The Making of a Deputy. 4

Below you will see a legal opinion put on the agenda at Tuesdays council meeting to determine if the City Clerk had the right to appoint, swear in and give a pay raise to employees in his office during his absents. From what I’m reading there is already provisions for this sort of thing an agreement made between HR department and the union to handle just this very thing. The Clerk is aware of this because it was done in the past when he was gone for a couple of days.
Yes a few weeks is longer than a few days, but if there’s already been provisions made why was this done by the clerk? Who asked for this legal opinion? Corporation counsel doesn’t do this on his own either the mayor or council asked for it. Why? The mayor should know all about the understanding with the union and HR.
Its no secret the clerk wants a deputy clerk he tried to make council secretary the deputy clerk when he was first elected. At that time I wrote that he can’t just pick whom ever he pleases there is civil service testing to do and a panel that choose three names that the clerk can pick from. It was wrong when he tried to do it then and it’s wrong now. Frankly the understanding between the union, HR department and the clerk is wrong.

I’d like to think that all that needed to be done here was someone to go to the city charter and read it. Clearly that’s what corporation counsel did when writing this opinion. I would think the council could make what he did null and void and instruct the clerks office that they would be working under the agreement already in place. Sorry to say, but what do you expect to happen when one elected official(the mayor) in the past plays fast and loss with the city charter then all feel they have the right to.
When you go into a surgery with a cleaver instead of a scalpel it’s not going to be a pretty operation. Same thing was done in the city – cuts made with a cleaver instead of a scalpel. Very little thought given to the ( what if ) when things were cut just hack and chop away.

The Mayors Lost Luster 11

The mayor at council meeting June 11 2013 had much to say about the new ordinance department. For those of you who’ve watched it I hope you realize first and foremost 90% of what he’s telling all of us about this just isn’t so.

Mayor states that the reorganized department has more ordinance officers. Simply not true there has always been 2 full time and 2 part time.

Mayor states that he now has people in charge of handling complaints from the website and encourages residents to make use of this to file a complaint. Yes co that if you want nothing to happen. Around 3 weeks ago I had a council member point blank tell me that no one in the city even goes to that page to see complaints filed. Not to mention the fact that many residents who’ve tried to file something on the city’s website simply can not.

He talked about Vector control saying that he’s talking with the city of Dearborn whom offered to train our people for free including ride alongside since last year. Last report on that is no one from Dearborn Heights has talked with anyone over in the City of Dearborn about this. Any training that was offered by the city of Dearborn was offered for the months of March and April the slow months. That has come and gone until next year when and if this ever gets off the ground you’ ll be looking at two years down the road. How large will the rat problem be then?

He mentioned that he’s talking with Redford about that city’s Vector control program. Calls made to that city reveal that they don’t have a rat program, but wish they did. Maybe he’s offering to train their people once our people are trained

He talked about animal control officer, what the mayor proposes for this is not as he makes it seem he’s hiring a full time one. No he wants to send one of the ordinance officers for training and they would then on top of all other duties be the animal control officer. Another thing that’s been a year in the making and still not one sent for training. That’s why you won’t find a line item in the budget for hiring animal control officer and no mention of it during budget discussions.

The amount of grass cutting violations not a surprise with all the rain we’ve gotten and the ordinance changed from 8 inches to 6 inches the height your grass can be I’d be surprised if it wasn’t that much.

People just aren’t buying what you’re selling Mr. Mayor residents all across this city have seen and heard it all before from you.

The Rat Problem Wasn’t Even On The Mayors Radar.. 2

In July of 2012 the mayor received all the information to get started on Vector control program. The City of Dearborn offered to train Dearborn Heights ordinance officers for free getting them ready for testing to become Vector Control Officers. The two city’s would qualify for shared grants the mayor knew all of this and sat on it. Not until June 2013 did the mayor instruct corporation counsel to write an opinion on this matter. That legal opinion doesn’t support the efforts of those on the south end of Dearborn Heights desperately trying to solve the rat problem.

Why would a mayor not want to support a program that’s being offered to him for free? I’m not saying the testing is free, but all training would be. The cost of rat poison would cost money, but there’s the shared grant to help pay for this. All the time and effort and this man couldn’t move in a timely manner to get the program off the ground why? It’s no wonder residents on the south side of Dearborn Heights feel forgotten. Some might say that the wheels of bureaucracy move slow in this city they only move slow when the mayor isn’t interested or just doesn’t care. He has no problem bringing things to council last-minute to vote on that happens all the time. I don’t need to go back over all the times it’s happened there’s plenty of examples on the blog.

Now with this being an election year he’ll show up to some of the association meetings blow a bunch of smoke and walk away. When he gets sick of doing this he’ll put his assistant in charge of it just like he did for the NSP program, and the program to bring city buildings up to ADA code and many other things.

“Poor leadershi… 2

“Poor leadership is usually accompanied by a “rubberstamp” board of directors”.

No Overtime Yah Right. 11

On at least 2 different occasions during council meetings in the past year the mayor was asked if DPW was working overtime. He said no he didn’t approve any overtime for any department. Councilwoman Horvath stated that she had called the head of that department and was told that there was no overtime.

During the town hall meetings concerning the HO it was told to everyone in the room that there would be no overtime for anyone.

As you can see they did use overtime or am I missing something why didn’t the council call the Mayor out for this? The town hall meeting was in September of 2011 Headlee Override passed in November of that year the  millage allowed the city to levy 2.9449 mills beginning in 2012. Take a look at the overtime numbers for this department While the residents said Yes to Headlee Override the mayor kept on doing what he does best lie. If you look at the adopted budget for fy 2013-2014 there’s 100,000.00 budgeted for overtime. Have I missed something does the city no longer have a 5.5 million dollar deficit to contend with? If the residents want to keep getting the same results please feel free to keep the council as is and by all means vote for the Mayor.

Spend Baby Spend. 3

Like most of you I watch what I spend. When times are tough you cut down when you’re in the Red you’re supposed to cut down on your spending. Good news folks the Mayor has just given a green light to all of us to spend yes that’s right spend that money even when you’re in the hole. The Mayor with his CPA has discovered a new way a way that allows you to spend even when you’re in a deficit. The 2013-2014 budget spends almost 1 million more than last year and yes we still have a deficit of 5.5 million. Yes he did submit a deficit reduction plan to the state, but does anyone know how much he brought down that deficit? The answer is he didn’t he added to it, but by all means spend more I don’t know maybe he’s on to something. Maybe the rest of the population can’t wrap their heads around such (out of the box thinking.)

Since I have been associated with the city, it is my opinion that we have been consistently and intentionally misled by the administration and we are all told what they think we want to hear. Source: WALTER J. PRUSIEWICZ City Clerk.