Notes from a recent special city council meeting included some detail on a firm the city is considering to use to outsource school crossing guard services. The guards stay under the direction of the Rye City police chief but hiring, firing and all administrative work is outsourced.
Current guards would be retained at their current rate but new guards would be hired at a lower rate.
Good idea? What do you think? Leave a comment below.
Here are the details:
"Presentation by All City Management Services (ACMS) for the outsourcing of school crossing guard services
Prior to the presentation by All City Management Services (ACMS), Police Commissioner William Connors updated the Council on the Police Department’s efforts to recruit crossing guards. He said that ads have been run on the International Association of Chiefs of Police website the Indeed website. To date 84 resumes have been received and two completed applications have been submitted. They will also continue looking through the local churches. There are two to three authorized positions to be filled but he and the City Manager are also considering needs that will result from the school construction project.
Patricia Pohl, Director of Operations of ACMS made a presentation regarding the services that her company offers in connection with providing crossing guards, which she called “invaluable” to public safety. They have approximately 3,000 guards working throughout the country. Ms. Pohl outlined how ACMS recruits, trains and supervises crossing guards. She also noted that all liability rests with their company. She said that utilizing ACMS frees up police departments to do what they are trained and paid to do. They would retain the current crossing guards who wished to stay at their current rate, but new guards would be paid a lower rate. In summary the services provided by ACMS include: the entire responsibility for the crossing guard program – recruiting, hiring, training, discipline, firing, workers comp, insurance, equipment, and supervision. They work at the direction of the Police Commissioner.
Mayor French asked Ms. Pohl to report back to the Council with what ACMS’s recommended oversight model would look like.
The Police Commissioner was asked to provide information regarding how many times a police officer was used to backfill a crossing guard spot during the 2012-2013 school year."
So after Connors advertised in the Pennysaver for crossing guards and gets publicly ridiculed he then goes and advertises in the International Association of Chiefs of Police for crossing guards????????????
Are you serious?
You mean no Police Chiefs from around the world were interested in being a Rye crossing guard?
How does the Rye City Council sit up on the dais and watch this moron make a fool of himself with his incompetence and mismanagement?
Connors obviously could not even handle managing crossing guards. Is it any wonder why the Rye PD is in such disarray with this moron at the helm?
It’s time to outsource Connors. Send him back to his true love out in Cincinnati, Ohio.
I don’t know how much more I could have possibly added that would have changed this outcome.
Very disappointing, Rye has become a very sad place to live or want to live in!!!
Never in my life have I ever witnessed adults that are less interested in the safety of children, I just do not get it!!!
I always perceived PD’s as the #1 source for public safety, what am I missing?
It seems that the RPD GENERALS & SCOTT PICKUP have a different view of the job description of an Officer???
I am probably missing something but can anyone explain to me how Commissioner Connors got the authority to sign off on a $250k invoice for Scotty Y’s RM Staffing company? Can’t be sure but it may be like Obama becoming incapacitated and General Hague rises from the dead to state “I am in control here…”
PSL,
That’s an easy one…..first you act as if you are the 3 Muskateers, and then when your caught you now act as the 3 Blind Mice!
French, Connors & Stuckup work as a team!!!
Jim,
And now Pickup, Connors and French are the three stooges.
PSL,
As far as Connors signing off on a $250,000 invoice to RM Staffing, I guess we could ask Pickup’s good friend, Westchester County Assistant District Attorney Ted Livingston, what the circumstances of this payment was.
As you know, Pickups good friend Livingston is also the lead investigator into the Rye Golf Club investigation.
We could also ask Livingston where the missing $1,000,000 in purchase orders are.
We could also ask Livingston about the $250,000 in improvements on Pickups house that occurred around the same time RM Staffing was formed and started submitting invoices for millions and millions of dollars.
How is it possible that Livingston, very good friends with Pickup, has anything to do with this so called investigation? Why hasn’t he removed himself or been removed by DiFiore unless he is only here to protect Pickup?
Why hasn’t the final Brune Richard report been released to the public yet?
sorry, I still don’t get it…;)…from http://www.ryeny.gov PD is responsible for: The Police Commissioner directs the Police Department which has the responsibility of enforcing all state and local laws, and is charged with providing emergency response to the citizens of Rye. Responding to all crimes and/or emergencies, dispatch ambulance and other emergency vehicles as required, enforce City Code violations, provide assistance in cases of emergency, manmade or natural, enforce parking regulations, enforce vehicle and traffic laws.
I don’t see anything about signing authority for invoices of a shell company.
Put another way, and I think Carolina’s godfather would know: who else besides the City Manager, and in this singular instance, the PD Commissioner, signed RM Staffing invoices…the City Clerk, past or present Corporation Counsels, Councilpersons, the Mayor, past or present City judges? Who else, if anyone?
Here’s a real life example: NO ONE at http://www.iviewitholdings.com has signing authority for any amount over $25,000 without my approval. There is NO cross-pollination of signing authorities, for instance if it is to come out of the CTO’s budget, Legal can’t sign for it, and if it is to come out of Legal’s budget, HR can’t sign for it, and so on and so forth…ok, I am a stickler for financial control, but what is wrong with this picture? In what capacity, considering the services I deliniated in my last post, does PD know anything about what he is signing for?
