Planning, Property and Development Department Scandal
It is a shocking report on many levels. The PPD department employs 57 Inspectors and their salaries range from $69,000 to $91,000/annum. Apparently, many homeowners, business owners, and construction contractors have had significant negative experiences and felt these inspectors delays were costing their bottom line an extreme amount of money. They went to City Hall through the proper channels to try and get this looked into. They weren't successful.
A group of 12 got together and hired a private investigating to provide detailed surveillance of Inspectors and their activities while on the tax payer dime. It initially targeted one inspector and expanded to a large group of Inspectors. 17 Inspectors were placed under surveillance for 28 days. That is the first wow. A group of people so dissatisfied with a city department that they put their money where their mouth was. The cost of hiring the investigators was $18,000. That was the first "wow". Private citizens paying their money to have this done with no expectation that it might lead to something. Wow. Don't these inspectors have bosses to monitor their activities to ensure that they are doing what they are supposed to do.
The second "wow" moment was that only one of the 17 appeared to be putting in a full day's work. The activities of the rest were astonishing, including visits to restaurants like Hooter's, taking time off to shovel their own drive-ways, working on their own rental homes, shopping in Thrift Shops, shopping at Costco, and the most shocking of all, spending hours and hours at Tim Horton's. Like, wow, seriously, don't they read my blog !! Tim Horton's is the evil empire. If you are the type of person who spends hours there, nothing more need be said. I would welcome to send links of my anti-Tim's blogs to these Inspectors, but something tells me they will have different things to do in the next few weeks.
The third "wow" was that most of the report excerpts published in the Winnipeg Free Press were redacted. I pay my taxes. I feel I have a right to know which employees are abusing their employments since I am paying for it.
The fourth "wow" was that the City declined to make the Director of the Department available for comment. I guess that shouldn't be a wow, but it is very disappointing that they won't respond to very legitimate concerns. No one takes responsibility these days.
The fifth "wow" was the City's response. They defended their employees saying that there were flex time, independent work hours, etc, but at the end of the day, they standed by the integrity of their employees.
The proof is in the pudding. Several Inspectors are not doing their job and they are holding up the economy of Manitoba. There it is. It is that simple. If a contractor has to wait months and months for an electrical inspection, they have to put their project, their staff, the home-owners on hold. It puts a strangle-hold on Manitoba's ability to grow our economy. I am not an economist, but even I can figure this out.
The report said that this "culture of not working" seemed to be coordinated and planned by a number of Inspectors. That doesn't happen by accident. In any workplace, there is bound to be one or two bad apples, but very few people start a job thinking, "I am going to screw the pooch and see what I am going to be able to get away with, and then, I am going to continue to push the envelope." There has to be a culture of malcontent for this to exist.
It is just like addiction. Often, the substance is merely the symptom. The root cause may be unresolved trauma, poor self-concept, etc. That is why holistic methods are used in treatment. Don't get me wrong, getting "clean" is not easy, but it is only the first hurdle. If you don't address the underlying root causes, you are not really addressing the addiction.
So, I think this story is even bigger. I think the behavior of these employees, while shameful, may be part of a larger story. Last fall, when I interviewed candidates for Mayor and Council, many of them talked about morale at City Hall being dreadful. I listened but they could not offer specifics, other than the leadership is not exercising leadership. Now, I understand. Morale must be really in the toilet if this many employees think it is ok to waste our hard-earned tax money like this. The only positive for City Hall is that since morale is in the toilet, they don't have to worry about it being inspected any time soon.
This is the time for strong leadership. Instead of not making the Director of Planning, Property and Development unavailable, they should be making his take responsibility for his employees and his leadership which allowed this to happen. The $18,000 should be refunded to the citizens who hired the investigators with the sincerest thanks and apologies for not taking their concerns seriously in the first place. Mayor Bowman must take decisive and strong action to ensure that this is not an isolated problem in an isolated department. Coaching and re-training is not an option to tell with this abuse. This is serious and I hope this story is not going anywhere until there is action.
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