March 2nd, 2009
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1. We are particularly amused with the police department posters on the BLOG who think that open government is something not worth protecting. The lifeblood of a functioning democratic society is information and when it is with held to protect any official, elected or employed, from public scrutiny, it is the democratic society that pays the bill over and over again. Misinformation distributed though the media is just another aspect of this problem. The recent municipal golf course statement published by another newspaper that the golf course lost only $350,000 last year was a lie since the real number was $517,000. This was not the fault of the newspaper, although it could have checked, but we believe the golf course spokesperson made a deliberate misstatement to make the horrendous buying of members’ votes look a little less patent. The reporter was given that number for a reason. Think about why? So back to Drossman and the City’s refusal to give up his cell telephone records. If the City would comply with the law, no law suit.
2. The rumor that the Bill of Rights is suing the City for money is wrong. Bill of Rights is suing for access to City documents. Like the W-2s they gave us a month late!
3. The African American Commodore at the New Smyrna Beach Yacht Club, Ronald A. Blackwood, is a Rear Commodore. The next rung up is Vice Commodore, and then Commodore. We wish him well.
“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
3/1/2009, 8:34 am Wellworth
If you are satisfied with the way our city is managed disregard my post. If you are not, give thought of what would improve the city management. How our tax money is spent determines the value of NSB elected officials and no one else. Recent events of how to waste money may be a wake up call for voters. Simplified solutions to basic problems boil down to the city values. Tax payers should expect basic service on sound management decisions. One continuing NSB large problem is with water management on beach side and mainland streets for many years. Significant rain has produced flooding. We pay for storm water management. Over the course of years the city responds to this problem by calling out employees on overtime to provide pumps. And by the way we just spent large dollars on new and improved pumps. Year after year much money has been thrown away by treating only the symptoms and not providing a lasting solution of water management. Every one from the worker to the Commission time is spent by putting a band-aid on a bleeding artery. The city spent more than 3 million dollars on the golf course renovation. We continue to spend around a half million dollars to keep the golf course afloat. The city spends around a hundred thousand dollars on the MDC. 250,000 to renovate the tennis courts on the beach side. The cost of firing the city manager, paying a temp to do his job and how much to put a temp in place for the public works director? When you start adding up all the frivolous money it becomes quite a large sum. Public Works has nothing on the horizon to fix this issue and yet it is sure to continue to rain and flood. Federal dollars is available for public work projects. It is a shame NSB has chosen to fund MDC High School musical as their show piece. NSB pays top dollar by any standards to department heads. What have they chosen to pursue? More of the same. Remember the Brannon Center canal dredging project to open up the canal for Captains Quarters? Nothing seems to have changed except for the way tax dollars are squandered. For years the Public Works Department decisions to pump water has been a bad one. Now the P.W.Dept. head is making City Manager decisions. What are we to expect? More of the same, only with someone in charge that has a history of MORE OF THE SAME. You get what you pay for. Fed money to improve our way of life and city government has nothing on the table except a fish factory. Are city taxpayers getting the biggest bang for the buck? Only if you play golf, make a few oyster nets or need a new tennis net. To balance the budget the city had two low paid employees laid off. Makes you proud doesn’t it!
2/28/2009, 10:12 pm Allen Green
From the News Journal; @ http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJourna...
New Smyrna residents oppose project changes...........
Mackay called on Port Orange Mayor Allen Green, who did not attend the Planning Commission meeting, to live up to his word from the joint meeting.
"Mayor Green is on record saying Publix should not be driving this train," she said. "A company should not determine how our communities develop."
OF COURSE, THE MINUTES OF THAT JOINT MEETING WITH PORT ORANGE, ARE NOT AVAILABLE......ON THE CITY'S WEBSITE..........
HOW CONVENIENT!
I guess we're once again, supposed to take Sally's word for it.......like her diploma, and her pledge for OPEN GOVERNMENT.
