(Ed. Note; Council
comments detailed below, possible typo or minor omissions)
Councilman Atkins
– Has heard theses kind of things from the citizens and employees. He
told the city of manager and mayor he would like them to create some
kind of committee that can look into these issues and report back to the
council with some kind of solution that we can all live with.
Councilman (?? name
indistinct, will be checked and fixed tomorrow)
– Echoes what Mr. Atkins has said that plenty of times, people
feel a level of confidence in talking to certain council members when
they are away from city hall. There have been several concerns, and he
wants employees especially to know that we hear you. There are certain
parameters that they have to deal with and that they will, but we need
to at least at some point talk about it, so we can see how things of
this nature can be addressed. There are rumbles in all types of levels
and areas and within their guidelines they need to address them.
Mayor Leppert thinks
it is a fair question. He wants the city manager to get back with Ms.
Medrano’s committee Quality of Life and Governmental Services.
He wants Ms. Suhm to visit with Ms. Medrano’s committee on
these issues.
Councilwoman Davis
– Agrees that they need to look into what is going on. Because anytime
when an employee comes before the council, that’s serious, because
something is happening, something is going on. She continues to say
about the pay raises that if a supervisor or a department head has
problems with a particular employee, how do we know that person
is going to be treated fair for a pay raise. She has had some
employees, she will not name names, but they have come to her and said
they a raise, they haven’t gotten a raise in five years, that their
directors are not treating them fair. And it is so secret, and they are
so nervous to talk to about it. And if you tell them to go through the
proper channels, they say that nothing will happen, that Ms. Suhm is not
going to listen to us. Ms. Davis says we really need to look into it,
see what is going on. And she agrees with Mr. Atkins that we might need
to have a committee to look into this. Let’s fix the problem. She
thinks our employee should be here, first they should be excited about
working with the city of
Dallas
, and they should have a comfortable pay
raise, she continues to say that if people are not being paid, they are
not going to work.
Councilman Rasansky
– Disturbed to hear that Ms Hasan is retiring; he could always count
on her for a smile and saying hello. But told Ms. Suhm he doesn’t see
that in the building. He has gotten on elevators and has seen ACM’s
not even say hello to employees, he thinks it is wrong and that we have
the wrong atmosphere here. We spend all these funds on consultants to do
this or that but he thinks that Suhm needs to have training sessions
with her employees to greet people. He is glad Ms. Hasan is bringing
that to council’s attention. We need a better atmosphere in city hall.
He has a file in his office that has anonymous letters in it. He has
been getting so many of them and he doesn’t like to see that. People
send them this way, because they are afraid that they are going to lose
their job. That isn’t right. It’s isn’t a right atmosphere to work
on and it is a chilling atmosphere. He told Ms. Suhm that he would
really like to see a better work relationship/environment around this
building. Someone said something at a public safety meeting; he is not
sure, it might have been Dr. Garcia, who said that every time we see a
police officer we should shake their hand and thank them for doing a
good job. This is what we need to be doing at the city to our employees.
We have lost a lot of good employees this past year, a lot of good
employees. Some leave for a better positions, but maybe that wouldn’t
have happened if we had increased the working relationship we have here.
Sorry this has happened and
wishes Ms. Hasan would reconsider about retiring. Hopes Ms. Suhm takes
note of this.
Mayor Leppert – Ms
Suhm will back on a number of those areas that are real facts, and real
facts will get put on the table. We have a number of programs in place;
we will go through with it and deal with it on an on going basis.
Councilwoman Hunt
– Thanked Ms. Hasan for coming to talk to them today. The message we
should take away today is that open and honest communication between
employees and the top levels of our city government are critical to
insuring that our employees are in a work environment that is contusive
to their doing the best job and their best work and feeling respected.
Echoes what Mr. Atkins said about looking at this more closely, but she
would say that they are not going to get off on the right foot if it is
just council and the city managers office at the table. It seems to her
that they would want Ms. Hasan and/or some other employee
representatives when they are examining this at the council level,
otherwise they are not sure they would get the full picture of the
concerns that city employees have. City employees who feel respected in
their jobs do a better job for the citizens of
Dallas
. She hopes that the mayor will have some
employee representation at the table who are comfortable with sharing
their concerns openly, and that there would not be any repercussions for
their honesty.
Councilman Neumann
– In his four months of service on the council, he has truly enjoyed
the high quality of our city employees. At each public meeting he said
how proud he is of our employees. When he speaks of our employees he is
speaking about ACMs, managers, directors and the city manager. In an
employee base of 13,000 plus there will always be issues, there will
always be issues of conflict and conflict resolution. That is the nature
of having an organization this large. We have great employees and a
great management team. That
does not mean that our employees or management can (can’t?) always
improve. Because employment is a two way street, the employer sets the
expectations, the employee understanding that and then meeting in the
middle achieve success for both. His
comment today is to say we do have great employees and a great
management team. He doesn’t always agree with them on everything, but
we meet in the middle establish expectations we improve and move
forward. He welcomes the discussion but we need to make sure it is
professional, it is grounded and we always treat people with respect.
