Bloomberg Docks City Workers Pay

According to the Wall Street Journal, private companies largely allowed people to not come in to work in the days after Hurricane Sandy made travel treacherous, torturous or impossible.

But Mayor Bloomberg is docking city employees who failed to make it to work on those days:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided that any New York City employee who failed to show up for work during the week when superstorm Sandy forced the entire mass-transit system and many bridges and tunnels to close will be docked vacation or compensatory time.

His edict prompted outrage from workers and union leaders who called the policy mean-spirited and unfair.

"Penalizing dedicated public employees who were unable to report for work through no fault of their own during the most devastating storm in this city's history is unreasonable and unconscionable," said Lillian Roberts, executive director of DC37, the city's largest municipal union. "This union will do everything in its power to have this policy rescinded."

City employees began receiving emails this week notifying them of the administration's policy for work during the week of Oct. 28, when the storm hit.

Employees who worked their regular jobs, or worked on storm-related activities like helping at an evacuation shelter or the Office of Emergency Management, will receive their customary pay, according to one such email.

Late arrivals and early departures were excused. But if employees were unable to report to work, "You must charge the absence[s] against either your annual leave or compensatory time balances," the email said. "Annual leave will be advanced if you have no annual leave or compensatory time available."

The mayor's spokesman told the WSJ that city employees serve New Yorkers and are expected to come to work no matter what.

But the Journal notes that when many city workers got to work on those days right after Sandy, they found their offices were closed.

Or, as in the case of the Superstorm Sandy PD By Candlelight Day that teachers and DOE employees enjoyed on Friday November 2, they came in to work, sat around for three hours in an auditorium, then were dismissed.

What's the point Bloomberg is making with this?

He says the point is, "I don't know how you were brought up, I was always brought up that you had an obligation to work. Maybe it's different in your world."

To me, the point is the mayor's an authoritarian asshole who seems to despise the people who work for him in city government.

It's one thing to require emergency personnel to come to work during the storm.

That's about public safety and that makes sense.

It's something else to require city employees working in the marriage license division to come to work on those days or dock the pay of anybody who didn't.

Just another example of what an incredible self-centered, egotistical little man Our Bloomberg is.

It will be nice to see him ride off into the sunset soon.

Or rather have his people drive him off into the sunset in one of the two SUV's that constantly follow him around.

NYCDOE Not Ready For Schools Reopening Today

They spent a lot of time, energy and effort on the Superstorm Sandy PD Day By Candlelight last Friday when they could have been getting schools ready for today.

They didn't, and now schools aren't ready for today:

Nearly a million New York City schoolkids are expected to be back in class today — and they had better bundle up.

At least three dozen schools likely won’t have heat as temperatures hover just above freezing in the morning, Mayor Bloomberg warned yesterday.

“Please dress your children with that in mind,’’ the mayor said. “If the schools were dangerously cold, we obviously wouldn’t open them. But if they’re chilly, extra sweaters for the kids is something that should make some sense.”

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew took issue with the city’s haste.
“If you can get the schools open where kids can go to be somewhere warm and get a hot meal, that’s a plus,” he said. “But if they’re being told to go to cold schools, that’s probably not a good decision.”

Dozens of badly damaged schools — which handle 34,000 students — will still be pupil free after Wednesday, no matter what.

Fifty-seven schools have been deemed uninhabitable for the time being, forcing their students and staff to temporary classrooms on other campuses.

Education officials said they were still working out the details — including where all the students will be relocated and how they’ll be transported. But they expect plans to be in place so that everyone is back in school Wednesday.

The closed-down schools are listed on the Department of Education’s Web site.

By last night, there also were 29 schools still without power that won’t be opened until electricity can be restored. That could happen as early as Wednesday, officials said.

Meanwhile, eight huge Big Apple high schools, with a total of 24,000 students, also will remain closed until Wednesday, as the city struggles to relocate storm evacuees sent there.

The evacuees are now sprawled out in hallways, cafeterias and gymnasiums at the high schools — and many will still be there by Wednesday when students return.

“We’re working closely with [Department of Homeless Services officials] on how we an serve both populations,” said Board of Education spokeswoman Erin Hughes.

Inside Tottenville HS, about 50 people were being housed — with single men in the teacher’s cafeteria, couples and families in the student cafeteria and single women in a nearby classroom.

I understand that these challenges are difficult and cannot be solved overnight.

 

But time after time we have seen Bloomberg and the DOE make matters worse by pursuing inane policies and/or activities over doing the right thing.

 

That's what happened here - all those resources for the idiotic Friday PD day when they could have been working to get schools ready for today.

Why Weren't Walcott And The DOE Working On Getting Damaged Schools Fixed?

As many of you teachers and school staff know, Chancellor Walcott and his NYCDOE minions spent an awful lot of time, effort and energy putting together a Superstorm Sandy PD Day By Candlelight extravaganza for last Friday.

This work order came despite the fact that much of mass transit around the area was still crippled from the storm - no subways from Brooklyn to Manhattan, limited LIRR and Metro North, few NJ Transit trains after generators failed on some lines, no PATH service and gas lines so long it looked like the 70's all over again.

The rationale the DOE gave for the workday to get teachers and school staff into schools was they needed to "prepare" their classrooms, although teachers are never asked to come back on the Friday of a Winter Break or February Break or Spring Break to "prepare" their classrooms, so this rationale made little sense.

