Concerning Steve Butler, I truly wish him the best. But the bad management that fostered the current mess is still in place. As far as I know, the individual defendants are still employed or are associated with the railroad as either employees, managers or commissioners. Will these people empower Mr. Butler to make the needed changes? Based on their past record, I seriously doubt it. It would appear that these people are more motivated by political concerns and the protection of themselves and their friends and cronies. Reading these posts, it is obvious that they are doing great damage to the railroad as people are choosing to stay away.
Are these people truly bad managers? To me, the answer is yes. Ask any personnel manager for any responsible public agency or significant private business what they would do when faced with a similar situation such as this civil rights lawsuit. Whether they believe the claim or not, they would immediately take steps to protect the employees from such behavior, institute civil rights training for all employees— and clarify to all that the company will not tolerate such behavior and people who do these things can expect consequences, including termination if they persist. These actions are simply common sense in today’s business environment. Any responsible management would have already taken these steps, whether a claim is made or not. Part of the reason for doing so is to insulate the company from liability. If they don’t take these responsible steps, they can expect that they will get hammered if a case goes to court for seemingly allowing this sort of reprehensible behavior.
In fact, most insurers will insist that insured entities take these steps before providing or continuing coverage. Again, if you don’t believe me, check with the personnel or risk managers for any significant business or agency. Which brings me to another issue— is there insurance coverage in this particular case? Why do I ask that? First off, I don’t know one way or another, but reading the allegations and in the complaint, I am struck by certain facts—1) complaints were made to management years ago, but no action was taken, if only to assure that this behavior would not repeat itself. 2) That there was another civil rights case settled with another employee earlier this year. As far as I know, no remedial action was taken afterwards to assure that there would be no new actions like this in the future. This is often required by the insurer to continue insurance coverage in the future; and finally, 3) Insurers will sometimes deny coverage for “intentionally committed torts”, particularly the “intentional infliction of emotional distress”. By taking no apparent action in the past on these issues, it would be fair to say that management was tolerant of such bad behavior. Insurers would view this very unfavorably.
Because these issues involve a publicly- owned, maintained and operated railroad, established by the two states, I think that it is a very worthy and appropriate topic of discussion both here and elsewhere.In the end it isn’t this discussion on the NGDF that endangers the railroad, it is the truly bad management that is apparently more interested in their own self interests instead of the successful and responsible management of the railroad. By limiting discussion on these issues, it only protects the management and certain bad employees from oversight and consequences, thereby assuring the continued deterioration of the railroad and its reputation.
