The problem is that when a person in authority does something severe like job cuts, then all of a sudden the shizzle hits the fan. The bottom line is that Bernie is the ultimate manager over all city employees (including making recommendations about job cuts, pay cuts etc, to City Council.) Well since he controls all city employees, then he shouldn't be allowed to have an immediately family member on payroll, Part Time, Full Time 1/2 Time, NO TIME. And if the rules are fuzzy that needs to change, same for City Council members they shouldn't be allowed to have family members on payroll either. Then to make matters worse, they both have a problem operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, which in most instances in government would not allow a person to get hired or would be cause for immediate dismissal (unless their father is the City Manager,(what a stinkin coincidence?) or unless your golf buddy/ business partner/ House Flipper Upper/ Dragon Boat Partner/ Man Friend/ is the Mayor, then you just get a slap on the wrist...

The rules are a little tighter when it's a government job. If you are the CEO of TDK and you have too many shots at the company christmas party and get a DUI Less Safe (Blah Blah) thats a little different because it's a private company, you aren't a public official that makes decisions that potentially effect the entire population of PTC including their employees, and since his paycheck comes from you and me, that makes it a major conflict of interest. The truth is that most of the residents in PTC couldn't believe that Bernie was able to keep his job with a DUI, and now that I just found out about his son getting hired (even if his son had a stellar military background, finished top 5 in his court mandated defensive driving class, and won SON OF THE YEAR 2008) it still raises a red flag. What is the fire chief supposed to do if he has a problem with Bernies Son? Knowing that Bernie has control over "ALL". It makes for awkward government, and no matter how good, bad or indifferent a City Manager, this type of nepotism shouldn't have been allowed. So now that he wants to cut jobs I don't blame the employees for having an issue with it, it actually has EVERYTHING TO DO WITH FAMILY...
DUI Less Safe still has the three letters DUI in it, so either he refused to breathe for the officer that pulled him over, or he had a top knotch attorney. But we all know he only had one drink, right??? Whatever the city council decides tomorrow, the sequel "Weekend at Bernies II, The *Less Safe* Conflict" has just begun.

1. Nepotism

2. We have disclosed to the insurance company that insures our city vehicles, of the status of city employees with DUI's on their driving records. The insurance company is now charging us out the yang for that liability......

or

3. We have not disclosed the DUI record of some employees (acts of omission)......therefore since the insurance company is not aware of the questionable driving records we are not being charged out the yang...

Which is it??

If we have "accidently" forgotten to mention the previous DUI's of employees driving our city owned cars, I bet the insurance company would refuse to pay for any accident that occured while any of those people were driving said city owned vehicles. Leaving the taxpayer with a HUGE BILL!!!

Is this a valid concern? What is our liability in this situation? As a private citizen I bet my insurance rates would triple if I got a DUI, if my insurance company didn't drop me.

I'm angry like most of you have commented. I agree that if the son has a DUI and part of the fire department there is some unhealthy politics there, but what would you do as a father? Would you do the same thing in his position? Maybe or maybe not, the fact is what are you doing about it?

I worked at the same company where I refurbished old storage containers for 16 years of my life. Last November I was given layoff papers (a month before christmas I might add) and now I work doing mowing and landscaping.

I don't have insurance and I'm not a migrant worker by any means but the layoffs of those city officials help my family. Things tend to work themselves out.

I've switched sides. Logsdon and McMullen, if the Dunns don't like you, you can't be all bad. Janet, don't go away mad, just go away.

That this not Greg Dunn. Sheesh...where have you been?

New people aren't allowed?

Welcome aboard HIVBS. It's nice to meet you!

Now what part of Spear Road Guy not being Greg Dunn did you not understand. A simple thank you would have sufficed.

Git (not) Real Oh gee... golly... like we ain't seen that one before.

drive around the city and see the maintenance work being done and wonder if all these people are local residents, working to provide for a local home, wife and kids. I bet not.

there are about to be billions of dollars unleashed from uncle to stimulate the economy. Every contractor with his hand out for a buck
should be made to certify that our tax dollars are going to be paid to employees who are American citizens and every employee who fills out an I-9 and does not have proper documentation but is hired will cost that employer 100 dollars for every dollar he accepts from the stimulus.

I have never posted comments like these: I would prefer to sign my name. I tend to behave in ways that I am NOT ashamed of! The fact that this medium is anonymous allows for the worst behavior!

These are terrible times for everyone. Everyone is frightened and concerned. But we should not turn on each other! Our City Leaders may not be people with whom everyone agrees, but rest assured, they are PEOPLE. With feelings. Tough times call for tough decisions.

Our public servants devote a lot more of their time to this City than it takes to spew vitriol like that which is found on these pages.

If anything good is to come out of this situation, let it be a more caring community. And let's start here.

