01/24/03   Thoughts from a City Hall Insider

Re:  Oh, Tommy!  Is Tom Hicks watching American Airlines pending bankruptcy?

Thanks for the background information.  I had NO IDEA it was as bad as all that!  I know that Laura Miller and Mitchell Razansky still think that the City should be run more like a business, but PLEASE ... Look at the corporate examples we have in the country and especially in the region!

I agree we need a major re-tooling here at City Hall, but so far, all of the discussions have taken place without the most important players at the table -- THE EMPLOYEES!

What are they thinking!?

Believe it or not, we do have degrees and experience and we know how to make most of the problems go away.  The politics that get in the way or which dilute what we do put on the table are the real problem.

Many employees are "beat down" by the system because poor performance is not punished and good performance is not respected or rewarded.  In 99% of cases, all we want is for the Council and Manager to follow our staff recommendations because they are RIGHT!  

For instance, speed bumps are a bad idea.  Enforcement and ticketing of speeders by our highly paid police is the right answer.  Hitting the offenders in the pocketbook and making the police EARN their pay is the way to do this.  And the famous bottom
line is that the City gets revenue from the tickets written, citizens SEE we are listening, speeders slow down and we avoid the EXPENSE of building all of those speed bumps.

Unfortunately, YOU are one of the few people who actually "get it" and YOU are not in office (yet).

The same thing applies to issues like sick time abuse -- go after the 6 people and their supervisors NOT the 99.99% who are doing what we are supposed to do.  And if you are going to mention things, why leave out that over 20% (over 3,600 employees!) used NO sick leave at all! 

But, don't get me started.

Thanks again for DallasArena.com and for getting the truth out.  Heaven knows the "DMN" and other media in the area are asleep at the wheel. 

If the media did their jobs, there would be no need for you (and me).

Take care and good luck!