I am a constituent who is working with the court to take care of some traffic infractions and have been offered community service instead of paying for the fine with the judges permission. The judge and court systems are aware that some folks don't have the means to pay off fines so they offer community service. It's a lawful, critical and culturally sensitive option that the court has deemed appropriate. Some folks, like me, deal with depression and have been attending school- the court understands that it's difficult to pay off fines when folks are having difficult times. Thus, it is my right to do community services hours in lieu of paying the fine.
After contacting SAVES to sign up for orientation, I spoke with Kathy. I thought that Kathy was impatient, rude, and bias against me. At the beginning of the call, she was immediately telling me that my 52 hours of community service COULD NOT be finished before May 28 before even calculating the days and hours worked. After I heard this I insisted that it could be done and asked why she thought otherwise. She then began to calculate. She responded with certain conditions: 1) the agency would not take on the urgency of finishing the hours since that's my responsibility, 2) the agency needs 2 days to complete the paper work, 3) I have to take an hour lunch, 4) the agency will be closed for two other days. After receiving this information respectfully and patiently, Kathy insisted that I couldn't finish, once again before calculating the hours correctly herself. As an individual who can think and count for themselves, I told Kathy that I could finish because that meant I had 9 total days with 7hours a day (including lunch). The total would have been 63 hours and I only needed 52hours. Kathy did not like that I was able to calculate these hours before she did because doing so told her that In fact I could finish the hours on time, despite that fact that she insisted that I couldn't. So after I told Kathy that I could meet the hours and carefully explained to her why with the conditions she had in mind, she then chose to project her incompetency and attitude onto me and told me "umm... I think I'll pass, you'll have to find somewhere else to do the hours" and then hung up. I'm very certain Kathy has done this many times to the people she is serving, even though it's her job to do otherwise.
At this point, I was completely upset. I called back about 3 times only to hear the dial tone. Then I spoke with her colleague, and explained the situation. Her colleague apologized and said sometimes they're just having a bad day. I said that's fine I was only explaining to her everything she was telling me. I told her that it seemed she was bothered by the fact that I calculated the hours and then said this was my fault. Kathy, passed the phone to one of her coworkers so she didn't have to own up to her attitude, impatience, and bias. She was not responsible or accountable for her laziness, bias, attitude, and apparently her bad day. This is a double standard because Kathy expected me to be responsible and accountable in finishing my hours. This double standard lets me know that the question of responsibility and accountability are not about moral character, but actually about Kathys resistance in the labor involved to calculate the hours and get me set up. Again, this is Kathys job which she was having a hard time doing. After her coworker told me that Kathy still said no, I got very upset. And said I need to speak with the manager. At that point, I was feeling extremely oppressed because there was no rightful reason to deny me opportunity to complete my hours. I was not able to speak without my tone of voice being raised and without impatience. I asked for Kathys managers number and I told kathys colleague that i was going to make sure that kathys manager allows me to complete my hours there. At that point, kathys colleague laughed at me and said go ahead but I'm you're not going to be able to. I was still in a frenzy and said no it's gonna happen, please give me her number. At that point her colleague also hung up on me.
I called once again and Kathy answered. This time, of course, you could hear her smile - it was clearly not genuine and it was as if she got what she wanted, to raise emotion out of me so she had real to then say no. She said, "if I'm already having to deal with this over the phone, imagine in person?" That made me extremely upset because at the point she was limiting my rights to be compliant with the court and judge based on her attitude and incompetence and her very routine tactic to not hold herself accountable and for her inability or resistance to calculate hours and for her power to say no without just reason. That is extremely oppressive and I say this with critical and lawful understanding. She had no regard for my time and my fines and then projected them onto me and took no responsibility. read more
