City Rep worried engineering dept. could be privatized
engineering department. that has one city rep worried several employees could lose their job: 05:50 factually, the department is still running. everyone is still employed. the new head of the city’s engineering department – now called capital improvements -says the hired company – is looking at how to improve the department not get rid of it. 16:40 it makes me worry but city rep lily limon is skeptical. she’s concerned the end game is to privatize the engineering department. 14:04 there are problems. but let’s fix them instead of throwing everybody out 01:06 if you have a department that the public feels has let you down on some projects, you look to see if there’s a way to help them out city rep. michiel noe says limon may be jumping the gun. 03:01 you’re adding a lot of work to a department, a tremendous amount of work. does some of it need to be outsourced? all we’re doing is how can we help them to succeed. limon wrote an open letter to the engineering department. she says it was to send a message: 15:48 of confidence and trust and belief and encouragement for employees because right now they really weren’t getting that message, because right now they were getting the message of we’re done with you, noe says he supports the department, too. but he’s concerned limon’s letter may have crossed a line: and broken a city charter rule that does not allow city reps to address job performance with individual employees. 07:07 you’re not supposed to contact the average city employee directly mainly to protect them. you’re not supposed to try to pressure them to do anything 15:26 it was an open letter. if it had been a closed letter to an individual saying you or i, then that would have been a very different story but it went out to the entire department the city manager has acknowledged a lack of leadership within the engineering department. but despite that – about 87-percent of the city’s construction projects in the last couple years have come under budget and on time or early.
