Another e-mail from staff

An e-mail came in Friday from a frustrated ITA staffer trying to do their job but needing to jump through hoops to get that work done:

Subject: What are they trying to hide ???

Fellow Rumblers, it has come to my attention that Randi and her 14th floor cronies have given orders to lock-out access to many of the folders on the networked shared drives. What exactly do they have to hide? Is this the Pentagon with Top Secret, highly classified information? Last time I checked, this was a public entity with fiduciary duty to be open and honest with the public, let alone it's employees. In fact, with this continued suppression of information, will Rumblings become the only source news and views withing ITA?

First, thanks for the e-mail.

Second, not one thing that Rumblings has published and shed light on was pulled off of any ITA file server. Everything was published officially by ITA or culled from the internet. All of it was disemminated to ITA staff, for the first time through this blog.

This further shows the narrow sightedness of your management.

Rumblings receives a kind word

Rumblings wants to send a shout out and thank you to both Leslie Dutton of the Full Disclosure Network and Zuma Dogg of the LA Daily Blog for recognizing our efforts to bring transparency to all things ITA.

Check out their sites when you can:

http://www.fulldisclosure.net/

http://ladailyblog.blogspot.com/

Grading Randi

Voting has ended in the first Rumblings in ITA Poll:

"Grade Randi's performance in her first year".

Grade Votes (%)

A - 21 (13%)

B - 11 (7%)

C - 14 (8%)

D - 25 (16%)

F - 85 (54%)

156 votes

Randi's GPA: 1.09

Thanks to all that voted. Check out the current poll question.

City Hall shakeup. Randi losing an ally?

Mayor Sam's Sister City website and the LA Times are reporting that there is a movement happening at City Hall. City Administrative Officer Karen Sisson is leaving her post to take a position at Pomona College. Replacing her is former Mini Mayor deputy Marcus Allen.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sisson26mar26,1,531221.story

Rumor has it, yet unconfirmed, is that Tony Villars' current Chief of Staff - Robin Kramer is leaving as well.

Ummm, nevermind

Looking somewhat beaten down and hackneyed ITA GM Randi Levin and her trusty side-KICK, AGM Roger Fernandez, made a trek back from City Council chambers to CHE14 earlier today. What pressing command could have elicited such a dour pall? One could only wonder as the two trudged home, tails-a-dragging.

Not much more than an hour would pass before the light would shine in an email from the 311 supervisor. Stealing the favorite salutation of ITAs’ Queen Bee:

“Team”, per Roger Fernandez, the 3-1-1 Call Center will remain open for the Cesar Chavez Holiday. Please retract all notifications indicating that 3-1-1 will be closed.

It appears Madame IT and her lap dog failed to get permission from the powers that be. All those “economic uncertainties” she spoke of in her 3/19 memo paled in comparison to the needs of the constituents and those of city clientele.

Rumblings must wonder out loud, in this climate of change and shifting winds at City Hall, whether asking for forgiveness after the fact really is better than asking for permission in advance?

Guess that depends on who gets spanked.
___________________________________

UPDATE: Thanks to a fellow Rumbler for the link.

It was Councilmembers Parks and Cardenas that called Randi on the carpet (pun intended).

http://clkrep.lacity.org/councilfiles/08-0687_mot_3-25-08.pdf

What Service?

"311 shutting down for the Cesar Chavez Holiday".

With less than two weeks to prepare, ITA client departments were notified by Randi (3/19) that it would be necessary for them to "make adjustments" to handle their own urgent service calls that day.

Under the guise of "unprecedented budget shortfalls", Randi made the tough decision for ITA/311 to abandon support for:

• EOC Activation/Emergency Preparedness
• LAPD TEAMS II (Federally mandated "Consent Decree" system)
• City property/facility incidents
• Bureau of Street Services dispatch (mudslides, downed trees, etc.)
• City vehicle services
• Field crew dispatch (emergency structural inspections)

These issues as well as many other off-hour notification services will now fall back to the departments to handle on their own.

As it seems unlikely that City departments can just drop these services altogether, Rumblings wonders how moving the burden of these processes back to departments will impact the bottom line Citywide. Wont they have to have their own staffs on-call and handling these inquiries? Departments need to get used to it, word is that ITA will be dropping 311 services during off hours (Holidays, nights and weekends) on a permanent basis.

Hey, but as the Mini Mayor said in his video plea to City staff "we are all in this together".

http://lacity.org/mayor/budgetmessage/

Just don't call ITA.

