NOTES
1. We are at a loss to understand why none of our elected officials will address the lack of justification for the proposed, unneeded new fire station. Why? It is clear now that it is not needed except as a new toy for the fire department, and a new plaque on the front with the Mayor's name on it as part of his legacy. After all the old Musson property is just across the street, wouldn’t George be proud? Tell you what, put the plaque on the fountain they are planning to build for him on Orange Avenue, with a statement that we would have built the fire station, but since it was unneeded, we built this unneeded fountain instead. It was, much cheaper. By the way, almost every house on Orange Avenue has been renovated, and we do not understand how it qualifies as a blighted area! “Blight,” like a slum is a 'blight' on the City. Orange Avenue is certainly not blight on the City, and the residents would not like their property referred to as such!
2. It is amazing! Fool me once it is your fault; fool me twice it is my fault. Well our 911 call service billed us $980,000 last year and it has gone back to the drawing boards to see if it can reduce its costs, and our billings, back to between $350,000 to $500,000 which is what we think that the Volusia County Sheriff would charge if any one in an official capacity, such as of one of the City Commissioners or the City Manager, would ask. However, they seem to agree that Port Orange that stole us blind should have a chance to do it again. Having been scammed for two or three years, it seems that we will be in a position where they can do it again. Once a pigeon, always a pigeon!
1. We think the dirt road between Mission Avenue and the backside entrance to Publix and Wal Mart Mall has been definitively left unpaved as an accommodation to the auto repair and auto wash dealers in town. Every time you approach Walgreens heading North on Mission with the thought of going to that Mall you weigh the damage to the car as against the chances of making the turn signal at SR 44. It is always a tossup, but if it was graded when you went that way two weeks ago, chances are it has not been graded since, and your car might be buried in a rut. It is always a roll of the dice, and that adds interest to the decision. Life would be so dull if it were paved.
2. We agree! Some of the postings are repetitious and we wish that posters would keep them short and pithy, less than 100 words, unless there is a burning issue that just must be discussed in detail. Besides, some of the longer articles, like on the School Board, are better handled as full articles in the text and we will publish them as received, with or without a byline, if they are on an important subject. Please keep to local topics about the City, County, or State. What was most amusing this week was the statement by someone that he or she read the Shadow all the time and that it was worthless. In that case, please read a book instead.
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June 4th, 2007
THE VOLUSIA COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT BUDGET TRAGEDY
By a concerned citizen
as edited by the Shadow
This article started as an epistle from a concerned citizen who has children in the Coronado Elementary School and concerns the apparent insensitivity of the School Board and its administration to the educational needs of our school children. It was addressed to Coronado Elementary School families, concerned friends, elected officials and news media. The Shadow has edited this input and provided a link to a PDF containing the original submission. Please visit the link, take your time, read it carefully, discuss it among your friends and neighbors, and become proactive on this issue. It affects you in at least two ways. The property taxes you pay and the quality of education provided to your children. It is time to re-focus our School Board and their bureaucrats to its primary duty----educating children, not building status symbols to their power, and building a fat retirement fund!
The Volusia School District betrays teachers, students, and ultimately society by violating all of its stated mission goals in the name of purported budget balancing. We recommend an independent review and analysis of their financial records and transactions to identify better strategies for fiscal solvency than removal of competent role models and teachers for our children. Of course, this activity must be undertaken with the participation of educators, but under the control of experienced pragmatic business people, not those with a bleeding heart public sector attitude. The education of our children should be of paramount concern, and continuity of competent teaching staff should not be compromised. Educational leaders should prioritize their costs, and make ever effort to serve the educational needs of the individuals they are paid to serve... our schoolchildren! Become informed, read the following articles (LINK)
DEAR JOHN
Dear John forward
We have no evidence that the City Manager has had the time to forward the letters and memorandum we have written for him over the last several months to the appropriate addressees, so, as we stated again last week, we have undertaken to do this for him. We said we would do this in March, but thought we would give him a chance to catch up on his backlog of paperwork. We will continue to help him out, but wish that the City Commissioners would tell him to make some time for this task since we think it is also in their and the electorate’s best interest. We also sent this to the County Property Appraiser, Governor Crist, the Volusia County Council, Volusia County Tax Reform, The New Smyrna Beach Tax Reform and Better Government, and the Orlando Sentinel.
