Nov 6, 2009 8:41 pm US/Central
Ex-Manager Blames Idle City Workers On Higher-Ups
Frank Coconate's Assessment Follows A CBS 2 Report That Showed Water Department Employees Standing Around
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Frank Coconate, an ex-manager for the city's Water Department, says supervisors could do a better job of allocating workers at repair sites.
CBS
It's hit a nerve.
CBS 2 viewers spotted and taped city crews whom they believed were just standing around on the job. So CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine checked it out.
But Friday, one veteran city manager said he doesn't want the mayor to get the wrong impression. Perhaps the problem isn't the workers at all.
What a difference a day makes. At a Bridgeport water main replacement project, there was a frenzy of activity, with no one standing still.
Just two days earlier, nearly everyone was.
Frank Coconate is a former Water Department supervisor. CBS 2 brought him to the work site, after getting an email from a city truck driver took issue with pictures we aired of drivers relaxing in their trucks.
"A driver is forbidden to leave the cab of his truck," the truck driver explained. "To stop the money-wasting, everyone needs to start from the top and work their way down the chain of command."
Frank agreed and said his former department is "big-time top heavy."
"You have more managers than workers themselves," he said.
Full disclosure here: Frank was fired five years ago after criticizing department management. They claim he falsified work sheets. The case is still in the courts. But if there's one thing Frank knows, it's what a job like this requires.
After scoping out the job and examining our photos and videotape from earlier this week, Frank figured at least some of these laborers might have been better used elsewhere.
The job's new foreman, who was sent in after Wednesday's report, was anything but anxious to talk. But Frank says the real blame lies in the Water Department's district office. An assistant superintendent could send idle workers to another job site.
"The mayor sees this and he wants to lay off the workers, not the managers, and it's wrong," Frank said.
Mayor Daley took a lot of heat recently for suggesting that city workers might not measure up to those in the private sector.
The city's Water Department has responded to our reports with a letter to neighbors in Bridgeport, promising the water main project will be finished in two weeks.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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