Wrote a complaint letter to the City; got a good(?) response

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m a letter writer and I usually get a response. I keep a file labeled “grouch” for these letters.

Last Sunday, a City truck was parked at my neighbor’s house. When I went to ask what was going on the City employee was really rude to me.

I wrote a letter to the City complaining about the employee’s conduct and asking some questions about what was going on. Around 3:00 yesterday afternoon, I got a phone call from the Parks and Recreation Director saying he had just received my letter. He answered some of my questions, apologized on behalf of the City, and promised a written response to my letter as I had requested. In addition, I got a promise that the employee would apologize as well, as soon the director had a chance to talk to him.

Anyway, I was feeling pretty good about myself yesterday afternoon.

About 5:30 yesterday evening, someone knocked on my door. I went to answer it and it was the City employee. “Oh, crap!” I say out loud before I opened the door.

The employee introduced himself and said he was the guy I had talked to last Sunday. He said he wanted to apologize for the way he acted. He said they hadn’t told him to come over, he just felt really bad and wanted to aplogize to me in person. He told me he didn’t know how to answer my questions last weekend, he has only been working for the City for 3 months and he is really not used to all the people who keep asking him what he is doing. He is the new mower and park maintenance guy. He was on lunch and was driving the City rig home, which he’s not supposed to do. He lives in my neighborhood; I can see his deck from my backyard. He sees me walking my dogs all the time, he has Goldens too. He’s really sorry for the way he acted. Then neighbor guy called him because somehow he got his name and he’s always asking him for favors and he just doesn’t know what to do about that, but that old man is moving away so that problem is solved anyway. He said he’d be sending me an apology too, like they told him to.

Mr.stretch reminds me that anyone can be nice if they think it’s in his/her best interest. But this guy seemed so sincere in his apology and he seemed scared shitless that he might get in even more trouble. He learned a valuable lesson—don’t think that you won’t be noticed, watch the way you behave around the taxpayers, and be as nice as you can in case this is the time you’re dealing with the person who will follow up.

Anyway, I was feeling a little less good about myself yesterday evening.

PS: Lest you think I only complain: I also keep thank you cards on hand to give to people who deserve them—the pharmacy clerks, customer service reps at the insurance company, dentist office billing staff, etc. I believe in written feedback, as well as telling people what I think, both good and bad.

2

It sounds like now is a point at which you can get on good terms with one neighbor if you try a little. Friendly neighbors are a good thing to have, even if you only say hi once in a while. You can count on them in the future to do nice things, like call the cops when people are moving out furniture while you’re at work.

3

I’m on pretty good terms with my closest neighbors. The neighbor on the one side is strange but we like him and his wife; neighbors on the other side have kids and dogs and we talk to them over the fence. Neighbors across the street keep an eye on the house–we know because they call if we leave car lights on and when our dogs escaped due to the wanky gate we recently fixed.

The neighbor who is moving lived behind us, and they were whackos from the beginning. We won’t be missing them at all. The city employee actually lives a couple of blocks away but he has an elevated deck and we are the highest house on our street so we have a great veiw of everybody’s business. My husband is home all day and is the Gladys Kravitz of the neighborhood–Samantha wouldn’t have gotten away with shit if she lived across the street from us!

I was just completely taken aback by the way this guy reacted to me. I just wanted to know what he was doing and he was defensive as hell. I still think maybe he was going to help the whacko guy move some of his stuff and got busted.

4

You don’t happen to keep a mounted telescope on the deck to do you?

5

There was certainly no need for him to be rude.

But to tell you the truth, if i see a city truck parked outside someone else’s house, i generally assume it has a reason for being there, and that, in the absence of any actual suspicious circumstances, i should mind my own fucking business.

And despite the fact that i’m a taxpayer whose taxes contribute to city employees’ wages, i’m not self-important enough to think that i’m the boss of city employees, or that those employees have a responsibility to report to me about what they are doing.

6

Well, it was Sunday. As far as I knew, there was nobody working for the city on Sunday. Now I know that in fact there is someone who works Wednesday - Sunday and on that Sunday he was supposed to be down helping with events at the park. In addition, he was not supposed to be on his lunch at 10:15 in the morning, which is what he told me he was doing. He also was not supposed to be stopped at that house talking about loaning out tables from the city civic center, which is the other purpose he told me he had there.

The neighbor who is moving is a little shady and when I saw a city truck there, shortly after the house went up for sale and where there is a sale pending, I wanted to know what was going on. This guy built a workshop come garage that I know is not even approaching being up to code and I keep waiting for the hammer to fall for that little project. The new buyers may be having it inspected and when they do, that may have to come down. Or it may get a variance.

I’m curious about what happens in my neighborhood. I live in a city of less than 7,000. My county is the largest by area and still has less than 250,000 people. I live less than a mile from the house I grew up in. I remember when my current house was an orchard and I used to walk past it on my way to school.

I’m a state employee–I know all about bitchy citizens. I also know not to be rude to them. And to answer their questions truthfully and as nicely as I can.

7

Right, and i already conceded that he shouldn’t have been rude.

But the fact that you’re nice to bitchy citizens doesn’t make them less bitchy. And the fact that this guy was rude to you doesn’t change the fact that you acted like a self-important busybody.

