Neighborhood Department gets S L A M M E D at council meeting

[sheclown]

watch it

http://www.coj.net/city-council/city-council-meetings-online/2013-council-video-archive.aspx

starts at 4:31

Denise Lee tells us all that Terrance L. Ashanta-Barker is not to be trusted with money --

She along with Dr. Gaffney wants to move code enforcement to the Public Works Department.

Looks like Bishop and Lee will co-sponsor a bill that will move MCCD to Public Works.

[edjax]

It was fun to watch.  Ms. Lee was relentless.  And she was getting support from Gulliford to completely review the department. 

[fieldafm]

What's really sad about a lot of COJ departments, is that new ordinances aren't necessarily needed to fix them... it's just the internal policies of some 'leaders' that cause a lot of problems.  They should be facilitators, not gatekeepers. 

I would literally pay a day's salary for some particular department heads to spend an entire working day with a guy like Tim Cost at JU. 

[edjax]

Or more importantly there is no leadership.  Lee was livid that the Director of Neighborhoods was not even present for the budget meetings.  As there were many questions of this department and nobody present to answer the questions.  So usually you got Ms. Scott. 

[sheclown]

Currently in the Neighborhood Department:


    Animal Care & Protective Services
    Environmental Quality
    Housing and Community Development
    Mosquito Control
    Municipal Code Compliance

Currently in Public Works

The Engineering and Construction Management Division handles planning and engineering of public works projects.

The Right of Way and Grounds Maintenance Division maintains streets, traffic control devices and landscaping on city-owned property.   This division also coordinates temporary road closure permits for small events.

The Real Estate Division manages city-owned real property.

The Public Buildings Division oversees public buildings and lands.

The Solid Waste Division

[Dog Walker]

it's all about the quality of the leadership of each department, not about where a particular agency is located.  I guess since the Council can't do anything about who runs a department, moving agencies is the best they can do. 

Weak leadership is a major failing of the Brown administration starting with him.  Council had to step in and do his job with the budget and now with personnel matters.  Sad.

[strider]

It is not only the Division Chief at issue, but in the case of Neighborhoods, and specifically Code Compliance, you also need to look closely at the department heads. They are also serving at the pleasure of the Mayor so how do you get the department to improve just by moving it?  Hope the other Division Chief has the juice with the Mayor to get new department heads?

I think in many case, the ordinances that control how the departments are run, how much power the Chiefs have and what they are allowed to do need changed because as it is, we can get a new Division Chief or Department Chief and end up worse off than we are now. And that thought should scare all of us.

And there has to be some mechanism to make the various Chiefs accountable for what they do or don't do and that does not exist in this city today.

[Cheshire Cat]

Exactly Strider.  As it is department heads are all answerable to the Mayor, not the council.  There are also issues with regard to Civil Service positions and the processes for dismissal.  There really is no protocol for "accountability" which has always been a problem.  I can tell you the mayor will not fire his appointee to "Neighborhoods".  The attempt to move the program to Public Works is actually a political power struggle, nothing more and the move will not facilitate any real changes.

[sheclown]

Until today, I did not realize that the Neighborhood Department held both arms of the NSP money.  I didn't realize that code enforcement and community development were under the same department head.  This does not look good for the Debacle of East 2nd Street. 

A rudderless ship on a swelling sea of millions in federal money -- 

You can't tear it down, using federal funds, call it an emergency, when across the hall, and under the same leadership, your associates are spending the same pot of money to build it up calling it a worthy project.

And no one, not the demolisher nor the builders are doing the REQUIRED section 106 reviews.