December 14th, 2009
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CHISTMAS DECORATIONS AT THE PUBLIX SHOPPING PLAZA ON THIRD
There are Christmas decorations at the Publix Shopping Plaza beachside. We were curious as to whether the City paid for them. We think not. Those stores are open at night.
“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
12/9/2009, 1:26 am
Back to the drawing board.
I don't think the people, I or the elected have a problem with the potential new CM. I think they have a problem with the "ridiculous pay package". To begin the unavoidable pay reduction of over compensated middle mgrs, supers and favorites, the city's top job has to pay a realistic lesser amount and can not include every perk known to mankind. Seems the cookie cutter contract of almost $140,000 spending money, $5200 for car expenses, usual insurance, vacation, sick, retirement benefits, and the real kicker $1500 a month HOUSING? ABSURD! The majority of folks in this town live on a total income of $1500 a month or less. Think about it..........I think you are throwing the next CM to the taxpaying wolves by over paying them. You CAN NOT pay someone approximately $14,000 per month, when the money comes from folks making $14,000-$25,000 a year tops. I can see one commissioner's thoughts are a perfect example of what past behavior-future predictor means. Do CM candidates have a clue the people are going to REQUIRE a total rehab of the top heavy management structure and a reduction in their pay?
12/9/2009, 8:56 am
Hit the Reset
I would give just about anything to have elected (commissioners, state reps, congress...) with some street smarts and a broader national/world view. I would give anything for a street smart up and coming CM too.
NSB CC is a snapshot of the national problem. Five commissioners muddled in small town "society" with very limited experience or understanding of muni complexities trapped in the same quagmire wrecking the US economy. Bloated budget, grossly overpaid managers, emotional unnecessary spending ("Classy"), anemic understanding of government/business relationships & processes, virtually no understanding of the fundamentals of acquiring and owning property (CRA), clear conflicts of interest on the part of board appointees, weak character that equates leadership with being liked and being a lemming with their "friends/supporters"...
Its time to hit the reset button. Adam can set the agenda, beginning with a close examination of spending relative to the needs of a City of less than 20,000 residents (forget the properties that sit empty half the year). This chatter about Vision is meaningless until the City can truthfully define its current condition and determine if City government and spending are functioning in reality or pandering to their own la la land mythology.
NSB gov is smaller than most departments in larger Cities. But it makes mountains out of mole hills through petty politicization and gets nothing meaningful done because neither staff nor elected know their jobs. We don't need a CM at the end of her career. We need a CM on the rise with an understanding of where NSB fits in Fl, USA and the world economy. We need a CM who can network and pump some fresh energy into the system. Who can take less pay and work harder like an entrepreneur - not someone beyond the end of a job hopping career looking to bide a few years to increase their nest egg (that goes for our City Attorney too).
I’m tired now, gotta catch a flight to make money to pay my NSB taxes.
NOTES
1. BUY YOUR VERY OWN NEWSPAPER INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS AND TEAMSTERS
According to the Los Angeles Times:
[The unions bought the San Diego Union Tribune for $30,000,000 through their pension fund--Platinum]
The article:
Platinum relies on a $30-million investment from the pension fund of Los Angeles police officers and fire fighters, along with large sums from other public-employee pension systems around the state, to help fund its acquisitions of companies. As League President Paul M. Weber views it, that makes the League part owner in the flagging Tribune and League officials are none to happy with the paper's consistent position that San Diego lawmakers should cut back on salaries and benefits for public employees in order to help close gaping budget deficits.
"Since the very public employees they continually criticize are now their owners, we strongly believe that those who currently run the editorial pages should be replaced," Weber wrote in a March 26 letter to Platinum CEO Tom Gores.
Also hoping a change in the paper's editorial stance is most likely San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, a former police chief, who in 2005, promised he would not collect his police pension if elected.
He was elected and now he is collecting $92,400 a year through his pension - in addition to the $100,000 a year he makes as mayor. And this at a time when he is asking other city employees to take pay cuts and unpaid furloughs to help the city reduce a $60 million budget deficit.
