The curious Fire & Police Dept endorsements of the incumbent

Due diligence? Fully-informed decisions? Nah…why bother?

So, you might have seen signs that the incumbent has posted around town touting the endorsement of her by the Fire and Police Departments. It should be noted that these signs appeared BEFORE I had ever made any public statements as a first-time candidate for office, as well as without any inquiry by anyone from those departments to me about my anticipated approach and actions.

If these endorsements are accurate, shouldn’t we expect more of the management in these departments? Is this typical of how they make decisions — without performing even basic due diligence, and without taking even the most basic of steps to make an informed decision?

We deserve better from the management of our Fire and Police Departments. At least, for appearances’ sake, first meet with opposition candidate(s) to find out what they offer before you endorse the incumbent who has made clear she doesn’t want to make any waves with how you do things. This just looks bad; particularly, when it’s been made clear from the incumbent’s posted campaign plank that she wants to provide the PD with additional funds for more personnel and does not state any intent to scrutinize — in the least — the Department’s operations. It gives the appearance of impropriety: “Don’t scrutinize our operations, and give us more funding, and we’ll give you our endorsement that you can then use in your campaign literature.”.

It also reflects poorly on our District 2 incumbent, that she would accept and tout an endorsement that she well knows came without City department heads’ having even informed themselves of the alternative available to them. She should have at least encouraged them to do the right thing and make some overture to obtain basic knowledge. It appears cynical and exploitative to seize on the opportunity to take advantage of a process she knows wasn’t properly conducted.

I will look at every aspect of the large City budget and its operations to identify and consider any needed changes. Those might entail adding resources in intelligent ways; or, they might warrant reorganizations or cuts. Whatever the path ends up being, I will not make ill-informed decisions arising from not doing my due diligence.

Concord residents deserve better.