City Hall: Wish you were here

AFTER BOSTON public works director Dennis Royer took too little interest in field operations in 2006 and 2007, department employees felt free to arrive for work late, leave early, and put in little labor in between. Now Royer has been suspended by Mayor Menino for three weeks for allowing a data processing system analyst to telecommute from Venezuela. Boston is putting GPS tracking systems in all of its DPW vehicles to ensure that roving crews are where they belong. Similarly, the department's white-collar workers shouldn't be working from far-flung lands. Royer should have seen the need for by-the-book personnel practices after the breakdown in 2006.