MEDAL COUNT --- OLYMPIC COMPETITION STYLE
(OUR MEDALS ARE FOR THE POOREST PERFORMANCE)
Competitors: Southeast Volusia County Municipal Governments
Five Gold Medals for New Smyrna Beach
· Most Poorly managed Utility Commission
· Highest pay and pension in Southeast Volusia for Fire Department
· Most fire stations per capita (one for each 5,500 residents)
· Highest price for beachfront parking lot: $4.4 million, worth about $2.5 million
at time of purchase.· Most dithering in refusing to make a decision: Municipal Golf Course
One Silver
· Second highest trash pickup costs.
One Bronze
· Shared with Edgewater and Port Orange for expensive 911-RCC call service
Next week we will examine other competitions
September 8th, 2008
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1. The City Commission intends to raise your City taxes by almost 10%. They plan to spend $40,000 on a shed and kayaks for the Indian River Lagoon Park. The $40,000 budgeted for the “shed” hides the kayak purchase. The new shed is in addition to the unused building that the Grasty -Richenberg Trust Association (trading as the Marine Discovery Center) “leases” from the City at no cost. We also think that when you say a “shed” is going to cost $40,000 it is a lie to hide the fact that the shed will only cost about $18,000, and you plan to spend another $22,000 for the kayaks and paddles. We were at least happy to see a City police vehicle parked there Labor Day, as a security measure we presume. However, he could not see the building the way he was parked.
2. The IRS allowance for each car that went home with our police officers as a perk before July 1, 2008 was 50.5 cents per mile. After July I, 2008, it is 58.5 cents. So Commander Mims, let us use him as a poster child here, drives a car back and forth to Ormond Beach each night that we estimate is 30 miles in each direction. Before July 1, the IRS would require the City to credit him with about $30 a day additional income on which he would be required to pay income tax, and after July 1, $38 a day. If he wants to take a squad car home, how about asking him to pay the City about $750 a month for the gas and wear and tear on the vehicle, instead of escalating his income by that amount, or tell him to commute in his own vehicle. We wonder if his W2 included this income, but we bet his retirement calculation does?
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.
“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
A POTPOURRI OF CITIZEN COMMENTS IS AGAIN PROVIDED THIS WEEK IN ORDER FOR YOU TO GET IN TUNE WITH THE MOOD OF OUR READERS
Drossman sends a racist e-mail to two of his subordinates. It may be a non-event if you are not a minority or have friends who are minorities (AKA racists). The rest of the decent people in this town are totally disgusted. I wonder what would have happened if he sent the e-mail and he was working for Ft. Lauderdale Police Department. We all know the answer. He would have been fired as soon as the police department found out about it. I believe I read that Drossman left Ft. Lauderdale shortly after the city settled the lawsuit on the police dog attack on the homeless sleeping in the park. I doubt Ft. Lauderdale was sorry to see him leave. The people of New Smyrna Beach are better than Bill Drossman.
I don't blame teachers for the poor educational output these days as much as parents. Parents no longer teach their kids much of anything at home - they couldn't be bothered. They leave it to the teachers, among others, to raise them. God forbid the teacher attempt any discipline in the classroom though - something else that can't be found in homes these days. Until parents start to do their part the future doesn't look so bright. I feel bad for my friends that are teachers. Administrators are bleeding the wallets of taxpayers, but, parents who don't parent are the worst part of the equation.
The UC is suffering from the three "Ps" (Piss-Poor- Performance). If the UC spent half the time it spends making excuses for its piss-poor-performance as it spends making up excuses for its piss-poor- performance, the problem would be solved. The UC needs to fire Rodi for piss-poor-performance. If the UC will not fire Rodi, the city commission needs to fire all of its UC commissioners for piss- poor-performance. If the city commission will not do it, we need to recall all of our city commissioners for piss-poor-performance.
Most amazing - I just went over posts about NSB Middle School - "devout" Obama guy just can't seem to comprehend meaning of geography teacher making my sons look up soldier deaths every Monday. Earth to clueless - it is a geography class not political indoctrination hour. Teach your hairy little daughters anything you want at home. This is not Iran or Nazi Germany. He is paid to teach geography. No wonder our education system lags so far behind other nations.