March 3, 2007
Original letter appearing in NSBShadow.com., a web site newspaper published each Monday.
DEAR JOHN,
March 3, 2007
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 egregious overtime payments of the police and fire departments. We have crafted the following letter to deal with the problems of the failure of the County Property Appraiser's Office to assess the valuable assets of the Angler's Yacht Club so that it can pay its fair share of the property taxes on the expensive slips that it doles out only to its members. We think John should demand that Mr. Gilreath explain how a property with a fair market value of about $4 million leased to them, that is shown as private property with no trespassing and members only signs, is not taxed at full value as a “possessory interest”. The current assessment is a joke and Morgan Gilreath knows it.
Mr. Morgan B. Gilreath,
Volusia County Tax Appraiser
March 3, 2007
DeLand, Florida
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 a meeting house and a small tool shed being assessed at about $250,000. The boat shed was recently repaired for about $100,000 and the shed is probably worth more than half a million. The prime slips, and it looks like there are about 20 of them, are probably worth at least $150,000+ each. About 50 feet east and directly across from these slips is the City Marina which charges about $4,000 annually for its slips. If properly assessed this marina property totally controlled and reserved only for its members should be paying more than $40,000 a year in taxes, and this is what both the City and County are losing in taxes every year.
Please assess them properly this coming year because we need the money and other property owners are complaining.
Yours truly,
John Hagood, City Manager
Administrative Office Building
120 North Causeway
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168-9985
cc: Governor Crist, Florida My Florida.com
Volusia County Council Members,
fbruno@co.volusia.fl.us, (please distribute)
Volusia County Tax Reform
Orlando Sentinel, Mlafferty@orlando sentinel
Since we do not know whether any of our previous letters have been sent, starting next week The Shadow will serve courtesy copies to the persons we think John should be questioning.
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 issues.
Thanking you in advance fro your assistance,
John Hagood, City Manager
City of New Smyrna Beach
Administrative Office Building
120 North Causeway
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168-9985
CLOSED MEETING—STUPID US
As Ronald Reagan used to say, there they go again. The City Commission has scheduled a closed-door meeting to figure out how to save the high union wages. The City’s unions are invited to the meeting and Commissioners Richenberg, Plaskett, and Grasty will be attending on their behalf. The public is the only one locked out of the meeting. I guess the City is not interested in what the public has to say about union wages and benefits. We guess the City needs time in private to hone its message, “Save the environment and uh, the $154,000 a year firefighters too.” Everyone knows you can not have one without the other.
The City Commission noticed a closed meeting to discuss union contracts and employee pay for Tuesday, June 5th. The posting was last Thursday. They must believe we are dumber than dirt if they think we will sit still while they connive behind closed doors about how to avoid discussing these important issues in a public meeting.
Assuming there are modifications proposed for the police and fire department contracts, we are entitled to know how each of these officials propose to pay for obligations they made in the past, as well as those under consideration. We would be upset if they intend to use the reserve funds they are required to maintain to pay their failure to redress wages and pensions. They should cut spending elsewhere by not building the needless fire station and over designed police building. If they use reserves to avoid making hard decisions, they will try to convince you that the overall package contains tax reductions while they use these reserves to avoid making any meaningful reforms.
Talk about conflicts! Commissioner Richenberg has a conflict so large you would think he would be ashamed to attend such a meeting. Then again, maybe his wife and he do not get along and he will not tell her how to maneuver with her cohorts to avoid losing any pay or pensions money. Then there are Plaskett and Gratsy who will probably be trying to be first out the door to inform employees about the discussion. You, the taxpayer, will be the only ones who do not know what decisions were made or how they were made. These are expenditures of tax money. In the past these closed meetings resulted in pay raises that ratified unwarranted grade creep, sanctioned pay increases that are unconscionable, expanded fire and police pensions greater than the State's plan, and approved general pay increase for all employees last year of 6 ½ %, when the cost of living was only 4%. This was all done behind closed doors, the only people not informed was you, the taxpayer.
