Life in city government
It's cushy, according to this author:
The time I spent not working that summer enabled me to observe others not working. The engineering department of Livingston had three full-time civil engineers. There wasn’t enough actual work to keep even one busy. We surveyed land that had already been surveyed. We observed a road construction project and some housing construction. Very little of what any of us did had any practical purpose.The water department was slightly more productive. Every morning the water department van would go out to fix broken water mains. Most of the time there were none to fix, so this crew of about a half dozen men would be "on call." How often did water mains break? Once every month or two. How long did it take them to fix a broken main? Two or three days. Do the math and it is obvious that these men were paid to do nothing most of the time. What did they do? They would hang around the local parks, the Livingston Mall, the Donut Basket, or somewhere else.
But that was in New Jersey. Nothing like that could happen in Oregon. So you Oregonians, go back to your corn flakes.
| Posted at 6:45 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (6)
ah yes, No Show jobs, east coast style. They should get a reality TV show.
Posted by mcinor | November 14, 2012 6:57 AM
Well, not to circle back, but we've had this ongoing discussion about raising taxes and I've yet to find an example of serious cost-cutting at any level of govt. I understand we have fixed costs (senior prescriptions, welfare, unemployment, etc.), but when I read things like the EPA getting 30% budget increases and we can always find money for PERS contributions, trains and developer handouts, I've got to wonder about how much effort has been made to increase efficiency of govt.
Heck, I'd support a tax if they did a $1 increase for each $1 budget reduction. I'm not expecting Greece, but its a lot easier to do when you don't get your hand forced like with sequestration.
Posted by Steve | November 14, 2012 7:51 AM
The planning bureaucrats and all of the consultants, facilitators, cronies, politicians and other nonessential busy people are much the same but they are good at pretending they are doing something needed.
The near $10 million in gas tax dollars being spent "planning" the Southwest Corridor that no one asked for, voted for or needs is exhibit A.
This arena produces busy work like none other and it involves an enormous heap of useless stuff all aimed at imposing what voters would never approve.
It's all very repulsive.
Posted by Flush it | November 14, 2012 8:57 AM
"ah yes, No Show jobs, east coast style."
New around here, mcinor? East coast?
Did you miss the post of photos of that intersection where a bunch of people stand around looking at one guy working on bricks? Or the CRC planning? or any planning for that matter?
Plenty of examples of waste work & no show jobs right here on the Left coast.
Posted by Harry | November 14, 2012 11:25 AM
Planning and planning and never giving our city or the people a rest from the intrusions and chaos is not healthy. There needs to some measure of stability, isn't that why some codes were in place in the first place? But some like Hales liked changing those codes and now he is back. Code Language Improvement Projects they were called!! Isn't using the word "improvement" clever?
Posted by clinamen | November 14, 2012 11:27 AM
Well, every summer while in HS and college I worked for the city I grew up in in New England---for the school department---as a maintenance worker cutting grass and doing general upkeep at all the schools in the city. Admittedly, I got the job because my father was the city manager---all the students working on the crew had a connection of some sort.
Other than the older guy who ran the department---an extremely hard-working individual, virtually all the other city workers, in different departments, were some of the laziest and entitled individuals imaginable. Despite the fact that they were paid pretty well, with great benefits, and no real pressure to work all that hard, the bitching and endless whining was legendary. It's pretty much the same everywhere, I'd guess.
Posted by Jason | November 14, 2012 9:30 PM