NOTES
1. TRAFFIC TICKETS: Forget how many tickets are issued and whether the Edgewater City police write more during bike week. We have heard they do, and don�t know about New Smyrna Beach. The story, when you look into it, is more than the number of tickets written. When municipalities write traffic tickets, they only receive two dollars of the proceeds. Yes, we are told, only two dollars out of any ticket they write. The money collected is used to pay for the court system, the Sheriff's office, and special funds and trusts all spelled out by specific legislation and published as a scale of payouts for every ticket. We thought the more they wrote, the more they offset their cost. Wrong! We thought an interesting tactic to bankrupt the Court system would be to simply issuing only warning tickets. New Smyrna Beach receipts for all of 2006 were only about $50,000, and included all remittances from traffic tickets.
2. There is absolute wonderment in that instead of engaging in a reasonable discussion of the issues raised by the Shadow, a number of those posting on the bulletin board (the people's blog) think that ad hominum arguments are either effective or smart. If any one is interested, most of the Shadow editors, contributors, and supporters pay taxes to the City, and everyone pays money to the Utilities Omission to the tune of !5% or 16% of their utility bills. The Shadow could have bought its web site in Holland and registered its name abroad where Jeanne Diesen's minions could not have found the publisher. No need since there is no reason to be anonymous if the object is to provide a forum for discussion. By the way, given the problems in the City, with its refusal over the years to address problems and have reasonable debates, the Shadow's approach is long overdue. It might have been different if the local newspapers did their job, but they do not. It will probably take hell to freeze over before either the Sentinel or News Journal deign to write about either the standards for the police or fire department, the escalation of wages, and the inability of some of the municipalities to meet their obligations in the future. So, the Shadow will labor on and hope that it will not be too long before we can turn our attention to the problems in the County. So little time, so much to do!
1. Lies, lies, and more statistics. The Shadow used the income of a household in Volusia County from the Volusia.org, census, web site (2000) and had it as a look-up point in the article. Someone did not like our comparison based on that figure pointing out that several fire fighters on the New Smyrna Beach payroll were raking in three to five times what an average household earned. In order to make his case, the writer stated that income was really $52,000 by selectively using census figures from 2005, and included only Ormond and Daytona Beach. Interestingly the 2005 census shows no such thing. Additionally, not all Cities are included (what happened to Pierson, Oak Hill, Holly Hill, and Ranchette Road is a wonderment.). We may make mistakes, but we do not prevaricate. FYI, the all Florida income annual average income level in 2005 was $38, 000, and Volusia County was lower. Be that as it may, using false statistics gets you two to three times the income that the average household earns. We do not think the taxpayers like that multiple even it were supported by the facts! By the way, If the blogger had been able to use Tuxedo Park, New York, the number would probably have been $1 million or more. Too bad, this is Volusia County!
2. We have published a number of articles by Ken Taylor over the last year. Ken Taylor ran for mayor in the last election and lost. He received about 33% of the vote, and has not indicated that he will run for Mayor or another office. He is obviously very involved in the local political process as a concerned citizen. We would like to hear from Bill Rogers since he is the only person who has announced that he is running for Mayor of our Charming City in the next election, whenever that might be! What are his views? What would he do with the mess Frank Roberts made with the merit system through the nepotism by proxy rules under which he seemed to operate? We do not even think Mr. Rogers should be given any consideration for this of any office until he takes positions on the important issues. When he was Commissioner, he was one of those who said he had heard enough when there had been no meaningful discussion of the issue. We will give him space to start making his views known if he is serious about his candidacy. No more stealth candidates. The only thing they do is drop bombs.
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March 5th, 2007
The last meeting of the Personnel Board, City of New Smyrna Beach, was on April 21, 2005… 663 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!
CONSOLIDATION?
The Shadow recently had the distinct pleasure of visiting the EVAC command and control center. More about that later. However, since we are concerned with ensuring the provision of good local government for our citizens, we are also interested in ensuring that efficient and cost effective government is provided by our public safety organizations. For the past few years, revenues to local Governments have been generous to say the least and spending that revenue on any and everything on their wish lists has been the rule rather than the exception. In the coming year, escalation of property values will be reduced, some say as much as 25% in some locations, and thus revenues will diminish. This will require a new attitude on the part of elected officials and government managers as they prepare budgets for next year. Reduction of expenditures should be the objective for FY2008. Of Course, we understand that this is anathema to many civil servant bosses, but elected officials must make clear that their new attitude should be reduction of expenditures.
