| To ask a question or send in a
suggestion, click here. |
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| Q |
My suggestion is to add non-smoking stickers to the
inside of the scooters. This will be a reminder of the University’s
policy of no smoking in University vehicles. |
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| A |
Your suggestion is an excellent one as are your comments. As you
note, MAPP policy prohibits smoking in University of Houston
vehicles. In my most recent Direct Reports’ meeting I reminded each
director of this fact and urged them to reinforce the policy with
all of their team. Your suggestion of adding non-smoking stickers is
great and we will look to implement it soon. If you have any
questions or need additional information please contact me. |
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| Q |
Please design a standard cover sheet for all construction document
sets for consistency. |
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| A |
I agree that having a standard cover sheet for all University of
Houston construction documents would increase the professional look
of our department, provide consistency and have many other values.
In fact, we are looking not only at providing a standard sheet but
developing a standard sheet and Auto Cad layouts for our projects.
The standard layouts will then become part of our University
Guidelines, which all consultants are required to follow. Daisy
Vazquez, Project Manager, has been working with Bill Moore on this
effort, and we expect to have a finished product ready for
implementation shortly. |
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| Q |
Recently I was asked, again, from as many customers as we can
accept Project Requests from, “Why does it take so long to get a
contract signed?” It’s not that the program for signing is necessary
but how can we know where our contracts are so that Project Managers
and others can drive the “machine” and steer the contract along its
weary path. The suggestion is relatively easy and the solution
should be well received; develop an electronic, digital form folder
that everyone would use. |
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| A |
As you noted in the backup which supplemented your suggestion,
presently each individual in Plant Operations is responsible for
contracts and maintaining their own logbook. As you noted, often
times this system is cumbersome and makes it difficult to know
exactly where a project or contract is in the process. Your proposed
solution of one electronic logbook that select people would have
access to and be able to modify, but that anyone could view is a
great, workable solution that would indeed improve project tracking.
While it may not necessarily speed the process of getting the
contract signed, it would make it easier to track a contract and
provide information to inquiring customers. Vergel L. Gay and Bill
Moore are presently working on implementing such a system and
hopefully by September 1, an electronic contract logbook will be in
place. |
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| Q |
Can we have bottled drinking water (or Spring water)? Water is
vital for our everyday lives. Drinking plenty of water everyday
(8-10 glasses of water each day), as recommended by specialists,
will prevent disease and help keep us healthy. The water from the
water fountain not only tastes bad but it is not safe or healthy.
Healthy employees or keeping employees healthy will decrease the
absenteeism and will eventually increase the productivity. |
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| A |
Our water supply has been certified as safe for drinking purposes.
If it seems distasteful, you may want to bring your choice of
bottled water . Because of budget restraints, we do not feel that
having an additional supply of water is justified. We in the past
have also been asked to provide other items including soda, coffee
(we presently supply), refreshments for required meetings, etc.
While we would love to be able to provide these items, unfortunately
we do not have funding to do so. |
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| Q |
The physical plant management above shop foremen has made the work
environment unsafe. Trying to keep up what managers have is
not possible with the few working employees. We need more
experienced, licensed and willing workers to make up for managers’
lack of abilities. |
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| A |
As all of us know the University of Houston in general and Plant
Operations in particular have for many years accomplished more with
fewer people than almost any other university in our region.
As much as we might hope that we would acquire numerous, additional
employees, that is not likely to occur. In fact, the
state budget deficit of $9.9 billion and the resulting extreme
economic pressures make it much more likely that we will be called
upon to be even more creative as we attempt to maintain the
University of Houston physical plant with a smaller and leaner team.
In spite of these challenges, however, I am convinced that all of
management from shop foremen to directors to myself, Dr. Rudley and
President Smith place workers, students, and staff safety as our
number one priority. As we go forward together in these
challenging times all of us will need to offer constructive
suggestions and innovative answers for how we can efficiently
continue to do our demanding jobs. Rather than challenging the
fitness and abilities of any member of our team, let’s focus on the
strengths we bring when we work together. I know that if we do
so the Plant Operations Department I head will surpass these
challenges better than any of our colleagues in other institutions. |
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| Q |
The shops in physical plant have been out of hot water for at
least a year. Can something be done to rectify this situation? |
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| A |
There are several reasons why not only the shops in physical plant
but much of General Services Building has been without hot water for
over a year. The hot water piping needed to be repaired but
unfortunately before repairs could take place, we needed to remove
asbestos. Regrettably, with the storm and other budget
constraints, there were no CRDM or department funds for asbestos
removal in this facility. Then because of the need to close
off the first floor for asbestos removal, the removal project had to
wait until there was a gap in our work schedule. Asbestos
removal occurred over the Christmas break and the piping was fixed
shortly thereafter. There should now be hot water in all areas
of the General Services Building. If you are still
experiencing water supply problems, you should turn in a work order,
and we will investigate. |
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| Q |
Last year, managers abolished weekly and virtually all regular
safety meetings for all working employees in Building Maintenance.
