NOTES
1. We think that those who keep saying we are against a strong and effective police and fire service should understand that the Shadow supports both. We also support reasonable pay and pension plans. What we do not support is a service which is top heavy with supervisory personnel, has created a grade creep methodology for creating higher pay for those that bought in to the job knowing its financial rewards would be more limited, or using a method of deployment of resources that is beyond what the taxpayers need or are willing to support. The Shadow, for instance, does not suggest that eight hour shifts for police officers with an on-call method of fielding that force is always best, but it sure looks better than putting police on the street when there is little crime and all the evidence shows that their mere presence in low crime areas is not a deterrence. These are facts, and if someone has other information please send us an article stating them. Ambulances and rescue vehicles with two person crews are clearly cheaper to run than fire trucks, and refurbishing the Columbus Avenue Station will save millions of dollars and free up returning the Putt Putt course to a tourist attraction. Obviously, the status quo is comfortable, but it is inefficient and costly.
2. What to do? What to do? The City Commission had before it last week a proposal to reduce the salary of the improperly hired and over paid greens keeper at the municipal golf course. It was on the consent agenda and taken off at the last minute. If passed, this would still leave him earning $41,000 more than he was earning as a pesticide sprayer at LPGA golf course in 2003. It is $15,000 more than the same position at the Port Orange municipal golf course. The City's own pay scale lists the top pay for this position at about $54,000. The most recent proposed City Commission action glosses over that this position was improperly filled in a manner which screams out for an investigation of the principal parties' motives. Why did the City, Frank Roberts, hire him at more than three times the salary he had most likely been earning, do so without posting the position, and without even an application showing his qualifications. If this were a novel, we would blame it on the butler or look for some type of sexual sub-plot buried by the author with indecipherable clues. However, the strange picture here is that some of the City Commissioners may have bought into the cover up. Maybe the FDLE should be asked to look into it.? Maybe Commissioners Richenberg and Plaskett will ask in the FBI? To her credit, Commissioner Plaskett wanted to know why the staff didn't just apply the current City pay scale.
1. We have been thinking, big time, about how some of those golf enthusiasts who showed up at the Commission meeting to support John Yancy's insane salary as Greens keeper at the golf course can help the City. After the City requires that the position be properly posted, and assuming he is selected as the best candidate, they can take up a private collection at the golf course to make up the difference between the entry salary and the $85,000. On the other hand, all of them could pony up the extra moola themselves. The Shadow just doesn't cotton to increasing the golf course subsidy by his exorbitant salary and benefits package. Hey, you could call the Personnel Board. They can fix it. We think Argentina is a cheap call!
2. We wonder whether our elected officials get the message. Business as usual is over. Winter Park seems to have gotten the message, puts out a periodic statement of where it has cut back, and spent less money on existing government services. The Shadow, on the other hand, must periodically publish the latest effort on the part of some of our elected and appointed officials to either waste or needlessly spend money. We would not like to publish negative. Wow, would that that day will come sooner rather than later. Maybe the City staff will take the Mayor’s guidance to heart and start thinking of ways to reduce expenditures. Is it time to introduce zero based budgeting?
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February 19th, 2007
The last meeting of the Personnel Board, City of New Smyrna Beach, was on April 21, 2005… 656 days ago. We will keep a tally until their next meeting.
For more information about the personnel policies of the city, go to the following website: www.cityofnsb.com, click on links, then click on municipal code, when the municipal code appears, scroll down on the left side of the window and click on "appendix A, Personnel Policies”, ENJOY!
THE ANSWER MAN
Ernie Kovacs was a comedian in the early 1960's that died in an accident. He had a funny routine called the “Answer Man.” He gave the answer, you figured out the question. For instance, Can-Can (the answer). The Question was where do you put the Garbage Garbage? Our answer is “$154,000.” You figure out the question. Do not fret and do not worry, the answer is in our High Salaries story!