South Atlantic Grill has joined Scott's Blue Water Grill - out of business. How much did Mayor Silly raise our taxes? One hand slaps the other!
When the taxpayers and the governor demand tax cuts, you do not implement increases. Throw away the shopping lists, new ideas [that’s if you want to save the County and City employee's pay and benefits.] The county cronies must have kickbacks coming from contractors to push constant new projects and buildings.
Maybe we should start calling Randy a "COMMUNITY ORGANIZER"! Let’s see, he's organized a Union Contract that's just WONDERFUL! ( For the Union) He's organized the MDC, and it’s WONDERFUL! ( for everyone except the taxpayers) He also Organized the Golf Course, which is great for Golf Club Members, but just a financial fiasco for the rest of us..........Gee, I wonder, what else is he going to Organize? I mean, besides another TAX INCREASE to pay for all his past Organizing?
Nothing will make the old high school an economic viability. Money taken from tax sources will outstrip any income from teachers or students etcetera. This is the MDC leech farm on steroids. We don't have a single medium to large nonprofit entity in the area that does not suck the teats of taxpayers. Endorsing this boondoggle for any reason requires you adopt the buy now and save slogan. You can not buy to save - saving is not buying! What is the real danger are the political problems brought about by this type of mindset. These are the very same people who rezoned our beach, steal property rights, and refuse to drill for oil, drive off new business, support prosperity and hate growth. Old high school needs to be condominiums, a turnip farm or a sleazy surf board makers. ANYTHING but another governmentally approved money pit or indoctrination center. Look up HS promoter's champions online. MOTE Marine Labs is perfect example. Tree Huggers every one. Tar and feather the ones we have and close the gate. Let Ponce Inlet suffer the horror before it’s too late.
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 and Commissioners
From John Hagood
Re: Golf Course Subsidy
There seems to be a disconnect at the Commission in addressing the Municipal Golf Course deficit. According to the May 8, 2008, budget it is $513,000 for 2008, and in the 2009 projected budget it is shown as $518,000. I tried to make it look better last month by saying that it would be about $350,000, but unless you five recognize that any more delay in charging members more fees is just going to make it worse, you all may be subject to a recall petition. I will not be able to suggest a lower number with a straight face unless you act immediately.
John
NOTES
1. We welcome advice, but please do not make the assumption that we are not aware of other formats. We are, and have decided not to change. Remember, we want a “Raucous Debate” (see link) and have decided not to go to “threads” which let the reader follow a single topic and read solely about one subject. We want you to peruse our entire front page, and let your eyes and mind ignore what you do not care to read. The seriatim format of our opinion page requires you to scroll through what everyone else posts, is a better way for most readers to find out what is going on in town, and allows you to read or ignore those postings that interest you. We have plenty of bandwidth, and could buy an inexpensive software program to block those who are just trying to change the subject, or are so juvenile and immature that they do not understand the damage that they do to their cause. No, change is frequently good but bears with out decision to keep the “blog” the way it is. Click on ABOUT in our heading and also look at the article on a “Raucous Debate”LINK.[ Billy, this was published on June 2,2008, and ken will send it as a separate article.]
2. Our “staff” is non-existent and we rely on telephone calls and tidbits of information fed to the Shadow for leads, articles, topics of interest, and of course, jokes. We try to be accurate, and if information comes our way that is not and we screw up, we issue corrections and try to set the record straight. Look at the electric rate issue. If we would have continued to use “one of the highest rates in Florida” we would not have had the specter of some other mismanaged utility in Central Florida ‘leapfrogging’ over the UC as having the highest local rates. But keep in mind, Rodi or his puppet master Diesen, or any of the UC Commissioners could have written us any time to call attention to the fact that our high and unnecessary electric rates were also being charged others.
TALLY OF SQUANDERED MONEY
(Week of September 8, 2008)
It occurred to us that we should keep a weekly tally of the money our City Commission could easily not spend, similar to picking cherries from a dwarf cherry tree, but a little less difficult than peeling grapes. We cannot hope to provide a complete list but just a few items to show how your money is “frittered away” by your Commissioners and government officials for the two weeks between Commission meetings.