The irony of this is that they debated and bashed the City Manager about his contract at an open Commission meeting. We felt sorry for John Hagood at the time, but that is child's play compared to what is about to happen. Not one of the Commissioners has expressed a pubic opinion. We think they should start with a roll back of all employee salaries to a 2001 base plus the rate of inflation, abolish three of the Commander positions at the police department, minimize overtime and a whole host of other money saving proposals that will reduce costs but not service.
Hold an open meeting Commissioners! Notice it properly with at least two weeks notice, and hold a workshop or two to obtain the public’s opinion. The way you are operating today is, give short notice, close the meeting to the public, and everyone but the taxpayers will know what you are doing. The City slogan should be to “Expect more, get less.”
MEMORIAL DAY
We celebrate Memorial Day every day, and particularly on Mondays when we publish this web site. We can do this for what has been done for us by those who serve, and have served, in our arm forces and paying our respect for those who have done so and paid with their lives can never compensate for their sacrifice. It is small and mean spirited to criticize those on the bulletin board (people's blog) for not commenting there since we are sure many of our readers share our view and celebrated our arm forces and veterans in different ways. Defending freedom, and honoring those who defend freedom, is something we do everyday, and we are sure that this is also what is done by most of our readers. No one that we know wishes our armed forces any thing but good fortune and a safe return. We join saluting our veterans.
HALBERSTAM et al As David Halberstam said, "You have to keep on digging, keep asking questions, because otherwise you'll be seduced or brainwashed by the idea that it's somehow a great privilege, an honor, to report the lies they've been feeding you." Columnist Bob Herbert wrote, "If there was one thing above all else that David taught us, it was to be skeptical of official accounts, to stay always on guard against lies, fabrications, half-truths, misrepresentations, exaggerations and all other manifestations of falsehood, that are fired at us like machine-gun bullets by government officials and others in high places, often with lethal results." Justice Brandeis said, "sunlight" is the "best disinfectant."
The following appeared on our Bulletin Board last Tuesday. The Shadow does not necessarily support the views of the author, but believes it deserves to be published as an article for everyone to read, analyze, and draw their own conclusions. We believe you should have the opportunity to obtain information about all issues of concern to the community, and solicit your participation in providing a point of view.
It's about politicians and political parties
in power responding to special interests.
It's not about property taxes. It's never been about property taxes. Rather, it's about politicians and political parties in power responding to special interests. The following events demonstrate that the statewide property-tax debate in Tallahassee has nothing to do with helping the little guy pay his property tax. During the years 2005-06 when property taxes were soaring, there was no outcry or mass lobbying effort by the anti-tax political action committees. That is because the developers and real estate industry were making enormous amounts of money building, buying and selling property for twice their historical value. And lenders were arranging interest-only adjustable rate mortgages for people who could never qualify for traditional financing. Suddenly, after the sub-prime financing has dried up and the real estate market has turned south, we are faced with a "tax crisis" despite the fact that Florida is 39th in the nation in state and local taxes as a percentage of state income. The Legislature has responded to this "crisis" by proposing legislation that benefits the wealthy exponentially more than whatever assistance it may have for the typical blue-collar family. In the first legislative version, the property taxes are eliminated and a 2.5-cent sales tax increase over the current sales tax levels is substituted. If you happen to own a second home -- perhaps a million- dollar beachside home -- that you visit every now and then, you would be trading a $20,000 tax bill for a thousand or so more in sales taxes. However, if you're a homesteaded family in a $175,000 house and with a family income of $60,000, you would trade a $3,000 property tax bill for a $1,000 or so increase in sales tax. The result is that the blue- collar family would save about $2,000 whereas the part-time resident with the beachfront condo would save about $19,000. The latest legislation calls for an 80 percent property tax exemption on the first $300,000 in home value and a 70 percent exemption on the balance up to $1 million. When you exempt schools and hospitals, using current municipal and county tax rates, the average city resident in Volusia County in his $175,000 home saves about $850 against his current tax bill. The part-time resident with his million-dollar beachfront condo saves about $5,100. Meanwhile, the city and county services most needed by the average citizen such as free public parks, youth sports and senior recreation programs, community redevelopment programs, etc., are decimated. Vital programs such as public safety and emergency services would be sharply curtailed. For reasons known only to himself, our county property appraiser has publicly come out in support of this technique as a "fair" approach. Unfortunately, when you take a reality check on the legislation, it is six times more "fair" to the part-time resident in the million-dollar condo than the typical working family. The ultimate goal for the developer and real estate lobbies is to have unrealistically low property taxes on every expensive property to push high-end development and real estate markets into good times again. The fact that the public gets more development sprawl, more traffic, more pressure on water supplies and fewer local public services is of little concern to these self-interests. And that's what it's always been about.
