Two Weeks Without You
ByThe mayor was out. So was Councilman Grayum. Deputy Mayor Penny Coffey held the tiller pin and she navigated the agenda for the last televised DuPont Washington City Council Meeting. I was under-whelmed. It was sort of like when Johnny Carson had a guest host. Not horrible, but just not the same.
One of the key differences I noticed when watching Penny lead this meeting was the distinct change in tone from a Mayor Jenkins chaired event. It appears that Penny labored through the clichés while Jenkins brings an aw shucks quality to the description of some lame dedication or boring event during the “mayor’s report.” It is almost as if you get the sense that Tamara believes it while Penny can barely contain her contempt.
At the end of the Mayor’s report, our deputy mayor raised the topic of canceling the second city council meeting for the month of August. The reason cited, and I think it is based more on legacy than necessity, was so that the city staff could schedule their vacations at this time.
Seems innocuous enough until you think about it. Why does the entire staff of the City of DuPont have to take their vacations during this week? If the “Staff” take their vacations en masse then who will be around to, you know, run the city? And, if the Staff of the city of DuPont all took their vacations simultaneously would the citizens of DuPont even notice?
I digress.
Still, it boggles my mind that in a meeting that frequently has one or two members of council or staff missing that our council would be compelled to scrub a meeting from the calendar for no other reason than it is August. For chrissake, the mayor wasn’t even at this meeting!
There was a mild mention of the ever growing and never addressed items on the tracking sheet by councilmember Trotter before she STFU and got back in line behind the rest of the sycophant council. Roger Westman went on record in dissent but what else is new? I guess we know how council feels about that tracking sheet.
That got me thinking about what we can expect not to get done during the end of August. Well, to start, there probably won’t be any more signs erected, way finding or otherwise, because Peter Zahn will not be around to over compensate for a solution in search of a problem. Nor will we have the sign ordinance deviate further off course (and no closer to completion). That will simply have to wait until Dawn Masko returns.
I know this isn’t France, but did I miss something about the vacation policy for exempt employees of the city of DuPont? Do they have to take their vacations in August?
No. At least, not according to their written policy on vacations found on their web site. There is absolutely no mention of compulsory vacation time usage in the month of August, or in any other month, for that matter. The verbiage on their vacation can be found here. If you further read the employment policies on vacation you will find that it is quite generous, more generous than my experience in the private sector.
Well, what is done is done. Now our multimillion dollar Civic Center shall sit idle on August 24th, 2010.
Or, does it? I have another idea for our shared community resource: Let RealDuPont hold an event in council’s chambers that night at that time! We could clear out all of the chairs and stage the inaugural DuPont Adult Dodgeball tournament. Of course, we will need to bring our own balls and orange cones because presumably Amy Walker will also be on vacation that day. We could form teams with names like The Wilcoxes, The Coffeys, and so on. We could write words such as “Responsibility” or “Accountability” or “Obligation” or “Service” or “Duty” on the balls so members of these respective teams can dodge each of those qualities that we expect in our real, elected council members.
It seems unlikely that the city will turn over the keys to the kingdom of a small, select few, but we can still dream. In the meantime, there will be a follow up to this post regarding staff vacation. Let us just wait and see who took time off during this week and how they handled the coverage at City Hall. Only then will we know who is irreplaceable in those hallowed halls.
But, until then, one thing remains perfectly clear, as conveyed to us by the actions of the city council: the needs of our paid city staff are more important than the needs of the citizens of the city of DuPont.
If we don’t need City Exempt Staff for one to two weeks; suggest all City exempt staff go to a two week on two week off work schedule and cut pay/salary benefits by 50%. Staff will be on offset schedules so each dept can be staffed weekly. Change all staff titles/description: ie; City Administrator/City Clerk = City Clerk/City Administrator, Public Works Director/Finance Director = Finance Director/Public Works Director, Police Chief/Fire Chief = Fire Chief/Police Chief Human Resources Analyst/City Planner, City Planner/Human Resources Analyst
Example:
Two weeks the City Administrator works two weeks covering Admin and Clerk jobs, then the following two weeks the City Clerk works two weeks covering Admin and Clerk jobs. Every two weeks City Exempt Staff will be onsite to handle issues for City Departments. (Review City history and ya will see this has been going on for the past five years.)
Keep in mind that it is not the Dept Directors that run/operate the day to day city operations.
Why don’t they turn the day into a furlough day. That will save us all some money.
They are not interested in saving money as much as they are in the appearance of saving money. To cancel this meeting is just another instance of their complete lack of credibility.
Shame on Trotter for caving in so easily, especially after she acknowledged that there was much to do on their list.
I do not understand why a member of city staff cannot send a representative to the council meeting if they plan on taking vacation time off. Another idea is to structure the council meeting agenda to cover items where they are not expressly needed at the meeting. Most times the city staff sit there like bumps on a log anyway.
This video typifies the overall problem in DuPont City Hall. Our elected representatives hold the city employees in higher esteem than the public that they are supposed to serve.
How about telecommuting? That’s what one council person did at the July 13th Puyallup Council Meeting, see what you think about that plus you’ll see public comment censorship at it’s finest. The whole meeting was tension filled. You think weeze got problems.
http://link.onlinevideoservice.com/rmc/Puyallup/2010/puyallup100713.wmv
It was easy to justify canceling the meeting, based on “tradition”. Think about it, that is a conscious decision by our leaders to cancel 4% of their public engagement just because it was that way in the past, yet they give out >10% salary increases based on ?.
In the beginning of the feedback from council, Trotter did bring up the work items that are piling up, but in the end, she too caved into the low standards set by Penny and John. Weak baby, weak.
Isn’t this the same group that cries that not enough people get involved? Why bother if our own council is so detached?
I wanna play dodgeball!
We keep throwing them. they keep dodgin them.
Staff does not care about the city the way citizens or volunteers do. Our council is weak, the mayor weaker. There is no accountability what-so-ever in this city. If you don’t uphold the code, that’s okay. We’ll amend it. I’ve never seen such a big group of push-overs in my life.
2. Town Hall Meeting – Sign Code
The City will be holding a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, August 3rd at 7 PM to solicit citizen,
business, and other stakeholder comments about the current sign code. Staff will be working with
the Council, City Attorney, and Planning Agency to review the current code and recommend any
necessary revisions. This Town Hall meeting will be the first opportunity for the public to participate
in this process.
Actually, what you will never see on the reader board: Operation We Love Our Citizens!
You got that right!
Penny Coffey nearly choked on the words cancel. Perhaps it was devine intervention.