Let's start by not putting 23 people out of work to solve our short term problems. Unkind is sending 23 families in a financial spin downwards to make yourself worthy. Drink a beer and think about it Bernie. The powers-at-be were not so quick to hand you your walking papers. Pass it forward.

"Drink a beer and think about it Bernie." ??? Very nice. Stop being so mean. Please.

to fire 23 people in this economy?

It's BECAUSE of the economy that the people have to be let go!

It's Bernie. If he wants to show his worth he should find a way for the City to go on without ditching "the ones that brung ya!"

Today it's the yardmen, tomorrow it could be Bernie.

Oops. Was that unkind of me? Sorry! But you actually just wrote: "No, it's not the economy - It's Bernie" Are you inferring that the loss of jobs is all Bernie's fault and has nothing to do with the economy? I think your anger is mis-directed.

Get a real job! It wasn't that many years ago that little boys did the landscaping. They mowed and raked and hauled out the debris. They did not get benefits like health insurance. And they sure as heck didn't try to raise babies on their salary!

Back in Dec. I spent my afternoon off hauling boxes of Christmas stuff out of the attic and putting up my tree. I wasn't wasting my day watching those worthless rip off landscapers. I could hear the stupid leaf blowers! As I climbed up and down the ladder they were right outside my window. I worked as they goofed - blowing the leaves into my yard, so I had to deal with the mess. I saw the man scooping pinestraw another morning as I left for a doctors appointment. He was about a block further when I returned 3 hours later. Maybe he stopped working with his shovel and rushed off to assist the FBI in a major drug bust and thats why it took him so long. But the fact remains his efforts (and our tax dollars) were for nothing because the wind and rain put that straw right back into the gutters the next day.

Those knuckleheads cut the crepe murtles trees off at a 3 foot height in May!!! a couple of years ago. You want to guess how lovely that looked for over a year why the trees recovered? I'll admit that Peachtree Parkway is usually kept in good condition. But I've picked up bags of trash along a major throughfare. I've never seen city workers doing it. They just mow it into small pieces that blow away.

I work hard at my job, physical labor and I have no health benefits. I don't want the city to contract this work out to those that hire illegals. But we are not getting an honest days work from all of these city employed landscapers. Why do we keep so many on the payroll in winter? How much work is there for a landscaping crew during the winter? Other than blowing leaves into peoples yards?

I am the wife of a city employee who happens to be on the list of employees to be laid off. I must say that I do not appreciate your rude heartless comments. This may not be a "real job" to you, but to my husband it is. I myself work a full time job and I am also in college full time. I may not have the best job in the world right now, but I am going to school to better myself. I also have 2 small children and like someone said yesterday, this does affect the lives of them too. For you to make the comment about that is not how people used to raise their babies on these salaries, well guess what? That IS how my husband helps raise OUR babies. He makes good money there and he works his a$$ of for our family. My husband has been employed with the city for many years and he loves his job. Yes WINER, that is how WE raise OUR babies. You don't know anything about us or our families and we will all do whatever it takes to help them all keep their jobs. We all may not be as fortunate as you, but we work damn hard to support our family. We are not like some sorry people who want to live off of the government ya know. We choose to work. It may not be the way YOU do it, but it IS how WE do it. Not everyone is a heartless piece of crap like you. Hey everybody, may this WISE GUY (Winer) is actually Bernie himself or someone affiliated with him. So you just continue to make your stupid comments if that makes you fell better about yourself - good for you. I hope you get laid off of your "hard labor job" too. I hope something bad happens to you to ruin your life and your family's life since you don't care about anyone else but yourself, you heartless B*$t**d!!!!! I am not just speaking for my husband and our family, but also everyone else. All of those guys are good guys and they all work hard no matter what you say. I know them all, I don't think that you do. You don't know the half of it. They do what they are told and if you have a problem with that why don't you talk to the ol' drunk himself and tell him that he or his supervisors over these guys don't tell them the right things to do. What did you want them to do instead of blowing those leaves? Eat them? I could probably tell them a great place to put them and I bet you know where I'm going with that....Why don't you get off of your lazy a$$ like all the rest of us and do your own yard work? Im sure that you know that leaves do fall in the FALL and even if they blow them away......you're gonna have more. I didn't know that leaves in your yard is such a BIG DEAL.......You seem to be stuck on that one....

I have never paid anyone to do my yard work. I do it all myself. So after I rake my leaves from my yard, I was furious to have my tax dollars pay city workers to use a leaf blower to move leaves from city property into my yard. Get it!!! I refuse to believe that city supervisors told employees to stand in single spot and aim a leaf blower at an empty spot, while staring off at the cars passing by.

I have highly educated family members who have lost their jobs in this economy that is tanking. I know nurses that had their hours cut and some in nursing administration that have lost their jobs!!! My immediate family is dealing with someone who spent 8 plus years in college. She accepted her first post-grad job in the 6 figures with a hospital. The position was rescinded 5 days before it started, after she relocated out of state. There are large hospitals all over this county that are on the brink. These are important jobs, with lots of training.

