ON THE ROAD TO BANKRUPTCY, JUST BEHIND VALLEJO, CALIFORNIA
IT IS NOT A YELLOW BRICK ROAD
Vallejo California filed for Bankruptcy on May 23, 2008. Vallejo is a City of about 120,000 residents and has stated that 80% of its current collected taxes are going to police, fire and other city employees for pay, pensions and other benefits. This is not the fault of either the employees or their unions, but the fault of their elected officials who agreed to the pay scales and benefits packages that did not reflect the true position values or what the City could afford. Effectively they are paying blue collar employees a secured pension that is better than management salaries and they have overloaded management to the point where it is neither defensible nor affordable. Look at the New Smyrna Beach Police department which is twice the size of the Edgewater Police force although Edgewater is roughly the same size as NSB. Even worse, Edgewater is now operating with their Deputy Chief as Acting Chief, and they do not have either a deputy or four Commanders, nor as many sergeants. Neither do they have as many battalion chiefs in the fire department.
The Associated Press distributed an article on Vallejo and it appears to have been picked up by every major newspaper in the country. (Look up Vallejo, California, Bankrupt, May 26, 2008). Even the local mainstream newspapers picked up this story. New Smyrna Beach is also bankrupt. Pension fund investments will not return 8%, so the City will be forced to make up the shortfall. There will be more and more young (Mid forties) retirees receiving large pensions whose lifetime costs for the City will be exorbitant; yet our elected officials will not cut costs, reduce subsidies to City operated enterprises, or reduce personnel costs to match revenue. This will be the second year our elected officials have raided the reserves rather than make the hard decisions to reduce spending. Their raids, accounting errors and other projects such as Ester Street will diminish reserves by more than $2.3 million. They should have actuarial projections of what the future true costs will be for the current pension system, particularly what it will cost if each employee at the fire department retires like Cindy Richenberg with a $63, 000 pension at under fifty years of age with a life expectancy of about thirty years. This information should be published and not sit in an obscure drawer at the finance department. Under Social Security you may be able to retire at age 68 with a life expectancy of 12 years. Our fire department personnel can retire in their mid forties with a life expectancy of 30 years or better. Rest assured, the City will not request nor publish these projections because the news would be frightening. They would not want you to know the precarious financial position in which the City finds itself because of their failed stewardship.
June 2nd, 2008
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You are:
1. Underpaid fireman? When you look at the fire department personnel pay, pensions, and direct costs to New Smyrna Beach it is hard to believe that others doing the same job in the State of Florida under the same type of circumstances are paid more. It boggles the mind that others in towns with five or ten house fires a year (maybe 15 in 2007) receive this type of pay and bennies. We should circulate their plight to the rest of the Country, like Vallejo, California, so that they can come to the aid of the Volusia County underpaid personnel. We wonder how many of those who come to help are employees of Cites that are, or will be, bankrupt.
2. Our five worthies who stated they were all committed to spending reductions and promised Jack Housley, a retired GE official, to help them do so, hired a new City Clerk last Tuesday. More money down the tube for a position that could have been filled by a competent administrative assistant, that in former times was called a competent secretary. The salary level is close to $20,000 less than the retiring City Clerk (“only” $38,000 for the newby), but the total cost with bennies (45% costs over salary) to the City is still close to $60,000 for a clerical job that does not command that salary in the local private sector. But what the hey, they do not seem to understand their roles or the roles of others in government anyway.
3. It is starting to look more and more like some or all of our Commissioners have worked out a system to let each other know how they will vote before hand at public meetings so that what we see is no more than a replay of what has already been decided at a dress rehearsal. That was the role one of our past Commissioners played, but we hoped it had stopped with his departure. What is it, polling? Well, at least they do not charge us to attend the play. And yes, we are aware that this implies they are violating the Sunshine Law. Are they?
4. The publisher has agreed to be a guest on the WELE (1380 AM) radio program hosted by Big John 4.00P.M. Wednesday June 4, 2008.
W-2S REVISITED
The W-2's published over the last few weeks are again presented this week as an EXCEL file so that you can manipulate the data as you wish. Additionally, we provide a number of analyses regarding pay and benefits. We have added charts in columns showing each employee and the percentage of increase that includes the benefit package for each employee.
