Gerry,
Upon returning to City Hall today I’ve looked into the Mikayla Elliott matter which you emailed me on yesterday. As I indicated in emails and phone calls yesterday I was confident that if all paperwork had been properly submitted this situation was the result of clerical mix-up and not any form of “political” action as you indicated in your e-mails. I would note that we hire/process about 175 summer employees in a 2-3 week period in June gathering paperwork and putting them into the payroll system following approval of the budget.
I have learned that there are still several individuals that have not yet gotten us all their paperwork and they are not yet working. We also have seven lifeguards that did get us their paperwork, were approved (I signed off most if not all on June 18th following passage of the budget) and were processed through HR and sent off to Recreation for placement into the payroll system.
All lifeguards, including these seven, began work over a week ago in mandatory training. During this training period they receive their assignment/schedule for the remainder of the summer.
While the seven lifeguards produced all paperwork, received approvals from me and HR, and have already worked in training sessions, the Rec Department was apparently waiting for one more verification of approval before having them work at an assigned pool shift.
Given the approvals that had already been provided by HR and the fact that they had already worked it is unclear why the Recreation Department removed them from their Sunday assigned shift.
The Rec Department has been instructed to place all seven summer lifeguards onto the work schedule immediately. And, the Human Relations Office is reviewing the personnel procedures with the Rec Department today to avoid this situation in the future.
We will be reaching out to the affected individuals to extend our apology for the clerical mix-up and confusion.
Bernard F. Lynch | City Manager
Office of the City Manager
The City of Lowell
City Hall, 375 Merrimack Street, 2nd Floor | Lowell, MA 01852
t: 978.970.4000 | f: 978.970.4007 | http://www.lowellma.gov
Manager Lynch,
With every passing day, I wonder how in the world you deal with the whining and petty little nonsense that your deflectors throw your way. Thank you for hanging in there and not caving to this cry-baby nonsense. This city needs you. Hang in there.