MAYOR IS WRONG ON DRUG TESTS

Mayor Sue Bauman needs to listen to Fire Chief Debra Amesqua and City
Council President Dorothy Borchardt on the topic of random drug
testing for firefighters. The longer the mayor and the local
firefighters' union resist this legitimate and logical response to
allegations of drug use by a dozen firefighters, the longer the crisis
of confidence surrounding the Madison Fire Department will continue.

Amesqua, who deserves far more support from the mayor's office than
she gets on this and other issues, supports random testing as part of
a comprehensive substance abuse program.

Borchardt, 12th District, intends to offer a resolution on the council
floor tonight directing that drug and alcohol testing be part of the
city's proposal for a new firefighters union contract.

Bauman, who continues to show that she's less a manager than a rubber
stamp for the city's public employee unions, disagrees. She says
random drug testing is an unproven tool and it's too late to include
such a proposal in current negotiations, anyway.

She's right about one thing: Reasonable people disagree about the
value of random drug testing in many workplaces. However, the Madison
Fire Department is not just any workplace. It is staffed by public
servants whose mental judgment and physical reactions in split-second
situations must be as sharp as humanly possible. If it isn't, people
can die. Those people include the citizens of Madison who expect
firefighters, paramedics and police officers to be drug-free and
alert, and the vast majority of firefighters who don't use drugs and
who must count on their colleagues in dangerous predicaments.

The union's leadership may not want to acknowledge this, but it is
possible that many Madison firefighters would welcome such a program.
They need to know that the man or woman next to them at a major fire
is reliable.

Milwaukee's police and fire unions participate in that city's random
drug testing programs, Borchardt argues. Also, drug tests have been
required for three years for city workers who drive large vehicles.
That program has helped reduce positive test results from 12 percent
to 4 percent.

The mayor and the leadership of the firefighters' union need to
understand the depth of public feeling about the drug allegations
involving Madison firefighters. They also need to recognize the
continued budget support for the fire department rests, in large part,
on that public support. Random drug testing of firefighters will help
everyone -- the public, the vast majority of firefighters who don't
use drugs and want the department's name cleared, and those few who do
and could use help. Mayor Bauman, show some leadership for a change.