The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1947-10-02

lSSloner Elgln reply mas only
t, the Globe-Independent, feeling
have the full text of his letter
d the Commissioner and asked
The letter follows:
ed as follows:
/ (b) Lack of supervision and direc-
ton resulting in poor utilization
of personnel and low rate of pro-
duction
You well know / have the same
supervisors and general superin-
tendent who were blanketed in the
merit system during the Richie
Baughman Administration with the
exception of three. / believe that
any Commissioner should have a
General Superintendent and q per-
sonal Secretary who are outside of
the merit system and who are di-
rectly and completely responsible to
the Commissioner. l am not sug-
costing that the Deputy Commission
er nor my Secretary should be taken
out of the merit system but, / do
believe, in the future, that if these
two offices should be outside of the
merit system, closer supervision in
the Department could be effected.
Section D of your letter was quot
ed as follows:
I'D Considerable backlog of work
particularly in filing and purging
the files of dead material with the
result that current work is serious
ly hampered and unduly retarded.
We have from time to time asked
Mr.. Kirkman for extra help to bring
these files up to date and sufficient
help to keep it up. The way our bus
mess has increased, it is humanity
impossible to keep this work up to
date unless we have the necessary
personnel For your information,
the new wings are a long way from
being completed.
When you appointed Mr.. John
Funk as State Engineer, l wrote him
l would like him to come up to our
new building and keep watch on
it, l thought this would take some
of the responsibility off of me. He
came up once. l am not criticizing
Mr.. Funk but | do feel it would be
to the interests of your Administra-
ton as well as myself to have Mr..
Funk check over the new building
as it is being completed. The Arch
itect told me that l gave him very
valuable assistance in designing and
watching over the building as it pro-
crosses. AS you know, have had
approximately twenty-seven years
experience in this work and l con-
slider it my duty and pleasure to
work with Mr.. Fletcher. OF course,
l could have kept quiet and there
would be no new building for sew
eral years, as you have ordered all
building stopped, so this is evidence
that l had planned and looked ahead.
1 wish you could have seen the
building in 1941, / am sure you
would say that we have progressed
very we'll with what we have had
to work with. Work in the Depart
ment has increased in some cases
from 1000 to 5000 as you will note
in our financial statement which is
being mailed to you.
Section 3 of your letter was quot
ed as follows:
go Care should be taken to prop
erly police and maintain the De-
partment's building and equip
ment, which has been reported to
me as filthy and untidy indicating
sloppiness and carelessness. Loose
storage of supplies and documents
is said to continue serious fire
hazard
The survey states that addreSSo-
graph machines reserved for peak
load jobs are without covering and
have been allowed to accumulate
AL SuClI IlldbIClS Sl1Oh4O OS
corrected.
AS for policing our building, Gov
ernor O'Conor gave us five addition
al men after some of our records
had been stolen. l requested these
men years ago but they were not
granted until We lost some of our
records, at least two men are now
on duty "a hours day.
AS for covering our machinery that
was not in use, Mr. Riegel called me
the day the survey was made and 1
personally went down to check this
matter. I found the door open in
the room in which this machinery is
stored, if this door were kept shut
no dust could accumulate in the room
as it is just four walls. immed-
lately had the Janitor cover the ma
chimes and our Mechanic to install
an automatic closer on the door in
order to keep this door shut tight.