“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
City Commission--Busted! Friday, 6/1/07, 1:54 PM
How stupid is this the city commission? It has scheduled a closed door meeting to discuss Union Contracts for June 5th. I believe Randy Richenberg will be in that meeting. Randy is going to leave the meeting and tell the Union exactly what the City Commission discussed. So why the closed door meeting? The purpose of the meeting is not to keep the Unions from knowing what is going on, it is to keep the public from knowing what is going on. City Commission, open the doors and let the public hear!
EMAIL OF THE WEEK
REFURBISH COLUMBUS AVENUE: New Smyrna needs to take a look at what is happening right now in Leesburg. The city manager, mayor, and fire chief have finally realized that budget cuts are coming and they have decided to act. The 40 year old fire station is in need of repair and someone decided to spend nearly 3 million to build a new one. Guess what...they don't have the money so they went to work. The firefighters who staff the building are scraping off old paint, cleaning up rust stains, pressure washing walls and paved areas, putting on new paint, replacing aged windows, and the place is starting to look great! What a concept! Take a bunch of people we're already paying to be there, and have them use a little elbow grease to spruce up the place to save some taxpayers dollars. Brilliant! Hopefully this idea won't disturb a card game or a movie. They could also practice backing up the truck just to keep their motor skills sharp. Let's fix it up before spending 5 million and losing tax revenue at the same time. Talk to Leesburg!
FACTS AND DISCUSSION
Facts. It has become apparent that if anything is published in the Shadow suggesting there are issues which should be examined as to how our police and fire departments function that touches on costs or pay, there are immediately several postings on the bulletin board (peoples blog) attacking the publisher with a derisive comment or two. These postings invariably say that the Shadow writer has no knowledge of the subject, say police zones or K-9 dogs. Occasionally there is an intelligent and spirited discussion of a subject, like whether a Crown Victoria is better for police work than a Grand Marquis ( essentially the same car). This does not touch on costs or pay. One might note that the Crown Victoria appears the one most used and comes with a police package from the manufacturer, but the point here is that there was a spirited and intelligent discussion.
Now let us look at the response from anyone, police department or the elected officials, on the question of why New Smyrna Beach has five zones covered 24 hours a day with one police car on duty at all times in each zone. Maybe we need five zones, but Edgewater with about the same population appears to have only two, and this results in a much smaller police force at what appears to be no loss in public safety. In addition, we question why there are nine detectives in New Smyrna Beach with only 21,000 or so residents and Port Orange with 56,000 residents that also has nine detectives. The Shadow thinks these are good questions and we would like to see some memorandum to the City Manager that explains what we gain, why we need the extra manpower in more zones, and why the number of detectives does not represent grade creep.
The Police Chief of Altamonte Springs drives a Honda gas/electric. No one has suggested that if he were in an accident it would be the fault of car and the City would be sued. It was suggested to be the case here in NSB. No one suggested that K-9 police dogs ride in the front seats of Hondas, only that the Honda had a big enough compartment in the back for a commodious K-9 pen. So, in turn, no one suggested that a K-9 dog trained to attack on command be unrestrained so that if it went nuts it could attack without a command. Therefore, when the expected blog showed up just saying that the Shadow was uninformed, what the policeperson posting this blog did, was to change what was printed, and attack the false premise, and refuses to provide facts. We are republishing the picture of the Honda and you determine whether a K-9 dog could have a nice contained space inside.
