Comment UpLake Worth politics. There is NO customer service when it comes to Lake Worth Utilties. In fact, there has been no customer service for years. I have never encountered a bunch of people who had no answers for anything.
The very first thing on the agenda last night was about out-sourcing our customer service. All the employees were in the room encouraged by their Union reps who were also there. Some citizens were also there to jump on the "our employees are valuable" mantra and we should treat them better, boo hoo hoo, even going so far as to say that "Everytime I have a problem, I am met with friendly and cordial employees." Well thank God for something here; at least they are pleasant. In the past, the horror stories have been unbelievable. When I have had any question, I either have to wait on the phone to have no one pick up or someone finally answers who does not know how to answer the question. You are literally forced to drive over there to get a real live person who then doesn't know the answer anyway.
How long do you give employees chances to learn their jobs? How long would the Mayor and Amoroso give an employee to learn the job at their business? One year? Three years? A Decade? Most people can learn a job within a few weeks. After years, they can become experts. Not so at the Lake Worth Utility Customer Service. We are forced to retain inefficiency.
Through the years, customer service has been a joke of the first order. Yes, they know how to take your money to pay your bill at the Annex. That's a plus. But if you have a problem such as an extraordinarily high electric bill, the only advice they ever give you is, "You probably need a new hot water heater." They have literally talked down to people and have been less than helpful. My meter reader is outstanding but she is not customer service.
We had a great opportunity last night to get rid of one of our biggest problems, the Union, at a department that has been dysfunctional for at least ten years but politics entered into the decision.
Aside from adopting standard operating procedures that employees would abide, Data Management would reduce our uncollectables from 4% to 1%. The company said that it would hire all 19 employees. This was said in written back-up as well as at a public meeting--the same weight for an oral commitment as a written one. No one was going to lose their jobs. What they would have lost was future Union retirement pensions paid for by you and me that frankly, we can no longer afford particularly for a department with zillions of complaints. The Unions did not want that to happen. No way, Jose.
The Unions run this city, not to mention escalating benefits for some customer service people who do not know their jobs and haven't learned their jobs. Private enterprise does a much better job than government when it comes to hiring efficient employees and working with the Unions. I would think that Republican Maxwell would have known that.
The visionary commission implied that it was the City's fault for not giving the employees enough job training...perhaps again they said, it was irate customers because of the City's fault in the high electric bills. The best one was "It is management's fault." Vice Mayor Maxwell said that he has trained "thousands of people" and it is managements fault. I can't imagine hiring someone with NO experience. Triolo said "it starts from the top." The Visionaries said that Rebecca Mattey was only going to be here a few more months as an excuse to not take her advice as to what is best and what will improve that department and save us money. The commission wants to continue to give the employees a chance to improve. How long has this been going on?
In this case, it is the Union that protects its non-productive employee and the City can't do a damn thing about it. No amount of training is going to help an inefficient person. To fire a union employee is near to impossible. You have to go through untold hoops just to even get to the discussion stage. Employees know they are protected. Some of these people never should have been hired but once they are, the City is almost stuck with them for life.
The truth of the matter is we cannot staff, supervise or manage this department with any degree of efficiency. It has been a constant challenge with various departmental managers who were hired but soon learned that the department was a disaster. It was recommended by the top paid executives in our city, Acting City Manager Steve Carr (the only executive for whom Scott Maxwell has
any confidence) and Rebecca Mattey, Utilities Director, 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 billing issues would cease. Without a pro-active decision by this Commission that was on the table last night as a solution to correcting the on-going problems, our customer service department will be exactly the same.
The outcome of the vote last night failed on a a 2/3 (with Maxwell, Triolo and Amoroso dissenting) to approve Data Management because the new commission was too afraid to take on the Unions and do what is best for the residents of Lake Worth. Politics should be banned from interfering in efficiency. This is another example of kicking the can down the road.
