Sees overlap in city services
We have a public works department that before the storm, I’ve seen some pickup trucks riding the streets in the city with one man driving and up to four riding looking at their phones or dozing. I guess it’s a great gig, if you can get away with it. In my neighborhood, I have cleaned the debris out of ditches, only to see it back in the ditch because it wasn’t picked up. I think we have a supervisory problem.
Now with the storm debris removal, we might look at privatizing the public works department. We have the public works department, J5 (Columbus Project Manager) and now the””Debris Tech” removal monitoring firm hired for only $229.00 an hour, with the promise of hiring 12-15 workers, to qualify for a FEMA emergency declaration. If J5 is the project manager, Debris Tech is monitoring the removal of debris, where does the public works department figure in? Maybe Debris Tech ought to be hired to monitor the public works dept. Just a thought. Now let’s understand, we have a city engineer, a project manager, a monitoring firm and a public works director. That is a lot of management and overseeing, before the work is even started. Is this being a good steward of public money? $480,000 here, $100,000 there and who knows how much in other spending. We might be in real trouble financially city-wide. But now we’re trying to get federal help with the storm cleanup. If that falls through, we’re up the proverbial creek. Is it just me? Transparency is all I’m asking for. Is that too much? It’s our money!
God Bless America and Columbus!
Lee Roy Lollar
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.