Sheila was looking through the plate glass windows that
faced the Union Hall for ATU: Local 1277 as she watched the woman get off the
bus.
The woman was wearing a poofy white, cotton blouse, Dickies,
sandals and a straw hat. By Los Angeles
standards, the woman was dreadfully underdressed.
The woman entered the union hall and walked up to the
receptionist’s desk. Sheila was not
energized by people who arrived by bus.
The bus stop was primarily a courtesy as Local 1277 represented the
Metro Drivers.
“I looked at the website for the Union Hall and it said that
this is when the Chairman has open office hours. Will it be possible for me to schedule some
face time with him?” the woman asked.
“What is your name, honey?” Sheila asked.
“Hey, Tony. Some lady
wants to know if she can schedule a meeting with you.” Sheila shouted down the
hall.
“What’s her name?” Tony shouted back.
“She says her name is Denice Delarosa.” Sheila hollered
back.
“When does she want to meet with me?” Tony hollered.
“She is standing right here, now.” Sheila responded.
“Oh shit!” Tony exclaimed.
The music from the back room was turned off.
Tony Martinez’s head popped around the corner. “Come on back. Can I buy you a cup of coffee.”
Denice said, “I would kill for a cup of coffee.”
Tony walked over to the vending machine. “Our local represents folks who maintain
vending machines. So, we drink our
coffee out of these one-armed bandits.
Actually, the coffee is not too bad if you have somebody who knows how
to tune them in and if management is willing to spend the money to have them
serviced right.”
Walking back to Tony’s office, Tony asked “And what do I owe
the honor of this visit to?”
Denice said, “I have an assistant who is really sharp with
computers and data bases. I gave her
parameters of the kinds of people who I want to meet. Your name came out at the top of the list.”
“Oh yeah? I cannot
imagine it is because I represent a large local, because it is not that big.”
Tony observed.
“Nope. You are at the
top of the list because Liz found out about ‘Tony’s Table’” Denice said.
Denice said, “I am a face-to-face kind of person. The fact that you spent an hour of every
shift change sitting at a table in the central depot tells me you are too. That, and the fact that you did it for two
months AFTER you had won the election tells me that you really care.”
“And you are still doing it.
Not every day, but two days/nights a week you are sitting at Tony’s
Table when the drivers are punching in and out.”
“I didn’t think anybody noticed.” Tony said.
“Everything is on social media, Tony, everything.” Denice said.
“That still does not explain why you come into my dojo and
want to talk to me.” Tony said.
Denice took a long sip of her coffee.
“I never really appreciated that SD-LA no longer had a
police force until I came here and tried to get information about what is
happening out in the neighborhoods.”
Denice said.
“I remember hearing about it. It was a radical idea. I think the administration wanted to distance
itself from the bad press of police brutality, so they privatized
policing. What you might not realize is
that the source of our policing pays
a concession fee for the privilege. Of
course, the only group with the resources and the incentive to pay to police
SD-LA is the Cartel.”
“It has worked very, very well. It is almost like old-time policing when the
Irish flat-foot walked the neighborhood.
Think about the Prohibition. Did
the fact that the pictures of cops busting up barrels of whiskey were smoking
cigarettes seem strange? That is because
the whiskey barrels were filled water, not 180 proof booze.”
“Same thing. Don’t
disrupt Cartel business or you will get your head knocked. Don’t ask too many questions about how the
Cartel keeps the peace. Don’t ask any of
the particulars about the drug busts.”
Denice said.
“So, the information I get is all sent to Sacramento and
comes back to me thoroughly sanitized.
We truly live in the best of times.” Denice said.
“Tell me, what percentage of buses are out of service right
now? Is that information you can get?”
Denice asked.
Tony said, “Wait a minute.”
He pressed a speed dial number on his phone. “Roger, this is Tony. How many buses are in the fleet? OK.
How many are redlined. Yeah. Right now.
So what percentage of buses are off-line. Thanks”
Tony said “Roger over at the bus garage said that about 38%
of our buses are not in service. Why?”
Denice said, “The official information I get is that we only
have 2% off-line and that is so they can be upgraded with roof-top solar
panels.”
“That is my biggest problem.” Denice said. “Everybody is covering their ass and I cannot
get good information. I need a guy with
his ear-to-the-ground and who is not afraid to give me bad news. And that would be you.”
Tony said, “People would not be scared to give you bad news
if you did not fire them left and right.”
“You mean the folks in IT.
They needed firing. Besides, this
cover-your-ass problem started long before I showed up.” Denice said. “Your drivers get closer to the public than
anybody else in city government. They
cover more miles of road than anybody else in city government. I need to know what is biting them in the
ass.”
“You pretty much nailed it with the buses off-line.” Tony
said. “Our mechanics can’t fix things
when management does not order parts. We
are so short of working busses that we are running red-lined equipment to even
come close to making schedule. Next on
the list are the roads. They are going
to hell. Finally, somebody has to do
something about the walkers. They have
no sense of self-preservation. They just
wander right in front of the busses with no warning…although they have not been
as bad the last few months.”
“I have a plan.” Denice said. “It starts with my giving you my cell phone
number and then we need to do a little bit of coordinating….”
“The other thing I need to know about is the Sanitation
Department.
What can you tell me about
them…”
Next Installment
