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Is the City Council incompetent?

celty

Just look at the litany of ridiculous disaster in the city over the past five years or so (feel free to add to them) and tell me our City Council is not incompetent.

If they were in the private sector, the people at the top of our Council would be worrying about their jobs.

* Eyre Square revamp (huge cost, for what? Is it any better?)
* Cryptosporidium crisis (households left without water for up to three months, because of poor planning, septic tanks, etc)
* Mervue water crisis
* Winter water freezing (houses without water for a fortnight, over two winters at this stage)
* Galway City Marathon (cancelled due to incompetence / lack of cooperation with organisers)
* General traffic chaos throughout the year (no sign of a plan, no boost to pedestrians, cyclists, or public transport to encourage people to leave their cars at home)
* Moneenageisha junction changeover (made a bad situation far worse)
* Seamus Quirke Road revamp (taking longer than planned, huge disruption, will it make it any better?)
* Art House Cinema (free site from the Council, to close off a lane for a year at least at this stage)
* Current roadworks debacle (three taking place in the same area at the same time, making it impossible for people to cross the city)

... and that's just off the top of my head!

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celty

Just another example of what I would consider to be incompetence.

Galway City Council asked the rickshaw operators of Galway to get licences, and made it illegal for them to operate without any. But the rickshaw operators had to wait months for Garda clearance only to find, when they got it, that dozens of illegal guys were still operating without licences in the city centre.

When the legal guys complained to the Council, they said their staff (wardens) did not work late at night (the hours when the rickshaw guys actually work). They only seemingly work office hours.

When they complained to the Gardai, they said it was a matter for the Council.

So there was no enforcement. Can anybody tell me what was the point of a long, slow process which invovled rickshaw operators having to apply for licences for which there is no enforcement?

KittyeeTrix

celty wrote: »

Just Mary,

* Current road works; having three in the same area all at the one time seems ridiculous. And then I see the official responsible claim in the paper today that traffic is always very heavy in the "third week of August". Really? Do they think these things through? Why carve open three major roads at the same time so?

Excactly the same thought I had when I heard this...........Why carve open three major roads at the same time so?

Makes absolutely no sense at all and if anything shows their total ineptness through and through!!

Dave Joyce

This attitude of entitlement has filtered down to a situation where bin-men expect tips

Christ talk about arrogance! I would love to know how deduced this??? I certainly can't speak for everyone, but the lads I know CERTAINLY don't expect tips at Christmas from YOU or anyone for that matter!

By the way, I'd say most of us in the private sector would love the security of a public sector job now (no accountability, no pressure, nice pensions).

Hmm, I seem to remember guys in the private sector sneering at US during the boom times asking did we not have ANY ambition to go out and make some money instead of been stuck in a ****ty job.....now all of a sudden, WE'RE the lucky ones!! Just to stop you generalising anymore, we ARE accountable if we miss bins, stuff spills (from considerate people who overload/stuff their bins) etc. Regardless of what YOU think, there is pressure/stress EVERYDAY, thankfully from a minority of ASSHOLES who seem to blame us for them having a crap day. Finally, you'ed want to research your facts a bit better or stop believing all the media shi'te bout pensions. IF I last to the 30yrs, I can guarantee you, my pension WILL be shi'te and will be less than the State pension by a long shot. One of my colleagues retired recently after 35 YEARS and I can tell you he worked his bollocks off for those years and his pension is NOTHING like you're presuming.

dilallio

Dave Joyce wrote: »

Christ talk about arrogance! I would love to know how deduced this??? I certainly can't speak for everyone, but the lads I know CERTAINLY don't expect tips at Christmas from YOU or anyone for that matter!

Hi Dave - I can see from my post that I might come across as arrogant, but I did not 'deduce' this.

Despite paying in City Hall for my bins to be collected, when the City Council truck came 3 weeks in a row after this, they refused to collect my bins. The lads told me that I had not paid.

I called up to City Hall where the girl told me that there was a sensor on the truck which must not have been updated! She was able to verify that I'd paid and said she would sort it out.

On the 3rd week, the week just before Christmas, the rubbish was building up so much with the same story from the binman, that I ended up giving him a tenner to take the waste. 5 weeks later the same thing happened again but this time I switched to Citybin.

I agree with previous posters that the people on the streets do a fantastic job, but my experience on the 4 times contacting the office staff is they never, not even once, replied to me. I am not including my converstation with the girl in the Refuse section in this list of 4.

