Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Facts and Quotes to Go With That Last Post
A chart accompanying the Oct. 14, Picayune article cited in the previous post (no link)
Agency .................. Positions....Positions reduced .... Percent reduced
Council ..................76..............30..........................39
Mayor......................100.............34..........................35 (sic)
CAO........................159.............98..........................62
Law........................96..............49..........................51
Fire.......................777..............7...........................1
Safety & Permits...........109..............50..........................46
Police Department.........2,296.............291.........................13
Sanitation..................81..............50..........................62
Health......................333.............133.........................40
Human Services...............63..............48.........................76
Finance ....................173.............113.........................65
Property Management.........133..............55.........................41
Civil Service................37..............25.........................68
Public Works................258.............199.........................77
Recreation..................404.............384.........................95
Parkway ....................221.............120.........................54
Library ....................213.............194.........................91
HDLC .........................7...............2.........................29
Vieux Carre ..................7...............5.........................71
City Planning................24..............15.........................63
Mosquito Control ............42..............7..........................17
Museum ......................44..............34.........................77
Neighborhood 1 ..............98..............58.........................60
Workforce ....................9...............0..........................0
NHF..........................18..............10.........................56
Coroner .....................25..............13.........................52
Juvenile.....................59..............29.........................49
Municipal Court.............121..............78.........................64
Traffic Court...............166.............147.........................89
Criminal Court(state financed)1...............0..........................0
Clerk criminal court.........89..............39.........................44
French Market................42..............29.........................69
Municipal Yacht..............20..............16.........................80
Rivergate Development.........1..............0...........................0
Canal St. Development.........2..............0...........................0
Audubon Institute.............4..............0...........................0
Aviation Board................192...........75..........................39
Totals......................6,498.........2,437.........................38
Excluding Police & Fire (not in paper, a small amount of rehiring has occurred)
Totals.....................3,425.........2,139.........................62
From Friday's Picayune
That would be an 89% reduction.
From Saturday's T/P article about the potential problems caused by understaffing in the permits and planning offices:
From a July 12, 2002 Picayune editorial:
That was for the eight civil serice positions, there were similar raises for eight top Nagin aides among the three dozen other raises referred to.
From a December 2005 T/P article:
I don't recall any question of why a department that had laid off 95% of its staff still had its top two employees, working at their recently increased salaries.
Also from Saturday's article:
Francine Fialkoff of Library Journal:
Referring to the efforts to re-open theAlvar Branch of the Public Library.
Agency .................. Positions....Positions reduced .... Percent reduced
Council ..................76..............30..........................39
Mayor......................100.............34..........................35 (sic)
CAO........................159.............98..........................62
Law........................96..............49..........................51
Fire.......................777..............7...........................1
Safety & Permits...........109..............50..........................46
Police Department.........2,296.............291.........................13
Sanitation..................81..............50..........................62
Health......................333.............133.........................40
Human Services...............63..............48.........................76
Finance ....................173.............113.........................65
Property Management.........133..............55.........................41
Civil Service................37..............25.........................68
Public Works................258.............199.........................77
Recreation..................404.............384.........................95
Parkway ....................221.............120.........................54
Library ....................213.............194.........................91
HDLC .........................7...............2.........................29
Vieux Carre ..................7...............5.........................71
City Planning................24..............15.........................63
Mosquito Control ............42..............7..........................17
Museum ......................44..............34.........................77
Neighborhood 1 ..............98..............58.........................60
Workforce ....................9...............0..........................0
NHF..........................18..............10.........................56
Coroner .....................25..............13.........................52
Juvenile.....................59..............29.........................49
Municipal Court.............121..............78.........................64
Traffic Court...............166.............147.........................89
Criminal Court(state financed)1...............0..........................0
Clerk criminal court.........89..............39.........................44
French Market................42..............29.........................69
Municipal Yacht..............20..............16.........................80
Rivergate Development.........1..............0...........................0
Canal St. Development.........2..............0...........................0
Audubon Institute.............4..............0...........................0
Aviation Board................192...........75..........................39
Totals......................6,498.........2,437.........................38
Excluding Police & Fire (not in paper, a small amount of rehiring has occurred)
Totals.....................3,425.........2,139.........................62
From Friday's Picayune
The Public Works Department has had its staff slashed to 86 from more than 340 five years ago. The street maintenance staff is down to 14 from 129.
That would be an 89% reduction.
