Wednesday, September 8, 2010

DUBOIS AND STEWART ASK THE TOUGH QUESTIONS TO THE WATER DEPARTMENT!

     Last nights City Council meeting was primarily focused on the water billing problems. Two resolves were filed by the City Council, a resolve to call for an internal water audit that was passed. The audit will move forward and Michelle Dubois City Councilor Ward 6 moved for an amendment to change from lowest bidder to request for proposal or RFP. Many residents pushed for this type of audit because the council can take into any consideration any bid and not just the lowest and can obtain the services of an auditor that is best qualified for a water municipality.

     The next resolve was filed by City Councilor at Large Jass Stewart by calling for the Mayor, DPW Commissioner and water commission before the council to be questioned about water billing problems and who is being held accountable and how. Mr.Stewart questioned the Mayor and DPW commissioner for about one hour and he filed the resolve because "What appears to be a public relations blunder to say the least, that's beyond the sort of operational issues maybe the auditor will hope to clarify as well, but certainly the people are looking for answers and looking for clarity around this billing process".

     Mr.Stewart talked about the stereo types that has been perceived by the public about the water department not being competent and about possible conflicts of interest within the department itself with hiring process and that individuals are not responding to the problems in the department. He formed his questioning into three parts, the first with questions addressing the perception of the competence of the department and city government, a timeline of events and the billing process itself.

     "Is everyone qualified, does everyone have the right credentials for the job they have within your department" asked Stewart to Mr.Thoreson the DPW Commissioner."As far as management goes I believe they are all qualified as far as certificate goes". He gave the qualifications of the top management and Mr. Stewart asked "100% of the employees in the department are qualified and have the right credentials for the job", Mr. Thoreson replied "I believe so" with Mr. Stewart asking " You believe so or know so", Thoreson replied "I know so".

     "How do you handle in the conflict of interest people who are related by blood working within the department and reporting to each other" asked Stewart. " I don't believe, I'm trying to think if I got any related by blood that report to me and I don't believe they do" replied Thoreson. "Well maybe not to you, so are there any, My question what is your policy in general around, how does your department ensure the integrity in the reporting line around and inherent to conflict of interest of people who are related working within a department, whether it exits or not what is the policy there at DPW" asked Stewart.

     "The policy is I wont hire anyone that is related to me" replied Thoreson. " I don't mean just to you, it could be relatives, it could be a junior manager reporting to a senior manager, in general how does your department handle that" asked Stewart. "No one reports to each other directly, there are relations that work within the department, they don't report to each other directly" said Thoreson. "That's the policy" asked Stewart, "Yes" replied Thoreson." That's written policy" asked Stewart. "No" said Thoreson.

     Stewart followed this line of questioning on written policies on hiring relatives asking for the Mayors input and she replied "My policy is that, for me personally, I don't want any relatives reporting to other relatives and I believe that's just a basic conflict in general of state ethics and you can't have that and I know there was a situation a couple of years back at the school department and you can't have relatives that directly report to another relative, there has to be someone in between that they report to, you can't have that, that's my understanding for any employment policy for any municipality" said the Mayor. "Where not having that conflict here in Brockton" asked Stewart. "Truthfully, there has not been that many hires since I've been Mayor, but I would frown against that to begin with anyways, no you can't have that" replied the Mayor.

     Stewart followed thru with the question of what is the department doing about its long range plans now and how the billing ever got to a place where they were sending out a bill for $17,000 in the first place. Mr. Stewart continued with his questioning for about an hour and thanked the Mayor and DPW commissioner and water department with responding to the resolve and answering his questions.

     Following up after Mr.Stewart was Michelle Dubois Ward Six City Councilor. She questioned the DPW Commissioner for more than 30 minutes asking questions pertaining to specific cases in her ward and was prepared for battle with documents and bills provided by the residents and demanded answers and action. She took a no nonsense approach with the DPW and the water commission and kept firing back with residents issues one after another and not backing down on behalf of the residents.

     She drew much support from the crowd with applause and at one point(I have to say I have been so involved with this issue, that I have crossed some lines on this and have not been objective as I would of liked to be. I yelled out of frustration and anger because of dealing with this for 2 months and talking to dozens of residents about the stress they have been going thru. About 7 minutes after Michelle started speaking I lost it and sometimes need to back away and take a breath. I have worked with dozens of residents and they are stressed and sick and getting no resolve at all) This is the recorded part of her talking to DPW commissioner and the water commission, there is no video. The recording is about 40 minutes long. Click on the box below to listen to Councilor Dubois questioning Mr.Thoreson.

     Other council members asked questions to the DPW commissioner and the water department but Stewart and Dubois dominated the night and left no stone unturned.

     Two items were addressed tonight. The City is moving toward an audit and the Mayor, DPW commissioner and water management and water commission have finally been brought before the public to put a face on this crisis and answer the questions brought to them by the City Councilors. All residents are urged to call Mr.Thoreson themselves if they have any problems with there bills but he himself said in the meeting "They may not like get the answer they want or like what I have to say". The grass roots organization has been formed called"Brockton United Voices" Started by Ayanna Cato and Robert Ford who were in attendance at the meeting. You can reach them at http://www.brocktonunitedvoices.blogspot.com/ or email them at brocktonunitedvoices@gmail.com


     Ayanna Cato said that "This is more than about my billing issue now, its the residents who have a voice in this". She and Mr. Ford are urging all residents to get in contact via the new site. Also all residents are also being urged by them to get in contact with the Inspector Generals Office posted on their site. The whole city council meeting can be heard later when the BrocktonBeat posts the whole meeting on the site later today.



Councilor Dubois asking the tough questions to Mr.Thoreson regarding water billing crisis in Brockton. This is only part of the City Councilor meeting for 9-7-2010. This is Audio only, BrocktonBeat will publish the whole meeting in the next day or so.