The city's handling of the theft of roughly $10,000 worth of property by Department of Public Works employees should infuriate taxpayers.
How else should they feel when such a brazenly corrupt culture has been allowed to exist for decades, and then once it has started to be uncovered, city officials decide to neatly sweep it away with no accountability on the part of those responsible?
City manager Mark Palesh said the decision to offer amnesty to DPW workers who brought back stolen equipment was made in part to keep good employees around, and to save them and their families embarrassment.
But the workers who engaged in this conduct do deserve to be embarrassed, and any impact on their families is their own fault. Perhaps law enforcement officials are correct that these cases would have been too difficult to prosecute, but that doesn't mean the city has to keep the workers on the payroll.
What the city has done, instead, is to create a major cloud of suspicion over all 60 employees in the department. City officials are not saying exactly how many workers were involved in the stealing, but they've implied that it's fewer than 10. Those remaining 50-plus employees have every right to be disgusted with their employer right now.
Then there's the question of department leadership. DPW Superintendent Jerry DelFavero appears to have the full support of Palesh and other city leaders despite this black eye for this department. They say DelFavero has an impossible job, and that he can't be expected to keep track of what every worker is doing.
But what he should do - and has obviously failed at for the past decade - is to instill a culture of professionalism and respect for taxpayer property.
Because he was not directly involved in these thefts, and because he brings many years of experience and loyalty to the department, DelFavero probably deserves to keep a job with the city. But it should be as a rank-and-file employee.
To truly move forward and win the trust of the people who fund this department, new leadership is required.
City manager Mark Palesh said the decision to offer amnesty to DPW workers who brought back stolen equipment was made in part to keep good employees around, and to save them and their families embarrassment.
But the workers who engaged in this conduct do deserve to be embarrassed, and any impact on their families is their own fault. Perhaps law enforcement officials are correct that these cases would have been too difficult to prosecute, but that doesn't mean the city has to keep the workers on the payroll.
What the city has done, instead, is to create a major cloud of suspicion over all 60 employees in the department. City officials are not saying exactly how many workers were involved in the stealing, but they've implied that it's fewer than 10. Those remaining 50-plus employees have every right to be disgusted with their employer right now.
Then there's the question of department leadership. DPW Superintendent Jerry DelFavero appears to have the full support of Palesh and other city leaders despite this black eye for this department. They say DelFavero has an impossible job, and that he can't be expected to keep track of what every worker is doing.
But what he should do - and has obviously failed at for the past decade - is to instill a culture of professionalism and respect for taxpayer property.
Because he was not directly involved in these thefts, and because he brings many years of experience and loyalty to the department, DelFavero probably deserves to keep a job with the city. But it should be as a rank-and-file employee.
To truly move forward and win the trust of the people who fund this department, new leadership is required.
