INC NEWS - Solid Waste Director leaving

[PBaker8667 at aol.com]

As always, Bill exudes wisdom  beyond his years!!  I can confirm that Mr. 
Jackson voluntarily tendered his  resignation and I accepted it.  I certainly 
wish him well in all of his  future endeavors.
 
    Since 1999, solid waste  collectors have been compensated through the 
task system.  Rather than  being compensated for hours worked, they are 
compensated for tasks  completed.  The task system is antithetical to the far more 
common time  clock employment system but is a surprisingly typical method of 
compensation for  solid waste collection positions.  Proponents see it as an 
incentive plan  for arguably the least desirable, hardest to fill positions in city  
government.  It also provides these collectors with an opportunity (through  
a shorter work day) to supplement their income through secondary employment  
which many do.  Despite the nature of the work, residential roll out solid  
waste collection is by far the highest rated service (in terms of customer  
satisfaction) provided by the City.
    The most obvious criticism of  the task system is also the least 
compelling:  they get paid for 40 hours  of work but only work 33 (or so) hours.  
(Only a government official  could see the wisdom in such a scheme.)  The basic 
flaw in that argument is  that since 1999, they have not been compensated for 
the hours they work; they  have been compensated for the tasks they complete.  
How long they  work is not primarily relevant in the task system as the number 
of tasks  completed is not primarily relevant in the time clock system.  
    It has taken me a year to come  to terms with the benefits of the task 
system for solid waste collector  positions.  My problem with our task system as 
it presently exists  is  that it is heavily supplemented by expensive 
temporary laborers.  I  would like to significantly reduce if not eliminate our 
dependence on temporary  labor but that means filling current vacancies and 
possibly over hiring to  insure that we have the in house staff available to complete 
our routes (tasks)  by the end of each day.  The routes should also be 
periodically analyzed to  insure that the value we place on their completion is 
appropriate.  
    Through a combination of  vacancies, light duty medical restrictions,  
and sick leave absences, we  were woefully unprepared to complete the routes 
Thursday and Friday without the  assistance of supplemental labor.  The citizen 
anger was predictable and  frankly quite understandable.  As the City Manager 
although I  take  full responsibility for the actions and decisions of all of 
my directors, I  found that nearly 10K missed pickups last week to be  
completely unacceptable.  In the absence of a hurricane or an ice  storm, we have 
never  to my knowledge had the number of delayed  pickups as we did last week and 
early this week.  Accordingly, last Friday  evening, I directed the return of 
the supplemental labor this week to allow us  to get caught up from last week. 
 By noon yesterday, we were caught up and  everything is back to normal for 
the remainder of the week.  
    Through an expedited hiring  process, we will fill all of our current 
vacancies by next Monday.  We are  also exploring the creation of a supplemental 
pool of floating city employees  that will fill in as needed in various solid 
waste divisions. This will  wean us off of the more expensive temporary labor 
services without any breaks in  service to the citizens.  The savings would 
most likely remain in the solid  waste department to be used to fill other needs 
and will be much appreciated by  the employees. 
 
Stay tuned,
 
Patrick
 
 
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