The Way I See It!

Clarification

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on Oct. 5, 2009

Cudahy, DPW, Mayor

I would like to draw your attention to the post it did on Sept. 17, 2009 titled “Cudahy Director of Public Works / City Engineer” where I posted emails that contained this information:

“The DPW head is a stay at home manager, not only with her 1 day work at home, but comes and goes ("checking on things") as she darn well pleases.  I guess Cudahy has a lot of projects in Whitefish Bay that need checking on.”

And this email.

“…It seems that our new General Manager of DPW / Water Utility / Engineering enjoys spending at least 1 day per week working out of her home!  That's right!  She runs the show from her house!...”

I did give Cudahy Director of Public Works / City Engineer Mary Jo Lange the opportunity to clear up this information if they were in errs.

This touched off a flurry of talk at City Hall and prompted Mayor McCue to email me, to which I posted it.  Mayor McCue titled it “City Matters” so that is what I called the post. 

In it, Mayor McCue offers to meet with me in person to discus “City Matters.”  In my blog post on it, I included the following information:

I also heard that Mary Jo Lange might have worked a Friday or so at home because there is just too much noise and hustle and bustle happening at City Hall to make sound decisions.  Of coarse, that came to me third person and should be taken as hearsay.  That is why I prefer written as apposed to in person one-on-one, which can be claimed as hearsay later or out of context, or the classic “I never said that!”

Now if you remember I continued my email discussions with Mayor McCue and posted them in a blog post titled “City Matter Part 2”

In it, I ask Mayor McCue, “So I will ask the question – Did you or anyone give permission to the Cudahy Director of Public Works / City Engineer Mary Jo Lange to work one day a week from her home?”

To which he replied with, “The answer to your first question is no.”

I rephrased the question after gaining some new information and asked again,  “For final clarification – Has the Cudahy Director of Public Works / City Engineer Mary Jo Lange worked from her home during the work week on normal business work hours not including sick, personal or vacation time?”

(Remember in politics it is all about the semantics of things and not giving all the information is not a lie nor is playing dumb when you know something and just don’t want to say it! Just claim it was not specific enough even though you know the jest of the question!  )

To which I received no answer or reply.  I even pointed this out to Mayor McCue when I said, “And nice non answer on the other clarification”

So this brings us to Monday, September 21 and Mayor Ryan McCue’s town hall meeting on the City Budget.

A little backpedaling here - During the meeting, he does tell me and the other four people that he did tell Cudahy Director of Public Works / City Engineer Mary Jo Lange she could go home on a Friday and work from home that day because it was just too noisy at City Hall.  (I have the audio of this meeting and will get it up on youtube or googlevideo soon)

I have one glaring question and one slight comment:

There was nowhere Cudahy Director of Public Works / City Engineer Mary Jo Lange could go at City Hall to work that was quiet?

If the Mayor cannot quiet down the chatter at City Hall, I don’t think he is that effective of a manager and must not be respected at City Hall, unless the noise is from more City Hall renovations!