NOTES
1. We have reviewed the letter sent to us by the City Commission on November 13,2007. (LINK) They feigned being upset because the Shadow ignored their request to make bulletin board contributors (our BLOG) identify themselves if they wished to post. That of course was their effort to shut down the Opinion page because they, and their handlers, do not like postings that criticize them either directly or indirectly. Let us face it, the Barck’s were upset that Gracye, the doyen of the North Beach political machine, was exposed by the Shadow and criticized by a number of our blogers. Seven months later, we were musing about the letter they might have also sent to the Hometown News about its anonymous rant and rave pages. We suspect that no such letter was sent or will be forthcoming because their “rant” page is edited, and nothing seriously critical about any local government is likely to be printed. This week for example they printed two “rants” praising the fire department pay scales and one that discussed watching an employee leave the truck running when he may have been on a personal errand. We were impressed, but will not hold our breath waiting to see a copy of a similar letter sent to the Hometown News since it always says such nice “feel good” things about them.
2. My, my, my. A columnist who writes for that paper to the north of us has published an article about those in the Cities of Volusia County who are talking about consolidating the fire departments and police departments. Where oh where is that fearless paper’s editorial staff? You would think that since all of the Cities in Southeast Volusia County where it has a footprint are probably or soon to be bankrupt from the burdensome contracts they have entered into with the various fire, police, and municipal employee unions, that they would demand these Cities provide taxpayers with actuarial projections of their future financial well being. We believe that the taxpayers would be shocked to see the shortfall over the past few years from the projected pension fund returns. Here in New Smyrna Beach the taxpayer is responsible for any pension fund revenue loss if the return falls below 8%. We suspect they will not stonewall our big brothers for this information as they are likely to do when the Shadow asks.
“Best Blog 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
1. It gets better as you continue to read the City's Audit. On page 68 it states Police Officers contributed $215,000 to their pension plan, and the Firefighters contributed just $27,000 to theirs! The City (meaning THE TAXPAYERS) contributed $251,000 to the PD's Pension, while we contributed $952,000 to the Fire Pension! THIS IS REAL WACKY WORLD WE LIVE IN! Lets see, we pay our Firemen more than our Cops, and then let our Firemen pay less into their pension plans than our Cops have to, and to top all of this off, the taxpayers put 4 times more money into the Firemen's pension plan than we do to the Police Pension plan!
2. I think the solution to the problem is compromise on sides, city and fire, and city and citizens. Until this city recognizes that there ARE problems here that many if not most citizens aren’t happy about, things don’t stand a chance to change? I also think that they are indeed, aware of the problem, but hesitate to act. Why? Change. Change is never good when your purse strings benefit. Screw that. I say bring on the change. I can see how families are going to pack up and move. I can’t afford to raise my family here, and am considered upper middle class.
3. Mayor Sally and City Commissioners (or at least most of them) why should we attend City Meetings? You do not want to hear from us, in fact you make ridiculous comments back to us all many times at the meetings or even outside the meetings at our comments. So why should we attend or talk to you all and then get insulted or talked down to etc. You all keep saying it should be an open form of Government, yet you do not even start to comply or think that way. So why should we bother to talk to you all and/or attend meetings. Ridiculous and most discouraging to say the least and this is by far the worst City Leadership this City has ever seen in most people’s minds. In fact it is almost obvious that you all do not like each other very much. Whew where is our Mayor Ritchey when we need him the most. Hope you all get our message and all do something to get your act together and do what is right for NSB someday real soon....
4. The Mayor has a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers of this City, as do all the other city commissioners. Presenting a budget that is not balanced, and that continues to rely on draining budget reserves would constitute a breach of that responsibility, and that would be grounds for a recall effort against her and anyone else who votes for such a budget. And don't believe for a minute that this isn't possible, because there are enough people in this city who have simply had enough of their spending, and would be glad to sign a recall petition against any Commissioner who decides to keep spending our money on all these money-losing ventures of theirs for another year. As far as the Union, most of them don't live in the city, so they didn't vote anybody into office, and they can't vote anybody out of office. All they are is a bunch of loud-mouths, who wave signs to feather their own nests with the taxpayers’ money. And there are enough facts and figures being e- mailed all around town that clearly establish that. Let’s face it, the salaries, the benefits, and the perks these firemen receive are simply indefensible, and I haven't run across anybody yet who does think so. Except for a few loud-mouth firemen here on this forum, who probably live somewhere else anyway. So screw'em! They're nothing more than modern day Carpetbaggers; here to loot and plunder the taxpayers for everything they can get out of us.
5. Heard at the CC meeting, where a fireman's pension board member was honored for meritorious service, that two present Commissioners serve on that pension board. How can City Commissioners be working to negotiate a better deal for the City when they were the same ones that approved the deals that got us where we are in the first place?? Could this be a part of the problem?
