NOTES
1. It is interesting that the ANONYMOUS fire department spokesperson POSTING to the Shadow thinks there is something to be gained by trying to diminish the advantages gained by Seminole County and Altamonte Spring when they consolidated their respective fire departments. The two blogs posted last week were lame attempts to respond to an article prepared by a knowledgeable Seminole County official in direct response to a number of misleading statements made by the writers the week before. We suggested that they contact John Hagood and complain about our articles to him. We have suggested that Mr. Hagood contact the Seminole County officials, and if he has trouble finding them, we will be glad to give him the right names and telephone numbers. The blog writer’s problem is not with the Shadow, it is with the City that we believe is currently in discussions with Port Orange and Edgewater about saving a lot of money by consolidating the three fire departments. Future postings on the blog by the department on Altamonte Springs will be forwarded to Mr. Hagood and removed. If you think we are being unfair, call your insurance agent and discuss the ISO and its use.
2. We are amused at the effort to discredit the Shadow based on alleged contradictory positions on issues. There was no article written by the publisher to the Daytona Beach News Journal, and their staff has no knowledge of such an article. If the reference were to something that happened three years ago, it would have no relevance in the face of the current issues regarding increased pay, pensions, grade creep, and expansion of the ranks. This has now become known because the money river has diminished, and the City must now fund commitments made under better financial conditions. Nor is there any contradiction in wanting to be annexed into a badly managed City where one might have a voice in change, rather than remain in the County where no one in Silver Sands or Bethune Beach has any voice in how government is run and never will. There are no inconsitencies and the writers know it.
1. We thought you should know that it took the expert fire department personnel at the Columbus Avenue station less than a minute to back their fire engine into its parking space. Actually, it took less time but will say a full minute because we did not have a stop watch. By the way, we think it was done in one simple back up motion that was better than could be executed by a NASCAR driver.
2. We understand there just may be a few antsy city employees talking to some of the local attorneys about representing them. The city employees who make the city tick should not be too alarmed at what is certain to be some reorganization and pruning of unnecessary management. We see some belt tightening by the City, but a lot can be achieved by limiting the bennies given to the brass and not affect the mid-level employees who do most of the work. If they can negotiate with the County for an adequate police presence, that alone might solve the current fiscal problem.
3. Occasionally a wild idea is raised and thrown our way. Could the $25 a year lease at the Angler Club for the high value property it controls be set aside and renegotiated to increase the City’s revenue by as much as 10% of its value? We think a case could be made that it was improperly drawn in the early forties, and certainly does not reflect its fair market value in 2007. Perhaps our very expensive legal wizard, Mr. Gummy, could give the City a legal opinion. The Boat and Ski club not only acted to end its similar indefensible lease but also even figured out how to raise the price on its leasehold and gave its building to the City. We hope the City continues that lease. They are certainly an asset to the community!
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April 9th, 2007
Notice
The City of New Smyrna Beach Personnel Board finally met on March 22, 2007, after nearly two years. Maybe Frank Roberts is really gone! The Shadow hears that a new member with HR experience, Ms Jesse H. Baumline, was appointed March 13, 2007. Although we are told everything was in the Sunshine, notice of the meeting was certainly kept quiet. Now people, clean up the mess and bring propriety back to our employees! We must recant our comments of last week. The meeting was held in March. It did happen! There will now be monthly meetings scheduled, and there has been one new appointment to the Personnel Board.
Finally, Mr. Hagood and Ms. Hargy are trustworthy.
“Best Blog of the Week”
(Edited for grammar and punctuation)
The blogs have been very expressive this week, so we picked more than one for you to enjoy!
Monday, 4/2/07, 5:07 PM: going to be interesting to see how many of you concerned citizens are going to run for office. I am willing to bet not a single one. If you are so concerned, why aren't you at meetings now? I know why, you don't have to guts to stand up in public.
