How Long Do You Think Before She is Fired?

[exdetroiter]

http://www.wxyz.com/news/story/WILSO...U-kOipKfg.cspx

[Kevgoblu]

No question nepotism / favoritism rears its ugly head again.

I think Steve Wilson loses a little crediblilty here though. This same type of thing happens in every organization. Both public and private. He's acting as though this 'problem' is unique to the city of Detroit. Is Steve going to scan the payroll of all local municpalities for friends and / or family of connected politicans? I'll guarentee that she's got plenty of company.

The issue which he failed to address is her level of competentcy.

[vintagesoul]

I hope sooner rather than later. How incredibly deep the corruption goes. How many people have to say she is unqualified before she is rejected?

What I want to know is where are the other candidates and what are their qualifications? Hopefully she was not the best of the bunch. I would love to see who she "edged out".

[mbr]

Good point Kev, it's hard to draw the line. This is ok investigative work but there was absolutely no mention of her actual job performance. It would have been much stronger if he talked to people she worked with and got some indication as to how she performed once hired. The part that got me was the fact that she was living in Southfield and claimed to be living in Detroit to get bonus points during the selection process. That, I believe, is justifiable grounds for termination.

[vintagesoul]

Good point Kev, it's hard to draw the line. This is ok investigative work but there was absolutely no mention of her actual job performance. It would have been much stronger if he talked to people she worked with and got some indication as to how she performed once hired. The part that got me was the fact that she was living in Southfield and claimed to be living in Detroit to get bonus points during the selection process. That, I believe, is justifiable grounds for termination.

Bottom line - article said when she was up for review an HR analyst STILL said she wasn't qualified. That would lead me to believe that even after one year she was not performing well either. The skills she lacked seem key to her job, the plumbing knowledge, systems knowledge, HVAC knowledge, etc. I don't believe you can lack key skills even after one year of working somewhere and expect to keep your job.

Like I said - I think the clincher is seeing who she beat out in competition for the position. If she was up against someone who had all that experience and met the qualifications, was certified, then to me that would convince me there was something dirty goin on. That would make it obvious I think.

[ghettopalmetto]

Good point Kev, it's hard to draw the line. This is ok investigative work but there was absolutely no mention of her actual job performance. It would have been much stronger if he talked to people she worked with and got some indication as to how she performed once hired. The part that got me was the fact that she was living in Southfield and claimed to be living in Detroit to get bonus points during the selection process. That, I believe, is justifiable grounds for termination.

Regardless of job performance, a Bachelor's degree in construction management isn't sufficient credentials to head the Building Department of a city of 900,000 people.

[Retroit]

Let's hope Dave Bing puts an end to this.

[rjk]

I'd love for SW to come to my municipality and investigate any wrong doings but my city is too small to matter to most people. People in Detroit should be thrilled that he's putting a magnifying glass on some of the problems.

[mjs]

No question nepotism / favoritism rears its ugly head again.

I think Steve Wilson loses a little credibility here though. This same type of thing happens in every organization. Both public and private. He's acting as though this 'problem' is unique to the city of Detroit. Is Steve going to scan the payroll of all local municipalities for friends and / or family of connected politicians? I'll guarantee that she's got plenty of company.

The issue which he failed to address is her level of competency.

Hopefully, its a relatively small amount and stories like this influence it to go lower. All the media can do is start at the top and take them down one at a time. Its that or nothing. Sometimes the Observer papers burn the suburban bureaucrats that act like this and with any luck, politicians will leak these stories to harm their rivals.

[LodgeDodger]

No question nepotism / favoritism rears its ugly head again.

I think Steve Wilson loses a little crediblilty here though. This same type of thing happens in every organization. Both public and private. He's acting as though this 'problem' is unique to the city of Detroit. Is Steve going to scan the payroll of all local municpalities for friends and / or family of connected politicans? I'll guarentee that she's got plenty of company.

The issue which he failed to address is her level of competentcy.

Steve didn't need to address her level of competency--the HR records did this for him.

Yes, this may happen in other places, but Mr. Wilson's focus is on the City of Detroit. Is she has plenty of company, then perhaps other local municipalities ought to review their records.

[Locke09]

Here's what's interesting about all of this. Ms. Meah is a provisional employee. Amru Meah, her father, is the one who accused Monica Conyers of pulling strings to get her brother hired as a "provisional" employee. He apparently believed that the hiring of his daughter was different.

Provisional employees are red flags anyway. It means someone circumvented the normal hiring practices. They are supposed to be used when you cannot find anyone qualified using the normal hiring practices. In the past that meant there was no one meeting the requirements who was a resident. Since there is no residency rule now, there really should be very limited need for provisional employees.

If I recall correctly, Archer did not like this practice and severely limited the use of provisionals.

[kraig]

Here's what's interesting about all of this. Ms. Meah is a provisional employee. Amru Meah, her father, is the one who accused Monica Conyers of pulling strings to get her brother hired as a "provisional" employee. He apparently believed that the hiring of his daughter was different.