Facts. No one has yet produced the study by the fire department that justified the need for a fire station on Third Avenue. It would be nice if the City Manager would post that study for all to see. A couple of prominent locals recently went down to the current station on Columbus Avenue and inspected the facility. The fire truck and the fire personnel were not there, but they inspected it at their leisure and concluded that there was nothing wrong with the facility, and that sprucing up efforts would restore it to its former glory. The facts are clear, but as elsewhere there is no effort on the part of our elected officials to revisit their decision. What is most aggravating is that they do not need to take the blame for the misinformation that went into the original decision. Yet, apparently, they do not want to alienate the fire department personnel because otherwise there is no rationale explanation for their inaction. These are facts, and facts are what they do not want you to know. There is certain to be a fire department rant when this is published, but the ranters will provide no facts!
SCHOOL BOARD TAXES ll
The Volusia County School Board recently voted a 6.5% pay raise for all teachers. We have no way of knowing whether this is a necessary expense to either keep or recruit teachers, but we do know it is a number that exceeds any possible cost of living increase due to inflation which was only about 4% in 2006. Nor do we question that teachers may be underpaid to begin with, and that the system of paying higher salaries to fireman and policeman, and low salaries to school teachers makes no sense. The thrust of this article, however, is solely on the way we are taxed to pay for school services and whether of it makes any sense for the State legislature to require local school boards raise there property tax by 7.2%. If the assessed property value on non-homestead properties goes down by about 20%, the School Board will have to raise the millage rate to collect the same funds it received last year. In other words if the assessed value is decreased by 20% and this reduces the tax collected last year on 20% of roughly two thirds of taxed property (commercial, investment, second homes---90% of beach condos), the School Board must raise the millage rate to recoup that money plus the 7.2% mandated increase. This is a big number and remember, the School Board assessed almost all of the 26% increase in property tax assessment last year.
Why not tax something other than property? How about Rubio rolling the School Board budget back to 2001 tax figures, and add back the inflation factor plus something for growth? No that was not on the agenda, and , just as it appears that Governor Crist has been forced to back off his limits on spending for the County and municipal governments, it looks like no one in Tallahassee is willing to address the School board scam. It currently collects, with Bert Fish, 9.9 mills out of 19.54 mills total for New Smyrna Beach (New Smyrna Beach 2006 total millage rate was 19.54 of which the School Board rate was 7.685 and Bert Fish was 2.216, or a total of roughly 9.9 0 1 mills). Depending upon your point of view, the School Board will raise the same amount of money from properties with save-our-homes caps below the true value of the property. The School Board should be investigating how to reduce spending, not increase it by 7.2%. Two years ago, they predicted an influx of 1500 to 2000 new students, and needed all the money they could get. When the number turned out to be only about 500, they said the shortfall created a lack of State funds and they needed more money. Win, lose, or draw, they always need more money! So, just as the issue with other elected officials is how do you get their attention, so it is with both the School and Bert Fish to stop raiding the cookie jar.
PROPERTY TAX INCREASES
We do not think it is fair for residents who live on a public street where parking is permitted to complain when citizens and visitors avail them selves of legitimate street parking and do not violate parking ordinances.
1. On 12/ 2003, Marie *******, purchased, on a qualified sale, a two bedroom, one bath (Periwinkle): Location: 809 E. 24th Avenue, one and one half blocks West of S. Atlantic and West of Bonnie Street which is an unpaved road between the alley behind 23rd Avenue and runs to the alley behind 26th Avenue,. She was one of several complainants about street parking on 24th Avenue.
2. Chases Restaurant, 3401 S. Atlantic Avenue, on the Beach, Established 1995: seats 120; parking spaces, 25 in front of the restaurant, 30-33 in an unpaved lot across the street, 6 on the street to the North side of Manny's parking lot. Effectively 64 parking spaces in total.
3. According to a City ordinance, there will be one parking space for each of three seats in a restaurant, therefore, a requirement for 40 spaces. (Link)
4. Hill Street is half of the width of 24th Avenue and it appears that 24th Avenue has a set off of at least 30 feet from the center of the street, i.e. it is a City owned right of way. Fire and rescue vehicles can negotiate Hill Street. The resident on 24th Avenue with the red cones in front of his house to deter parking is probably violating some ordinance or other.
5. The City is insisting, and apparently has issued a code enforcement violation for the current unpaved lot that, under the City's plan, would reduce the lot's capacity to only eleven slots, if presented as a paved parking lot. The City wants swales and buffers to the highway to the East, the commercial building on the South, the alley on the West, and 24th Avenue to the North, which looks more like an airport runway than Orange Avenue. Bingo! Eleven parking spots instead of 30. Great planning if you want to reduce street parking.