HIGH SALARIES
If you thought that $75,000 was an excessive salary for a lieutenant employed by the New Smyrna Beach fire department, and that was our view, read on and get the rest of the story. We believed, mistakenly, that supervisory personnel were like white collar employees who because of their supervisory status, increased responsibility, and higher pay did not earn overtime. Wrong! Cindy Richenberg's W-2 (see link) shows that she earned $91,000 last year. That is only the salary cost to the City. Her benefits package costs the City another 69.25% (for those with family health plans the figure is 79.25%), which, except for the workman's compensation component, is compensation directly to the fire fighter. She contributes only 1% to the plan or about $900 dollars towards her pension plan. Realistically, the total cost of her package to the City is about $154,000. She is not the only one at the fire department, other than the Chief and Deputy Chief, whose total compensation package exceeds $150,000. We have published all of the W-2 statements to show that we have not singled her out for special treatment. Her salary alone is about three times, or, if you add the benefits package, five times the $29,650 average household income in Volusia County (Volusia.org, census data). This probably puts her on par with the top 1% or 2% of wage earners in the County. We do not think she was treated special, except perhaps for the $13,000 bonus as the spokesperson for the fire department ($7,600 plus $5,500 in benefits=$13,000+). Bet you thought as we did that it only cost the taxpayer $7,600. The new union contract for the fire department bargaining unit is being negotiated now. Here is an idea, how about deleting all the add-ons, and cut the pension back to affordable levels? Port Orange is proceeding on the assumption that roll backs are necessary.
Let us now turn to overtime. Here is the deal. If you are sick, call in and another fireman takes your shift at one and one half times regular salary. If he or she should call in sick a day or two later, the first caller suggests that you as probably available and you receive time and one half for that shift just like your replacement did a few days earlier. Nothing said nothing in writing, and no reserve officers to call in who will work for standard pay. Of course, when you have a new City Manager who does not like the system (unlike the one who left a year ago), there can be trouble for those are calling in sick on what might look to the new manager like an unacceptable budget busting pattern. How about having a battery of college students fill in at regular pay. We have an even better idea. Let the stations run on two person crews when someone calls in sick, and automatically call out a second station if there is one of those rare house fires requiring response. Poof, no over time. If this overtime deal is not authorized in the current contract, why not start tomorrow? Moreover, no one will be angry with John Hagood for objecting to pay the cost for the current scheme. Taxpayers may be subject to arrest for dancing in the streets if he puts an end to this rather interesting system for bilking the City.
ONE YEAR OLD
About a year ago, the Shadow was published with essentially one major goal: bring some semblance of rational discussion to the political decisions that must be made for effective governance in both New Smyrna Beach and Volusia County. At the beginning of 2006, none of the important issues was being discussed, and worse, the fabric of government was being undermined by what appeared to be bad decision making by elected and appointed officials. Neither major newspaper has, or apparently, will discuss either important issues or corruption in the City. Exposing gay Commissioners seems very important to them, but spending like a drunken sailor by the City Commission can not be discussed, and they never discuss personnel decisions which seem to be irrational and not in accordance with either personnel policy, position descriptions, or approved pay scales. Worse, expenditures were escalating, ranging from commitments to salaries and pensions, and costs for projects like refurbishing the municipal golf course. The Utilities Commission was being destroyed, and the rates were going out of sight its chairman was inarticulate and its general manager seemed clueless. Neither paper did anything to expose or discuss these issues. That is when the decision was made to publish the Shadow. So what has been accomplished in the last year?
