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SOMEBODY FLIPPING ONE FUCKING SWITCH WOULD HAVE KEPT AUSTIN IN WATER

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Anastasis
Anastasis

Lol. It’s gonna be hilarious when y’all all need Ivermectin to treat your parasitic infections. 

Borachio
Borachio

Some of y'all didn't grow up drinking water out of a green hose in the front yard during the summer months and it shows. 

Brisketexan
Brisketexan

I think we can all rest easily knowing that we’ll appoint a special commission to look into this, and after a couple of years they’ll release a report recommending a simple solution to our water treat

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TexasEd

TexasEd 8,067

Posted
Posted
On 2/7/2022 at 1:12 PM, Scheiss Meister said:

She can shake hands with us.  We're the only bunch who didn't have to change how or how frequently we wash our hands when Covid started up.  We're also the only industry that washes our hands before going to the restroom.

I think the guys that make hot wings at Hooters, Pluckers or any other wang place wash their hands before they go to the bathroom.

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South Austin

South Austin 52,523

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Posted
1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

"They taught us not to shit on our hands."

My dad and I were with my kids at La Mancha a couple years ago and we stopped by the head in the way out. When we’re done wizzing, I wash my hands, and I notice my dad’s just standing there looking at me with a scowl on his face. 

“What’s the matter?” I ask.

”You know what they taught us in the Marines?”

”What?”

”Don’t piss on your hands.”

 

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Orange&White

Orange&White 5,528

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1 hour ago, South Austin said:

My dad and I were with my kids at La Mancha a couple years ago and we stopped by the head in the way out. When we’re done wizzing, I wash my hands, and I notice my dad’s just standing there looking at me with a scowl on his face. 

“What’s the matter?” I ask.

”You know what they taught us in the Marines?”

”What?”

”Don’t piss on your hands.”

 

I feel like we all just read some sort of parable about your mom.

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crash_davis

crash_davis 23,114

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Posted

so, 'twas much ado about nothing.

https://www.kut.org/austin/2022-02-09/dont-worry-if-you-drank-the-austin-tap-water-it-was-fine-all-along?fbclid=IwAR2RC59b81zrIBAKJXUbL8YkEl6zCulKxcGxw3iXL74ZfV1ZS4_yL5zrBFo

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Don’t worry if you drank the Austin tap water. It was fine all along.

 

The water flowing out of Austin taps is now safe to drink — and apparently was all along.

Austin Water issued a boil-water notice on Saturday night, asking that all customers of the public utility boil their water for at least two minutes before drinking it or cooking with it.

A spokesperson for the utility told KUT on Wednesday that the state, which has to clear the city to rescind a boil-water notice, did not find any contaminants in tests of the water the city sent over the past several days.

 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Posted

Poor bastard, falling on the sword for another 100 incompetent 'progressive' morons.  

Not all municipal administrators are shitheads, but all shitheads are municipal administrators.  I just shake my head when I think about my time serving the Council.  Adler and Casar are really the only ones making side hustle money on it.  The rest aren't actually in it for greed, they're just so beyond the pale when it comes to idiocy...it's laughable.  I honestly didn't know people could be so stupid.  But I guess there's a reason no G/T middle school teacher ever took a kid aside and said, "I believe in you.  And I believe that one day, you too can be a mid-level municipal deputy manager."  

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Deej said:

Instead, they pull the parents aside and tell them, "Your kid is a moron. You might want to push him towards something in local government."

Seriously, we're not a small town.  This is not some cliche of hick brothers-in-law running shit.  This is a major American city.  And the handful of people with a modicum of intelligence are at the helm but they're smart enough to see how easily then can benefit themselves so they went sideways.  All that's left are barely functioning adults led by managers and administrators who only got where they were because they're also stupid, but have just put in the years.  So it's people of equal unintelligence leading the also of equal unintelligence, with the only difference being that leadership has been there longer so they're older and getting more senile while also being of same unintelligence.  I know the romantic version is a small army of really dedicated, forward-looking, progressive administrators.  But it's not.  It's shit.  It's all shit.  It's just one fucking idiot after another.  And not because we're Montgomery, Alabama.....we're Austin, Texas.  And somehow, we still find the worst and dimmest.  It's fucking amazing to see behind the curtain.  How the fuck do some of you vote for these fucking people?  I guess we just go vote to feel engaged and anybody that spelled their names correctly on the ballot deserve some kinda major award  ?

