PICTURE IS REPRESENTATIVE AND IS NOT
A HOUSE IN NEW SMYRNA BEACH.
BEGGING FOR FED AND STATE MONEY
SAVE THE CHARM WITH OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY
The discussion that hiring a consultant will facilitate the City’s garnering State and Federal tax money for New Smyrna Beach is rather interesting. We have refused to fix our own tax shortfalls by reducing expenses, particularly curbing the City’s disastrous failed businesses and addressing the exorbitant costs of public employees. Most of those businesses look like bad hobbies to support some of their friends. For Commissioner Richenberg to say his solution is to raise taxes before fixing the fire department’s indefensible pension plan is a joke. His wife’s pension of $64,000 annually at age 46 from the outrageous pension system in place at the fire department is the poster child for a failed pension system. Cries that we need help are not likely to resonate with either the Feds or State. Remember Richenberg said that his worst vote last year was voting not to raise taxes. While Orlando and other cities are taking measures to fix this problem, we here in New Smyrna Beach persist in a failed policy of no growth and business as usual. READ MORE
June 1st, 2009
NSBShadow.com....
Published Weekly, Direct from the Web.
Look to Us for the Latest Intrigues and
Tell Your Friends About Us!
Visitor on this Site This Week.
(Nearly 3000 hits last week. Thank you, enjoy your visit and come back to see more.)
You are:
1. HOW NOT TO SELECT A CITY MANAGER
We have been amused that Robert Rodi, the chief administrative officer at the Utilities Commission, was appointed by Commissioner Plasquett to the City advisory committee for choosing the new City Manager. Before coming to the Utilities Commission Mr. Rodi worked for Sioux City Iowa for one year, then Lakeland if we recall for about a year and a half, and then a “consultant” for Bell South for a year. He has now had the distinction of having five years, count them, of making the New Smyrna Beach Utilities Commission have one of the highest electric rates in Florida. We consider that an abject failure and he now has run out of people to blame for his inability to run the place efficiently. The Shadow would not choose him to select the best rat in the litter, much less to have any role in selecting the next glorious leader of the City government.
2. THE PERMIT OFFICE FIRING
The permit office employee who retired was threatened with what seems to the Shadow were charges which he probably could have easily defeated. But they threatened to file a complaint; it would have been a long drawn out affair. Since the City specializes in beating down anyone who challenges it because they are willing to spend unlimited funds to wear down opponents, this is not a good deal. Who needs it if you can draw a pension and are young enough to do something else with your life. He resigned, but in reality they treated him with what looks like a great degree of unfairness. After all, he is not a fire union member who we keep on the payroll doing a non job so that he can draw big pay and not resign on a disability that only pays 42% of his salary.
“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
5/25/2009, 11:30 am
The deck has been stacked!
The list of candidates has three guys who look like are going to be just what the police and fire unions want. Drago got a Tech certificate in Fire Fighting (former firefighter). Shanahan has a two year degree in criminal justice (Police Officer Training). Beach gave a police officer back after a cop was fired for beating a kid with a belt. The same cop was later arrested for raping a 15 year old girl. If you subtract the black guy and the two women as people without a chance of getting it—the police and fire have a 3-8 chance of getting one of their own.
5/25/2009, 12:32 pm
Rejects?
It Looks like we are getting the rejects... [LINK]
5/27/2009, 9:37 am
Lost of Investment
A lot of people are disappointed in Sally Mackay, Randy Richenberg and Jack Grasty. The three of them have a fatal flaw. What they do not understand is you have to have more than dreams. You need people who will invest in your dreams. The city’s current position is if it does not fit perfectly with our vision of what we want the city to become, don't try to build it here or we will pass ordinances blocking you and you will lose your money. Go ahead and sue us, we do not care. The investment community has taken a look at that and said, we will take our money somewhere else. The firings and talks of firings of city senior staff has created concerns of overall feelings of instability. What they have done is redlined the city. Without any investors, there can be no dreams that come true. Basically, planning the city’s future is an exercise in futility. Because no new money is coming in the city is running down. We are in a downward spiral.
5/28/2009, 6:46 pm
NSB
One has to wonder ... what would it take to have a local governing body that is responsive to the citizenry and which is progressive enough to capture widespread support and involvement. Is the good old boy Vandergrift era capable? Is our current bunch the answer? I would say no resoundingly to both. It so much a game here in NSB. Don't we have a common interest in clean, transparent, and uncorrupted by politics governance? I implore those who care to be mindful of their custodial responsibilities and urge all concerned to constructively engage themselves. Even this site has resulted in something useful - something that I thought I would never say. Perhaps the problem is us? We get what we deserve. Does anyone want better and if so, then what are you willing to do to get it?
NOTES
1. The Secret Search for the New City Manager
The search for the new City Manger is a sham and a joke. The culling occurred where at least 45 of the submitted resumes never saw the light of day. Then it appears that of the 35 the consultant did forward, they ruled out it seems the most qualified as having too much experience—here including managing a larger city. HUH. Someone who managed a City of 65,000 is discarded because he or she is too smart or too good! That might make sense in Lower Slobovia, but we are having a lot of trouble understanding this crazy reasoning. Then we see that only candidates now selected for the next round are current City Managers. This means that executives from business can not make the grade. This process so far is a joke.