2. ABOLISH THE RCC-911 OVERLY EXPENSIVE SERVICE: IT’S A RIP-OFF
The following numbers say it all:
Port Orange pays $942,252.... ($16 per capita)
New Smyrna pays $718,000... ($29 per capita)
And Ormond pays the Sheriff...$525,000..... ($14 per capita)
SO WHO'S THE DUMMY HERE?
Another case of Dumb and Dumber?
Or is it the Blind leading the Blind?
Ask the Sheriff for a quote on what it would cost us for this service. C’mon, Pam, you can do it.
THE CITY AGENDA
The City staff effectively makes up the City Agenda, although the Mayor has final control of what will be brought before the Commission. The Shadow was certainly aware of the discussion at the Commission meeting three weeks ago about the City Manager’s contract, but has no information as to why it was brought up or who might have suggested that it be brought up. We suspect that there is more to how it was presented than meets the eye.
But that is not the issue. The issue is whether the City Manager should have under these circumstances put her contract front and center before the City Commission was fully functioning. Neither the new Mayor nor Commissioner had an opportunity to work with her for an extended period. That was her call and apparently her original thought was that a surgical strike, getting a lucrative contract approved quickly, was possible and went for it. When the issue became hot, particularly when it was apparent that the proposed contract was a Christmas present wish list with bells and whistles, she decided that pushing the contract now was premature on her part. She agreed with the Mayor’s determination to postpone it, a position proposed by Commissioner Hathaway at the beginning of the discussion which was supported by the Mayor and two other Commissioners. The Shadow does not think she acted responsibly. More on the contract itself next week.
HOW TO HELP AN INCUMBENT GET REELECTED
Over the last five months we have had two egregious examples of how some of the City staff tried to help the then incumbent Mayor and Commissioner be reelected.
A. The City Clerk has not published minutes since August 3, 2009.
B. Similarly, the Shadow believes that not one major controversial subject, other than the hotel on Flagler which the then Mayor used for her pro-business reformation argument, was put on the agenda for the last several months. Any information or public discussion that would have been damaging to the then Mayor was hidden.
The reason is simple. Do not give the challenger anything to talk about. Nothing. That is right. No issue to criticize. No issue to suggest that you were favoring your base. Besides you did not have to play to your base. No one doubted that when it was over that if the eco-tourism Commissioner won reelection he would protect his neighbor’s theft of the City right-of-way at Beachway or that he would vote for raises for his very own fire department.
Nor was any mention made of reorganizing the police department. Construction was started and not much talked about for the new unneeded police facility, a one line report was made that the new millions of dollars fire station near the K-Mart was on track, and not one word was uttered questioning why the electric rates were staying high when the price of fuel, particularly natural gas, collapsed through the floor. Hey, where is the fiber optics promised the City but not its citizens? Hardly raised and certainly not in the limelight. The darling of the anti-growth faction was not removed until after the election but his has been an unneeded job for the last two years.
The Shadow believes these aids to the incumbents were deliberate and the City Clerk and City Manager who are supposed to be neutral were anything but. That is how it appears to the Shadow. Ah, well, it’s over. There is an adage that vindictiveness is bad, but, however, that sage never commented we understand on retribution. Not all employees that try to fix the scales are rewarded.
You would think that the City Manager, the City lawyer, or the Information technology personnel would have noticed that the minutes were not published for five months.
A. The most glaring failure of the City Commission to address the depredations of the Utilities Commission, its soaring energy charges to all taxpayers, and its mismanagement. Until the Shadow published the Utilities Commission W-2s this year there was almost no appreciation by the taxpayers, including the City Commission, of the rot at that institution over which the Commission is supposed to exercise over sight. The Commission had no knowledge of the fancy salaries. Nor did the Commission review or comment on the outrageous salary and golden parachute for its failed Executive Director. Failed is the right word because for the last five years the Shadow believes he has given this City almost the highest electric rates in Central Florida. This is not to diminish the impact of finding out that his secretary draws an $80,000 salary with at least another $30,000 in benefits. The old Commission had not even asked how much money has been spent by the Utilities Commission in what seems to be a payoff to one of an ex-commissioner’s friend—a lawyer with an Orlando law firm. Ask the current Board to resign and fire the Executive Director.
