I try to be fair with this blog, so here goes. Yesterday I posted about Democratic Registrar Olga Vazquez and her meltdown last Friday at City Hall. After getting a couple phone calls and thinking about this incident, I am having some second thoughts.
I am in no way condoning Vazquez's behavior. I have always felt that people that have to use the 'F' word and such language to communicate shows a sign of ignorance, There might be a time and place to use such language, but in a public building and in a supposedly professional environment is not the time or the place .Especially not by an elected official.
Vazquez has shown her lack of professionalism from the very beginning of her tenure at City Hall. Her behavior alone has built a very strong case to revamp the Registrar's Office.
With that being said, maybe some City Hall Office's also apparently need to be reworked. If the Payroll Department had done their job properly, there probably wouldn't have been a need for Vazquez to make the trip across the hall to argue for payment for her workers. I am pretty sure if the clerks in the Payroll Office were waiting for their paychecks from September , something would be corrected quickly .
It is very difficult to get poll workers. The salary, when averaged out over a long election day, probably comes out to much less than minimum wage. To then have to wait months to get paid is very wrong. Many poll workers actually choose work at the polls because the money is needed, not because they like elections. I am told by some poll workers that this is routine treatment by City Hall.
If employees in a private business hadn't been paid their wages since September, their employers would be facing a Judge on criminal charges of failing to pay wages or worse.
Olga's behavior is still reprehensible and uncalled for , but there is enough blame to go around, Also, in this day and age of workplace violence, I am also troubled by the supervisor who overheard the commotion and instructed the employee not to call the police as the supervisor went back to her desk without trying to find out what was happening . Would she have actually waited for the violence to escalate and someone being injured before she decided to take any action? That does not sound like very good decision making on the part of a supervisor who is paid to deal with such workplace issues.
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