Good News – City Worker Helps More Than Rules Permit

I have to be really vague so they don’t get into trouble, but I need to thank a city employee who went the extra mile for me today.

Because of something that broke on my property, something that would easily have me in violation of local ordinances, I had to hire a contractor to do some repairs. They did, but at the end of the job, it was discovered that some equipment, that both the city and I have responsibility for, had broken. So, I called for a city repair crew.

It took a few hours, but the repair guy showed up. After some eval he gives me the good news/bad news. The equipment is broken is such a way that I’m going to have to get another contractor to fix the part I’m responsible for (I don’t have to get a contractor, per se, I could do it myself…but I don’t think so). When he said that, all I was seeing was the multi-hundred dollar bill looming in front of me. After I’d just spent almost a thousand on today’s “repair”.

Anyway, after some moaning from me, the guy tells me that he could fix it, but he doesn’t have the necessary parts. I offered: if I get the parts, would he do the repair? He agreed. He gave me a list and I was off. It took a while, and two trips, but everything was gotten that needed to be gotten, and he proceeded to do the repair job. By this time he had already been out on the job a good 1 1/2 hours beyond what the job should have taken, and he still wasn’t done.

Such helpfulness couldn’t go unrewarded. Though city employees can’t accept pay for what they do, I did the thing that I could do: I bought him some dinner. It was really the least I could do for keeping him out so long when I was sure he wanted to be at his own home already.

So, kudos to the city worker. While he might have exceeded what he was allowed to do by law, he certainly rose up to the level of what he was supposed to do as a “neighbor” and human being. He was a real mensch, and I’ll be sure to pay forward his kindness.