B. We would point next to the effort to keep the Community Redevelopment Agency as a bastion of a small group of business people who are so intent with giving money to their friends that they forget that they are there to benefit the blighted areas of the City. Incestuous would be the right word since as the Shadow sees it six of the seven members are tied to the moribund Chamber of Commerce. Abolish the Board and have the City Commissioners spend the almost $8,000,000 in its kitty. Spend it now. Start with some grants to Babe James Center and make it into a true teen activity center.
C. Do not tolerate badly run City businesses. The City should not make $45,000 gifts to a so-called volunteer group that runs businesses in competition with existing private enterprises. JBs and the Bike Shop rent kayaks hire employees and pay taxes. Water taxis and kayaks. Free and cheap rent for an Italian restaurant on Government property fits the bill. Round it out with cheap digs for a favored few businesses, Angler’s Club and Chamber of Commerce. Eco-tourism is not created by squatting marine police on expensive property that is off the tax rolls or demonstration fish hatcheries that hire low grade workers. The water taxi fiasco has cost the City several hundred thousand dollars which never made a nickel and used even more Federal tax money. Federal, State, and County grants are also your tax money. Our beach is where our tourists want to be, and on a rainy day they go to malls in Port Orange of Daytona Beach. How about a mall here? One would probably be built next to a Super Wal-Mart.
D. The union contracts with the City are unaffordable and must be trimmed. Reorganization of the police department is long overdue. A plan was presented which the Shadow believes was trashed by both the Police Chief and the City staff. We doubt that the City manager even demanded an analysis of this plan by the Police Chief. The plan was designed to eliminate unneeded brass and put more police on the street.
Pruning the excessive number of employees at the fire department, revising its pension plan, and getting rid of the DROP program which encourages double dipping should have been and must be high on the City agenda. Ask the new Fire Chief for a plan that cuts his staff to two to a shift and provides for a volunteer auxiliary. As we stated above, make the police Chief to state what is wrong with the reorganization plan given to him at a public meeting by Palmer Wilson, an expert on police organizations who just happens to live in New Smyrna Beach. The cost of employee contracts to Miami Dade was supplied in the BLOG and is provided in the attached LINK.
The entire concept of the employee benefits package must be revised. Does anyone else in town get their birthday as a paid holiday? We doubt it. The current packages for pensions and benefits costs the City 70% for the fire department, 60% for the police department, and 45% for all other employees. These are the costs over and above the cost of the salaries which are bloated and excessive. Maybe not as bad as Miami, but the road to bankruptcy none the less.
E. Transparency in City government is a necessity. It is required by law. The effort over the last two years to impede reasonably supplying information has been outrageous. As of last week it appears that the City staff has not gotten the message. The Shadow is certain that the new Commission does not support this stonewalling. Maybe the Mayor should ask for a copy of the preliminary budget report for 2009 that the City staff is withholding.
F. Bert Fish operates as if it is another world and not responsible to the taxpayers who foot the bill for its almost continued inability to provide service to indigent citizens without over taxing. The collection of tax money to then give to the City CRA is a form of double taxation.
G. Send the Angler’s Yacht Club a bill. Even the 90 white male only members who comprise the Angler’s Yacht Club must be amazed that the City manager has not figured out how to send them a bill.
There are a lot of musty closets that must be open and examined now that the there is a change in the elected officials who run the City. We are not talking about the obvious, but the subterranean government that was being run by the old administration. Costly decisions were made behind closed doors by several of the Commissioners and all sorts of negotiations and promises were made without any public discussion or consideration. Nor were many of the pressing issues addressed after it became apparent that the incumbent Mayor and Commissioner were not likely to win the primary, much less any assurance of staying in office. That flawed and highly engineered agenda proposal to pay for cleaning up the old high school is symptomatic of issues that were put off. The following comprise the list that the Shadow believes should be addressed as soon as possible.
