Wednesday, October 8, 2008
News / Clout City True waste
Posted by Mick Dumke on 10.08.08 at 03:07 PM
Here's news that may not be news to anyone: city garbage collectors sometimes loaf on the job.
An investigation by the city's Office of the Inspector General has just confirmed it, finding that sanitation crews in ten wards generally only worked about six hours of their eight-hour shifts.
Perhaps most striking about the IG's report [PDF] are the estimates of what this kind of waste across the city ends up costing taxpayers: nearly $21 million a year in wages, benefits, gas, truck maintenance, and other inefficiencies.
The report comes a week before Mayor Daley and his staff introduce the city's next budget, which will presumably include plans for coping with an estimated $420 million deficit.
At the same time, the mayor and Streets and Sanitation commissioner Michael Picardi have promised to continue the city's slow rollout of curbside recycling services after dumping the expensive and ineffective Blue Bag program earlier this year. Under current city plans the new Blue Bin program would cost millions of dollars for additional staff, trucks, and other expenses.
As with previous investigations by the IG's office, this one raises questions--never fully answered--about how and why rank-and-file workers were allowed to cheat the taxpayers. Workers report to ward superintendents, who report to higher-ups downtown and serve with the consent of the local aldermen; the people running this operation either knew this was going on or should have. As the Trib's Dan Mihalopoulos reports, the blame game's already under way.
Even aside from the loafing tax paid by Chicago residents, it's pretty clear that our waste disposal services could be provided more cheaply. Garbage trucks are staffed with three-person crews, though most other cities employ two workers per truck and many private companies just one. Trucks often return to waste transfer centers, where they dump the trash they pick up, without full loads, costing more in work hours, fuel, and wear and tear. And after initial investment, recycling should generate revenue from the sale of reusable materials and reduced landfilling bills, but in the absence of a coherent, citywide waste reduction plan Chicago's disposal costs have continued to mount.
Comments (20)
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Hey Dumke you can do better than this.I am suprised by you Mick. Why start at the bottom. Go to the 11th floor of city hall,and observe Brian McGinnis stumbing into his office at 11 am Rm 1109. This guy make $107000 because he is Daley's nephew.
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How much are the upper tiers making in the city? I see a lot of them making way above $100,000, what actual work do they do????? So workers picking up the crap make 55-65,000, so what? At least they are earning (except the slackers) their keep.
Mick Dumke uncovered the huge Hiring Scandal that the Idiot US ATTORNEY left un-finished because he was told to back off Mayor Daley. Back to subject. The only reason the IG hit the Garbage men was a favor to the Mayor and Daley won't cut the IG's Budget. Than our great Mayor will trim down the Garbage work crews. The taxpayers will love Daley for it and forget about the $400 million Daley has stolen in the first place. Laboers local 1001 will stand pat with there thumb in there ass! The best part, anyone with clout will just be moved somewhere else and the poor guy with no clout won't know what hit him! In a real world, Commissioner Picardi would be fired along with all 30 commissioners involved with Garbage collection. And the beat goes on....
Watch and learn. http://cbs2chicago.com/investigations/cps.chicago.public.2.835842.html Mick these are left wing liberals beating the kids. More lawsuits in route. Visit Chicago Clout to see a great picture of Dave Savini, he is a stud!! An Italian stallion like Dominick Longo!
When Fran Spielman broke this story first and the rest copied it, they forgot these guys are all the Alderman direct hires. What the Mell is going on here?
Lil Mick, Coconutty, as much as I hate the big mouth, stays on the subject. This McDonough is wrecking the board.He has no visitors on his stupid website, so he goes on your blog. He has got to be the biggest retard in DesPlaines. Take McDonough off this board unless he supports the subject.
From the comment section of an article posted on: http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/ "The lack of parking tickets written by police officers is being covered by Dept. of Revenue folks and privatized other units. Your so-called not doing it is still being done. They actually do a better job of it. 10/08/2008 12:07:00 AM That's nice... they can keep doing a better job of it and the citizens can hate them for it instead of us. While their at it why not just give every city employee a fucking ticket book and everyone can write each other bullshit tickets so that the alderman can give themselves another raise. 10/08/2008 11:53:00 AM"
Fire Supervisor Picardi from his job. It is clear he does not know what he is doing. If he cannot change the system of waste then he is a waste himself.
