November 16th, 2009
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1. ATTENDEES
One of our esteemed readers commented that the head of the Chamber of Commerce and the CEO of the Chamber attended victory meetings on election eve. We do not think either of these two losers has been good for the City, and unless we are mistaken they actively supported the incumbents who were defeated. But showing up was appropriate: even it was primarily for the free wine. They obviously will support the new Mayor and new Commissioner even if it is only for their own self interest to have access. Keep in mind also that Commissioner Judy Reiker was a Board member at the Chamber. Maybe she can force the Chamber to act responsibly for its members. Just a thought.
Hey, Doug Hodson we are told resigned from Bob Lott’s Observer. It would appear that he neither works in or lives in the Community Redevelopment District. That is the requirement to be on the Board. As we read the rules, he is not qualified to be a member of the CRA Board.
“Best Blogs of the Week”
(Edited for grammar and punctuation)
A POTPOURRI OF CITIZEN COMMENTS IS
AGAIN PROVIDED THIS WEEK IN ORDER
FOR YOU TO GET IN TUNE WITH THE
MOOD OF OUR READERS
11/13/2009, 2:39 pm
seasells
I thought the CRA was buying up land to preserve it from overdevelopment and assure the continuation of New Smyrna as a small beach town. I have been here since 1975. It's been great. Now during the last 10 years or so we have a bunch of Bob Lott's running around saying we're doomed if we don't bring in development. Well excuse me Mr. Lott, but if you thought we were backwards and inept at preserving our town, why on earth did you move here? Pack your bags, and take the rag of a newspaper with you. We did fine before you got here and we'll be fine after y'all leave us. Go screw up some other town.
11/13/2009, 12:44 pm
Yaddak
The City did not say "come and build a hotel on Flagler". The City did attempt to issue an RFP for N Causeway, it went nowhere fast. Island Town Center, Boat barn, etc. do not exist. There is no draw to N Causeway at this time. Remember, at one point (see N Causeway Study), there was gonna be Island Town Center, Marina expansion, homes on high-school site, commercial on the service road, etc. And now we have nothing.
11/13/2009, 8:32 pm
to: 528
Yes there are lots of yanks here. Heck I even married one! They are an odd bunch aren’t they?
NOTES
1. ASSOCIATED PRESS HERE IN TOWN
When you bought the Daytona Beach News Journal paper this past Tuesday you might have noticed that only two articles were written by its own staff writers. All of the other articles were from the Associated Press or columns from other papers. It might consider changing its title to “The Daytona Beach Associated Press News Journal”. Also, where was the Daytona Beach News Journal endorsement of the incumbents?
2. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
We do not need another ineffectual economic development specialist. What we need is a blue ribbon panel of retired Fortune 500 executives who live in New Smyrna Beach (there are several from GE, Phillips, etc.) to solicit Fortune 500 companies and work out inducement packages that will have them build units here. Think big, not small.
3. NEW SMYRNA BEACH MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION PLAN
We told you last week that the City Manager refused to provide a copy of the propose reorganization plan to the Shadow. Apparently there are three or more drafts and these circulated plan are part of public records. In any event it seems that they are planning to promote the Public Works Director to the position of Assistant Manager, and make all the department heads report to him. That would layer the highly paid and arguably non-performing high ranking personnel, which is frequently a way of suggesting that they leave for other pastures. Hey, just another example of non-transparency by the City management as we go into the yonder with the new Commission. Maybe the new Commission can change this mindset.
DEAR PAM
As we have stated in the past, we realize that the City Manager is limited in the resources available to her for pursuing cost reduction projects, so we have decided to help her out and provide draft letters for her review. As we have said, this will free her up for important things, like dealing with all the serious problems of the police and fire department pensions.
Dear Mayor,
I wrote you last week that I was all for you now that you won. Please call me.
Pam
The City Commission voted four to one to approve zoning a site on Flagler Avenue for a hotel. There is a chance it might be built one year, but the Shadow refuses to put any money on the table betting that this will happen.