From Saturday's T/P article about the potential problems caused by understaffing in the permits and planning offices:
Unless the New Orleans City Council authorizes more employees for the City Planning Commission and Safety and Permits Department, delays in the planning review process could force developers to scrap billions of dollars worth of projects, potentially dealing a blow to the city's recovery, a group of prominent business people told council members this week.
Problems could be averted and billions of dollars in investment salvaged if the council were to vote to spend several hundred thousand dollars to fill salaried positions left vacant after the city laid off 3,000 workers in the wake of Katrina, business leaders said.
From a July 12, 2002 Picayune editorial:
When Mayor Nagin proposed substantial raises for nearly three dozen high-level positions in city government, it was only a matter of time before other city workers began pushing for higher salaries as well...
The commission, which oversees conditions of employment within the city's civil service system, recently approved a plan to raise the base pay for eight top civil-service positions by 53 to 77 percent. The positions in question include the deputy director of the New Orleans Museum of Art, the director and assistant director of mosquito, termite and rodent control and the personnel director. In practice, the plan would cost the city about $440,000 per year.
That was for the eight civil serice positions, there were similar raises for eight top Nagin aides among the three dozen other raises referred to.
From a December 2005 T/P article:
The resignation of Recreation Department Director Charlene Braud comes as less of a surprise. Braud evacuated from the city and has been unable to return because of personal circumstances, Nagin said. Braud has been replaced by Deputy Director Lora Johnson on an interim basis, Nagin said, but she will oversee a department that already has lost 90 percent of its staff to layoffs.
I don't recall any question of why a department that had laid off 95% of its staff still had its top two employees, working at their recently increased salaries.
Also from Saturday's article:
Brenda Hatfield, chief administrative officer to Mayor Ray Nagin, said the city has placed a priority on public safety, sanitation and street repairs. But she said Nagin has asked her to review staffing levels at the planning commission.
Council President Oliver Thomas asked Hatfield to draw up a budget for the addition of staff to City Hall departments that generate revenue or spur economic development. That list, he said, could help officials persuade state and federal agencies to assist the city in nontraditional ways, such as reimbursing certain salaries.
"If you can prove through these (staffing) deficiencies that we are losing billions of dollars of investment, maybe we can get some policy waivers or some amendments," he said.
Council Vice President Arnie Fielkow pledged to join other local governments and corporate groups to lobby for a one-year extension, to 2009, of the qualifying deadline for certain tax incentives available through the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act.
Francine Fialkoff of Library Journal:
If we'd have waited for FEMA, we'd be waiting and waiting. An opening day collection takes nine months to a year. They pulled it off in three months."
Referring to the efforts to re-open theAlvar Branch of the Public Library.
Comments:
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Nice numbers checking.
This line tells it all:
"A small amount of money in pay is holding up billions of dollars for our city."
It's one of the biggest disappointments of mine that, having quit working for the city because it didn't pay the bills, that the 30-plus-year-old job descriptions *and pay scales* have never been updated to the 21st century (or even the latter 20th century).
Fire the people who can't or *won't* be retrained -- fine (however cruel) -- or have them clean neutral grounds and debris piles -- and free up resources to hire the people needed to modernize the city's services. But don't just fire people and let the city die.
It's a total disgrace.
This line tells it all:
"A small amount of money in pay is holding up billions of dollars for our city."
It's one of the biggest disappointments of mine that, having quit working for the city because it didn't pay the bills, that the 30-plus-year-old job descriptions *and pay scales* have never been updated to the 21st century (or even the latter 20th century).
Fire the people who can't or *won't* be retrained -- fine (however cruel) -- or have them clean neutral grounds and debris piles -- and free up resources to hire the people needed to modernize the city's services. But don't just fire people and let the city die.
It's a total disgrace.
In the last 5 years (or longer), there's been one 5% pay raise for the workforce as a whole, but large pay increases for the top 2 or 3 people (or more) in every department. In some cases, those raises at the top brought them in line with what other supervisors made for similar size departments, in some cases it went beyond that. In any event, it failed to attract and keep high quality people. Now that those departments have shrunk, it's ridiculous to keep the same upper level salary structure. My old department, didn't even have the number 2 position until a couple of years ago and it still has a PR person. I'm not saying to get rid of all the those people, just offer them a lower rank and less money. But despite what Nagin says about having made the tough cuts, it's a lot harder to fire or even demote a few dozen people than it is to pink slip hundreds.
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