Of Accountability, Criticism, Defensiveness, and City Staff : As we move forward with our follow-up on engineering and maintenance issues related to the incidents at Lift Station #7, I see continued posting here of various comments on the subject, some constructive and some much more focused on continued finger-pointing.
Clearly with the events surrounding the lift station failures city staff members made mistakes, less-than-perfect judgement calls, and in some cases failed to live up to responsibilities that were assigned to them. There has been no attempt to hide or sugar-coat that fact. Each has been identified, and appropriate discipline, counseling, or training put into place. In recognition that these events took place during my watch I effectively docked my own pay by nearly $6000 per year.
Yet as recently as last Thursday I was asked if my defense of city staff in the aftermath of the most recent spill was appropriate. I would like to answer that question in full public view.
My comments at the time, which were relatively few, were limited almost entirely to statements that city staff members, like everyone, have rights to due process consideration. I did write in one e-mail that I wasn't inclined to "hang anyone" as an act of appeasement, and I perhaps could have made a different word choice. What I would like the general public to understand by way of context is that I was being told, directly, that certain members of the Public Works staff were "evil," and that they should be fired immediately, regardless of process. Frankly, the day I am willing to do that is the day I should be fired, because I don't know how I could ask 800 other city employees to come to work on the city's behalf if I'm not willing to stand up for their rights, even when things go wrong. If someone does turn up "evil", well that due process I mentioned will ferret that out, and the correct steps will be taken.
On the other side of the coin, nobody in the Hudson Bayou neighborhood asked for or caused the spills, and they had every right to be upset and concerned.
At this point, now that we have answered every question we have received, and outlined our plans for the future, I hope all parties can agree to work together to move forward. I fully expect there will be a number of people looking over our shoulder, including five City Commissioners, and I wouldn't have it any other way. As we do that, I hope we can all find something more productive to do with our fingers than point them at each other. For myself, I'm using mine to turn off the lights and go home. To all, a good evening!
Clearly with the events surrounding the lift station failures city staff members made mistakes, less-than-perfect judgement calls, and in some cases failed to live up to responsibilities that were assigned to them. There has been no attempt to hide or sugar-coat that fact. Each has been identified, and appropriate discipline, counseling, or training put into place. In recognition that these events took place during my watch I effectively docked my own pay by nearly $6000 per year.
Yet as recently as last Thursday I was asked if my defense of city staff in the aftermath of the most recent spill was appropriate. I would like to answer that question in full public view.
My comments at the time, which were relatively few, were limited almost entirely to statements that city staff members, like everyone, have rights to due process consideration. I did write in one e-mail that I wasn't inclined to "hang anyone" as an act of appeasement, and I perhaps could have made a different word choice. What I would like the general public to understand by way of context is that I was being told, directly, that certain members of the Public Works staff were "evil," and that they should be fired immediately, regardless of process. Frankly, the day I am willing to do that is the day I should be fired, because I don't know how I could ask 800 other city employees to come to work on the city's behalf if I'm not willing to stand up for their rights, even when things go wrong. If someone does turn up "evil", well that due process I mentioned will ferret that out, and the correct steps will be taken.
On the other side of the coin, nobody in the Hudson Bayou neighborhood asked for or caused the spills, and they had every right to be upset and concerned.
At this point, now that we have answered every question we have received, and outlined our plans for the future, I hope all parties can agree to work together to move forward. I fully expect there will be a number of people looking over our shoulder, including five City Commissioners, and I wouldn't have it any other way. As we do that, I hope we can all find something more productive to do with our fingers than point them at each other. For myself, I'm using mine to turn off the lights and go home. To all, a good evening!
posted by Michael McNees at 5:36 PM
17 Comments:
Thank You, Mr. McNees for all you do to professionally improve our way of doing business. You have a few bosses that could benefit from such leadership.
Learn from the mistakes and move on. We have other issues that need attention as well. Thanks for your leadership and keep up the good work.
This has been an interesting several months and one that I hope the commissioners never repeat. I feel the staff has done a great job at staying on task in this circus created by the commission and controlled by the public. You have been a good example to us all and so has Mr. Hallisey. Thank you.
Mr. McNees, thank you for speaking on our behalf and being such a committed leader. I do not know of any employee that has not felt bad with what you have had to put up with. I guess alot of staff, myself included, just do not know the appropriate way to say that. But, thank you.
What a great idea this blog is. I love reading it. You have been open and direct with your direction so thank you and stick with us.
The cartoon this weekend was supportive of you and how hard your position is, regardless of who is the manager, that person is blamed because nobody want to blame the commissioners. Hang in there and we hope you do not move on.
What involvement past, present, or future does (will) the City have with the downtown wireless project?
I'll try to answer that one. I think our role so far has only been some coordination with Sarasota County, who is powering the downtown wireless network from Selby Library. (I think that covers past and present.) I'll ask City IT Director Ramin K. to comment on future and have him post.
It is good to see that the City is supporting an initiative that can help to bridge the digital divide, however, I am curious to find out what the plan is to fully execute it.
