Do You Have Confidence in the Roger Smith Police Investigation ????

Confidence in the Roger Smith police investigation ????

September 30, 2013 4:30 PMTo: <port.orange.us@gmail.com> “Hank Springer” <poimages@cfl.rr.com>Cc:”Greg Kisela” <gkisela@port-orange.org> “Gerald Monahan” <geraldm@port-orange.org> “Margaret Roberts” <mroberts@port-orange.org>
The credibility and confidence wounds that Port Orange sustained in the  Parker, Pike,  Shely, Barnhart,  and Smith  fiascos  will never heal until citizens and employees alike are satisfied that justice and not yet another cover-up has been done.
Clearly  Heraclitus  who appears to have insider information not only is  not satisfied,    HE  HAS JUST ACCUSED  POPD of conducting an  investigation   as phony as the ones conducted before it by  Moore Stephens Loveless  and CRI.    The only difference with this investigation is that  *this investigation  was criminal,  and  *an orderly  society demands confidence in its  police.
The allegations raised by  Heraclitus  which I have highlighted below cannot go unanswered,   AND I would caution Counsel to defer approving the Roger Smith settlement until it has been established that a thorough criminal investigation has been conducted. 
I believe  the investigative reports  by Moore Stephens and CRI   have covered-up as much if not  more that they disclosed   for several reasons including the following.
The Mayor and Manager were  hell bent on reveling as little embarrassing information as possible. 
*)  this whole matter was brought to Mayor Greens attention by  Rob Poust  during last year’s election in July 2012,    months before the Finance department scandal broke.  The  Mayor by his own admissions did not bring those allegations to his Counsel for the their consideration.   Rather he passed them along to his  manager –” Mr. Fix-It”   who as the story goes gave them  to his  Assistant Manager “for investigation”  but she can’t really  remember what she was asked  to do or what she did,   BUT none-the-less,   between them both the Mayor believed he got an all OK  – nothing to see here message.
The alleged payroll fraud stayed buried through the November 2012   investigations of Shelly and Barnhart by  Moore Stephens Loveless  who were handpicked by  then manager Parker,    AND remained buried through  the  February 2013  forensic ‘consultation’  ( no forensic audit has even been performed )  by CRI who are friends of  current manager Kisela.  Now think about this one and ask yourself if anyone wanted to find anything.    Payroll is the single biggest expenditure the City has and  neither the Mayor, Manager or Assistant Manager thought to mention that maybe the Roger Smith /payroll fraud  allegations  should have been examined in November by Moore Stephens Loveless,  or in February by CRI  considering they each of them had been made aware of serious fraud allegations.
This matter remained buried until the late spring 2013 when the July 2012 whistleblower Rob Poust went public and other employees wondered aloud why only select friends of former Utilities were getting paid for time not worked and paid again for sick and vacation time that had been taken .  Roger Smith hastily resigned and the current Manager called on his old friends at  couldn’t find their ass with both hands  CRI,   to produce a report that might just as well have been titled  – IT WAS ALL AN INNOCENT PAYROLL MIS-UNDERSTANDING   that just happened to have put hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars into select employees hands.
Collusion was never investigated
*)   While manager Kisela’s and his friends  at CRI  were prepared to call this fraud   a sweet little innocent payroll  misunderstanding  the Auditors at James Moore  called it collusion, and that  collusion has never been investigated to my knowledge.
Key People were never interviewed 
*)   Like  Heraclitus  I also know of senior staff who have told me they were never asked to give a sworn statement or answer questions for the police under oath.
At this juncture I hope our Police Chief will  assure Port Orange residents:  that a credible criminal investigation was undertaken,  that interview questions were not guided to focus on Roger Smith only, that investigators pursued testimony alleging involvement or collusion by others,   that anyone with firsthand knowledge was urged to come forward,    AND EXPLAIN  the reason why  ANY of  the following individuals did not gave sworn statements or otherwise answer questions under oath.
***    Ken Parker  —  former City Manager
***    Greg Kisela   —  City Manager
***     Allen Green —  Mayor
***     Warren Pike  — former Public Works director
***    Shannon  Lewis —  Assistant City Manager and former Acting Utilities Director
***    Donna Steinback  —  former Acting Utilities Director
***     Mike Ulrich  —  former Assistant Utilities Director
***    Shirley Treon — former Utilities secretary
***    Fred  Griffith  —   Utilities engineer
***   Kenny Ho  –   Utilities engineer
***   Rick Wilson  —  Assistant Utilities director
***  Rob Poust  —  Former Utilities employee
***   the other 19 utilities employees named in the CRI report
Counsel has thus far not exhibited the leadership role demanded of it in a time of crisis since the lack of system wide internal controls  were uncovered starting with the Warren Pike/ Public Works revelations in early 2012
I hope for the sake of good government that Counsel  will not try and close out the payroll fraud,  that have cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands  of dollars, and ‘fraud’ is what is,   with a self serving agreement  on the basis of a police investigation that has not answered the allegations raised by Heraclitus   and  Rob Poust.   
Ted Noftall