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zman13

zman13 180

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Posted

Three Austin Water employees were placed on Administrative Leave also:

Austin Water director resigns, 3 employees placed on leave following days-long boil water notice | kvue.com

My money is on the results of the investigation of the three employees will be very interesting. Processes not followed, employees not trained, management ignoring issues that were brought up to them, etc. 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Posted

Marc Ott always reminded me of that officer in "Band of Brothers" who was always conveniently just wandering around the forest by himself anytime there was a major incursion/patrol/attack/counter.  Then he'd show up, get briefed, demand to be kept in the loop, and then just wander off again.  

Cronk is at least omni-present.  He shows up to shit all the time that I look over at him like "The fuck you doing here?  This is way below your paygrade, but I guess it sends a good signal.  Kudos."  But after awhile you just realize he's doing it because he's trying to keep his job because as stated up-thread, we thought he could help with zoning, finances, and police.  And all three have gotten drastically more chaotic on his watch.  But hey, the new parks are fucking badass.  

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Hefeweizen

Hefeweizen 5,328

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Updawg said:


At least he probably knew about it on the weekend. Old city manager wouldn’t have known until Monday morning

Cronk was hired to spearhead the rewrite of the land development code.   He's been nothing but a failure at that.  He'll blame covid, but the only reason he doesn't look worse  (besides having great hair) is that Travis County is a raging dumpster fire of development inferno right now.  Don't be surprised to see the legislature step in on the city and county next session because of how broken they are right now.

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Samson's Wig

Samson's Wig 3,193

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Posted (edited)

About damn time (although four years too late).  Cronk would be next if our leaders had a spine.

Austin Water director resigns, 3 employees on administrative leave after boil notice

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Greg Meszaros, the director of Austin Water, has resigned amid questions regarding the city’s third boil water notice in the past four years. Meszaros resignation was confirmed by a memo from Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk.

Meszaros resignation comes after scrutiny following the city’s most recent boil water notice that was in place for several days. According to Austin Water, the notice was sent out as a precaution on Feb. 5 following an “internal treatment process issue” at the Ulrich Water Treatment Plant.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/3-austin-water-employees-on-administrative-leave-director-resigns-after-boil-notice/

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89,750

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https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/21-employees-left-austin-water-in-month-before-boil-water-notice-council-moves-forward-with-audit/

Quote

A spokesperson for Austin Water confirmed in January alone, Austin Water had 21 people leave the department. Five of those were resignations, one was a termination, 10 were retirements and five transferred to other City of Austin departments, that spokesperson said. 

Quote

“For the last several years the Austin MSA has seen unemployment rates as low as 2%; lower than anywhere in Texas and the US. Given the competition we have with other large-scale employers, we have seen smaller candidate pools, particularly since the beginning of the pandemic. We also lose candidates during the hiring process as well as post-offer due to entry level pay. We routinely place our job postings on external job boards, schools, and professional associations to reach as many potential candidates as possible. We constantly assess our hiring practices for continuous improvements.”

Quote

The audit passed through by city council Thursday will examine the last five water quality episodes, as well as review Austin Water’s management practices and emergency preparedness. Alter noted four of the five recent water quality or supply disruption events stemmed from the Ullrich Water Treatment Plant. 

The resolution is cosponsored by council members Kathie Tovo, Vanessa Fuentes, Paige Ellis, Leslie Pool, and Mackenzie Kelly.

 

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F250

F250 28,793

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Posted
On 2/11/2022 at 11:49 AM, Deej said:

Instead, they pull the parents aside and tell them, "Your kid is a moron. You might want to push him towards something in local government."

I interacted with a number of municipality utilities as a consultant in the past. After dealing with so many absolute dumb asses I developed a theory that there was a secret program that these city governments recruited all of the remedial kids out of high school.

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Scheiss Meister

Scheiss Meister 8,408

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Posted
On 2/11/2022 at 11:49 AM, Deej said:

Instead, they pull the parents aside and tell them, "Your kid is a moron. You might want to push him towards something in local government."

This is something that is ingrained in our culture.  I tell people what I do, treat wastewater so that they don't get sick when they go to the lake or the river, and they immediately assume that I must be the mayor's special needs nephew.  It was that way for a long time, and folks remember that.  That attitude keeps pay low, making it difficult to recruit and keep good people.  So it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

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zman13

zman13 180

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Posted

Boil Water Notice Caused by Human Error, Ongoing Problems: "Ultimately preventable" at Ullrich - News - The Austin Chronicle

 

Quote

Meszaros and Cronk did not learn about the turbidity spike until about 8am on Saturday, and nobody is sure why; Meszaros said that "Basin 6 could have been isolated" and disconnected from the system: "You just press a button." There is no evidence of gross negligence – sleeping on duty, leaving the plant, or fabricating data – but shifts are 7am-7pm and vice versa, and Meszaros suggested that information may not have been passed along at shift change.