I can see your frustration, when you read stuff that does not apply to you or any of your immediate colleagues, but it's also frustrating when you have to deal with someone who never gets back, or does what they are paid to do. Unfortunately, this will effect the perception of the entire City Council.

Iwannahurl

celty wrote: »

Just another example of what I would consider to be incompetence.

Galway City Council asked the rickshaw operators of Galway to get licences, and made it illegal for them to operate without any. But the rickshaw operators had to wait months for Garda clearance only to find, when they got it, that dozens of illegal guys were still operating without licences in the city centre.

When the legal guys complained to the Council, they said their staff (wardens) did not work late at night (the hours when the rickshaw guys actually work). They only seemingly work office hours.

When they complained to the Gardai, they said it was a matter for the Council.

So there was no enforcement. Can anybody tell me what was the point of a long, slow process which invovled rickshaw operators having to apply for licences for which there is no enforcement?

Pure laziness on the part of AGS, IMO. I would have thought that AGS had powers to enforce local by-laws. I also suspect they have a role in the approval of such regulations, though I am open to correction on that point.

It is extremely frustrating for law-abiding people when the authorities show no interest in enforcing the law. I am just fed up with watching the Council and AGS casually ignoring all sorts of misbehaviour right under their noses. Many of them just can't be arsed.

Lockstep

snubbleste wrote: »

So, NUIG gave your details to a third party agency without your authorisation and you're happy?

Yup, helped me find my bag which had some valuable stuff inside it when they had otherwise no other way to contact me.

Delighted with them.

c_man

Is the City Council incompetent?

In my experience, a resounding yes. I wouldn't even know where to start with all the ****e I've encountered in my limited dealings over the years.

The only good thing about them is the nonsense stories that make it to the local rags, if it involves Padraig Conneelly all the better!

celty

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Pure laziness on the part of AGS, IMO. I would have thought that AGS had powers to enforce local by-laws. I also suspect they have a role in the approval of such regulations, though I am open to correction on that point.

It is extremely frustrating for law-abiding people when the authorities show no interest in enforcing the law. I am just fed up with watching the Council and AGS casually ignoring all sorts of misbehaviour right under their noses. Many of them just can't be arsed.

Iwannahurl,

Surely it would also be possible for the Council to get their wardens to work one or two late nights in the summer, to enforce their own byelaws. If it's not, why bother bringing in byelaws which they never enforce anyway?

It's a bit like the on-street drinking. We have really tough laws which only seem to be enforced when it's convenient or there's a festival on.

I would consider it a pretty trivial matter for Gardai when hundreds of drunken revellers are spilling out of the pubs and late bars for them to spend time checking the licences of rickshaw operators.

xflyer

Davejoyce don't personalise it, no one is having a go at you and you pals. But you live in this town too I presume. You can't have missed the continuing series of cock ups and traffic chaos in Galway.

JustMary, your answers while all very interesting unfortunately is similar to the kind of replies you might get from a city official. Excuses, excuses. All of the issues mentioned were real problems and all were mishandled one way or another by the council and it's people.

Well I had plenty of time to think about the council's failings in the last few days because I found it neccessary to travel across town in my car several times. It is an utter shambles and inexcusable.

The traffic situation has been an ongoing blot on this town. When I first moved here five years ago. I was astonished to find traffic jams worse than Dublin, particularly that remarkable phenomenon, unique I think to Galway. The simultaneous traffic jam in both directions. In five years things have got worse. Whose fault is that, well no one as it happens because apparently there is zero accountability.

The cryptospiridium issue. Well that sickened me literally. Worse still it happened just as my first son was born. I could very easily have given it to him. Again the council didn't cover themselves in glory fixing that issue.

Then again I lived in Mervue, lead in the water next, the same son with elevated lead levels. It just gets better. Months on bottled water or out of tanks. They put in a standpipe outside the house but that was contaminated too. And I had to pay to get connected to the clean water. All through the event it was difficult to get any information out of them and very little communication. Thank you city council:mad:

So it goes on particularly the traffic jams which seem endless now. But are apparently impossible to solve.

So the answer is yes. They are incompetent. I personally think that certain individuals in certain departments should be named and shamed and then replaced with someone who can actually do the job.

Dave Joyce

Despite paying in City Hall for my bins to be collected, when the City Council truck came 3 weeks in a row after this, they refused to collect my bins. The lads told me that I had not paid.

I called up to City Hall where the girl told me that there was a sensor on the truck which must not have been updated! She was able to verify that I'd paid and said she would sort it out.

On the 3rd week, the week just before Christmas, the rubbish was building up so much with the same story from the binman, that I ended up giving him a tenner to take the waste. 5 weeks later the same thing happened again but this time I switched to Citybin.

