The Houston Chronicle has a thought provoking article ( linked via title bar ) written by Matt Stiles, New audit questions city bonuses. It focuses on questions brought up by the District Attorney’s office on whether or not “Some pay for extra hurricane work may have inadvertently broken the law.” Other items mentioned, while not illegal, might also raise some eyebrows when spending taxpayer’s money.
“’These irregularities concerned the payment of taxpayer money to employees that did not appear to conform to city of Houston guidelines," wrote Smyth, who declined to comment for this article.”
Where is the line drawn when it comes to rendering incentive pay, that which is over and above an already agreed upon rate of payment?
“The Chronicle reported in March that one in six city employees had received some incentive pay during White's tenure, totaling about $4 million.”
Four Million dollars of taxpayer’s money was paid to either reward employees for doing their job better or more efficiently; better than what? It could be said that the bonus was in actuality recompense for working more than had been contracted in a salaried position in which case it’s not a bonus at all. What should be of no small concern is how such a poorly defined system of payment, or payoffs could easily lead to corruption and abuse ; after all, four million dollars was spent, not exactly chicken feed.
“The payments came under scrutiny this spring when the Harris County District Attorney's Office began investigating city practices after the four employees were fired for getting $143,000 in bonuses.”
I went back through the Chronicle article looking for statements from elected officials to understand the views and opinions which would explain why some employees are being paid bonus money while others are not.
“(Mayor) White said mayors historically have deferred to council members on decisions about pay for their employees, including bonuses.”
{. . .}
“White strongly encourages one-time incentive payments for city employees, based on set performance criteria, as a way to reward hard work and improve service.”
“He has approved plans for employees at the 311 Service Helpline, for example, to receive extra pay when they meet their productivity goals.”
“The Houston Police Department also has an approved program that rewards mechanics with extra pay if they repair vehicles faster than industry standards. The Chronicle reported in April that those payments cost almost $1.8 million between January 2004 and March, but police credit the system with improving the rate of available cruisers for patrols.”
Having worked for the City of Houston as a member of the Houston Police Department I’m familiar with “productivity goals”; or, as we called them, traffic ticket quotas. There must be a very fine line drawn on that imaginary chalk board those in the ivory towers use when trying to explain the difference between traffic ticket quotas, something which has been established as illegal, and productivity goals. The same must hold true when determining productivity goals for each and every department within the vast and ever expanding work force of the City of Houston.
I remember having been told that the reason I was driving an old worn out patrol car, rather than one of the brand new vehicles that had been given to an officer with far less seniority, was because my traffic ticket productivity levels were not up to the standard which had been set; sounded like a quota to me. I really had no beef since I had a car to drive and there never was any agreement established which granted me the right to drive a new patrol car regardless of my performance or seniority; those things were decided by my supervisors. The fact remains that a quota system made a mockery of what should have been real supervision based on all levels of productivity; something which is nearly impossible to define in police work since the simple act of being seen in uniform represents minimal crime prevention.
Productivity goals have been toyed with at the police department ever since the first blue and white patrol car rolled off Noah’s Ark. “Take two and call it a day” eventually became the standard traffic ticket quota as a means of determining minimum work levels; sorry, I meant to say productivity goals.
My partner and I would joke about how asinine the idea of establishing equal values to the tally marks on our work cards. A traffic ticket issued for running a stop sign was viewed to be just as productive as one issued for an expired vehicle inspection sticker or for arresting a bank robber; each tally mark registered as one arrest, regardless of the quality or esteemed value of the efforts. The whole system would be reworked from time to time, arbitrary values assigned to reports written, traffic tickets issued, calls for service, traffic tickets issued, actual arrests of criminals; and of course, traffic tickets. The idea that the City can fill a budget without traffic ticket money having been built into the budget is preposterous. Traffic tickets are for bringing in money; oh, I forgot, they remind drivers to obey the law, to protect the pubic too.
“City payroll data shows Councilman Ronald Green gave $6,500 in incentive payments to his staffers last year. He said Friday he believes payroll officials coded the payments incorrectly. "We never considered them bonuses. I considered them merit raises," he said. "We obviously did what was the practice at City Hall. We only gave raises based on merit and nothing else.’”
Why couldn’t the City of Houston give incentive bonus pay to energetic police officers for having issued traffic tickets proportionally higher than the average “productivity goals”? I can see the line of officers picking up extra traffic ticket books and hitting the street. “Sir, your tail light bulb is out, you changed lanes without properly signaling, the windshield wiper blades are worn and no longer meet with standards set by the Department of Motor Vehicles and I observed you talking on a cell phone without a hands free device; sign here so I can be eligible for that trip to Acapulco.”
Is that any different than handing out merit pay to salaried employee staffers for doing the job these folks were hired to do in the first place? Somewhere in the book of logic, that book that was checked out of the library and never returned, there must be a section that covers how city employee’s productivity is to be gauged. That should be enough to think about for now. Thanks to Matt Stiles for bringing the magnifying glass out and placing it over city hall; now, all we need do is wait for the sun to come out.
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