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November 14, 2011
DEAR PAM
We realize that you have limited resources available for pursuing cost reduction projects, so we have decided to help you with draft letters. This will free you up for important things, like dealing with all the serious problems of the police and fire department pensions. Hope this helps you formulate your position to the Mayor.
NOTES
1.THE WATERFRONT LOOP: FANTASY TIME: A GOURMET TRIP AROUND THE INTERCOASTAL EATING ALL THE WAY
The Waterfront Loop: 11 mile run near the United Nations building, NY,NY, or Portland, Oregon Park. Where did the City find that spiffy name? From a chiropractor?
The Shadow believes that exactly at 6:43PM each Saturday, each fast Food restaurant in the City of New Smyrna Beach should prepare three hot dishes to be sold at Kiosks on the North Causeway sponsored by the Shadow. Currently there are only two restaurants that we can find on the Intracoastal in NSB, and the Breakers, along with Chases, on the ocean. So where is the chiropractor Ms Holly hiding the rest of the 22 touted on I95 billboard? Want a name? How about “Miles of Sand” or “It is the Beach, Stupid”, New Smyrna Beach.
2. THE UNITED STATES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
The Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce is not a Chamber associated with the national association and supports few if any of the national’s goals. It is a misrepresentation for this City “Department” to masquerade as a Chamber of Commerce. They have never questioned any wasteful spending. This bunch lives free in taxpayer funded digs and contributes nothing to protecting its member’s interests.
Mayor Barringer:
If you let Otte moonlight for Edgewater, he will take home more than I do. Where is my raise and can you call Ponce Inlet and ask them to stop sending me local resident bills, as I only rent.
Maybe Hathaway can fix this when slides into a County Council seat as Joie was of no help.
PAM
1.RUMORS THAT WILL NOT GO AWAY
A. Liz Yancy has been asked to resign. Pam is probably working on a buyout.
Remember Rakowski---no pink slip and $43,000 taxpayer cash. It is tax money, so why should she or Liz care.
B. They are going to charge the Golf course for the $30,000 grass cutter the City bought. Ok, they are going to give it to the Sports Complex and then loan it to the Golf course. No, the new auditors are going to declare it worthless and write it off and then they are going to give it to the Golf course.
2. CHAIRMAN BRUNO, HOW ABOUT THAT JOB WITH THE SVAA.
Chairman Bruno, I wrote an ad for my sister's lemonade stand, so I think I can be the Director of the SVAA. I understand you are having trouble getting the current director to comply with the Sunshine Law and citizen requests. I assure you that I can handle that in a heartbeat.
Just give me a call.
NSB Norman Normal - catch me the Gnarly Surf Bar.
3. WHY DOES THE CRA REFUSE TO PAY CHAD FOR HIS BARRINGER DEAL?
There is a rumor going around that claims the CRA will refuse to give Chad Schilsky his CRA grant money because the County has stepped in and said no. Anyone verify that?
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Date: 11/9/2011, 6:02 PM
Name: Mike Schilsky
Dear Taxpayer,
I am proud to say that Chad Schilsky is my son. And for clarification, CRA money is GRANT MONEY and is not funded through taxpayers' dollars.
Special interest groups help support our community. It's easy for transplants to be critical; however, those of us who have been residents for nearly 40 years have seen what those special interest groups have done to positively impact our community.
THE SHADOW RESPONDS: We think the father’s fantasy explains the son’s ignorance and arrogance. It is more important what values you teach your children than how long you have lived somewhere. We never heard that arrogance was a virtue. Does being born here 60 or 70 years ago make your views more logical? When will a ”transplant” be allowed to challenge your arrogant determination that you and your son can steal their tax money? We think you need to rethink your position as neither you nor your son own this town; the people who live here do and pay dearly for that right each year through their tax bills.
Date: 11/12/2011, 4:38 PM
Name: Lookout
553,
Don't think Boob bought the paper.
Think he told Horizon he wanted the masthead for historical reasons on behalf of the Cities of NSB and Edgewater.
The rest is the train-wreck called Boob Looter.
Date: 11/12/2011, 3:52 PM
Name: Mike Schilsky
Dear "DROP needs to be gone", Walk in the shoes of a public servant before you cast your stones. You have no clue as to what you are talking about! This is the little payback towards retirement that dedicated servants count on after years of service.
SHADOW RESPONDS; We hope this not the mentality of our school workers here in Volusia County. If it is, it is a sad commentary on the state of affairs and a total lack of consideration for the taxpayer. No one forced them to go into teaching, so why do they feel they are special? This DROP mentality has been taken to the absurd when one claims because he has a job he is entitled to more money on the public dole.
