In the winter city workers plow when there's no snow.
It's fun for all of us to observe and contemplate this fact.
So what do they do attain that same level of dramatic absurdity in the summer?
They water shrubs in the pouring rain. Video shot in the Village (eastern Ville Marie if you like) by the ever alert Ron Harris on June 10, 8:10 p.m.
Presumably city workers must fulfill their daily shift duties regardless of weather conditions, otherwise they could be fired despite the absurdity of the situation. Pulling over, parking, or doing nothing is not an option, nor would be returning to the municipal garage without authorization.
ReplyDeleteOn rare occasions in the springtime I have seen snowblowers cleaning up miniscule amounts of slush from the curb when it obviously would have melted anyway.
City vehicles are dispatched by radio following reports by the public concerning leaking/broken water mains, defective traffic lights, fallen branches, potholes, etc.
A supervisor once told me that if the city receives several calls from different residents about the same fallen branch, they may redundantly send more teams than necessary to deal with it. If that is true, then efficiency experts are needed, otherwise I suspect that such "redundancy" may be deliberate due to long-standing, ongoing disputes with workers' unions and the city.
In parks I routinely seen city trucks with their work crews idle, ignoring broken fences, trash piles, and graffiti which they should be dealing with on the spot.
Dispatching equipment by radio to deal with broken water mains, malfunctioning lights, etc., ought to be no more complicated than sending a taxi to whomever is calling for it. One taxi per call please!
Since we are talking about unionized municipal employees I would normally be the first to point and laugh at this. However, maybe it makes sense? I have watched these guys in my neighborhood. They give the trees and shrubs a thorough soaking down at the base where the roots are. They pour maybe 40-50 gallons of water at the base of each tree. A tree (probably?) wouldn't get that much water from even a serious rain storm. Rain in the city washes across pavement to gutters, is channeled to storm drains and out to the river. The tree only has that 1 square meter of exposed dirt to catch water.
ReplyDeleteLately I am also noticing how the city is currently replacing playground equipment which really has only been in use for a relatively short time, as compared to how our swings and slides, etc. used to endure for decades. Why are they now purchasing cheap, shoddy junk having only a short life span?
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, the city crews completely remove all the older equipment from the playground, then fence off the area for weeks or months thus leaving absolutely nothing for the kids to play on until the replacement apparatus eventually arrives.
How dumb is that? Why can't they have the new, presumably pre-ordered equipment onsite and ready to install immediately before clearing the old stuff away so that the children won't have to wait so long?
This ridiculous "planning" is identical to many street infrastructure repair sites which are suddenly left unfinished and abandoned until the "back ordered" parts arrive much later. At any rate, that is the excuse given to the public and to hapless homes and businesses to whom access is sometimes blocked because of the delays.
Dare I suspect that all of this backwardness and incompetence be due to "union rules" or some other nebulous work-to-order procedure whereby one crew is not allowed to interfere with another or some similar archaic bureaucracy? The explanations given to the media are usually lame.
If private businesses operated like this, they'd be a laughing stock.
It would be enlightening if savvy people within the city ranks would come forward and blow the whistle right here in this blog, exposing more of the nonsense going on behind the scenes.
The ongoing anti-corruption commission seems to have only scratched the surface while shady characters presumably continue to siphon off taxpayers' money.
Here's my take. Demanding efficiency and perfection Quebec's public service conflicts with Quebec's refusal to hold individuals accountable for their actions.
ReplyDeleteQuebec can't lay individual blame on public service inefficiency and imperfection because we are collectively responsible. It takes a village to raise an individual. Immediate family, friends, neighbours, day care workers, teachers, etc...are all collectively responsible in raising the individual.
Therefore, criticizing public service inefficiency and imperfection is futile because we are in essence criticizing ourselves.
Attempts at improving inefficiency and imperfection in the public service is also futile because it would entail holding an individual(s) accountable.
Yes, certainly contracted employees should be held to account.
ReplyDeleteWhen tenders calling for contractor bids are published, then the rules of the successfully obtained contract must be fulfilled, otherwise such a contract means nothing.
Some contracts even include penalties for non-fulfillment to prevent cost overruns and/or shoddy, unsafe workmanship.
Why should the taxpayer expect less?