February 2nd, 2009
NSBShadow.com....
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Visitor on this Site This Week.
(Nearly 2000 hits last week. Thank you, enjoy your visit and come back to see more.)
You are:
1. Watch the Planning and Zoning meeting on Tuesday. They are going to discuss a proposal that will limit your ability to build what you want to build on your own land. We believe that is the meaning of “compatibility”. If you own a lot and want to build, you already have to kill the trees you have to remove a year in advance to avoid paying them fees for almost every tree removed.
2. The Shadow seldom sees a film clip that is so good it screams to be “shared”. This is one:
WATCH THIS VIDEO
(from the Mayor of Santa Barbara)
This is a video of a homeless man in Santa Barbara and his pets. They work State Street every week for donations. The animals are pretty well fed and are mellow. They are a family. The man who owns them rigged up a harness for his cat so she wouldn't have to walk so much (like the dog and himself). At some juncture the rat came along, and as no one wanted to eat anyone else, the rat started riding with the cat and, often, on the cat! The dog, will stand all day and let you talk to him and admire him for a few chin scratches. The Mayor of Santa Barbara filmed this clip and sent it out as a holiday card. A great video .....a MUST watch! LINK
“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
1/26/2009, 10:44 am This is it
This is what NSB is all about. There is a core group of "old timers" who have lived here forever and their job is to rip us off in every way they can imagine. Their relatives all have fat city jobs that pay twice what they could earn working doing any other job. We pay for their golf. We give them virtually free slips at a city marina. The list is endless. We hire their companies to do work for the city at inflated prices. We hire Clay Henderson for $250k legal work. We pay an extra $350.00 a year on our electric bill. All the money goes to them. It's a little here and a little there but before long it adds up to million and millions of dollars they steal from us every year.
1/28/2009, 3:20 am To 436 from this cop
If you think you have it so bad in this nice community, MOVE! Yes, I am a cop and I also have three family members who work for the school system. One has already been given the pink slip and don't get me wrong, it sucks. The other is in fear his job may soon be cut as well. But it amazes me how ignorant so many people on this web site can be. And, as you saw tonight, you people are not the majority voice! The 2% raise, as many of you have learned tonight was already given to every other city employee; that same raise had already been budgeted for the police department employees as well. You complain how we have cars at our houses. Yet, when the shit hits the fan and you need us, you bitch when we don’t get to your house fast enough! At least in my neighborhood, people are very grateful for having a police car in the driveway of a house close to theirs, even though we agreed to pay the city even more for the ability of driving them home. What would make you people happy? Seems that is an even tougher question! If this web site is what keeps you going day in and day out, I feel very sorry for you. I have lived, worked, gone to school, and grown up in this community. Find something more useful to do with your time than to ridicule every movement the employee, commissioner, or mayor makes.
1/30/2009, 7:07 pm Parasites gone Wild...
You quote Ayn Rand; "Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."
I like this one BETTER;
" It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces"...
BUT OUR CITY'S EMPLOYEES DON'T SEEM TO MIND........
Abraham Lincoln
Second Inaugural Address
Saturday, March 4, 1865
1/31/2009, 12:16 pm Bill
Sgt. Griffin's statement Tuesday was the low point;
Especially his statement that somehow the State MANDATED the City's current Pension Plans.
FYI: The only MANDATE the State has as far as the city's pensions are concerned is that they meet the minimum standards outlined in State Statutes Chapter 175 and 185......And Chapter 175 and 185 provide for a 2 percent multiplier; not the 3 percent multiplier the City's Pension Plans have. Also, in Chapter 185 for Police Officers; A retiree must have 25 years in; not the 20 that the City Police Officers Pension plan has.........SO ALL THAT COMING OUT OF GRIFFIN'S MOUTH WAS BS!
IT WAS OUR CITY COMMISSION WHO GAVE THEM THOSE PENSIONS; NOT THE STATE!
NOTES
1. The Shadow is not the only publication in this part of Florida that has analyzed the fire and police departments’ false image of themselves and the pay and pension issues. See LINK for an article by the American Platform.
2. There were a lot of amusing statements at the Commission meeting the other night. For example all of the palaver about not knowing about the Angler’s Club issues, the failure of the Angler’s Club to send its lawyer to the meeting, and the need to spend $20,000 for a legal opinion when these type of leases have been set aside since the 1950’s by suits brought by the US Government and private citizens being subject to discrimination. Did Commissioner Hathaway vote against this proposal because he did not want to spend the money or because members of his family are members of this club and he did not want to offend them? Or maybe it is because his brother shares an office with the lawyer for the Angler’s club?
3. They bought the union vote by giving a pay raise to the police department union members during a depression. They determined that there were not enough taxpayers who cared as much as the union members who would hold signs at intersections at election time pay for their campaign. All five of them did the math their way. Now keep in mind, they tried to slip it through on the 14th, and failed. According to the Union Big Boss, because “the self-serving actions of a motley crew of malevolent misfits and malcontents" which includes "disgraced jurists, disgruntled ex-city officials, failed politicians, and a political gadfly, who appear to be intent on hijacking local politics”. How about that! They hate it that taxpayers were alerted that the police demanded a pay raise in a depression. They packed the meeting room to tell the five of them that they better vote for the pay raise. SEE LINK
DEAR JOHN
We know of the limited resources available to John Hagood, the City Manager, and to his inability to get all of the important letters written that he would like to send. So we decided to help him and provide him drafts that will simplify his tasks and free him up for more important tasks.