Tuesday, 4/3/07, 9:59 AM: Turned on my AC today. Called to UC and got rates. 145 % increase over last year. Go Diesen, Go Para, good by city commissioners
Philly Tuesday, 4/3/07, 1:05 PM: A senseless, selfish, arrogant act never goes unpunished. Figuratively speaking, the shear nerve of a supervisor to give away tax payer material, refuse to give the same material to another employee, sexual harassment, hostile work environment, getting caught sleeping on the job by another supervisor, fooling a nice old lady and finally not participating in city functions because he has to fly under the radar may have come home to roost. Can anyone guess why one of New Smyrna's finest was MIA last week? The rumor mill has a suspension in question. When is the lunacy going to reach a point that, from start to finish, this was a bad decision to hire without the proper controls in place? If punishment was put forth, is it documented? Have city officials lost prospective of what their obligation is to the people that elected, hired and support them. What happened to the Personnel Board Meeting? Present the facts to the Board and see where the chips fall. This single event has the most of the NSB sheep with a knot in their undies, as well it should.
wow Wednesday, 4/4/07, 1:02 PM: TAX PAYERS how can a man give city chemicals away and get 2 days off ?????? when another man takes trash and damn near gets fired ??????
GASOLINE AND DIESEL PRICES
How about a 17 cents hike in one day on the price of diesel at the rest stop stations on the Pennsylvania Turnpike last week. The price of a barrel of oil went up by two bucks but the powers that arbitrarily determine prices you pay at the pump figured out how to take an eight fold increase on fuel purchased at these stations on fuel that probably would not be processed for over a month. So why should the trucker who gets six miles to the gallon complain. During the winter, he was told that the price rise was because of the need for home heating oil. Then, the reason was George Washington's Birthday when the oil companies, had to make more gasoline and there was just no more diesel for those poor truckers. At least they did not have to buy much fuel in New Smyrna Beach where it is suggested that the price is arbitrarily set by a system that treats us differently from some of our neighboring cities. Gas and diesel is cheaper in South Daytona and Holly Hill, and the difference can not possibly be the cost of driving a 5000 gallon delivery truck another ten or fifteen miles For all we know we are closer to the terminal than they are and this should not even be in the equation.
We asked this question a few months ago when trying to figure out why Wal-Mart was bad and Home Depot was good at a site on State Road 44. We speculated that the difference was that one operated gas stations with discount prices for auto and truck fuel, while the other did not. We are still musing over our observations that have not been answered. On the other hand, maybe it is because only one or two distributors set the price. Do you know?
DEAR JOHN
We know of the limited resources available to John Hagood, the City Manager, and to his inability to get all of the important letters written that he would like to send. So we decided to help him and provide him drafts that will simplify his tasks and free him up for important things like dealing with all the problems at the Park and Recreation Department. We have crafted the following letter to deal with the odd specter of New Smyrna Beach not selling those SUVs provided to many of the high ranking personnel for their personal use. We were thinking that at $85,000 a year they could get to the job in their own car and drive around the City in a Yugo, or equivalent, if that vehicle is still manufactured.
April 9, 2007
Brenda ___________
Motor Pool Maintenance Supervisor
Dear Brenda,
Please provide me with a complete list, current value, and assignment of all SUVs currently owned by the City. I plan to present this information to the Commission at their April 26, 2007, meeting.
Thank you,
John Haygood
ISSUES
On February 19, 2007, we published an article on the issues that must be discussed by the New Smyrna Beach Commission. We lamented that they do not publically discuss these issues and that there is a total void as to what is in their collective minds about any of the major spending and control of City Boards they appoint. For example, the Personnel Board is appointed by the Commissioners and reports directly to them. While the City Manager has input, and Frank Roberts apparently abused it most of the time, the Commissioners bear direct responsibility for the appointed Boards and their failure to meet is directly at their feet. In this City, a vote of the Majority is legally binding. However, the Mayor or any other Commissioner could use their bully pulpit to call for a meeting at any time, and if the others do not like it, they could vote him/her down at a public meeting. So, why has it taken so long for that board to meet? Perhaps the answer is that the “no action Commission” did not want it to meet. They would need to make their position known. If they took an action that might be unpopular, how would they respond? Heaven forbid they take a firm position on an issue! Keep in mind also that no board has tenure rights and that they can remove an entire board and replace it at will.
