Excerpt from new post at pipenozzle:

"Back in January overpaid management consultants released a report on the Philly Fire Department that got a few paragraphs attention by the Philadelphia Inquirer based on the executive summary–for one day.  And then, like all other expensive time-wasters, the study disappeared onto a dusty shelf from which it will be pulled for political cover by the local government to reduce fire service further in Philly with allegedly justified budget cuts based on allegedly rational conclusions drawn from recommendations written by allegedly rational experts on fire departments.   And it’s all bull. The city knows it, the voters know it, and the firefighters union sure as hell knows it. Calling such studies objective in the first place is little better than a farce. The consultants tell the people who pay them what they want to hear, and the city government paid them. . . ."