Accidents started to occur. Safety meetings were done away with
because there are not enough employees to take care of the
University of Houston correctly. |
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| A |
We have not in any way done away with regular safety meetings. We
have in some cases modified the frequency and changed what is
covered in the meetings in an attempt to make sure when we have
safety meetings they are 1) attended as well as possible and are 2)
effective in communicating important, critical safety information.
We continue to be concerned about the safety of our employees and
rank it as one of our top priorities. If anyone has significant
suggestions or topics he or she feels we should be covering more
completely, we are open to suggestions. |
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| Q |
The University suffered last summer because the managers, who were
asked to, refused to check Doppler on their computers one-half hour
before sending employees home. When asked to prepare Tuesday night
or Friday, they would not. |
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| A |
I could not disagree with you more strongly regarding your
allegation. On both Tuesday night and Friday, we took responsible
precautions based on the weather information that was available at
that time. In checking Tuesday night, the amount of damage from
flooding at the University of Houston was significantly less that at
the Texas Medical Center, the University of Houston-Downtown, or the
University of Houston-Clear Lake, primarily because of the
precautions that were taken and the efforts of employees in Plant
Operations. On Friday night, Tropical Storm Allison caught everyone
in the Houston area off-guard. While Doppler did show a tropical
storm off the coast, NO ONE predicted the storm would do a
180-degree U-turn and head back in the direction it just came from.
The unpredictable course caught the entire city off-guard and, as
all of you know, caused severe damage not just at the University of
Houston, but throughout the city including downtown and the Texas
Medical Center. There is also no way that any of the employees here
at the University of Houston could have anticipated this action and,
even if they could, have predicted the severity of the storm. There
is no way any actions they could have taken would have mitigated the
tremendous damage and the inundation of water we suffered.
Instead of trying to find scapegoats in Plant Operations when
there are none to be had, I would prefer to use our efforts to thank
and congratulate our team for the tremendous teamwork they had to
this disaster as well as using our efforts to examine and update our
Disaster Recovery Program so that it may reflect the many successes
we had during that critical timeframe. |
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| Q |
We need somehow to get rid of all the cats running around in the
open bay area in General Services Building. They are making a mess
toward the auto and grounds areas, the trucks, and getting into the
trash. |
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| A |
I was not aware we had a problem with cats. I appreciate your
bringing this to our attention and will take steps to correct the
situation.
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| Q |
This is a request for payment of a new license for Backflow Device
testing and maintenance of Backflow devices on campus. |
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| A |
After looking into your request for payment
of a license fee, the following is Plant Operations’ policy for
University of Houston Plant Operations’ employees to follow for
reimbursement of licenses obtained in order to perform their work:
University funds, including
state-appropriated funds, may be used for payment of
professional license fees and state occupational taxes under the
following conditions:
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The license is required by the state to
practice;
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The license is considered a requirement
of the position of the employee;
- Funds are budgeted and available for the expenditure by the
appropriate department.
The employee must present to his or her
supervisor proof of the license issuance or renewal, proof of
payment, and a completed “Reimburse-ment for Professional/Trade
License Fee” and work with his or her supervisor to get
reimbursed.
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| Q |
The General Services Building windows need a thorough cleaning.
Could we please have our windows cleaned? |
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| A |
Back in the early 1980s when the University was a significantly
smaller campus and facilities had 35 percent more employees than it
currently has, facilities management did provide some window
cleaning. However, when our workforce was drastically cut in the
80s, there were a number of services which we were forced to
discontinue. Unfortunately, cleaning windows was one of them. |
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| Q |
Standardize our department’s e-mails; font size, color, especially
(signature and title) and naming of e-mails. E-mail etiquette is so
overlooked; this is a professional image issue. |
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| A |
This is a good idea but there are a lot of questions of what the
standard should be. Most private companies do have standards for
letter format, e-mail format and all other communications. I will
try in the next few months to meet with the directors and with Clif
Rapier in Finance and Operations to address this issue. If you have
any particular suggestions or comments that you would like to submit
for our consideration, I look forward to receiving those. |
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| Q |
Discontinue/cancel all “Continuing Service Contracts” with A&E’s.
This program has been going on for three years±. Our university has
gained the reputation, in Houston, as being locked out for other
firms. We are being thought of as playing favorites…. |
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| A |
We are currently examining with legal all of our contracts for
“Continuing Services”, Job Order contracting, and other consultant
services. Once we have completed examining all of our contracts,
updating and strengthening them to reflect how we would like to
proceed in the future, we intend to re-bid all A&E Continuing
Service Agreements and Job Order Contracts. As a general
principle, I feel strongly we should offer a wide range of firms an
opportunity to do work at the University of Houston and in our
re-bidding process; we will encourage all of these firms to submit
proposals. |
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| Q |
Bottled water. Having good water to drink will give employees the
peace of mind of not worrying about consuming sub par water. |
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| A |
We in the past have also been asked to provide other items
including soda, coffee, refreshments for required meetings, etc.
While we would love to be able to provide these items, unfortunately
we do not have funding to do so. |
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| To ask a question or send in a
suggestion, click here. |
