The problem of the OC in LP
One of the problems that our LP (Lafourche Parish) administrators is running into is the O.C. That’s not Orange County, but Opportunity Costs. In this Daily Comet article by Emilie Bahr, it seems as if parish public works department is having trouble keeping good workers, who can make a better living elsewhere.
One rather cynical councilman seems to think that the problem is worker dissatisfaction with their bosses. With pay well below what these construction trade workers can get elsewhere, they are sure to be dissatisfied–with their paychecks. How can we expect workers to settle for $12 per hour with the parish government rather than $15-$18 and more elsewhere?
The problem is that these workers are vital to keeping drainage in the parish flowing where it is supposed to go–away from our houses. My bet is that paying them a little bit more would be worth avoiding flooding of hundreds of homes in 1/2 inch rains.
It almost looks as if our Parish Council would rather play politics with our public works and our drainage just to make the parish administration look bad.
MC
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I know with every dissatisfied employee you have, that makes them work less. Since they don’t work as much, there co-worker pushes them less. It’s a chain reaction in any work place. Unless you give the employee an incentive and opportunities, they aren’t going to work as hard and the further you fall behind in your production (in this case, clean up).
So why don’t the local government find a way to pay to keep the employees happy. After all, if the competitors (local businesses), can afford to pay a guy $18 an hour, then they are obviously making enough revenue to pay for the clean-up and drainage of their local community. Not doing so would just cause them to doante more money to the cleanup and recovery process after, which in turn puts us behind in production again.
However, one question that does bother me is, why should the LG (local goverment) worry so much about the drainage backup as it is the low income areas that get backed up. They are keeping up the areas that make the money for the community.
To me, it is the same problem the local community is facing with teachers. Don’t want to pay them enough, how ever you expect to get the best and keep the best employees to educate the future of the local community.