A. Take back the Utilities Commission for the taxpayers
B. Abolish the Board of the Community Redevelopment Agency;
C. Get the City out of running and subsidizing businesses in competition with private enterprise;
D. Revise pay, pensions and benefits of all City employees;
E. Make the City records transparent to the taxpayers as required by law;
F. Terminate Bert Fish Hospital District contribution to the CRA;
G. Send the Angler’s Yacht Club a bill for rent.
FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS, IN ADDITION TO THE NORMAL POSTINGS ABOUT THE SHENNANIGANS OF OUR LOCAL POLITICS, THE SHADOW WILL NOT REMOVE CIVIL COMMENTS ON THE HEALTH BILLS NOW WENDING THEIR WAY THROUGH CONGESS AS IT MIGHT AFFECT THE FUTURE VOTING OF OUR LOCAL CONGRESIONAL REPRESENTATIVE—CONGESSWOMAN SUZAN KOSMAS. WE WILL REMOVE UNCIVIL OR BALD POLITICAL SCREEDS FROM EITHER PARTY. MATERIAL THAT IS MERELY A GRATUTIOUS ATTACK UPON ANY OF THE POLITICIANS PATICIPATING IN THE DEBATE IS ALSO OFF-LIMITS. KEEP THE COMMENTS RELATIVELY SHORT.
WHY NO ANGLER’S CLUB INTERIM LEASE?
Five months ago the City was given a legal opinion that found that the Angler’s Yacht Club had no valid lease. (July 10, 2009). The City refused to follow its lawyer’s advice and seek to oust these squatters from this valuable piece of property. The City refused to seek court review, effectively firing the lawyer, and apparently has done almost nothing since. The Angler’s Yacht Club lease is worth probably $25,000 a month. Heck, the City received a return of over $50,000 last year from its underpriced and questionably run marina that does not even have covered slips or a meeting hall. That property should easily have returned to the City over $100,000 if under a private lease. Pam and Frank Gummey, why no bill? When are you going to collect real money for the City taxpayers?
DIG UP THE TREES
ON BEACHWAY
The Shadow was thinking of planting three or four palm trees in the middle of Saxon Drive to slow up traffic. Moreover, we could keep the drivers who have had one or two beers too many at a watering hole in Bethune Beach to stay off our road when heading South late at night. We called the County and found out that code enforcement would follow the lead of the City and not complain about trees in the right-of-way. The County we were told is also thinking about creating pocket parks in the middle of major streets to slow up traffic. The Marine Discovery Center has said that where ever these pocket parks are established they will provide kayak type portage for motorists who can not walk around the obstructions. Now that is progress.
ANOTHER LIMERICK
Submitted by an esteemed reader
Ms. Pam, the interim manager here
For the city we all love so dear
Will she soon end-up as "Ms. Management?"
So far is not very clear.
As her current term draws near
We're told we have nothing to fear...
She must be courageous
Since her salary's outrageous
And not one we can afford here!
-Anonymous
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.
To Mayor Barringer,
I am really sorry that at your FIRST Commission meeting the City staff had placed an agenda item on the hotel on Flagler that had not been properly noticed. We forgot to send proper notices and Frank Gummey failed to notice the legal omission when we put it on the agenda. He works directly for you.
I am truly sorry that at your SECOND Commission meeting that the Commission staff had not made a determination that the owners of the old high school property were required to clean up the property and eliminate the rats. I will address later how the totally unrelated issue of subsidizing the Marine Discovery Center was coupled with cleaning up a nuisance.
I am also very really sorry that at your THIRD Commission meeting I permitted the Personnel Director to put my rather fancy and expensive contract proposal forward when you had not had an adequate chance to set goals or work with me since your election.
Again, please accept my apologies. I will try and do better next time.
PAM
