Laws and expectations

A new story comes my way from the trenches of the city.
It seems the Council on Aging decommissioned a transportation van due to it's poor condition and the fact that it could not legally be certified for use on the roads in Massachusetts. The city pumps a lot of dollars into providing service on vehicles used in the business of servicing the city. The director of the department did well in recognising the life span of the vehicle and made the proper decision for safety reasons to decommission the passenger van when she did. If there was any more life in the van, she would have kept it in her fleet as she needs all the transportation she can get. She is even known to use her personal car to help her clients in need.

Now the kicker. The temporary DPS Director has the seats removed form the van and puts it back into service, expecting the city employees to drive the un-repaired van to transport personnel and equipment to job sites. Not even mentioning the laws of CDL operators being responsible to report unsafe vehicles and to not accept a vehicle that is knowingly unsafe for work. But just the pressure of 'the BOSS' expecting an employee to violate a law and knowingly put the city at risk by using such equipment, is what happens when professionals are allowed to lead with nothing to lose. But the employee takes the chance of losing their operators permit and therefore their job by putting us all at risk. We can thank the employees for refusing to cooperate with this style of management. We hire educated personnel to make such decisions and recently it has been the labor over the managers that are protecting our tax dollars by following the laws. Shame is, this administration is well known to punish the employee for doing the 'right thing' and the manager will get a stipend for doing so.

ps
anybody can ask for city payroll information and one would be really surprised at the overtime paid out to a select few city employees over the past year! This does not even broach the subject of 'stipends' dolled out to specific individuals on the take! One only needs to know the players to see why the city won't see any savings on the management style of this crew. Why the Daily Snooze doesn't report on things like these is beyond me (or maybe it really isn't;) after all they (DN) say I am 'argumentave' and block my comments on-line. But I have seen the invoices and waste first hand and it is a serious issue.

reminds me of the records of the Con Com and an incident (s) in the industrial park.............

Grievances and mangaement styles

Taking the advice of uneducated managers and 'outsiders' will always be remembered as Donna's downfall. The expense of her actions, due to her lacking common sense management abilities and her favoritism appointing un educated and unlicensed employees to demanding positions will endanger the public and the employees to an impressive mismanagement of resources.A highschool education managing the DPW with an assortment of political advancements was not what I expected in an (overly) 'educated' Mayor, that ran on her knowledge level......LAMO! I am so glad I am out of there.

LABOUR- THE LACKOF IT, The COST of it.

A continuance to fail to meet AFSCME agreements on job posting keeps several DPS positions unfilled. Due to a personal dislike, a temporary manager will not let a union member advance to the position of truck driver and the same politics keeps a position on the water department unfilled. Saving money has hit a new low in management styles. Politics and personalities override contractual issues and end up costing us taxpayers more in lost labor and legal costs. Any educated manager would realize this and work with what the contract gives him/ her.

Contracts are usually clear on the time a position needs to be posted and filled. Some of the most recent positions have gone over a year waiting for decisions from this administration. Employee with special licences to operate the water system are being by-passed due to personal vendettas and political hand shakes.

I blame the union body mostly for this situation. When your working rights are being violated you must file a grievance to settle the matter, early, for the benefit of the whole union. It seems that AFSCME Employees are so afraid of Holaday and Furnari (more so his friends and associates) that not one grievance has been filed to settle differences and get back to operating the city with the funds we give them to accomplish our work.

SOME COMMUNITIES HAVE HIRING QUALIFICATIONS

And we get managers with no advanced degrees, go figure. Incompatible management styles? Or 'in over her head'! And they pay less than we are offering for city managers!

West End Neighbors upset

Seems the city has started and stopped several times on flooding issues on Philips Drive, Ryan's and Drew Street that a petition has been started to get some tax dollars to address these 30 year old issues before the Mayor spends anymore on un-needed services and employees. Past Director, Brendan O'Regan found grant money to widen and replace a culvert in this area, but now that his management style is not wanted, these residents in this area are fighting mad that no more action to handle run off is on the books anywhere in the future. The same neighbours do not want even higher sewer bills to fix what our taxes were supposed to repair in the years past. A single house is the culprit in these matters and has been given cart blanch' to divert run off into surrounding yards. Calls to the Mayors office are going unaddressed and who knows if the Ward 6 Councillor is aware of anything past City Hall these days. 50 taxpayers equal about enough income to the city to deserve at least curbing and drainage to protect their property, don't they? Or are social programs and stipends for interim employees more important? Frost heaves causing road damage due to the lack of proper drainage and building foundation issues need to be recognize by educated engineers that we have demanded and paid for, but don't get past route 95! It only took 35 years for the city to address a farm road that was allowed to develop into a transit point for several hundred homes and a back entrance to the industrial park ( past the most prime open land we have left in the city.

Will we need to lose the lives of more children before sidewalks are installed on Story Ave, from the firehouse to the city line, where traffic flows at a posted 50 miles per hour? Priorities on parking and other downtown social issues superseded the West-Newburyport Taxpayers. I saw a resident of Drew Street sweeping the street with a hand broom today. I told him we have several street sweepers in the city. He said he has never seen one on this side of route 95. He is mostly right on that issue. Our taxes purchase services for anybody but us!