6. 24th Avenue is one of the streets with Beach access over the dunes. It also appears to be one of the only streets where the City right of way is clearly demarked and the property line of the houses along the street clearly set back. That is why people park there.
This is the perfect way to run a business out of town. Insist on unnecessary “improvements” to an empty lot to accommodate the complaints of someone who moved into the neighborhood four years ago where the restaurant was already established. Mrs. ***** was apparently “unaware” that brunch at Chases on weekends created a crush of patrons who wanted a good brunch and a view of many attractive young woman in bikinis. Worse, the complaint is that cars legitimately park on the street in front of her house, which even if true, are car owners who may or may not be going to Chases since 24th Avenue has Beach access. In fact, while others who might have also complained have cars parked in front of their houses, she has no cars parked in front of her house except her own vehicle. It seems this complainant is not only upset with improperly parked vehicles, which if they were blocking a driveway the police can ticket, but with legitimately parked vehicles about a block east from her house. Obviously if fire engines can negotiate Hill Street, they can negotiate 24th Avenue, no matter how many cars are parked legitimately on both sides. Besides, on 24th Avenue parked cars are not on the road at all. On Memorial Day weekend there were no cars parked within 100 yards of Mrs. ****** house either at lunch or dinner. Nor were there any on the roadway.
The paper quotes Mark Rakowski, Director of Development Services, as saying that a 120 seat restaurants needs 60 parking spaces. He says Chases currently has only 36 spaces, if you only count 11 spaces on the extra lot rather than the 30-33. However, the ordinance says one parking space to three seats for a family restaurant, and even with his uncharitable reduction, that gives you 108 seats. By the way, without valet parking there are more than 30 cars in the unpaved lot across the street. As already stated, on last Sunday and Monday mornings there were no cars parked any where near where Mrs.******** lives, and, if there were, they can legitimately park there just like she can. If she does not want to see those legitimately parked vehicles near Chases, she should use Saxon Drive, which is actually closer to her house.
We applaud citizen participation, but here we think that it is not based upon fair criteria, and the persons complaining are less than fair. This type of complaint should not harass one of the few successful businesses in the City on A1A. Perhaps Chase as a business cannot vote, but the Shadow bets that a big chunk of its patrons can. In fact upon reflection, perhaps it is not Chases, but the patrons in their trendy and sometimes scanty beach attire, that offends Mrs. ****** and some of the other residents.
Instead of code enforcement creating a problem for Chases, perhaps they could cite Bert Fish for maintaining a dilapidated eyesore on the corner of Live Oak and Lytle Avenue. You know broken windows, collapsing porch, rusted doors, etc. Bet they won't. In addition, it occurred to the Shadow that Chases could fence off its extra lot, put up a sign telling patrons to park along the street, and not block driveways, walks, or dog runs. That will put another 30 cars on the street. That result is not what we think should be the result of planning.
DEAR MS LOWRY:
I NOTE THAT THE CITY HAS SCHEDULED A MEETING TO RETIRE TO EXECUTIVE SESSION AND DISCUSS UNION CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS. THE ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT CLEAR AS TO WHICH UNION CONTRACT WILL BE DISCUSSED. HOWEVER, BASED ON PRIOR COMMENTS BY THE CITY MANAGER, ONE WOULD SURMISE IT IS THE FIRE DEPARTMENT UNION. IF THIS IS THE CASE, A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE AS AN OBSERVER IN THIS MEETING, SINCE MR RICHENBERG HAS A SIGNIFICANT CONFLICT OF INTEREST. OR, HE SHOULD BE EXCLUDED FROM THE MEETING.
I REQUEST TO BE THE PARTICIPATING MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC TO ACT AS AN OBSERVER, AND WILL PLAN TO ATTEND.
PLEASE PROVIDE COPIES OF THIS EMAIL TO EACH COMMISSIONER AND THE CITY MANAGER.
