NOTES
1. Those who have tried to shut down the Shadow are on another binge. They are correct, we have an agenda that includes, lower taxes, and smaller and better government. We welcome the considered input by those who wish to engage in a discussion as to how to make our local government more efficient and responsive to the currently over taxed electorate. It is not easy, but if we did not think it a reachable goal, we would not have undertaken the responsibility of doing what our local print media—we will not call them newspapers when it comes to local issues—have refused to do. For what it is worth, however, we are told that in the past the Daytona Beach News Journal has called for consolidation of the Coastal cities. One should not forget, moreover, that all of the other papers published and distributed here take ads and are in the business of delivering ads to you. Their first cousins are cigarettes that deliver nicotine, whereas they deliver advertisements. We are only interested in an honest discussion of the issues. Maybe we should also sell ads so that a few of our less gifted readers will understand we are a newspaper. Tom Paine was a pamphleteer and author; we are a newspaper.
2. Every once in a while, some error occurs that requires correction. We published what we thought was a redacted copy of a City's employee's job application (supplied in a redacted mode we were told by the City) and noticed within the hour that it contained some material which should not have been printed. It was immediately corrected. The next morning the City called and said that there was still something that needed to be removed and we took care of it as soon as we could. We regret that it happened, it was not done deliberately, and none of the information published was either earth shattering or cosmic in nature.
1. One of the ways to fight adding weight is to stop eating free doughnuts. This is especially true for those earning more than $50,000 in take home pay since, as the comic strip” Cathy” has explained, free doughnuts have twice the calories of paid-for doughnuts. It is also stated that if you drive a City owned SUV to a restaurant the calories you ingest should be multiplied by the cost of the free gas you get from the government gas pump. You pay big time in calories you eat when driving a fire truck to a grocery store or ice cream shop. There are just some laws of nature that are simply inexplicable.
2. One of the new police SUVs purchased by the City is for an officer who we are told must carry extra supplies to officers already at an accident or crime scene. We were thinking, was this something that could not be carried in an Impala or Grand Marquis? How big is an extra magazine for a nine millimeter, or even a box of shotgun shells? We are back to thinking that a Neon would suffice.
3. Gosh. Now we’re racists, hypocrites and frauds because we published a joke suggesting that it would we good if everyone who cared about this country learned to speak English. We toyed with changing the site to Spain and having a speaker of the Basque province told to speak Spanish, but that just seemed too PC. We are sure the writer of the posting in opinions (the people's blog) has several “best “friends who are Hispanic.
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March 12th, 2007
The last meeting of the Personnel Board, City of New Smyrna Beach, was on April 21, 2005… 670 days ago. We will keep a tally until their next meeting, which according to our new personnel officer and the City Manager, will be this month. We hope so!
Furthermore, the Personnel Board is in need of two members. If you are interested in serving your Community, submit your application. One is available online from the City�s website. www.cityofnsb.com under boards and commissions. Get off your duff and participate in local government!
DEAR JOHN
As stated in the past, 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 many of his problems, and free him up for important things, like figuring out how the report for a new fire station was drawn based upon a four minute response time which could require a new fire station spaced upon two mile centers.
March 12, 2007
Kevin Para, Chairman
New Smyrna Beach Utilities Commission
PO Box 100
New Smyrna Beach, Florida 32170
RE: Contracting for purchase of electric power
Dear Kevin,
The City Commission would like to know why the Utilities Commission has let a consulting contract for $100.000 to obtain advice about purchasing electric power, when you have at least three high powered and well paid staff members who were hired to accomplish this task, and have done so in the recent past? Perhaps I was not paying attention, but did all three of them precipitously resign like your comptroller? If they are still on the payroll, the Commissioners would suggest that you either cancel the contract, or fire them if you are serious about saving ratepayer money. Your explanation as to why we are throwing away another $100,000 of ratepayer money would be appreciated.
On another subject, your permit for fixing up that creepy house on Douglas and Palmetto may soon expire. Please fix the place up! I think you should know that your insurance company might take a dim view of your contractor covering up rotten wood with new fascia.
Sincerely,
John Hagood, City Manager
Administrative Office Building
120 North Causeway
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168-9985
cc: Kevin Para
WHAT IS PUBLIC SAFETY?
