Attitude in the Shelbyville, TN City Hall

USPA NEWS - After residing in Shelbyville for many years now, one main thing has gotten under my skin lately, if you will pardon the expression, it is the bad attitude of various City Hall Employees. Since when did the people who are employed by the city forget that they actually work for us, the citizens?

Attitude in the Shelbyville, TN City Hall

SHELBYVILLE, TN, JULY 26, 2014, - After residing in Shelbyville for many years now, one main thing has gotten under my skin lately, if you will pardon the expression, it is the bad attitude of various City Hall Employees. Since when did the people who are employed by the city forget that they actually work for us, the taxpaying citizens of the City? Now I am positive that I am not the only person to be at the receiving end of these often hostile and rude comments and actions of certain City of Shelbyville employees. I have been told by numerous local residents, as well as two State Agency employees, that they too, have suffered the same Curt, Condescending, and often just downright rude attitudes from certain individuals in City Hall.

When did they forget that without us, they would have no job to do? Why have the City Officials who are in charge of these employees done nothing to prevent these types of offenses from happening? Now I have lived in many different cities, some large and some small, and yes on occasion you may run into one or two people who may have a bad attitude, but in this town, I am loosing count.
One employee in particular, who I will not name in this Editorial, seems to believe that although she has resided in our city for only a little over a year, she knows more about everything than anyone else. If she is questioned in her logic, she becomes snide, hostile, and downright rude.

In one instance she even hung up the phone on a member of a City Commission for the apparent fact that the caller had requested something that she had no clue what it was, so instead of being responsive and cooperative, she slams down the phone. In another instance, she slams an appeal down on a desk and storms from the office.

I think the time for change is coming for a few key individuals in City Hall who for no reason other than Self-Importance and Ego, treat the individuals that they work for, the taxpayers, in this manner.
Now, don´t get me wrong, while this opinion is focused on City Hall specifically, there is also a rampant attitude problem with other Local & County Government agencies staff.

Yet those are not a grievous as those of the few in City Hall. In Fact, in my years in this County and City, I will say, that on every single visit to any of the County Offices located in the U.S. Bank Building on the Public Square, I have encountered the nicest and most considerate staff members from each and every department that is housed there. And also at City Hall, there are a select handful that have acted the same, the way a City Employee should to a taxpayer, and registered voter, with kindness, consideration, and most importantly respect.

In a silly little example of something that I stumbled across the other day, in of all things a fortune cookie from one of our local restaurants, the fortune read “Courtesy is one habit that never goes out of style“, how fitting this would be to post in every single office of City Hall and all other Government Agencies in Shelbyville and Bedford County.

By: Rodney Thompson, Editor, Shelbyville Free Press