Treat employees fairly — and don’t order another audit
To the editor:
Upon attending the Cape Coral City Council Meeting on Monday Jan. 31 I feel compelled to address a few of the topics discussed.
One such topic of concern as I have stressed in previous meetings is the continued tendency of some our elected council members to make negative comments about city staff and city employees. Our elected officials should remain open minded on all items regarding alleged allegations of wrong doing until the incident has been fully investigated and they have had due process. This has not happened with the police officers who allegedly owed money to the city and again regarding the employees who were allegedly violating a policy of taking a city vehicle outside the city limits.
The latest allegation involved the act by city employees going to Popeye’s Chicken for lunch which is outside the city limits on Pine Island Road. As I understand it they had been working in the area and Popeye’s Chicken is about 130 feet outside the city limit. Had they parked the vehicles on the south side of Pine Island Road the vehicles would have been parked within the city limits. But do we really want to fire someone for daring to go 130 feet outside the city limit for lunch? Some of you might say yes. If you do, consider this. If a city employee drives on Veterans from just North of Chiquita to about Burnt Store, they will be leaving the city limits and pass through unincorporated Lee County while driving on Veterans. Another violation? Fire them? There are other such geographical circumstances in the city. Is the answer to have them drive around all of these impediments? The point here is to wait until someone determines what happened before you convict them in the press, city council meeting or threaten them with termination. I am not opposed to discipline when justified, I am just in favor of fairness for our public servants who I think to a great job for us.
Prior to any comment by me, Councilmember McClain addressed the subject as to how our city employees are treated and the unnecessary comments made by some council members. This prompted Mr. Deile to make yet another negative comment about the employees and suggest that, if it were up to him, they would be digging swales in another city. I took that to mean he had already judged them and his mind was made up. I guess he would fire them as he would the police officers, before they were afforded due process.
Mayor Sullivan’s proposal to have yet another audit of MWH was the main reason I wanted to address the city council. It seems to me that some of the city council has personalized this issue, want some retribution and are on some kind of mission with regard to MWH. This is unfortunately at mine and other taxpayers’ expense.
The mayor’s proposal starts out with the fact that “some residents” feel we need to have another audit and he agrees. In his comments from the dais, he stated that is what he campaigned on and he wants to keep that promise because that is why people voted for him. It was Councilmember Leetz who brought up the fact that the campaign promise was to complete the audit that was started not yet another one. There are residents like me who agree with that.
The mayor also commented that he saw foreign workers at the MWH work sites which I am still trying to figure out. What does a “foreign worker” look like to the mayor ? It is my understanding that the projects had been bid, therefore sub-contractors completed the work. Further, it is my understanding of employment law that neither MWH nor their sub-contractors can discriminate as to qualified employees.
The mayor and his supporters seem to want to spend taxpayer money we don’t have and roll the dice on getting unknown amounts of money back. Some very impressive figures were thrown around on what we MIGHT recover IF we are successful. The mayor estimated the audit would cost about $180,000. When the question was asked, do we have the money or where will it come from, the UEP fund and the general fund was referenced. So, take it from the UEP and raise our water rates again to cover it? Pay this out of the general fund and raise our millage rate again to cover it?
We, as taxpayers, will have to cover the cost of the city defending itself against the lawsuit that the mayor and Mr. Deile have filed. That is somewhere above $60,000 as I have heard. When the settlement issue came up about this, one council person asked what exactly would we gain or what would change if we agreed to pay the mayor and Mr. Deile. The answer from the city attorney was the same as I think it will be with this audit, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. What we do get is yet more debt.
The bottom line here is, just like those of us who bought houses and paid what we now believe to be too much, the city signed a contract and paid what the contract called for. Did we pay too much? I get it. Nothing will be served by rolling the dice except more taxpayer money thrown out the window.
MWH is a giant corporation. They likely pay more in retainer fees for legal advice than our city budget. They will also get a forensic auditor, and they will take our audit apart piece by piece and debate every discrepancy we find. They will make motion after motion in court, drag this on and drive the legal fees and city staff time way beyond the estimates of the mayor.
I voted in an election to have my taxes (millage rate) reduced and get the tax burden off my back not add to it. Let’s not roll the dice to satisfy the goal of some on the council to somehow make MWH pay for some unknown contractual errors in judgment. Let us not keep digging a giant hole in the budget over the past.
John Miehle
Cape Coral