Terminate nine (9) retired fire personnel from DROP $80-$100,000
No action on Municipal Golf Course $42,000 ($1500 per day)
$42,000 ($1500 per day)Or, change the membership rules $21,000
$21,000Abolish the 911-RCC call service $26.200
$26.200Using the high side estimate, $188,000 (one month)
$188,000 (one month)Using the low side estimate, $137,000 (one month)
$137,000 (one month)STORMWATER UTILITY
SLUSH FUND
Did you know that there was over $11 million dollars in our “Storm Water Utility” slush fund and there seems to be no big projects in the works on which to spend more than a few nickels of it on some small projects. Well maybe there is no money in the fund and these are just interesting book keeping entries that tickle our fancy. But there is an entry also that says the special assessment for this fund is $1,425,000 million dollars in the 2009 budget and expenditures for 2009 are projected at $209,724-----about one seventh of what they are collecting. They are adding to the fund by raising your taxes. It is an insult to taxpayers to tax you at a time they claim they are spending down money from a “reserve” that is not even being used. It may not be criminal, but it is clearly devious.
But then, try and think about why this fund should not be a special assessment in a tax district and not a general assessment for the whole City. If you paid extra for your property so as not to be in a flood zone, why should you pay to protect someone who bought cheaper knowing that the lower price reflected that he might have a flooding problem in the future. Special tax districts are for just that purpose, but the way they set up this fund, it charges owners who already paid more for a less susceptible property to pay for the guy who did not. The numbers on the backs of the piglets reflect the total cost to the City in 2006 for salary. pension, and benefit costs. The actual salaries are lower. The DROP program adds another $40,000 to $50,000 remuneration for each of them. Do not fret. They are not demanding, except for the 3% pay increase and no cut in their four hours each pay period at time and one half.
HOW NOT TO BUY KAYAKS
It may be that that City owned kayaks were bought outside of what would ordinarily be considered the required City bidding process. It might also be that the purchasing of those kayaks was “farmed” out to some of the folks at the “Grasty-Richenberg Trust Association” (trading as the ‘Marine Discovery Center’), and that a possible failure of the open bidding requirement resulted in a decision to purchase them from a vendor in Port Orange at an additional cost to the City of $4,000. Forget the paddles which it appears could have been bought locally or over the internet for a lot less than they paid. We are not even sure who gave the MDC the nod to buy anything for the City, but we are sure that the City is spending $40,000 for the shed and kayaks, giving the use of them free of housing or maintenance costs to the MDC, and is allowing the MDC to keep any revenue they might earn with this asset for themselves. This largess has no place in a City that is not collecting enough taxes to pay its bills.
Add this to the fact that we have yet to determine what the MDC is being paid to do for their $84,000 annual gift. We know that the “contract” for watching the Indian River Lagoon Park could be negotiated under bid for almost nothing, and that it can not be for operating the boats to the Lighthouse since that is supposedly being paid from the Federal Grant. The arrangements between the City and the MDC seem to be getting murkier and stranger every time we look in that direction. We have asked who got the $84,000 last year and are waiting for the City Clerk to tell us.
We think there is a common thread through all of these continued spending anomalies and possibly irregularities in buying expensive play toys for this city which we clearly cannot afford. The common vote in all of these is the threesome led by Randy Richenberg (Richenberg, Plaskett, and Grasty). Protect the subsidies, protect the City employees, run City business as gifts for the favored few, and promote causes that are anti-business and anti-development.
CREATIVE MATH
We are intrigued at the suggestion of the City Manager that the break even point for a round of golf at the municipal golf course is $24. He computes this, we think, including the use of a golf cart and a $2 surcharge. We not only think that he must be engaged in New Math, but that the new math he used is out of whack.
First the May 8, 2008, mid-year budget for New Smyrna Beach shows a deficit of $513,000 at the Municipal Golf Course for the first six months (October though March) projected for the entire year. Now Easter was early and everyone went home, gasoline remained high and despite having built it, out of town golfers did not come, many days and several weekends were lost to rain, and the last four months have been a disaster for generating revenue. But then only a month or so ago, notwithstanding the terrible first six months, the City Manager told the Commission that the loss was only projected to be $350,000. Maybe there is a secret agreement with the Golf Course Board for them to make up the shortfall, but we doubt it. Our math suggests that the shortfall will be in excess of $500,000 and could be as high as $750,000.
