Telephone alert system and disaster coordinator ?

[4248]

First let me state this - Volunteers and out side agencies are the unsung Heroes of this last weeks events - Thank You all !

Governor Cuomo said one issues during this last weeks events was due to Towns and Villages not following established disaster protocol.

There was not proper interaction between local disaster coordinators and the County - in many cases none at all.

Yes, many Politicians called each other - many went on radio and televisions in order to complain and point fingers at the County. Most Politicians interviewed said they called this guy or that Politician - some stated they actually plowed County Roads them selves out of necessity.

But the over whelming theme was to blame everyone else -

Residents in most areas complaints centered on lack of information or coordinated services - prior to the Governor taking control.

Websites were not timely updated - phone systems weren't used - Disaster Coordinators who are supposed to be our front line workers were not at the Counties Communications center on Broadway - why ?

Other than the TV Media reports:

How many residents received automated phone calls from Lancaster telephone alert system ?

How many residents received accurate road closing or driving ban information by telephone ?

One resident I spoke to said she received one phone alert - it stated the driving ban was lifted - yet the TV Media stated the driving ban for Lancaster was still in affect at that time and continued stating that the next day ?


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Just recently the Controlling Town Board Members have been reassigning/increasing pay checks and inventing stipends in the Parks and Recreation and Highway Departments. Adding large increases and another paid position to the Supervisory staff - as well as a patronage cleaners position to the Courts building to help the Union Rep/house keeper.

Yet at the same time it was pointed out that none of these "raises" would actually increase our "Labor Force" - it was pointed out by those handing out raises - you cant ask Union members from Parks Department to work in the Highway Department - you cant use highway workers to do parks work - the union wont allow it. - This needs to change before raises are given - not hoed for later. Highly paid Supervisors don't drive a plow or clear ditch's -


The Buffalo news made it sound like out of a 27 man Highway Department - we had two(2) guys driving one plow - what's up with that ?

We all know we have way more plows - the Parks Department has plows and snow blowers - the schools have trucks and plows and snow blowers.

There needs to be a Town wide reassessment of our tax funded employees and departments. Recourse's are scattered and separated by imaginary Union restrictions - yet they are all tax funded services.

Over the years I have spoke with many employees that agree - they are being held back - they have much more talent and work ethic than they are allowed to show - mainly because of Political pressure and Union restrictions. Promotions seem to come with raises for the insiders and usually end up in a position that requires less actual work being done - this needs to end - we can no longer afford to pay bosses while relieving them of work responsibilities.

[4248]

Sorry - I forgot: Typical responses residents can plan on hearing/reading from Local Politicians :

"We were flooded with zillions of calls - but thanks to Tim Hortons we had plenty of coffee and doughnuts - the volunteer fire fighters delivered them"

"This was the biggest storm since the second world war"

"We need new equiptment our stuff is old and "So and So" wont give us more"

"We have been under staffed because of recent laborers being cut - but we have more than enough Supervisors"

"Our staff cant operate pickup trucks with plows on them - yes that was our employee you saw driving that pickup at Topps"

"Unions wont let us cross task employees - yes that was a tax funded employee plowing out his customers yard - but it wasn't our equipment being used"

"Our disaster coordinator was way to busy doing his other job - but two days after the event he did show up in a really neat uniform"

My all time favorite - "County Executive Mark Polancarz screwed us - so we had to actually plow our own roads"

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[grump]

4248, after reading your posts I can only conclude that you are related to Poloncarz, unable to understand news reports or both. I have not heard a single local elected official complain that Poloncarz didn't plow local roads. The same refrain, repeated time after time after time, was that the county repeatedly and completely failed to plow its own roads and inquiries from local governments about that matter were ignored and went unanswered. Let's save tax payer millions and eliminate county goverment, the one level of government demonstrably unable to do anything.

[4248]

I also don't understand your bias - I guess you just hate Mr.Poloncarz so much your saying every County Employee is useless. I strongly disagree !

I see across the board/spectrum - whether its Towns, Villages, City or County - many workers want to be and can be better utilized. They have talents, ideas and work ethics that are stifled by Politics.

Far too many just plain give up and take the ride - they are brow beaten into being under achievers and "Team Players" -

Any way - this storm showed a massive case of miscommunication and lack of communication between proper agencies - although there are a over abundance of over paid tax funded talking heads every where. Too many Chiefs and not enough Indians !

[grump]

Funny, pretty much the only talking heads I repeatedly saw on tv were Cuomo and his trained seal, Poloncarz. Occasionally, the long washed up Rich Tobe who was forced to do the early show every morning. Poloncarz is a manifest incompetent who can't or won't plow county roads. Hell, before the storm even hit he was trying to find a way to make local governments take over county roads while the taxpayers pay the county DOW to do what? This was reported in the News.