Disciplinary hearings keeping some trash trucks off the street.stlurbanist wrote: ↑Jan 26, 2025Mayor's spokesperson informed press that there would be trash blitz event with various teams clearing the trash and yet I read countless threads on Nextdoor where citizens are complaining about trash not picked up yet.
When you can't keep a word, let's not promise it.
They literally are doing that. This is a proposed program to see how it works and if it works.whitherSTL wrote: ↑Jan 26, 2025Man, you guys are emotionally mean-spirited when an opinion different from yours is offered. Offer city employees free childcare. Fine. Let’s see how it works out.
Yes, the current staffing is subpar. It’s been subpar for 2 decades. 1100 short right now.whitherSTL wrote: ↑Jan 26, 2025So is this “stipend” being proposed to recruit and retain the best city employees admits that current staffing is subpar?
forum-rules-and-tolerances-t2036.htmlframer wrote: ↑Jan 27, 2025Mods:
How much longer do we have to put up with Auggie calling fellow members "stupid" "a**holes"? This is supposed to be a civilized forum; not Reddit.
NextDoor is such a cesspool of complaints I'm not sure it's possible to get on the thing without hearing the world is on fire and everyone nearby is evil. Jones may well be in trouble, but I don't think NextDoor is a particularly good gage of how much or why.stlurbanist wrote: ↑Jan 26, 2025Mayor's spokesperson informed press that there would be trash blitz event with various teams clearing the trash and yet I read countless threads on Nextdoor where citizens are complaining about trash not picked up yet.
When you can't keep a word, let's not promise it.
symphonicpoet wrote: ↑Jan 27, 2025NextDoor is such a cesspool of complaints I'm not sure it's possible to get on the thing without hearing the world is on fire and everyone nearby is evil. Jones may well be in trouble, but I don't think NextDoor is a particularly good gage of how much or why.stlurbanist wrote: ↑Jan 26, 2025Mayor's spokesperson informed press that there would be trash blitz event with various teams clearing the trash and yet I read countless threads on Nextdoor where citizens are complaining about trash not picked up yet.
When you can't keep a word, let's not promise it.
So you're saying we need to make restoring city hall a priority.jivecitystl wrote: ↑Jan 25, 2025That's an oversimplification I think. Downtown is a LOT more than just its infrastructure. Would anyone argue that downtown is not an important part of the city? It really is a microcosm of the city at large, and its condition reflects the city's/metro's priorities and values. It is a terrible look that our downtown is in such a sorry state. Again, investment in downtown is an investment in the whole city and everyone who lives, works and plays there. It's frustrating that some alders are spinning this as an either/or scenario. Investing in downtown's future and vitality is a win-win for EVERYONE in the St. Louis metro area. Attempts to downplay downtown's importance only underscores the systemic myopia St. Louis has become famous for. I expect it in the suburbs/exurbs, but on the UrbanSTL forum? We got problems.PeterXCV wrote: ↑Jan 25, 2025I don't get why Downtown needs a lot of infrastructure investment, it seems fine. I don't think if all the roads were freshly paved that would magically bring back the fortune 500 companies that used to based there. When I talk to people who have a bad image of Downtown infrastructure is not what they mention...
I agree, don't increase the cost per employee. I think she needs to spend money to bring in tech and find efficiency. Use the one time injection to make necessary efficiencies to reduce future expenses, especially pension liabilities.whitherSTL wrote: ↑Jan 26, 2025Politically, I think TJ should find a way to punt the final Rams spending plan until after next election. I don’t think interested voters will vote for her when they approve RAMS money for childcare to city employees who already make their money off taxpayers’ backs.
Just wait a little while, then if/when she wins or moves on, they can set aside money for free childcare for public employees.
I agree, the focus should be on being more efficient. If you can't find enough employees, why not invest to automate as much as possible?flipz wrote: ↑Jan 28, 2025I agree, don't increase the cost per employee. I think she needs to spend money to bring in tech and find efficiency. Use the one time injection to make necessary efficiencies to reduce future expenses, especially pension liabilities.whitherSTL wrote: ↑Jan 26, 2025Politically, I think TJ should find a way to punt the final Rams spending plan until after next election. I don’t think interested voters will vote for her when they approve RAMS money for childcare to city employees who already make their money off taxpayers’ backs.
Just wait a little while, then if/when she wins or moves on, they can set aside money for free childcare for public employees.