• Heraclitus says:

September 28, 2013 at 5:18 pm
There is a very simple explanation for all this. The City has probably been informed by Roger Smith’s attorney that they are aware of the contrived videotaped investigation that Port Orange Police Department was directed by the State Attorney’s office to perform on whether there are any criminal charges to be filed on Roger Smith. Smith’s attorney has probably demanded the investigation transcripts and video recordings at the conclusion of the investigation. If you were a fly on the wall at those police interviews, as certain people were, you would have found that the individuals that were interviewed were guided in their questions to focus on Roger Smith only.They were probably discouraged to introduce any evidence they might have of conspiracy, collusion, or other participants in similar activities that Mr. Smith was involved in. The city and the police simply did not want to go there.
The police probably encountered two or three honest people that had more to say then they wanted to hear. There was probably testimony that was brought forth that could prove collusion, complicity, and participation in the same offence by other administrators. A particular city official may have been exposed for certain complicity. Testimony that if followed up on and investigated honestly would probably expand the case and reveal a more pervasive culture of what Roger was being accused of. A possible cover up might be exposed that goes right to the city manager’s office and that might include the mayor. Key administrators could be exposed as being integrally involved in a cover up. Testimony that was given probably revealed key people that should be called in and questioned that could corroborate these things. Right now numerous individuals know that the police did not call in these witnesses for questioning that would have corroborated many things that would expand the investigation. A number of individuals wanted to be called in that were revealed so that they would be covered under the State Whistleblower Statute under testimony. This would give them a flak jacket to provide them with protection from administrative reprisals and railroading while all the testimony was sorted out.
The city manager and the city attorney probably know this and understand what the ramifications are if Roger Smith’s attorney analyzes the investigation transcripts and finds that a whitewash investigation has been conducted in order to target him while protecting other malefactors within the current administration. Hopefully the majority of the city council is not complicit in this and that they realize this before Tuesday night. Two things the council should do on Tuesday night if they are not complicit in a cover up. One is that they should definitely not vote to sign this settlement agreement with Roger Smith because this will open up a Pandora’s Box that will be unimaginable. The other thing they should do is make a commitment to expand this police investigation, insisting that any & all witnesses are called in, and see if they can turn this investigation over to FDLE. If they do not do this on Tuesday night the public will know that they are in on a cover up. I will afford the council the benefit of the doubt and hope that this is not the case. Everyone is watching.
 

From: ROB POUST [mailto:hayal7@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 6:55 AM
To: agreen@port-orange.org; bford@port-orange.org; dbastian@port-orange.org;dkennend@port-orange.org; dburnette@port-orange.org; gkisela@port-orange.org;ted@tednoftall.com
Subject: TAXPAYER MONEY
Port Orange City Council, City Manager, Ted Noftall,
I noticed that City Council is preparing to make a settlement with Roger Smith at the upcoming council meeting. I would like to refresh your memory and have a copy of a letter I sent to all of you on March 5,2013. This started the second investigation. Everything I said was true wasn’t it.
Roger was forced to quit. John Diamond was fired. Mayor Green was not investigated and Rick Wilson has not been fired. The log book kept by Shirley Treon was mentioned in my letter. Almost everyone knew that this book was around for better than 10 years.
Did Mayor Green share with council the information I brought to him in person with a witness on July 14,2012 at his residence or did everyone know this because of the letter I sent you all on March 5,2013. This was six months later after I went to the Mayor and the City did their internal investigation and found nothing.
I think before you close out this investigation it should be properly finished. Not everyone involved has been punished. All you had to do is ask all the employees the right questions and all the information would have come out as I said in my letter.
What happened to the log book kept by Shirley Treon? I think that question should be answered. I worked and gave good service to the City for almost 30 years. I went to the Mayor as a whistleblower with the truth and all of a sudden I was forced to retire or be fired for false allegations that were made about me. I was scared to lose my benefits and retired. The information that I gave to the mayor was all true and most of it was finally shown in the second investigation.
Why was it covered up until I sent you the letter in March 2013? Who covered it up? I think all of these people should be fired too. I was wrongfully retired and this investigation backs that up because I only told the truth. I intend to hire a lawyer in the near future to find out what can be done for what happened to me.
Maybe I deserve my job back. I am sorry that this was taken out on my former coworkers and all the ones that were responsible were not
fired.
Please finish this investigation all the way.
Rob Poust