Then there is that interesting $24 per round figure that the City Manager has used to describe the per round break even point. We begin first with the report last year from Cypress Head, which is the Port Orange Municipal Golf Course run by Kemper Sports, a privately run management company which also now has the management contract with Venetian Bay in New Smyrna Beach. They stated their need for about $43 dollars per player per round to break even which is why they suffered a loss in 2007, and did not generate the usual monthly payment to Port Orange. We believe they operate this course like a privately owned course and do not have subsidized “Country Club” members.
We will have a separate article on the absurdity of not turning the Municipal Golf Course over to competent professional management. Now it is run like a Country Club where the members are coddled by a staff (20.5) that is almost three times larger than privately run enterprises, the course is falling apart because of poor maintenance, and the members do not want to pay their fair share. The City will not even own up to the real costs and the unlikelihood that it will ever change because the City Commission would rather spend taxpayer money subsidizing a few self-centered golfers, than balancing the golf course budget. It would be better to hire ten extra teachers to augment teaching in the schools than to give this money to recreational duffers who will not pay for their own recreation.
EVAC_DAYTONA REVISITED
While saving tax dollars is on everyone’s mind, apparently it wasn’t several weeks ago when the City of Daytona Beach got the bright idea to ask the County Council for permission take over ambulance service from the non-profit EVAC and give it to the Daytona Beach fire department. Yes, Wednesday August 6, 2008 Daytona’s idea of tax savings was to hire 27 more union employees. The Daytona Beach Fire Chief said he could save the city millions by hiring more people. Fortunately, the County Council knew better. At their meeting on August 22, 2008, the Volusia County Council gave EVAC Ambulance and its paramedics a unanimous vote of confidence and squashed the city fire union’s move on EVAC. The City of Daytona is trying to find work for their firefighters as their current work load continues to decrease year after year. During a time when it is obvious that the current fire departments in Volusia County are oversized and bloated, the movement should be toward consolidation of these top heavy independent operations. When you have a spare moment, think about why Edgewater with 21,500 residents and roughly the same square miles as New Smyrna Beach with an almost identical population has only two fire stations and 30 firefighters and New Smyrna Beach has four stations and 50 personnel. It gets even funkier when one talks about why Daytona Beach needs seven stations, when Port Orange with only 10,000 fewer citizens has five. Do not talk about the need beachside in Daytona Beach because both Ormond and Daytona Beach Shores could probably easily provide any needed service beachside.
Let’s put in perspective the fire fighter union’s program to find more work for fire departments that have less and less to do. There are almost no structural fires (house) fires since the stock of houses is increasingly built under modern codes. With the sagging economy, even medical calls are decreasing, and when you read the narratives submitted with the statistics it is obvious that few of the heart attack cases cited to justify a fast response result in the patient getting to the hospital alive. The fact is there is less and less work for a more and more expensive set of overbuilt facilities staffed with underutilized fire fighter trained medics whose skills atrophy due to a lack of use. When the house fire work ran out and was no longer there for fire department employees, they morphed into Fire/Rescue Departments. When the medical calls seemed threatened through modern medical devices and treatment (think of pacemakers and the myriad of medicines for congestive heart failure and arterial fibrillation) they have tried to sell sudden heart attacks for the reason they need more facilities and more personnel to a truck. Now that there is an understanding that the standard they touted did not save lives, they want to expand their function again to avoid reductions in force and consolidation. Fire Rescue Departments continue to quote NFPA standards as being their bench mark “best practices” of which they MUST adhere to; well don’t forget, the NFPA is made up of retired fire union chiefs and the vendors who sell them those $500,000.00 fire trucks and the expensive equipment with which to stock it. They also advise as “consultants” on labor, salary and benefit issues. They offer and cherry pick the best benefits that have been awarded to departments across the nation and pass those gems on to other department unions with which to lambaste their elected officials. In other words, a very self-serving group.
The method used by the Union in other Florida Counties for breaking into the ambulance business can be seen by how they have cherry picked the cities where they have made an effort. Normally they have picked more affluent small cities which have a high retiree base with pensions. Those are the communities where charges to insurance companies are more likely to be paid. The push at Daytona Beach is therefore an anomaly because it’s larger and a lower income/indigent population base is less likely to be insured. There is almost no chance the economic junk they advance as cost effective could withstand any close scrutiny.
