February 1st, 2010
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You are:
1. WE WROTE IT, SO IT’S TRUE.
“THE SHADOW HAD 25,000 HITS LAST WEEK AND IS CONSIDERED THE BEST READ WEB SITE NEWSPAPER IN FLORIDA”.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THE SHADOW! THE NEXT THING YOU TELL US IS THAT THE NEW SMYRNA BEACH UTILITIES COMMISSION DOES NOT HAVE ONE OF THE LOWEST ELECTRIC RATES IN THE STATE. IT MUST BE TRUE BECAUSE THEY WROTE IT IN THEIR NEWSLETTER. WE READ ABOUT IT.
THE SHADOW BETS THAT NO ONE BELIEVES THEM EITHER!
By the way, the Assistant City Manager according to the W-2s made almost $9,000 dollars less than printed as his salary elsewhere. His total is $112,000.
2. SHADOW FACTS
We are accurate. The Shadow does due diligence on its stories and the stories are accurate. We try to be moderate in our criticisms but sometimes it is hard. We occasionally do not print or break a story because it would hurt the innocent. We occasionally do not print a story because it seems too spiteful. Red Ryder, if you think a fact is in error put what you think is the correct “fact” in a BLOG or send a G-Mail message.
As an aside, the Shadow is waiting for a troop of “lackeys” to show up. The Shadow understands they do windows! Our windows need doing.
“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
1/27/2010, 12:27 pm
Litt Death Watch
The people at city hall are waiting on Litt to die. I saw him the other day. They might have to wait for a long time.
1/24/2010, 7:27 pm
Oh Henry Federick
NSB is 3.5% higher than Orlando. The UC also has a balloon note for expansion of the system that is never going to happen because the housing bubble burst. The must be living off the balloon note.
1/26/2010, 11:29 am
Mr. Ed
With property values continuing to decline, sales tax revenue flat and building related revenue non- existent, you'd think the city commission would be in a panic, looking to reduce spending everywhere they could find it.
Yet, look at their actions in past few months......See a Disconnect from Reality? I sure do.
Case in point; The PD's contract....little or no reductions in spending.....just hold the line on increases....THAT ISN'T GOING TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM!
We need to REDUCE spending!
And where do you do that in the PD's contract? Well, what about Longevity Pay? What about fixing the Pensions? It seems odd that we reward long time employees with BONUSES, while they stay on past normal retirement age?
That's what is playing hell with the pension plan...employees NOT RETIRING once they can....But yet, the city commission does nothing to reduce the Longevity Pay Bonuses that these same characters receive?
WHY?
NOTES
1. THE CITY OF NEW SEMYRNA BEACH “NO MINUTES FOR FIVE MONTHS” FIASCO
Could the Commission get up the courage and ask who told the City Clerk to not do the minutes for five months? You would think they would be curious. The taxpayers, gadflies, and lackeys would certainly like to know.
2. SALLY ON THE STUMP
We were not surprised to hear that the Rotary Club had Sally as their luncheon speaker. We were told this but cannot find anyone who will confirm that this occurred or what she might have said. If you remember, Sally’s going away message indicated she did not fully comprehend why she lost to someone who is a member of the Angler’s Club. She forgot the question. The question was not who would be better as Mayor. It was really “could anyone be worse”? That secret letter to the Angler’s Club that she would cheat the taxpayers in exchange for the Club’s support was more than enough to answer that question.
Mayor Barringer at least will turn around the anti-growth/anti job mantra. He may fix some of the more outrageous pay, pension, and benefit problems in the public safety sector. After he voted t continue the Teamster’s contract for another year we are not sure. He may be able to convince the Human Resource Director not to ever again flog the idea of “comparability”. That idea should be buried. So, Sally on the stump does not seem like an idea out of the ball park. Of course she will argue now, for example, that she can negotiate a fair market value lease from the Angler’s Club and that Barringer has now made a mess of it. Remember again her secret letter to the Angler’s Club saying that she would not touch the Club’s $25 a year lease!
The Angler’s Club had it appears a membership meeting Friday Morning. We were curious whether it was to raise the dues to cover the extra $18,000 or so they need this year just to pay the tax on last year’s increased $950,000 in their property value.
3. BERT FISH HOSPITAL AND THE COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY.
We heard on Friday morning that at the Bert Fish Board meeting on Thursday night there was a shootout which included the City Manager. It apparently resulted in the Hospital Board voting it seems not to pay New Smyrna Beach a tax of about $800,000 for the Community Redevelopment Agency. More about this issue when we see the letter to the CRA on Monday. For now, we can say that Robert Tolley has been pressing for this issue at Board meetings for this result. The Shadow has supported stopping this taxation and waste of taxpayer money for a long time. It is about time that they made a decision to stop this crazy practice. Thank Bob Tolley for his efforts and his tenacity in ending this triple taxation: the City, the County, and the Bert Fish Board for permitting this year after year.
4. THERE ARE SERIOUS QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CARDIAC ARREST DEATH IN EDGEWATER.
The Shadow knew a good deal about the allegations last week but was told that printing anymore than we did might be construed as a violation of the privacy laws. We will withhold any further comment until after the official inquiry.