To: Mayor Mackay
From: John Hagood, City Manger
Dear Sally,
You requested and I gave you the filings by the Department heads of how they said they could cut their budgets. I was not asked for how I would do it. Maybe I am a wuss for not giving you my plan anyway, but when I told you how I would downgrade just one Commander at the Police Department in the last budget discussions, Plaskett shut me down. The last time I asked, the fire department told me to get lost (April 2008). This time they figured out along with the police department that they were so strapped they could not figure out how to squeeze a dime out their budgets other than firing the lowest paid workers in their departments. I expected no less from them, but please do not pin the tail on my backside because of their refusal to take your request seriously.
John
Mayor Vandergrift Was Smeared
Mayor James Vandergrift was accused by Sally Mackay’s campaign manager in the last election, Janice what’s her name, of impropriety for buying Alba Court Inn, a falling down apartment hotel ******. The fact is that it was a lousy investment. He bought it from a friend who was on hard times, and there were better investments all over the place rather than buying this property. We always believed that it looked more like a smear campaign. His “ethical violation” was that he voted to postponed the vote on the “let me tell you what color you can paint your house” project, and its leader, Janice what’s her name, filed the charge
Janice what’s her name has not been heard from since. It looked at the time like a part of Sally’s dirty campaign and now the Ethics Commission has agreed that the charge was baseless. By the way, another member of this same bunch (coached by the lawyer for the Utilities Commission we are told), accused another candidate of not living in his district. That too was another part of the smear campaign in the last election. The interesting thing about the latter smear was that the newspapers referred to the smear at every opportunity and never told you that the candidate smeared had a college degree from a police college and academy in New Jersey.
Vallejo/Police Union Settlement—18% Pay Cut, etc.
The City of Vallejo California has reached a settlement with its police force which significantly reduces the City’s obligation to its police force—basically an 18% reduction in pay over two years and a cap on all sorts of benefits. Is this not ironic, that while we give a pay raise to the police union in a depression, the Vallejo union has settled for an 18% pay cut as well as meaningful caps on the benefit package. Stated in par LINK:
”An agreement modifying the collective bargaining agreement between the City of Vallejo and the Vallejo Police Officers Association (VPOA) was approved by the Vallejo City Council this evening. This agreement was the result of several months of negotiations between representatives of the VPOA and city staff under the auspices of chapter 9 bankruptcy proceedings. The VPOA membership ratified the agreement over the past weekend. Over $6 million in General Fund savings will be achieved by salary reductions exceeding 18% between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2010. Additional long term savings will be achieved through caps on medical benefits for current employees and retirees and reductions in sick leave and annual leave benefits for new employees. The agreement, also, eliminates minimum staffing provisions of the agreement, providing the city with the flexibility to modify staffing and service levels as needed over the term of the agreement. The supplemental agreement extends the labor agreement with VPOA through June 30, 2012. “This agreement represents a very positive deal for the City and residents of Vallejo,” said Police Chief Robert Nichelini. “It will allow the Department to manage staffing and service levels while maintaining wages and benefits at a level necessary to recruit and retain officers in a very tight police labor market.”
“That is about what you pay each month on your car.”
Advertising For Tourists
Do you want to know why the Shadow has trouble with the how the money is spent by the Southeast Volusia Advertising Agency (SVAA)? Read the squib below on powerful (Visit FL) website that suggests you might as well go to Georgia or South Carolina for a nice secluded protected experience. Savanna has more moss-draped trees than New Smyrna Beach and they are draped on trees in neighborhoods with gorgeous ante-bellum (before 1860) houses. We are convinced that a Chicago advertising firm working for an Orlando developer determined we had “Charm”. Do you think we could find some one who knows something about advertising to run the SVAA. This website intro has all of the pizzazz of suggesting to a tourist that there is nothing to do here.
This is text on visit FL website intro.
Description
“Just south of Daytona and nestled among the moss-draped trees along the Indian River, the Volusia County city of New Smyrna Beach is a beach town on the Atlantic Ocean. Incorporated in 1887, New Smyrna grew into a quiet beachside resort protected to the south by the Canaveral Natural Seashore.”(protected from what?)
The Shadow sees marketing visionaries at SVAA have elected to mention moss draped trees and date of incorporation instead of 17 mile beach, fishing, Inlet, five golf courses, or easy access to Orlando attractions. They have cleverly avoided nearly every reference to the reasons tourists really come here.
Clearly this is caused by ECHO tourism dreams not ROI. People who come here always comment how nice the river is as they drive over. The point is it is not the reason they visit. Offering our charter date gives nothing in the way of traveler incentive. This insertion gives nod to historical deference. Recently $36,600 was transferred from honest advertising efforts to Chamber of Commerce for historical tourism marketing of Canal Street.
We have to wonder if this is written by someone who believes or someone anxious to move money. Next thing you know someone will propose a million dollar makeover of our “historic” Chamber building? How crazy is that?
How’s business? Do you see a pattern?
NSB CHARMING