6. Can someone name a hero on the nsbfd? Seriously, please give us a name and the reasons for your feelings. You can't spot a hero by his uniform - only deeds make a hero.
7. I encourage all NSB citizens to contact your City Commissioner and/or the mayor whether you are in favor of or not in favor of the Esther Street project. Time will be running out soon and they need to hear your concerns and/or whatever. This is a lot of money to spend for basically a small piece of land. It will also cost a lot of dollars to put a leach field on it to resolve the 7/11 pond situation. There may be other alternatives for the pond at 7/11. This is your hard earned tax dollars they are considering spending. So please please please think about it and let them know right now how you feel before they approve it....
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 more important tasks.
To: Mayor Mackay
From: John Hagood
Re: Golf Course
Over the last seven months we have been examining what to do about the large and continuing deficits at the Municipal Golf Course and we have been unable to devise a viable short term plan. In part because Easter occurred in early April, and many of the golfers other than those live here and pay cheap fees as members have gone home. Competitive courses here in the City have dropped their green fees to less than $20 per player and have still not attracted enough golfers to break even. Under these circumstances, if we do not do something soon we will have to admit that our original loss projections were too low, and that the Golf Course losses will be significantly higher than projected. I realize that having your own golf tournament is flattering, but perhaps we could send out some letters to see what Golf Course Management firms might propose to help us stop the bleeding?
Thanking you in advance for your assistance,
John Hagood
FLASH
The city is moving forward to limit the height of new construction on the Ocean (meeting this week). We are not sure whether a five story building is an improvement over a nine story building, since if you drive on the beach in the late afternoon it is the low rise building that cast the biggest shadow. But we do know that four units at $1,000,000 each per floor of lost future tax revenue (possibly $20 million less in assessed value per building) per building at a mill rate of .20 is somewhere in the neighborhood $400,000. Not to mention the additional revenue to the city, and jobs for our citizens, that building and servicing these new facilities would generate. Also consider the potential law suits that will probably be generated by this action from those who have paid taxes assessed at the best and highest use of this property for 20 years and has now seen the value diminished. It may be more than the price you want to pay to return to a 1950 fishing village with charm
A RAUCUS DEBATE
Those who attack the Shadow for having a dog in any election have got it wrong. The Shadow’s publisher might care as a taxpayer since he thinks he pays almost as much taxes to the city of New Smyrna Beach as all of the elected Commissioners combined. But, the purpose of the Shadow is to inform the electorate of the issues and to have a reasonable forum for the debate. The so-called “debates” held in the past at election time are a farce with little or no give and take among the candidates, and only screened and pap questions vetted by the monitors. Elections here are beauty contests and not about issues. Moreover, the last campaign was probably not the worst of the dirty elections that will be played out here, but it was scrimy with one candidate, dear mercy what was her name, filing what looked like a complaint against her opponent and having the charge repeated by that wonderful newspaper to the north every time it had a chance. And how about the flyer that called the ex-mayor corrupt distributed on the Saturday before the election all over town by the current Mayor’s political action committee. By the way, we were told that the lawyer for the Utilities Commission had called what’s her name to tell her to call her opponent and have her husband to listen on an extension telephone.
We stand by our stated intention. If you click on “ABOUT” at the top of our Home page we state:
“The New Smyrna Beach Shadow is dedicated to better government and at the same time a spoof on City and County politics. We are apolitical, totally without any pride in our ability to communicate, but equally sure that contributors will make up for our failings. We welcome participation by the community at large, will accept criticism ruefully but will not delete fair and unfair comments unless they are vulgar or slanderous, and intend to have broad and fair discussions of all topics which affect the quality of life for those who make a home in New Smyrna Beach. Questions of the week are solicited, and answers with links will be published the following week. Contributions for our continued publication are solicited, but must not exceed $5 per person in any given year. We can not be bought off, but then again we do not know at what point how much money in our pocket would convince us to build an amusement park east of the control line on the beach.”
We think we are achieving our goal. The elected officials are trying to deprive of us of information. That is a good sign because that means that what we tell you is more than they want you to know. Some persons and we assume it is those allied with the fireman and police, post vulgar statements or useless ad homonyms on the opinion page and try to put on repetitive junk to shut it down. These postings make them look bad. The bulletin board survives quite well and acts like a clearing house for all sorts of information. It works and that is what it is supposed to do in a democracy. It drives them nuts because they do not want it to work.
NEW!
GASOLINE INVOICES
We are providing a LINK to the March Invoices for fuel purchases. We hope this is the last month they buy PLUS gasoline for the main fuel tank. We will request and print the next invoice for your inspection.
