NOTES
1. We posted this in the article on Chief Pagano, but think it bears repeating. The blog is the first step in the search for the truth; it is not the last step. The blog is a contest of good speech versus bad speech. It is a completely unregulated market place of free expression. As in any unregulated market place, the axiom of caveat emptor let the buyer beware applies to all postings. The Shadow shares the founding father’s faith in the simple idea that free and unregulated political speech is the best means for a free people to debate the issues of the day, and through that debate process to reach the political consensus needed to move government forward in a positive direction. It really does not matter much what is said, as long as after everyone has added his or her two cents, and at the end of the day, we end up making a good decision. Free speech was never intended to be neat and tidy, but insightful.
2. We published the salaries for the executive officers at Halifax Hospital, partly because when we published them for Bert Fish and they seemed somewhat higher than one would expect for a small hospital, it was suggested that our vision was clouded and that we were unaware of what the real world demanded. If you recall, Babe Ruth justified his worth as more than the President of the United States on the basis that “he had a better year.” We do not think this is true of Bert Fish or Halifax, and we think that as long as they are using their taxing authority to pay a large chunk of the expenses for those institutions that they are not private institutions, that can proclaim the right to pay big salaries to those who are basically no different from government workers. They are not paying this money out of profits; they are paying these high salaries out of your tax dollars. Why not just ask the County auditor to take over the responsibility for that Chief Financial Officer who just left Halifax, and was paid $300,000 annually, plus benefits? We know he does not pull down that kind of salary.
1. We keep thinking that people who do not want an honest discussion in the blog will run out of tactics and just state their position so that an open discussion can take place. Their latest effort is to put a large not particularly on topic post like a thousand turgid words on school boards in Montana, probably cropped from a discussion in the Butte Express, directly over an interesting question to the fire department or police department. They hope you will see this piece of nonsense and not scroll down below it to see what they want to bury. Ask a pointed question of the fire department, and what will show up next or quite soon---just coincidence---is something about how we love the fire department. What is asked is what criteria did you use to come up with a need for a new multi million dollar fire station on prime commercial land in the city. We will get the answer, but you can be sure that the only answer you will see on the blog by those with the information will be an effort to confuse the reader. Most amusing is that we gave the link to a series of articles in USA Today on V-fib and the response is to obfuscate the issue by asking if we know several other technical terms which are apparently on a quiz but have nothing to do with the thrust of the article. Growing up is hard, but we wish they would try a little harder.
2. We are publishing a response to Police Chief Pagano's letter to his department personnel that we read as imploring them to stop posting on the blog. While we would prefer to leave certain issues alone, some we presume in the police department who have access to reports that should be made public, but for which we have never asked, seem moved to publish certain findings. We are concerned for those who participated as the search committee. Usually three candidates are recommended to the hiring authority. Does anyone remember the other two, if there were more than one, or did Frank Roberts pick the Chief over other qualified candidates? You do recall that Bill Rogers and Frank Roberts did a nationwide search. Why was Daytona Beach Shores able to hire so well and apparently we hire a Police Chief who wants to muzzle his fellow officers?
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March 19th, 2007
The last meeting of the Personnel Board, City of New Smyrna Beach, was on April 21, 2005… 677 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! The month is more than half over, there is no meeting scheduled, and we have not heard of new appointments to the Personnel Board.
Are Mr. Hagood and Ms. Hargy untrustworthy?