While it may seem like we've been away longer than that, schools have actually only been closed for five school days - a length in keeping with break periods during the year.

Plus many schools were damaged by the storm and many others were still lacking power, so the DOE had to scramble to find alternate sites for the Superstorm Sandy PD Day By Candlelight extravaganza on Friday.

The process must have been problematic because notice for teachers affected by changes didn't come out until near midnight Friday morning.

Many teachers and administrators took the day off anyway either because they couldn't get into school or because they knew there would be no computer facilities at the schools they were being sent to that they could work on and they knew they would get more work done at home.

So Bloomberg and Walcott had the DOE spend all this time, energy and effort on a task that was unproductive at best, stupid at worst.

Meanwhile the Daily News reports that many schools were so badly damaged that they may not be able to open for the rest of the school year:

Classes are canceled Monday for more than 100,000 city schoolkids, as officials scramble to find enough vacant classrooms to soak up students from 65 public schools doused by the superstorm.

More than 30,000 of those kids won’t have school until at least Wednesday. Adding to the misery, as many as 45 of the damaged schools may be closed through the end of the school year, a union official said.

Mayor Bloomberg Saturday abandoned city’s plan to house storm victims alongside students at city schools, but said that eight schools would be closed entirely to students in order to house residents made homeless by Sandy.

In a Friday night emergency address, Bloomberg said it was “terribly important” to resume classes after a week with no school. He even promised a “seat for every child” displaced by the storm — but he didn’t set a deadline.

“It’s not an optimal situation,” said Bloomberg. “We don’t have that kind of vacant schools.”

Meanwhile, officials told students from 57 “severely damaged” schools to report for class at the usual time Wednesday morning, but at temporary locations in other school buildings. The arrangement will continue until the battered schools are safe for occupancy, said Department of Education spokeswoman Erin Hughes.

“We’ve had facilities people in the field day and night, finding solutions,” said Hughes.

Education officials are working with bus companies to provide transportation for students, and will have updates for affected families on Monday or Tuesday.

Many closed schools are in low-lying neighborhoods in lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Schools in Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island and the Rockaways were particularly hard hit.

Education officials wouldn’t say when the schools ripped by Sandy would reopen, but teachers union President Michael Mulgrew said “at least 45” would remain closed through the end of the school year — in June 2013.

Not saying they could have solved this problem on Friday, but do you think the DOE could have better spent it's resources and people than having them work frantically to put together a PD day for Friday?

A commenter on the Daily News story asks the following:

 Shouldn't Walcott and the rest of Bloomberg's people have been working on this problem all week instead of standing behind Bloomberg at interminable news conferences doing nothing?

Gee, that's a good point.

Couldn't Walcott have been doing something more productive than working on the idiotic PD Day By Candlelight and making twice daily appearances by Bloomberg's side for his pressers?

Just another example of the screwed-up priorities of this administration and the people in it.

So much damage, yet rather than mitigate that damage, Bloomberg and Walcott  either ignore it or make it worse.

NYCDOE Releases Superstorm Sandy PD By Candlelight Program

Boy, this looks like a fun program Dennis Walcott put together for us - Accountable Talk has the details.

Wish I could make it, but there's no way I'm swimming the Hudson until some of that sewage overrun bleeds off.

Mulgrew Sucks

This is the best he could for tomorrow's nonsensical Superstorm Sandy PD By Candlelight extravaganza:

A message from Michael Mulgrew to UFT members:

I hope you made it through this terrible storm safely. For those of you who experienced the loss of loved ones, our deepest sorrow goes out to you. Our hearts also go out to those who lost their homes and possessions.

I want to thank the thousands of UFT members who volunteered in the schools that served as evacuation sites throughout the city. Onc

e again, our members stepped up when they were needed to help families and communities in need.

Now as the city begins the long and difficult process of recovery from this disaster, UFT members will again be taking the lead in helping the communities and the children they serve move forward. We will be using our UFT Disaster Relief Fund to collect donations to help UFT members who suffered losses as a result of the storm. And I know that our members will be there on Monday to offer moral support and solace to affected students and their families.

The DOE has asked all school-based staff to report to work on Friday. The DOE will be releasing a list of school buildings that will remain closed on Friday and telling staff from those buildings where to report. Among those schools, a smaller number have been severely damaged by the storm and will not reopen on Monday either.

Obviously, the safety of you and your family is important so be safe and don’t take unnecessary chances to get to work tomorrow. But if you can make it in, we encourage you to do so. If, for one of a vast number of legitimate reasons, you are unable to report to work tomorrow, the DOE has set up an online form where you can appeal the loss of a leave day for your absence. Teachers assigned may use the same process to appeal the loss of a week’s pay for being unable to report.

With the UFT website offline because of the power outage in lower Manhattan, we’ve been using the UFT Facebook page to keep members informed to the best of our ability. If you haven’t already done so, please “like” our page to receive the latest information we have in your Facebook newsfeed.

We've created two hotlines for UFT members with urgent concerns to call: 718-852-4900 in Brooklyn and 718-275-4400 in Queens. If you live in the other three boroughs, call either number for assistance. The hotlines will be staffed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday.

Again, stay safe and thanks for all that you have done this week to help the city navigate through this difficult time.

 

Thanks for nothing, Mike.

 

Why do we have a union again?

I bet teachers will remember this the next time you're up for election.

 

And if not, some of us will be sure to make sure they remember it.