Just providing wireless internet access to an area will not help to bring those in Newtown or ANYONE in the City who is socio-economically a part of the “have-nots” into the network society and knowledge economy of 21st century. It has long since been noted in many types of literature that simply providing network access to a population is useless if the costs of the hardware and connection are prohibitive. Is the City pursuing any distribution or access to hardware?
Another part of the digital divide that is also particularly important to Sarasota is the secondary level that is social in nature. Not only are persons of lower income affected but also those of a certain age and ethnicity demographic. There is a divide not only with money, but with attitudes as well. People who do not have the skills, knowledge, or perceived need for the technology are also a part of the chasm and should be addressed as well.
What is the plan to address these issues? How will it be implemented? What is the timeline? Is it occurring now?
Thanks.
Let's get real people. This talk about internet availablity to those that cannot afford it, or have no means of getting it, is a joke when there are so many other issues that are far more important. I.E. Let's get the people of Newtown JOBS, let's get them BETTER HOUSING, BETTER EDUCATION, MORE OPPORTUNITIES. The last thing we need is unemployed, welfare stagnant people sitting around playing on the internet. It' great that we ALL want to help improve the quality of life for those that do not have it. But, getting the city computer savy is just a little premature.
And Mr. Ramin K. can you please talk english. This computer and politically correct mumbo jumbo is a joke. The fastest way to lose people is to 1. talk down to them and 2. talk over their heads. Remember your management training AGL-4. That's where you always consider the AGL (average grade level) minus 4 (years). So, the U.S. census says the average grade level in this country is 12. So, minus 4 would mean 8th grade. Let's talk and address the issue to them. Because that's who we need to help.
That's my 2-cents and I'm sticking to it.
P.S. Mr. McNeese....PLEASE don't go.
Mr. Ramin: I really liked that you responded to the computer questions. This site is just a great idea, especially having employees speak about their jobs. Thank you so much.
You are absolutely correct that there are other more pressing issues affecting the Newtown area (and all areas of Sarasota for that matter), however, I think you may have missed the intent of the dialog by Ramin K. He was responding, specifically, to the post about the issues with the digital divide. As IT Director it only makes sense that he would speak to technological solutions and not ones that should be handled by other departments (Planning, redevelopment, etc.) such as housing, education, etc.. I’m thinking that the IT department does not have too much influence on those issues.
As far as speaking above people’s comprehension level, I do believe that this forum is for people of all intellects. I am actually surprised that the IT director used such simplistic and generic statistics to support the point. The NTIA data of which he is referring (I assume that is what he meant by the Dept of Commerce study which used data from the Falling through the Net series from the National Telecommunications and Information Association) is only based on basic statistics and does not adequately measure inequality such as the newer application of methods using Lorenz curves and the Gini Coefficient.
Even with more accurate statistical computation however I think that applying those results to Sarasota would be erroneous. The population of Sarasota is so unlike any other community. It sounds as if there has been no research locally or usage of census studies to determine the extent of the “digital divide”. I would certainly hope that is part of the plan.
To Anonymous 10:26 am -- you should pick up a book and put down the Sarasota Herald Tribune.
To Ramin K. -- you should visit Newtown
What specifically is the City Commission and administration doing about addressing the red tide situation? There used to be little coquinas on the beach that could be scooped up and they would scurry their way back into the sand. There used to be minnows and life in the Gulf. It is no longer there. That ocean is the lifeline of the community. How long will tourists continue to come here and people buy here only to have their noses, eyes and lungs irritated? Has any commissioner recently walked the beach to see this?Please tell me what the City is doing to find the cause and correct this disaster.
Why would someone criticize Ramin for addressing questions asked as if he has done something wrong or is irresponsible or inconsiderate to Newtown?
THANK YOU RAMIN, GREAT, GREAT JOB FOR ANSWERING OUR QUESTIONS!!
I would not have a problem understanding why staff is scared to speak to the public and stick their necks out based on some things I read on this blog.
THANK YOU MR. McNEES!
Thanks to those who stood up for Ramin for trying to answer the question. I appreciate his weighing in, and expect other city department heads will do the same when it's appropriate. There is somewhat of a reflex to jump on (government people?) when we say something, but the balance here seems to be pretty good, though the presence of city employees on the blog has to help that!
By the way 4:18, "..pick up a book and..." was a good one. I appreciate a little humor!
I know that you are trying to get more people downtown in the evenings, which I think is a wonderful thing. Downtown has much to offer. However, I don't think I will be going to the movies downtown any longer and neither will a number of the kids that I deal with on a daily basis, because there is now a $3 charge to just park in the parking lot. I can see if you your are valet parking, but to park the car yourself and still pay $3 is a bit much. I shall not go to Hollywood 20 any longer, but I shall go to the Royal Palm 20 up on SR 70
The new owner is the one charging for using his parking lot--not the city. He would like to see some type of return on his investment.
You can still park in the garage and have your parking receipt stamped by one of the merchants in the Main Plaza. Three dollars a day is CHEAP compared to other cities.
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