Open Mike for Idaho Falls City Workers November 2006

I watched ch8’s story tonight about IFPD needing more space, an new training area and a new station. Chief Livsy was sitting so close to the Mayor they could have shared deordorant. Maybe Ken needs more room for all those guns that were taken from under his nose? Anyway back to the new buildings.

The Idaho Falls Fire Department could use a new headquarters/downtown station also since their current station is about as old as Taylor’s Crossing (the original). The old Station 1 can not even support the weight of the new ladder truck the department is putting into service. Ida Hardcastle spoke about funding…probably funded by bonds. The city didn’t have any problem coming up with 2.5 million for Kevin Green’s new office and locker rooms. Didn’t Green say that if he didn’t get new locker rooms the Chuckars might have to find a new town?. Don’t get me wrong here, I adore Ida, I think she’s done a lot of good things for the city. I know its hard now days to find the money for local government projects. Maybe new city facilities should take priority over a coal fired electrical plant in Utah?

Maybe Frank can donate the money. We’re that close to becomeing Malaleuca Falls anyway.

Yeh, yeh. I know. Let me have it for bashing Frank.

Joe, You are right about the later hours four days/week offsetting Fridays. Unless someone is taking a bus in from INL or commutes an hour or so to work. Do you really think they could make it there before closing? I don’t know, just asking what to me is a question that may effect many.

For those who work in downtown or close to downtown, I can aboslutely see where the longer hours would be a great benefit.

But, would all the divisions or offices (whatever is the proper title for each office that opens the door and serves the citizens), be open until early evening? Or just some. I have to think about that some, as it seems every time I have to go visit the County offices or City Gov’t, then I have to go to a second stop because I need something else to complete my original goal at the first office. I don’t know if I could get it all done after hours, and I like working later myself, so I like your idea. Just not sure how well it would go over with the various divisions of city services. Would this include court etc.?

I still propose, if the city is intent on having a 4 day work week, that they take any day but Friday off. If so many citizens have Fridays off, why not work with the residents to make obtaining what they need a little easier?

Maybe there could even be a merger of Joe’s idea and mine. Maybe some days certain depts. could be open 12 hrs. and then less hours on another day. For families where both parents work (or work and attend school etc.) they are usually taking all their extra time off to take their kids to the doctor, to school meetings, soccer practice etc. It would be really nice to not have to take vacation days off to go to a city office.

If the city wanted to extended good will to the citizens after the disaster of Mason et al., perhaps trying to be accomodating to the residents would be a start.

That is a good idea (review or sunset provision). I was thinking about the proposed change today and thought of one factor the City Council can’t compare to the cities named (Provo or West Valley, UT) and how they have done with a 4 day work weeek.

Both of those cities are in major metropolitan areas. The largest employer doesn’t have thousands of employees a hour away from services. Maybe the City of Idaho Falls should set up a satellite office at INL that allows those employees easy access to city offices during their day.

Provo’s economy initially revolved around BYU-U, and the Geneva Steel Mill. Later, came in the layers of Novell and other high tech and now some more manufacturing companies etc. A developer I’ve recently met has brought me up-to-speed much more about UT County than I ever knew previously. I’ve learned that Utah County (Provo + Orem and and sever other small cities like Alpine, Lehi, Lindon, American Fork, Pleasant Grove, Springville etc.) is just now putting together a convention center and a Embassay Suite’s Hotel that is approximately 9 -10 stories tall. The population of that county is about 350-375K. And they all reside mostly within 30 miles of each other.

Until now, Provo has had one hotel with more than two stories tall. While this thread is not about development of an area, it is about the citizens who live and work in the area. Idaho Falls is similar in many ways to Provo, yet so different. BYU-I is about 25-30 miles away. The main employers are scattered throughout the county.

Additionally, Idaho Falls does see a lot of commercial business, probably mostly from INL work, but more and more from other companies in town as well. Provo has NO commerical flights at the city airport daily. Thus, they have never needed a hotel row the way Idaho Falls has. The Marriott at T.C. will be bigger than the Embassy Inn at the new convention center to be built in Pleasant Grove.

My point is, most people who live in UT County also work in UT County. Sure, some commute to SLC, but more often it is people living in Draper or Sandy who don’t want to live in UT County who commute to their work south than vice versa. What works for Provo, which developers say is officialy “built out,” and cannot have any more single home dwellings, is not necessarily what works for Idaho Falls. The constraints of the Wasatch Mountains vs. the openess of the valley in Bonneville County change a lot of factors. Additionally, new subdivisions and multi-family dwellings are still being put in at a good pace in Idaho Falls.

As for West Valley, there are some things a little more like Idaho Falls than Provo. More workers commute to their work than work within 3-5 miles of home. Despite the population, it is a suburb in a major metro area. WVC doesn’t have to provide a lot of services the city of I.F. does (say like garbage or snow removal etc.) because they are already covered by Salt Lake City or Salt Lake County. West Valley City doesn’t have an independent airport and while they have a PD, I’m not sure the city even has a jail (I could be wrong on that one).
Furthermore, a lot of light and heavy industry is located in WVC, like Franklin Covey. Consequently, if the workers are residents of Salt Lake County and need Salt Lake County services, there is a WVC location, of an official Salt Lake County office, where a lot of the same county business (like DMV issues) can be completed.
So I see WVC being different in that many residents receive county services and can address needs at multiple locations in the county. Besides, when residents start dealing with situations like year round school (which is something Bonneville County could look at doing vs. building 2 more grade schools), it is entirely different situation than Idaho Falls. If residents have never had to factor the year round school part into their family and work lives, I don’t see that it can compare at all to I.F.
It is just a very different situation having Salt Lake County provide certain services and the City of West Valley provide others compared to Idaho Falls and Bonneville County, given many factors.

I’d invite others who have lived in both the Idaho Falls area and the metro Salt Lake City area to add their views of the similarities or differences of the two cities picked.

And if you’ve kept up on the news, Salt Lake County officially reached the 1 Million residents count about a month ago. Populations are counted many ways, as has been argued in other sites. But, everyone generally agrees the metro area of the Wasatch front includes both WVC and Provo in it. That is in the 1.6+ Million estimate of how many people live in the Wasatch Front.

Certain cities in the Wasatch Front can close for a day, as some civic needs can be addressed by other cities in the area, or a county office.

While I think it is important to seek information from cities who have implimented the change a city is considering, I think it is equally important to talk to cities where the four day work week has failed and learn why. Did the geography of major employers have anything to do with the failure?

I don’t know if a four day city work week would work in I.F. or not. I’m simply saying there are more factors to consider than what were briefly mentioned in the media. And among them are “Customer Service” to the residents of the city.

As I understand it, the concept here is to condense the days to save employees driving time.

The hours will remain the same, so I do not think the city will really save any money on energy. I hope they disregard that point in considering whether to adopt this four-day work week. Counter-argument on that?

It’s like the Library used to be open a few hours on Sundays, but closed earlier in the evening (or opened later, I cannot recall exactly which). They said it did not cost the library any more in wages or energy because it was the same number of hours.

The library used to open Sundays during the school year, but they have not the last few years, which is disappointing to me as a patron. I’m sure the employees do not want to work Sundays, though.

So the question really is if the city is still adequately serving the citizens with longer hours on one fewer day? I think they could, but again it is hard to tell.

I still hope they pass this with a sunset provision so it is not difficult to get rid of if it proves problematic for citizens.

I don’t think I care one way or another. I rarely visit the city offices, and when I do it’s usually at lunch. I suppose later hours might be nice.

I just want to be sure there are clear benefits to the community. I don’t buy the energy savings because the same number of hours are operating.