Mick, I'm a Safety Specialist with the Department of Water Management. If the IG ever checked on Commissioner Brian Kenner ,who makes $88,000.00 per year, they would find he works 2 hour per day. If they would check Commissioner Ron Pashal, who makes $89,000.00 per year, they would find he works 3 hour per day. The Water Department is a joke.Some guys in the Department work a side job on City Time.
What I want to know is did these inspectors from the Inspector Generals office put in a full days work? Were they watching these Laborers at all times? Can they prove they put in a full days work? If so how? Was anyone watching them? Could they have falsified their reports to cover for their not putting in a full days work? How much did this investigation cost the tax payers? What is the estimated return on the money the tax payers paid for this investigation? Could the tax payers money have been put to better use going after larger sources of waste rather than the working stiff who actually does something that can be counted. You can steal more with a pen than you can with a gun.
Since the conclusions of this report further the daley's agendas, it can safely be concluded that the IG is also a daley whore. All this without a single investigative effort relevant to lucrative consulting contracts, contracted legal work, the selections of which financial entities are blessed with the investment of city monies, the ongoing manipulations of the zoning authority, the real estate industry's version of insider trading, etc.... Yes, the IG is a daley whore, no doubt about it now. Shame on you, david, shame on you.
Many Building Inspectors pay library personnel to swipe they out at quiting time. Gilbert Dominguez,Jose Aparicio,joseph Barrins,joe ucho,Patrick Fahy,and Brian McGinnis can be observed leaving city hall to get drunk
Hang around any "swipe" machine that is outside of city hall and you will find inspectors,etc waiting for 4:00 to arrive---some times as long as 30 minutes. In case you sit near one and are trying to get some work done, their chatter can be deafening. I hoped the IG was going to help get some things changed but I guess no one is aboce appeasing King R. There are few DC's or Directors that put in more than a couple of hours of work in any department.
what about DC's that swipe out after an evening out, giving them extra clock hours=extra vacation time?
That orion post up above is a fake post. I would never give Coconuts a compliment
Hoffman should be brought up on charges. According to the Municipal Code, he has broken the law..... 2-56-110 Files and reports confidential – Public statements authorized when. All investigatory files and reports of the office of inspector general shall be confidential and shall not be divulged to any person or agency, except to the United States Attorney, the Illinois Attorney General or the State’s Attorney of Cook County, or as otherwise provided in this chapter. The inspector general is authorized to issue public statements concerning: (a) an investigation that exonerates an individual who is publicly known to have been under investigation, where the subject requests such a statement; and (b) an investigation that concerns inefficient or wasteful management, as opposed to individual misconduct or illegality. So, he has crossed the line. True, the misconduct is linked to inefficient and wasteful management, but that's a lawyer's quibble. And, of course, he misses the big point: The garbage is collected and moved, and STILL the guys have time on their hands. Indicates overstaffing. So now, instead of seniority-based layoffs, we have employees with targets on their backs for disciplinarydischarge -- in 10 of the 50 wards. And he doesn't mention which 10? No mention, either, of truck and transfer station capacity. Perhaps this is as good as it can get under the current system. There may be down-time built in during a shift for backups at the transfer stations. Then what do you do? Split shifts? (No, OT comes into play) Stagger start shifts? (maybe) No mention, by the way, that they conducted their investigation during the good weather months. It will take longer to collect and transfer trash in the winter due to snow, ice, reluctance of diesel equipment. etc. So, seasonal layoffs and re-hires? I can hear the answer: "That's not the IGO's function." The underlying problem, of course, is that refuse collection is organized inefficiently, based on ward maps, with 50 superintendents. Convert garbage removal to geographical zones based on ease and efficiency of collection, and the city might be able to reduce staffing, truck and fuel costs, etc. But the city council would scream. What really rankles me about all this is more than the time. The IG treated this as if it were a drug investigation: 5 months of documenting what was clearly, after 2 weeks in 20 wards, a pervasive and persistent problem, he proclaims that he watched millions of dollars being wasted. You continue such observations in criminal cases to make sure you've built as many solid felonies as you can on as many bad guys as possible. But here, why not call Picardi and say, "Commissioner, I've found a horrible problem in your department, and it's costing the city a ton of money." If you're not trying to prosecute for felonies, then cure the damn problem! Sorry. Too easy to editorialize. More and more, I'm coming to understand the wisdom of something like the Office of Compliance, and why I would like to see the IGO abolished.
Daley's Office of Compliance is a sham. I'd be shocked if they come up with anything more than trumped up violations against cloutless workers. Jackie Heard would then give Fran Spielman press releases to reprint verbatim and Daley bootlickers would eat it up.
