By: msw1 on 11/5/09
Yes keep them busy, why pay them to sit around, if their city employees doent they get paid with tax dollars?

By: Racer on 11/5/09
"We can’t afford to lose the expertise and talent we have" What a joke!!!! I was told by one of them that I needed ice blocker on a storage shed that sets on skids, never heated never will be. Thats talent alright. A couple of these guys don't now the code and can't read it. This is the best time to "clean house". There are a lot more inspectors out there with better expertise and talent looking for jobs.
Are there wages going to be adjusted to the job they will be doing? or do we bring all the others up to there level?

By: MNBear on 11/5/09
"We can’t afford to lose the expertise and talent we have. These are highly trained people, so we need to maintain adequate staffing levels,” Strand said. “We’re going to have to re-evaluate it next year, but we don’t want to make drastic cuts."

The typical bureaucratic answer - WE can't take a cut because WE are far too important.

B.S.

This is the same answer you get from teachers, city unions, etc. They are all, apparently, far, far too important to be reduced. I'll ask this - how is it that a city of only 22,000 or so needs 6 full-time inspectors? Construction is at a stand-still, so what are these guys doing all day? 40 decks inspections? Please. They are sitting around collecting taxpayer-funded paychecks. At least someone is telling them to get out and grab a shovel. Better yet - fire half of them and make due going forward.

By: Indians on 11/5/09
Do you have footings? Check
Did you avoid building your house on the street? Check
Can a baby slip through the railings? Check

Complicated stuff.

By: Mr_Kite on 11/5/09
Teachers are to important to be reduced. Putting teachers in the same category as city inspectors is like comparing apples to oranges.

By: Thinking_Outloud on 11/5/09
I am sitting on my hands, I am sitting on my hands, I am sitting on my hands...........

By: hawk on 11/5/09
This is a prime example of where our city council should stand up and say enough. Instead they shoot back at a citizen with a legimate concern. Maybe he was not right on the numbers, however his concern for overstaffing may have been. In the private sector how many companies have or would hang on to employees, just in case we need them. If the profits are gone and the company is failing so will the employee's.

“Right now we’re keeping them comfortably busy. In winter we have plans to plug them in to other departments,” Strand said. “One building inspector in particular has over 17 years of carpentry experience.”

Two points here;
1. Comfortably busy, anytime we get comfortable in a job, it means we are not working to full capacity, we need to push harder or we are going backwards. A long time ago a very well known business owner told me "when you are not going ahead then you are going backwards, beleive me there is no such thing as standing still, when we are comfortable in the way we are doing business then we are not achiveing full potential. Eventually we will be out of business, the world changes around us and we need to change with it".

2. "One carpenter has over 17 years of experience", so what sets him apart from all the other carpenters with 17 or more years of experience that are or will be looking for a job. Seems this is a cop out for doing business as usual.

I am trully hoping the new memebers of the council change some of this.

When I read these articles the same question always comes to mind, who works for who and who makes the decisions for who? Staff or Council?

By: secretsquirrel on 11/5/09
If the street department had to get rid of people because of budget cuts, park and rec had to downsize.... the best answer is to leave ONE city department alone and use people at the high end of the wage scale to cover for those let go from lower paying jobs?

Gee Wally, dad's gonna be really sore when he sees this! He might even sock one of us!

Good grief, how do we keep up with this sort of logic? MNBear..... break out the pillory please!

By: ksanh68 on 11/6/09
Why not do what corporations do? Layoff people at the high end of the wage scale and replace them with people who will do the job for half the cost.

By: budlight on 11/6/09
time to clean house! being a carpenter and knowing the inspection dept,i cant think of one fellow lic carpentore that can say anything good about owatonnas building inspectores.there is only one who has any commen sence and compasion for the trade and he worked for rocon as a experienced carpentore.he is the one and only that should stay and run the show !as far as the rest they should go and not to another city job,who the heck made dave strand god ! he should go to.if this retarded scam goes down there will be an uprising that wont be good.i think building official and inspectores should be voted in and out by licensed carpentores.we are the ones that can see through the bs. if you want a good example go to faribault,rochester and even the little town of clairmont.the in spectores are smart and very pleased to work with a guy unlike the #^%$# in owatonna.sad but true.lets face it people,we cant afford to let the old boys club go on.facts that most people dont know.some inspectores that work hear dont even live close to owatonna. some started in the inspections dep not even knowing anything about construction and to the day could not even run a tool as simple as a hamer! most if not all never held a contractore license! how did these people get in their in the first place! its time to wake up and clean house on theis imposters that think they are so abouve getting layed off.just a little food for thought,i can remember a few years back asking mr strand why he doesent get the eda funding to help the low income housing get a face lift to help clean up some of the old houses that where in distress.his response was "its a lot of paper work" are you people as fed up as me???? good,then share your thoughts openly to stop this from going on.owatonna and the people deserve far better than this.

By: pookah on 11/6/09
Interesting... Great comments, everyone...

In a time when unemployment jumped past 10% (and that's for those still on unemployment, not the rolloffs), you would think, just think, the talent outside of city walls grew enough so that the cost to hold more personnel is higher than releasing them into the unemployment quagmire.

That's just a "hunch".

By: nuthatch on 11/6/09
Sometimes you have to pat the OPP on the back for printing such good stories. If anything in Owatonna is going to change it will take everyone reading and being informed..Way to go OPP for shaking the dust off some of these "good ol boys" and showing their true colors!!!!Lets keep them honest.