Goliad mayor, councilman request better communication from city officials

 

Goliad Advance-Guard
BY COY SLAVIK, EDITOR
January 23, 2024

Mayor Brenda Moses and alderman Jimmy Garcia expressed concerns with what they perceived as a lack of communication between city hall employees and councilmembers concerning vacation time and other time off taken.

During the Jan. 2 meeting of city council, Garcia also brought up the city’s organizational chart and asked who was responsible for recording employee vacation time and time off.

“When I look at the organizational chart, I see that essentially you have your finance officer, your director of public works, and your administrator/city secretary all equal,” Garcia said. “So when it comes to accountability for reporting time, what are the steps?

“I’m not picking on anybody or questioning anybody’s actions. I’m just curious as to how things are communicated.”

City Administrator/Secretary Becky Miska told Garcia that supervisors receive a form and sign off on vacation requests and other requests for time off. She said she, Finance Officer Sherry Kuenstler, and Public Works Director Earl Henning communicate with each other when planning to take time off.

“If it is Earl, myself, or Sherry, we work between ourselves to make sure the other person is going to be here,” Miska said. “Then we would also have someone as our backup.”

Garcia said he wants to maintain accountability.

“I’m not trying to micromanage. I’m not trying to be involved in every single aspect of the daily activities,” Garcia said. “I just want to feel that everyone is held accountable to how time is used. I know you all accrue a lot of time because of all the different activities. I’m just trying to make sure that I can, as a representative of the taxpayers, ensure that everybody is accountable.”

Garcia said other municipalities, larger and smaller than Goliad, have the city manager or city secretary atop the organizational chart.

“That way there is someone you could actually turn to if there was any kind of situation that came up,” Garcia said.

Moses said there have been times when she isn’t aware when one of the department heads is on vacation or taking a day off.

“There are a lot of times when I’ll get a call and you’re gone,” Moses said to Miska. “I don’t know you’re gone and it makes me look dumb. Or Sherry’s not here and I don’t know she’s on vacation. So there is a communication gap.”

“So y’all want us to email y’all when we take off work? Correct?” Henning asked Moses.

“It would be nice to know that you’re not there so I don’t say, 'Hey, call so-and-so.' ”

[email protected]