 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Posted
10 minutes ago, zman13 said:

Boil Water Notice Caused by Human Error, Ongoing Problems: "Ultimately preventable" at Ullrich - News - The Austin Chronicle

 

 

That's amazing.  During a shift change, you didn't bring up the one glaring error in your whole entire enterprise.  

"Hey Bob, have a great shift...Imma clock out and get some shuteye."

"Okay Dave.  Anything I should know before I login?"

"Only that I'm hardly working and not working hard!  Ha!" 

"Funny stuff Dave.  But anything you wanna tell me about these alerts that say high turbidity?  Should I click the button, or do you have any more background info?"

"Nah Bob.  Why would I tell you about that when I can just aimlessly chat about nothing with you as I walk down the hall and get in my car to go home?" 

"Good point, Dave.  Let's be sure to suck Cronk and Adler's dicks later this week because they are so fucking goddamn awesome and beyond reproach!"

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crash_davis

crash_davis 23,114

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Posted (edited)

I said this last year. I imagine that being a public utility, these plants are routinely audited especially for training, process manuals/documentation, emergency response plans, etc for ISO9000 or someshit. Yes turn over impacts productivity but if you have proper training, documentation, and robust processes, shit shouldn't break with "catastrophic" issues. We had 2 completely preventable catastrophic issues in as many years. This all goes back to accountability. They didn't have any training and process documentation on how to turn on the fucking generator? They don't have documented processes, training, and process controls to insure that routine functions are done correctly and alerted if they are not? It's a fucking public utility!!!!!!!! 

There's a saying in leadership that people/business fails because we (the leadership) allowed it to happen. The whole motherfucking management staff should've been fired after last year's generator debacle. The city should've audited and had remediation plans developed and completed by the plants. Their processes and training should've been shored up after last year. Fucking amateurs. From the plant staff to the City Manager to the City Council to the fuckstick Mayor.

Edited by crash_davis
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Texas Jeff

Texas Jeff 1,945

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I just compared my city of Austin tax bill from the start of Adler's term up until the tax bill I paid in January.  It's 47% higher now than seven years ago.  Some of that would have happened with inflation but not 47%.   My Austin Energy bill is up 35% over the same time period and I know I use less power and water now than I did then.  With inflation that number should have been 20-25%.

The bucks are flowing in -- they just are not making it to the people charged with delivering clean water to our community.

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F250

F250 28,793

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Posted
13 hours ago, crash_davis said:

I said this last year. I imagine that being a public utility, these plants are routinely audited especially for training, process manuals/documentation, emergency response plans, etc for ISO9000 or someshit. Yes turn over impacts productivity but if you have proper training, documentation, and robust processes, shit shouldn't break with "catastrophic" issues. We had 2 completely preventable catastrophic issues in as many years. This all goes back to accountability. They didn't have any training and process documentation on how to turn on the fucking generator? They don't have documented processes, training, and process controls to insure that routine functions are done correctly and alerted if they are not? It's a fucking public utility!!!!!!!! 

There's a saying in leadership that people/business fails because we (the leadership) allowed it to happen. The whole motherfucking management staff should've been fired after last year's generator debacle. The city should've audited and had remediation plans developed and completed by the plants. Their processes and training should've been shored up after last year. Fucking amateurs. From the plant staff to the City Manager to the City Council to the fuckstick Mayor.

Once I was sitting in on a meeting to determine why a power plant had to be taken offline in the middle of the night.

Basically what happened was an anti-virus update was pushed and forced a server reboot. When certain systems were rebooted some telemetry was lost. The Operations Technology folks emailed the controllers and left a letter taped to their consoles that said if the servers rebooted they should fail over to a different data center. The fail over consisted of clicking a button and confirming that you wanted to fail over.

The controllers ignored the email and taped letters on their console. When asked why, the lead picked up a binder and browsed through it then said "those instructions are not in this binder."

The director said "you were given a phone call, email and a letter was taped to the consoles."

The lead controller, "not in the binder."

They let a power plant go offline because a contingency plan wasn't in a binder.

The OT folks had to conduct a 6 week investigation into why the plant went offline when everyone already knew why. lulz

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crash_davis

crash_davis 23,114

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9 hours ago, F250 said:

Once I was sitting in on a meeting to determine why a power plant had to be taken offline in the middle of the night.

