Kicking the Can Again

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A picture is worth a thousand words

Assistant City manager Margoles
Human Resource Director, Mark Farrington
Utilities Director, Becky Mattey

If you recall, back on January 31, the trio of visionaries, Maxwell, Triolo and Amoroso voted down the idea of outsourcing our customer service department to Data Management, a company that was willing to retain all of our 19 employees. Rebecca Mattey, Utilities Director, wanted the commission to approve a two year contract with Data Management that would get this department running well, these late accounts of over $1.5 million collected, and stop all of the billing issues in the department that were costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. Customer service has been dysfunctional for many, many years in every area.

The Trio asked Mattey to come back with another solution. The department was re-reviewed and some temporary measures were enacted:

• The Phone center was relocated to the Customer Service Office February 4, 2012

• Two Supervisors were temporarily assigned to the Customer Service Office

• Open positions were identified for advertisement and include:

• CSO Supervisor – two positions

• Customer Service Representative Part/time - 3 positions

• Customer Service Representative – one position

• Customer Service Cashier – two positions

• Meter Service Worker – two positions

• Necessary Standard Operating Procedures and Training Modules were identified and assigned to staff with deadlines for completion
  

Also a suggestion to approve reclassifying a position in the Customer Service Department was on the table. In order to develop a realistic plan that will address the many issues once and for all, Mattey wanted an Assistant Utilities Director responsible for Customer Service, a top executive-- someone with the knowledge and expertise to handle the job which meant a different and brand new job category, non-union, and one responsible for the whole enchilada in order to solve the technical problems as well as having the right skill sets.

Once again, the trio turned that down. Obviously, this new commission does not trust staff.

Different excuses were given:
Wait for new city manager to evaluate
We are trying to demonize the Unions said Maxwell. Well, the union is a big part of the problem in this department.
Triolo said she was upset that the Commission keeps bringing up Data Management because "they" already voted that down. Have you EVER made a mistake, mayor--ever made the wrong decision?
A few wanted a rep from HTE Software to come in and train our employees on a system that has been in effect for years as it was stated that it was never configured properly to do what it had to do. Mattey discovered this and all the other problems once Customer Service was moved under her leadership and since then has made diligent efforts and has offered many solutions to correct the mess.

It is completely impossible for this commission to make a decision here. Finally after talking about the lousy customer service for years and over an hour last night, they voted to send the entire matter to a Workshop so that they can continue to discuss the lousy customer service department and its many serious problems--kicking the can down the road again. Maybe, someday, we won't be losing millions there and the Commission will do the right thing by Lake Worth.