Now on to our main objective regarding public safety organizations. In our lifetime, there has been a constant battle between local and regional governments regarding who can best provide and control public services. No one wants to give up local control, and of course, we are told, it is a self evident truth that they can best be provided by locals rather than regionals. The Shadow believes that decision
should be made by citizens not politicians pressured by unions and public service employees trying to protect their jobs, using factual evidence available from the competing parties. We plan to provide that information or point you in the right direction for engaging in your own research, analysis, and decision making process.
Without exception, city fire departments in Volusia County object to the fact that the County is charged by State Law to provide emergency medical transportation within the 1200+ square mile limits of the County, and will not provide certification for each of them to do the same. The County provides this service through a contractual agreement with EVAC, a private not for profit foundation, that must meet monthly performance objectives. Their Board of Directors includes the County Chairman, the Sheriff, representatives from the three hospitals, medical professionals, and, guess what, Mr. Vandergrifft representing the Volusia County Organization of Governments, and others. Citizens are welcome to arrange visits at their pleasure so we will not dwell on details; however, their command and control center is loaded with modern technology, efficient and effective, providing timely service throughout the County. We believe the only justification for local fire departments to dispatch a fire truck or for a city to pay extra for its own 911 call service for to a medical call is to justify their staffing levels and certification requirements, i.e. protect their jobs. We can not envision New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater, or Port Orange being able to provide or exceed the level of service currently provided by EVAC. We remain open to logical, factual arguments. Go to their website, www.EVACamb.org, visit their headquarters on Mason Avenue, contact their PIO, Mark O�Keefe at MOKeefe@EVACamb.org, or call 800 323-3822. Get the facts and draw your own conclusions. Another tidbit, the Sheriff's emergency call center is co-located with EVAC, and will shortly add Ormond Beach as a client. Which leads to the next topic?
The EVAC Board believes, and the Shadow concurs, that an integrated communications system within the County would enhance provision of emergency services to the public; however, the local provision and control issue is in the way, and should be eliminated. As revenues decline, we should be taking every opportunity to reduce costs and maintain or improve services. The first step to toward this goal is consolidation of communications. The County and EVAC have the basis for such a system in place and operating, and local governments need to review their thinking about why they do not and have not supported this concept. The current 911 RCC call center operated by Edgewater, New Smyrna Beach, and Port Orange appears frightfully more expensive and unsupportable. We believe it is obvious, job security for fire department personnel who have few if any structural fires and depend on medical calls to justify their continued expansion and high pay. Furthermore, our research shows that public safety services would be better served by adopting the Daytona Beach Shores model for the County and all its municipalities. Daytona Beach Shores has a public safety organization in which employees are cross trained to function as firefighters, police officers, etc. to make maximum use of their personnel. We are not suggesting that County government be put in charge of implementing or managing this concept. The EVAC model looks good to us at this time, and suggestions are solicited.
RISK AND THE NEW FIRE STATION
The "standards" by which most aspects of our lives are governed, whether for fire or police service or the best and safest way to run a chemical plant, are defined as a range of acceptable risks versus the desirability or cost of providing that protection. The public will not accept risk forced on it beyond what the authorities can provide at what they are willing to pay. However, the same people who have such high requirements for public issues will go skate boarding, surf boarding in shark infested waters, and skiing on black diamond trails. Chauncey Starr, a statistician with the Electric Institute tried to figure out the difference between the acceptable level of personal risk as against acceptable level of public risk back in the 1930's and his research resulted in the modern science. For example, bomber pilots and crews in World War II had an increasing number of ailments preventing them from accepting missions as the chance of not returning approached 25%.
Now what does that have to do with our fire department? Well first, almost no one, if any one, is willing to pay for a four minute fire/medical response time, but that is the gold "standard" of every fire department, particularly for medical response for heart attacks. We do not have it, and unless you live next to a hospital or have a cot in an ambulance garage, you do not have it either. You certainly do not have it in New Smyrna Beach and no jurisdiction we believe is willing to establish that "standard", or would be willing to pay for it. Keep in mind that these are not standards established by some regulatory body, but are benchmarks developed by associations whose membership is made up of fire industry personnel. If you look at fire "standards", the "standard" for distance from fire stations, hydrants (or available water from river, stream, or pond in rural areas), and the volume of water that the responding vehicle can put on the fire (for instance 1500 gallons per minute from a new pump truck), a fire rating is given by the insurance industry. It is a band, and unless you are above a certain level, it does not affect rates. These are risk factors and the insurance industry makes crude determinations as to what risk it will insure. You decide the risk as against the benefit when you decide the level of medical care you are willing to incur.