Basically what happened was an anti-virus update was pushed and forced a server reboot. When certain systems were rebooted some telemetry was lost. The Operations Technology folks emailed the controllers and left a letter taped to their consoles that said if the servers rebooted they should fail over to a different data center. The fail over consisted of clicking a button and confirming that you wanted to fail over.

The controllers ignored the email and taped letters on their console. When asked why, the lead picked up a binder and browsed through it then said "those instructions are not in this binder."

The director said "you were given a phone call, email and a letter was taped to the consoles."

The lead controller, "not in the binder."

They let a power plant go offline because a contingency plan wasn't in a binder.

The OT folks had to conduct a 6 week investigation into why the plant went offline when everyone already knew why. lulz

Change Management System. Someone make the change proposal in the system, it gets an official number. Goes through approval process, there can be a shortened process for emergencies. Once approved, it's logged into the system, all official and shit. Done, process revised and implemented.

The assholes didn't follow the emails and letter because it was not the source of truth for the process. I don't blame them as they were covering their ass in case something blew up. On the other hand, they already had the emails and the letters to cover their asses.

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Armybrat

Armybrat 40,854

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Posted
18 hours ago, Texas Jeff said:

I just compared my city of Austin tax bill from the start of Adler's term up until the tax bill I paid in January.  It's 47% higher now than seven years ago.  Some of that would have happened with inflation but not 47%.   My Austin Energy bill is up 35% over the same time period and I know I use less power and water now than I did then.  With inflation that number should have been 20-25%.

The bucks are flowing in -- they just are not making it to the people charged with delivering clean water to our community.

They channeled at least $15,000 of it to an artist to create a “sculpture” for the new AFD station on Elroy Road close to the CotA. The firefighters there even contributed an old fire hose to form the basis of the “sculpture”.
A firefighter there said the resulting artwork looks like a pile of garbage.

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Captainant

Captainant 27,685

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Posted
1 minute ago, Armybrat said:

They channeled at least $15,000 of it to an artist to create a “sculpture” for the new AFD station on Elroy Road close to the CotA. The firefighters there even contributed an old fire hose to form the basis of the “sculpture”.
A firefighter there said the resulting artwork looks like a pile of garbage.

Crazy thing is, $15k is a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of millions in settlements COA has to pay out on behalf of APD

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Armybrat

Armybrat 40,854

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Crazy thing is, $15k is a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of millions in settlements COA has to pay out on behalf of APD

Just another department that has been managed as badly, or worse, than the water department.
There are many drops around the CoA, and they all add up to a deluge.

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crash_davis

crash_davis 23,114

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dipshit leadership. shitty process controls. just stupid human errors. the system worked in alerting the problem. the issues were documented for the next shift. the shift manager was a fucking idiot chasing wild geese instead of reading the fucking maintenance issue which were documented. then issues were ignored and not escalated. 

is perez still employed? please tell me no.

"Perez, as the senior member of the team with 10 years of service at the plant, was found to have overlooked or misinterpreted signs of cascading problems with the equipment, despite receiving notification via the “pass down” that occurs from one team to the next.

Once Perez became aware of turbidity problems via sample tests taken around 10 p.m., he presumed they were due to a possible line break – with no acknowledgment of the maintenance issues earlier in the day – and directed the other members of the crew to try to locate the source of the problem, which took a combined three hours of work time. Looking for the nonexistent line break was the only corrective action the team took related to the turbidity issues."

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89,750

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, crash_davis said:

dipshit leadership. shitty process controls. just stupid human errors. the system worked in alerting the problem. the issues were documented for the next shift. the shift manager was a fucking idiot chasing wild geese instead of reading the fucking maintenance issue which were documented. then issues were ignored and not escalated. 

is perez still employed? please tell me no.

"Perez, as the senior member of the team with 10 years of service at the plant, was found to have overlooked or misinterpreted signs of cascading problems with the equipment, despite receiving notification via the “pass down” that occurs from one team to the next.

Once Perez became aware of turbidity problems via sample tests taken around 10 p.m., he presumed they were due to a possible line break – with no acknowledgment of the maintenance issues earlier in the day – and directed the other members of the crew to try to locate the source of the problem, which took a combined three hours of work time. Looking for the nonexistent line break was the only corrective action the team took related to the turbidity issues."

I feel like we should go out and hire some Navy vets who managed various water/circulation/etc. systems on submarines or aircraft carriers, because they seem like they wouldn't overlook a lot of stuff and/or would act immediately to correct problems.

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