Yesterday, the City’s well regarded recycling coordinator quit in a huff. Seriously, a huff. This is not the farewell of someone who cares whether or not she burns bridges:

After only 18 months on the job, Joan Hicken sent a sarcastic note to associates Friday, saying: "It's been a real . . . pleasure." An autoreply to e-mails sent to her city in-box reads: "I will be out of the office starting 08/31/2007 and will not return until 12/31/2007. Actually, I won't be returning!"

Hicken was apparently a very well regarded person in the profession, who was chewed up and spit out by the that squelches innovation, the Bureaucracy of the Philadelphia city government. I know there are some who would like to spin this as simply a disgruntled employee. But when person after person says basically the same thing, you have to wonder what is going on in City Hall.

Sampson met with her shortly after she started, when "she was going through the kind of shock professionals go through when they come to Philly."

Nine weeks into the job, she still had no city e-mail address.

Or…

"I think one of her bigger frustrations, which I gathered from lots of meetings, is that there is no overriding, well-organized goal for the city. No action plan."

Or…

She said that "almost nothing about the decisions that have been made in the department the last couple years has made sense. . . . There's a lot of stop and go, smoke and mirrors, without a whole lot of accountability."

Recyclying and the environment are really perfect examples of the City not being able to get out of its own way. Philly was the first major city to require everyone to recycle; we could have continued to become a national leader. Instead, we have pitifully low rates of recycling that trash (badda bing) the environment, and cost us money. Then, we have innovative programs in the City, like RecycleBank. But they get very little traction with City Government, so, it doesn’t go anywhere beyond a couple neighborhoods.

We could be a leader, helping the environment, and saving money. Instead…

I am not one to hit at City workers, most of whom work hard in their jobs. But something here- culturally if nothing else- has to change. The bureaucracy is going to have to figure out how to help innovate, or we are all going to be taken down with it. In the meantime, its trash day in Fairmount, and the trash trucks are filling up with glass and cans.