BLOGS: A STATEMENT BY THE SHADOW
The Shadow generally does not edit BLOGS. Very profane comments, even in only first letters, and attacks accusing anyone of a crime are deleted or reformed even when they are about public officials. Personal attacks upon the publisher that are devoid of content are deleted. But not always. Not all postings are essays on important subjects. Not all are fully cogent. On the real positive side, there are way more than 100,000 postings over the last few years and many are excellent tip offs as to funny goings on in Mayberry. Many also are excellent essays on relevant topics. Do our readers a favor and stop attacking the opposing political party as commies or reactionaries. The Shadow does edit for spelling.
A. WHO ARE THE INVESTORS. The CRA approved a project to build a hotel, but will not indulge the public with the names of the investors. More than several taxpayers watching the transaction believe there are no investors. Given that the CRA gave the “investors” property, how about the County Council asking for an accounting?
B. PENNYSAVER GIFT, NOT A LOAN.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop property that the owner will use as his own asset to make money. How about a low interest loan instead of just throwing tax money at his venture as a gift? Bet the banks turned him down because they questioned how his proposal would succeed.;
C. REMEMBER CHAD SCHILSKY?
The That’s Amore Restaurant grant to a CRA Board member who announces he is hiring the Mayor’s construction company on a no bid deal to spend the CRA grant. That more than raised a few eyebrows. Well is Chad Schilsky also behind the City effort to not sell the old fire station site on Columbus (as proposed as off set for funds spent on new station). It is in a residential district. They now want to turn it into a parking lot for Flagler pub crawls. It just happens by chance to be near Pine and Flagler; That's Amore is on Pine near Flagler.
D. RENTING PARKING SPACES FROM THE CHURCH
Renting parking spaces from the Coronado Methodist Church without any study of cost effectiveness. ( 65 spaces for five years at a cost of about $135,000 and CRA Director Tony Otte verifies no cost benefit analysis or study done.) While the parking we are certain will be open to all, the street believes this to take the burden off the Valet parking cost currently being paid we are informed by the newly finished Gnarly Bar, where apparently some fluke of permitting allowed for too few parking spaces to table; now how could that happen in NSB?. If true, the Council should find out the details. And what happens on pub crawl night, will the Gnarley have parking units set aside? It is their CRA in their eyes, but it is really the taxpayer’s and is the responsibility of the County Council;
E. FLAGER ASSOCIATION GRANTS.
Year after year of donations for events on Flagler to a private group to promote events that enhances their own businesses. No elimination of blight that we can observe. It looks improper if not illegal;
F. FRIENDS OF CANAVERAL.
How about not funding charities outside the district. There is nothing more than anecdotal---translate no hard evidence---that it enhanced traffic on Flagler or Canal resulted from the recent Friends of Canaveral junket. None, Nada, but they increased the advertising grant to $15,000 from$10,000 in 2010, And it seems they spent a good chunk of the money in advertisements in the Observer. Now who would have thought that would happen?
Any one of the above items would warrant putting the CRA and SVAA under receivership supervised by the County Council. Mr. Bruno are you listening?
For the benefit of all and specifically some bloggers this week that continue to think CRA money is not tax money and thus their grants are not tax money, we offer an OFFICIAL TALLEY received from Volusia County of CRA payments to the County's various CRAs. The sources shown are all clearly tax money. Note that NSB got $1,029,262 for FY 2010-2011. We hope this answers Mr. Schilsky Senior's question. It is TAX MONEY, ALL OF IT!
1. THE COUNTY COUNCIL IS RESPONSIBILE FOR COMMUNITY REDVELOPMENT AND SVAA ABUSE OF TAXPAYER MONEY
There is no fig leaf to cover up the failure of the County Council to stop the excesses of the CRA in New Smyrna Beach to fund pub walks and give money to their friends. They must be half blind like Joie Alexander. She endorsed a CRA proposal because the “CRA did not request additional resources” while she seemed to forget that half the money they proposed to spend was a County contribution.
Or totally blind when any of them voted a political “solution” instead of a simple personnel evaluation of an applicant for a tax funded position at the SVAA. The County Council is contributing money to groups that are violating their mandate and wasting everybody’s money.
Just look at the nonsense we have witnessed in the last several months (Basically a new list.):
THE OBSERVER IS GONE—GOOD RIDDANCE
When the Observer’s name was bought by Robert Lott he turned it into a cheering rag for those grifters who feel they are entitled to steal from the taxpayers.
