Now I get it

I have previously blogged on this site about Minneapolis Fire Chief Bonnie "Caligula" Bleskachek, who is currently on paid leave while several lawsuits and an investigation into her behavior on the job go forward. The latest Star Tribune update on her situation is here.

I had a chance to talk tonight with an acquaintance of mine, who is deeply plugged into the Minneapolis Fire Department. I inquired as to how such an obvious dingbat could possibly be recommended, let alone confirmed, as Fire Chief. Their reply is very illuminating of big city politics. I don't have any concrete proof of their claims and probably never will, but I trust this person's knowledge and character, and have no reason to doubt their take on the situation. Additionally, my acquaintance is not in the department, merely a close bystander, so they have no ax to grind personally. Again, I have no evidence, merely my acquaintance's take on the situation, but a lot of holes seem to get neatly filled.

According to this person, the previous chief, Rocco Forte, allegedly was ordered by the City Council to nominate and support Bleskachek as his replacement. In apparent return, Forte was named to be the Director of Regulatory Services for Minneapolis. The advantage of this is that Forte was grandfathered in under the old pension plan, so that he is able to get a full salary in his new position, as well as collect a full fire pension - "double dipping", if you will. This way, everyone wins. The Council gets credit for being heroes by hiring the first lesbian fire chief, and Forte gets his pockets lined. Again, these are only allegations and speculation by my acquaintance, with no hard proof, but they seem to go a long way towards explaining how Caligula managed to jump over a lot of far more qualified people to get to be the head of the Fire Department. My acquaintance thinks that this whole situation will end by Bleskachek being allowed to quietly resign and go away, because scuttlebutt is that there is fear in the Council that Bleskachek has lots more damaging info that she will allow to get out if she is fired and loses all of her benefits, in a sort of "if I have to go, I'm taking everyone else with me" mentality.

Now, some interesting links between my acquaintance's comments and some of the information in the above article (my comments in bold for easier reading):

"The City Council voted 10-0 Friday to compensate firefighters Jennifer Cornell and Kathleen Mullen and promote them to battalion chief."

Wow, they sure threw their shining new example of diversity under the bus en masse, didn't they? There must have been a whole lot of evidence that we'll never see to make them march in lockstep like this.

"Council Member Gary Schiff said Friday that the settlements seem "very reasonable." "

Again, reasonable to who? If you think the city got away from something really nasty on the cheap, then why is Bleskachek still working for you? Fire her already. Unless she has more bombs to throw. Wonder what she's holding over their heads?

"Bleskachek's lawyer, Jerry Burg, said Friday he understood it made sense for the city to reach a settlement because of Cornell's and Mullen's high test scores.
But he reiterated that his client has done nothing wrong. "I would've welcomed the opportunity to put the full facts and story in front of a jury and a judge, and I regret the opportunity not to do so," Burg said.
Burg also said that Bleskachek is relieved the battalion chief testing process "is no longer the focus of ridiculous litigation.""

Ridiculous litigation isn't usually settled for 5-figure amounts, sir. But if you still want to let the full facts and story get out, we're all ears. (chirp, chirp, silence) I didn't think so.

"Cornell will receive $65,000 and Mullen $29,000."

This is in addition to the $198,000 that the city has admitted spending on the investigation so far, and doesn't include the $113,000 in salary that Bleskachek is still drawing, as well as time accruing towards her pension. Minneapolis residents, behold your tax dollars at work. This grand experiment in social promotion has cost you upwards of $400,000 in your hard-earned money, and it isn't even over yet.

In all fairness, I think I need to apologize for the unfair comparison to Caligula. Caligula managed to rule for 4 years. Bleskachek only made it through 2.