Comments on: Detroit water and sewer dept. employs “horseshoer” but keeps no horses

By: Saulius Simoliunas

Saulius Simoliunas — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 16:02:35 +0000

Horseshoer is a red herring. There are some ancient classifications. However, EMA did not uncover a new classification of COO paying about 200 thousand dollars annually, when we have a director and deputy director as per City charter. EMA did not talk about outdated technology. EMA talked about generalities and did not go into specifics for manpower and technology. It was designed to put the blame on workers and extol management. The truth is just the reverse. COO is grosser example than the horseshoer.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 10:55:45 +0000

The sad part is that an actual farrier could make a lot more on their own.

By: wfjag

wfjag — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 23:25:37 +0000

Why do you assume he has no function? It is easy to conclude that there are deserving horses’ behinds needing to be fitted with a shoe and then nailed shut.

By: DAV

DAV — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 21:06:29 +0000

Years ago, I did a job for the Bessemer & Lake Erie railroad. The railroad employed firemen. A fireman’s job on a train is to tend the fire under the boiler. The B&LE only had diesel locomotives. No need for firemen. They were there because of a union contract. In fact, the firemen had nothing to do except ride the train.

It was suggested that they fill out a small questionaire of about 10 items for about one month to collect some information to be used in a new traffic tracking system. Didn’t work. It wasn’t in their job description. If Detroit was able to get the horseshoers to perform other tasks then they’ve made progress.

By: Titus

Titus — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:12:08 +0000

“According to the article, he does perform blacksmithing, welding, and general machinery repair jobs.”

I was going to say: surely the title is a quaint honorific anachronism attached to an actual more or less functional job.

By: Mannie

Mannie — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 18:10:26 +0000

According to the article, he does perform blacksmithing, welding, and general machinery repair jobs.

That doesn’t detract from the fact that the Detroit government is bloated.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 16:24:17 +0000

i believe that there was litigation by the suburbs that were hooked into its system. The suburbs were upset that they could not get an accurate water amount and that they were funding The City of Detroit’s police and fire system. Good times for lawyers.