STATter 911

It's labor's turn to see the training Montgomery County, Maryland has offered management from the City of Charleston Fire Department. Members of IAFF Local 1664 in Montgomery County invited the Local 61 leadership from Charleston to participate in the same type of command development training that chief officers from Charleston began receiving in September. Three members of Local 61 are currently in Maryland.

For more details on the training, click here to read Firehouse.com's reprint of a Montgomery County press release announcing the program.

The press release also answers a question I had from my analysis of the issue involving public information officer Pete Piringer's role in Charleston. I asked what had been disclosed about Piringer's role. Well, the release, and one that Firehouse.com posted on August 10th, both make it pretty clear that Piringer would include offering advice to Charleston on PIO matters. Here's what it says:

Pete Piringer, public information officer for Montgomery County (MD) Fire and Rescue Service. He will oversee the review team's communications and public outreach efforts as well as advise the department on media relations and public information.

Now, is this something Charleston reporters were not aware of and was not released locally?

I do know that Piringer's role should not have been news to any of the Charleston reporters who made it to Montgomery County for the command training Chief Rusty Thomas participated in during the first week of October. I stood next to the Charleston TV reporters and it was pretty clear that Piringer was operating as a PIO, helping to coordinate that event.

So, was the fact that Pete Piringer has been advising the city 0f Charleston on PIO matters really a surprise to everyone when the Post & Courier did its story on November 15th?

If it wasn't a surprise, is there anything in the emails reprinted by the paper that doesn't fall under the category of "advising the department on media relations and public information"?

Again, I am pointing all of this out in an attempt to answer the question I asked earlier this month. It is not my job to defend Piringer or Gordon Routley (that would be the job of a PIO). Anyway, it would probably destroy their credibility if I defended them.

Let me also, once again, make sure you know that my relationship with Pete Piringer goes back to about 1975 when we first worked together in Prince George's County. I consider him a friend, but that has never stopped me from doing stories that have made him or his bosses unhappy.

# posted by Dave Statter @ 10:36 AM