1.Many of the important issues have been joined and are being discussed.
a. The issue of property taxes and indirect taxes are in the forefront;b. The incompetence and possible deliberate dismantling of the Utilities Commission has been exposed;c. The Fiber optics fiasco, if not immediately, will soon be addressed by the City Commission;d. Reform of the Police and Fire Departments is being debated, particularly the excessive supervisory component and the current pay and pension system;e. It is unlikely that the next election for Commissioners will be a beauty contest run by the “old boy” school and manipulated by a small coterie of individuals unconcerned with the real issues that must be addressed.2. Many large and small changes have occurred, most of which were exposed by the
Shadow.a. Frank Roberts, fired--exposed as dabbling in City and County politics;b. Larry Sweett, ----given a pink slip from his almost $30,000 a year for a non job;c. Barbara Herrin, running for office, lost---primarily because she, and both newspapers, withheld personal information of importance to voters;d. John Yancey, so far only demoted in pay ---hired for three times what his last position in this area paid in 2003, and hired without posting the position or him submitting an application:e. In addition, a host of small things like shell roads, zoning for the Island Town Center development where City Commissioners had an interest, the pavilion, beach erosion, etc.,etc., etc....Not everyone who helps put out the Shadow lives in the City, but all pay property taxes and exorbitant Utilities Commission bills. We are looking forward to the next year!
“Best Blog of the Week”
This week The Shadow has chosen to bring you a potpourri of last week’s blogs as part of our one year birthday celebration. They have been edited for grammer and spelling, but the basic content and meaning remain the same. We hope you enjoy your contributions as much as we do. Keep them coming in good english and good taste!
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Love the attempt to discredit individuals here. That darn Judge Litt you say - Here is an idea for you city employees - Many of us have long been offended by excess of this govt. Spending is easy when you use somebody else’s money 'till they catch you. So I say when you ask if I think Judge Litt has influenced me any - NAAAAAA - He is just proving my suspicions with documents from city hall. Looking forward to herding the flock to an election booth near you!
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I love how they try to go after Litt. They have to be so careful. They have to be absolutely sure not to say anything. Anytime they say anything, Litt goes out, gets the evidence, and posts it on the site. Litt has reduced them to posting things like "I do not believe what is on this site is true." The one thing they will not do is refute anything. The reason is they do try to refute anything they get blown out of the water.
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Is the police department playing the girlfriend card again? Not exactly where the New Smyrna Beach police department wants to go. Let's see we had one police officer convicted of statutory rape of his baby sitter, we had another police officer charged with having sex with underage girls, and another recently retired command officer who was arrested in Daytona Beach for prostitution. Oh, don't forget Commander Drossman (a #2 in the department, no pun intended) infamous "while you are down there" oral sex innuendo. We had a police officer arrested for shoplifting. I could go on and on. AND YES WE HAD A POLICE OFFICER WHOSE WIFE WAS CONVICTED OF EMBEZZLEMENT.
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Put Thurlow, Sadler, Glenn, Taylor and Mallory back on the Utilities Commission and let them hire Vaden back as GM. That will fix the problems Diesen and Para have caused.
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I am always amazed to read the News Journal or the Observer. Real NSB stories are here everyday and we get fluff. On the City Council agenda was the debate of John Yancey being hired at more than $20,000 over supposedly a $65,000 budgeted level job as the golf maintenance supervisor. A real reporter would have gotten the invitation to investigate the reason that this was even on the agenda. A real reporter would have found out that the job was not posted, no candidates were interviewed, and John Yancey was hired. Some of us see this as a misuse of tax money. Shouldn't we have hired the most qualified at a reasonable salary level? Why would anyone hire at $30,000 more than the last maintenance supervisor? Knowing a 6.5% increase was only months away. Do the newspapers cover the meeting? Commissioners, reporters, city staff, and citizens buzz with the information on this blog. One day it will all hit the Sunshine and feathers will fly. Last year the Parks Department had a long time employee quit over his request for a 50 cent an hour increase being rejected. No increase was ever considered by the Director. It seems almost funny that the city couldn't keep this satisfactory employee over $20 a week, $1040 a year, but are willing to pay $30,000 over top salary level for the Golf maintenance supervisor that made $11.50 four years ago. How can New Smyrna seriously consider hiring without posting, advertising, and interviewing for a position of this tax burden? Pig in a Polk comes to mind, maybe I'm just being too hard, or is there a reason to buy either one of the non-news papers?
