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Time for the Guv to morph into Chris Christie (6/28/2011)

Time for Gov. Walker to talk more about the cake (3/4/2011)

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“Then-Utilities Director Duane Leaf was counting on the water plant workers, who among them had more than 250 years of experience, to put their heads together and come up with a vision to guide the design of a plant capable of producing up to 24 million gallons a day of quality drinking water in a cost-efficient manner.”

Well, kind of. Let’s look at the minutes of the August 18, 1998 “Design Workshop,” which was about much more than a few water plant workers “put[ting] their heads together.” Attending the day-long meeting were four employees of the Water Plant (all members of the “Water Filtration Plant Team”), Utilities Director Duane Leaf, two executives from McMahon Associates and three representatives from Carollo Engineers. So… five Utility employees and five outside, paid engineers.

The minutes of the meeting indicate Actions Taken:
“It was determined that the Koch System was the only manufacturer to meet the above system requirements.”

And still more – Subjects for Future Action:
“Duane, [a representative from Boldt] and [executive from McMahon] to review decision for developing a project specification for which potentially only one membrane system could be prequalified with the City Attorney.” (BIG TROUBLE – more another day.) (Emphases are mine.)

So, if one were to assign responsibility, where was it? A Committee.

When you want to dilute accountability, use a Committee. Call it democracy. Call it a brain trust. Call it a “Team.” Call it a mess. Is it any wonder the City is having a hard time settling the liability issue, i.e., reaping any portion of a $5 million Liability Insurance payout?

Teams were a big thing for Leaf. He called most of them “Self-Directed Work Teams.” After Leaf arrived on board, if a foreman or superintendent left, he wouldn’t be replaced. Rather, his salary would be divvied up amongst the worker-bees and called a “Team Premium” added to each worker’s hourly union wage. And not just a few pennies either. What a concept. Great for spreading responsibility and accountability amongst the masses. Great concept for allowing any blame to fall between any of a million cracks.

Mistakes are made to be admitted, corrected and learned from (11/15/2007)
Outrage at this water plant business (11/6/2007)
A coincidence of headlines? (10/29/2007)
Is Tim Hanna vulnerable? (8/10/2007)
The City doesn't have a clue - unbelievable 
Appleton makes a deal with the devil (6/18/2007)
$2M wasted in Appleton (5/17/2007)
Water plant debacle continues – another contract expanded last night - $1/2 million since July. (9/21/2006)
Will Mayor Hanna ever say “I’m sorry"? (8/30/2006)

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