Simply put, public safety is those services provided by your local police, fire, and emergency medical organizations. Heretofore, these services have been provided by separate departments within a municipality or County. Each with its own administrative overhead and other components one would expect from autonomous organizations. The extent and quality of these services is dependent on the quality of the staff, dedication of the leadership, political support, and the willingness of taxpayers to fund these efforts. In times of feast, there is usually no problem, but in times of famine, everyone starts looking for funds to save. One place to look is public safety. Such are the times we face in the next few years, and the Shadow believes a time has arrived for leadership from all parties in providing these services. Talk about public safety organizations causes those involved with those individually structured departments to cringe with fear and trepidation because from their point of view any integration of these services means more work, fewer jobs, and jobs that they may not like. As an example, someone interested in becoming a police officer may not have any interest in becoming an EMT or fire fighter. By definition, a public safety person must be trained and serve as a police officer, fire fighter, and EMT. Therefore, one must be dedicated to public service and not self service, if they seek employment in an integrated public safety organization.
In gathering information for this article, we were directed to Phoenix, AZ as a place that has implemented a well functioning public safety service. They freely discussed their approach and recommended we contact Chief Dembinsky at Daytona Beach Shores, as an excellent local example of this concept at work. The Chief was quick to point out that the "Shores" public safety concept was already in place when he was selected to be Chief. Subsequently, he has embraced it whole heartedly, but recognizes the pitfalls intrinsic in trying to implement this concept in traditional non integrated departments. Remember that Daytona Beach Shores is about seven miles long and about five blocks wide, with a permanent population of less than 7000 people. He has a staff of 30-35 FTE people, cross trained to serve as police officers, fire fighters, and EMTs. Additional he utilizes reserves and volunteers. They handle about 20 fires (one house fire) and about 1000 medical calls per year. He operates has arrived for 24/7, and no one sleeps on the job. He has one fire truck with a driver on duty at all times, and supplements with three people on a fire call to comply with mutual aid agreements. Although the demographics and population distribution is different from New Smyrna Beach, the City would do well to investigate, analyze, and utilize as much of the public safety concept as makes sense. Each of our individual departments should have an input, but not a veto. Additionally, the "Shores" just opened a new building in January, designed to serve them through 2036, at a cost of over $350 per foot, one of the reasons we should be thinking integration, or consolidation, if you will.
Chief Dembinsky has been faced with many challenges regarding the public safety concept, and two that we see, as major issues are a top heavy administrative burden and incentives for promising personnel. As in New Smyrna Beach, he was faced with a top heavy administrative burden caused by grade creep. He has eliminated that burden over the years, but is now faced with providing incentives for younger personnel seeking increased responsibilities, rank, and financial reward. Although he has not eliminated these problems to date, he is working diligently to resolve them. The Shadow encourages our City leaders to confer with Chief Dembinsky, and start to develop a plan for integrating our public safety services as well. We believe it would be a big money saver and enhance our services to the public! Moreover, it would be wiser to transition to an integrated infrastructure, gain experience, and get a good handle on costs prior to proposing a regional venture and over paying our share, as is done on the RCC. Read about public safety services, follow the links ( ).
“Best Blog of the Week”
Wednesday, 3/7/07, 12:00 PM
By purchasing the old PUTT PUTT the city took valuable tax revenue away from an already dwindling real estate market. Over taxing the condo's is going to reduce the churn tax revenue. Paying $66,000 for a maintenance supervisor, $40,000 for an assistant, 2 extra @$27,000 equipment operators, $400,000 to dredge Captains Quarters........how much more can NSB taxpayers take. Liz has 2 kids. maybe another $100,000 when they are ready. Why didn't Big John have anything to say to the press?
SELL, SELL,SELL;
RENT, RENT, RENT
The New Smyrna Beach City Commission should sell the Miniature Golf Course site to the developer who proposed an office building with an upscale restaurant for the first floor. On the other hand, if they do not wish to sell, find a lessee who will keep one of the few tourist attractions in town open. Of course, if a better offer comes in than the one made before the City proposed to buy and the property, they should pursue it. The point is, there is no reason why the fire station on Columbus Avenue should not be refurbished and updated, and no reason in the world why millions of dollars should be spent on a new fire station. Not only are the couple of million dollar acquisition costs for the property unnecessary, but taking this property off the tax rolls is literally not too bright.
The so-called impediment from the fire department's point of view for continuing to use Columbus Avenue was that they want a drive through facility. No question that not having to back into the station is a benefit, although with medical calls spaced at 16 hour intervals and only six or seven structural fire calls a year per station, it would seem that there is more than ample time to back the vehicles in properly. Accepting that a drive through is needed, the house behind the Columbus Avenue station could be taken under eminent domain and the owner placated for the loss of the property through other financial incentives. Come on, it is not rocket science to develop a fair deal for the owner and provide for a drive through facility if that is on the "must have" list.
