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Who’s zooming who about REU?
As you might recall from our Aug. 18 report, the city of Redding says a private investigation into mismanagement at its Redding Electrical Utility Customer Service Division is being kept secret because no violations were found and no one was disciplined.
But more than a dozen documents and interviews with several people close to the situation indicate that the more likely reason is that top bosses can’t afford another major management embarrassment.
Embarrassed it would be: It is safe to say the investigation report would show a worse-than-ever service system, death-grip micromanagement, middle-school mind games and more than one low-rent rendezvous.
(The people we talked to were afraid for their jobs and reputations, and requested anonymity. We know their names and the names of the people involved.)
City Attorney Rick Duvernay said in a letter denying access to records that the investigations did not begin because of allegations of misconduct.
In fact, documents show there were two employee complaints of harassment or hostile work environment leading up to the investigation. One employee quit under duress last fall and another left in January.
Others echo those concerns. They say the city version is incomplete at best, and they want a turn at telling their version.
They cite the following conditions in REU Customer Service:
- Upper managers practice favoritism, bullying, divide-and-conquer manipulation, and retaliation.
- People are promoted to positions without passing required city tests.
- People who have passed required city tests are passed over for promotion.
- Records have disappeared and/or been shredded.
- Open positions aren’t posted as required.
- Time sheets are faked up for favored employees.
- Errors are covered up for favored employees.
- Errors are rarely tracked until an employee falls out of favor. The employee is targeted and intensely monitored, and all errors are logged.
- File records contain false information, bad and good.
- For favored employees, temporary upgrades and “best fit assessments” replace standard operating procedure. Employees are told, “It’s best for the reorganization.” (The reorganization happened years ago, created in 2005 by Director Bernie Fargen, who was hired out of Roseville to come shape things up. Insiders say the reorganization and consultant cost more than $100,000.)
- Upper managers yell and curse. They laugh at colleagues inside and outside the division, calling people names such as “Fat Ass.”
- Employees are told to pick sides in the office and to be “very careful about making the right choices, the right friends and the right barbecues to go to.” They call disliked employees “the dark side.”
- Seating is arranged according to which employees are in favor.
- Managers spend time after hours socializing, camping, hunting, and going out drinking with favorite employees. They have shown up to work talking about being “still drunk.”
- City-issued cell phones are used to arrange romantic trysts among employees.
- One manager is said to have a particular fondness for Crown Royale but jokes about drinking vodka because it can’t be smelled. Apparently, though, the detox fumes shoot from the manager’s pores all day long. Complaints about it are called baseless.
- Out-of-town conferences are arranged for favored employees who are romantically involved.
- Many Customer Service employees have been diverted to an ongoing storm-drain revenue-reclamation effort. Remaining employees are under daily strain to handle the workload. One to three clerks handle the front counter.
- Customer service suffers - on the phone or in the lobby, waits are long and frequent.
- The office receives some 300-600 calls a week, depending on the day. Calls are transferred round and round to nowhere because there’s no one to answer.
- Out-of-favor employees are rotated into the front counter as a form of punishment. “They put people in the jobs they hate the worst.”
- Employees are pressured to make phone service look great. Everything else is secondary. Calls are to be handled in three minutes or less, or sent to “the back.” Call times can be and are easily faked. Reports indicating improved service and procedures are a crock.
- Employees are doing work they aren’t qualified to do and aren’t supposed to do. For example, supervisors are supposed to balance the cash drawers, but the billers do it.
- Employees are required to work mandatory overtime on 90 minutes’ notice or less.
- While there’s a shortage of employees, there are more managers and supervisors than ever: about 14 managers for 22-30 employees, depending on the number of empty positions. Union steward Becky Kraft of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, which represents the service workers, estimated the current ratio to be 1:1.6. Indeed, memos to eight Customer Service representatives often are cc’d to 10 supervisors.
- The front counter takes in $10,000 to $90,000 depending on the day, but internal controls are impossible to follow because of the lack of manpower. Too much easy cash and easy access makes employees nervous. Safety and security concerns are ignored or met with shouting and write-ups.
- Open cash drawers are stacked unlocked in the back and left for counting. Anyone has access to them. Yet if an employee’s cash drawer is off by even $1, they can be fired.
