There have been three different mid level managers identified with questionable activities, one of which has already been indicted and awaiting his day in court. All of these managers have the same thing in common; they work for the same division within the same department. This is obviously a management issue at all levels.

Employees who have gone to HR have gotten no where, just as the Guardian found when it tried to bring the matter to the city’s attention. This has been a no win situation for those who want to do the right thing. There has been no place go, no place to turn to and if the mayor had his way whistle blowers would be banned from the face of the earth.

I once worked for a City Sewer Department. We used to come in at 0630 and take lunch at 1100 to 1130 and got off at 1700. We would just eat lunch at our jobsite since we all brought our lunches. The town was dominated by citizens that had strong views on almost everything. City Hall would get calls about City crews sitting around at 1100. When they were told that we took our lunch then, some people responded that it didn’t look right to have us sitting on a tailgate at that time. Our spineless Mayor directed us to take lunch at 1200 and to come back to the City Sewer Shop. This extended our lunch from 1200 to almost 1300. We finally got tired of wasting the time and gas and we would just eat a bite here and there as we worked.

The moral of the story is that not all City employees are out to shaft the taxpayers.

ED NOTE–Luddite and Mayor McCheese offer some sound advice. GUARDIAN is concerned that a positive posting like this one has generated so many negative comments and apparently from folks in the know.

Public Works management is more often than not the real culprit. I am not saying all of them are bad, but they know who they are.

He is correct, Public Works employees who are part of Operations Division can check out tools. Hand tools, power tools, etc…

So, if you happen to have this moon lighting business, need some rather special tools and happen to work in Operations Division – just go check out what you need. Sweet deal…

How do you think work gets done at these treatment plants of Hidden Springs and other locations? You don’t think they would invest their own money in equipment and tools do you?

The only time anyone outside the city would be the wiser is if they needed to use equipment mounted on one of the trucks. Didn’t someone spot a city vehicle out at Hidden Springs?

This is all manager approved employee benefits.

Also, the last that I heard Boise public works employees could still “check out” small tools for personal use. Not quite in the same league as Garden City where they could take what ever they wanted.

ED NOTE–Are you saying taxpayers are paying for a free “tool library” for employees, but not for the citizens who bought the tools??

However, you don’t allow it to continue once it’s been discovered and you don’t make allowances for it to continue, preferred employees or not.

The farm manager problems went on far too long and involved too much money for it not to of been known by senior management and now employee complaints of wrong doing about these other two managers in the same department…

We’re not hearing a complaint about the activities of management in the city’s other departments, just Public Works.

What is wrong with this picture???

As an aside, I’ve heard Garden City wants to privatize this whole aspect of their government.

I’m going to guess that Public Works departments in particular have problems because their employees have skills that aren’t always easy to find in the private sector, and they have ready access to lots of tools, vehicles, etc.

That being said, the employees I know in Boise City Public Works are awesome and I’ve had great service whenever I’ve had to call about something.

How do we know that city vehicles are not used to drive to close home sales after work? Or that city officers do not use city issued equipment for off-duty activities? Without full disclosure the city can simply not tell who is doing what with city resources or on city time.