Landscaping jobs with a municipality are luxuries we are not going to be able to afford. My job ended at the end of 2008- but I expect that every year, as it is usually seasonal work. However, with things being what they are now, I doubt I will be called back any time soon. But PTC, like many businesses, is going to have to make some cuts. Residents can’t afford higher taxes. We are all dealing with hard times now. I don’t want the city to cut needed city services like police and fire.

I'm sorry you are hurting, but when times get tough, jobs like landscaping are expendable.

You are appreciated by most of us.

You do a fantastic job of keeping our city looking pristine. You keep our city looking nice despite the horrible kids and their parents who throw their garbage everywhere.

Hang on in a year we will have a new mayor and with any luck a new city manager worthy of the title "manager".

Most of us want all of you to stay, and our worthless city drunks to go.

Are you talking about his son who also had a DUI before he weas hired as a City Fire Fighter. Come on Fayette Citizen Investigate This If You Have The Guts. Seems the Fire Chief BERNIE appointed could not say NO to rubber stamping the hire. Yea that is right he drives a City Fire Truck with a DUI just like dear old dad. I was told he is the only city fireman with a DUI arrest and conviction. Well dad is the only City Manager with a DUI arrest also. I understand he worked it around the police department who does the backgrounds by getting his new Chief "Chip" to sign off on it. You folks need to understand that BERNIE is your city problem. You can point the finger directly at him with all your problems. He was hired to run the city and all he has done is run the city into the ground with his ability to pass the buck and make excuses. When the tough questions are asked he is out sick. When the Mayor is being "stupid is as stupid does" Bernie is his whipping boy as he has to boot lap because the Mayor saved his job after his arrest. What a great deal for the Mayor. He has a convicted drunk driver running the city and will do anything he wants him to do. Citizens need to demand that Bernie be shown the door right now. Get him out, hire a professional City Manager and do not alow him to continue to ruin this city. CORRUPT CORRUPT CORRUPT !!!!!

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No surprise. The bovine manure never falls far from the manure pile.

I am surprised that we have a firefighter driving our TAXPAYER OWNED trucks with a DUI on his record. How much has that liability cost us, the taxpayer in insurance?? How much has it cost us that our drunk city manager drives a city/TAXPAYER OWNED car?

Can we really afford to have drunks driving up our insurance costs??

This SCREAMS for the I TEAM!!!!!

That would be the perfect way to cut expenses from the top down. If you have a DUI on your record you get fired. Also I don't think a small city like ours needs an assistant city manager.

"How about we publicly itemize the expenditures this city has and see what we all think about how the money is being spent".

That's a good idea in theory, but not in practice. Who would made the final decision in where the money is spent? All 40,000 people would want to spend the money 40,000 different ways. That's why we have a city council and a mayor.

Unfortunately, ours don't care about what the people want and dont listen to us. Something thats even more unfortunate is that its our fault. We Elected the mayor and his two cronies, who continue to keep their buddy in his place as City Manager. Next election, do some research into the mayor, and city council members. We can avoid putting fools in office by avoiding being fools ourselves.

cynicism in my suggestion. The point IS, the mayor and council will do whatever Bernie recommends (by 3/2 vote, of course).
Bernie doesn't know diddly about managing, so he just throws things like this out there. Having one less dept. to manage would lessen HIS workload. Less work, same pay..... Then, he throws this out to his business partner and buddy, Mr. Mayor, and he gives it the ok. Then, the other two follow along as they always have. We do not need 49k people doing the budget...let's look at admin. costs and cut there. We clearly are not getting our money's worth from this management.

Does this mean that the city employees won't get paid to stand in one section for half an hour pointing a leaf blower in the same spot? I watched 2 guys spend well over an hour, "work" an area that stretches the length of my yard. There is approximately a 3 foot strip of city easement. They blow the leaves from the easement into my yard. It takes them forever. They barely move - it's looks like slo-mo camera work.

Right before Christmas, city paid someone to go along the gutters and clean out pine straw. He stood there with his shovel and slowly scooped the pine straw up out of the gutter and put it barely onto the grass above the curb. He was there when I drove by and 3 hours later he was a block or so further down the street. Next day the wind and rain had washed it all back into the gutters.

I thought these guys had great job security - if you only move the debris a few inches instead of take it away. That way the task will need to be done all over again in just a couple of days. It's like paying someone to push a mower without a blade!!! They sorta look like they are working for the paycheck.

And a rifle can increase productivity 400% garunteed...or your money back.. in these types of situations..STOP THE MADNESS...PEACE, P.S. why are paid servants doing these types of jobs, when our jails and prisons are full of folks getting three hots and a cot, on our dime, just sitting on their kiesters, when they should be out putting in work earning their keep...FOOD FOR THOUGHT....GOD BLESS...