E-mail from staff

Subject: Vehicle reduction plan

So now our wonderful Mayor in order to show the public to what lengths he is willing to go to help the City's budget deficit woes has directed his staff to give up their City vehicles.

This directive has now been extended to ITA which has been told to reduce it's fleet by 10%. Never mind that the largest pool of vehicles in ITA is used to service mission critical public safety communications, never mind the fact the vehicles are used daily to service the City's network and communications infrastructure, support it's business needs, it's ability to generate revenue and collect taxes, etc., without such support the City would cease to function. So never mind, cut your vehicle pool by 10% across the board without regard to operational needs. Make your sacrifice like his Honor and his staff.

What possible savings can be realized from such a boneheaded plan? The vehicles in question are not perks used for convenience sake, but essential transportation for mission critical communications support. Will Bureau of Sanitation be asked to reduce it's fleet of trash trucks by 10%? Or will LAPD and LAFD be told to reduce their patrol cars and fire trucks by 10%? The public wouldn't put up with having to wait for emergency responders at the scene of a crime or fire, or suffer delays in having trash collected from the City streets, so why put the public at risk by reducing field service vehicles supporting public safety communications?

The management in our department and the leadership in this City is asleep at the wheel.

The good, the bad and the ugly.

Randi's plan to quash months of hard work by City staffers (including ITA staff) and replace the vendor (CGI) that was selected to implement the City's next Financial Management System (FMS) was re-buffed in Information Technology/General Services Committee yesterday.

Randi, long known as an advocate of SAP products, will have to lick her wounds on this one. The ITGS Committee demanded that Madame ITA begin negotiating immediately with the chosen vendor.

Unfortunately, last Thursday (3/13) Mini Mayor wrote a memo to all City departments on "Information Technology Efficiency" giving ITA and Randi oversight over all things "IT" in the City.

Rumblings is certain that IT leadership throughout other City departments is seething. Yes, that's right folks, the CIO Initiative that Liza Lowery swooned over has now been dusted off and repackaged as the "new and improved", CTO Initiative.

"Hey Sanitation Bureau, that server you just bought clashes with Randi's new carpet, get rid of it".

Tech Gods save us all.

City Furlough Participation as of 3/1

1 Mayor's Office 460 hours for $ 18,042.16
2 Library 280 hours for $ 9,411.77
3 Public Works - Engineering 232 hours for $ 9,385.21
4 City Attorney 216 hours for $ 10,089.40
5 General Services 152 hours for $ 5,060.92
6 Housing 140 hours for $ 3,579.46
7 Information Technology Agency 128 hours for $ 5,907.83
8 Public Works - Street Services 108 hours for $ 3,425.46
9 Public Works - Board 87 hours for $ 2,374.59
10 Police (civilian) 80 hours for $ 2,536.93
11 Planning 71 hours for $ 2,595.81
12 Aging 69 hours for $ 2,456.01
13 Community Development 59 hours for $ 1,905.00
14 Zoo 56 hours for $ 2,384.72
15 Transportation 56 hours for $ 2,259.52
16 Public Works - Street Lighting 56 hours for $ 1,842.47
17 Recreation & Parks 50 hours for $ 1,259.00
18 Neighborhood Empowerment 40 hours for $ 1,319.32
19 Personnel 35 hours for $ 1,558.56
20 Human Relations 34 hours for $ 985.44
21 City Clerk 28 hours for $ 815.53
22 Ethics 27 hours for $ 865.08
23 Children, Youth & Families 24 hours for $ 1,373.76
24 Status of Women 16 hours for $ 794.08
25 Environmental Affairs 16 hours for $ 716.84
26 City Administrative Officer 12 hours for $ 567.14
27 City Treasurer 9 hours for $ 204.30
28 Public Works - Contract Administration hours for 8 $ 214.08
29 Disability 8 hours for $ 347.04
30 Building & Safety 4 hours for $ 151.24
31 Fire (civilian) 2 hours for $ 64.26
32 Animal Services 0 hours for $ 0
33 City Controller 0 hours for $ 0
34 City Council 0 hours for $ 0
35 Convention Center 0 hours for $ 0
36 Cultural Affairs 0 hours for $ 0
37 El Pueblo 0 hours for $ 0
38 Emergency Management 0 hours for $ 0
39 Finance 0 hours for $ 0
40 Public Works - Sanitation 0 hours for $ 0

Total 2563 hours for $ 94,492.93

Guess it ain't so bad afterall

"Have you seen the 4th Financial Status Report that was released by the CAO on 3/12/08?

http://cityclerk.lacity.org/CFI/DisplayOnlineDocument.cfm?SRT=D1&cfnum=07-0600-S82

The City's budget deficit has been reduced to approximately $12.44 million for the current fiscal year (see page 1, second paragraph).