Provisional employees are red flags anyway. It means someone circumvented the normal hiring practices. They are supposed to be used when you cannot find anyone qualified using the normal hiring practices. In the past that meant there was no one meeting the requirements who was a resident. Since there is no residency rule now, there really should be very limited need for provisional employees.

If I recall correctly, Archer did not like this practice and severely limited the use of provisionals.

You are exactly, 100% correct on that one. Then Kwame came in and started the friends and family plan. Of course, what Kwame didn't realize was that once you open that door you can't close it behind you. The rest of the administration had the mentality that if they cheat for themselves at the same time they're cheating for Kwame, who's going to stop them? They did a whole bunch of provisional employees on their way out the door. Besides the employees at Workforce Development, Cockrel's administration only caught a few of them.

As for Steve Wilson, I'm one of those people that wishes there were a few more details to some of his stories. But, to be fair, there's only so much that he's going to be able to put on the air and only so much time that he's probably able to commit to a story, after all he seems to do more investigative reporting than channels 2 and 4 combined. Therefore, he more than likely can't spend time chasing down information that isn't going really add any more depth to the story.

Lastly, the City of Detroit hardly ever does job performance evaluations of its employees. So, there probably was nothing for him to get. And even if there was, it probably would have taken too long to wait for it.

[mjs]

Ah, I remember the days when Steve Wilson used to visit DetroitYes and answer questions directly, but he was chased out. We miss you Steve.

[Brittz]

I wonder how many employees were passed over for this position.

[LodgeDodger]

Ah, I remember the days when Steve Wilson used to visit DetroitYes and answer questions directly, but he was chased out. We miss you Steve.

He still posts on DYes. I believe he posted a short time ago.

[mjs]

Nice. My mistake.

[exdetroiter]

I believe part of the reason Steve exposed this employee is because she slid through the cracks when Cockrel took office and terminated all of those improperly placed in positions by Kwame and his croonies. I bet she gets booted this time, particularily since Bing has placed qualified professional over all departments to get things in order.

[Hypestyles]

hmm.. we'll see what happens..

[Crumbled_pavement]

Doubt she gets fired at all. I'm sure she'll live to retrie with a nice pension.

Thanks Kilpatrick, we appreciate it!

[wash_man]

We'll probably never know. One of the things I dislike about Steve Wilson is his lack of follow up reporting. He exposed waste in Martha Reeves office. What happened? Was her driver fired? Steve needs lessons from Scott Lewis and M.L. Elrick.

[Locke09]

Doubt she gets fired at all. I'm sure she'll live to retrie with a nice pension.

Thanks Kilpatrick, we appreciate it!

No pension. She is a provisional. She can be fired at any time.

[Crumbled_pavement]

No pension. She is a provisional. She can be fired at any time.

Of course she can be fired at any time. I just doubt anyone has the moral fortitude to do it.

P.S.: Thanks for the correction on the pension.

[Roq]

Doubt she gets fired at all.

Agreed. This will blow over and she'll still be employed there...as par usual.

[diver1369]

Wash man, you hit upon a pattern and a shortcoming I find with Steve Wilson. His "exposes" appear to be a case of a whistleblower wanting to expose the misdeeds in their department but not wanting to become vulnerable by doing so. I fully understand the whistleblowers' dilemma. That's where Mr. Wilson comes in. He supplies the cameras and the images. The other reporters you mention follow the story with some sense of finality and resolution. This particular story involving Amru Meah's daughter appears to be a rightful case of sour grapes by someone who had better qualifications for the job she was given. It would have been a stronger story if the HR interviewer who "knew the history" of her appointment would have gone into the detail of what they knew. Ultimately, it's good that the favoritism and nepotism is exposed so those who engage in it might think twice about it.

[Steve Wilson]

Ah, I remember the days when Steve Wilson used to visit DetroitYes and answer questions directly, but he was chased out. We miss you Steve.

Nobody chased me away...I'm here regularly. Let me respond to Diver1369's point.

Yes, wouldn't it be wonderful if whistle blowers everywhere would sit in a chair under the lights, look into the camera, and speak the truth? Some do. Others have seen enough in cities like this--and at corporations, the military, virtually everywhere--to know the cost of doing so can mean an end to their jobs and maybe their careers.

I'm glad there are still people with conscience and conviction to call folks like me, point us in the right direction, and even help provide the documentation to prove the truth, as happened in this case. And don't jump to a conclusion that it was some applicant that didn't get the job. H-R insiders, her co-workers, LOTS of people have access to assess what's going on here.

Finally, are some whistle blowers motivated by other than altruistic do-gooding? Yup. So what? I'm not nearly as concerned as to their motives as I am with their information and whether it can be independently documented. If I can do that with substantial issues, it's worthy of broadcast IMHO. At least there's the independent validation, unlike when we go to a news conference and report the self-serving claims of some politician when there is no time to corroborate his/her claims.