The Snow Games
Who was it that made the call to only sand city streets on January 4th and 5th of this year during a heavy snow fall?
We got a bit of an inside look at the matter at this week’s council meeting and what we heard is frightening.
Bill Gaal told council that “we were under ‘intense’ contract negotiations and it was my call to only sand the streets in the city.” It was, according to the report, Gaal who made the call not to send out the equipment that weekend, in anticipation of a full scale strike.
Let’s get this straight, so we risked public safety because we what? Wanted to make the union outside workers look bad, so that the public might come on side with the city administration on the matter of negotiations? The city, Mayor and City Manager included had already posted the results of a poll that suggested wages weren’t a big priority in the city. Was this just another move to make the union look bad at the expense of the city residents, who were forced to travel on streets and sidewalks in what can only be described as deplorable conditions?
We residents need to look further into this latest revelation to see who actually made the call to let the residents face the music and was there any consideration of the eventual cost ever factored in?
There was plenty of private equipment available, and that, along with the city equipment, should have been sufficient. In an earlier report to council Gaal said only one grader was not available, because the operator was attending a family death. Why the difference in stories now?
It appears from the surface that the outside workers were being used as pawns in an effort to win public support, all be it at the expense of the safety of city residents.
Councillors and the Mayor are elected to “represent” the interest of the public. That is very suspect in this instance.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man opinion.
Comments
Does PG even have a functioning municipal government????? Why has council chambers not exploded given what has gone on there this year?
Soooo … here we have a clown bully who, by his blundering actions and seemingly nefarious decisions, puts my family living in your city at considerable unnecessary risk.
What a waste.
I can think of only one possible response and reaction to this incompetence.
V.
If you were a high paid city manager nearing retirement, wouldn’t you want to be fired ?
Walk away with a pile of money as a parting gift. Certainly wouldn’t be the first, second or third time for that.
Lots of things come to play in the snow removal fiasco, however at the end of the day the word incompetency comes to mind.
Its almost as if these people never worked for a City before, especially a Winter City. They seem to out of touch with reality.
The Citizens of Prince George need to ensure that we get a full accounting of what the hell went wrong at the City.
The three main figures from management in this process would be Gaal, the high priced labour negotiator from Vancouver, and of course the Mayor.
There is no doubt people were put at risk by the abysmal snow removal in December and January, and this cannot be allowed. It certainly was not a result of equipment failure, or money, so that leaves Management.
Lets get some answers.
Sooo, more of you are coming around to the conclusion that management is the problem? Nice to see. Now, if the city doesn’t do something about it, perhaps we as citizens should demand in the strongest ways possible, to have these incompetents removed. We deserve much better and if the city manager or the mayor won’t do it, then they should be relieved of their positions immediately also.
The snow “post-mortem” should have been a PM to a career for Mr. G.
Part of the problem with snow operations is that Mr. J and Mr. G have been trying to figure out how to run the operation from the top down, instead of listening to the experienced people that are still on staff.
The new snow report is almost a carbon copy of the snow removal that George Paul help to generate back in the mid 90’s
Bill leave things that count to those who know the job.
Could the public possibly start a petition to get this incompetent man removed??? I’m sure a lot of citizens would sign it, Including myself.
The strategy of the last 3 mayors has been this:
Make sure you surround yourself with stupidity and incompetence so you can hide behind it.
The number one no-no in politics is to hire people who are more competent than you and may make you look bad. Make sure to pay them enough so they will stick around and take the blame knowing full well in the end, they can just walk away from the problem, usually with a nice fat severance check. If I could have pushed my conscience and self respect down far enough I too would have picked politics as a career.
The only thing I can think of that might be why he did what he did, is if they sent the equipment out when the union was in a strike position, the union could have called the strike and the workers might have abandoned their equipment where it was, so they didn’t want to risk that. Although, I thought snow removal was an essential service so can’t see how that was the issue. You think someone in the council would have asked the question – “and what did the threat of a strike matter?”
Gaal, Green ever hear of the internet? What ever you say does not go away. You cannot change your story down the unplowed road.
“You think someone in the council would have asked the question – “and what did the threat of a strike matter?””
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One would think, yes. Of course, that is based on the assumption that their brain synapses were functioning properly.
As an aside, if you can send crews out to sand the streets, why can’t you send crews out to clear the streets??????
Was there not a work to rule? I know personally of 4 operators that worked overtime and they were exhausted.
There was also an essential service order for snow removal was there not?
Beth James also has said on more than one occasion that everything needs to be passed onto her desk did she not? This would include any media releases, what is brought forward to council such as recommendations etc.
So why the dickens has no one been questioning her accountability?
It is time to get rid of this old boys club in administration including departments like planning and bylaws. How many thousands has this city spent on legal fees because of incompetent administration?
guesswhat wrote: “Was there not a work to rule?”
The more often people say that or write it the more I believe that those people must think that working to rule does not include the activity of clearing snow. In other words, the normal work rule is to do anything but clear snow.
So why is sanding not covered under “work to rule” action or inaction?
Must be that sanding is included in the rules under which people work.
Under work rules:
1. you sand
2. you drive
3. you check out the vehicle.
Nowhere in the work rules does it say that “you plow snow and remove snow”.
I understand the Guy Gusdahl has left on his own.
It is my understanding “work to rule” is not working any over time. Employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their contract. With this they follow safety and other regulations to a tee.
‘Work to rule’ has a perfectly well-known meaning, namely, ‘Give the rules a meaning which no reasonable man could give them and work to that.’
Perhaps Administration needs a training course in their contract agreement……
If it the norm that city workers have lots of overtime than perhaps this city is costing us more than it should. Would be interesting to see some figures of how much overtime was and is involved with the snow removal…..
Comment Posted by: JohnnyBelt on February 25 2014 11:26 PM
Dragon: “They didn’t work overtime, so whats the problem JB? “
Not really. Skakun said on the CBC this morning they shut down snow removal operations _completely_ the weekend of Jan. 4th and 5th when a big snowfall occurred. Hmm… when else did they shut things down to grease the wheels of negotiation?
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No, actually it was Gaal that shut down the snow removal, not the union. The union did their job.
“There was also an essential service order for snow removal was there not?”
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And they did their job. Overtime isn’t covered as an essential service.
Gusdahl is gone Gus? We are blessed if that is true.
Dragon: “No, actually it was Gaal that shut down the snow removal, not the union. The union did their job.”
In other words, they did it poorly on purpose. And I haven’t seen much improvement since then.
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