POLICE FORCE FRAGMENTATION
Well, an interesting thing happened on the way to the Forum this week. The City of Deltona is thinking of having a referendum this Fall about starting up its own police force rather than continuing to buy service from the Volusia County Sheriff's office. Given the current inexpensive, and what looks like adequate service from the Volusia County Sheriff office, it is difficult to understand logically why they are contemplating tripling or quadrupling their costs to gain “local control.” It could be more than $7,000,000 a year according to one of Deltona’s committees. We are curious as to why in a budget year where there appears be the probability of a huge decline in tax revenue that this would surface. Nevertheless, there it is like a bump on a log! This concept is what has caused the communities in Southeast Volusia to ended up with top-heavy management, and over staffed independent police services which appear to costly for us to support. Most local elected officials seem to enshrine “local control” because it gives them the opportunity to control a larger work force, and to spend more money, which they do with abandon, because it not their money, its yours! The 'pressure' seems to be that they have a different mix of crimes; they have seen an increase in burglaries and a decrease in other major offenses. Nonetheless, several elected officials think this is the time to spend several million more dollars for this chimera that “local control” is better.
Two major arguments for a local police force were advanced in Deltona:
1.There are not enough visible police on patrol and some complaints of response time, and;
2.That the current percentage of crimes solved has gone down.
The former is somewhat specious since there is no showing from any study that more patrols in a low crime area results in a lower crime rate. If there are more patrols and police presence in a high crime area, the criminals, particularly dope peddlers and prostitutes, disperse to other areas. The number of detectives and type of crime principally controls the percentage of crimes solved. The response time of the Sheriff's office can easily be enhanced by buying more services from the Sheriff at a fraction of the cost of starting up their own police force. As stated, the mix of crimes also controls the crime rate solved for it is a given that if the crimes in question are petty burglaries where there is no forcible entry, the police are less likely to apprehend the criminal who could be your neighbor's kid snatching something from your unlocked car or an auto burglar supporting a habit. Homicides as crimes of passion, and robberies with a store camera taking pictures are more likely to be solved quickly.
The fallacy in looking at crimes “solved” as one of the most important elements is that the fall off in Deltona of 11% in the past year could be the failure to arrest two to four automobile burglars. Someone, we will assume with a drug habit, breaks into one or two cars a week to support his or her habit. A drug addict does not just commit one car burglary a year—that will not support a habit. Therefore, the closure rate will depend on catching the fence, 'turning' a seller of drugs to rat out the burglar, or a fortuitous sighting by a citizen who can identify the thief. When a car burglar is apprehended, you generally solve a hundred crimes with that one arrest. Now arrest that one thief and you have a 5% drop in solved crime rate if you only have 1,943 crimes (Deltona last year) in your 100 square mile town of 85,000 people.
So let us look at the other issues. Graffiti is off the wall (pun intended) at two of the commercial malls managed by the spouse of one of Deltona’s Commissioners. You would think that to control graffiti and small burglaries, the mall owners could supply better security, perhaps hire an off duty policeman, and use Mayor Giuliani’s method of getting graffiti removed immediately. The Commissioners' answer is to spend possibly five or ten million dollars for a locally controlled police force that is certainly going to patrol those two malls. The Neanderthals do graffiti so that they and there friends can admire the art work, and if it is instantly removed there is nothing to admire. Of course if you manage a mall or two, why not demand more police protection and not hire extra security guards or night watch man?
Are there Deltona taxpayers who really will want to buy into their own police force when they examine the problems now being experienced by the small Cities in Southeast Volusia County? There has been an absolute failure to control grade creep, and elected officials who authorize over generous salary levels and pension plans. Of course, those who favor this proposal will probably be well funded by the police forces in Southeast Volusia County.
"BREAKING NEWS"
MR TAYLOR HAS ADVISED US THAT THE CLOSED SPECIAL CITY COMMISSION MEETING, SCHEDULED FOR TUESDAY, JUNE 5TH, WILL NOT BE ATTENDED BY UNION PERSONNEL. THOSE IN ATTENDANCE WILL BE CITY COMMISSIONERS, THE CITY MANAGER, THEIR LABOR ATTORNEY, THE CITY ATTORNEY, AND THE PERSONNEL DIRECTOR. MR RICHENBERG IS OUT OF TOWN AND WILL NOT ATTEND. NO MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC WILL BE PERMITTED TO ATTEND.