According to Yahoo, it is 8 minutes from Third and Peninsula to Minorca and only 7 minutes from Columbus Avenue to Minorca. Look up Yahoo maps.
The City Commission and the public should revisit this issue. It is a big ticket item and was not even a good decision when money was in flood tide. Now that the tide is going out, there is no money to waste for projects like this. There are almost no benefits to the community for better service, translate that to mean faster response time if that is the criterion for better service; and on almost all calls, response time is unlikely to make a difference. It would be interesting if these numbers were put before the Commissioners so that we could all analyze what we are supposed to gain from this new fire house. If they build it, they should paint it a bright chrome lemon color.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
The Shadow has been suggesting for over a year that the citizens of New Smyrna Beach be brought into the decision making process for our local government. The impetus for this position has been the ineptness with which past and current elected and appointed officials made decisions about spending taxpayer money for ill considered or unworthy projects, and their less than considerate expenditure of taxpayer funds on pet projects. As is usual with our suggestions for improving local government, there have been numerous requests by readers to offer specific solutions to the problems we identify, since it has become obvious that those in whom we placed our trust to serve our best interests as elected officials have failed us. To wit, we offer the following means for returning the power to the people as it was in prior times and is in other places. As is discussed below, we should realign our districts for elected officials so that they represent a local constituency, and no budget should be approved except by referendum by the electorate or a Town Meeting process.
New Smyrna Beach was established by Charter as a Commission-Manager form of government. Executive power is vested with a chief administrative officer, the City manager, and policy/legislative power is vested with the City Commission. The voters elect the commissioners; the commissioners appoint the city manager, city attorney, city clerk, and all advisory boards and commissions. All other City employees are appointed or hired by the City Manager, or his designee. The city commission has the power, by a vote of their majority, to set budgets, and authorize expenditure of funds. The City Manager cannot spend in excess of $25,000 without permission from the City Commission. Most indebtedness, principally that which must be repaid with taxpayer funds, must be approved by a referendum of the voters. Therefore, you can see that a majority of voters have little to no influence on the budget, expenditures, or indebtedness. The commissioners and city staff can spend public funds to support their claims for needing money, while citizens cannot. For those of you, who think the commissioner from your zone represents your interest, think again. That was true at one time, but not for many years. All four Commissioners and the Mayor, are elected at large, that is, by all voters of the city. There are four zones identified within the city, and where one resides determines the zone attributed to them if elected. If the entire beachside and everyone living south of Canal Street voted for a candidate living on Wayne Avenue, that individual would most likely be elected as the zone 4 commissioner, not zone 1, or 2. The point here is that no one commissioner represents the interests of only the zone in which they live. They are citywide representatives!
So what, you may ask. Here is what! History and current events have shown that your elected officials do not respond to you when they are spending your money, and you are powerless to stop them. Their is one certain way to stop them, change our form of government. Let us go back to a Town meeting form of government. Here is the basic concept, and it can be modified to suit the circumstances:
* The city would be redistricted into equally sized districts by population;* Commissioners would be elected from each district, and an at large Mayor if desired;* The commissioners would be charged with preparing a budget for the city,* To include the Utilities Commission, Community Redevelopment Authority, and any other taxing authority of the city, as well as performing all functions previously performed except budget approval; * The city budget would be discussed and approved by an annual (town) city meeting of
residents; Budget increases would be limited to the rate of inflation without a 60% vote of residents at the annual meeting, or by referendum that could be by ballots mailed out by the Volusia County Supervisor of Elections.
Other Stipulations are possible and probable. However, a referendum and compliance with State law would be necessary. That means everyone interested in solving our current and future problems with our elected officials must get involved. Will You?
BERT FISH MEDICAL CENTER
The Florida House of Representatives, #HB 0273 updated on November 6, 2006, established Southeast Volusia Hospital, Bert Fish Medical Center, (the “District”) as a Special Taxing District that may levy an Ad Valorem tax, not to exceed four (4) mills, on all taxable property within the District. For Tax Year 2006/2007 the District Board of Commissioners levied a $17.8 million dollar, 2.2162 mills tax on all District taxable property. This represents approximately 10% of your 2007Property Tax bill.
