Just in Time
All sorts of foreign guests arriving in Chicago over the next year or so who will vote on whether of not Chicago is "world class" enough to host the 2016 Games, and then this happens:
- All of the red-jacketed city employees who translate and answer questions for travelers at Chicago's airports are set to lose their jobs under Mayor Richard Daley's cost-saving plan.
We guess briefcases full of cash need no translation. But what about the managers?
- While cutting as many as 29 "airport customer services representatives," Daley's proposed 2009 budget calls for keeping—and giving raises to—several managers who rank above the greeters in the Aviation Department.
City budget documents show that the administration plans to cut the Aviation Department's "external communications" staff from 41 employees to 10, primarily by laying off the greeters. But the division would retain its $114,585-a-year marketing director, a $114,084-a-year deputy commissioner and the $94,848-a-year customer services manager.
Keep the managers and lay off the actual workers. Yup, City Hall's finest thinking people must be on the case. And where, pray tell, is this money for "raises" coming from? We keep getting told the City is broke, laying off people and eliminating vacancies. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Labels: city politics
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
22 Comments:
why do we need a marketing director for ohare ? It's an airport - around here we have 2 choices - either ohare or midway - $114k to market something that doesn't need to be marketted ???
instead of this hoffman guy picking on the garbage men he should be checking up on some of these ghost payrollers. we will be next-- they will pick the cpd apart and slowly thin our ranks. it has already begun.
I hate this city...I hate Daley.
So, let me get this right. Before, 3 managers to to 38workers, now, 3 managers to 7 workers! Nice, sort of like giving J-Fed $300,000 and taking away half of his duties away.
This City is screwed. Only $1.5 million in reserve left.
He reminds me of the spouse that has a gambling/drug problem, is in charge of the checkbook, bills keep piling in, not getting paid, selling off assests to where nothing is left and nothing to borrow against. A whole so deep that when the other half finds out, divorce followed by bankruptcy.
Hope he gets indicted soon.
I'm glad my husband only has less than a year and we are out of here. I just hope there is something left.
Stay safe out there. A wife.
The budget shortfall is the raises.
Daley has to grease his cronies, even if it means cutting services and laying off everyone.
Keep all the chiefs and fire all the indians... makes sense to me. That way when the cavalry rides in to burn down the reservation there are no indians to defend it...
Keep voting democrat!
I wish I could find an address or an email link to the International Olympic Committee. I've found their site online, but no contact info. Wouldn't it be lovely if the IOC got an earful about the real Chicago from a few thousand policemen? Shortshanks would get wind of it, grow so red in the face and angry that the top of his head would pop off. Now that's one sport I would pay to see.
I found this on their website:
NEWS... For more information, please contact the IOC Communications Department,
tel: +41 21 621 60 00, email: pressoffice@olympic.org.
That's about 2-3 workers to be managed by each manager. Could those managers handle the heavy workload? Pretty soon the 7 remaining workers will be gone, then the managers will be forced to manage themselves. Oh the agony!
I suppose the amnagers' raises come from the salaries of the workers who were laid off. Redistributing the dole, so to speak.
Just send an email to PRESSOFFICE@OLYMPIC.ORG
Let's see what kind of response we can get. Here's a copy of what I sent.
Dear Sir or Ma'am,
I would highly recommend another city to host the next games as opposed to Chicago. This city is ridden with crime and corruption of the highest calibur. The Mayor (Daley) can't even balance his city's budget without taxing the heart and soul of the working class nearly to death. As a Chicago Police Officer, I have a first hand account of just what a disaster this city has become. Our dept. has outdated/broken equipment, shakey leadership, and a promotional process that looks at your friends as opposed to your qualifications. If some sort of attack were to happen at the olympics, the major flaws of this city would shine like diamonds. I kindly request you reconsider, or at the very least ask Mr. Daley to account for some of the above mentioned problems.
Sincerely,
A Very Concerned Officer.
Chicago Police Dept.
why do we need managers at midway? the airport is sold! the managers must donate heavy money for the heavy (WASTED) paychecks! the city is running the same the clouted get away with theft, the little people get booted as usual! with obama in charge daley will make chicago's old mob look like boyscouts with his criminal enterprises!
Anonymous said...
instead of this hoffman guy picking on the garbage men he should be checking up on some of these ghost payrollers. we will be next-- they will pick the cpd apart and slowly thin our ranks. it has already begun.
11/12/2008 01:08:00 AM
hoffman is daley lapdog, the media whore will do whatever makes daley happy, as he is rewarded with a "biscuit"!
Lay off the bosses, and save their high salaries.
Keep the front line employees who actually provide services to us.
That's especially true with the police.
The mayor should lay off j-fed his $310k want-to-be Chicago Police officer. He wears our uniform that he never earned and disrespects our fallen brothers and sisters.
Good. Screw up as much as possible.
The Olympics in general are a plum for politicians and real estate developers -- Daley and his lunch crowd -- and a disaster for ordinary working people; in Beijing, literally millions were displaced, whole neighborhoods leveled for a two-week spectacle.