CHIEF PAGANO’S PROTEST
Police Chief Ron Pagano wrote a letter to all members of the police department last week attacking the Shadow (see letter below). What an honor! He calls the Shadow a rag and suggests that the site is “passive aggressive pathology” (see Kaplan, H.I. & Saddock, B.J. (1997) SYNOPSIS OF PSYCHIATRY, 8th ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins)(see link). He is upset that we permit anonymous postings to be made on the opinion page, particularly we surmise from some of his own personnel. First, we are not anonymous and probably someone at the police or fire department has published our address just to make sure that if you want to “key” the publisher's car they will not have to look for it in the Publix parking lot. We have said it before and will say it again; the bulletin board (people's blog) does not represent the views of the Shadow. We research our issues, sometimes, we admit, from tips from contributors, and what we find we print. We printed that the County was not making direct grants to Utilities Chairman Para for his unwed mother's project, and that the golf course restoration was within budget, although later they spent more money than they had originally requested. The blog is the first step in the search for the truth; it is not the last step. The blog is a contest of good speech versus bad speech. It is a completely unregulated market place of free expression. As in any unregulated market place, the axiom of caveat emptor let the buyer beware applies to all postings. The Shadow shares the founding father’s faith in the simple idea that in free and unregulated political speech is the best means for a free people to debate the issues of the day and through that debate process, to generate the necessary political consensus to move the government forward in the right direction. It really does not matter much what is said as long as after everyone has added their two cents, and at the end of the day, we end up making good decisions. This process was never intended to be neat and tidy, but insightful.
Chief Pagano, the elephant in the room is your ties to the Hollywood police department and the recent revelations in the national press showing decades of corruption in the Hollywood Police Department. Chief Pagano, instead of exploiting Officer Nelson's accident in an effort to obscure the real issue (hide the elephant), you should answer the questions of what you knew about the corruption when you were in the department, and whether you reported any alleged corruption. You told the department personnel that if allegations are made and they want to know the facts, to ask you. Ok, here are the questions. Well, he works for this City, and retired from a City described by the FBI as corrupt for decades. We think that if his department personnel have questions on what some people are posting on the blog, we are entitled to the same answers that they are given. We did not say that the Hollywood police were corrupt for decades, but the FBI had to engage in a sting operation over the last two years to amass the goods on allegedly corrupt policeman who had been on the force for many years. Chief Pagano has been here a scant five years and was a high ranking officer in that department. We certainly think that Chief Pagano would be pleased to share with Shadow readers these “truths” that he says he will answer if asked. We are asking! Readers have posted newspaper articles from South Florida that raise a number of questions as to whether this issue was present five or ten years ago. Did Chief Pagano have any knowledge of corruption in the Hollywood police force, and if so did he report it to the FBI? We have no idea, but if he cares to submit a written answer, we will print his reply.
As far as Officer Nelson's untimely accident is concerned, we have not printed the police investigative report, or the regulations that governed his use and the driving limitations on police vehicles. We stated that we did not intend to, but apparently, Chief Pagano believes that we are attacking the integrity of police officers because there are some in the community who may not view Officer Nelson's accident as warranting his treatment as a hero. If Chief Pagano believes these are false, allegations we suggest he write an article to set the record straight and the Shadow publish it. We think it is crass for him to exploit Officer Nelson's accident and try to divert attention from his own past involvement with a police force that is now being held up as corrupt. This elephant will not go away, Chief Pagano, and we doubt if it will stop anyone, including the rank and file of your department, from engaging in posting their views on the Shadow.
HOSPITAL SALARIES
We have been somewhat critical of Bert Fish; after all, it is in our backyard. We have felt that some of its administrative salaries are somewhat out of sync with the average salary level of business executives in our area. We thought in fairness we should publish the salary levels of Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach. No matter how much one carps, Bert Fish is a piker compared to Halifax
Halifax Hospital salaries and benefits:
Jeff Feasel, Chief Executive Officer: $450,000
Harry Reese, Jr., Chief Financial Officer: $300,000
William J. Griffin, Director of Systems Planning and Research: $278,000
Gerald Neff, Director of Finance: $125,000
Dan Lang, Administrator: $284,000
Eric M. Peburn, Assistant Administrator: $205,000
Lori E.Myers Chief Nursing Officer: $205,000
David J. Davidson, General Counsel: $275,000
Each of the above individuals, other than Mr. Feasel, was eligible for and received a $4,000 performance bonus.