The management team as well as our employees and go forward together. He
wants to make sure that everyone knows that he thinks very strongly that
we have great employees. If he comes across someone that in his sole
opinion is not of that stature, he elevates that matter and asks if we
have an issue with that person. And
he would do the same with a supervisory person. However, he differs with
Mr. Rasansky in that he have never experienced the situation where and
ACM hasn’t visited with an employee in an elevator or similar
situation. He is proud of the employees and the management team, and he
looks forward to working together to be positive and having it move
forward so we continue to have a great city.
Councilman Allen –
He echoes Mr. Neumann’s statements that the staff that he has seen,
that we are fortunate to have the level of staff that we have. Can we
get better? Obviously, we do that everyday. And that is why you have
good staff, because they know that. He welcomes sitting around any table
and going and talking to any employees that we have. But he has been
around a long time in the business world, and the management team that
we have in place, he has all the confidence in the world, what with the
policies and procedures they have out there.
Councilmember Davis
– Doesn’t think that Ms Hasan is sad that we don’t have great
employees, we do have great employees. But she has a concern, and that
concern has to be addressed. And that concern is that there are some
things that have not been done right as far as policy is concerned. And
I think our city manager is wonderful and she supports Ms. Suhm, even
when she was going through the hard times, and she knows what I’m
talking about, I supported her, where others did not support her. Our
ACM’s are good, but we are talking policy here, the policy, something
is wrong. As councilmember’s they don’t tell us, I mean, we have
13,000 employees, but yeah, out of that 13,000 how many are not being
treated fair? You can’t tell me all 13,000 employees, everyone is
walking around here happy go lucky. I’ve sat in Mary’s position;
I’ve been behind this thing before I became a councilmember so I do
understand. So of the 13,000 employees I think we need to do what Mr.
Atkins suggested and ask the mayor to pull a committee together and look
at the policy. That’s it. She commends the employees that are here,
but I don’t want to get into a tale of two cities.
Councilman Salazar
– He agrees wholeheartedly with Ms. Davis, it not an issue of how
everyone is, it is an issue of how certain issues are being addressed.
And for the most part he thinks we have a great city manager, great
management team, but in any kind of business such as a city or company,
employees also have concerns and issues that they want to have voiced.
And certainly one of the problems that he has seen is the past... and he
thinks that the positive thing that he sees is that we have a new mayor
and a new majority on the council, and that this council will have the
opportunity to really think back or think in the future and then think
back to today about what is being said and to make sure that decisions
we make in the future are fair and reasonable. That is really the main
thing today. To make sure that what every decisions we make with this
new council are fair and reasonable.
So we can go back,
but those votes are already done. One vote that he was very disappointed
with, when took away the appeal rights of officers, on the day that they
buried an office. That wasn’t right, but that was another council and
another mayor. We have a new council and a new mayor, so when we talk
about employee issues in the future, think about today and all the
things we said about how we want to support our employees and our
manager. The manager has to
make difficult decisions, but when a difficult decision is made, we have
to make sure that all parties are aware of why it is difficult and what
are the consequences and why it is we have to do what we have to do. He
thinks that our employees will understand that sometimes we sometimes
make sacrifices, but they want to make sure that the sacrifices don’t
just come from people down at the bottom, but they also come the top end
as well.
Councilman Rasansky
- Just wanted to say a couple of things. First, nobody was saying
anything about management. But picking up on what Ms. Davis and Mr.
Salazar said. But he does not agree with Mr. Newman, this cannot be a
two-way street. It can’t be 50/50. It has to be a little bit more in
our part to over extend being friendly. He points out that Mr. Newman
has been here four months, and when he here a bit longer, Mr. Newman
will see what he (Rasansky) is talking about.
Staff has a tough job with 13,000 employees here, but he is glad
that it has been brought to the table. He wants staff to take a good
look at this. He thinks it is astounding that we have to have a
committee to learn how to be friendly. We need to get notes out to the
department heads about what to do about this. That is what he would like
to see.
Mayor Leppert –
Told Mr. Rasansky that there are some facts that need to be put on the
table, and that he has already told the city manager to do that. She
(Ms. Suhm) will do it in a thoughtful and methodical way, she will get
with Councilwoman Medrano’s committee, Quality of Life & Gov't.
Services, and we will approach this in a very thoughtful manner.