We asked for the Daytona Beach Fire department W-2s. They printed it out instead of sending the Excel file, which from past experience we know would make it close to unreadable and difficult to manipulate to make sense. This is not by chance. New Smyrna Beach has $35,000 new recruits with an overhead cost for each of 70%---in other words $59,000 for each new employee in the first year even without the overtime. We assume that the fire department in Daytona Beach is just as over paid and that the union has wheedled a benefits package that is close to as generous. Think about the Fire Chief’s statement that he will only need 27 additional employees at $35,000. Then clap for Tinker Bell. The County Council’s decision should be enshrined with the words “Enough is enough”. The suggestion by the County Manager that he may see some merit in future discussions is simply unfathomable. What are needed is discussions like those in Seminole County that lead to consolidation of these fire departments, not how to break up a functioning County wide service to give more work to inefficient and costly local fire departments. Fire departments in Volusia County and its 16 cities cost the taxpayers a total of about $84 million dollars. Why are we talking about breaking up the $3.5 million dollar EVAC ambulance service instead of consolidating the fire departments and looking for ways to save a chunk of the $84 million dollar piece? Mr. Bruno has taken leadership to a new level by saying exactly what the county needs, an efficient unified system which needs to start with consolidation of the fire services which spend over $80,000.000.00 of your hard earned dollars every year. Retreat is not an option! What are Mr. Dinneen and Ms. Connors up too? If they are really attempting to save the taxpayer money, then cutting overhead is the way to do it, not shifting the cost to some poor bankrupt city government!
Could it be because two of the City council members are retired fire department employees, who currently live the fast life with $50,000.00 cars and vacation homes on the Pacific Ocean in Costa Rica? Now how did they do that???
BUDGET MEETING WEDNESDAY
(SEPTEMBER 10)
Next Wednesday the City of New Smyrna Beach City Commission is planning to consider and adopt the proposed FY 2009 budget. Despite the decrease in property values, it appears the City is increasing its Ad Valorem tax rate by 10%. We have been asked by some of you who believe the City should cut spending and not increase its tax rate to publicize this meeting as a public service.
In addition, Bill Koleszar, concerned citizen, has asked that we publish his telephone number. Call him if you wish to join him in opposing this tax increase, 386 426-6007.
FLOOD RELIEF
OR POLICE BLOAT
Deltona now has a choice. Spend $10 or $20 million dollars more than the Volusia County Sheriff is charging for law enforcement services for a nice locally controlled police force, like Castleberry or New Smyrna Beach, or on the other hand, they could spend the money for flood control and help many of the local taxpayers out of a bad situation. We have no doubt that the elected worthies in Deltona have deluded themselves and may actually believe they will achieve parity with the Sheriff’s costs in a few years with the almost certain expensive “local control” police force and another 100 or so City employees. It is clearly what the bureaucrats want, but needed flood abatement programs will have no funding and the constantly flooded Deltona citizens will not be high and dry.
A READER’S Treatise on the Finance Department
We removed a long article from the opinion page that provided useful information about the New Smyrna Beach Finance Department. We republish it here. For those of you with the inclination to provide such extensive blogs, we prefer that you submit them for publication as standalone articles. If you have qualms about punctuation, grammar or spelling, we will edit for you. If you do not want or need our help, that’s ok too. Keep the information flowing, it is good for you, but not for them!
