By: Jared Stranberg
The Omaha City Council meeting last Tuesday discussed at length one of the most common complaints by Omaha residents, the pothole problem. The proposition suggests that the city of Omaha awards $450,000 to various concrete and street maintenance companies to perform what was called “Emergency Pothole Repair Services.”
The last time this service was used was in 2010, according to the director of Omaha Public Works, Bob Stubbe. Director Stubbe defined this emergency service as “a price agreement that we have with three contractors that if and when we need their services, we have an understanding between the city and the contractors with regard to what that cost would be.”
Council member Richard Pahls proceeded to extensively question the head of human resources at Omaha Public Works regarding the large turnover rate of employees. This is the reason for the quantity of overtime required by the remaining employees that led to the request for emergency pothole repair services.
Several council members expressed their discontent with the idea of spending nearly half a million dollars to contract outside businesses rather than effectively managing. Vinny Palermo was one such person who was suspicious of management.
“You start digging in and you find out that there are some possible management issues within this division,” Palermo said.
Palermo also expressed that it seems to be an emergency issue because of a lack of preparedness, rather than unknowable circumstance.
Council members seemingly preferred to fix the staffing and morale problems in the road maintenance department rather than paying out a contract to people not employed with the state. It was universally agreed upon that the turnover rate must be investigated, as 13 of the 21 employees from the previous training class are no longer with the city.
Despite all the discontent with spending money on outside contractors and the confusion regarding turnover rates, the motion was passed 4-3 because of the immediate necessity for repairs. How quickly these repair funds will be applied is yet unknown.
