Budget and Workforce Update From Mayor Bartlett

I was forwarded this note from one of my sources who is a City Of Tulsa Employee.

Dear City of Tulsa employees,

Members of the AFSCME union polled Wednesday chose workforce reductions as opposed to across the board pay reductions of five percent for all non-sworn employees.

We will honor that decision. It will apply to all departments, except sworn police and fire personnel.

We also gave the police and fire unions a choice between workforce reductions and salary/incentive reductions. The original proposed plans from the departments included layoffs. I did not believe the numbers of layoffs proposed for the front lines of the departments were acceptable, and I asked the police and fire chiefs to present plans that included reorganizations that would help them save money and save jobs on the front lines.

I also offered an alternative proposal to the fire and police unions that included a salary reduction and other cuts to incentive pay and benefits. I left the decision to them. The fire and police union leaders have not submitted the salary reduction proposal to their membership for a vote, nor have they reached an agreement on any of the concession items on the table.

The police and fire unions are still in discussions with my management team regarding any and all alternative expense reduction proposals made to date, whether from my office, the unions or the department leadership. We have informed the departments and union leadership that they must reach an agreement to either accept the proposed plan for salary reductions or an alternative by noon Friday, January 22, in order to avoid layoffs in those departments. We will keep you informed via e-mail and management if there are any new developments.

Today, Fire Chief LaCroix and Police Chief Palmer are scheduling meetings with employees that would be affected by the workforce reductions in order to prepare for layoffs and initiate the seven-day notification period.

Department directors are beginning to schedule meetings with affected employees. Human Resources will provide all the information needed to make decisions with respect to other positions in the department and applications for openings within the City of Tulsa, bumping processes and severance pay. The workforce reductions will be effective Feb. 1. Eligible, non-probationary employees will receive two weeks of compensation.

Employees with seniority who are eligible to take other positions in their department will be given the right to “bump” employees with less seniority.

This e-mail should be considered as a seven-day notification to employees who could be affected by the bumping process.

Please contact your manager, or department head with your questions so they may forward them to the appropriate Human Resources representative; or submit your questions to Human Resources at 596-7427 or jobs@cityoftulsa.org to be forwarded to a Human Resources representative.

Regards,

Mayor Dewey Bartlett

Be Prepared for Broken Water Lines

This is from the City of Tulsa E-news. I thought there was some good info in here so I yanked the whole thing for a blog post.

Single-digit temperatures are forecast for Tulsa within the next few days.

That means home and business owners should be prepared to deal with frozen water pipes in and around their structures and with interruptions in water service.

Expansion and contraction of soils as the earth freezes and thaws often breaks water lines. The City has waterline repair crews on duty and on call around-the-clock. The repair crews try to restore service as quickly as possible to minimize inconvenience to customers, but some interruptions are unavoidable.

Residents can fill clean containers to store water for a few days when extremely cold temperatures are expected locally.

In some homes, especially older homes and those built on raised foundations instead of slabs it may be wise to take measures to protect pipes from freezing. Caution should also be used with additional heat sources used for warming pipes. Fires are caused each winter by improperly used electrical space heaters or open-flame heating devices.

Anyone noticing water bubbling up from the ground or running down the streets in spots that are not normally wet can report suspected water line breaks by calling the City of Tulsa's Water Emergency Line at 596-9488. You can also complete an online form to alert the Mayor's Action Center about the location of the water line break.

Switching to Windstream Fail

I tried and failed o switch to Windstream for my telephone/internet service on Saturday. I twittered my frustrations and was surprised to find that Windstream was monitoring Twitter. We have a few back and forth tweets which ultimately culminated into an email from me to Windstream.

Here is some more info regarding our Twitter conversation.

http://twitter.com/sroemerm/status/7314219216
http://twitter.com/windstream/status/7368056213
http://twitter.com/sroemerm/status/7369485082
http://twitter.com/sroemerm/status/7369521208
http://twitter.com/windstream/status/7370192612

I live at 74** S ***th East Ave Tulsa Ok, 74133. ph # 918-***-****
(This address is about 2 blocks from Broken Arrow.)

When I called I was told that Windstream does not service Tulsa...twice.

Exhibit 1.  I know for a fact that there are Windstream cables in my yard because I called to have my back yard marked before I planted a tree.
Exhibit 2. You guys have been sending me ad mailers for well over a year.
Exhibit 3.  When I go to your website, it recognizes my number as one that is in the Windstream service area, although it thinks it is a Broken Arrow phone number.  I suspect that Windstream has a fundamental misunderstanding regarding the boundaries of Tulsa vs. Broken Arrow.

Your sales agent actually suggested that I  find a neighbor that has Windstream so that I could prove I was in the service area and/or call customer service business hours.

Conclusion 1.  Windstream is not competent to handle my telephony needs.
Conclusion 2.  You do not have 24/7 customer service.
Conclusion 3.  I have learned that the beginning of a business relationship is a good indicator for how the rest of the relationship will function.  My very first interaction with Windstream has been so disappointing that  I will probably not be chaining my service.

Regards,
Steven H Roemerman Sr

I'd ask if anyone else in Tulsa has had a good or bad experience with Windstream but since according to Windstream no one in Tulsa has Windstream service, I'll ask my Broken Arrow neighbors how they feel about Windstream. What say you BA? Should I give them another chance?

[UPDATE]

Mr. Roemerman -

I was able to confirm we do service your area. If you would like to give us a 2nd chance I can have someone from our Install group call you to place the Installation order. Just let me know the best number and time of day to reach you.

Thank you again for letting me know what happened.

Mollie