I think the plan is only to use the interest from the earmarked portion for childcare which would solve the issue about the permanent status of the benefit. However, if they earmark for example $40 million the interest of that would only be $1.6 million per year (which would decrease to $1.2 million if the rates go down to 3%). This is about $100K per month to subsidize childcare. Let's assume a $500 usd benefit per month per employee, is it really worth it to earmark that much money just to help 200 employees? I don't think so. (If it's less per employee, would it really make that much of a difference to fill positions?) Childcare affordability should be something for the State and Federal government to try to solve. I strongly believe the city is better off spending that money in infrastructure downtown (that would be doubled by the private investment). Beautification of downtown would drive more revenue int he short term through sales taxes that could in turn be used to pay for that benefit if the city believes that's the priority.SB in BH wrote: ↑Jan 28, 2025Others may know better, but my understanding is that the jobs going unfilled mostly require an actual person, e.g., trash pickup, park and street maintenance, etc. There may some opportunities for automation, e.g., the permit reviewing process DB mentions above, but I'm not sure there's an off-the-shelf tech solution the City could buy but hasn't due to a lack of funds.
Based on the Mayor's interview on NPR last week, it sounds like the Personnel department was operating on ancient computer systems that are now being replaced, which should help with hiring. (TJ deserves credit for this and lots of other boring governance stuff that the last 4 Mayors ignored). But that won't change the fact that the City pays less than the private sector (and less than other state/local governments?).
I think childcare subsidies make sense as a general recruitment tactic, but I'm not crazy about using Ram's money to do that, given the one-time nature of those funds. Is there a credible plan for adding those expenses to the Personnel budget as a permanent benefit for City employees once the initial seed money from the Rams settlement is spent? If not, then we should spend the Ram's money elsewhere, namely one-time projects that we couldn't afford otherwise, i.e., fixing infrastructure the built environment downtown and in the most neglected parts of the City.
The childcare subsidy is a pilot program to see if and how it works. If it doesn't work as intended, then they won't pursue it in the future. If it does work, then it's worth spending actual money on in the future.SB in BH wrote: ↑Jan 28, 2025Others may know better, but my understanding is that the jobs going unfilled mostly require an actual person, e.g., trash pickup, park and street maintenance, etc. There may some opportunities for automation, e.g., the permit reviewing process DB mentions above, but I'm not sure there's an off-the-shelf tech solution the City could buy but hasn't due to a lack of funds.
Based on the Mayor's interview on NPR last week, it sounds like the Personnel department was operating on ancient computer systems that are now being replaced, which should help with hiring. (TJ deserves credit for this and lots of other boring governance stuff that the last 4 Mayors ignored). But that won't change the fact that the City pays less than the private sector (and less than other state/local governments?).
I think childcare subsidies make sense as a general recruitment tactic, but I'm not crazy about using Ram's money to do that, given the one-time nature of those funds. Is there a credible plan for adding those expenses to the Personnel budget as a permanent benefit for City employees once the initial seed money from the Rams settlement is spent? If not, then we should spend the Ram's money elsewhere, namely one-time projects that we couldn't afford otherwise, i.e., fixing infrastructure the built environment downtown and in the most neglected parts of the City.
Hey I don't know if you realized, but the state and federal government are run by insane people who hate you. They aren't gonna "solve" childcare affordability.Rick Prieto wrote: ↑Jan 28, 2025I think the plan is only to use the interest from the earmarked portion for childcare which would solve the issue about the permanent status of the benefit. However, if they earmark for example $40 million the interest of that would only be $1.6 million per year (which would decrease to $1.2 million if the rates go down to 3%). This is about $100K per month to subsidize childcare. Let's assume a $500 usd benefit per month per employee, is it really worth it to earmark that much money just to help 200 employees? I don't think so. (If it's less per employee, would it really make that much of a difference to fill positions?) Childcare affordability should be something for the State and Federal government to try to solve. I strongly believe the city is better off spending that money in infrastructure downtown (that would be doubled by the private investment). Beautification of downtown would drive more revenue int he short term through sales taxes that could in turn be used to pay for that benefit if the city believes that's the priority.SB in BH wrote: ↑Jan 28, 2025Others may know better, but my understanding is that the jobs going unfilled mostly require an actual person, e.g., trash pickup, park and street maintenance, etc. There may some opportunities for automation, e.g., the permit reviewing process DB mentions above, but I'm not sure there's an off-the-shelf tech solution the City could buy but hasn't due to a lack of funds.
Based on the Mayor's interview on NPR last week, it sounds like the Personnel department was operating on ancient computer systems that are now being replaced, which should help with hiring. (TJ deserves credit for this and lots of other boring governance stuff that the last 4 Mayors ignored). But that won't change the fact that the City pays less than the private sector (and less than other state/local governments?).
I think childcare subsidies make sense as a general recruitment tactic, but I'm not crazy about using Ram's money to do that, given the one-time nature of those funds. Is there a credible plan for adding those expenses to the Personnel budget as a permanent benefit for City employees once the initial seed money from the Rams settlement is spent? If not, then we should spend the Ram's money elsewhere, namely one-time projects that we couldn't afford otherwise, i.e., fixing infrastructure the built environment downtown and in the most neglected parts of the City.
