Aren't there other little drops where Detroit can save? - Fox 2 News Headlines

Hundreds of first responders let the mayor of Detroit know their displeasure with the cutbacks in their paychecks and to your general welfare Thursday.

"We're still coming to work. We're still doing our job. You're physically breaking us. You're financially trying to break us, and we're still here. We're not going anywhere," said Sergeant Jeff Urbas with the Detroit Fire Department. "We're going to do the job, but you're trying to kill us."

As soon as the coast was clear, Mayor Bing got gone.

Now, I'm not going to get in the middle of a management-labor dispute. I'm not an accountant, but the question is aren't there other little drops where we can save before we take uniformed personnel off the streets of America's most dangerous city?

The City Council has still got their cars, and they're new. They still get gas for free. They still got a staff. They still get police protection. You still pay for their cell phones.

We're told the city assessor and her deputy are going to retire and collect a pension and then be hired back on a contract, and those will total about $350,000 a year plus the pension. So, there's a drop.

The new grass at city hall cost $20,000. We probably didn't need to do that, but it is soft.

And one more thing, if we're cutting back cops and firefighters, why do we still have nine City Council members in a city with less than 700,000 residents?

So when you look at this whole thing closely, it's more than a 10 percent pay cut. With the change to overtime rules, it's more like a 20 percent pay cut, and if you're one of the overworked homicide detectives, it's like a 40 percent pay cut. But not to worry, homicide victims aren't going anywhere for the weekend, although their killers are.

And so, it's worth finding these drops in a bucket because if you get enough drops in a bucket, pretty soon you've got a lake.