There appears to be no leadership at the Commission level. Does anyone know where any of our elected officials stand on spending by the Community Redevelopment Agency? We think not. In fact, we are having trouble finding out where they stand on any issue. They do not discuss them publically and we continue to believe that most of the City’s business requiring their input is done by improper polling. Maybe they reach their decisions by using a Ouiqi Board, but they never ask questions of the City Manager that will let the voters in on the discussion. Interestingly, they almost got close on their discussion about the new palaces, the hardly needed fire houses and over designed police Taj Mahal, but even there they did not question why they were being built. We think they know that the fire department changed the criteria for determining placement of the new station without telling them, but have yet to hear one of the Commissioners comment on what they intend to do about it.
Has anyone heard one Commissioner ask the County Sheriff about what level of service he can provide for public safety and what he would charge? No! Has anyone been invited to a workshop on consolidating the fire departments of the Coastal cities? Huh? Has anyone of the Commissioners spoken on the failure of Mr. Gilreath the County Property Appraiser, to assess the Anglers Club properly with its 20 or more slips that are private? Think about that the next time you look at your property tax bill and remember the County Property Appraiser is an elected official.
No one ever said leading was easy. Nevertheless, our elected officials should try it, it is their job!
CORRECTION
The City Commission will revisit the election change ordinance at their SECOND meeting in April. The Shadow believes the process "ain't broke" so it doesn't need fixing this year. Maybe they can do something about future elections in which they are not affected. Here is an opportunity to express your views. We hope to see you there!
EXPERTISE
The simple fact of it is that we are not favored with much information as to how decisions are made in New Smyrna Beach. The public discussions by our elected officials are frequently superficial, do not usually reflect a deep understanding of the issues, and rarely provide insights as to how to resolve the issues. They do not have the expertise to examine many of the issues brought before them, nor to develop the options papers that should be available before they reach a decision. There was an interesting discussion on the exorbitant escalation of the costs for the current white elephants, the proposed police, and fire stations. The meeting was called to discuss the costs, but by the time of that meeting, the Commission was well aware that the central premises for building these new facilities in the first place had been called into question, and that question should also have been put on a fast track agenda. Certainly the over worked expression “thinking out of the box” should have been raised at that meeting. Since it has become apparent that the City fathers and mothers had never addressed the fire department's change in criteria to make the Columbus Avenue station appear obsolete. That should be a prime area of discussion. However, there has been no discussion and certainly, nothing given to the public that suggests this important issue should be placed on the agenda before these edifices are built
The discussion at that meeting, even about costs, was also instructive. Commissioner Hathaway went to the heart of the issue by stating flatly that merely taking about 5% off the inflated costs was ridiculous in the face of a 52% cost increase on the police station. He was incredulous that an increase in size of 3,000 extra square feet was added to the 35,000 square foot behemoth of a building to house the State Attorney's office, but that when the State Attorney stated it was not going to rent the space this was not removed. However, what was most instructive, that aside from several general comments from Mayor Vandergrift and Commissioner Ritchenberg, the only other questions were irrelevant comments from Commissioner Plaskett. She opined that square buildings were the cheapest buildings and that great savings could be made if an ATM machine was not in the lobby. What became very apparent, was that except for Commissioner Hathaway, no one had an adequate understanding of the over all issue or how to address it. One of Commissioner Hathaway's most striking observations was that the furnishings (about $1 million for furniture) was not included in the cost figures for the building, and there were no projections for what it would cost to maintain this building.