RUMORS OF INTEREST
If the rumors are correct, Shannon Lewis-McBride is leaving our Charming City to become the Assistant City Manager for our neighbor to the north, lucky us. She has been a good employee, doing exactly what Frank Roberts wanted, serving as eye candy when appropriate, making sure that all industrial growth was concentrated in Edgewater, and ensuring that the Community Redevelopment Agency spent money on mostly unneeded projects, such as the unwarranted expenditure to rebuild and renovate a structurally sound and rather acceptable Pavilion. We hope that Port Orange has similar projects on which she can work her magic. After all, the taxpayers of New Smyrna Beach paid for her Masters degree in Public Administration, and we always like to see our children do well when they grow up and leave home! Hopefully, she will be more effective in her new position than she was in the two she held in the City of Charm. We would recommend that this position be left vacant considering the budget problems to be faced by the City next year. Good luck in Port Orange Shannon.
POLICE DEPARTMENT PAY PERKS
We published the W-2 information for the police department personnel that shows payments made to personnel at the police department in 2006. Without commenting on how overtime was provided or why, our eye did turn to the pay for the 8 detectives, and the 7.5% differential they receive. When questioned about this allowance, finance department personnel told us that this was a “uniform allowance” for street clothes they must wear since in lieu of a uniform. This, apparently, is in the contract but an allowance of several thousand dollar a year, every year, to buy casual clothes (chinos at K Mart are probably less than $25 each and sports shirts are about the same) seems quite odd don’t you think? Habitat for Humanities sells them for less! OK, why is there a clothing allowance for each detective of what looks like a minimum of $2,800 per annum for casual clothes? For the eight detectives, that is $22,400 per year. Do you think this could be removed from the next contract? We could be churlish and suggest that a maximum of $500 every couple of years would be more than sufficient if some one could tell us why those promoted to a detective with higher pay could not afford causal clothes at their own expense.
There are a couple of other entries that are interesting. The Federal grant of $20,000 (PAL) is a reimbursement from the Federal government. We have no idea what a motor officer or field training officer does that warrants $2,000 or more in extra pay, but can easily figure out that the K-9 officer has extra responsibilities and costs. It is that clothing allowance for the detectives that made us sit up and wonder. We will continue to investigate and analyze the data, why don’t you? For instance, how is overtime allocated? Does everyone get a fair opportunity to volunteer, or do the favorites get the lions share?
DEAR JOHN
We realize that John Hagood, the City Manager, is limited in the resources available to him for pursuing cost reduction projects, so we have decided to help him out and provide draft letters for his review and forwarding to the appropriate people that might offer to help him resolve r many of his problems, and free him up for important things, like dealing with all the deficiencies at the Parks and Recreation Department. We have crafted the following letter to deal with the problems at the municipal golf course. Since Port Orange is paying its golf pro $55,000 and its greens keeper $50,000, while we are paying ours $70,000, and $85,000 respectively, we thought a letter should be sent to Kemper Sports (Tel. 847 850-1818) and ask them what they would propose to take over management of our golf course. As you may recall, they manage the course in Port Orange and provide a revenue stream to Port Orange.
Kemper Sports,
500 Skokie Blvd.,
Suite 444,
Northbrook, Ill. 60062
February 19, 2007
Re: Proposal for Golf Course Management
To whom it may concern:
The City of New Smyrna Beach Florida owns and currently maintains a municipal golf course. For various reasons, it may be more efficacious to have a professional management company relieve us of that burden, therefore, should you be interested, we would like to sit down and discuss this possibility with you.
Yours truly,
John Hagood, City Manager
Administrative Office Building
120 North Causeway
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168-9985
OSCAR NOMINATIONS FOR THE SAGA OF
NEW SMYRNA BEACH
The movie “The Dancing Yancey”s” has been nominated for a large number of awards by the league of non-functioning governments with fewer than 25,000 residents. The plot is uncomplicated; on how little Liz Yancy (Called little Liz Sunshine in the movie) became Queen of the City and was able to save her husband from a life of under achievement by crowning him King of the golf course.