One web logger, a British expatriate working in Beijing who was there for the whole thing, said that "It would be nice if someone had invited the Chinese people to their own Olympics." Instead, swarms of police and military worked largely to keep them away.
Cities are gutted and they will never be quite the same. Many former Olympic facilities stand empty and deteriorating; they are just sinkholes for tax money for maintenance.
The condo conversion mania has destroyed tens of thousands of units of rental housing here and an Olympics will finish the job of the dispersal of the city's "middle class" (read- working poor.) Landlords of remaining rental housing will be inclined to toss their tenants and lease out the apartments as short-term-high-rent hotel space on Craigslist.
The Daley vision for Chicago resembles the Rockefeller vision for Albany -- huge empty plazas with monumental sarcophagi for the peasantry to wonder at. Where the jobs come from is anybody's guess...
The very preparations for the Olympics and all the other expensive Daleyisms -- the stupid banners on light poles, the thousands of speed bumps, the $50,000 plate-glass bus shelters that can be wrecked by one kid with a rock, the hundreds of miles of useless steel fencing that keeps nothing in and nothing out, and the further hundreds of miles of diamond-sawed "drainage grooves" in alleys that drain nothing -- has already nearly bankrupted the city.
The idea of sending "Chicago record homicides" coffee mugs, mouse pads, T-shirts (the promo package!) to IOC members is wonderful. Their web site is indeed hard to navigate, but I'll be poking at it as time permits and so should others, to generate the mailing list.
Since the Olympics were a Greek idea, they should be held at permanent facilities in Athens EVERY TIME.
If they are as wonderful as they are made out to be, the Athenians'd be knocking each other down for the opportunity, right?
OPAA!
It seems only people on this blog are fed up.The rest of the people? Jim Jones is mixin up another batch of kool-aid and the people are happy to drink.
The managers at the airport are political hacks, the airport is way over in high paying positions with very little to do. The workers union dumped a whole bunch of money to the dems and then they got the good news that more union members are being laid off by the dems AFTER the party got a "donation" of the money from the members union dues.
Also, the budget for sullpies whent from $10,000 to 25,000 with no employees left to use it???
Why don't they stop being cheap and give the President and his family real police protection? All these guys going with reverse seniority, either do not want to be there or have little or no police experience. Make it a overtime detail like C.H.A. or TARA. In fact TARA is what it should be with federal funding. Helloooooooooooooooooo!
T....A....R....A
Here are the names and mailing addresses of the top officials of the IOC. I don't have any e-mail addresses.
Letters to these men at the Lausanne address will do far more good than e-mailing the publicity office. The publicists are paid to write pamphlets, hand out keychains, and smile, not to listen to your concerns.
I will continue my research, but this should help get the ball rolling.
.................................
The International Olympic Committee is the supreme authority of the Olympic Movement
PRESIDENT
Jacques Rogge
VICE-PRESIDENT(S)
Lambis V. Nikolaou
Chiharu Igaya
Thomas Bach
Zaiqing Yu
MEMBER(S)
Ser Miang Ng
Mario Pescante
Sam Ramsamy
Gerhard Heiberg
Denis Oswald
René Fasel
Mario Vázquez Raña
Frank Fredericks
Nawal El Moutawakel
Richard L. Carrión
ADDRESS
International Olympic Committee
Executive Board
Château de Vidy
1007 Lausanne
Switzerland
TELEPHONE
(41.21) 621 61 11
FAX
(41.21) 621 62 16
..................................
The Postal Service has an online postage calculator -- a quick look showed that a one-ounce First Class International letter to Switzerland runs $0.94.
The position of Terminal Manager is a relatively new creation and a farce. It's chock full of political creatures. In addition there is the "work management team" that operates the computers spitting out work orders for every piece of equipment. The front line bosses are overloaded with paperwork which inhibits them from being on site with their crews.
This reminds me of the budget cuts a few years ago. Fire the civilian citation clerk making about 9 bucks an hour and keep the do nothing district managers making about 40 bucks an hour. Makes perfect sense.
Sad part is citation clerk was actually working for her money and was happy to have a job; district manager still there passing the buck with her head up her #*&.
Keep all the chiefs and fire all the indians... makes sense to me. That way when the cavalry rides in to burn down the reservation there are no indians to defend it...
Keep voting democrat!
11/12/2008 01:53:00 AM
Along the same lines, since we are short indians on the street, how many chiefs were demoted from high paying exempt spots?? Thought so :(
The best part is all the customer service reps at Midway are volunteers. The paid reps never work the booths. In fact they don't do anything. The seniors who actually man the service station have to schlep all the supplies, pamphlets and materials and stock the handout trays in addition to handling all the travelers inquiries. Keep in mind these folks are OLD, VERY OLD! One guy is 86 years old and volunteers his time. How is he rewarded? He gets a $2 voucher for food and once a year they get invited to a brunch where they get to rub shoulders with these overpaid 'managers" and all the 'reverends' that the mayor doles out our tax dollars to. America's Greatest Generation keeps on giving and the chicago corruption club just keeps on pimping them so they can line their pockets. Its enough to make you vomit. Anyone who votes for this troll and isn't getting their share of the graft is an absolute moron.
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