2. Sunday publication
Several readers have suggested that the Shadow should move its publication date from Monday to Sunday morning. If the move should occur, it would be on Sunday morning at say 10 AM. This would present an extra day for the material presented by the Shadow to be digested by our readers before the scheduled Tuesday Commission meetings and would cut back one day from the essential City and County news blackout from the weekend.
Another suggestion is that the Shadow develop an e-mail address book and automatically send out the Shadow to those who indicate that this would be desirable.
3. An all day workshop?
We assume that the Mayor when she called for a “retreat” really meant an all day meeting somewhere in town where instead of the hectic evening meetings. The Commission could address some of the issues they have refused to decide in a more leisurely fashion. OK, but why not the Garden Club which the City leases for a $1 a year and can use at will. What they should not do is either pay money for a facility or find one where there is a limit to how the public can participate. We will give them the benefit of the doubt that they do not mean fancy digs or eats. We will also give them the benefit of the doubt that they will actually intend to hold a meeting where they can make decisions.
4. Are we running out of natural gas?
From Natural Gas Weekly LINK
“Factors on both sides of the marketplace have contributed to the price declines over the past several months. Recent reductions in natural gas price levels may be related to continued strength in domestic production capacity, specifically related to supplies from unconventional gas fields such as the Barnett Shale in Northeast Texas and the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana. Reduced demand is evident in the industrial sector, which accounts for more than 30 percent of yearly natural gas deliveries, as a result of the decline in economic activity. This decrease in industrial sector demand is occurring at a time when seasonal demand for natural gas is typically low because of lower residential and commercial sector demand, which combined account for more than 35 percent of all deliveries. Weather and economic activity are also affecting demand in the electric power sector, which accounts for almost 35 percent of natural gas demand. This sector does not seem to have begun its summertime surge yet. The combined impact of these influences on the recent natural gas supply and demand balances has resulted in an inordinately high amount of natural gas in storage for this time of year (See storage section below).”
AND RODI WANTS A SMALL GARBAGE BURNER NEXT TO VENETIAN BAY AND
SUGAR MILL
DEAR KHALID
As we have stated in the past, we realize that 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. As we have said this will free him up for important things, like dealing with all the serious problems of the police and fire department pensions.
To: Mayor Mackay
From: Kahlid Reishdat
Dear Sally,
What should we say that the “work shop” seeks to accomplish on the issue of buying out-board motors for the Marine Discovery Center for the water taxi pontoon boats? The grant money is gone, we gave these business incompetents over $250,000 under the table as a so called “management fee”, and they did not even set aside a reserve for replacement of equipment that has only a limited useful life.
I know that you refused to vote last Tuesday on whether you are going to give them City money. But I do not see anything changing or that can be made different by another work shop. Remember that when the Feds gave the money at least two Commissioners then said that they would never get a nickel of City money. On top of that, with a ton of taxpayers out of work, it might look bad to subsidize cheap rides to Ponce Inlet.
Yours truly,
Khalid
OPEN GOVERNMENT ??
NOT HERE IN VOLUSIA COUNTY
Once again the Shadow has uncovered negotiations that are being conducted under the table ---literally in secret. This time they are meeting secretly to determine how the Cities and the County will divvy up fire department stations in the areas where there may be overlapping services. These are not public safety issues because, under the current “first response” agreements, the closest station has served the population for the last several years. These are financial and turf issues and holding them in secret ignores the vital needs of the taxpayers. It is nonsense that the negotiations and the tentative agreements are hidden. As usual, the only people not invited to the table are the taxpayers since all of the union members are kept informed and several of the elected officials knowing about the meetings are in the pocket of the Union. It is no different than the joke they made in New Smyrna Beach of the negotiations over the fire department contract last year. Richenberg’s s wife is a retired fire lady who has a $64, 000 annual pension and he participated and was present at the meetings. Gratsy and the Mayor made promises for Fire Union support two and four years ago.
Let us look at the stakes. These agreements will transfer not only facilities but large sums of money it appears to the very City fire departments where the Cities currently spend money unwisely. Rather, where possible, the County with its overall less expensive costs, should be taking the service over from the Cities. The Cities in Volusia County seem totally unwilling to confront the bloated pay, pensions, and benefits of their employees. Worse, these talks seem to also be including stations which are not a part of any over lapping of service area. They are being thrown into the pot apparently to make it more appealing to one side or the other. Silver Sands station, for example, should not be turned over to the City of New Smyrna Beach. Service will not change but it will much more expensive to operate. The County will not only transfer the station, but pay more money for the same service.
This is not a level playing field for the tax payers. We were told that Shannon Lewis attended these meetings for Port Orange. Her husband we believe is an IAFF member. The City Manager from Edgewater is the ex fire chief who was put there when the Edgewater City Council fired the police chief for asking the County Sheriff for a bid on cheaper police service. It appears that the Deputy fire chief attended for New Smyrna Beach. We do not have the slightest idea who attended for the County or who else was invited from the “fraternity”. When we first asked we were told that the County did not know who represented it. We now understand from the County Manager that the proposals will be presented at a County Council meeting on June 18, 2009. Could the public have a peek before then?