Albeit this is due to various budget balancing recommendations throughout the year that Council and Mayor have adopted in order to reduce the deficit (like transferring from one account to another, etc.).

However, the bottom line remains....the deficit that they projected at mid-year (January/February) of $154.9 million has now shrunk to $12.44 million in two months time. (Amazing!)

This is what they do ... get everyone riled up and worried about layoffs so that we will agree to anything (like a renegotiation of the raises recently approved) ... and then end the year on budget or with a surplus.

Let's see if the $400-$500 million projected deficit for next fiscal year will be as 'accurate' as the estimates for the current fiscal year.

Maybe at the yard sale where we sell Randi's "old" office furniture, we could sell the plasma TV that was recently installed in the front reception area for non-existent visitors that was purchased in this fiscal year...remember, the same fiscal year that we are projecting such a deficit in ITA. The only one reaping any benefit from the TV is the receptionists".

One has to wonder will the Mini Mayor hold a press conference to announce these exciting developments? Highly unlikely.

Rumble away!

Layoffs

Right on the heels of sending out the latest info on the very unsuccessful "Work Furlough Program", comes word from ITA's illustrious Time Keeper regarding the Mini Mayor's threatened "layoffs".

"Fellow Colleagues:

Many of you have received, or will be receiving Employee Personal Work History Verification documentation. It is imperative that the documentation be reviewed thoroughly and the requested information be completed, and submitted as instructed no later than Tuesday, March 25th, 2008. The memo indicates that you should contact your designated personnel liaison regarding suspected errors. Due to the projected volume of inquiries, we ask that you instead contact the ITA-HR main line at 213-978-3333 for all inquiries regarding your work history. An HR representative may be able to assist you or schedule you for an appointment with an Analyst to discuss your issue.

As the attached memo indicates, this exercise is being used to EVALUATE the effects of potential layoff and is not, and should not be interpreted as a notice that layoffs are imminent. The City is continuing to explore options to avoid layoffs.

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation in reviewing your employment work history".

ITA employees are being asked to validate their own "Employee Work History Verification" documents. According to Randi's missive attached in Ruben's e-mail, the information on these forms will be used to establish pecking orders.

Pure political posturing folks, the diminutive Mayor is trying to look tough. Layoffs cost more than they save, just ask the DWP.

Additionally, these scare tactics are being directed City labor unions, hoping to get them back to bargaining tables. ITA staffers must remember that the union representing technical classes (which is most of you) did not agree to a "re-opener" clause as the "coalition" union representing clerical staff did. There will be no bargaining.

Whistleblower hotline

The City Ethics Commission also has a whistleblower hotline:

Anonymously report suspected violations of governmental ethics, campaign finance or lobbying laws.

http://ethics.lacity.org/whistleblower/whistleblower.cfm

What are the Governmental Ethics Laws that our leaders should be keeping?

You can find them here: http://ethics.lacity.org/PDF/LACityEthicsCode.pdf

Controller's Fraud Hotline

An email to Rumblings wanted to remind ITA staff that the Office of the Controller operates a confidential hotline for City employees, contractors, citizens and other interested parties to report fraud, waste and abuse affecting City resources.

The City has contracted with an independent company (The Network) whose trained intake specialists will receive all calls and web-based reports. You may remain anonymous.

CALL: 1-866-428-1514 (toll free 24 hrs - 7 days/week)

Or file a web-based report: https://www.tnwinc.com/webreport/default.asp

VOTE!

Randi graded your performance in her presentation to other GM's, here's your chance to grade her first year performance as well.

Thanks to those that have voted in the Rumblings poll so far. There is still time to vote, urge your co-workers to cast their ballots today.

Rumblings has also added links to other important City blogs, check them out. Have any other blogs you would like to see linked?

Email Rumblings or post a comment now with your future poll and link suggestions.

What's being installed on ITA PC's?

Word has it that on "casual" Friday student workers were on *all ITA floors installing "something" on staffers PC's.

Those not present will arrive to work Monday wondering who has been messing around at their desks. Simmons' minions? One can only surmise.

Remember to check your PC for anything running "illegally".

*CORRECTION: According to one comment the student workers were not seen on all ITA floors. If anyone knows the specifics or you saw them in your area, please place your info in the comments or email.

Rumblings will gather any info received on where they were and will report here later.

Shuffling at the top

Word from on high is that one Assistant General Manager is being demoted to his previous position to make room for one of Randi's cronies from outside the City.