Public Information Officer, $250,000.
Our public information guy makes only half of that. Please, Halifax, do not remove your guy or gal because our guy will jump ship. One of the Shadow’s friends, (Yes Virginia, we have friends), said now he knows why an aspirin at Halifax costs $6 dollars.
P.S. Mr. Feasel resigned from his position recently, citing personal reasons. Anyone interested, apply quickly!
“Best Blog of the Week”
Sunday, 3/11/07, 6:48 PM
To; The Mayor and City Commissioners (sic) who say they don't read this website. The truth is they read it all the time.
You are CORRECT! Having been involved with several City Managers over the last 20 years; I can assure you that your City Manager is probably reading this website....and so is your City Council. I can write that with a large degree of certainty because, after years of dealing with various City Managers, I know for a FACT that they, as a group, are VERY interested in the WHY and the WHEN the Indians will ATTACK! ....The Indians being the Taxpayers; ................. And I also know that City Managers love it when they can get a pulse on a situation that MIGHT come to the City Council ....and hopefully diffuse it BEFORE it does .....or at least have a GOOD explanation WHEN it does.........The bottom line being that smart City Managers do not like being blindsided-hence they tend to "tune-in" to citizens forums like these; same thing goes for Mayors, and Council Members............. TO EVERYONE ELSE; It would be a terrible mistake for you underestimate your City Manager, or your City Council-because they aren't stupid. So my advice to you is to listen to them carefully in the coming year when they discuss "property tax reform". After all, is establishing a "new tax" such as a "special fire taxing district” something that you would call "PROPERTY TAX REFORM "? To me, that's just a matter of semantics; whatever they want to call it; it’s still a TAX! And the ideal of property tax reform is a net REDUCTION in TAXES! And that means a net REDUCTION IN SPENDING!
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 how to have the CRA use its funds to put electric wires underground in the area it serves.
March 19, 2007
Marilyn M. Lindley
Chair of the Golf Advisory Board
1000 Wayne Avenue,
New Smyrna Beach, Florida 32170
Dear Marilyn,
I have reviewed the statements and presentations made by the Golf Advisory Board of the New Smyrna Beach Golf Course and have concluded that your commitment that the City would be repaid the $2.8 million dollars expenditure for renovation from revenues is simply not plausible. When we look at this closely at the numbers, these expenditures have added about a $4,500 subsidy for each of your 600 members, a subsidy that I do not believe the City ever intended to lavish so few beneficiaries. While we have no legal basis to demand repayment, we believe the various membership boards have a moral obligation to repay the City.
To that end, I have drafted a proposed letter asking the members of the various membership groups to voluntarily contribute $4,500 each to the City. The City could give each member a letter to be used with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for a charitable contribution. Of course, I am open to suggestions on your part for changes to this proposal, such as just having the members pay the entire $2.8 million.
Sincerely,
John Hagood, City Manager
Administrative Office Building
120 North Causeway
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168-9985
- TAX REFORM -
WHO DO THE COMMISSIONERS REPRESENT?
The Shadow believes that elected officials represent the interests of the people who elect them, and has become distressed that our elected officials have not clearly stated that they support Governor Crist and the legislature’s determination to realign property taxes to correct the current imbalance in how they are applied. Concomitant with that effort is a realization that the unbridled spending, including unparalleled pay and pensions for public security, has put budgets for Counties and municipalities at grave risk. Compounding these problems is that the recent proliferate spending has been fueled by increases in property taxes from burgeoning property values that are now declining, and the huge indirect taxes collected that include taxes on the electric utility bills. Keep in mind that not only has the City of New Smyrna Beach continued to spend money on frills, such as refurbishing the Marina and the Golf Course to the tune about $5 million dollars that will not likely ever be repaid from Golf Course revenues as promised, but entertains continued business as usual which includes fountains on Orange Avenue, and replacing perfectly good decorative park facilities like the pavilion on Flagler Avenue. We can understand that they might have ideas to tweak the Governor's proposals, but we have been led to believe they oppose and want to stop the reform effort.