- Different tasks require employees to report to different supervisors. Employees often don’t know which supervisor handles which activities. Tracking down approvals requires a great deal of time.
- Work backlogs delay other city departments, such as treasury or the meter readers. The wait for meter re-reads (triggered by customer disputes) went from one to two days to two to three weeks.
- Emails, voicemails and faxes used to be handled in the same day. Now there are stacks of printed emails, phone messages and faxes, more than 100 some days.
- Nobody says “lie to customers” but employees are told to “sugarcoat” problems, true or not. “It’s all about creating smokescreens.”
- Employees who question or resist the structure are punished. Turnover is high. Positions stay unfilled, causing further service delays and backlogs.
- Many employees are medicated with antidepressants. Anxiety and panic attacks are common. Everyone’s chronically ill but works anyway.
- Employees are told they can’t sigh or rub their heads in meetings because it indicates disrespect or an unsupportive attitude.
- Employees are told they must participate in meetings.
- Employee morale is terrible, many are terrified, and others feel trapped between managers “and are lying low, just hoping to stay out of the splatter zone.”
- Employees are afraid to talk to Personnel because of a web of close relationships in management. Details have a way of coming back to one’s supervisors.
- Employees believe Personnel is selective about relating problems to Director Feider, to cover friends’ mistakes.
- Customer Service managers routinely socialize after hours with Personnel managers.
- One Personnel employee kept her job after the City Hall sex scandal last year; as it happens, the boss’s daughter is her close friend.
- Requests to talk to anyone higher are routinely denied.
- Employees aren’t real keen on talking to union stewards, either. Union representatives are discouraged - one employee was scolded for having “a strange man” at her desk. One manager drives by employees’ houses during union meetings and other times.
- When a union rep showed up unexpectedly at a meeting, one employee said, “the previous month’s meeting was suddenly the meeting we were having.”
- When pressed to release the report, the Personnel director “became visibly upset (red-faced, loud and shaking) and said she would not let that investigation out even if it meant her job - she won’t be smeared in the newspaper again,” Kraft said. Another individual described the same scene. That was shortly after the city came clean this year about high-level sex scandals, a management upheaval at the Convention Center and the theft-and-pilfering scandal at the Solid Waste Division.
- Ian Arnold, a union field supervisor whose region is the upper California interior and encompasses some 10,000 members, says he’s never seen such an “atmosphere of abject fear.” His office plans to file charges of unfair labor practices with the Public Employment Relations Board next week to force the report’s release, which he said is a rare occurrence. “We’re supposed to take the city’s statements at face value,” he said. “But we can’t simply take Jim Feider’s and Kurt Starman’s word for it that issues are solved when our members are telling us they’re not. If we have to get a judge to order the release of the documents, we will.”
- The city says the union cannot represent former employees and has no standing. However, a former employee says Personnel told her that because the union still acts as her representative in an “active investigation,” she cannot have access either.
Insiders say all this was told to the investigator and should be in the report.
Two people said that when Personnel submitted the report to the REU director’s office, “revisions” were requested and incorporated. The report was then sealed shut. Arnold said Johnson told him the original final report no longer exists, the revised final report is locked up, and the union can see neither.
Johnson and Feider stated in a July 22 letter to the union that the only people who’ve viewed the secret report are the personnel director, the utility director and the city attorney. Does that mean City Manager Starman doesn’t know all the details?
So, some questions remain:
- Is the harassment investigation closed or still active?
- Has the city manager read the investigation report or not?
- How much taxpayer money did the 2004 consultant cost?
- How much taxpayer money did the 2005 reorganization cost?
- How much taxpayer money did the 2008 investigation cost?
- How much taxpayer money did the city spend in 2007 and 2008 to fight two public-records requests that later were judged in court to be releasable public records?
- A second REU public-records request was filed with the city Friday. How much more taxpayer money will the city spend to fight the release of this investigation report?
- If there’s nothing objectionable in the report, what’s the big secret?
- Who is authorized to guarantee secrecy to public employees?
- If a director can revise an independent report about his department and then seal the report, where are the checks and balances? To whom is that director accountable?
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City Hall has had multiple opportunities to speak about the investigation yet will only repeat that there was no harassment, no misconduct, no disciplinary action and no reason to release the report.