Now, the detractors of the Shadow would have you believe it is our desire to lower standards. No one has suggested any such thing. The new and unneeded fire house is supposed to improve response time and enhance standards of response. It will, in fact, lengthen response time to Minorca (see article labeled Sell) but more importantly, how about a discussion as to whether the public is satisfied with the current standard, or is willing to pay big money for new facilities. We have yet to hear what or how this new station will improve either medical or fire protection at Minorca or Manny's on A 1 A. Nor has the Shadow suggested less fire personnel, although the top heavy part, the lieutenants, certainly should be reduced. If you notice, the Shadow�s position was to replace the lieutenants with new cross-trained personnel. No loss in the number of total trained personnel. Nevertheless, if you add that fourth station, bingo, a completely new contingent of additional personnel is required. Of course, they propose to close Columbus Avenue and turn it into a museum, like the one that Edgewater pays Commissioner Plaskett $57,000 a year to baby sit on Route 1. We do not believe that a Third Avenue station will enhance response time or is something that the City can afford. We do believe that the public should have an opportunity to discuss this issue, or decided that any promised service increase is wanted or should be paid for by additional indebtedness.
“Best Blog of the Week”
The several short blogs provided below capture the sense of things happening last week.
Thank you Bloggers!
Thursday, 3/1/07, 7:20 AM:
Tell Barbara Herrin, Frank Roberts, Larry Sweet, and John Yancey this website has no power!
Wednesday, 2/28/07, 2:02 PM:
''''' and Rogers is talking of running for Mayor???
Wednesday, 2/28/07, 5:16 AM:
Will the Shadow please post Drossman's employment application with the city. It makes for very interesting reading.
Tuesday, 2/27/07, 6:53 PM:
Ut oh, here comes another Shadow PDF. When will they stop asking for it?
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.
DEAR JOHN
As we have 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 dealing with all the deficiencies at the Parks and Recreation Department. We have crafted the following letter to deal with the problems of the overtime at the New Smyrna Beach Police Department.
March 3, 2007
Morgan B. Gilreath Jr., M.A., A.S.A., C.F.A.
Volusia County Property Appraiser
Thomas C. Kelly Administration Center
123 W. Indiana Ave
DeLand FL, 32720
Dear Morgan,
Over the last several months your deputy, who is now retired, was requested to look into the failure of your office to properly assess the facilities of the Angler's Yacht Club on the North Causeway in New Smyrna Beach. It is shown on your books as simple meeting house and a small tool shed being assessed at about $250,000. The boat shed was recently repaired for about $100,000, and is probably worth more than $500,000. The prime boats slips, and there appears to be about 20 of them, are probably worth at least $150,000 each. About 50 feet west and directly across from these slips is the City Marina for which we charge around $4,000 annually for our boat slips. If properly assessed, this property, totally controlled and reserved for its members only should be paying more than $40,000 a year in taxes. Both the City and County loose the benefit of this tax revenue every year.
Please reassess that property and tax them properly this coming year. We need the revenue, and other property owners are complaining about unfair taxation.
Yours truly,
John Hagood, City Manager
Administrative Office Building
120 North Causeway
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168-9985
CC: County Council Members
Orlando Sentinel, Volusia County edition, John Collins, editorSince we do not know whether any of our previous letters have been sent, starting next week The Shadow will send courtesy copies to those persons with whom we think John should be communicating.
HIGH SCHOOL
Kudos to Karen Clancy. The High School site belongs to the State and there was no reason that the Volusia County School Board should have gotten away with an under the covers deal to bribe the State Department of Education with a percentage of the proceeds for the sale of this prime piece of public real estate. What nonsense that it should be just one more residential condominium sub division because it is next to Dolphin Cove. It is also next to Merts and the Bait shop, and many other commercial enterprises. Ms. Clancy's idea was excellent and the so-called offer by the School Board was a sham because the School Board knew that she would not likely be able to raise the money and the Universities she approached with the project would not want to be involved in a project where that pay off would likely exhaust efforts for future fund raising. The Shadow would also like to know the quid pro quo offered Frank Roberts by the School Board for City �support.� We are certain Ms. Clancy�s plan made his deal a failure. Since we he wanted a cool million from the Utilities Commission for the sale of the Sugar Mill property, we expect that he demanded the same sum in this case. Mayor Vandergrift was present, maybe he can tell us, but mot likely!