PSL, I remember hearing at a council meeting that other department heads can be designated as authorized signers if the City Manager isn’t available. Not sure if the City Charter is on line, but you should take a look at it.
Average,
Thanks for your comment. The City Charter is online, I will look at it, and let us assume you are 100% correct. The point of my comment, though perhaps I did not phrase it correctly, is that how can one department vet and scrutinize the invoice of another department? I don’t allow Legal to vet and scrutinize R&D because they have no clue, and, as another example, I don’t allow HR to vet and scrutinize Bus Dev for if I did, we would be stuck in a slowly sinking quagmire. Perhaps this $250k was an emergency source of funds to make payroll, and, if so, it’s a whole different can of worms.
…or, in another regard, perhaps Scotty Y needed that $250k quickly to staff and fund another bash for the Republican Party complete with caviar and $250 bottles of wine (not $250 per case, $250 per BOTTLE); did anyone ever see the chit for the former City Clerk’s retirement party? Maybe Carolina’s god father will post the menu sometime, I hear it was THE place to be!
Regarding the $250K that Bill COnnors signed off on for RM Staffing, the charter reads, Ҥ C8-5
Acting City Manager.
The City Manager shall designate a qualified city administrative officer to exercise the powers and perform the duties of Manager during his absence or disability. The Council may revoke such designation at any time and appoint another officer of the city to serve until the Manager shall return or his disability shall cease.
The problem is, a foil request asking for:
“All resolutions, declarations or notices of any kind appointing an acting or interim city manager since Jan. 1, 2007″… came back with one document that was responsive, and that was the council resolution appointing Frank Culross to replace O Paul Shew (Pickup’s boss who was fired in 2009).
The council was asked why the city could not produce a document appointing Connors to act for Pickup at on eof the many meetings that took place during the RGC scandal… crickets then, and crickets now.
They could not produce even a feasible lie, muchless any documents appointing Bill Connors to act as CM.
Additionally, the best I can tell according to FOILS for Pickup’s schedule, he was not out on sick leave, personal time or vacation on the day Connors signed the $250K purchase order for RM.
Laus, not defending anyone but does it state anywhere in the Charter that the designation must be in writing? Can it be verbal?
AC,
You’re correct. I see nothing in the charter that says it needs to be in writing. That is why the council was asked in person if they can ever remember Bill Connors being appointed the Acting CM, not one could say yes. Ms. Brett said there was a document forwarded to the council by Pickup from a Jun or Jul. council packet from 2011 that may have been the designation but she couldn’t open it.
It is almost always about the process. If the correct process isn’t in place it should be put in place. That would protect folks like Connors and Pickup from the appearance of possible wrongdoing–and it will protect the public from being ripped off hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars.
Instead, it appears as if the charter is used like a jungle jim for this administration to bend, twist and contort themselves in every imaginable way to keep plausible deniability alive.
And, lets be really honest, Mr. Pickup was proven to have lied regarding RM Staffing, Scotty Y and the entire RGC scandal. He lied about a relationship where hundreds of thousands of dollars of fraud took place. That’s a fact. Investigative law firm Brune and Richard documented it in their RGC report.
LausDeo,
Thanks for the citation, I saw that last night as well. In my read, I made note of the word ADMINISTRATIVE, where I recall my elementary school history classes learning about the U.S. Constitution, especially the part about the Separation of Powers – executive, legislative, and judicial…where C8-5 uses the word DESIGNATE it is normally taken to mean an appointment in writing. Hey, I really don’t care whether he rightly or wrongly signed it — there are allegations of embezzlement and racketeering here — it just strikes me as odd that Pickup had to reach clear across downtown for a signature like the rest of City Hall were frozen like a deer in the headlights, which they probably were…;)
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization [like the Republican Administration in Rye]. The RICO Act focuses specifically on racketeering, and it allows the leaders of a syndicate [like the Republican Administration in Rye] to be tried for the crimes which they ordered others to do or assisted them [like the Republican Administration in Rye]. All it takes is 2 acts to make the team, folks, RM Staffing, Circle Y, Dapolite. Very disappointed to hear about ADA Livingston being in Pickup’s pocket, it’s a BLOCK, and that is all folks.
“I guess we could ask Pickup’s good friend, Westchester County Assistant District Attorney Ted Livingston, what the circumstances of this payment was. As you know, Pickups good friend Livingston is also the lead investigator into the Rye Golf Club investigation.”
RyeDad if this is true – that Rye City Manager Scott Pickup and the Chief of the Investigations Division had or have a prior personal relationship – I think that is a bombshell revelation and brings questions of apparent or actual conflict of interest into this matter. Can you provide additional information here; preferably information that would constitute evidence of this alluded to relationship?
People in this town – lots of them long time residents – now fully believe something is very wrong about the course of this DA’s office investigation and its lack of apparent progress or results. Perhaps the DA’s office has been updating the Rye City Council behind closed doors but the council has chosen not to update the public?