BEST PRODUCER: Frank Roberts for his ability to not only determine that Ms. Yancy as the Director of Parks and Recreation was underpaid by $14,200 in 2005, but that John Yancy should be paid three times more than he was earning in 2003 at the LPGA Golf course in Daytona Beach as a grass cutter.
BEST DIRECTOR: Frank Roberts for his ability to embellish the visual effects with City SUV's, and at the golf course, iron fences around the Wayne avenue entrance and rye grass to make it look green quickly. Moreover, his artistry with filming the lead actress, Liz Yancy and her hubby, John.
BEST ACTOR: The New Smyrna Beach City Commission (a group award) for ratifying unsupportable salary levels, and not forcing previously unadvertised positions to be posted at a salary level consistent with established rates, and filled by experienced applicants.
BEST ACTRESS: Ms. Liz Yancey. Her driving ability, as filmed in the movie of her City supplied SUV is inspiring to all. Such fluid parking.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Buzz Reynolds. For marshalling the troops (the golf course membership) to support only reducing John Yancey’s salary to $65,000, rather than firing him. Kudos for Buzz, another public spirited action.
These awards will be confirmed by a vote of the electorate on Election Day, whenever we are allowed to vote. No awards will be issued until a $25,000 payment is made to the non functioning government nominating committee.
RIGHT ANSWERS
There are no right answers to some of the critical questions that should be a part of a serious discussion about what this community needs, and is willing to pay for, in government services. However, absent a serious public discussion of these issues by your elected officials, there will be no informative means for the taxpayers who will foot the bill for these decisions, made without their consent, much less without their input. The Shadow is not worried about the short term corruption of the personnel system. The problem of a greens keepers being hired outside prescribed personnel policies, and overpaid by two or three times what he is probably worth must be corrected. The failure of elected officials to eliminate the abuse of this system initiated by the previous City Manager, will likely result in their defeat at the ballot box the next time they run for office. Who would vote for officials that refused to stop paying $85,000 per annum plus benefits to someone that had not held an equivalent position, did not competed fairly to obtain it, and until this appointment, was a grass cutter making under $25,000 per annum. The proposal pulled from the consent agenda last week would reduce that to $65,000, which they will have to defend if he is not fired. We will continue to press for an amortization/revenue schedule from the municipal golf course, for the $2.5 million debt burden for which the City Commission placed on the taxpayers. We will press for a Community Redevelopment Agency Board that thinks it is spending personal money and is not free to throw away our money. Nevertheless, these are small potatoes compared to the big decisions pending that must take place with public discussions. And input for us to have a viable community that has not been bankrupted by bad decisions on the Part of our elected officials.
It has been long times since there have been serious issues discussed by the beauty shop candidates who run for office in our community. The Shadow wants a fiber optic system choice, but there is no discussion of this issue of an offer to put in pace such a system. We need to know whether our current officials will fix the rot and obvious gross mismanagement at the Utilities Commission. They should discuss what appears to be a bad decision to pay Port Orange for a 911 call system that costs us four times as much as the County charges its unincorporated residents, and over twice as much as the County charges the City of Daytona Beach. They should resolve the problem of the competing fire department services and County EVAC units, and what is their answer for the insanely top heavy supervisory structure at both the police and fire departments. They must discuss these issues, not put palliative partial solutions on the consent agenda. The golf course represents a large subsidy that might not be supported by the majority of taxpayers. How about the finance department telling us what the subsidy is for each of its 600 members. The decision of how much we are willing to pay can only be made after a discussion of how much we are currently paying.
The biggest issues of course are reform of the police and fire departments. This is not a question of adequate service or respecting and honoring those who provide us with the protection we need and are clearly willing to provide through our tax dollars. However, some aspects of this equation have gotten out of hand, and there a substantive argument can be made that many of the supervisory positions are unnecessary, and that as the pay schedules have been enhanced the pension plans should have been reduced. Elected officials must discuss these issues!
