Arlington activist Roberta Thomas forwarded an email exchange between Jacksonville District 1 City Councilmember Clay Yarborough and the Mayor’s Chief of Staff Adam Hollingsworth wherein Hollingsworth extols city employees as workers who take their job so personally they have difficulty distinguishing between work and personal time.

Hollingsworth’s lengthy and kind of pugnacious email was sent in response to one from Yarborough on July 3 that questioned whether city employees should be using their work time to email City Councilmembers in favor of Mayor Peyton’s proposed tax increase. See Hollingsworth’s response below:

Re: FIX IT NOW - support Mayor Peyton
Fm: Hollingsworth, Adam
To: Yarborough, Clay
cc: Mosley, Alan; Hall, Sherry; Rowe, Lisa

Thanks for your email and the important question you pose. This is in response to your two emails to me on this topic.

City employees are first and foremost taxpayers and citizens. It seems appropriate that they should be afforded their First Amendment right to express their view, so long as it does not consume an inordinate amount of time or detract from their professional responsibilities. And the few emails I have seen appear short and not very time consuming in their preparation.

More importantly, however, I would ask that you consider the distinction you have made about employees expressing their opinion on “work time.”

More than any other citizens and taxpayers in Jacksonville, city employees have a tough time distinguishing work time from personal time as it relates to the business and policies of the city. The reason for that is obvious. Their employment by the city and the work they do is personal — their continued employment, the wage they are paid, the condition of their work environment and the fulfillment that comes with doing a good job are all personal; but it is based upon what happens during their work time.

For those few employees who have had the courage to reach out to City Council, they are, in large part, simply communicating with the management of the organization for which they work. I saw the same dynamic when I worked in the private sector and I assume you experience the same in your business. Particularly during difficult financial times, it is important for employees to have access to management and good two-way communication.

In short, is it permissible for city employees to communicate their views on the budget while on work time? Our answer is yes.

Why? Because they know the organization from the ballast level up. They know the impact of our budget decisions on service delivery and the citizens of Jacksonville. And they care about the impact budget decisions will have on their lives and that of their families. These are the same reasons private sector organizations invest significantly in employee communications and feedback.

Thanks for raising this important issue. If you would like to discuss further, please let me know.

Thanks!

Tags: budget increase, city employees

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 1:28 pm and is filed under City, Politics, city financial crisis, public records. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.