Thursday, October 13, 2011

County Shared Services: A Paid Half Day Off

The County sponsored their annual paid half-a-day-off for many of their employees - mostly the commissioners and their direct staff, where they all convened at the Westchester County Center in a mock trade show-like setup. They do this twice a year, although the other one, held on June 10th, 2011, was the other poorly veiled event entitled Westchester Educational Safety Training. This time the spin-doctors for the County hosted the annual Fleet and Equipment Demo Day, typically referred to by County employees as their Fleet Day off. How many years has this waste of our County employees time been going on? What purpose do either of them serve and what is the ROI for the County?


Simply, there isn't any ROI. The County Center was set up like a trade show venue. ABG spoke with several booth attendants. Most were the respective Commissioner's staff from all the County departments. They all expressed a level of boredom as they had few if any outside visitors. There seemed to be a lot of back-slapping and “how you doing’s”, but no real work. Everyone that came by to visit seemed to be from other departments just “checking things out”. There is no ROI. If County Executive Astorino is looking to save money or cut something, here’s a great place to start!


The Westchester County Garage had a double booth. On display was a truck muffler, seemingly the size of the new Fiat 500; there were several oil filters and other mechanical components also on display. Does anyone in this day and age not know what a muffler or filter look like? ABG thinks not. Does anyone in the County’s employ not know they have a garage for automotive repairs? ABG doubts it. So why do they need to bring repair components to this event? Why even be at this event? Obviously, they need more business. They currently “charge-back” about double and up to triple on most repairs to county vehicles compared to what a private garage might charge. It’s one of two County departments operating in the black. The County’s Taxi and Limousine Commission is the other department also operating in the black.


Outside the entrance to the County Center on the sidewalk in the front were four County vehicles. One looked like a tanker that frankly we didn’t bother with. The largest was a County Police Communication vehicle. We went inside and listened as the officer was explaining what it could be used for to several other visitors. Very impressive. ABG wonders when a monstrosity like this would be needed anywhere in Westchester? The group was told it was acquired by Homeland Defense money, not costing the local taxpayers any money (because we all know that we locals don’t pay taxes that are use for Homeland Defense). Sounds like political doublespeak might be taught at the police academy.


Next outside the building were two trucks from what’s called the County’s Special Operations Team. We learned that this a team of all volunteer rescue technicians who provide the manpower for the County’s Technical Rescue and Hazardous Materials Response Teams. ABG was a bit surprised when we were told that the Team members here for this fleet day event, as well as the rest of the Team members not there, were all volunteer. We questioned how it compares to the County Police’s Special Operations, as we had seen several vehicles inside with Special Operations plastered all over them. One fellow joked that they are basically the bomb squad and parkway patrol, but if they have the Special Operations name, they can get more grant money. Based on the landing craft on the sidewalk, it must be working. Wouldn't more volunteers in County government save everyone more money? In fact, why not utilize more volunteers throughout all our governments uniformed services? 


The County’s all volunteer Special Operations teams have been around for some time now and always staffed by volunteers. The Hazardous Materials Response Team has been around for about 25 or so years, handling roughly 50-60 calls a year. It was started by chemical expert and instructor Steve Maslanski of White Plains. He has since moved to the Phoenix, AZ., area. The current Chief of Special Operations is Peter Pitocco, from Port Chester. He has a chemical and safety background from what we were told by one of the members. His last job was running IBM’s Safety Division out of their Yorktown facility. ABG learned of the qualifications of many of its members, which is truly impressive.


The Technical Rescue Team was formed just prior to the 9-11 attacks back in 2001 by Richard Benkwitt and Tim Fisher. They are currently the Teams Leaders for this Team, with Chief Pitocco overseeing it. Another all volunteer team, these are professional rescue technicians who have been responding to more and more calls in Westchester and Putnam Counties (via mutual aid). Mutual aid is when one department asks for help from another. ABG was told that Technical Rescue is to the fire service what a SWAT team is to the police. They are a highly skilled, highly motivated group of individuals with specialized equipment. One of them explained that since the County has this cache of specialized equipment, individual departments, Towns and Villages don't need to purchase it themselves. They can simply call for this team at no charge whenever needed. It is a very impressive, cost-efective and efficient arrangement. 


Inside the County Center saw a veritable wasteland of employees millinging around. Most booths had been set up early in the morning and gave the attendants little to do. There was a presentation from the County Planning Department about how they are utilizing free software such as Google Earth to map the county. Finally, someone in the County found a way to save some money. Well, almost. It seems the Special Operations teams were all over saving the County money years ago.

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