Phila. Mayor Announces Official End To Fire Dept. Brownouts, Firefighter Rotations
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney has fulfilled one of his campaign promises. Thursday, he announced the official end to the policy known as "brownouts," that took fire companies out of service, and to firefighter rotations.
Mayor Kenney has been reluctant to criticize his predecessor but he made an exception on the issue of "brownouts" and rotations. Those policies, adopted by the Nutter administration during a budget crisis in 2008, he says, were mistakes.
"The saving of dollars, whether it's a recession or not a recession, should not be done at the expense of public safety or the potential loss of life to firefighters or injury to firefighters," said Kenney.
"I'm really impressed with the speed with which they've made this important policy change," said City Controller Alan Butkovitz.
Kenney signaled another change from the Nutter administration he'd be making is more cooperation with the controller.
