A Power play
City reacts: orders covert playground repairs while publicly denying problems
Mayor Hardberger, City Manager Sculley hold ground on no audits
Plastic yellow construction-zone tape wrapped the old wooden playground gear at Second Baptist Park like a gift-wrapped package, except its black lettering warned: “Caution. Do Not Enter.”
The East Side playground finally was under repair Tuesday morning, a full four months after a variety of safety problems were flagged and seven work orders were submitted as part of an inspection report that concluded: “This is a dangerous playground.”
City carpenters worried over how to replace the four completely rotted wood pillars supporting wobbly monkey bars, so heavy a crane might be needed to lift it. Also Tuesday, other city carpenters started sawing and hammering the all-wood HemisFair Park playground, where a host of safety hazards and code problems was cited 2 1/2 months earlier. The workers systematically replaced rotted gray boards with freshly cut pine behind yet another yellow construction tape barrier.
The work on the two facilities was part of a wider city effort this week to fix playgrounds after the San Antonio Express-News reported Sunday that they had this year received their first in-depth safety inspections by certified personnel since 2003, which had produced long lists of serious problems at some older playgrounds.
Workers found repairing HemisFair playground,
with orders not to answer media questions.
Photo by Jerry Lara
Editorials/columnists opine:
City response eroding public trust
By John Branch, Express-News
Parks director forced to resign
City Manager Sheryl Sculley won’t acknowledge news report showing playground safety mismanagement, audit halt issues
Parks and Recreation Department Director Malcolm Matthews resigned abruptly Friday after nearly two weeks of public controversy stemming from a San Antonio Express-News report that showcased mismanagement of playground safety inspections and repair.
City Manager Sheryl Sculley sought and obtained Matthews’ resignation, the Express-News reported, but refused to acknowledge a particular reason, telling the newspaper only that the move was based on the 10-year directors’ “overall performance.”
Matthews’ personnel records, however, indicate no serious problem with his performance and in fact show that as recently as February Sculley was so pleased with the department head that she awarded him a $1,000 bonus.
Mayor forms commission to study auditor office independence
A city panel seeking to define the duties of the next internal city auditor hopes to draw on private industry and government best practices “to fill in obvious holes” in the City Charter, Mayor Phil Hardberger said Wednesday.
But no auditor or auditing specialist was among appointees to the panel.
Hardberger on Tuesday announced creation of a committee he will head whose goal is to solve one of the city's most vexing — and public — problems: what the City Council expects from an office that was created outside the city structure to ensure its independence.
City council approves audit office reforms
The San Antonio City Council voted this week to enhance the ability of the auditor’s office to work without the kind of political interference that nearly left widespread playground safety problems undiscovered this past summer.
The 8-2 vote to double the number of council oversight committee members, and to add citizen overseers, came in response to a series of Express-News stories in June that exposed how city leaders quashed an auditor plan to review playground safety inspection practices.
Editorial: Reforms fine but fall short
San Antonio alternative weekly weights in