I tried to work out which town you’re in, but no small Washington towns have a listing under “Kravitz, Gladys.”

8

Exactly how was this guy rude to you, Ms. Kravitz?

Seriously. I want to know exactly, word-for-word, how he was rude to you and needed to be taught a lesson.

9

Is this a pit thread that I wasn’t aware of?

I’m not the Kravitz of the neighborhood, my husband is. And this wasn’t a Kravitz moment–this was a city employee treating a citizen like shit, using city resources inappropriately, and being a dick.

How he was rude to me?

I walked by my neighbor’s (here after refered to as whacko) with my husband and our three of our dogs. We saw the city truck. My husband and I continued walking home and discussed what could possibly be going on at the whacko’s house now.

After dropping off our dogs, I decided to find out why there was a city truck at whacko’s house. As previously stated, whacko is selling and has several not-to-code building projects. I am wondering if a: he is being busted for this crap and now there is going to be a tear down and who knows what ugliness to take its place or b: whacko really does know somebody at the city and that’s why he gets away with his shady construction projects and such.

I walked back to whacko’s house. By now the city truck has been there at least 15 minutes with the city employee wandering around with whacko, looking through the various crap he’s been pulling out of his workshop/garage for the last week. The whacko and city employee are just coming from around the side of the house and I ask “Excuse me, can you tell me why there’s a city truck here on a Sunday.”

From here on I’m probably not reporting verbatim, but pretty close. The city employee says, “I’m on my lunch.” I didn’t know we had city guys who worked on Sunday, so I said, “Your work on Sundays? What do you do?” He says, “Yes, I work Sundays and I’m on my way home for my lunch break.” I said, “Okay, but is there a reason you are here? Is there something going on at this house that needs the city?” He replied that he was talking to the whacko about borrowing tables from the city Civic Center to use for a yard sale (which, after my discussion with the P&R director, is apparently something the city does not loan out). I said, well that’s great, you are on city business and you could have just told me that. The whacko told the guy he better get going. The city employee asked if I lived in the neighborhood*. I told him I do live in the neighborhood. He told me so does he and then he started to get into his truck and I left.

It was the tone and attitude. He was very aggressive and rude. He’s a big guy and I’m just a average sized woman and he tried to intimidate me into leaving with his body language. He was a prick and he got called on it.

Here’s the thing. He could have told me the truth from the beginning and not given me any attitude. He could have just said that he was the new parks guy, he was on break (which he wasn’t) from working down at the park at the tournament, he was headed home and the old guy had asked him to stop for a minute. Easy as pie. Instead he got defensive, agressive, and rude.

I don’t take shit off of anybody and certainly not off some guy who is obvioulsy not doing his job. He was not where he was supposed to be, he was using his rig inappropriately, and he was rude. He copped to all of that when pressed by his employer. He was in the wrong, I was in the right.

Even though I am the agent of evil in your eyes, I feel for the guy. Guess I must be human.

To the Kravitz comments: My husband is disabled and is home most of the day. This means he gets to see that the neighbors upstreet are pulling out all their trees, the guy across the street had his retaining wall collapse and got in a huge group of day laborers to fix it, the crazy neighbor is continuing work on the bomb shelter, the Board Boys finally got the car moving, Church on the Move had a dumpster out front, the hermits had an ambulance but we think the old lady is okay, Max and Maddy got out again and we should go catch them for the neighbors, the nice lady needed some help moving stuff and he went over, etc. He’s just the guy who watches out for stuff, and in exchange the hermits let us know our truck lights are on, the bomb shelter neighbor asks for our help with building projects, the Board Boys come over and talk to mr.stretch about his car, the neighbor kids come play with me and the grandson, the nice lady compliments our yard, etc.

*which doesn’t make sense as he later told me that he sees us walking our dogs all the time, but whatever.

10

He wouldn’t have treated a citizen like shit, or been a dick, if said citizen wasn’t being nosy. If said nosy-person hadn’t then written a letter, then she wouldn’t have KNOWN about using city resources inappropriately.

Not your business. DId you plan on going up to the guy and say “Hey - is this the city employee who you’re bribing to hide your code violations?”

Not your business.

Not your business.

Again, not your business. If you want to know what the city vehicle is/was doing there, then ask your neighbor after the truck leaves. If HE wants to share it with you, then fine. Otherwise it’s none of your business.

Do you go to the neighbors when the cable guy shows up to find out what kind of service they are getting, or if it’s being cut off?

Just because someone works for the city doesn’t mean that they have to make you aware of what they are doing, or be accountable directly to you for their actions. They aren’t your personal wage slaves. (Besides, some people would SUE the city if they shared such information about their home.)

11

No, it’s not. But just because it’s MPSIMS doesn’t mean that posters are required to agree with your actions, or tell you how awesome you are.

Your whole explanation of what you did is perfectly clear. And if he was rude to you, he shouldn’t have been. But i still think you acted like a self-important busybody on this particular occasion. You obviously disagree, so perhaps we should just leave it there, as i doubt i’m going to convince you of my point of view, and i don’t think you’ll convince me of yours.

12

Gotta go with Mhendo on this one.

I can see being curious about what’s going on at the neighbor’s, and I can see why the guy resented it, but the whole letter-writing thing?

I dunno. Just seems petty.