Recommendation

By
Sonoran News
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——– Original message ——–

From: Robert Morris <[email protected]>
Date: 4/27/17 5:06 PM (GMT-07:00)
To: Ernie Bunch <[email protected]>, Thomas McGuire <[email protected]>, Mary Elrod <[email protected]>, Eileen Wright <[email protected]>, Ron Sova <[email protected]>, David Smith <[email protected]>, Susan Clancy <[email protected]>, Bill Sims <[email protected]>

Subject: Regarding:  the May1, 2017 Agenda Item on evaluating and renewal of the Town Manager’s Contract

I recommend the Town sever the employment of the Current Town Manager (TM), Peter Jankowski, humanely, privately and with sensitivity.  I am sending this via the Town system to create a record in the case poor decisions are made in contrary to this recommendation.
I have worked on water issues gratis in the Town for 4 years as a member of the Water Advisory Committee, observed most Town Council Meetings, attended dozens of meetings with him, had several private meetings and I am thoroughly familiar with the operation and problems of the water companies.  I am thoroughly familiar with and have observed the Town Manager’s management of the water function in dozens of instances.
I know of no instance where he has been effective even though the companies have great opportunity for improvement.
It is my judgment he has substantially damaged the Water Companies performance to the extent it is my reasoned opinion the Water System is better off with no Town Manager rather than Mr. Jankowski.  He has personally cost the Town hundreds of thousands of dollars of financial damage and millions of dollars in lost opportunities.  This mismanagement simply cannot continue if you wish to truly serve your constituents and the water customers..
I particularly note that many on this council routinely interfere, do staff work, double check and otherwise attempt to address the TM shortcomings.  This position must be able to adequately function without council and others doing his work.  He has not and in my opinion cannot.
He should be severed for the following egregious actions and omissions:
  1. He willfully and illegally halted enforcement of the Town sewer collection code resulting in the installation of unnecessary equipment, high expenses and severe damage to the system.
  2. Directly contrary to the advice of the WAC he understaffed the water department in both Engineering and administrative personnel to the extent the most basic functions cannot be completed on time.
  3. He failed to implement the most basic management controls on the Town’s only product, water, to prevent over committing, then overreacted causing liability and loss of trust.
  4. When the water crisis erupted, he failed to investigate the cause and solutions.  There were three entities doing analyses, the WAC (Kerry Smith), Mr. Ron Sova (Vice Mayor) and a non-resident, Mr. Mark Lewis.  Town staff never addressed the issues.
  5. He failed to implement the Performance Management and Preventive Maintenance as directed by Council 3 years ago.  Conveniently, this has allowed his performance to be based upon opinion in many cases rather than objective metrics.
  6. He failed to make a serious, well thought out offer to process Carefree waste via Liberty in the Town’s oversized WWTP and it is reported he offended the counterparty to the point they would not deal with him.  This cost the Town millions of dollars initially and lost the chance to make additional millions in processing fees.
  7. He willfully overspent the personnel budget at the WWTP.  This is currently costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
  8. He failed repeatedly to present logical, well analyzed recommendations for action at council meetings.  The result was confusion and turmoil as the Council tried to reengineer poor staff work in the glare of a public meeting.  My examples are the high cost West Side water line commissioning and the water moratorium recommendations.
  9. By omission, he has failed to instill a culture of reasoned analysis and on time delivery of work.  I point to the 6 months it took to bring forth the first draft of a CIP for the Water Rate study, far beyond the deadline set by staff.
  10. He has no plan for improvement and little leadership.
  11. He routinely offends private citizens attempting to help the Town water system.
  12. He is often late for work and leaves early.  This lack of leadership undermines the work ethic of the Town in my opinion.
I am unable to find any impactful positive management by the current Town Manager on the Town’s Water System.
The real question is whether Mr. Jankowski can lead this Staff going forward. The Town has huge challenges facing the Town Water Enterprises.  His performance is irrefutable.  He cannot meet these challenges.
I urge his employment be severed.
Robert Morris