I TOLD YOU SO!!!

Now that that is out of my system and my means to do so are back, I have to say the previous budget meeting did one thing. It told the world the same thing the Apollo 13 astronauts told the world when the oxygen tank blew and that is “Houston we have a problem”.

Except the words we are uttering is “911 we are out of gas!”

But the question is why?

Management is all I have to say here.

From the department head, former city administrator, the council and mayor who paid a consultant to study our emergency services department.

Does anyone remember that?

He presented his report right around the time we got the new fire truck.

They should have listened to what he said.

The same old song and dance.

There is no paper trail.

An accounting of every employee volunteered or paid, which shows the time spent on every project, or if not a project description of what they did. Written briefly to which describes what was done.

If an employee works 8 hours then all 8 hours of what the employee did that work day can be accounted for.

This record should include equipment or vehicles used and the starting mileage or hours if available documented. Any above normal equipment or tools with a high replacement value needs to be documented as to time spent on project.

All parts or supplies used need to be documented.

Then you know what your employees are doing during the work day and you can lower liability issues should they arise.

You know that employee number ? did such and such during this portion of the day and they used this equipment for this amount of ? and used ? in parts or supplies?

Then the department head gets these records before the next work day and at some point soon signs off then submits that entire departments accounting record of this to the City Administrator.

At that point the employee and department are accountable for not only their time spent as an employee but of the city owned property, supplies and parts financially accountable to the department is safeguarded for a return on that investment.

This is called project management.

And it is called a work order system.

The same old song and dance! Which myself and others, have been screaming for over a decade now, only to insult city employees, mid management and upper management.

But we the citizens have known this for years.

Oh yes Council should have listened to that consultant.

Because by now we could have already brought renegotiation back to the table with all intergovernmental agency contracts we have to increase our revenue.

But guess what nobody listened.

Just like this city has not listened to the auditor for longer than I can remember, on the very same thing. Work orders and an accounting system. A simple piece of paper with a pre established coding system for every piece of equipment, investment item, part or supply.

In this day and age a bar coding system.

But let’s go farther.

The department head has turned his work orders over to the city administrator.

The administrator goes over the work orders and approves them then he turns them over to the City Treasurer.

The City Treasurer then records this information and records this information in the record.

If billings occur the pre established coding system accounts for work time for pay role needs.

Departmental owned equipment expenses and depreciation is documented.

Departmental Parts and supplies are documented.

All billings happen at this point.

Then the Treasurer can document the required information in the report required at the first council meeting of every month.

This is mid-management.

Then council could ask for a report from a department head, on why we are spending so much time or money on such and such.

And the department head can say because these records show (for example) we have a problem with XYZ as it is at the end of its depreciated life and we should consider getting a new XYZ to remedy that problem and take the hit now and let XYZ pay off in the long run.

This is upper management.

All, first year curriculum courses, for each management level.

And there can be no blame assigned to this council or budget committee, this administrator, treasurer present or former, this blame lays squarely on the councils shoulders before this.

Why? Because council does not have a policy for this department and every department in this city established in legislation that demands accountability in all employees.

No these former sitting councils have allowed the employees to set the policy.

It is as simple as that.

These former councils have failed us miserably!!!

Now we the people pay for a simple paper document known as a work order, a purchase order system and an inventory coding system.

All I can say is I told you so!

Cody