Is She Kidding Me? (Rhetorical) & REALLY?
Greg,
Please see the note and response below. All I can say is “REALLY?” I can’t believe we use public works not noticing a problem as an excuse, as we have too many eyes in all our departments who drive through the entire city.
Despite turnover in the ranks, we need to do a better job as a city being proactive. This didn’t require a public works employ on the clock to drive by, notice it, and address it.
Our culture needs to be proactive. I would like to see a culture where Public Works is inviting of a call or email from any employee in any department at anytime who notices things that need addressed! We have lots of employees who care greatly when they see issues and they need to know that what they see will get fixed promptly. Our response time has to improve!
I see we also have a complaint from Mr. Joseph Carbone this morning stating that he has called public works three times to get help with the broken sidewalk problem. Without verifying the validity, I also know that this is not nearly the first time I have seen items in the read file that state that there have been multilple requests to Public Works for help. This has to improve!
Don
Don Burnette, mba
Vice Mayor, City of Port Orange
“Celebrating our Centenial, 100 years of Port Orange!”
________________________________
From: scott@tuffturflandscaping.com [scott@tuffturflandscaping.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2014 1:27 PM
To: Burnette, Don
Subject: [Fwd: Sign Down]
Don,
Check out Mary’s reply below. Is she kidding me? (Rhetorical) I can’t believe that she would suggest that we dont have City employees driving through the Taylor Rd. / Yorktown area. We better! Can you imagine if no Police, Fire, Code Enforcement, Public Works, Public Utilities, Parks and Rec, Community Development Employees, etc . . . were never driving through this area? How scary would that be?
She clearly missed the entire point I was trying to make. The City should not be waiting for citizens to call in problems and act in a completely re-active mode. That is how we end up looking just like some cities I know north of us. Everyone of the hundreds of City employees have a duty to pro-actively identify problems and get the ball rolling towards a solution before citizens should have to stop forward to do that. It had been like that for years and always worked. Not sure why they mind set is gone!
There is a major fundamental disconnect with our PW Director if this is her true stance towards quality of life and service in the CIty. Thus far my opinion is that she is a horrible fit for our City and just doesn’t get it, and never will! Perhaps that is because she is not a resident of our great City! Boy, sure makes me miss Warren Pike! Even with his past faults, things were A LOT BETTER in that department!
Scott
—————————- Original Message —————————-
Subject: Sign Down
From: “Anderson, Mary” <mjanderson@port-orange.org>
Date: Thu, January 16, 2014 10:55 am
To: “scott@tuffturflandscaping.com” <scott@tuffturflandscaping.com>
Cc: “Rivera, Cynthia” <CRivera@port-orange.org>
————————————————————————–
Good morning, Scott,
The sign in question is a County sign. Public Works reported this to the County today once your message was received. I cannot respond as to the County’s level of inspection on its roads. The recent reconfiguration of Taylor/Yorktowne/Dunlawton has likely changed travel patterns for many – I can’t think of too many reasons that City employees from any department would be headed along that route. At any rate, when you see these kinds of signs down at any location, please feel free to report it to Public Works and we’ll be happy to follow up with the appropriate agency or repair signs that are ours.
Thank you!
Regards,
Mary
Mary J. Anderson, PWLF
Public Works Director
City of Port Orange
mjanderson@port-orange.org<mailto:mjanderson@port-orange.org>
386-506-5590