Spending Money
Spending money is how city commissioners make friends. Never blame the city manager on how the money is spent. The city commission holds tight reins on spending to make sure the money goes to the "right people." The city manager can not spend more than about $5,000 without the city commissions approval.
2/28/2009, 10:37 pm
God came to see their city and the FISH FARM they were building. He perceived their intentions, and in His infinite wisdom, He knew this "FISH FARM" would only lead TO BANKRUPTCY. He noted the powerful force within the CITY COMMISSION'S unity of purpose. As a result, God confused their language, causing them to speak different languages so they would not understand each other. By doing this, God thwarted their plans. He also scattered the people of the city all over the face of the earth.
3/1/2009, 7:57 am
Why run for the city commission?
Politics is show business for ugly people.
What is in it for the individuals to be a city commissioner? The pay is low, a few benefits, but why do these folks want 20 year careers as city commissioners? Follow the money.
NOTES
1. We are checking out the statement that as of February 1, 2009, the State Environmental Protection Agency has clarified that it is the responsibility of the landowner adjacent to a street where a toxic chemical may have seeped under, to clean up under the road as well as clean up the property itself. This we are told is the case of the Dunn Lumber property where seepage is thought to have occurred of arsenic in higher concentrations than permitted—both under US 1 and SR. 44. That could cost more than $1,000,000, perhaps, for each of the roads.
2. We are told that a member of the Angler’s Club E-Mailed Lynne Plaskett four and one half hours before the meeting on the Angler’s Yacht Club that he would not attend because he was not on the Board of Directors, had not been employed or designated by the Board of Directors as their lawyer to represent them, and did not care to be questioned publically at an open meeting about the Angler’s Yacht Club. Commissioner Plaskett stated at the meeting that he had agreed to attend. If the Shadow had been informed that he had not agreed to come we would have been nicer to him last week on this issue. Here is his E-Mail to Plaskett. LINK. He is not a public figure and unless he decides to become one he is entitled to his privacy and to his own pursuits as any other citizen. We made a mistake in accepting her statement as true.
DEAR SALLY
We have not selected who the next City employee who should be routinely writing Sally with their thought of the week. But, we were lucky to intercept the following letter and we are forwarding it to her.
The following letter was written it appears Ms. Mayor to your new finance director for verification of the cost of your firing the City Manager without cause seven months before he could have retired with a State pension. We thought it would be good if you saw it before she sent an answer.
Dear Ms. Rogers,
I believe that neither Lynn nor Randy asked before hand about the cost to the City in prematurely firing John Hagood before he could gracefully retire in September. As I figure it, firing him without cause will require the City to pay him $108,000 in pay and benefits for the next seven months, an additional $290, 000 in a lump sum severance package, and Kahlid, his replacement as City Manager, an additional $50,000 over his original pay as Public Works Director. Someone will have to be compensated for the additional work at Public Works while Kahlid is gone for six months and that in fairness is probably another $25,000 to $50,000. It really looks like about $500,000 before we even get to the expense of a search, the probable cost of helping the new City Manager to buy a house and move, and all of the other costs associated with hiring someone who knows he is going to have to work with the likes of Sally,Lynn and Randy. Could you please verify these calculations because as I figure it the projected probable cost is now in excess of $600,000.
Harvey P. Mitchum
“That is about what you pay each month on your car.”
CALANDAR OF INACTION—ANGLERS CLUB LAWYER
JANUARY 5, 2009
Date ‘Harvey Mitchell” raised question of Angler’s Club Lease and apparent improprieties of Club’s lease with New Smyrna Commission.
MARCH 2, 2009 (55 DAYS SINCE January 5, 2009)
No attorney hired yet to give legal opinion as to validity of so-called $25 a year lease on property worth between $4 and $5 million dollars. Nor has there been an appraisal it seems as to the value of 43 covered deep water slips. Why not just ask the Justice Department Civil Rights Division. It would be free.
