cj barrimond  

Archived Blog Post

Date / Time: 5/23/2008 7:05 AM UTC

[Better Said Now Than Never Said At All]

There isn't really a category for this particular blog, because INCOMPETENCE, is not on the list. Now maybe my spelling is a bit jacked up, but at least if I am doing a job, I get the job done right the first time rather than spend countless hours doing nothing and doing it all wrong. Sometimes we run into people in this world who display great attributes and then we run into those that play a game with the general public and those bad attributes they have displayed for years appear to surface. They surface when we catch them cheating at that game they play with us. It is a shame when those attributes of greed, disrespect, and plain laziness are there claim to fame. In the city where I live, I have learned some of those players of this badly played game. When you as a supervisor of workers are associated with those attributes tells me you are not the kind of supervisor I want doing any job. I guess I am older and sometimes more wiser than I think I am. Maybe I learned too many lessons from my father about how to treat other people regardless of who they are or what they are. Maybe I am too set in my ways and expect more from city, state, federal officials.
Today we had a major wind storm in our city. During this so called wind storm we had some major damage. The streets here are lined with beautiful trees, or should I say trees that could have been beautiful if they were maintained the way they were supposed to have been. Last year I called the city councilman's office in district 1 because some of the trees lining the fence along clinton between brawley and blythe were in bad need of pruning. Some of the trees had very heavy branches and some had broken trunks. This made for some really ugly trees. The shrubs around the trees were over grown and out of shape. There was an enormous amount of garbage laying among the trees and shrubs. The graffiti was another subject for another day. There were no flowers, but lots of broken sprinkler lines and heads. There are street lights lining the street that do not work. The light people came out and supposedly fixed them. They did work correctly for a short time, but now they don't light. The sprinkler heads are still not fixed.
Well, today while standing in my back yard I stood there watching as one of those trees fell into the road way along clinton. I ascended the ladder to the pool and as I was standing there heard the cracking of branches from other trees along the road way in ear shot of my yard. While all this was happening, I watched my patio umbrella take flight. It landed in the neighbor's yard and was broken. I was by this time a bit pissed. I ran in the house picked up the phone and called the city councilman's office. I told that about the tree that I watched fall and a few other things. Needless to say they knew I was pissed. Now I should have never interjected my feelings into the phone call and should have probably been a bit more professional, but I wasn't. For that I apologize. If those trees had been pruned correctly last year that tree would never have gone down. The other branches would not have cracked. There are a couple of trees within plain view of my back yard that are in desperate need of pruning. There is one that if a strong enough wind gust comes thru it will land in my pool. Now if that happens, professionalism goes completely out the window. I will have no choice but to hire an attorney. We held elections last year for this new city councilman. He is supposed to be a nursery own. He is supposed to know these things about trees. He resides in the Tower District. The Tower District is attempting to revitalize themselves. The area has a woodstock type feel to it and it is great the way it is. But the rest of the district is being completely neglected. In the area of Ashland and Cornelia there is major drug dealing and homeowners who have let their property go. Now my area is a quiet place and the kids play in the street and until recently that was fine. Recently we have had a rash of speeding cars running our streets. Kids playing in the street has become very dangerous. We have asked the city councilman's office for stop signs. We were told they would send someone out to assess the area. Never heard another things from them.
Now I bet you have started figuring out who some of the people are displaying those bad attributes. Now as for that downed tree, a dump truck driver was driving by and made a u-turn. He decided the tree was too big to move and still needed to be cut from the remaining trunk and instead of getting a rope and pulling the tree off to the side even if on the sidewalk until tomorrow, he decided to run over the tree laying in the road with the dump truck. As he rolled over it, you heard the branches crackling. Now a redneck might say this is a jimmyrig way to remove a tree. We are supposed to be a bit smarter aren't we? As for the councilman, I think he fooled so many people in this district about how much he really cares about this district and it's people. He appears to be more concerned about the area he resides in. So I say, if you don't want to deal with the whole district, then get out of that office and let someone who is willing to sit there. It is easy, divide the district up into section and assign teams to do that particular area and have a supervisor assigned to each team. Now if you still get complaints in that area, then that tells me that supervisor is not doing his job. The councilman could drive the entire district in one day once a week and check on the work being done. He at this point can't really tell you anything about any of the work being done in any area but the Tower District.
