Helen Marshall sent this note in for us to see:
I heard today that a large part of the city government will not be working on Wednesday. Veterans Day is not a city holiday but council passed a resolution allowing departments to decide that they will observe such holidays (without taking personal vacation time). Cute, eh?
Too much at one time
According to the city’s director of the capital improvement department the city is currently working on about 160 projects.
We know that many of the projects are stalled or delayed, some for years. Have they created gridlock with such a large number of projects?
Now we have city department managers declaring holidays that are not part of the city’s holiday list.
We have to assume that there is not much of a sense of urgency when they work on the 160 projects.
Maybe we would all be better off if they took the next 160 days off so that they can rest up before they deliver their next round of excuses to us.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
That’s always been the problem with bureaucrats. They have no incentive whatsoever to get things done quickly, correctly and on budget. They get paid regardless. Just the opposite of the private sector.
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The private sector operates on the profit motive, so there is an incentive to save money and be efficient. In the city and government in general, they operate on the budget motive and the incentive is to stay within your budget, even it you have not spent all of it. Then you need to spend it before the new FY or risk losing it. I know, I was there.
Totally different worldview.
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On a side note, Brutus could just as easily gotten another email that said “Can you believe how the city dishonors our large Veteran population by allowing it to be a work day?”
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If Veterans Day should be honored by the city then Council should make that determination in public and add it to the list of holidays (which might require removing one). Letting staff take the day off if they wish is hardly the way to honor Veterans Day as a city.
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How is the public supposed to know which departments are working and which ones are closed?
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Time to clean house! Recall those elected officials that feed us BS because we are to dumb to understand or those that do things out of process and procedure. Fire all city and county managers and replace them with workers that know what needs to be done. Stop the taxpayer bleeding!
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If you work in the private sector, try telling your boss that you want to choose which days you will work.
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Can you believe those damn banks are going to be closed? Obviously they have no incentive to get things done! grin
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