The local TV news stations are piling on KFD Chief Perez again.

WATE leads the way this time with two rather bizarre reports. It seems a transgendered person has filed a complaint [1] saying she was discriminated against after having a sex change operation. A fellow firefighter, who was the best man at the transgendered person's wedding 10 years ago when she was a he, says her complaint has no merit [2]. (Be sure to watch the videos accompanying both stories.)

WBIR has this report [3] on the same complaint, plus another age discrimination complaint.

What's really odd about all this is that KFD says the reassignments that are the subject of these complaints are all part of cost-cutting measures designed to help keep the department budget under control. Wasn't the local media hammering on Chief Perez just a couple of weeks ago for being over budget?

I also like how the local TV news stations report these complaints as "more in a growing list of accusations against Chief Perez" and make it sound like he's running some sort of gulag over there. (Again, watch the WATE videos. Unbelievable.)

For one thing, the transgendered person named her supervisor along with Perez. For another, I wonder how many complaints are filed every month (or every day for that matter) in other local government departments, such as KPD, KCSO, the Mayor's office, etc. Probably not many involving transgendered people, but I'm guessing any workplace, including, gasp, local government offices, have plenty of people with beefs about one thing or another.

One difference is, with local government and civil service, there's a standard procedure for airing your gripes. And lucky for the sensationalist TV news outfits, it's public.

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Chief Perez and Mayor Haslam did not stab any hobos or eat any babies today. But could they have? Tune in to your local TV news at 6 and 11 for the shocking investigative report...