Hey Dilallio, I can definately understand your frustration at that but we encounter this from the opposite end. There ARE times when the chip in the bin is faulty and the bin will not lift and we CANNOT do anything, even if we want to help someone out as the bin won't even lift manually. A huge amount of times people have got openly hostile with us for not taking their bin and when we try to explain about the chip problem it freaks them out even more like as if we're talking shi'te. Just as a matter of interest, we have (and have had for a number of years) one of the lowest numbers of local authority workers in the country so we are incredibly short staffed at nearly all LOWER levels of outdoor and City Hall staff.

Davejoyce don't personalise it, no one is having a go at you and you pals.

Well I'll tell you what, when people STOP generalising, them perhaps I won't personalise it. I'm sick of hearing how lucky I (and others) are right now while a few short years ago, we were slackers who had no ambition!! This happens across the board and we rarely get a chance to address the mis-truths eg

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/your-binmans-pension-better-than-yours-2853831.html

But you live in this town too I presume. You can't have missed the continuing series of cock ups and traffic chaos in Galway.

Of course I have to commute to work like everyone else but as an employee, its rather difficult to express what your true feelings are and it has been said to me that stuff I have posted on boards.ie has been noticed before. Have you publicly criticised your employers by any chance??

celty

Dave Joyce,

I would say the vast majority of posts here, if not ALL, are about the officials in the suits who make the decisions that affect all our lives in Galway and certainly not the people out in the front line delivering services, collecting our refuse, cleaning our streets, emptying the bins in the city centre, etc.

Most of us would never imagine saying anything bad about the people who collect the bins every week or clean up around the Spanish Arch at the crack of dawn after a rare sunny day.

As for the suits in City Hall who decided to put on three sets of road works in the same part of town at the same time, with little or no notice, that's another matter ....

When they then blame the traffic problems on people buying school books, the people have a right to be angry. The whole thing is a sick joke.

yer man!

In response to the closure of the right hand lane in the docks at the arts cinema, why couldn't they divert traffic onto new docks street and back onto spanish parade? they built a traffic island where that road is to prevent any traffic from the docks using it which just seems like the stupidest thing ever. I know it was initially built to stop people taking a shortcut but afaik they built it around the same time they closed the other lane. By diverting the right hand lane on the docks onto this road and back onto spanish parade they (city council) could relieve an awful lot of traffic.

celty

So Galway City Council held a four hour meeting last night to discuss the traffic crisis ... and it ended up a slagging match at which they shouted across the chamber at each other and nothing got done.

The Gardai were invited to attend, but decided not to bother (probably a wise move).

I know it is a medieval city which is not able for so many cars on the road, but these are the people we elect or pay to run our city, provide services, and get traffic moving.

What a bunch of incompetent gombeens. We'll probably hear sometime next year that the officials decided to pay themselves bonuses because of the way they coped with the stress during the traffic crisis.

I'm sure it cost money and expenses for the 'officials' and 'councillors' to attend last night's meeting. Another waste of our taxes on people who don't seem to be willing or able to do the jobs they are paid to do.

Maybe Galway people need to cycle more, use car pools, and public transport.

But is there a more incompetent local authority in Ireland? I doubt it.

GalwayGaillimh

Well someone in the City Council realised we have a traffic problem a long time ago as they only open till 4pm every day so they all get home before college road gets gridlocked at 4.30pm, I say make them all work till 5pm like everyone else and then perhaps they might have an incentive to sort the traffic issue out.

Are the Council Incompetent? Most Likely....

Iwannahurl

There is a view that the Mayor called the meeting (using the prerogative of the office) mainly for optics.

What could a single crisis meeting achieve that hasn't been tried before?

As for the Council being "only open till 4pm" I don't think that's true, though I'm open to correction. IIRC, the phones close at 4pm, but the staff are still at work.

Being a Galway City Council employee must be as popular now as a being a HSE administrator.

I wouldn't personalise this, but I would question the productivity of some sections of the Council.

Unfortunately, as is usual in Ireland, there is no accountability and ultimately nobody responsible. Therefore, despite the elected members being a core part of the local authority, obviously, there is no direct mechanism for ensuring that good public policy is implemented effectively.

Sniipe

What motivates a public sector worker in the city council?

slideshow bob

to fix up da water problems. water problems not expected to resurface.

photo taken just a few days ago near seamus quirke road watermain.

celty

Slideshow Bob,

I'd say you doctored that photo, because Eugene was on holidays last week