I-Team: City Work Crews Caught Not Working 

“Work zone?” “You guys haven’t been doing anything “ lmao savage

I can hear that meeting..... "hey guys, just don't get caught next time".

Government speak, "Internally, we will deal with that". Normal people speak, "Were not going to do anything".

“The buck stops here!” *continues to pass the buck back to management”

This is what all city workers do . I live in Boston and if it weren’t for subcontractors hired by the city, nothing will get done. City workers do as little work as possible and are in a system that encourages it . Great pay for little to no work

Our motto is: "We Don't Only Cut Trees, WE Cut Corners TOO!"

Why not follow our politicians. That's real news

Road crews always work like this. You'll see one guy working while 5 are standing around with a shovel. For hours on end, the norm.

My late dad (who actually did his work as Municipal Transit Utility shop foreman) use to make note of the fact that whenever you drive past city crews on a job site that there was 1 guy with a clip board, one guy down in the hole shoveling, and 4 guys leaning on shovels.

Fire them and replace them, alot of people need jobs

I live in Wisconsin. During a cold stormy winter day, I came upon a county snowplow sitting idle on a country side road, driver sleeping in the cab. Taking the chance he had his communications broadcast (CB) radio on, I switched mine on and called, “ wakeup and get to work! You don’t get paid for sleeping on the job. I know you have miles to cover before quitting time!” He went back to work.

I wonder how many of his brothers cousins nephews and grandkids work under him I bet a lot

There’s your problem. The city manager.

"Excuse me sir, you're in a vacation zone"

We're going to have one of the managers look into this...as soon as we can locate one.

The 34 mins is getting their tools ready and safety meeting talks

"How can you look into that camera and tell taxpayers you're doing a hard day's work?" By not looking at the camera and saying nothing.

If the managers fail to manage the crews under them, fire them immediately . If it continues fire the head of public works. This is blatant theft of taxpayer dollars. Prosecute these thieves and make them pay restitution to the city. The same should be for the managers.

After seeing the Director I can see why , nothing new & NOTHING will ever be done !

My dad used to work for the highway department in Nevada. 34 years he would go home after everyone else did not just to prove a point but to make them worth those hours they're supposed to and also show them the right way to do a job. My dad passed away and they all came respectfully to his funeral. Integrity is everything you either do it or you don't. Thank you Dad

LOL... internal investigation.. "You broke the first rule of public service.. getting caught"

"Internally, we'll deal with that." Translation: Just drive the trucks around, boys. Don't park those things like that.

The code word is management by walking around! Have each section chief put out a plan for the week and a supervisor go out and monitor the progress then monitor the supervisor. Just like your thermostat does. This is the result of a lack of supervision. They know that they are not being monitored.

I bet the city's director is the laziest one among all the workers, that's why he don't seem to care that they were caught because he know he doesnt work at all. How arrogant he sounds blaming on his managers.

This has to be one of the most incredible pieces of journalism I've ever seen.Civil service workers slacking off.Who ever would have thought this could happened.It's only been going on since the beginning of governmental workers.Thanks for letting me know something I've knew when I turned 3 years old

Work zone? You haven't been doing anything. 🤣🤣

We'll deal with it. We going to get you boys a raise. Keep up the great work. We have family reunion Saturday now, don't forget!!!

To stop this from happening , when caught once they all get terminated with no unemployment and no pension.

Start at the top and fire every one of them and start again

I expect nothing more from the City of Cleveland...the mayor sets the tone and Mayor Jackson is next to nothing as a person of action...

Never shit on your own time, never sweat on city time

When that guy says 'this is the exception not the rule' I call BULLSHIT!

That's a big truck to hide while shopping.

Fire all of them

Fire them all, and get some one who want to work.

That director is just as lazy as the employees on the street and obviously nobody is working in that government.

Why don’t these reporters ever film the politicians? They spend more taxpayers than these workers

This is hilarious...i remember doing "community service"with a street crew years ago..40 hours in one week...i did MAYBE 8-9 hours of actual work....the street department manager asked me to come back and fill out an application after I got my legal troubles taken care of...a lot of city workers are on easy street..the ones i respect are the winter broken water line workers...Thats no joke

At the meeting there be like " boys take a 30 minutes lunch instead of a hour and 15 minute break instead of a 2 hour break " haha...

We all do this in corporate America, city and county employees.

There’s a video on here of a town that majority of their city services are all done by private contractors and they save money. The work actually gets done too. They had a survey of how citizens feel of how their city services were and they got a 100% satisfied.

"They are working hard" hahahahah

Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I'm 63 years old now. At 18 we had a huge snow storm. Toronto hired an extra helper for each truck clearing sidewalks of elderly/disabled. $8.00/hr! Min wage was $2.00! Hired for 3 days. 7AM start. Left yard <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="450">7:30</a>. Went to a diner. 1 hour. First house. I hit that packed snow with a gusto! Snow came off in neat, packed sheets! Easy! Told to stop and use up salt on back of truck. Was actually MORE work with that method and I was concerned that possibly elderly would still be somewhat trapped for another day! Soon break time. One hour. Maybe 3 more houses. Lunch. Hour and 15 mins. More houses but this time the 'foreman' spent more time knocking on doors to see if elderly had a son or daughter capable of doing the snow. A game to him. Break. One hour. Couple of more houses. Back to yard. <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="135">2:15</a>! I asked what should I do till 3 PM punch out time? Hang out in the bathroom where I found about 20 other guys like myself smoking and killing time. - All this was a defining moment in my life. I never worked in a union environment again! I was downright ashamed of taking that money!