Two bus loads of taxpayers organized by the Volusia County Tax Reform Committee (put in link) traveled to Tallahassee last Tuesday. Our elected representatives will fly to Tallahassee in the next week or two. Vintage Aircraft provide the chartered airplane they will use as a quid pro quo given to them for reduced rent at the airport. They should use one of the City’s new SUVs, spend the day together, think through what they will tell the Governor, and what they will instruct the lobbyist paid with your taxes to tell the Governor. To our knowledge, they have not stated their position and that raises a very interesting issue. Why would elected officials, particularly those who will run for office again in about seven or eight months, go against what seems to be an overwhelming consensus of the electorate to reduce the property tax burden and to reduce unnecessary spending.
We think there is only one reason why these officials would take this position. They think the small group that elected them in the last several elections is more powerful than those who seek tax reform, and that they can thumb, their collective noses them. The former includes those personnel from the fire and police departments who live in the City and their friends, the golf course advisory board, the various Golf Clubs, and the CRA who have shown no understanding that tax grants and matching funds from the County and State is still tax money. When Volusia County matches CRA funds, it is with taxes collected from you. The real estate community donated most of the money to the Mayor's election campaign last election. It not only supports the Governor but also is the prime supporter of the Volusia County Tax Reform Committee. We doubt they will be supporting an incumbent who continues to campaign against property tax reform or to support tax and spend candidates. They also may not want to support City personnel who ride around in City owned and fueled SUVs as status symbols and expensive perquisites.
So where are the voters who care, and who they think will not vote? How about 800 condominium owners who are residents and can vote and who just might vote because they do not wish to be told that they can no longer repair their swimming pools if damaged, or think that beach restoration still makes sense for the time being. We doubt that the property owners on the intracoastal along Riverside are enthusiastic about having their titles put in jeopardy. How about the seven hundred voters at Sugar Mill, or those at Bouchelle Island who may have trouble selling their homes because of the huge property tax burden on the new would be owner. And, you know, there might even be a few people who might vote because they do not think that a fireman is worth $154,000, or that the proposed new fire station is needed or cost effective. Then there is the subsidy for the golf course and the pie in the sky representations as to how golf revenues were going to pay back the couple of million dollars though greens fees and memberships. That expenditure just might tick off a few potential voters. We could list a lot more, but will spare you. Let us put it this way: the sleepy little village is not as sleepy anymore, and it just night not be business as usual where a telephone campaign from the North Peninsula crew bad mouthing an attorney with decent credentials or a successful business man will succeed. Gracye Barck did it last time, and will do it again if you let her. You are reminded of the effect she has had the next time you pay your utility bill.
Before they fly to Tallahassee, you would think they could issue a statement telling us what they plan to say on our behalf to the Governor, and our legislative delegation! On the other hand, perhaps, they can keep their thoughts to themselves and suffer the consequences.
THE SKY IS FALLING
THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING! You would think that asking our elected officials to act responsibly for the taxpayers was a revolutionary idea. My heavens, do you think that someone whose wife is making $91,000 dollars in take home pay as a lieutenant in the fire house could figure out that something is amok and just might need fixing. We assume he sees the pay stubs and he could have complained when the fire Chief, just by chance, we figure, gave her another $13,000 as spokes person for the department. Where was he when the decision was made that just covering the cost of inflation was more than sufficient for pay increases for city employees, employees who had just been evaluated for comparability pay for their positions and had their pay set on that basis in 2005? Where was this wonderful Commissioner hiding when Liz Yancey and her husband John were each given 6 ½ % pay increases on top of their already bloated salaries? Where was he when the CRA decided to spend $400,000 dredging the harbor to provide better access for the few slips at the Captain's Quarter condominium? But then we have to put up with the caterwauling of how the world will come to an end if they cannot keep their authority to tax and spend, and spend, and spend.