City, in this case the Personnel Director, had objectives that would reduce costs. This would be like you are to negotiate a new contact that reduced costs at the police department by 10%, or, even better, 20%, and not affect the level of the police patrols. Forget it. The position seems to be that we will not give you a pay raise. Having said that, the longevity provisions were not changed and they are pay raises.
What was even more amusing is that Kahlid Resheidat, Assistant City Manager, negotiated a decent deal for buying almost new furniture for the needless new police station by offering $25,000 instead of the $87,000 asked by the seller. He bought the furniture for a price which happens to be less than 15% of the estimated $275,000 they originally planned to spend. He recognized that there are warehouses full of high end furniture with no buyers. Now that is negotiating, not the nonsense of caving in to the City Manager by paying the position $30, 000 more than the position might be worth. Perhaps the Commissioner’s should let Kahlid negotiate his boss’s salary next year! What we know is that the Commission does not know how to negotiate.
So what have we learned?
1. Unless the Mayor takes back the agenda, he might as well not go to City Commission meetings;
2. Unless the Mayor tells the City Manager that she is there to provide adequate staff work to permit reasonable understanding of the matter before the Commission by the Commissioners, like complete costing of a contract, they will never be able to properly understand what they are being asked to approve ; and
3. The Mayor must tell the City Manager that he is the one who was elected and his objectives are her objectives whether she likes it or not.
YOU CONTROL THE AGENDA (SEE blog BELOW):
1/27/2010, 11:37 am
Mayor's Powers
The mayor runs the meeting that mean he runs the agenda. He can skip something on the agenda if he wants.
“Sec. 18. Functions and powers of mayor.
The mayor shall be considered a member of the city commission and he shall have all the powers, rights, duties and obligations of a city commissioner. The mayor shall preside at all meetings of the city commission and perform such duties consistent with his office as may be imposed by it; and shall have a voice and vote in the proceedings of the city commission, but no veto power. He may use the title of mayor in any case in which legal instruments of writing or other necessity arising from the general laws of the state so require; but this shall not be construed as conferring upon him the administrative or judicial functions of mayor under the general laws of the state. He shall be recognized as the official head of the city by the courts for the purpose of serving civil processes, by the government in the exercise of military law, and for all ceremonial purposes. He may take command of the police in governing the city by proclamation under the direction of the city commission in times of grave public danger or emergency, and the city commission shall be the judge of what constitutes such public danger or emergency. The powers and duties of the mayor shall be such as are conferred upon him by the city commission in pursuance of the provisions of this act and no others. In the absence of the mayor and of the vice-mayor, the other members of the city commission shall select one of their number to perform his duties.
(Ord. No. 868, § 2, 10-2-1972) “
Try it; you might like being a leader. Simple, but it takes more than a “whim of iron”.
CITY MANAGER RUNNING AMUCK
It is time for the Mayor to take control of the City Agenda and tell the City Manager that she works for the elected officials. The Shadow has watched the last two months of agendas with dismay as one item after the other of ill-prepared and poorly explained issues were placed before the Commission. Last week was worst than most. A Teamster’s contract was put on the consent calendar with no backup showing costs and no explanation of how it got there since there had been no Commission meeting, open or closed, that gave directions to those negotiating for the City. There was no costing out of any the provisions, and both the pension and benefits package was essentially left intact. The backup material was lacking in all respects, and no meaningful determination could be made as to what the Commission was providing for its police employees if it were approved. It effectively put off for another year (until 2011) reducing the bloated pay, pensions and benefits. In our simple way, we could not even determine how why they left the day after Thanksgiving as a paid holiday. The answer the Shadow believes lies in the fact that no meaningful negotiations were undertaken while the last do-nothing Mayor was around and, if you remember, the Personnel Director sold out what happened in 2009 by giving the Union everything it wanted. Unless given specific marching order by the Commission, that is what they will do forever. [SEE ARTICLE BELOW]
The direction of the City is supposed to be set by the elected official. No matter what the City Manager believes, she does not determine what objectives should be met and she does not determine whether there should be business as usual and no reduction in employee pay, pensions, and benefits for another year. The Shadow had hoped that the negotiator for the
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
Cross my heart and hope to die, I will address the union contract this March in the budget. O.K., so I gave the employees another year of fat benefits, but you did not tell me not to and Sally wanted it that way. And I want them to like me. That’s the way it is, so just suck it up and leave me alone.
Pam
CURVE BALL PITCHED FOR TEAMSTER SWEETHEART CONTRACT. HOW THE MANGEMENT STAFF
STIFFED THE TAXPAYER
The screwy pitch made by the “of the employee, by the employee, and for the employee” management is that: “We are already in the fourth month of the fiscal year and we will address reducing costs in the budget process for next year.” What garbage. This is nothing but a gift to the Unions to hold the line on any reductions and hope that the recession is over in a hurry. You know that TV ad with the pony or bike that ends with the line “even a kid knows when it is unfair”. They gave the police employees a free ride for another year. That’s it folks, no real reductions for another year. No addressing the real budget expenses that require we pay more than most of the jobs are worth, too much management, too much staff, and permitting another year of pension payouts that could bankrupt the City.