I was a City Parks Supervisor, I was lucky if my crews actually worked 3 hours in a 8 hour day. When I put the hammer down on them, I got a call from Human Resources telling me not to make them work. I put in my 2 weeks notice the next day.

I'm 70 yrs old and from Cleveland. As far back as I can remember, it's always been that way. When I grew up and traveled about, I found that it wasn't limited to Cleveland, nor to the US. You should see how "foreign nationals" scam the US government overseas! Think about that whenever your elected officials "need" more money. Could you run your business or family like this?

The problem is Cleveland is democratically run for hundreds of years

Fire The City Director And Management And Start All Over! "The Step Latter Effect" 🤔🇱🇷

This is exactly why most jobs like this should be "bid" out to private companies.

"I can' do dat." Really? Why not?

And people want the government in heath care.

Great! Curious what you’d find them folks in congress doing or not doing.

They should look at the meter of the chipper how many hours they used to got to be smart

They should all be fired

It's just like getting a union job. you have to know someone. Just like getting a job working for the city, you have to know someone. I wonder what those "someone's" get away with as well!

Not just that city, happens in Indianapolis as well.

Hell, that's the same where I live. City crew drives around all day.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="240">4:00</a> Nothing will happen. *They will just run up a $50,000 set of meetings to figure out how to still do nothing about it.

Great job by the reporter and his team. Can't say the same for the tree trimmers and their crew.

Same over here in the UK with the tree trimmers. Must just be a worldwide thing.

Thank you for exposing them

This kind of corruption and fraud is in every department of every city. One example that comes to mind is the city HVAC inspectors who are paid to inspect new installation but would claim the homeowner wasn't home or he called and no one answered the phone, so the homeowner has to re-schedule for another day when in fact the inspector never showed up much less made a call to the resident..

IMAGINE THAT!! No Surprise!!!

Excellent reporting from a bulldog reporter. Thank you!

I live on a dead end road , the county trucks are always down here taking breaks under the radar , some days over an hour at a time .

The city is lucky they even show up man!

So whats new fire them all plus the foreman whos a ghost check there duty logs ♣

I say instead of paying these guys by the hour, pay them by the tree and see how fast they work.

Here in Bataan, the City Employees are so happy to have a Job, they even work overtime without pay to Prove they are Worthy of that Job. Even the Mayor of one city will be seen on Saturdays out picking up trash to help keep the streets clean

Black's big surprise

Start from the bottom and work your way up. Time to clean house and trim the dead wood.

Internally we will deal with that! Sounds like bonuses all around to me!

That's city workers for ya. I seen a streets department crew. 5 guys standing around while 1 guy is using the jackhammer

CULTURE OF INCOMPETENCE !!!! From the old man in the suite to the young man in his neon jacket.

Can you do the same for Congress? Or the Oval office for that matter.

This happens in every town and city across the us. Where I live in ny the town cant even plow the roads during a storm. The town will have there full staff come in and work a full day and leave just as the storm is starting and not touch the roads till they come in for there normal shift so we are left with snow filled roads for 12+ hours after almost every storm. Why have all your drivers come in and work the day shift if the storm is starting at 4 pm just as they are going home then you have no one to be out till 5 am. But they still eat up that overtime budget ever year

This is verry rare cause everyone and their grandma know that Blacks are the hardest working race EVER.

A bunch of "dindonuffin's" managing a bunch of "dindonuffin's"

This is common in most jobs everyone is entitled too a few screwup days, as long as no one is getting hurt. And in this case work is getting done only at a slower pace. Look I was a city bus driver and I myself had some slack off days hell I used to bring my bus home

How can you work for the city?

The director is just as guilty seeing as he will not follow and verify that the work is done and that statement had a very strong feeling of arrogance to it as if he were just too good to actually do his job!

Wow! City workers standing around like a bunch of city workers.

Coffee and doughnuts come to mind.

I'm SHOCKED !!!

You do what you get to do. How much is they getting paid?

I would be way more shocked if you caught them working.

Damn shame have a good job and can't do the work. Fire their asses all of them including that damn head of public works.

Not in this city, but in my city, I saw two city workers take 4 hours to change a no parking sign...not the pole, just the sign. Two screws and one sign.

Finally some real news!

The director of public works struggles to speak not to sound ghetto

Everytime i drive by a crew like that i see 1 person working and 5 people standing there.

We love going after the weak because we can. I like to hold people who are higher up on the food chain responsible.

Thank you to local news

What did they all have in common? Hmm

Just got to make sure that people don't mix this with the guys working on the road where you always SHOULD see at least one person just standing and looking around. That guy is there for a reason, he's the lookout should a potentially dangerous situation approach to warn other workers about said situation. Worked as a wire runner for a time and had this duty thrown at me when I was recovering from a minor injury. Believe me that that job sucks more than doing your actual job. It's boring as hell and hard to keep doing. Think of it like those palace guards who have to stick in one place, but easier because you can move and stuff, but ya still got to be paying attention all the effing time or you get called out for it by any passing big-wigs (mainly OSHA or management).

In st.pete ,fl.the city workers have 1 guy with a shovel + 5 guys standing there watching him work !!!!!!!!! Absolutely unbelievable 😳

Thanks for exposing those lazy city workers.

I keep noticing a common factor on all of these investigative clips... notice it yet...

we need to protect our jobs for another 20 years so we need to chop only one tree a week, er well thats what the boss said !

30 min lunch and two 15 min breaks? Unpopular opinion: I am siding with the city workers.

Director of Public Naps