Now on to the Mayor's office. Why would anyone say they have an open door policy if they have to approve why you want an appointment with the mayor during those open door times? Did you catch that little glitch I just said? (You need and appointment during an open door time!) Now if you really had some concerns and you called for this appointment, he has the right to decline taking the time to sit and listen to your concerns. Now is it me, or is there something wrong with that? Now I bet you think I am doing nothing but just complaining. Well, maybe but not as much as you think. What I am trying to do is bring to light the attributes displayed by these people we elected under false pretenses and the con game that has been played on us. We the people in this city are paying high paychecks to officials in this city that literally sit on those butts and pushing papers around. They don't do anything else. The Police Chief is another person that displays some of those same attributes. Though he is not an elected official, when is the last time you called to report a crime and was not satisfied with the respect you received or you e-mails the chief of police and never got a response or reply from him? I know for a fact that I have e-mails the chief on several occasions and never received a reply. I have also e-mailed the Mayor of this city and got the same lack of respect. I have a question for the mayor being as he feels no need to respond to the public's e-mails, did you take this job because you were washed up as an actor?
Here is another thing you the general public needs to know. When you place a call to the city building at 3:13 p.m. in the afternoon, would you not expect to get an individual to answer that call? If so, why does it take 4 mins to get someone to answer that phone? Isn't proper phone etiquette on the second ring? Evidently not at city hall. I would love to have the mayor's position for one month. There are some changes that could be implemented in this city and some waste that could be eliminated. I would also like the City Councilman's job for one month. There is so much work that could be done and the old saying, "a days work for a dollar" would mean something. I have a street sweeper the second tuesday of each month that sweeps my street in front of my house and that man does a job that I could not complain about. He makes several passes and when he is done, my gutters and the street are clean the way they are supposed to be. My trash man on fridays, he is another person that does the job he is expected to do. These two men obviously take pride in the job they do. So what is wrong with the rest of the workers, city councilman, mayor and other officials. We have city officials that you will never see in their office, but let that TV cameraman set up and that mug is right there to be photographed. They haven't really done anything that is noteworthy, but they expect to have that face plastered all over the TV. Greed, laziness, disrespect. Have I showed you these attributes in these people? Do you see them being displayed as much as I do? If you answer yes to those two questions, I now have to ask you, What should be done about it? Their greed is making them richer, their laziness is not getting work done the correct and efficient way, disrespect is leaving a bad taste in everyones mouth.
Are these the attributes you want in any employee you hire to do a job? If not, then why would we accept them from people who are in positions to achieve goals for people who are unable to? If I taught my children to respect their elders and to respect others as they would expect others to respect them, and you did the same thing, then why would we accept the opposite from someone else? I guess the human behavior is a strange thing and alot of people don't quite understand most of it. Why, I don't know.
Now as a homeowner, you would think you would take pride in both your home and yard. I guess that is another myth. I have several neighbors around me that really do alot of work weekly to make their yards look impeccable. Their homes are in great repair and it makes them feel proud. Then you have those around you that just don't care at all. Their lawn is in need of mowing, there are weeds where grass should be, there is weeds where there should be none. The lawn is dried and about 12 inches high. When is the last time it was watered? They don't water because as they say we are in a water crunch. Where did that come from? All the trees and shrubs around the house are also dry. Do you see something creeping up here? FIRE! A little water and that word would not be plastered all over the front of that house. If you didn't want to do yard work on the weekends or fix things around a house, then why even bother buying one. You could have bought a condo and hired a gardener for the yard. You could also had a handyman on speed dial to fix things. So if a house is the only really good investment we can put our money in, why not take special care of it and let it take care of us?

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