Really, City Hall?
Really?
1,709 views
Hi Kelly - Holy cow, this is unbelievable. Quick question, are the bullets listed under “They cite the following conditions in REU Customer Service” bullets that you wrote based on your interviews, or did someone from REU provide them? It’s an exhaustive bulleted list, and a little difficult to read in my opinion. Any chance you can number them instead? Just a suggestion. It might be easier for folks like me who are “bullet impaired.”
Thanks!
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Before any on-line or newspaper articles even appeared I was told by some REU employees that thinggs mentioned in your article were in fact true. I was told that one manager smells like he has been drinking. I also think that a 1:1.6 manager to employee ratio is a great way for a cash strapped city to spend it’s funds on. If this was a private sector job at least half of those managers would be given their walking papers.
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From reading this article it seems to me that an idependant inquirey is needed as soon as possible.
The management have a lot to answer for and the system is falling around them.
Simply not good enough!
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Mr. Starman….City Councilors….who is leading this city? It has been my experience that this kind of thing starts at the top and works it way down. Is the top Mr. Feider, or Starman, maybe this is leftovers from MW? Come on COR, get your shit together.
Time for some fresh blood on the City Council folks. Status quo isn’t working. Thanks for digging Mrs. Brewer, keep it up.
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What I want to know is why my dam electric bill is so high. I leave everything off except for the refridgerator for 8 days while I was away and instead of going down it went up! I asked the meter reader when he was here and he said that was common for most.
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Dear Miss Information,
The bullet points are written by me based on interviews and documents. I used bullets instead of numbers because numbers can connote a hierarchy, consciously or subconsciously, that I didn’t intend. Placement can, too, I realize, but we must start somewhere. The points are loosely grouped according to a general topic. Thank you for letting me know they were hard to read. I’ve reposted the story in a different font (Verdana) that might be a bit easier on the eyes.
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Thanks, Kelly.
The REU, if the reports are correct, is a sad situation. The following may seem odd to mention, but it also falls into the way the whole situation of the City of Redding thinks about running of the City itself.
Personally I had a problem with a gentleman who came out from the water dept. a few years ago. For a number of years before coming back, we lived in WA where I was in charge of the water for a small water system. Sat on a County Board, Board Director on a State Board. I wrote the Fed’s EPA required documents. One thing was water systems are required to regulated water during the summer, in particular, such as watering times, days, etc.
I had called the Water Department out for some reason such as water from the main in the street flowing. I noticed some of the homes on my street watering their lawns up to four (4) times a day. The ground was so saturated the water runs down the sidewalks into the street’s gutters.
During the converstation, I mentioned the Fed EPA, plus the fact water is not and I stress, is not, a renewable source if more is consumed by the consumer than falls from the sky to go into the underground aquifers. He said we didn’t have to worry here because our water came from below the Sacramento River! It took about three (3) minutes before he ‘got’ the idea when I said I felt Redding was not complying with the Fed EPA, he said to me, “Shush, don’t tell anyone because we make money off the water!”
The whole City seems to be in disarray. We need to clean up from top to bottom. If we can’t clean up our own city, it is pretty sad situation!
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Two months ago, I had a question about my bill. After trying three times, and sitting on hold for more than 20 minutes each time, I gave up. What a shock after my nearly sixteen years of exceptional customer service from REU!
So the saddest part to me - all those great workers who have been so negatively impacted, and who can no longer do their “normal” - an outstanding job!
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That’s quite a laundry list!
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How can we expect to put responsible people in office in our national elections when we cannot even find responsible people to run our cities?
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Kelly,
I first must start by saying thank you for publishing the REU’s situation that has staggered on.
My name is Christine and I am from the Bay Area and have never lived or worked in Redding and who
would want to with management as incompetent and unable to resolve issues the workers are having
to endure. I just wanted to say this kind of usless management is really rampant and it takes all you have
to survive through favoritism and getting ahead by doing special favors for special people.
Our similiar case sent people to the hospital, suffered an anurism, panic attacks and a multitue of other
physical ailments. We all need our jobs and that has not changed. I am happy to say 2 years later the
Union and Legal Assistanace brought this to a halt and cleaned up managers, especially where you have
1 or 2 people per managers….alittle top heavy don’t you think? With so many people in management, who
is left to serve the public.
