At last Monday's Council meeting(Oct 11) City Administrator Greg Mims said he (and General Superintendent Gilespie) were having difficulty getting cost savings proposals from Public Works Director Fidler in a timely manner (Council member Quinn had earlier expresed similar concerns to Fidler about delays in preparing RFQ paperwork).
Mims went on to restate his belief (first expressed at a finance committee meeting last summer) that Dept. Managers are reluctant to speak freely (fear punishment by the Mayor).
[ Earlier in the meeting, Public Works employee Dotson Brown told the Council that workers at the warehouse had many such money saving ideas they'd like to share with them someday.]
Mims recalled the first proposal to outsource some city services (mowing, garbage pick-up)--that could potentially save taxpayers up to $1 million-- had originated with the Mayor and Fidler last Spring (e-mails): something they both denied, saying outsourcing was first suggested in a Public Works Study Group meeting about that time.
Council members Quinn and Stankoski sided with Mims, recalling that the Mayor had indeed first proposed the outsourcing idea earlier in the year.
A newspaper report of that meeting (May 10th) seems to indicate the Mayor and Fidler were more enthusiastic last Spring: and actually invited a private garbage company's representative to sit in.
Seren Ainsworth of Republic Allied Waste Company: "The Mayor asked me to be here."
Mims went on to restate his belief (first expressed at a finance committee meeting last summer) that Dept. Managers are reluctant to speak freely (fear punishment by the Mayor).
[ Earlier in the meeting, Public Works employee Dotson Brown told the Council that workers at the warehouse had many such money saving ideas they'd like to share with them someday.]
Mims recalled the first proposal to outsource some city services (mowing, garbage pick-up)--that could potentially save taxpayers up to $1 million-- had originated with the Mayor and Fidler last Spring (e-mails): something they both denied, saying outsourcing was first suggested in a Public Works Study Group meeting about that time.
Council members Quinn and Stankoski sided with Mims, recalling that the Mayor had indeed first proposed the outsourcing idea earlier in the year.
A newspaper report of that meeting (May 10th) seems to indicate the Mayor and Fidler were more enthusiastic last Spring: and actually invited a private garbage company's representative to sit in.
Seren Ainsworth of Republic Allied Waste Company: "The Mayor asked me to be here."
