if it's not what they've been responsible for in the past.
Private-sector employees, rarely given a choice in such matters, have long embraced that sort of change. City Hall can no longer afford not to.
