Mayor Furey Vents Frustration at Daily Breeze Reporting
It is no secret that Mayor Furey has had issues with local reporter Nick Green of the Daily Breeze. It appeared for some time that he was boycotting the paper altogether and, at one point, he apparently even tried to have Green removed from his post. Those frustrations apparently have not dissipated as they appeared to boil over Tuesday night. Piggybacking on concerns expressed by a resident with regard to the fairness of the ambulance services contract award, Furey questioned the “fairness” of Nick Green’s reporting.
He initially seemed perturbed that Nick Green had sent City officials a litany of questions on the City’s off Friday. Furey noted that he responded to that e-mail letting Nick Green know that staff would address the questions on Monday. Yet, before staff had a chance to respond, Furey complained that there still appeared a front page article over the weekend that “ran with all that information as a negative thing.”
He continued by saying “I’m just talking about fairness. He didn’t ask the question of the people that could answer it because they were off that day.”
He also questioned the fairness of a statement in the article attributed to former mayoral candidate Tom Brewer who was quoted as saying that, “McCormick has never been in compliance with the contract.” Furey rebutted that by stating, “as you can see from the agenda item as well as the supplemental material that they [McCormick] were in substantial compliance with absolutely every term of the contract.”
Furey also took aim at Green reporting that there were only two ambulances stationed within the City. He claimed that was “totally erroneous” as it was his understanding that there are seven stationed within the City even though only five are required per the contract.
He then lauded McCormick for their service to the City including in such dramatic instances as the tragic accident that occurred at St. James Catholic church last December resulting in four deaths and the refinery explosion in February.
He also labeled the article an “editorial” due to its lack of attribution.
Later, after a resident suggested he would like to see more quotes from those on the Council in the local paper, Mayor Furey retorted that “when you’re misquoted and taken out of context that it’s not going to happen.” He then explained that he had met with the publisher, the editor, and the managing editor and explained that to them.
He concluded his remarks by saying, “I will not be played a game like that.”
In the meeting the other night, it was interesting to see Rizzo backing away from the response time standard that McCormick can’t always meet. There was never any consideration for Gerber in that area. I suspect they’ve already seen the two missing month’s worth of response times for McCormick and they aren’t good. The city manager also got into the act. Isn’t politics fascinating? Good job, Clint.
Gerber was never given any consideration in that area? What a joke, they were allowed to be out of compliance for years, mccormick has been there for a few months. And if you speak to the firefighters (not the politicians or reporters who have their own interests at hand), they will tell you there is no comparison with the service mccormick is giving compared to gerber. Gerber lost 1 contract and immediately folded up shop and went out of business. That is a good indication of a company that has no idea what they are doing and were only staying afloat because of the dirty politicians that continued to hand them government contracts with no regard for the safety of the people of their city.
I would like to think that TFD could speak with a completely unbiased voice on this issue, but my suspicion is that TFD has their own interests at hand just as the politicians and the reporters. As evidence of this I would point out the dubious nature of some of the complaints TFD made against Gerber in the past – one in particular in which TFD accused Gerber of kidnapping a patient for taking the patient to the hospital. When you see stuff like that it makes it hard to trust completely in TFD’s recommendations. http://torrancecitycouncil.com/?p=469
Don’t compare Gerber to McCormick. Gerber was fired. McCormick was not. Did Gerber give five figure donations to any politician? Did the FPPS ever launch an investigation into Gerber’s relationship with a politician? That is no joke.
Gerber didn’t complete their application in 2014. It wasn’t a choice between McCormick and Gerber because Gerber was never rated, since they never finished their application. Explain how the city was supposed to renew their contract if they didn’t apply? Maybe give it to them automatically a la Scotto and friends?
It was very interesting to see Pat Furey’s comments from the city council meeting about Nick Green’s article published Monday July 27th in which I was also quoted. Pat is seen complaining that before Torrance city staff had a chance to respond to Nick’s list of questions, that there still appeared a front page article that “ran with all that information as a negative thing.”
But that is hardly the case. Pat was quoted in the article as saying “that city staff would respond to the questions Monday, but pointed to the city’s staff report on McCormick’s performance.” The part of the staff report that Pat used was very positive and hardly a negative thing. The article said “The transition to McCormick Ambulance has been successful, with zero interruptions or decreases in the services provided,” the staff report said. “Through the first seven months of the contract, there have been no incidents involving damages/defective vehicles or equipment. McCormick Ambulance has been compliant in the key areas of staffing, vehicle maintenance, facilities, training, permits and licensing, legal compliance.” How is that negative?
What Pat didn’t address and Nick highlighted very well, was the failure by McCormick to response to calls within 8:00 minutes 92% of the time. When I said that McCormick has never been in compliance with the contract I was referring to the response times. From the staff report McCormick was averaging only 90.1% in responding to calls in under 8:00 minutes. That is far off the contract requirement of 92%.
When Furey refers to my comment in the article, he says “as you can see from the agenda item as well as the supplemental material that they [McCormick] were in substantial compliance with absolutely every term of the contract.” Notice however that he didn’t say complete compliance. I don’t disagree that McCormick is complying with most of the requirements of the contract, however they are not meeting the response time, nor have they installed the CAD to CAD system they promised they would when they were awarded the contract last year.
Furey also took aim at Green reporting that there were only two ambulances stationed within the City. He claimed that was “totally erroneous” as it was his understanding that there are seven stationed within the City even though only five are required per the contract. Furey is wrong when he says that the contract requires that the ambulances must be stationed in Torrance. It only says that McCormick provide 5 ambulances dedicated to Torrance. Also there is nothing in any city staff report that is available to the public that reflects what Furey says regarding seven ambulances stationed in Torrance. As a matter of fact, in McCormick’s presentation to the council last year they spelled out where each of the 5 dedicated Torrance ambulances would be stationed. They said that 2 would be in Redondo Beach, 1 in Gardena, and 2 in Torrance.
Poor performance by McCormick relating to response times and the lack so far of the CAD system should not have been rewarded with a one year contract extension. McCormick now knows that they don’t have to comply with the contract and this mayor and city council will overlook that and continue to extend the contract. The city council should have delayed the extension until McCormick performs as required.
Tom Brewer
How did McCormick’s response time compare to Gerbers? There is an obsession with McCormick missing the 92% mark by a few percentage points in 2 months – but Gerber was hitting about 27%. And… They didn’t complete their application and refused to comply with the application requirements. So there was never a choice between the two. If McCormick hadn’t gotten the contract, it would have been one of two other companies who did apply… Not Gerber who was already on its way out of business.
– The Ambassador
Why anonymous posts? Put your name behind your statements. (Nice response, Tom.)
Mike Moran brings up a good point. Should it apply to Pat Furey when he was the editor of TorranceTruth web site spewing lies, lies, and more lies?
If what you are looking for is to have a police officer, fire fighter, and/or and ambulance at the scene of an accident at the snap of your fingers,,,,it ain’t going to happen folks. Officers, firemen, & ambulance drivers are not trained at the Indianapolis Speedway ya know!
“I will not be played a game like that” said the mayor. The mayor only wants to play when he can make his own rules.
Waiting for the Fair Political Practices Commission to drop the ball on the Mayor and his campaign manager son for breaking the rules of the game, rules that all his competitors were following for the game, but not the mayor. I guess it’s “game on” with Sacramento and the press Mr. Mayor.
Hand slapped, if anything.
“The Ambassador”. “Anonymous”.
Is there some fear of retribution, or did your parents just give you unusual names?