Well, Ms. Clancy has moved the ball to a better court. Governor Crist still might get it wrong, but at least now, the deal is in the open, the choices not limited, and she has a chance to win. The question is, why should the School Board get any of this money? It had free use of the land for over thirty years, and it should once again be devoted for public ends�not more condominiums. There are other locations for condominiums, and there is precious little land left for imaginative proposals such as for science centers and recreational uses. We think if Governor Crist made a few telephone calls, he would find that a number of prestigious Florida universities would be interested in this project now that the obstructionist School Board is no longer calling the shots, we hope. In fairness, give the School Board back the money it spent on maintenance and security on the old site since the new high school opened.
At the City Commission meeting last Tuesday, Ms. Clancy had a an even bigger surprise announcement, backed up with documents that showed the land in question had been originally gifted to the City for a park and that the same 22 acres had been given in turn by the City to the State for ultimate use by the school board. Of course, the City attorney clouded the issue by suggesting they might be a different 22 acres, but he was asked to clarify his understanding and come back with more than speculation that Ms. Clancy�s documentation was flawed.
No one has presented a cogent argument for why a windfall for the Volusia County School Board makes sense. They have taxing authority that they exercise to raise more revenue regardless of whether they have more students. Proposing higher pay raises for themselves than they gave to their employees was arrogant. If they want more money, make them raise the taxes so that we can all see what they are doing, and they too will be faced with a revolt of the taxpayers. Of course, they will plead that it is for the �kids.� At least at this point, they are not making bogus arguments about parking a bus on the property or storing books in a hallway and claiming that the building has not been abandoned. That was more dishonest on its face than almost any claim made by any politician in the State.
Again, we wish her well and hope that Governor Crist gives the land to her project. Maybe the City could tell its lobbyist to work on her behalf.
FIVE AND ONE HALF
MILLION $$$$ FOR
LIFE GUARD STATION?
What a County Council! What a Council! During the middle of a taxpayer revolt, and after they turned down State grant money ($6 million) to restore one of the most famous beaches in the State, if not the Country, they vote to spend $5� million to build a new life guard station. We could repeat this for emphasis, but where is their common sense much less their sense of responsibility? The State money for New Smyrna Beach required them over a two year period to either come up with matching money totaling $11 million within two years, or forfeit the money at that time. No, the beach erosion problem turns out not to be as important as supplying luxury accommodations for the beach patrol who have not had a beach to guard for the last few years in New Smyrna Beach from Flagler to 27 Ave. The Shadow has nothing but praise for the beach patrol, but they do not need a facility that is like the Taj Mahal type of construction for which the School Board is so fond of spending taxpayer money. $5.5 million is half of what is needed to fund the beach project they so shortsightedly refused to support.
We might start by saying that it is more important to make sure the beach is there than to spend money for the accouterments and fancy bunks for the life guards. Secondly, there are other types of facilities that would be more than satisfactory, like a couple of the portable classrooms used by our kids at half the elementary and middle schools in the County. FEMA could supply a few. Then there is the Quonset hut, roomy and cheap. Then there are other steel office buildings. The County Council should try Google. Go to "Quonset Hut" or "steel buildings."
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!
COMMANDER DROSSMAN
We have been asked to clear up several questions about Commander Drossman, second in command for the New Smyrna Beach Police Department:
1. His last employment was the Cookeville, Tn., police force as a master police officer. His prior employment was with the Fort Lauderdale, Fl., police department and his highest position was acting sergeant where he was responsible for the canine corps. His application for employment here in New Smyrna Beach can be found at the following LINK
2. New Smyrna Beach is currently in litigation over allegations that Commander Drossman participated and encouraged the improper arrest of an individual and we have provided the Complaint and a Motion to Dismiss filed by the City. Follow the LINK
3. We found the following letter on the web. LINK
4. We found the following letter in an edition of the 1993 Miami Herald LINK
We draw no conclusions from this material. We are only responding to questions that have been put to us, including those on the bulletin board (blog).
“IS THIS A SIGN OF
PROGRESS, OR A MESS?”
