The Adam Hansen Weblog

Last week I posed a question to both my union steward and the alternate steward. They  agreed that my perspective was correct but we should consult people further up in the union hierarchy to see what, if anything, I might be missing. Since I have not received a satisfactory answer after a week, yesterday I emailed the 9 members of my unionized office hoping to gain any perspective that I am missing.

Knowing that I have a much more diverse group of people who check this blog I have decided to post the email I sent to my fellow AFSCME union members as well. The letter follows…

Since our last union meeting, I have been trying to understand something in regards to the most senior qualified person for a job versus the most qualified person for a job. I am hoping someone can help me. I have discussed this with a couple of people but haven’t really gotten an answer that disagrees with me.

What is wrong with the most qualified person within the office being awarded a position that is up for bid? What incentives are there for anyone to do the best job they can? If the most qualified person is awarded the job, doesn’t that encourage all of us to try to do the best we can and learn as much as we can? It seems to me this would make this a better, more efficient place. The way it is right now, there isn’t much of a reason to do any more that the minimum required.

If I am missing something, please let me know. If you agree with me, we should probably let our union representatives know that too. Thank you for helping me better understand this.

- Adam

I would appreciate any and all perspectives on this situation. I am simply trying to understand why a policy is in place, that from my perspective, isn’t in the best interest of the office, the taxpaying public or even the best interest of the majority of the members of the union.

Leave a comment or feel free to email me. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Tags: General, Toledo by Adam Hansen
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In the city of Toledo and in Lucas County, governmental bodies are having a difficult time figuring out how to effectively run their agencies given a continually shrinking tax base. This seems to be a similar situation that other municipalities are having across the country as well. I have heard numerous times as an employee, if you have any ideas on how to decrease costs, please share them. I have submitted several different ideas over the past year. I just thought of another one but since I am not at work, I thought I would share it here first.

Generally in business, and I assume in governments as well, as budgets are determined if the money that is allocated for that specific line item is not used, then next year that dollar amount will be reduced. The mentality is one of well if you didn’t use it Year 1 you won’t need it Year 2.

How about changing that mentality a bit? The money has been allocated. Consider it gone. If there is anything left over, it is a bonus. If a department works to not use all of that money, instead of taking it away next year, give a percentage of that unused money to the people who found ways to not spend it. Reward your workers for being proactive in watching day to day spending. Perhaps the split is 50% goes back to the main fund and 50% is split among those that worked to save the money.

Imagine a entire company, or city or county, working together toward the same goal. The best way to get that to happen is to feel like they are all on the same team. Not union vs. management but instead if we all do this, then we all win.

Just another thought. Something to ponder. Something to try. The old ways don’t seem to be working very well anyhow. Be daring. Take a chance. Try something new.

Tags: General, Toledo by Adam Hansen
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I have been taking the bus to work for the past two weeks or so. I have some observations I want to share but I need to sort them out in my head first. Seems like I have been trying to do a lot of sorting lately.

• Seems like mainly service workers take the bus in Toledo. There are very, very few people dressed professionally for work but lots of people in uniforms.
• There is a huge negative reaction when some one hears you took the bus. I think people would be more accepting hearing someone robbed a bank.
• The published times for arrivals & departures are guidelines, not actual times. You need to expect a leeway of 10-15 minutes.
• Waiting for the bus after work, I do have some concerns for safety.
• I save some money but I don’t know if the savings is worth the trade off in time spent.

Tags: General, Toledo by Adam Hansen
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I heard a story on Monday about a couple of dogs found in a local business’ dumpster skinned with their paws cut off. I hadn’t read or heard a thing about it. Where I work I see news reporters daily. I don’t really have much interaction with them but yesterday I flagged one down and told him what I had heard. Guess my tip was deemed newsworthy by them. Looks like the local paper thought so too.

Update: I just saw a promo on Fox Toledo about the story.

Tags: Toledo by Adam Hansen
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Last week I was wondering what the salary was for a Toledo city council person as well as the mayor’s salary. After a bit of searching I found out, from a Blade article, that a council member’s salary is $27,500.00. Finding what Toledo’s mayor earns has proven a bit more difficult.

