June 11, 2010
Huntington City Council’s Work Session Likely to Focus on Impacts of Proposed Reduced and Compressed Work Weeks, Contingency Fund, Communication
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) - Huntington City Council members have a Friday, June 11 work session in council chambers at 4 p.m. This will be the first time all council members will have come together at City Hall, since the announcement that Mayor Kim Wolfe intends to shut down the building on Fridays.
Both WSAZ and HNN have ran recent reports alluding that the “honeymoon” period between the Mayor Wolfe administration and council may have hit bumps.
Based on the HNN report several council members complained about not receiving notice of the City Hall closing and complaints about putting the paving program on hold.
Contacted Thursday evening council member Scott Caserta suggested that slow communication between the administration and the full council likely represents why their relationship has gone from “challenges” to “problems.”
Most of those issues relate to how council members hear about administrative decisions that at least trigger calls from constituents asking questions and may ultimately require a council vote.
“It does the residents an injustice, as well as members of council and the Mayor’s office. We have to work together to meet these PROBLEMS , not CHALLENGES, head on. I like the word challenges, but we are beyond that now. We need to face them head on,” Caserta explained.
For instance, he has the impression that the administration “worked out” the compressed work week with the employees to offset the pay cuts. Caserta said, “I really don’t see any benefit to [closing City Hall Fridays]. We can get somebody there on Fridays that’s an important business day. I think that [announcement] was fairly premature,” suggesting the communication breakdown might not have been intentional.
Maintaining an open mind on his own position on the Friday closure, the councilman reserved further comment until “I hear the mayor’s explanation for their actions why they did not involve council in this.”
On possible planned use of contingency funds, Caserta said, “You don’t touch the contingency fund without going through council. What are you going to do if council is not agreeable to it? You have to have communication between the administration and council. That’s a big decision. If you don’t get support for it, and it is undone, what’s Plan B?”
Caserta tossed an olive branch toward the administration:
“It comes down to lack of communication between the administration and members of council. I sincerely hope that can be corrected as soon as possible. We have to work together.”
A proposal for compressed work weeks was provided at the Monday, June 7 Finance Committee member. To clarify, our earlier story did not list the Huntington Municipal Parking Board as exempt from Friday closure like the Police and Fire Department.
Immediate verbatim transcripts of meetings may contain an error based on transcription and/or an inadvertent misspoken statement. We appreciate our readers accepting those as a trade offs for reading a transcript, not a shortened version, of important issues.
In addition, the same discretion should be given for typos or other errors that may be found in 'just of the copy machine' documents to assist with understanding of a story.
Rapid transparency should allow for an inevitable alteration, miscalculation or misstatement. A restatement or correction with explanation should not automatically be assumed to reflect positively or negatively on the matter especially during early stages of discussions.
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Huntington City Council’s Work Session Likely to Focus on Impacts of Proposed Reduced and Compressed Work Weeks, Contingency Fund, Communication
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) - Huntington City Council members have a Friday, June 11 work session in council chambers at 4 p.m. This will be the first time all council members will have come together at City Hall, since the announcement that Mayor Kim Wolfe intends to shut down the building on Fridays.
Both WSAZ and HNN have ran recent reports alluding that the “honeymoon” period between the Mayor Wolfe administration and council may have hit bumps.
Based on the HNN report several council members complained about not receiving notice of the City Hall closing and complaints about putting the paving program on hold.
Contacted Thursday evening council member Scott Caserta suggested that slow communication between the administration and the full council likely represents why their relationship has gone from “challenges” to “problems.”
Most of those issues relate to how council members hear about administrative decisions that at least trigger calls from constituents asking questions and may ultimately require a council vote.
“It does the residents an injustice, as well as members of council and the Mayor’s office. We have to work together to meet these PROBLEMS , not CHALLENGES, head on. I like the word challenges, but we are beyond that now. We need to face them head on,” Caserta explained.
For instance, he has the impression that the administration “worked out” the compressed work week with the employees to offset the pay cuts. Caserta said, “I really don’t see any benefit to [closing City Hall Fridays]. We can get somebody there on Fridays that’s an important business day. I think that [announcement] was fairly premature,” suggesting the communication breakdown might not have been intentional.
Maintaining an open mind on his own position on the Friday closure, the councilman reserved further comment until “I hear the mayor’s explanation for their actions why they did not involve council in this.”
On possible planned use of contingency funds, Caserta said, “You don’t touch the contingency fund without going through council. What are you going to do if council is not agreeable to it? You have to have communication between the administration and council. That’s a big decision. If you don’t get support for it, and it is undone, what’s Plan B?”
Caserta tossed an olive branch toward the administration:
“It comes down to lack of communication between the administration and members of council. I sincerely hope that can be corrected as soon as possible. We have to work together.”
A proposal for compressed work weeks was provided at the Monday, June 7 Finance Committee member. To clarify, our earlier story did not list the Huntington Municipal Parking Board as exempt from Friday closure like the Police and Fire Department.
Immediate verbatim transcripts of meetings may contain an error based on transcription and/or an inadvertent misspoken statement. We appreciate our readers accepting those as a trade offs for reading a transcript, not a shortened version, of important issues.
In addition, the same discretion should be given for typos or other errors that may be found in 'just of the copy machine' documents to assist with understanding of a story.
Rapid transparency should allow for an inevitable alteration, miscalculation or misstatement. A restatement or correction with explanation should not automatically be assumed to reflect positively or negatively on the matter especially during early stages of discussions.
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