What's next: Popsicle day?

After years of apparently "unofficial" casual Fridays, word comes late Tuesday that Randi had declared this Friday an "official" jeans and sneakers day . HUH?

What's next Crazy T-shirt Tuesday?

Zubaz Thursday? http://www.zubaz.com/

This will boost morale.

Shhh not so loud, don't tell her the whole Popsicle thing was done already.

Dust off your GBET memories

Something to look forward to in November:

http://www.theitsummit.com/events-08/losangeles-california/index.html#register

With Madame ITA as the keynote.

Any volunteers?

Excerpts from the old LAHD blog

Here are some snippets from the old LAHD blog:

" I have to agree with the "medal-giving" poster in regards to the LAHD Ken Simmons and Agnes Lung-Tam are two of the most corrupt, morally bankrupt mis-managers in the city".
_____

"The way I understand it is that Mr. Simmons was fired from the City of Redondo Beach for allegedly spying on City public safety unions engaged in private discussions at the Redondo Beach Library. Surveillance cameras were used".
_____

"Just to add to whats been stated and re-stated about LAHD's Ken Simmons, Agnes Lung-Tam and Mirta Ocana all got my vote for WORST BOSSES".
_____

"I was not aware of Simmons' history at Redondo at all, but I guess the cliche rings true, "where there's smoke theres usually fire".
_____

Thanks to friends at Housing for sharing their feelings at the time. What was once LAHD's nightmare is now ITA's.

Please do the right thing Randi.

Keep Rumbling!!!

Some Simmons History

Although the links are now dead on the Internet, here are a few transcripts from new articles as they appeared when published:

LA Times - May 22, 1997
Author: Tracy Johnson
Title: Redondo Beach Fires Controversial City Manager, Panel OK's $600,000 severance package for Bill Kirchoff amid criticism over management style.

Key article info: Although the Kirchoff matter has been resolved, others have not. Assistant City manager Ken Simmons was placed on paid leave less than a week after Kirchoff while his management style was reviewed. A month later the City Council voted to eliminate the position. Acting City Manager Paul Connolly said both his and Simmons' future have not yet been decided.
_____

LA Times - June 28, 1997
Author: n/a
Title: Redondo Beach; Acting City Manager Expected to be Hired.

Key article info: After firing it's City Manager last month, Redondo Beach officials have decided to hire acting City Manager Paul Connolly for the position. Connolly, 56, had been the city's planning director when he stepped in temporarily in February to fill in for Bill Kirchoff, who was placed on administrative leave after three city employees were accused of spying on a police union meeting. Less than a week later, Assistant City Manager Ken Simmons was placed on paid leave to have his management style evaluated. The City Council eventually decided to eliminate the assistant city manager position.
_____

News from the Easy Reader (hermosawave.net) - July 18, 2006
Author: Jason Dietrich
Title: Ousted finance director seals secret deal with RB.

Key article info: At least seven Redondo Beach city employees have received cash settlements upon termination or being put on leave in the past several years. Other employees to receive cash settlements at the end of city employment include the former city manager Bill Kirchoff, who received 1.7 million; former assistant city manager Ken Simmons who received an estimated $100,000; former city manager Paul Connolly; former police chief Roger Moulton; former maintenance department head Bill Bollinger; former Harbor Director Ray Koke, and former city auditor Crystal Alexander.
_____

Sincere thanks goes out to a fellow Rumbler for their research in tracking down these articles.

Keep Rumbling!!!

Randi representing LA in DC

Representing the entire City on things IT, Randi will be off to the nation's capitol at the end of the month to brief industry leaders on the state of opportunities here in LA.

https://www.govtech.com/reg/?id=116#program

Of course with the state of the City budget, if the fears are justified, what opportunities actually exist? Additionally, now that the City is locked into ONLY purchasing it's computers from HP and Dell all of the other vendors and manufacturers are pretty on the outside looking in.

A fellow Rumbler wonders...

...where have all the links gone? Last year when I googled Ken Simmons I followed, along with my other incredulous ITA colleagues that wondered,"who the hell is this guy and where did he come from?", the trail of his antics at Redondo Beach up to a "worst boss ever" award on a City blog from a harried LA Housing employee. The links are now gone. No references to his being fired, spying on police unions, shell games with RB library funds...gone all gone. Has Simmons enlisted the help of a search engine cleaner like defendmyname.com ? Well his doings at ITA are starting him on the road to a new Internet presence thanks to your blog. Keep on rumbling!

Thanks ! The Rumblings will continue and there will be no short-cut to clean up his latest messes.