Almost two full months and they can not even hire a lawyer. WOW
The LINK here is to the W-2s as given to the Shadow. They redacted more than necessary (titles or position for example) and does not present the material in an organized form which can be easily read. They did give us a readable format last year and have agreed to now supply the material in spread sheet form. We will publish that more easily read format after we receive it.
We attempted to publish these W-2s before the Commission voted to give the police union a pay raise in early February, but they kept you in the dark for almost another month. So much for Sally’s “open government”. Better to vote pay raises in a depression when the yokels can not see the $100,000 salaries and benefit packages.
Keep in mind that these W-2s should be augmented by 70% for each fireman, 60% for each police officer, and 45% for each regular City employee as the full cost to the City for their employment. The cost, using Mr. Gummey as an example, is $206,000 on his W-2 payroll and another $93,000 for the pension and benefits for a total of $299,000. The salary alone is more than half the salary or either President Bush or President Obama. (The entry for David Atkins is the start of the police department listings and Michael Bosse starts the fire department.)
Correction: We redid the numbers for the cost of a cell telephone after a reader corrected us. Thank you.
No Class. John Hagood deserved at least a thank you and acknowledgement for his 29+ years of service. They did not even stop him when he was leaving and say thanks even if we made a decision to let you go. No class.
MONEY BLOWING ON THE SURF--LANDSHARK
We think that the determination for the City of New Smyrna Beach to stand behind what appears to be a privately planned surf competition must be scrutinized with particular care. It was proposed publically in the same week that the Wall Street Journal ran a front page article stating that most cities in the country are curtailing such projects in the face of the economic turndown (Wall Street Journal, Feb 17, 2009). The article states that rationale for these events is two fold: feeling good at being on the map as a destination point and to bring crowds to see the event. This fills beds and gives the restaurants and stores a boost in extra accommodations and sales. If it works, it is a benefit, but if not it is a strain on an economy already burdened with debt. Obviously everybody wants it to be a success, but how many business on Flagler have the money to throw at this event.
There are real problems with projection of the success of an event of this nature and whether this particular event can be a success. As of 2007, the surfboard industry was still functioning. But the current health of the industry is another matter. Like golf, the industry is in recession and the amount of disposable income being devoted to it by its followers is decreasing by an alarming amount . One has to wonder at numbers touted by event promoters for their surf contest. The Aloe Up Cup held here in 1988 was in the peak of “surfing” as a sport and fashion trend. NSB had no less than 5 surf or surf clothing retailers. Now we have one real shop on Flagler and another that moved into a little garage to make way for a coffee shop. Apparently Danishes make more money than ding repair on surf boards. Possibly a sign of decline! Our Aloe Up Cup in 1988 had nearly $40,000 for a purse and drew only 64 surfers. How do current Landshark contest promoters expect to draw more participants (125) with only half the money? Where are the ubiquitous surf industry sponsors? No surf companies are listed for this event :no sun glass companies, no clothing, and no surf boards or accessories. Do they know something our city tax money guardians do not?
Quicksilver, the Huntington Beach, Calif., retailer famous for surf wear announced last month they are restructuring and will cut some 200 jobs. Last year the company eliminated 397 jobs and in December announced it would close 25 surf wear stores. Quiksilver reported its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2008, ending Oct. 31 at a net loss of $955,000 on revenue of $606.9 million for the quarter (compared to a loss of $110.9 million for the same quarter in 2007). Billabong, another big player, has downgraded its view of performance for company owned retail stores in the U.S. Retail now accounts for more than 20 percent of the US business, executives said. To give some idea of the retail declines, its Honolulu stores in Hawaii are down 21 percent (there is real surfing & tourism in Hawaii).Traffic at the flagship Billabong store in New York was down 29 percent in November, and posted similar declines throughout the fall. If this event had any profitability potential surf business experts would be involved.