A FEW OF THE PRESSING ISSUES CONFRONTING THIS TOWN HAVE BEEN EXAMINED TO A FAIR THEE WELL. IT IS OBVIOUS THAT UNLIKE THE PAST RECENT ELECTION THIS ELECTION INVOLVED AN EXAMINATION OF SOME OF THE PRESSING ISSUES THAT HAVE NOT BEEN ADDRESSED FOR THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS. NOT RESOLVED, BUT OUT OF THE CLOSET. THE ABSOLUTE FAILURE OF THE LAST COMMISSIONS TO ADDRESS THE BLOATED PAY, PENSIONS AND BENEFITS OF CITY EMPLOYEES IS NOW IN THE OPEN. THE STAFFING LEVEL OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT AND THE ABUSE OF OVERTIME HAVE BEEN EXPOSED AS WELL AS THE NON SUSTAINABLE ORGANIZATION OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENT. A RAUCUS DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES IS WHAT THE SHADOW HAS STRIVED TO ACCOMPLISH. WE SUCCEEDED ON THESE ISSUES. WHO GOT ELECTED WAS SECONDARY TO THE PRIMARY GOAL.
WHAT WAS IMPORTANT WAS THAT THIS ELECTION WAS NOT THE SIMPLE CONTEST OF PAST YEARS WHICH WERE ESSENTIALLY BEAUTY CONTESTS. IT WAS OBVIOUS THAT THIS ELECTION WAS FLAWED---TOO MUCH MONEY, TOO MUCH MONEY FROM SPECIAL INTERESTS, TOO MANY CLAIMS OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS, AND TOO LITTLE ATTENTION TO THE MAIN ISSUES WHICH ARE HURTING THE TAXPAYERS.
FIRE DEPARTMENT STATISTICS
In 2008 the New Smyrna Beach Fire Department responded to 13 structural building fires—fires in houses of commercial property. Six were out of the City, two of which could have been first response in the County. There were nine within the City limits. Translated this is less than one a month. Or one can say that it is one every five months for each of the four stations. See LINK for an analysis of all of these structural fire calls.
We believe the 91-RCC emergency service run by Port Orange, New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater has inflated the number of calls for fires and non fire calls. We will analyze these later. Merging the 911-RCC into the County system which currently handles all emergency calls in the County other than our local boondoggle would save we believe over $300,000 immediately for New Smyrna Beach.
The Volusia County State Delegation decided not to support the International Association of Fire Fighters effort to gut the County wide ambulance service (EVAC). The vote was six to four and the Volusia County Council was adamantly opposed. This latest effort just reinforces the Shadow’s analysis that these fire departments are over staffed and need more work to justify their continued existence at the current staffing levels. We understand that one of the amusing factoids that came out of the discussions was that in Daytona Beach the ambulance from EVAC was actually the first on the scene in at about half of the emergency calls.
By the way, we do not believe that Representative Patterson’s proposal to consolidate all of the services in one County organization was not sincere as suggested by the writer for the Daytona Beach News Journal.
OVER THE NEXT MONTH THE SHADOW WILL PUBLISH ONLY ONE OR TWO ARTICLES PER WEEK, BREAKING NEWS, AND A LAMPOON OR TWO. THE FORMAT MAY BE LIMITED TO FRONT PAGE ARTICLES AND THE BLOG MAY BE OPENED SELECTIVELY TO ISSUES OF NATIONAL, STATE, AND LOCAL ISSUES AND NOT LIMITED TO JUST LOCAL NEW SMYRNA BEACH ISSUES..
A PRIMER ON WHAT WENT WRONG OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS FROM AN ESTEEMED BLOGGER
11/10/2009, 3:32 pm
Mr. Ed
Its not just the JOBS that Wal Mart and other Big Box retailers bring....ITS THE PROPERTY TAXES they Pay!
“Also, when these types of stores are built in a City, other businesses tend to follow them, because the big retailers are there, and they attract the crowds. A perfect example of that is Port Orange;
Look at the Taxable Values of these stores in Port Orange;
Wal Mart: $16.9 million
Home Depot; $12.6 million
Target; $ 15.8 million
Then add in the Taxable Value of the other stores and shops, restaurants and movie theaters etc. etc. etc. that were built near them, and you've got a huge amount of taxes being collected and jobs being created.
Now look at what NSB has to offer as far as a business district is concerned:.....a run down slum, where the business owners spend all their time trying to keep everybody else out of town, especially anybody that might compete against them.