Then we come to the budget. It now turns out that our 2006 budget of $49 million (cityofnsb.com;finance;budget,page 14 of 2006 budget) has shrunk to only $24 million when a handout is given to a newspaper at a briefing where the reporter asked no questions but listened to the verbal handouts of the elected officials taking the heat. The lower figure will be touted as the discretionary spending amount. What a frugal City, but it is all smoke and mirrors. They collected $49 million in 2006 with a total roll back, and had enough money left over to give Frank Roberts another $100,000 after they fired him. Moreover, we think that the extra 2 ½ pay dividend, Christmas in October, was because they had the money and saw no reason not to spend it.
Cutting $4.4 million out of this bloated budget could be a piece of cake. They could start with the new fire department contract by eliminating the superfluous positions of Lieutenant (12 of them) which is nothing more than grade creep—supervisors in name only and still members of the union. These positions would need to be back-filled, but at a much cheaper cost than over $125,000 per average Lieutenant. This alone would save almost 5% of the $4.4 million. We calculated that retiring just three of the highest paid Lieutenants and back filling with $35,000 fire fighters would save roughly $270,000. Significantly reducing overtime would save another $300,000. Reducing fire department overtime is a huge saving , and the police department use of overtime is worse. They managed to pay one officer, who happens to be the union steward, $19,000 in overtime and another $10,000 in benefits. Fifteen police officers each received $14,000 in overtime over base pay, and another 10 or 15 over $10,000, which, with the costs for benefits, adds another 50% to this figure. If they named one Deputy Police Chief, you could eliminate three positions of commanders. This is how other departments around the county function and they do not have inadequate police protection. Then look to the Golf Course. It looks like they wheedled almost $3 million dollars out of the City with a promise to repay the City from revenues. Raise the dues and raise the greens fees, or get the members to donate the money. Get the County Appraiser to tax the Angler's club properly and raise the fees at the City Marina, which was built with $2 million dollars of City money and has contributed only a pittance in revenue since it opened in 2006. They could raise the dock fees, or as we suggest, raise the price until they reach the point at which no one wants to lease the last slip available. We are convinced that if they terminated the current contract of the City attorney they could find competent legal help at half the cost of the $500,000 his office spends annually. The one time termination cost might be high, but the savings in future years will be quite high. Of course, as the hired gun for the City, we have no beef with the job he is doing, and asking him to cut his, pay in half might be a better solution. Sell all of the SUVs except the few that can be justified for fire, police, and public works use.
Contrary to Commissioner Richenberg's statement about educating the public, he should take a crash course in fiscal, and fiduciary responsibility regarding management of taxpayer funds, the funds he has so far managed very well If the City’s plan to build the needless station on Third Avenue is rescinded, the City will save a large sum on the carrying costs of the bond issue, and can sell the property for a tidy million or two. When will we hear that they plan to revisit this issue?
PORT ORANGE CITY MANAGER
In a letter dated March 8, 2007, from the City Manager to Port Orange elected officials, City Manager Kenneth W. Parker laid out in great detail what he considers are some of the options for Port Orange if the State legislature forces them to be fiscally responsible and stop spending money as fast as it is minted. Now, mind you, the fire department contract that he is stating is no longer sustainable is the one he negotiated last summer and the City signed in October. It is the same one that is before New Smyrna Beach for negotiation and has all of the either bells and whistles that Mr. Parker now says is unaffordable and must be scrapped or renegotiated. (see link)
Now this is an intriguing memorandum. It not only outlines all of the steps necessary to reduce the bloated pay and pension provisions of the fire and police contracts to manageable levels consistent with the value of the job performed, but it has a slew of proposals on how the city can still tax the hide off the taxpayer, hide the taxes as “independent tax authorities,” and not present the image that Port Orange stealing your wallet. The County already does it through its lighting and fire districts, and its phony tax districts like the library, mosquito control, and Ponce Inlet authority which all have individual mill rates but which are set by the County Council. Mr. Parker proposes the same concept be established for Port Orange, which would still collect taxes for say lighting but under a tax district labeled, let us say for fun, Dunlawton and Nova Road—lighting district no.5. Now if you live in District 5, the taxes you paid to Port Orange for lighting your street are now collected by Port Orange for Tax District No. 5. Hooray, same tax, same suckers paying it, but not a Port Orange tax or expenditure. Give Mr. Parker a gold star for lowering the Port Orange taxes collected. Give the taxpayer a lemon because your costs are the same. Give Mr. Parker a gold medal for obfuscation!