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A manager should be capable of supervising 6-8 persons. The REU ratio is BIZARRE……… and would never happen in a private business. And it’s MY money being wasted.
Keep going, Kelly!
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I moved here from the Bay Area 7 years ago and I have found the events happening in Redding unbelievably shocking - I worked in a job where much of the same favortism was shown and company procedures ignored also - but it is even worse when taxpayer money is involved - With all the people out of work and those desperate to hold on to their jobs - it is an outrage to have so many managers and such intimidation going on. Someone needs to step to the plate and take care of this - It’s outrageous!!!!! Thanks Kelly for keeping us aprised.
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Kelly, I am appalled at the situation in the Electric department. This information should go further and out to the public. I have lived here for 40 years, and have often thought this city has been run by morons. Now I know. I also wish the street department (whatever it is called) would paint the white lines on Old Alturas Rd, Shasta View, (and probably others) before there are accidents — must be really hard to see those areas after dark — bad enough in the daytime. Just another example of a rather negligent city.
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It’s a shame the poor customer service representatives (many of whom have been there much longer than the newer manager) have to endure such a situation. It’s one thing to go to work and be stressed out about your job. Most people are stressed nowadays. But it’s something entirely different when you go to work having to be medicated on antidepressents and/or anxiety pills because you’re scared to death of the management, scared of who to talk to and who not to talk to, never knowing when you will be the next one targeted. All this on top of having to talk to irate customers (rightfully so) who have been on hold for 30+ minutes. I hope the citizens of Redding will understand these aren’t your “stereotypical” government workers complaining about having to work. This is a blatant violation of workers’ rights and the fact that they (management) have been able to get away with it for as long as they have. I am left to question how on god’s green acres they were able to justify the amount of money spent (for the consultant) and for the end result of a 1:1.6 ratio of managers/supervisors to employees. I would like the City Manager and the Electric Director to answer how they believe this is a justifiable action in spending ratepayers’ dollars.
I would also like to know how someone can get in a higher position even though they didn’t take the required tests? If I go down to apply for a city job, I need to pass a test, just like everyone else does. I’d like personnel to answer how and why this can be done. How can a person got a job over several others who are willing and more-than-capable of doing the job - not to mention passed the test fair and square!! Does that mean that the tests don’t mean anything? What credibility do these tests have anymore?
The investigator, Diane Davis, knows exactly what has gone on, as she is the one who handled the entire investigation by interviewing everyone. Thankfully, this was done by an independent investigator. If it’s true that the city has destroyed the original report, Ms. Davis would also have a copy of the original along with audiotapes of all the interviews. If the city has nothing to hide, why not release the reports, and why would you destroy the original (if that’s true)? Of course the very few people who had the final say on the reports’ findings say that nothing’s wrong. They have everything to lose. Why not just black out the names, release it, and see if everyone else feel the same way. The water’s getting hot, boys!
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This sounds like a Redding Tabloid. I do not work for the city. Have never had a problem with the customer service so I guess I am just lucky. I know employees of Redding City Hall who are not in management and they seem to love there job and how well they are treated at the city. Benefits include a monthly gym membership and massage every month. Ouch. As for high electric bills. All the information to deduce that is on your bill. Kilowatt hours and how many you have used. Sorry to be the only one playing devils advocate. I feel like someone has to after reading a one sided article with no verified facts. I could list of pages of negative things people have told me but gosh most of them are not true. People thrive on gossip. Everyone knows that is true. If you disagree you have to know your lying. The only one that struck me was this the one quoted below. The whole world is chronically ill, its called Mc Donald’s and lack of exercise. What dose a lack of taking care of yourself have to do with work. I know its not the city job dragging them down if they have Anxiety. Have you looked at other aspects in there life? I am pretty sure a psychiatrist would not have jumped to that conclusion. Okay, that is all that I have to say.
* Many employees are medicated with antidepressants. Anxiety and panic attacks are common. Everyone’s chronically ill but works anyway.
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This type of cover up must stop. Not only do we need new council people, we need new management.
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No other city or business of this size has 4 big stories about internal problems in one year that not mismanaged. It’s the elitest atitude that runs throughout the city. Middle management hides the facts and employees are afraid to report.
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