The arguments for this current result are pure baloney. Just last year the negotiations on the fire contract did not end until May when the City declared an Impasse. Of course a month or so later they just withdrew their objections and paid for a salary increase as well as dropping the demand that the fire department personnel give up there hours of mandatory overtime. In 2009 it was no reductions and a pay raise for all employees. That was Sally and the Human Resource Director, we think, engineered the way the City just caved in and gave them all a pay raise. Of course, this year, the elected officials were never asked to give the negotiators directions so it appears that the City only put on the table “no pay raise”. Wow! There is a 13% unemployment rate and your property is only worth about 60% of what it was worth in 2006. The last Mayor did not want a change and that is what the City Manager made sure happened. The Union did not expect a pay raise, just to keep the money flowing for the pensions and benefits. Some negotiations! This is a fiasco and unfortunately the City Commissioners fell for it. Another year another million or two, but it is not their millions.
The next shoe to drop from this pro employee centipede will be a similar cave in from the so-called fire department negotiations. Another year with almost no changes. Instead, why not hold a Commission meeting where the Commission tells the Union what it wants as reductions in costs. The City Manager just wants no real reductions for at least another year since the unions think they can ride out the recession. The City position should be something like: “The City wants no mandatory overtime and an 8% contribution to the pension fund.” The most effective argument if the union does not agree, is that since the County has gone to only two to a shift at most of its stations (currently 14 of its 23 stations) we will go to two to a shift at our stations. Do what Orlando did. Tell them to accept the changes or the City of Orlando will fire almost 50 fire department personnel. The Union took it.
CONSOLIDATE THE VOLUSIA COUNTY FIRE SERVICE. START BY ABOLISHING THE 911-RCC SERVICE AND TURNING IT OVER TO THE COUNTY
Commissioner Grasty stated at the last city commission meeting that the NSB police responded to 54000 calls last year and the fire department responded to 5000 calls. Unbelievable! What he did not say was the reason for the calls such as how many were duplicative or nothing but call-ins from the police to the station. Were they really using primary assets, police officers and fire trucks? That information would be interesting. We do not believe he even asked. SEE Shadow Archive issue of March 8,2008, which quotes the County as saying it could provide the same service for less than $400,000.
Port Orange is now discussing with a Civic Study Group (LINK) consolidating the fire departments in Volusia County. Last week we discussed the poorly thought out preliminary position voiced by the Port Orange Fire Chief to argue why the current system is good enough. As we pointed out the current arrangement protects his cushy job at the expense of the taxpayers. Look at the pay scale for Port Orange (includes cost of pension and benefits):
The Fire Chief, @ $175,297,
Division Commander Weir; $136,810,
Division Commander Carter; $143,629,
Division Commander Burgman; $135,293,
Division Commander Rafferty; $144,979,
Shift Commander Parker; $134,629,
Shift Commander Wulfing; $104,709,
Shift Commander Largent; $102,695
And this doesn't include the 15 Lieutenants....who cost us anywhere from $87,000 to $122,000 a year. Using a median of $104,000 for the Lieutenants, that is $1,760,000.
TOTAL MANAGEMENT COSTS AT PORT ORANGE FOR THE FIRE DEPARTMENT IS ABOUT $2,839,000.
Look at the W-2s for NSB in the Shadow to make your own list for NSB. You might have a problem since the City so-far will not turn over the complete spread sheets. You cannot even tell who is in management with what they have provided so far. More transparency. Phooey. Have some fun and pick them out for the Shadow.
The statement made by the Chairman of the Study group that everybody keeps his job and his pay must be a joke. The main savings are in reducing the huge bloated management and paying all fire department employees only what their labor is worth. If they can retire they should be let go. But more importantly, consolidation eliminates most of the redundant management without affecting public safety.
As stated above, the easiest place to start is with the 911-RCC service which is the overpriced and expensive emergency call service run as a “coordinated” service by Port Orange, New Smyrna Beach, and Edgewater. The Port Orange Fire Chief referred to it with approval. Another joke? Our own Commissioner Jack Grasty is on the Board and comes up with meaningless statistics of the number of call they handle with no analysis that possibly most of the calls are redundant. We figure it may cost as much as 40% more than what the Sheriff would charge for an identical service with no loss in public safety. The savings just for New Smyrna Beach would be in excess of $300,000 annually.
The taxpayers must give these City Managers a back bone to address the real budget problems facing these municipalities. This is one of them. Here the City Manager should tell the Commission, for example, how much money is being wasted by continuing to fund the wasteful 911-RCC service that the County could provide better and cheaper. Again, as stated above, the Shadow estimates the City would save $300,000 a year. Even Port Orange which is “managing” the gold plated service is discussing its abolishment. Pam could call the Volusia County Sheriff today and ask him for how much the County would charge today to provide this service. It is a local call. We are pretty sure he will tell her. She should have an answer we figure before the next Commission meeting. Any bets as to what she will do? Of course, any of the Commissioners could call the Sheriff and ask (423-3300 and ask for the Sheriff’s public relations office). SEE Shadow Archive from November 2, 2007.