We ended up with the thought that the process was clearly flawed if the real question of whether to build either building was not revisited. The firehouse on Third Avenue was “sold”on a questionable change in criteria showing need. The Shadow thinks the City would find the premise was not acceptable if presented in a written report that showed how little the City would benefit by going forward in building it. The same could be said for the police department building which is questionable as to the need for bigger offices and facilities—certainly when going from an eight thousand square foot building to one of 38,000 square feet.
This then raises the question of why the City does not empower a blue ribbon Committee to examine the issues and provide an options paper with different solutions. The City needs this type of committee to do the refined examination of specific issues which will provide for in depth and hopefully, unbiased, analysis and evaluation. Apparently, the City staff does not necessarily have this expertise, and maybe it would be wise to appoint someone from Altamonte Springs or Bethune Beach to such a committee. Perhaps they could also ask a Public Safety Chief that has crossed trained personnel to participate or representatives of a fire resuce service that has a large component of highly trained volunteers. We are a small town with limited resources, and the expertise to examine issues of this nature would expand the intelligent quotient brought to the problems.
WHAT DID THEY TELL
THE GOVERNOR?
They went to London to see the Queen. We paid their way and the gas for the SUVs, which is cheaper than the cost of the charter flight they usually enjoy. Smart thinking in a year when the tapayers take buses that leave early in the morning for an all day trip to Tallahassee to protest their tax and spend mentality. We are curious as to what they said about not having a barrel of money to spend on frivolous projects dreamed up by the Community Redevelopment Agency that is no more than the City Commissioners wearing different hats when it comes time to take care of friends. Think of Captains Quarters and dredging the Calore Canal. We paid for this trip, including the meals and hotel, and we also paid for the lobbiest that represents us in Tallahassee. Since we paid for the trip, could they start off the meeting tomorrow night by having each of the Commissioners tell us who they saw, what they asked of those important personages in the Queen”s suite, and their response?
How about a five minute presentation from each of our elected officials? That would tack 25 minutes to the meeting, assuming each could speak cogently to the issue for five minutes. We hope they told the Governor that they would cut capital spending, not fill vacant non-essential positions, stop wasting money on local control projects they cannot manage efficiently, reduce the cost of the fire and police departments, and maybe, just maybe, not pay some employees more than they are worth. Tell us that three Commissioners promised they would never spend subsidy/grant money again on marginally useful projects, no matter how much the unfettered spenders complain about your rational refusal to do so. Please, please, tell us!
The Shadow thinks we are entitled to know. We have given up on ever expecting either of our local newspapers to do anything that smacks of investigative reporting on issues concerning New Smyrna Beach. They do not do that. They do not even complain that the important information is never disclosed. We would venture that in this time of massive agitation about their tax and spend habits, our elected officials they tell us up front what they intend to do about it.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
There has been a 'demand' for a comprehensive plan for dealing with the fire department. We have presented a number of modifications that will redress the imbalance of pay, grade creep, too many management positions, and improper position descriptions, now that most of their functions have nothing to do with fires, and pensions that are predicated on inflated salaries. These must be addressed, but the most comprehensive plan of all is also the most sensible one—integrate the fire service with Port Orange and Edgewater. Given the problems with the Regional Call Center (911), we are not sure that our elected officials are capable of making that work. But then, “hope springs eternal in the hearts of men”. The memorandum presented by Ken Parker, the city manager of Port Orange, to the elected officials of Port Orange, suggests to the Shadow that these discussions are already under way. Maybe one day they will tell us about it.
In sum, the most comprehensive plan to “reform” the New Smyrna Beach Fire Department is consolidation!
While we are on the subject of consolidation, the RCC is a problem because it has too many administrators, and suffers from being inefficient because of its small size. The cost per resident served seems to be about $22 whereas the County has an apparent cost of under $16. There is also a problem with how the billing formula was determined and why we are paying more than Port Orange. It appears that the way this consolidation occurred was not well planned or executed, and that the oversight that was supposed to be in place was name only, not in fact.