That is after all, what the Chamber of Commerce is all about here in NSB! Its mission is to keep other businesses OUT of NSB! NOT BRING NEW BUSINESS IN. And its done this, by using its political muscle to have the City Commission pass one ordinance after another over the years, whose only purpose was to make it harder and harder for anybody to build a new business here in NSB. Because the business owners we've got here now, don't want any competition, and these ordinances don't effect them, since they are grandfathered-in.
SO, THE BOTTOM LINE IS; THE CHAMBER WAS HAPPY, AS LONG AS THEIR SLUM STAYED THE WAY IT WAS, WHILE NOTHING ELSE GOT BUILT.....THAT MIGHT'VE MEANT SOME COMPETITION.
BUT WHAT THEY DIDN'T FIGURE-ON IS THIS: EVERYBODY NOW DRIVES TO PORT ORANGE TO SHOP!
AND THEY CAN'T STOP THEM FROM GOING, AND NOW THEIR BUSINESSES ARE DYING.
But to that I say: YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT THAT A LONG TIME AGO word picture. It is time for a change”.
There is nothing wrong with this
First look at the graphic above and think about how they wasted the taxpayers’ money with the bond . Second, look at your electric bill and weep. Natural gas prices have plummeted and is hardly reflected in your bill. Worse they are continuing basically in secret to push for a garbage burning plant near Venetian Bay and Sugar Mill which will be a physical and economic disaster for the community. Truck traffic of bringing garbage to the site, storing days or weeks of garbage on site, its small size as a generator, the energy needed to run it and the future costs of relying on competitors to provide most of the power needed demand it not be built. . The City should invite the competitors which are not being considered to make presentations to the City Commission of better alternatives. Like the Florida Rural City and Communities (FRCAC) proposal we believe will supply all of the electricity needed by New Smyrna Beach as well as all the water we need and water for the neighboring communities. We suggest that FRCAC be invited as soon as possible to the next City Commission Meeting.
CHAMBER MONEY TREE
The Chamber of Commerce of Southeast Volusia County is supported by the taxpayer. Not only does it get free rent for a valuable piece of property, which it has not kept in repair, but it takes tax money (over $36,000 this year) from the Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority that spends tax money collected from our rental accommodators.
Worse, they are not following though with the program of their parent organization [Google or Bing US Chamber of Commerce]:
Unfortunately the entire business community has no voice in New Smyrna Beach. Well maybe some of them do if you think that throwing money at Canal Street is serving the over-all business community. The livelihood of all businesses in New Smyrna Beach, however, is enhanced by lowering taxes and Utilities Bill for its members including those on Canal. This Chamber has never shown up to the Shadow’s knowledge and demanded that the City Commission reign in the exorbitant wages, pensions and benefits of City employees. We know that probably not one member of the Chamber has an $80,000 secretary like Mr. Rodi at the Utilities Commission and we will put money on the table that none of them have a 45% benefit package including health benefits for their employees. But they have spent not one dime on campaigning at the City or County level to cut spending. Nor have they gone after the Utilities Commission and its dysfunctional Board and poor management. Add Bert Fish where the last Chamber President of the Board argued for higher taxes.
The Chamber knows that its members are being killed by high utility rates and totally bloated wages, pensions and benefits of both City employees and Utilities Commission. Both have excessive executive salaries as well as very high employee costs. Not a word. The proposal to build a garbage burning plant near Venetian Bay and Sugar Mill is an abomination. Not a word. At the same time, the proposal by FRCAC for a turbine gas plant should be considered by the City Commission given the refusal of the Utilities Commission to even address that natural gas supplies are plentiful and cheap and this would be a private business investment of $125,000,000. It would benefit the City. Not a word. The Chamber might even consider that its members do not benefit when the City owns businesses or funds businesses that are in direct competition with some of its members. Think kayaks and the new Italian restaurant at the municipal golf course with what we think is a cheap lease. Not a word. Or better yet, think of the huge subsidies to the municipal golf course.
The Shadow thinks it is fraud to collect its members’ money and not represent them. It simply unconscionable to take all that money from the taxpayers and return nothing. Oh we forgot. They favored the hotel on Flagler and supported it. At least the Chamber has some life.
