June 2016

Should city employees be reprimanded or terminated when they cost taxpayers money?

l3wis June 16, 2016 8Comments

I knew it wouldn’t take city hall even 24 hours to try to kill the messenger when it comes to the Terrace Park kerfuffle;

The contractor for the project, which had already purchased some materials and turned down other jobs, said the city would be getting a bill.

“I’m waiting for the final word on that if it is going be terminated,” said Aaron Niewald, project manager for Dakotaland Sod. “I had a contract and a notice of award from the city so I was working on submittals and getting project materials. Some of it I couldn’t stop, so there’s still going to be some cost to the city.”

First off, this isn’t the Historic Board or the residents fault. They were contacted very late in the game, in fact so late, the city had already scheduled the work before the board made it’s first decision last week. Secondly, work could still go ahead. There is a lot of other work to be done before even approaching the small area where the grade has to be made and entrance redesigned to save the pathway. By the time the contractor gets to that part in the project, the re-design could be redone. As mentioned in the meeting, it’s not rocket science, it’s building a grade and resetting a few stones. An experienced landscape designer could have knocked out a redesign last night.

But the bigger question is why is the city and contractor trying to blame the people who saved the pathway? The city employees are the ones that clearly screwed up this project by giving the green light to the contractor to order materials and start a timeline before bringing it to the Historic Board. Protocol wasn’t followed, and if this is normal protocol, something needs to change in the parks department, and a few heads need to roll instead of using the media to point fingers.

“After years of work on this project, the city team is certainly disappointed and surprised by the outcome of yesterday’s meeting. We will need to regroup, and more will be communicated in the weeks to come,” she said.

That’s what is often frustrating with city employees that are in charge of ‘planning’. They claim they have been working on a project for years, but wait until the last minute to get permission from those most important to the project, the taxpayers. This is done quite often. The Midco Aquatic Center is a prime example, and so is the RR relocation project (that probably won’t relocate any rail traffic). It’s irritating when city employees, especially directors think citizens are ‘getting in the way’ of progress. I’m all for progress, but I am all for doing things right and transparently. Sometimes that takes a little longer. Besides, this is a 100 year old park, what was the hurry to begin with?