Today, the District charter is to levy and collect annually sufficient tax upon all taxable properties in the District, to make debt service payments on the bonds and debt service on notes, for expenses of operations, maintenance, construction, improvements and repairs of hospital or clinics, and for the payment of any indebtedness or other necessary expenses in carrying out the business of the district. If you believe the District tax levy is to pay for indigent patient care, you are incorrect.
A seven member Political Patronage Board of Commissioners, appointed by the Governor, governs the “District.” (www.bertfisch.com for a list of Board of Commissioners). Once appointed, this Board of Commissioners is responsible to “NO ONE.” The Bert Fish Hospital Board of Directors is also the Southeast Volusia Hospital Tax District Board of Commissioners. The mission of the Bert Fish Hospital Board is to govern the Hospital. The purpose of the Taxing District Board of Commissioners is to ensure that the tax payer funds are used in the most efficient manner. The dual role of the Board presents a natural conflict of interest. This is an inappropriate structure when public funds are being spent. A better model would be for Bert Fish Hospital to maintain its appointed board and for a separate elected board to govern the Southeast Volusia Hospital Tax District. Such a model would cause the Hospital to have accountability to a 3rd party whose sole purpose would be to maximize the amount of quality health care provided for indigent patients at the lowest cost to the tax payer.
In the United States, Florida is the only state where in Special Hospital Districts, with Ad Valorem tax status, the governor appointed board of Commissioners exists? This structure violates your Civil Liberties.
In the state of Florida there are 226 acute care hospitals; 12 with Ad Valorem Tax status and Governor appointed Boards of Commissioners. (Two of the 12 are located in Volusia County; Halifax & Bert Fish). If 95% of all acute care hospitals in the state of Florida can operate successfully without ad valorem tax revenue status, and governor political appointed boards, what makes Halifax & Bert Fish Medical Center so special?
It is time to stop out of control Government spending, out of control property taxes. One way to control and reduce government spending and improve the quality of health care, is to make Burt Fish and Halifax Medical Centers accountable to the people, by requiring the Southeast Volusia County and Halifax Hospital Medical Center Special Tax District Board of Commissioners be an elected position rather than political patronage appointees of the Governor.
If you support this position send let your elected officials know. Send an e-mail message to:
“The Shadow Knows”
STANDARDS
Fire department personnel continue to demand that we answer the question of whether the Shadow wants lower “standards.” Of course, that is not only a phony and misleading statement of the case but is about the same as asking whether the fire Chief is still beating his wife. Every fire department uses the resources that the taxpayers supply to perform the best service it can with those resources. If you look at the statistics for ventricular fibrillation (called the V-fib) cardiac arrests and the “save “rates (the number of patients who survive and leave a hospital after an attack), you can get a comparison rate that might be meaningful. For example Boston is held up as the best in the Country by a comparison study published in USA Today a couple of years ago (Day 2 Comparison - Day 1 Comparison) with a save rate of 40%. They had in the year used 118 cases of V-fib. Of course, one of the variables is the hospital complex where you are likely to be taken, but the crucial factor is whether the emergency vehicle with the defibrillator arrives on the scene within 6 minutes of the sudden cardiac arrest caused by a misfiring of the electric circuitry in the heart.
We do not know the statistics for the three coastal cities but we have a combined total population of only about 100,000 and Boston environs has more than one million. We probably have a much older population, but off setting that is the variable of the effectiveness of the hospitals to which the patient is transported. Nor do we know the “boots on the ground” number for the New Smyrna Beach fire department. That is the time it takes from when the 911 dispatch occurs and when the vehicle leaves the station or EVAC location since EVAC is supposed to be dispatched at the same moment that the fire department is alerted. If an EVAC vehicle has just delivered a patient and is ready to leave Bert Fish, there would be no “boots on the ground time,” whereas if it were just arriving with a patient it might not be ready to leave for a number of minutes and would be delayed more than the fire engine.
In sum, for V-fib patients we have a “standard” of 6-7 minutes, because past that time there is no meaningful expectation that the patient will survive. However, the catch is that there are so few cases where this comes into play that one does not put in place facilities to address this problem. It might seem crass, but will this society pay double the current costs for medical response service that might save no one in any given year? Your choice and we think the City should have its elected officials require that independent evaluations be made as to these levels of service and the cost effectiveness of implementing them.
