That's what our Utility Service Department is and has been for years and the City finally has had enough.
We all feel lucky when we actually call Lake Worth Utilities customer service and get someone to speak with us on the first try. Usually we are put on hold forever and when someone finally gets on the line, they do not know how to answer our questions. They are often discourteous and have even been condescending. Most of us know that the only way to get the least bit of satisfaction is to drive there and wait in the lobby to get a live person so that we can insist on an answer that makes sense.
The service department has tried a multitude of managers, some very highly qualified and who, for whatever reasons, have not been able to turn the department around. Workers there are protected by the Union. At the moment, the Union has filed a grievance against the City because the employees were asked not to make or receive personal cell phone calls during business time. It came to that lightning bolt moment--outsource it all.
By so doing, private enterprise will be running the show and what can do it better than a well run American company that will strive for efficiency and will not coddle the lazy and won't have difficulty getting rid of the deadwood. Becky Mattey has done her best over the past two years but when it comes right down to it, the boss is the Union. The Unions will be out, the very ones who have allowed this to happen and that has a system in place that makes it almost impossible to correct. No more of people doing the bare minimum with all the wrong answers.
On May 3, 2011, the City Commission approved a 90-day contract with Government Services Group (GSG) for a not to exceed amount of $70,000 to provide management services and business practice evaluation on an emergency basis for the Customer Service Office. Per the agreement, should the City require additional services not included in this Agreement and/or reflected in the minimum tasks in Exhibit "A" of the agreement, fees and payment for such services will be set forth in a separate Additional Services Addendum, as authorized by the City prior to any such additional services or work being performed by the Consultant. Also, per the agreement, the City may extend services as needed on a month to month basis.
Last night, the Utility Director, Becky Mattey, and our city manager, Susan Stanton, tried to do just that. Unfortunately it was placed on the agenda at the last moment. In order to put something on the agenda without proper notice, it must be an emergency. Scott Maxwell challenged whether this was an emergency.
The department has 400 accounts that have yet to be billed and employees keep getting farther and farther behind the eight ball. Checks have been found in a locked fault, one going back to two years in the amount of $150,000. No one knows how to do anything even though they have had instructions in customer service, billing etc. Employees do the bare minimum in their jobs. Insolence and ineptitude abound. They have been given chance after chance to improve to no avail. The department is falling farther and farther behind to the point of no return. Thus the emergency. Thus the lightning bolt decision to outsource the department.
The Commission wanted to see a full report from GSG and have it come back to them prior to the August 2 meeting before they made their decision to outsource our Utility customer service.
The commissioners and mayor were asking the right questions. Were's the report from the people we hired to write it. How do you evaluate the Customer Service of the Utilities and NOT have a report to present?
ReplyDeleteMattey came across as incompetent and overwhelmed. You are the head of the Utility! Maybe this should have been done years ago.
At least Rachel didn't take contributions from the unions and, with the support of the commission, will be free to handle the situation aggressively.
When the unions become THIS corrupt, the only way to "fix" the problem is to get rid of them.
It might have appeared that way to you regarding Ms. Mattey. However, she stated that it was a drawn out process to terminate an incompetent employee. People say that you cannot fire a union employee for anything that is not immoral or illegal. That is not true. It takes a great deal of documentation, time and due diligence. But it can be done. Unfortunately, this department was going backwards and Ms. Mattey was honest in her assessment making no bones about it that the City could no longer function well with the system that is in place.
ReplyDeleteThen why wasn't there a report from the company in the back-up?
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for Ms. Mattey although she did say that this was her mistake. I believe that this was, as I said, a lightning bolt moment.
ReplyDeleteYes, she seemed VERY upset. But she was also a little too argumentative and spoke over commissioners as they tried to get answers to questions. That was annoying to me and suggested there was more to the absence of the documentation the mayor and commissioners rightfully assumed should be part of their decision making process.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but I don't get the "lightning bolt" portion of this. Neither did the commission. Bringing this up at the eleventh hour is becoming the modus operendi of the management, including the BCME. Customer service has sucked there for years. No lack of leadership?
The company had a ninety day contract to come up with recommendations and evaluations. Who didn't know when the ninety days were up? C'mon!
What they are asking for needs to be digested by the decision makers. I'm REALLY interested in hearing what the outsource company has to say about the "culture" over there.
This has been out of control for as long as I can remember.
ReplyDeleteOne question that should be asked is if customer contact reps. are still having sex on city property, and on city time. The answer to that will enlighten everyone concerned.