It is a no-brainer that there were better times and the industry was healthier in 1988. Now remember, also, that the surfing industry is basically about young people and most are not terribly affluent. The East coast of Florida, moreover, has numerous inlets and there is much surfing along the whole coast irrespective of the inlets. The proposed competition here hopes to attract at least 125 competitors for what promises to be more of a competition within a large beer party basically sponsored by Budweiser. The crowd will in all likelihood be day trippers, likely young, and they will not spend a lot of money and are also unlikely either to fill motel rooms or eat in the better restaurants. Many we are told will crash on the living room floor of friends.
The next question is why the first week in April? Think Spring Break, our North beach is normally “crowded” at that time with college and high school teenagers from Orlando and the local surf rats. Perhaps promoters are attempting to mask event failure with visitors already here. Certainly it will draw a crowd of people already on the beach for holiday. Crowds pictured by the press which know the City could easily be construed as a big deal. It would not be the first time!
Some suggest this is a diversion to address the budget. It’s a great method to keep all eyes on the horizon. Surfers are easily recognizable yet rarely seen beyond a few ice-cream and sandwich shops. We hope this is not another example of Richenburg and Clancy working in unison to promote political agendas at the cost of our taxpayers. Spending a dollar to make fifteen cents is common here.
Our advertising authority is paying for publicity. Currently we do not know how much. Nor do we know how much City money is being poured into this venture and whether either the advertising authority or the City will be reimbursed by the sponsors. As of February 26th, we were told the City has not committed any money to this program.
Who is the sponsor and what has it guaranteed and why has it sought advertising and City money? It is stated to be the Smyrna Beach Safari Club. We are making an effort to determine who belongs to this club, but we suspect that it is a Clancy-Richenberg special. Since none of the money is theirs, Clancy-Richenberg, win or lose, they do not care. In sum we think this is not likely to succeed and is just another flim-flam for the election of the current incumbents, reward for few good old boys and a small voting block. If they are working on a theme song for their tax funded promotion Wave Good By to Your Money would be a great title!
THE POLICE CONTRACT -
COMMISSION SO-CALLED DISCUSSION
We always knew that the Teamster Union had good talent for name calling. How about a few facts instead of attacks on their critics. Here a gadfly, there a gadfly, everywhere a gadfly. Everybody knows that the pay for fire and police is unaffordable in almost every community in Central Florida, but since when does it make something right that the whole process has been corrupted by persistent lobbying by the union and poor judgment of multitudes of elected officials. Their argument is that they are dedicated and give good service, but remember here in New Smyrna Beach that their service costs over $300 per resident last year and the Volusia County Sheriff provides the same or better service to Deltona for under $100 per resident. In a recent referendum Deltona residents overwhelmingly defeated a referendum proposal to have its very own over-paid police force—like New Smyrna Beach. Tell the Commission to give taxpayers here the same opportunity and have the Commission vote for a referendum to turn our police function over to the Volusia County Sheriff. Or just call the Sheriff and Rural/Metro and get a few quotes.
The Shadow was not surprised nor impressed by the attack by a union boss or two on the articles we print. As we have said before, like all newspapers, good publicity is good. Being publically attacked by a union boss or two, particularly one who takes home $82,888 in salary and pleads he needs a pay raise when the City is broke, is even better. Thank you Union Steward Sgt. Griffith.
Keep in mind too that despite the bombast of the union reps, they misstated that their current pensions are mandated by the State. They also attributed an ethical ‘test’ to a Commander Drossman essay they say he wrote in college . Not one word was uttered by them that the Volusia County Sheriff would most likely provide the same service with one third the personnel and at half the price. If you do not have a job, under $100 per resident sounds a lot better than over $300 per resident we pay. Even if you still have a job it may sound pretty good. See Shadow article two years ago on the comparison of crime and costs for several of our local police departments. January 1, 2007 issue (Open nsbshadow.com, click on archives at top bar, and click on January 1, 2007).
WEDNESDAY MARCH 4, 2009 ADDENDUM
