By Dan Murphy
City Council Majority Leader Tasha Diaz took over her new leadership post at the beginning of 2022, and after five months, she has been able to take an accounting of the office staff and council employees, and make changes to the way in which anyone earning a paycheck on the 5th floor of City Hall is held accountable.
“I think there should be some kind of accountability if you are a full-time employee. If you are not in the office, we should know where you are and what you are doing. I think all of us as councilmembers should know where are staffs are and what they are doing when they are earning their salary-for the sake of the taxpayers,” said Diaz, who represents the 3rd council district.
Diaz has required council employees to swipe their ID cards whenever coming and going to have an idea of how they are spending their time. Peforming council work outside the office is allowed and completely OK, but Diaz wants to make sure that employees know that someone is making sure that everyone is earning their taxpayer funded salaries.
“I took on this role to try and provide more leadership in the overall way that our council offices operate. It’s about showing leadership and being in the office and not just being a leader in name only. People that work in my office already have that accountability but why not have it across the board? I may have ruffled some feathers but sometimes that’s what leadership requires and sometimes change is good.”
Included in a new policy of requiring employees to swipe their ID cards when they come and go, Diaz also wants all council doors closed and locked to make it a safer enviroment for staff and elected officials. “I’m here five days a week and this isn’t a part-time job for me. If you are on a full-time salary with benefits, you should be working for it. Some of the aides don’t like it but they are not elected councilmembers. They don’t like being held accountable, but it’s all about creating a productive office setting.”
Diaz’s Chief of Staff, Brentin Brown-Bullock, who was charged with implementing the changes said, “We work in a government office building, and with some of the things we see happening across the country, Majority Leader Diaz wanted to prevent that from happening here by requiring staff to swipe their ID cards so that nobody can just walk right in. There needs to be safety for all of us.”
Diaz added, “I was asked by someone on the 5th floor, why I am locking my door. Because there are a lot of people coming in and out of City Hall every day. Movies and TV shows, with hundreds of crew members in here. I’m here to do a job, but to also make sure that all of us get home every night.”
Diaz has also changed the design of the council offices by providing privacy, and COVID barriers, so that council staff can meet with constituents in private and get more work done. “People need privacy to get their work done. You can’t have everyone in one room, that’s not how I can stay productive. I converted a conference room into individual spaces so that each aide has a space of their own.”
Diaz said that there was an initial pushback from some to the new policy, which resutled in what she said, “was a fight for me to get my own office. But I didn’t get here keeping my mouth shut. I’m a strong person and when I see a need for change, I am going to implement that.”
It is also interesting to note that the so called changes that Diaz has made, are nothing more than standard policy for any professional office environment. And, it is also ironic that Diaz is proposing the professional changes to the City Council office and staff when she was criticized by her council peers during the selection of Majority Leader as exhibiting unprofessional behavior, conduct and language. But now it is Diaz who is pushing through more professional conduct for everyone who works on the 5th floor. “I’m the person that’s changing things for the better. We have to lead by example.
“We did that with the budget and I’m proud to have worked on it with Council President Collins-Bellamy, who supports what I’m doing, as does Mayor Spano. We need to be careful with the money the taxpayers give us. Their money should not be wasted on items like specialty coffees and employees who don’t want to work for their paycheck. We have too many needs in our city for those taxdollars. I would rather spend our money on paving roads and making sure that our students get the funding they needed, which they did in this budget.”
“This comes from being frugal at home, and I think a lot of my constituents do the same. This is who I am and I’m not here to play games. This is about doing what is good for the community and working hard. If they don’t like it, they can step aside. Do they know how many people in Yonkers would love to have their job and are willing to work full time?”