Let us turn to fires. It would have been cheaper to let all 18 houses burn to the ground last year and have the City augment the insurance pay outs to keep the owners whole, than the costs of the fire department. Of course, we do not advocate this as a solution, but we doubt that in this day of smoke detectors and housing construction codes that if one only looked at cost and not what else they do, you would abolish this costly service designed to answer fire events in less than six to nine minutes on average. Dumpster and trash fires do not require this response time and medical response should be the responsibility of the County (EVAC) as required by State law. One less fire station, one third less fire department personnel, and no increase in insurance rates if the City had a catastrophic insurance plan for the few structural fires that occur. The fire engine would still get there in plenty of time to make sure the neighbor's house does not catch fire.
REGULATE and TAXES
There was a Washington bureaucrat from Minnesota, Bertram Stillwell, who had a favorite saying: �When we begin to regulate, what a mess we do create.� His observation was made after 40 or so years in the Federal bureaucracy where regulations, spawned to do good, were caught up in the politics of money and the lobbyists who spread it around. Money corrupts, and one of the other axioms that you do not hear often, is that good intentions do not necessarily result in good legislation or good regulation.
The most recent efforts to redo the property tax mess are a perfect example of unintended results from an otherwise reasonable proposal. The flaw was, and is, the insatiable appetite for money by those having the authority to levy property tax, and their willingness too spend without regard to what this formula would do to the unprotected property owners under Save Our Home method. Simply, if they had limited their gluttony to the 3% cap on Homestead property to all property, there would have been little to no disparity among any of the classes of taxpayers. They did not and the mess we have now is because of their tax and spend habits. The Shadow does not think the answer is solely in the proposals to revise the property tax scheme. It must also stop the unbridled spending and the building of public edifices. The State legislature should cap spending, requiring small percentage rollbacks of the counties and municipalities rather than just trying to cut off some of their funding. The debacle with pay scales of police and fire employees generally at the expense of other City employees who also make the City here tick, is close to unconscionable. So are unneeded projects, and milking the taxpayer for CRA funds on projects that frequently are neither needed nor supportable. Think pavilion or some of the scheduled improvements on Orange Avenue that go far beyond what is needed to correct the drainage problem.
If private money will not be tempted to provide an unneeded frill, the chances are that it is not profitable and will require scads of money when the public project likely fails. The Ferry service to Ponce Inlet may be an example. Subsidies to provide amenities for residents are good, but it is very different from the modest amount for shuffleboard courts and skateboard sites for the kids, to the millions for municipal golf course. It is particularly obnoxious that a body like the Advisory Board for the golf course supports high salaries for employees, salaries that are far and above what is paid by a neighboring privately run course, and is using a City subsidy to pay those inflated salaries. The failure of the City to pursue fairness in its own tax base on municipal leased land used for private purposes, think Anglers Yacht Club, is disgraceful when they raise the taxes on what lessees must pay for lodgings for overtaxed housing not under the Save Our Home protection.
Massachusetts dealt with this problem of over taxing property with so-called Proposition
Proposition 2? was a ballot initiative passed by Massachusetts voters in 1980. Its aim is to limit property tax increases by Massachusetts municipalities. The initiative became law and went into effect in 1982. The name of the initiative refers to the 2.5% annual limit on the increase in taxes that a municipality is permitted. It is similar to other tax revolt measures passed around the same time in other parts of the United States.
There are two fundamental components of Proposition 2�: a municipality is subject to two property tax limits:
1. Ceiling: The total annual property tax revenue raised by a municipality shall not exceed 2.5% of the assessed value of all taxable property contained in it.2. Increase limit: The annual increase of property tax cannot exceed 2.5%, plus the amount attributable to taxes that are from new real property.These limits refer to the entire amount of the annual tax levy raised by a municipality. The property taxes are the sum of: (a) residential real property; (b) commercial real property; (c) industrial real property; and (d) business-owned personal property. In practice, it usually limits the tax bills of individual taxpayers, but only as an indirect result.
The Shadow thinks there is a better way to do this. Limit all spending to 1% less than the inflation rate, forcing all governments to cut back on the profligate spending of the last five years. It could be fine tuned to provide a growth factor such as not applying it if there is a cumulative growth of 10% of the population, or an unanticipated need that could be put to a vote of the electorate at the next election. It could also have a five or ten year sunset provision. It is clear that such a provision, coupled with a limitation on taxes, would force leaner government operations and wean elected officials from their current tax and spend habits.
A family does not eat steak every night when Dad or Mom loses that second job they need to have enough money in the household. They buy hamburger or have an extra spaghetti night. Governments should be no different!
