Markeshia Ricks Photo
Zinn (at right) is handing Hausladen (left) the light reins.
Paul Bass Photo
Paca: Delay not my fault.
If you have a problem with a traffic light or a streetlight and it belongs to the city, now you just have one department to call: Transportation, Traffic and Parking.
Chances are you’ve been calling that department anyway because you assumed that it was that department’s responsibility to take care of a bum light. But until this fall, you were supposed to call the city’s engineering department, who would then in turn call a contractor to handle the problem.
No more.
City traffic chief Doug Hausladen said under the new system you can get a quick response if you create a work order on the SeeClickFix platform if you have a problem with a street light. He said his team of in-house senior traffic signal maintainers, now called senior traffic signal technicians, can have the job done in many cases within a few days.
The shift of moving street light techs from the city’s engineering department into the hands of Hausladen’s department had been nearly two years in the making. It took a while to get there amid a sudden loss of staffing and problems with labor relations. The switch is expected to ultimately make the city more responsive to street lighting problems and save money.
“Street lighting has historically been a function of the city’s engineering department … and the way the department ran it was with a $150,000 annual contract with a firm,” Hausladens said. “The mayor’s administration recognized this back in 2014 as not an ideal situation.”
Hausladen said that it became even clearer when Giovanni Zinn was appointed as the city’s engineer.
“Having the city engineer taking phone calls about individual street lights didn’t seem like the best use of his time, nor the best opportunity for excellent customer service,” Hausladen said.
Zinn said when it comes to maintenance its simple: you need bucket trucks and guys who work on electrical stuff.
“And people who know how to do [electrical work] in the right of way and people who are on call 24/7,” Hausladen added.
“Which is exactly what his [Hausladen’s] department already has,” Zinn said.
“Every street light is important to us,” Hausladen said. “We have begun acknowledging requests on SeeClickFix. That creates an electronic work order for my team.”
City traffic engineer Notghi.
The traffic department has two staffers right now for the work. It has one vacancy because a beloved longtime former maintainer left for St. Petersburg, Fla. There is an opening for an additional position that was created for the department in fiscal 2015, but not funded until fiscal 2016. City Traffic Engineer Bijan Notghi said despite the staffing shortage the department completes on average 100 street light maintenance calls a month. The two positions have been posted.
He said for easy fixes such as replacing LED bulbs, the turnaround could come as quickly as 48 to 72 hours.
Delay Resolved
LED street lights brighten the night.
Hausladen said part of the reason it took so long to make the switch for streetlight maintenance from Zinn’s department to his was a snafu with the city’s Labor Relations Department.
Traffic signal techs have been taking on additional work over the years because of the changes in the traffic division. So they not only maintain traffic signals but also deal with the city’s 16 miles of fiber network and its camera systems.
Back in the fall of 2014, when the plan was hatched to streamline street light maintenance and push that work out to the techs, AFSCME Local 884 reminded the administration that the techs were already not being paid for the additional work they were doing.
The administration had informed the Labor Relations Department, then under the direction of Marcus Paca, that there was a need to negotiate a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with the union to compensate the techs for the additional work they were already doing. The parties also had to negotiate new job descriptions that include the additional street light maintenance work.
It took 18 months to get the department to do that work, Hausladen said. And that was only after Paca was fired in April, and city Corporation Counsel John Rose stepped in to helm the department, he said. A MOU was signed in October. The Board of Alders now has a request to transfer $170,256 in capital bond money to cover the purchase of a new bucket truck, which will be used by the new senior traffic signal tech, who is funded in the fiscal 2016 budget.
In an interview, Paca pushed back against that characterization. He said that when he was let go, he was in fact negotiating with both Locals 3144 and 884. He said the issues involved took time to negotiate with two separate unions. He said he had an agreement drawn up when he was fired.
He blamed the Harp administration for the delays: “This situation underscores the reason why the City of New Haven and its labor union employees deserve a full time labor director.” He said he is “glad that the good, innovative work of Local 884 members in the street light maintenance crew has finally been resolved.”
Mayoral spokesman Laurence Grotheer declined comment on Paca’s remarks.
Hausladen said the department is going to close out any street light work orders older than Dec. 31, 2015. And if your problem hasn’t been resolved, he encouraged people to create a new work order.