Well, then.
I guess this is the type of egotistical and flippant response that is in order when accused with the rather serious charge of sexual harassment. Apparently, this is why we are supposed to believe that the allegations must be unfounded.
Just change the focus.
Then get out of Dodge for an “extended 30-day vacation.”
According to a report by the Chicago Sun Times, mayoral chief of staff Ray Orozco, a former fire commissioner himself, was described as livid about Brooks’ remarks. That leaves me wondering how the normally animated Mayor Richard Daley must have reacted.
When the mayor was repeatedly asked last week if Brooks still enjoys his confidence, Daley refused each time to say “yes”.
Oops.
Again, methinks Brooks is bestowed with enough confidence already.
From the exclusive report by staff reporters Fran Spielman and Frank Main, a payroll auditor for the Fire Department, Deidre Green, claims Brooks told her he “desired her in a sexual manner” and wanted to see her breasts, Green said. She claims that Brooks called her repeatedly and moved to lay her off when she refused his advances.
“He told me he liked me and to call him back, which I did,” she said.
But she said she didn’t like his attitude in later calls.
“He would say, ‘I am a breast man. I want a wild woman,’ ” Green claimed. “I said, ‘I don’t like this picture.’ He felt I was subordinate to him.”
If Brooks intended to help her professionally, he didn’t need to do it in late-night calls on his personal phone, Green said.
“Why would we talk at 11 o’clock at night? Why would I have his personal number? When things didn’t go his way, he got upset with me,” she said.
Green said they spoke a few more times on the phone before she confronted Brooks in the office, saying she heard he had a girlfriend.
“He said, ‘I saved your job.’ He said, ‘They want to get rid of you. I can hire you, and I can fire you, and you can sue to get your job back.’ “
The calls ended in October 2008, Green said, but she claims Brooks continued walking past her desk and making harassing comments.
As if that weren’t enough, also in hot water is the Commissioner of the Office of Compliance, Anthony Boswell, who is already serving a 30-day suspension for allegedly mishandling an intern’s sexual harassment claim against a 911 Center deputy. Boswell denies his guilt and is appealing the suspension.
Boswell, a friend of Brooks, is also accused by an unidentified source of trying to spike the investigation of Green’s claims, according to the Sun Times.
Methinks the self-professed well-endowed and God-blessed Brooks will have plenty of opportunity to fend off the women once the investigation by the city’s Office of Compliance has been completed and he finds his calendar wide open, unencumbered by the suffocation of the time constraints of any continued duties as fire commissioner.
You may recall the tragedy in Dunwoody on January 24, 2010 in which Ann Bartlett, 74, died when a fire swept through her home after firefighters responded to her early morning emergency call and left when they couldn’t find a blaze. Five hours later, they responded to a second 911 call from neighbors and found the home fully engulfed. Her body was found in the home’s remains after the fire was extinguished. 
Two of the four officers initially fired are looking to be reinstated. They say they were fired for violating a department guideline in that they failed to establish command during the initial response. They claim they could not establish command because they had no scene yet. 
Stupidity, Buttons, and Balls- Oh, my!
Whilst whistling Mr. Postman, I sit down and open my email, clicking through things to flush into my deleted items folder in a great attempt to stay ahead of the email pile that will surely accumulate. Items that catch my eye are temporarily pardoned for future perusal.
“Fundamentally, I believe that all members of the Saint Paul Fire Department’s uniformed division must share a common bond – a common culture – and a shared base of experience and perspective. We all must be confident in each member’s ability to operate safely and effectively on an incident scene or when representing our department to the public. It shouldn’t matter if we’re assigned to a hazardous materials team, an Advanced Life Support medic rig, or the Chief’s office – all of us should share the core competency and the shared experience of being first – and foremost – a firefighter.” -Chief Tim Butler
Caliber of posts relating to the Fire and/or EMS fields 
According to Comeau, the Chief said it “looked like a comedy act”. It is a comment he still stands by today in 
With all the outcry from the initial story, it began to look like the story had run it’s course. But, the “looked like a comedy act” remark now makes Rubin fair game. It just didn’t have to happen. 
The New Haven 20 Finally Get Their Due
A five alarm fire marks the end of a historic and beloved building in the Massachusetts Berkshires this week. The Egremont Inn is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, having been around since before the American Revolution. The three-story wood frame structure did not have a sprinkler system. Of course, the cause has not yet been determined. One firefighter suffered minor injuries. 
Seems like a no-brainer. Again.
It had been previously reported that the Forest Service issued a memorandum to Southern California Managers
“Catastrophes Don’t Take Holidays” –Local 2
In my weekly 360 Burn, I usually try to find interesting posts that may not normally pop up on your radar. That’ll have to wait until next time, because with all the talk about Balloon Boy and the suspended firefighter in Pennsylvania, my partners at FireEMSblogs.com have really stepped up and given us some must-reads.
“Treating everyone with a broad brush when it is not indicated is never a good idea. But failing to comply with an order from the leadership who is trying do their job by creating some uniform and objective rules isn’t a good idea either.” So says Mick Mayers in 
If you haven’t heard about his newest giveaway, FireCritic is offering up the new Monopoly Firefighter Edition game with a winner being chosen just in time for the holidays. I’m already getting one for each of our stations for when the guys get sick of the Wii. It’s easy to enter, see 
As I’m hanging there upside down like a piñata, the station draws a call for an explosion and fire. Clowns turn to Olympic sprinters as everyone wigs out and bolts for their spot on the equipment leaving only me and the instructor on the safety line up top.
We’ve all seen it before- it’s a managerial shortcut to a solution for a relatively benign molehill involving one or two guys, but everyone gets a taste of the punishment. It’s a path that leaves the door open for numerous other issues to take root. And it left the administration locked into a position that offered no flexibility, and flexibility would have worked marvelously here.
We’ve become so used to having the spin-meisters do the thinking for us. It’s so much easier to be told what to think and to follow the herd than it is to develop our own views and stand up for them. Stoking the fire with patriotic gasoline, we’re being told this is all about a fire chief denouncing the patriotism of a firefighter.
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