VOICES- Re ‘Can LA Afford Its High Priced, Inefficient Workforce?’
I work for the city as a heavy equipment mechanic. And I can tell you 1st hand how comprehensive the problem is. And it starts with the mayor, then the city council, and then the heads of each & every dept.
The workers are at the bottom of the food chain & KNOW where all the problems lie. But we get ZERO support from management.
Add in the fact that a large part of the depts that do the hard work (trash services, street repairs, fleet, etc) are basically skeleton crews now (unless you're talking about the rich DWP). Otherwise ... our workforce has been gutted like a fish.
I come from 30 years in the private sector and I can tell you, that fleet could learn a thing or two from the automotive repair field in many areas ... especially management. Plus, supply services (that gets us our parts is HEAVILY mismanaged).
So many of these people have been out of the private sector for so long that they've become more of a hinderance than an aide to us grunts.
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In contrast, I've seen what privatizing certain work has done in the past when the county did that....and it ended up in MASSIVELY cost over runs & poor quality work. So, even that isn't a solve all.
The bottom line is, the mayor needs to be having CLOSED DOOR conversations with the actual workers. Those at the bottom of the food chain. And listen to what they say needs to improve to make their jobs more effective.
A lot of it would have to do with modernizing a lot of 30 year old + systems which are just bogging us down.
(Steve Johnson is a heavy equipment mechanic for the City.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 38
Pub: May 8, 2015
