By Ken Snyder
It seemed as if BPU would never get the last of the five cabinets I was responsible for installed. But finally, the poles were installed. Before too long, I saw the cabinet in place and knew it wouldn't be too long before the installation crew would be connecting it to power and to the signal lights. Sure enough, one day in mid-March of 2012 I caught them in the act:
Click on the image to open a larger copy in a separate window.
I found it ironic that at a BPU Board of Directors meeting a member of the board commended Johnson on the fact that the signal installation at 7th & Washington Boulevard was finally getting finished. What Johnson failed to inform the board member of was the person responsible for the control cabinet was terminated because he "was not completing tasks in a timely manner", although this cabinet had been finished and waiting in BPU's storeroom for nearly two years. Don't believe me? Click here to see the printout for a test I performed on a piece of equipment for this cabinet - and notice the date: 24 May 2010.
Because I was so far ahead of the crew contracted to install the signal cabinet base, pole bases and conduits I stopped working on cabinets for this project, and focused on maintenence of intersections already in service and performing pre-installation adjustments on fiber optic splice cabinets (one is pictured just to the right of the signal control cabinet).
Oddly enough, there were two more intersections along Washington Boulevard that were to get new traffic signal installations and both were installed before BPU got around to finishing their work on the intersection where the last of the signal control cabinets I was responsible for would be located -- a cabinet that had been waiting all along in their storeroom.
There's probably an excuse they've crafted by now as to why they drug their feet on this one, but the facts are these: No one has mentioned in any way that the work I did on these cabinets was improper, my name is still on the paperwork for these cabinets, my writing on the inside of the cabinets is still visible (as can be seen in the center image above), and every single intersection whose cabinet I was responsible for is operating exactly as designed. But remember, DeGraeve said he couldn't trust me to work on a "box" and I "was not completing tasks in a timely manner." You decide who's right.
By this time, Ms. Leeds was well along the process of preparing this case to be filed. However, an attempt was made to settle this matter before court papers were filed. On 12 April 2012 Ms. Leeds sent a demand letter to BPU, outlining relavent points of this case and our offer. We asked for a response no later than 30 April 2012.
Of course, in typical BPU arrogance, Ms. Leeds did not receive a response until 3 May 2012. It came from Wonnell, and his response was:
"This matter was thoroughly investigated by the Department of Labor and no USERRA violations were found."
You're going to make this too easy....... Did they think that Ms. Leeds would have taken this case if DOL would have done even an adequate job investigating it and then found no violation?
Next: Moving On
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