The City, SEV Chamber, CRA, and SVAA directly and indirectly funneled money to him. His corrosive influence over the last several years, here and in Edgewater, would have been less likely had the City not published “legal” notices and the Flagler pub crawl lady not given him CRA and SVAA tax money. It is interesting to note that despite the absence of any similar level of advertising funding being afforded the Observer’s nemesis, NSBNEWS.NET and its Co-Publishers Peter Mallory and Henry Frederick, that media outlet continued to publish news and cover local events fairly and consistently. The fact that NSBNEWS is still here and Lott and the Observer are gone, reflects the difference between the two. Differences that all of the organizations listed above chose to ignore and instead funneled, for the most part, taxpayer money to Lott and Company. Looks like the Downtown Clown will now have company in the unemployment line.
Date: 11/10/2011, 10:04 AM
Name: Mr. Ed
The fact is, we are all a little irritated with the fact that those property owners in the CRA get to keep their Tax dollars in their own neighborhood, while the rest of us, see our tax dollars disappear down a rat hole!
In other words, the City Commission uses our taxes to pay for fire and police, city administration etc. etc. , while the CRA spends their tax dollars on THEMSELVES!
And they spend it on some rather dubious capital projects and promotions for private companies...which, normally would be illegal.
Or don't you realize that is illegal under Florida Law?
Date: 11/13/2011, 9:23 AM
Name: To tony & harley
Why shop at an over priced boutique on Flagler or Canal Street. You can get the same product at Target as my wife from Winter park does. You don't have to pay triple for a T-shirt on Flagler and dodge the drunks and low lifes.
Date: 11/12/2011, 2:20 PM
Name: Native
What's the waterfront loop?
Lived here 50-years, never heard of it!
Date: 11/12/2011, 10:57 am
Name: Go Ask Alice
NSB has no idea, not a clue, what real commerce looks like.
Too many years absent a true commercial model.
This City is like Alice lost in an opium haze believing restaurants, bars, moo moo shops and an undersized motel will save it.
Now, transplant Tony Otte is the chief opiated dreamer.
2. $1.5 MILLION FOR A PROPERTY ASSESED AT $77,000. PAYOUT BY VOLUSIA FOREVER
The Daytona Beach New Journal thinks it is a good idea.
“Support Volusia Forever, despite budget woes Florida and Volusia County need to maintain a clean, green image for the tourism industry. People worldwide come to Florida not just for its beaches and theme parks, but to view the forests, wetlands and unique coastal environments.”
But there are continuing questions being raised by concerned taxpayers that the program pays far more than a property is worth, especially when the property is owned by people in the know. The Shadow believes this agency should be abolished and States Attorney immediately investigate what has occurred and it is improper. The sooner the better.
3. NEWS JOURNAL COMFIRMS SHADOW'S TAKE ON THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE FIRE DEPARTMENT PERNSION IN NSB.
In a recent article the NJ rated the local cities and how well their pensions were funded. While the NSB police pension fund got an "A" rating with a cost of $13,430 per officer, the City's fire pension got a "D" with a cost of $23,533 per fireman, or nearly twice as much per person. This is exactly the problem that the SHADOW has been bringing to its' reader's attention for several years and which neither Mayor and City Commission or the City manager will tackle head on. The figures presented below are for 2009-2010 data, but since the City has done nothing to address this issue, we can only surmise that the figures have gone up. On the other hand, Port Orange, which got "F" for both of its agencies, has done something about it and should see dramatic reductions in the next few years as they have not approved a contract since 2008 in fighting to increase the employee's contribution levels. Read the figures below and weep, as these pensions, along with health benefits negotiated by the unions, are the main source of municipal bankruptcy over the years.
What To Take Away From The Article:
1. Fire department pensions (except for volunteer fire departments) are generally in worse shape than other pensions.
2. Most fire department pensions are negotiated by the IAFF and none were rated "A".
3. Pension coats shown are paid for by taxpayers.
4. Police in NSB pay about 8% into their plan while their fire department brothers pay only 1%.
Here is the excerpt from the article:
City pension report card
A Tallahassee think-tank released grades Wednesday for the pension systems in Florida's largest 100 cities. The municipal pension plans were evaluated on both their funding levels and costs per participant. The grades measure how much of the city's pension obligations are funded. An "A" grade, for example, means at least 90 percent of a city's obligations to retirees are currently funded. A "F" grade means less than 60 percent of the obligations are funded. Here's a rundown on how local cities fared in the report card. The cost represents how much the city has to pay per participant. Under-funded plans or those plans with greater benefits tend to cost more.
