INC NEWS - Solid Waste problems worse than reported

[bragin at nc.rr.com]

thanks for posting this Randy.

Here's what jumps out at me:

During a City Council budget review on Tuesday, Assistant City Manager 
Ted
Voorhees said the Solid Waste Management Department had only *nine of 
the
20 collectors* it needed to ensure that the day's trash routes would be
serviced.

 . . .

The department is authorized to *employ 29 collectors.*

(emphasis added)

=======================================================================

Now, it's possible that i'm misreading this, but what i'm seeing is 
that the department has 20 trash collectors on full-time staff, when it 
needs 29 to do the job. I hope that Patrick Baker or any city staffers 
who are knowledgeable about this situation will correct me if i am 
misreading this.

It's not uncommon in the private sector to keep your hourly staff below 
optimum levels, andmake up the difference with overtime. Generally, 
paying overtime to existing staff is less expensive than paying 
benefits to additional staff. And this w
orks, up to the point where the current staff feels that the 
disadvantages of overtime (not seeing the family, not having a life 
away from work, etc.) outweigh the extra income. This of course varies 
for individuals. My personal limit has been around 10 hours of overtime 
per week for 4 months, and then i'm ready to stop. Other workers may 
prefer the overtime on a more permanent basis.

So, if it turns out that the department is in fact 31% understaffed, 
perhaps hiring the additional full time collectors it is authorized to 
employ will eliminate all of the temp staffing and overtime. Whether it 
will save money in the long term remains to be seen. 

Barry Ragin

----- Original Message -----
From: RW Pickle <randy at 27beverly.com>
Date: Thursday, May 25, 2006 1:02 am
Subject: INC NEWS - Solid Waste problems worse than reported
To: inc-list at durhaminc.org

> >From the Herald Sun today.
> RWP
> 27 Beverly
>  
> 
> By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
> gronberg at heraldsun.com
> May 23, 20
06 : 10:34 pm ET
> 
> DURHAM -- The shortage of trash collectors on May 12 that caused 
> missedpickups and eventually the resignation of Durham's new solid-
> wastedirector was deeper than city officials first acknowledged.
> 
> During a City Council budget review on Tuesday, Assistant City 
> Manager Ted
> Voorhees said the Solid Waste Management Department had only nine 
> of the
> 20 collectors it needed to ensure that the day's trash routes would 
be
> serviced.
> 
> Voorhees had said last week that the department had 13 of the needed
> collectors. As he did last week, he stressed again Tuesday that 
> facing a
> shortage so deep, former Solid Waste Management Director James 
> Jackson and
> other officials should have brought in outside help to finish the
> scheduled pickups.
> 
> Jackson, in his first week on the job, had ruled out bringing in 
> contractlabor. The decision was an attempt to control costs. 
> Jackson quit before
> completing the second week of his $103,
000-a-year job.
> 
> "My point to the staff was that if you need one or two temps every 
> day, we
> need to fix that," Voorhees said. "But when you're 11 short, you 
> have to
> do something extraordinary. You can't just say, 'Suck it up and get 
it
> done.' That's just not enough resources."
> 
> The department is authorized to employ 29 collectors.
> 
> In addition to supplying more details on the May 12 incident, 
> Tuesday'sbriefing gave council members a chance to learn more about 
> the "task
> system" that governs the work and payment of the city's trash 
> collectors.
> The system in theory requires collectors to work 10-hour days on 
> Monday,Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. But if they finish their 
> assigned routes
> quickly, they can leave after 2:30 on those days and still get 
> credit for
> a full day's work.
> 
> Collectors also receive overtime pay for any hours they work on 
> Wednesdayand Saturday, the days the Solid Waste Management 
> Departments uses to
> 
catch up with collections missed because of holidays, bad weather or
> operational problems.
> 
> Voorhees said Durham's system is similar to those used in Raleigh, 
> ChapelHill, Winston-Salem, Greensboro and other cities. Its chief 
> advantage is
> that workers have a built-in incentive to finish early and don't 
> requireas much supervision as they would if they were only on the 
> clock, he said.
> 
> The main problem is that the task system -- particularly the idea 
that
> someone can receive 40 hours' worth of pay for less than 40 hours 
> of work
> -- is hard to explain to elected officials and residents, Voorhees 
> said.
> Councilman Thomas Stith, Councilwoman Diane Catotti and Mayor Bill 
> Bellquickly underscored that point by criticizing the system. Their 
> mainobjection was to the idea of paying overtime automatically for 
> any work on
> the two makeup days.
> 
> To Stith and Bell, it didn't make sense that there might be extra 
> work on
> a Wednesday or Satur
day if the collectors had truly finished all their
> work on the four days they're required to be in the field.
> 
> "Have we purposely understated what can be done in a 10-hour day?" 
> Bellasked.
> 
> Stith noted that he'd asked for -- and as of Tuesday still hadn't 
> received-- an audit of worker hours that would show how often 
> collectors are
> clocking out early. "That's going to be the crux of it," he said. 
> "Are we
> paying overtime in situations where the [40-hour] trigger hasn't been
> pulled yet?"
> 
> The problem as they saw it is that the city usually pays $400,000 
> or more
> each year for overtime and contract labor, a small part of the 
> Solid Waste
> Management Department's $21.3 million budget, but enough 
> nonetheless to
> take money away from other programs the council would like to fund.
> 
> "That's real money, and over three years, it's a penny on the tax 
> rate,"Stith said of the extra expense. "That's how we measure 
> things around
> here. Wh
ile we are doing well in certain areas, we shouldn't shy 
> away if
> we need to make corrections. We can't control fuel costs, but if 
> it's a
> policy matter, why shy away from it?"
> 
> City Manager Patrick Baker said he's also had questions about the 
> system,but had elected to wait on suggesting major changes in the 
> department'soperations until a new director was on board.
> 
> "I can get my arms around the task system if the tasks are all 
> completedand we're not supplementing it with extra funds," Baker 
> said, noting that
> the department's existing pay policies date from 1999, during the
> administration of former City Manager Lamont Ewell.
> 
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