“Finance Department Profile the Finance Department handles all of the financial aspects of the city. Among the major duties tasked to the Department are to: Prescribe the accounting system. Prescribe vouchers or form of disbursements. Receive and collect all funds belonging to the City. Require certain accountability from City departments, offices, officers or employees. Keep the books of account relating to indebtedness. Keep account of all moneys due to the City. Keep disbursement records of officers and employees (payroll). Maintain assessment records. Provide for an annual fiscal audit. Certify availability of appropriations needed for contracts, agreements or other obligations. Issuing occupational licenses, permits and other such licenses and permits. Submit a monthly financial status report to the City Manager. Provide estimate information for purposes of compiling budgets. Grant accounting. Other duties as required. To manage these duties, the Department maintains a total staff of seven, comprised of: Finance Director Deputy Finance Director 3 Accounting Technicians 1 Data/Entry Receptionist 1 Intern Here are some facts and figures relative to Finance Department operations for last year. Process bi-weekly payroll for approximately 256 employees. Maintain and issue more than 2,005 business licenses annually. Maintain vendor database of over 3,800. Issued nearly 5,200 disbursement checks in fiscal year 2007. Maintain more than 3,900 general ledger accounts. Generate over 75 invoices monthly to customers. Serve as staff liaison to Police and Fire Pension Board of Trustees. Plan assets valued at $13 million and $11.7 million, respectfully. Emergency management role: Citizens Information Center (pre-event circumstances). Record keeping/claim reimbursement documentation (post-event). At the very heart of City finances is its budget, or annual spending plan. If it were to be broken out on a daily basis, it would reveal that the daily City’s General Fund allowance is $ 60,827. Of course, the City’s spending needs are not even. Payrolls are bi- weekly, most debt payments are semi-annually, some operating expenses are monthly, and still others may only be once a year. Big ticket items like capital purchases for vehicles or equipment can occur all throughout the fiscal year, which is October to September. Special events also affect the timing of City expenditures. Regardless of when an expenditure is made, however, there must (by local policy and state law), first be available resources for the payment. The City’s General Fund (its primary fund) budget for 2008 is $22.9 million. Making up the major elements of revenue are property taxes, which are 46% of the total, followed by other taxes (19%), required payments from the Utilities Commission (15%), state shared revenues (15%), and the remainder from other sources (user fees, permits, and other incomes). More than half (54%) of the General Fund budget in 2008 is appropriated for Public Safety (Police, Fire, Emergency Management). In fact, public safety costs, budgeted at $11.9 million consume all ad- valorem tax revenue and then some. Taking the next largest piece of general fund resources is Recreation at 17.6%, followed by Public Works at 16%, and then general government activities, such as Development Services, Finance, Personnel, Information Technology, other general government and Executive Administration. The total City budget is just over $71 million, which includes all funds (Airport, Community Redevelopment Agency, Storm water Utility, Golf Course, Sanitation, Fleet Maintenance, Capital Projects, and Debt Service). City fiscal operations are independently audited every year. An audit is required by City regulation, state law, grant covenant, and debt issuance compliance.”
WOW, wow, wow!!
At the budget meeting Wednesday night citizens came armed with the clubs necessary to get the donkey’s attention, and with a standing room only crowd, informed our elected worthies that their refusal to cut spending was unacceptable. It was formerly said that the only way the USSR would listen to anyone was when they were staring down the barrel of a gun, and the person at the other end was known to be ready, willing, and able to use it. Following two years of refusing to make any significant spending cuts, they agreed to allow the City Manager to return a significantly reduced budget, only after there was a taxpayers’ revolt and threats of removal if they did not reduce the budget and not raise taxes. However, they really passed the buck until the next meeting! Keep in mind that while they dithered over the last year and refused to take action, they lost $513,000 on the golf course. Some who attended this meeting say “the people” do not want police and fire funding cut for fear that their public safety would be impaired. This is an unfounded fear perpetuated by these same police and fire department personnel to protect their excessive cost. Mr. Hagood can do his job and reduce the budget by much more than $1,000,000 if the City Commission will remove his fetters!
We asked legitimate questions to obtain information to which you and we are entitled to have . Stonewalling and cover up is the name of the game they wish to play. We passionately believe in free speech and a free press. We will prevail.
"Passion in the job puts perfection in the work" - Aristotle
The numbers on the backs of the piglets reflect the total cost to the City in 2006 for salary. pension, and benefit costs. The actual salaries are lower. The DROP program adds another $40,000 to $50,000 remuneration for each of them. Do not fret. They are not demanding, except for the 3% pay increase and no cut in their four hours each pay period at time and one half.
We are showing as a baby with a rant, but the fact is that he is deliberate about defending the outrageous fire department salaries, building expensive and unneeded as well as unaffordable fire palaces, and throwing money away on pet projects that bring nothing to the City. He is a fiscal disaster and there is nothing funny about him as he refuses to cut spending.
Vallejo, California, has been declared bankrupt (August 5, 2008 ) and there will now be a discussion of how to restructure its debts and obligations. This includes its employee contracts for pay, pensions, and benefits.