SUBSIDIZING THE WATER TAXI
It is not just that they said when they accepted the Federal grant to spend taxpayer money to run a water taxi that they would not give it any City money. They violated that when they gave them $250,000 under the table as a “management fee” for the Marine Discovery Center. The City claims that the City did not put up any money for the water taxi, but the Shadow reads the budget submissions as showing that the maintenance fee off-set the money in the grant and that this permitted them to put the same amount of money as revenue collected in a separate account. But now money has to be put up front to buy failed equipment that is worn out and the fact that they would be subsidizing this failed business can not be hidden or swept under the rug. The business failed, plain and simple, and their choice is to bail it out with more taxpayer money or give it a decent burial. The graphic we ran last week says it all. A toilet with a marine motor ready to be flushed away.
Worse there was a business that provided trips on the intra coastal before the City put them out of business. Maybe if the City stopped competing unfairly it would revive. Private businesses pay taxes.
We know that thinking is hard. This is particularly true for people who do not do it often. But is it so hard when you already have said that you will not provide yet another subsidy for your friends. The water taxi is now losing we figure $15,000 a month. The money it is currently losing is your money and now they are seeking $22,000 for motors because they have no reserves. The answer was no, and it does not take a work shop to say no again. It takes a back bone.
PUBLIC SAFETY—FIRE DEPARTMENT
Reality, Myths, Costs and weighing public needs
with cost of service.
Winter Springs in Seminole County abolished its own fire department and consolidated its service with Seminole County last year (saving up to two million a year). They were fed up we were told with dealing with the IAFF. Volusia County it seems has told the County firefighter Union that they were fed up with the unabated demand for more and more pay and benefits. The Council stood firm, and in a unanimous vote, told the fireman they were too demanding, too difficult to deal with, and that it was not worth continuing to negotiate about adding bells and whistles to their fire department employee’s current excessive pay, pensions, and frills. Volusia County we believe has now set the stage for consolidation of our mismanaged municipal fire departments. Last year the Council did agree with the Master who heard the IMPASSE case that a 2% pay raise (half of the probable 2008 inflation rate), should be granted and to abide by a previous commitment to provide leather boots. We do not think that will happen this year.
The only way to rationally evaluate the public’s need for protection is to analyze the elements that are required for public safety, and to determine whether the cost to provide some quantifiable level of service is acceptable to the public who must pay for these services. The first issue in any discussion of public safety is that the public wants the maximum level of comfort and security, and whether the elements required to create that comfort zone are needs or wants, is affordable. This discussion is designed to put into perspective the reality of what we are buying as a level of public safety, for the price we must pay as taxpayers to provide that level of service, and dispel several myths about the characteristics of a firefight
The fire department provides satisfactory service for most taxpayers. Providing this service is a job requiring limited skill and some experience, and in most of the country, is provided by volunteer groups that sometime employ paid personnel. See Hermitage, Pa., the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad, Md., or Hyattsville, Md., volunteer Fire Department as examples of the hundreds or thousands of such volunteer services now in place across the Country. The vast majority of fire protection and emergency medical services are not provided from paid fire departments. The training necessary is that of a technician, trained in particular sets of skills to perform specific jobs like a doctor or nurse. An EMT stabilizes a patient and maintains that stability while being transported to a hospital or other medical facility. These skills are analogous to those skills required by a worker to construct a house as opposed to an engineer or architect who designs the house. The Bethesda Chase Rescue Squad has about 200 trained EMT volunteer personnel.
There are a large number of myths that have been generated to make a rather boring and mundane position look more glamorous and difficult. It is easier to garner higher pay for heroes than ditch diggers, and calling a job hazardous is likely to command a better image and more pay. In selling its myth of heroes and danger, fire departments and their union, which is usually the International Association of Firefighters, has sold the public a bill of goods for supporting both excessive pay and pensions that are unnecessary to attract and keep competent employees. Unfortunately, the result for many municipalities is likely to be similar to the plight of Vallejo, California. In the city of Vallejo, employees, primarily fire and police department personnel, command 80% of their tax revenue and the City has sought to set aside the contracts under the Federal Bankruptcy laws.
Let us examine some of the myths:
Myth: The fire Department is a “fire” department.
Reality: The fire department mostly responds to medical calls, many of which are false calls or less serious issues. Falling down and not be able to get back in bed, and getting stuck in an elevator represent many of the calls.
We no longer have a fire department that performs the primary mission envisaged by Benjamin Franklin when he formed the first Philadelphia fire brigades. Most houses were made of wood and used wood and coal as fuel. They caught fire and the fire brigade put out house fires. In New Smyrna Beach over the past two years there were less than 20 house fires per year, and if you just look at 2007, only fifteen total and only three that were significant. On the average, our fire department answered one call every three months per station for a house fire, and less than one per year per station if you only consider that three or four of them were serious. (See Archive article from June 23 for a complete list of 2007 house fires.). Building codes, masonry construction, and single story detached houses have reduced the number of house fires. READ MORE