OUR BACKYARD
“Wednesday, 3/7/07, 6:44 PM Dear Mr. Shadow...please look outside your own backyard when conducting "research." Do you know what happened to the service level or insurance premiums for building owners like the Altamonte Mall in Altamonte Springs when Seminole County Fire took over fire service in that city? .......”
This was part of a bulletin board (people's blog) posting, we assume by some one at the fire department, and thought we would find out what the facts were. Here they are on the closest example used and we do not think the average taxpayer will be amused.
1. The combined service saved between $10 million and $13 million dollars over the last seven years by merging;
2. Altamont Springs had an ISO rating of two and Seminole County had an ISO rating of four. ISO is a rating of the insurance industry and there are no differences in insurance rates if the rating is below five. The New Smyrna Beach rating is four or five;
3. Merger also saved the combined service from building an extra fire station in Altamont Springs since an already existing station in Seminole County, which was being renovated, could have an extra bay added. This also avoided hiring additional fireman(three shifts at 24/48 for the fire truck and ambulance) for an unneeded new station;
4. This merger not only saved a lot of money but also is a case in point for consolidating the fire departments of Edgewater, New Smyrna Beach, and Port Orange.
The posting was misleading and the writer knew, or should have known, that the statement about not saving money was simply untrue. Perhaps the folks at the fire department do not consider saving a couple of million dollars a year important, but the Shadow is willing to bet that the taxpayers here think otherwise.
If we have time we will check out the other two examples, but the first one checked already have us batting a respectable average of over 300.
MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS, SUPPORT TAX CUTS
The City of New Smyrna Beach total 2007 budget as of August 2006 was published as $49,096,897. That is revenues from all sources and that they intend to spend. The $24.6 million dollars the City says must sustain the cuts is what they have chosen to call the discretionary spending. If you look at the total budget, they are asked to take about a 10% cut, but if restricted to the smaller number it is 20%. There will be no cuts in service if cost reductions are made that only address excesses, for instance, the extra $100,000 plus bonus provided to Frank Roberts, dredging of the Captain's quarters canal, and pruning the excessive top echelons of the management, and superfluous staff in all departments. John Hagood has participated in and/ or observed the departure of three senior staff from City Hall over the last six months—two of whom are off the City payroll , Frankie Robert whose husband is still “Parks Coordinator”, and Shannon Lewis who has gone on to other greener pastures at Port Orange. Not filling these positions represents a savings of about $150,000 or 3% of the total. Finding a cheaper attorney might save another 2 or 3 percent, and going to a more realistic command structure at the police and fire departments may be another 5% with no loss in service. So there is your 10% without too much effort. If you need more help just let us know!
PLEASE MR. MAYOR, GO TO TALLAHASSEE ON TUESDAY
AND TELL THEM YOU SUPPORT TAX CUTS!
Here is your Amortization schedule
Commissioner Hathaway!
Commissioner Hathaway has been asking for an amortization table and the revenue being generated by the newly refurbished Golf Course. We now know part of the problem. When the City was asked to provide the interest rate for the $2.5 million loan authorized by the taxpayers for this project, the answer was it has not been decided yet. We do not know whether that means it has not been decided or that they are not free to tell us at this point. If the Shadow borrowed that kind of money, we would certainly know what interest rate we were paying on the principal. Since the City finance department doesn’t know what it is, we took a shot at providing Mr. Hathaway a range of costs for his review, and yours if you are interested. We used principal amounts of $2.5 and $2.8 million with two interest rates of 4.5%, and 6.5%. The $2.8 million figure was to take care of the over runs—principally redoing the bathrooms as add ons after the rest of the renovations were completed We have not included the charges from Public Works and Park and Recreation for “lending a hand” at the last minute so that it could open on time, but they are technically part of over runs and not maintenance expenses. We believe the tables below provide a treasonable range. If we are wrong, the City financial wizards can correct us. Furthermore, we were unable to obtain a realistic projection of a revenue stream at this point. However, we calculate that the Golf Course must generate for the lowest table abbot $16,000 more monthly and for the worst case about $19,000 more monthly over the monies it now collects from membership and green fees. Between $20,000 & $40,000 per month to repay the loan, and cover operating and maintenance expenses. Since the golf course is already being subsidized, we calculate that the full costs of not paying back the loan will end up as a subsidy of both the lost interest and the principal. Perhaps the City should have purchased the Brooklyn Bridge?
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND:
IT'S THE JOKE OF THE WEEK!
