Saturday, July 01, 2000
Officers protest changes by boss
New head of probation pushes for efficiency
By Dan Horn
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Hamilton County judges got an earful Friday from probation officers upset with changes made by their new boss.
The officers met behind closed doors for more than an hour to discuss their objections to the way Chief Probation Officer Michael Snowden is running the office.
The main issue is a $690,000 report that recommended making the officers more accountable to their supervisors.
Trust issues
The officers have complained that the new standards are too restrictive and time-consuming. Some have compared themselves to the former prisoners they are hired to monitor.
“We are held to a higher accountability than our own probationers,” said Ed Tullius, a 21-year veteran of the department. “It's a trust issue.”
Mr. Snowden, a former Cincinnati police chief, said he is only asking his 240 employees to follow rules that are in place in other government and corporate offices across the country.
When he took the job last year, Mr. Snowden said, officers were not directly accountable to anyone. He said some supervisors did not know when employees were on vacation or when they were visiting probationers.
He said the study found that shuffling some positions and changing some responsibilities made the entire office more efficient.
More changes ahead
Probation officers now must sign in every morning and meet with their supervisors to discuss their plan for the day.
“I'm dealing with an organization that has never, ever done anything like this,” Mr. Snowden said. “How do I justify the number of employees I have if I don't know what they're doing?”
He said more sweeping changes will be coming in the next year. Eleven committees of volunteer employees now are preparing a “strategic plan” for reorganizing the office.
Judges who took part in the meeting Friday would not discuss what went on there.
The judges, who oversee the probation department, are expected to meet again later this year to talk more about the issue.
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