Volusia County has done this legerdemain(sleight of hand, a display of skill, trickery, or artful deception) for years with both lighting and tax districts, as if the citizens in those districts have anything to either say about the tax or how the money is spent. The beach fire district south of New Smyrna Beach pays at least five times the taxes needed to fund the one firehouse. We think it would be better if Mr. Parker said he could reduce the manpower needed to run the fire department by 10% over the next year through attrition of personnel or transfers, rather than set up a bunch of tax districts that hide the fact that Port Orange is still collecting the taxes and spending the money. Instead of phony lighting districts, how about instituting a better program for assuring that the lights went on and off properly during daylight hours, and buy a slew of newer lights using technologies that saves more energy. In the former, he just shifts the name of the same tax, whereas in the latter he saves money.
Mr. Parker apparently now recognizes that consolidation of fire and police services will save money. We would suggest starting with the 911 RCC services, which has seemed to us poor outsiders as not being better than and certainly not as cost effective as the 911 service run by the County. After all the County already serves everybody but the Coastal Cities, dispatches fire trucks (including all fire trucks in Daytona Beach), and runs the EVAC service throughout the County.
That RCC could be disbanded and absorbed by the County quickly. It just means redirecting the signal, we are told. Depending upon what divisor one uses to determine cost for each resident, New Smyrna would save almost $20 per year per person since we seem to be paying the RCC $43 per person and, even if you adjust the County service upward from the $11 we published to $22 which the RCC computes, that still saves NSB over $400,000 next year. However, Mr. Parker apparently tolerates the fact that there are about seven administrative positions for less than 40 total employees.
What is the appropriate pay for fire and police personnel? We do not know, and have never said we did. What we do know is that pay should be comparable to what the skills and abilities are of the person doing the job, and what that person could earn in a non-government job if they were not public employees. There are several fire personnel holding down full time positions in hospitals which means they earn we think almost double their fire department salaries. Obviously, if you offered them a cap of half what they earn in the outside job, say as a shift supervisor at the local hospital, they might quit. But the fireman who would likely be a carpenter or scrape by as an employee for a roofing company is worth what an employee at a roofing company might earn and little more. Which brings in the reason that government jobs pay scales were at or below market was because they were secure and came with pensions? Cross trained personnel in Daytona Beach Shores do probably earn more than some of our police and fire personnel, but the override on their salaries is only about 40% and not the 69% plus of our fire personnel, and there are only 33 total. We think that talking to Chief Dembinsky would be useful but never said it was necessarily the answer for New Smyrna Beach.
The huge expense for both the golf course and the marina did not make sense and there is no way they will repay that. This must stop. Mr. Parker has a ten page list of pick and choose for what the Port Orange elected officials want to defer or not fund. This might be onerous , particularly if taxes are curbed by the State legislature to fix the problem caused by counties and municipalities.
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND:
IT'S THE JOKE OF THE WEEK!
GOLDEN GEEKO AWARD
The Shadow reserves the Geeko Award for individuals who should know better than to engage in such insensitive acts as is evidenced by the above letter. This week, we take pleasure in making this prestigious award to Police Chief Ronald Pagano for his tireless efforts to insulate himself from inquiries into his previous life in South Florida, and his management of the New Smyrna Beach Police Department. Good luck to you and yours, Chief!
