I had every intention of letting Snowgate drop, but yesterday the Journal Star printed a letter from Roger Figard, the embattled and embarrassed man formerly in charge of the city's snow-removal duties. It took a lot of guts for Mr. Figard to write the letter, and not just because it is always tough to say "I screwed up". The letter also fills in "the rest of the story". In short, Mr. Figard was distracted by his daughter's health issues and he had to be out of town.
Fair enough. I'm certainly not going to criticize Mr. Figard for putting family first. However one does wonder how many other major city functions could fall prey to the same case of bad timing. What happens if the head of payroll, or StarTran, or sewage services finds himself or herself in a similar position? The public needs to be able to have confidence that all major services will continue uninterrupted and at full quality even in the absence of the person in charge. Snowgate puts a dent in that confidence. Likewise, heads of those major services need to be able to vanish from the workplace at a moment's notice in order to take care of pressing family concerns, and they need to know that the services will continue at 100% even in their absence.
Managers around the city should take a look at their situation and ask: what would happen if I disappeared for a week? Are you confident the people and services you manage would continue to receive a passing grade?
Edited to add: And now that I think about it, doesn't this put more of the blame for Snowgate on Karl Fredrickson? Isn't it his responsibility to ensure that a backup plan exists for when one of his managers is absent?
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