Thursday, January 29, 2015

More on "Manager Motors"


The city's vehicle fleet is worth $7.1 million and employees earning a total of $322,000 are monitoring it.

"We need to centralize this," Personnel Director Karen Dabney told the City Council Monday.

After more from Dabney and other city officials, ordinances that would put one person in charge at a starting salary of $70,887 passed on first reading and the public will have a say before final passage next month.

Dabney said there are a number of vehicles that should have been sold at auction, some dating back to 1977 and still under insurance coverage. Another problem is verifying who was at the wheel of a vehicle in an accident or one that may have 'blown through" EZPass, she said.

Public Works Director Eric Watson backed Dabney up on the need for an inventory and a way to know "who's using what." He said the condition of vehicles must be determined for trade-ins and also in case of a "lemon," for which he used the example of a $1 million fire engine.

Watson said when he headed the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority, he found there were "certain people who always damaged trucks." Noting the state has a central motor pool, he called it "an economic situation."

Mayor Adrian O. Mapp said highly paid public safety staff should not be doing vehicle maintenance.

Giving fleet management to one person, he said, "will more than pay for itself."

Police Director Carl Riley joined the discussion, saying there were 50 vehicles in the police fleet that are over 20 years old. He said a lieutenant is assigned to support services and, along with two mechanics from city yard, came up with a preventive maintenance plan. He pointed out that the city recently acquired surplus military vehicles as well and said he would rather have the lieutenant work on public safety and let a civilian manage the fleet.

Riley also heads the Department of Public Affairs & Safety, which includes the Fire Division. He said a similar situation exists there, with a truck down and a lieutenant spending time getting quotes to replace it.

Among council quotes, Councilwomen Diane Toliver and Tracey Brown asked whether the manager position could just be part-time. Council President Bridget Rivers suggested that secretaries in the different departments could add fleet management to their tasks. Councilman Cory Storch said he was not against the proposal, but didn't think the administration had "done its homework." He had asked for the number of vehicles involved, among other things.

Storch and Rivers voted "no," but the ordinance passed on first reading with Toliver, Brown, Rebecca Williams and Gloria Taylor voting "yes."

The public can speak on the ordinances at the Feb. 2 agenda-fixing session and at a public hearing before the final vote on February 9.

--Bernice

4 comments:

  1. The questions asked regarding this issue, to me, validates that we have a council that knows nothing of business management.

    Can secretaries manage the fleet? No, they cannot. It takes a different set of skills for both. And secretaries should not be handling budgets, which should be part of this position. Can the job be part time? Perhaps - but that question cannot be answered until more facts are revealed, like how many hours do people spend on this function currently?

    Ignorance on a subject is not a bad thing. We all cannot be experts on everything. The lack of educating oneself regarding issues shows ignorance, in my humble opinion. Toliver just joined, so I understand she needs to get up to speed. Hopefully, she will educate herself on how businesses are run. The others should be better educated.

    The questions to ask would be in the order of what is the responsibility of this person? How will we track and know about the money that is recouped? Can one of the people already performing this duty be assigned solely to the fleet? Not, can someone else with no skills that translate do this job.

    Come one people - you took the job, now do your job.

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  2. I think the City Council should have at least one or more training sessions on how successful businesses are fun and how the various departments and their managers are chosen and assessed. They also need to understand the decision making process. If they had this training they could serve the people of Plainfield better. My students train for entry level accounting positions and I could imagine sending them out into the business world without a basic understanding of how viable and successful businesses are organized.

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  3. Why is it the bloggers are smarter than some of the people on the City Council? Why don't the people with the knowledge of handling budgets, contracts etc. run for
    these positions. The Puppet Master can be beaten with
    candidates that can aggressively promote their management skills. It will take a serious grass roots effort, but it can be done. Also, why doesn't the City Council seek advice from people in the know. As stated before, everyone does not know everything. Back to earth I go��

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  4. JUST ANOTHER ONE OF MAPPS FLUNKIES HE WANTS TO GIVE A JOB TOO.

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