After generally searching the internet and then specifically searching the Toledo Municipal Code I could not find an answer. So last Thursday I decided to call the human resource department for the City of Toledo. It seemed like the right place to ask to me. I was wrong.

At about 8:30 a.m. I spoke with a woman from the H.R. department. I asked her what the salary was for the Mayor of Toledo. She said she didn’t know but would transfer me to the mayor’s secretary. I asked the secretary the question. What is the salary for the Mayor of Toledo? She didn’t know either but was eager to forward me to his assistant. When I asked the assistant, you guessed it, she didn’t have an answer. However she was kind enough to transfer me to Toledo’s Public Information Officer, Brian Schwartz. I asked Mr. Schwartz my question. Big surprise coming here, he doesn’t know either. He did volunteer, however, to find out and get back with me. I left my cell phone number with him and waited for his call. It has been a week. I am still waiting. I still haven’t heard back from Mr. Schwartz.

I thought finding an answer for this very simple and straight forward question would be easy. Obviously I was mistaken. Maybe Mr. Schwartz is too busy to relay information to the public, although his title would suggest that is part of his job. Maybe our mayor doesn’t want the citizens of Toledo to know how much we pay him. Maybe Mr. Schwartz just forgot about me and I need to call back.

One way or another I will find an answer to this question. If you can locate the information, please point me to it. Maybe someone else should try calling the Mayor’s office too. I don’t know… I will keep you updated.

*Funny thing, when I was writing this post I wondered if the mayor would read it. Then I remembered during a debate last year he said he doesn’t check any websites himself. He has someone that checks the news for him. Maybe if Mr. Finkbeiner learned about RSS he would realize how simple getting up to date information can be. Personally it is very difficult for me to imagine waiting to get information from a paper or the 6:00 news. But then again, I have been known to be a bit of a forward thinker.

Tags: General, Toledo by Adam Hansen
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When I got home today from work my neighbor came up to let me know two unfamiliar faces were knocking on my door yesterday around 3 pm. The odd thing was they parked way down the street, instead of in front of my house, and walked down to my place. I don’t know anyone meeting the description of these guys. And anyone that would know me, would know I am working at 3 in the afternoon on a Wednesday.

SO, now I am wondering if my place is being cased. From going to block watch meetings, I know that the majority of the break-ins in my end of town have been happening during the day. What really sucks is that I feel helpless in trying to stop this from potentially happening. The only thing I can think of is going to X-10.com to buy some cameras. However I don’t want to waste money I don’t have and UPS has to leave stuff like that on the porch. If someone is watching my place, that isn’t the smartest thing for me to do then either. Any ideas??

Tags: General, Toledo by Adam Hansen
3 Comments »

This story came across my aggregator from WUPW News, the local Fox affiliate. So what I want to know is shouldn’t I be in the top 18% of income earners instead of the bottom??? I must be doing something wrong.

18% of Toledoans are College Grads

More college educated people are moving into the nation’s big cities.

That’s according to an Associated Press analysis of thrity years of education and Census data. The information shows that 27%of big city residents age 25 or older have at least bachelor’s degrees.

In Ohio, Cleveland is behind the trend. It has just 14% of its residents with college degrees.

In Cincinnati, 34% of residents have college degrees. Columbus has 32%.

And in Toledo, 18% of its people are college grads.

In 1970, only one in ten people who lived in cities across the nation had college educations.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Tags: Toledo by Adam Hansen
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I fear Toledo is becoming the new Flint, MI. I just heard on the radio that Owens-Illinois is leaving the city of Toledo. That leaves only three major companies left in the city. Now they are only moving about 20-30 miles away but it is going to hurt our already bad economy.

Jeep just built a new plant, so they should stay for a while. Owens Corning still has about 10 years left on there corporate headquarters lease, so they are good. Dana will probably be next. I know that there have been out of town companies looking to buy them anyhow. This town needs help. Quickly.

Tags: General, Toledo by Adam Hansen
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