The RCC experience is a failure not because of consolidation, but because it is an inefficient operation, top heavy with management, run by Port Orange with no oversight by the participating governments, with skewed the billing. In our view, it would be better as a part of the County system.
WHERE DID THE $7.3 MILLION GO?
After two years of FDLE investigations and the FDLE determination that there was no wrongdoing, I get a little perturbed when I still hear people say: “Where did the $7.3 million go?”
Doesn’t any one read the papers? According to a May 7, 2006 article in the News Journal, the $7.3 million did not go to individuals; it went to the following sources:
* $2.6 million bad debt from unpaid phone bills. (This was mostly due to three hurricanes that affected the entire telecom industry). * $1.8 million in Epicus uncollected commissions and deposits (Epicus went bankrupt). * $1.5 million in payments to RSVP Customer Care centers for telemarketing services (NOT V-Star which is the NC Company owned by Vaden’s sister in law) - By the way this was an adjustment of an amortization schedule—not actual dollar losses.* $1.4 million in loss when BellSouth and Sprint increased costs for the phone lines. (This was an unnecessary loss because the newly negotiated contracts were not used for alternative pricing, a management failure). * $7.3 million total There it is….the mystery is solved. Why does everyone keep asking this question when it was publically disclosed in black and white? NO ONE TOOK THE MONEY! It was a result of paper losses and bad debts. By the way, Telecom revenues for the first year of operation totaled $10.648 million (UC Financial Statement 2005). Not a bad showing for a new business that the replacement UC Commissioners and its replacement CEO could not maintain. Now get off VADEN, TURANO, TAYLOR, GLENN, AND GRASTY’S BACK ABOUT A TRAVESTY THAT WAS PERPETRATED BY OTHERS.
LOCKDOWN
The City has been locked down. Yes, that is the right word. Similar but not the same as when the prisoners act up and they lock them up for a couple days and search for weapons. The weapons they want to control here are words. They have not only circled the wagons and rounded up the usual suspects, but now they have tried to lock down the sources of information even if it is public information available to all persons, including non-residents, newspapers and even the kid on the street if he or she is old enough to ask. Now we are not complaining about the intimidation implicit in asking each employee whether he or she has spoken to any outsiders, meaning people not employed by the City. Not all supervisors have done that so far, but apparently, this has been going on at many of the departments. After all some supervisors think of themselves at risk if employees talk, but there is something called freedom of speech that even a $30,000 a year employee enjoys even if their name is not Yancey.
Nor is the lockdown we are describing the same as the lockdown at City Hall to control us poor taxpayers or residents from going to visit the offices of City employees without being permitted beyond the locked doors. (This is probably justified because of Homeland Security) Why do they treat the permit office differently? If you are afraid that someone will threaten the engineers or City attorney, should not the staff of the permit office also have protection? Heck, the people who visit there are often burly and gruff contractors. But logically, since the permit office personnel do not need protection, the locks and admission system for the rest of City hall is a waste of resources and time.
A wag has commented that the police station entrance has multiple locks, but it borders on idiocy to think that anyone would break into it. What would be the purpose? To kidnap a police officer or a commander at the morning or afternoon coffee Klatch? Maybe snatch a K-9 dog and get your arm bitten off. We do not think so.
So what about the lock down on information that belongs to the public. Well, what they have done is funnel it through a single person so that they know what is asked and by whom. This gives them an opportunity to influence what is divulged and to massage the information if they so desire. It permits delay and gives an opportunity for those that may not like what the information shows to destroy material that can be destroyed or adulterated without fear of penalty to do so.
All information request from City personnel for current expenditures, spending, or about personnel is now sent to a single City employee. Since this employee is the City Clerk who is employed by the City Commissioners, we assume that Mr. Hagood has acceded to the request of one of the Commissioners to whom she reports. If this is true, we assume it was pursuant to a Commission vote to do so. We simply do not know. Are requests from the Daytona Beach News Journal also funneled through the City Clerk? Bet they are not.