UTILITIES COMMISSION MISMANGEMENT
The Utilities Commission has completed its budget and will shortly send it to the City Commission for approval. Please take note that this budget will not identify the salaries paid to their management, nor for that matter, any employee. This information has not been included in their budget submission to the City for the last two years, and when the Shadow requested the 2001 W2s, they denied they had them. Frankly, we do not believe that a major company does not keep records of employee pay going back several years, but that is another matter, and we intend to address it later. They provided the W2s for 2006, but in an almost unusable form and we have not printed them. We do not understand how the City Finance Director or the Commission can review this budget absent knowing what the increases have been for employee remuneration, but then what do we know.
We believe that a review of the Utilities Commission operations under its current Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer for the last four years is in order.
1. Over the last four years this Board of Directors has converted the lowest price electric utility in the state to the one with the highest rates. Graded “F”
They blame the ex-CEO who has not been seen for years.2. The telephone business was in the black and the provider who was in arrears was paying off its debt (see audit submitted by their lap-dog auditor which admits this). The current Commission insisted on immediate repayment of all money owed, the provider went bankrupt, and millions of dollars of loss were shown on the books. Graded “F”.
They blame the ex-CEO who has not been there for years.3. Despite the short tenure of the current CEO at Sioux City, Iowa, (only stayed for a year and neither he nor they will say why he left so quickly) he said that fiber optics would not work. He shut it down except for providing service to the City. However, Sioux City has one of the most successful fiber optics operations in the country, and it is a municipal utilities enterprise. Graded “F”.
They blame the ex-CEO who has not been seen there for years.4. They are, we are told, buying telecommunication services for the City from Brighthouse. Graded “F”.
They blame it all on the Ex-CEO who has not been seen for years5. What do these lines of business abandoned by the current CEO have in common? A second term Commissioner Jeanne Diesen, who is a paid featured employee of Davis-O’Connell, a Washington, DC lobbying firm. Both Florida Power and Light and Bell South are her firm’s clients. Look at one through three above and you will see that those companies have been given Christmas gifts that provide returns all year. When that flack of all flacks on the Board of Directors, “Buzz” Reynolds tells you how well the Utilities Commission is doing while you pay through the nose, remember, he was also the guy who told you that the Municipal Golf Course was doing just fine. Listen to him and you will pay for the Brooklyn Bridge. We think that Diesen’s involvement may be a conflict of interest under both Federal and State Law. But then, what do we know?
We give the Utilities Commission Board of Directors an “f” for their ineptitude, fiscal irresponsibility, and for giving the taxpayers a raspberry.
BUILDING PERMITS
The Shadow’s interest was peaked by several messages on the bulletin board (the BLOG) suggesting that since there has been a fall off in building within the City, we should have a concomitant reduction in personnel for both engineering and building inspection areas. We asked a couple of weeks ago for the stats that would show what was being filed and the following numbers were supplied by the City. Since it did not involve the fire department where they want to hide statistics, the information was provided almost immediately. As shown below, there has been almost no drop off from the last few years.
The following are the number of permits on 5/19 of each year beginning with 2004 (in 2007 5/19 fell on the weekend):
2004 - 1,494
2005 - 2,664
2006 - 1,935
2007 - 1,992
2008 - 1,746
If we understand correctly, the staff has remained constant for the last few years. The inspection completion time increased in 2005-2006 until there were complaints from the building community. They claimed that the department was being deprived of resources required to hire more personnel to handle the increase, even though State law provides that funds collected for this purpose can only be devoted to assuring that the engineering and permit function are properly funded. All moneys collected for permit fees are required to be sequestered and spent only on these functions. The Volusia County Association of Building Contractors, however, audited the City and has alleged that funds were improperly siphoned off for years by the City and have demanded that the money be returned. The last we heard, the City has refused to return the money and may be sued. You might want to ask about the status of this dispute at the next Commission meeting. It is a big contingency that might affect the budget deficit and require an even bigger raid on our already rapidly depleting reserves. Remember, the reserves represent money that has been collected from you in previous years.
On its face, one might conclude that the engineering and permit function is staffed at a level about where it was before the building boom that crested in 2005, and nothing on its face suggests that there should be a reduction in personnel. We believe they were stretched thin in 2005 and that is what resulted in the actions of the building industry.
BERT FISH MEDICAL CENTER
The following posting strongly suggests that Bert Fish Medical Center is mismanaged and that deficits are made up with tax dollars through a property tax levy authorized by its enabling legislation that authorized its collection and use solely for the care of indigent patients, is being misused. A conversation with a Bert Fish official suggests that most of their revenue shortfall is because of the decrease in paying clientele, and can be attributed to the weakening economy. The writer, however, suggests that Bert Fish has used poor judgment in assigning priorities to expenditure of funds, and is coddling its management staff with high salaries as opposed to providing quality patient care. Bert Fish is invited to respond.