It was a last minute decision to put it on the agenda based on total frustration. The straw that broke the camel's back was the cell phone incident and the Unions strong arming management. It was like the light going off or a thunderbolt at that particular moment telling them, "Let's do something once and for all to fix this broken department."
ReplyDeleteHope that explains what I was trying to say.
Van VanDever (Former Utility Director) attempted to have the customer service unit disbanded seven years ago. He was turned down by the commission. This particular matter was also the reason that Van was let go. Joe Eagly (Commissioner) did not like the fact that Van was proactive in this matter and had Paul Boyer get rid of him.
ReplyDeleteYou keep blaming the unions when the fact of the matter is that it is the incompetence of the management of LW that is at fault. Florida is a right to work state. Unions don’t have the significance that you may believe. It is a failure of direction and leadership. Who agreed to the contracts in place, management.
The comment about sex taking place in the lunch room of customer service was known for years and ignored.
You are correct. It was corrupt and inept commissions of the past that led us down the garden path. Management now needs to do the right thing. Outsource it.
ReplyDeleteContracts are simply a set of rules both sides agree to abide by. What these years of bad service tell me is that there's been bad management for horrible employees that don't care.
ReplyDeleteManagement should know the contract better than the union stewards or officers. When they do, they can implement changes without much fuss, or they can submit items for a MOU to the contract with the union.
Based on all I've seen in over a decade the Commission needs a spine and they need to outsource the entire operation. If at some point in the future the city desires to take over operations again they can. The outsourcing firm comes in and cleans house with a new system and people in place and in a couple of years it might be cheaper for the city to do it in house again. But for now, the culture is beyond corrupt.
And if we had elected Tom Ramiccio, who is in the union's pocket, we would NEVER have seen any improvement only another two years of excuses.
There IS a HUGE problem with LW Utilities...From actual Electricity and Water issues, all the way through answering the phone..let alone if they are nice when they finally do so. The department is slovenly, decrepit, and slow. It is lo-tech, and behind the times, and not necessarily in a charming way. It constantly wastes its time, and the time of LW residents.
ReplyDeleteThe commission is RIGHT, however, in asking for ACCOUNTABILITY for expenditures...
Question: Review and Evaluate--Ok Where's the Report. Work not being done? Were any of the 400 delinquent accounts finalized or charged? We KNEW there was a problem. We don't need to pay someone $70k to tell us. I personally would like some DOCUMENTATION of what our $ paid for. It is this disregard for Proper Procedure that led us into this problem in the first place. Personal Cell Phone calls at work....Stanton said it was supported by the Union only because it was condoned in the past.....CITY WORKERS...the CITY should set the standard.
I am NOT IN ANY WAY opposed to the Privatization, however, I am opposed to writing a blank check to a company BEFORE I am told the following: Is it going to COST more than my budget? Is there going to be ACCOUNTABILITY for the new people...remember they are just PEOPLE..not angels from heaven.... What services will we get? Is is what we need or want? For Ms. Mattey to come and ask for this funding without proper support documentation fosters incompetence in itself... Again, I don't doubt she knows what she's doing, she just needs to live in the REAL WORLD that requires a record....and proof. Every other good usiness requires this too...Remember all the lawsuits?
Waterman questioned this (kudos!), Maxwell quesitoned this (Kudos), Golden withdrew her motion (Kudos)..... Congrats to the Commission for doing there jobs, putting a request for proper documentation, AND setting a short time limit to getting this finalized in the next few weeks!
Ms. Mattey made the mistake of NOT having back-up to support the outsourcing of this department. You can't come into a meeting and request something as important and as costly as this without it. But be assured that she had the complete backing of our city manager who, in my opinion, does not just jump into things without completely understanding it as well as the finances to support the action. We shall be able to hear, what we didn't get to hear, the other night, on Aug 2. The Commission did do the right thing...the staff jumped the gun. It all does not change my mind, however, that we need to outsource this department asap.
ReplyDeleteI agree we need to ultimately outsource. I do have a problem with you sweeping a glaring mistake into the black hole that has become our utility; that of the lack of documentation for this "emergency" request. Either both the BCME and the UD thought they had a chance of slipping it through an inept commission, or they were so naive as to think they didn't need it. I would suggest the former to be true.
ReplyDeleteBoth these women are intelligent enough to know they SHOULD have had some ammunition before approaching the commission.
Like the previous poster said: KUDOS to the commission.
I don't think it was either:
ReplyDeletean inept commission it is NOT and
it was not swept into a black hole by me.
The commission did not vote for it and have asked them to come back with the proper support material. So how do you call them inept? If staff had the back-up and it was declared an emergency, the outcome would have been totally different.