“Monday, 5/26/08, 11:22 PM Bert Fish Medical Center our Taxes at work. Most of the winter nursing staff worked short of help. The nursing budget went way over and now all departments are on strict budgets. The very people who worked short are now having their hours cut back and some cut all together. Nursing staff and other departments are being forced to use their PTO time. BFMC should take a second look at where to do cutbacks. They are way too top heavy. Second floor, third floor, PCU and ICU, all have two department heads, then there’s nursing supervisors, nurse scheduling, director of patient care services director of nursing, and so on soon you have more administration than nurses taking care of patients. Bert Fish Medical Center owns property all around the hospital, and recently bought the bank on us1 and property in Edgewater. The bank is being remodeled; the hospital is being remodeled (with very short notice to nursing staff. This winter BFMC was renting property from one doctor and then renting property to him while he renovated. BFMC is renting other places. Recently they tore down two vacant buildings, with one to go. I wonder, can anyone keep track of who owes what to whom, and do they want us to be able to? BFMC hired a company to run facilities, maintenance, housekeeping, lawn care, and concierge services. Housekeeping has not been fully or adequately staffed since. To keep up with other hospitals, BFMC started the concierge service, recommended by someone no longer working there. They are now paying for the very service the auxiliary did for free, except they wash your car, pick up your laundry, and mow your yard. They really needed those services! There are from what I know around 350 hospital personnel. When they park around the hospital, patients and visitors have no where to park. When they park across the streets, it becomes a dangerous situation in the morning and at night. I recommended that BFMC and the city together build a parking garage. BFMC employees get parking passes and all other traffic pay. There are many city events that leave no room for hospital employees to park. BFMC spends money as if there is no end. The auxiliary pays for this and the foundation pays for that, and plain tree pays for this. BFMC claims a 30% loss in revenue this winter because of people that could not pay their bills. So they "close down a floor" and put people out of work. People that live in this community... people who in turn support this hospital. Now I hear they are going to start cutting back on the clinic services? BFMC would love the community to believe they are all heart and care about each and every one of us. About to weeks ago BFMC fired a nurse aide because she was missing too many days to take care of her sick husband. Well, he died this week in Bert Fish Medical Center. I wonder if they sent flowers to the funeral.”
If you want to alert your fiends that they can earn an easy $100.25 by providing the Shadow with a copy of Mayor Sally Mackay’s college diploma from Exeter, download a poster by clicking below.
CONSOLIDATION OF FIRE DEPARTMENT
ON THE WAY
Winter Springs, Seminole County, Florida, held a workshop two weeks ago and gave direction that its fire department be consolidated with the Seminole County fire department. The staffing pattern for fireman is expected to be stable and static, and the savings, it appears, will come from eliminating a significant number of management positions as well as economy of scale. The so called ‘MATRIX” study that Seminole County commissioned last year strongly suggested that consolidation was in the best interest of the taxpayers, but the municipalities shelved it. Winter Springs originally proposed to overcome the State decreed tax cuts (last year’s Amendment I to the State Constitution) by setting up a “fire tax district”. That proposal was overwhelming denounced by the taxpayers, but was nevertheless enacted by the elected worthies in Winter Springs. Then Winter Springs held a workshop and the taxpayers’ message to cut spending sank in and Winter Springs decided to consolidate its fire department in order to cut out the bloated management expenses inherent in many small municipalities throughout Central Florida. As the MATRIX report made clear, each of these municipalities had high and unnecessary management components encrusted on its public safety departments.
For your information, Winter Springs has a population of 34,000. It has a fire department of 50 employees, operates out of three stations, and its public safety (fire and police) budget is 18.8 % of its total budget. New Smyrna Beach also has a fire department of fifty personnel, has four stations and devotes 50% to 60% of its budget to public safety service (almost $12,000,000 out of $23,000,000 last year). The Winter Springs fire service budget for 2008 is about $3,000, 000, as compared to the 2008 New Smyrna Beach budget of $5,258,000. Winter Springs believes its fire department management structure is too expensive. What does Dandy Randy and his other two cohorts think about our bloated payroll, pension, and other costs? By the way, the first goal stated on the City website is;
“ To continue to provide quality service at a reasonable cost to all citizens” (Cityyofnsb.com, City Hall)
Will they do anything to accomplish the second half of this goal?
