Activist's Advisory
*****************ATTENTION ALL ACTIVISTS!!********************
(And maybe friends and family of activists, and even people who are thinking of being activists)
If you are making comments critical of the City of Port Orange, or plan to in the future, be advised that the City Manager and some Department heads now claim that your actions can cause:
1) competent employees to make mistakes they would otherwise not have made,
2) competent employees to quit their jobs,
3) wide-spread discontent with their jobs and loss of morale among City employees,
4) AND, the ratings of the City’s bond issues to decline.
(We have not heard, yet, that your criticism can cause the greens to shrink at Cypress Head.)
While no legal reprisals have been made at present, we are suggesting that all Activists take certain precautions at this time.
Among these are that you:
1) wear a disguise whenever making critical comments in public–we have attached a picture of what we think is a disguise suitable for public appearances at such places as City Council meetings, and
2) begin to sign all your communications with an anonymous pseudonym.
Anonymously yours,
Groucho and Zeppo Gardner
I think we all know what the term whitewash means. Its when you have something that is dirty decrepit, and dilapidated and put a thick coat of cheap white paint over it to cover up the real putrid condition of the situation. This makes things look alright from a distance in hopes that they will not shortly collapse. Hopefully you can fool everyone that would be concerned until you can shore things up and shift the focus of attention.
Under the present Lifesaver CEO many might attest that numerous interrelated whitewashes have occurred during his short tenure necessitated by self serving political expediency and not in the best interest of the citizens of Port Orange. The deluded deception of transparency of the CEO’s read file and transparency with the City Council, employees, and citizens of the City of Port Orange may be summarily exposed in the near future. AKA Ted Noftall’s recent reiterated inquiries about Vince Champion and the pseudo transparencies of the Port Orange CEO’s read file. When it comes to the Lifesaver insulating himself and his MIT’s on his team, repeat offenders may they be, the transparency of his read file, the civil service rules and regulations, and even the rule of law may be subject to demagogic interpretation.
Unfortunately for the City Council, the employees, and the citizens of Port Orange they may suffer the outfall of the collapse of his dilapidated façade in a way that hurts everyone. It may be that a scandal that will dwarf that which the city has been through in the last couple of years with all the internal control deficiencies may be about to unfold. Hopefully our councilmen are not suffering from the ostrich syndrome which their ambivalent antics at council meetings would suggest. If our present elected officials are as clueless as to what is brewing up as has been demonstrated by their apparent ambivalent actions, then maybe they are truly clueless. If this is the case then maybe the granddaddy of whitewashes is occurring right beneath their noses, and when the next scandal breaks they can only blame their own ostrich mentality.
I would like to share the definition of a few words and one acronym for your education and edification.
1. recidivism – the condition or act of repeating an offence.
2. Vince – male first name of Hungarian origin that means conqueror.
3. Whitewash -The act of covering up a dilapidated façade with a thick white covering.
4. Champion – One who fights and prevails for the people.
5. MIT – FCCMA manager in transition. A certified manager that has been shit canned from a government organization for malfeasance, misfeasance, or political expediency.
6. cover-up – a synonym for whitewash.
7. Lifesaver – An FCCMA member who has used his or her position to give an MIT who was shit-canned by a government organization for malfeasance, misfeasance, or political expediency an administrative upper managerial high paying job in the organization that they manage.
8. Job application – a form that is filled out and verified for accuracy by all professionally run organizations before someone is hired for employment.
9. Background investigation. a thorough investigation that is conducted commensurate to the importance and level of the employee under consideration for employment that verifies the suitability of the candidate and the impeccable integrity of their background that all professionally run organizations conduct before someone is hired for employment.
10. Civil Service Rules – Rules of organizational law, conduct, and integrity that are meant to protect the organization, its member employees, and keep everyone honest that the CEO of the organization has a fiduciary duty to transparently abide by and see that they are adhered to by everyone including himself.
11. Ted Noftall – Pit Bull citizen watchdog who’s sole purpose is to make sure government stays honest and transparent.
12. City Council – Those elected officials that are duty bound to act in a fiduciary capacity in the best interest of their constituency in spite of their political quandaries or conflicts that might encroach upon their own self interest.
13. Transparency – The condition of being open, clearly visible, concealing nothing, and being able to see through every aspect of it.
14. CM read file. – The CEO’s public email that has been agreed to with council and the citizens of the city which pays the CEO to be open for the public to read and be uncensored and unedited unless it breaches homeland security or is otherwise restricted by law, and never edited to obfuscate, deceive, or whitewash..
Head in the sand = Election time = Do nothing council. Lets vote chickens into office. We all need a chicken. There was more debate about chickens and college football teams last night than meters. I am really ticked off. The only one that APPEARED to be concerned about the meter situation was Bob Ford and he let the life saver and his Mit Crony off way to easy last night.
I guess if you’re running for re-election it’s best not to rock the boat. What a disappointment. We have two councilmen coasting along hoping to be re-elected, one that is coasting along until he’s gone and a mayor that should be gone. Let’s defer everything except consent agenda’s until the election results come in.
GO COUNCIL! GO NIGHTS! GO GATORS!
Did I hear that correctly at last night’s meeting – the cost of water to Port Orange customers is expected to increase by 30 percent? I am shocked that no one, and by no one I mean Council Members, isn’t involved in getting to the root of the problem that started this mess. But instead, they want to fix the “problem” by increasing the water rates.
I wonder if the two Council Members up for reelection will try to stall the implementation of the new rates until after the November election.
A 30% increase in water/sewer rates was recommended by the consultants brought in by the City Manager. In my opinion after reviewing our options, I do not believe such rate increases are warranted.I am working to stop such a dramatic increase permanently —. You are correct in your assessment, there are root problems if addressed will alleviate the need for such an unreasonable increase.
Bob
I know people that can help you and council with the problems, and there are plenty of them. You guys are listening to the wrong people. Our managers have zero working knowledge of our systems as do the managers consultants. They are just working off of numbers. Are we going to create unnecessary work just justify a rate increase? They haven’t even identified the work so how can they put a number on it?
I have written quite a few post on here detailing the root causes for the infrastructure and metering problems within our utilities systems. These are the things that triggered the rate increase debate, I don’t make this stuff up. I have 41 years of experience in the field of utilities. 36 of which were with Port Orange. It’s too late to change what has occurred due to neglect in the past but we can change things for the future. I have outlined the programs needed to properly maintain our utilities. They are common sense things, best business practices that well run utilities all over the world do. Let’s get on the ball!
This is a link that parodies the Lifesaver CEO’s reaction every time he encounters Ted Noftall, is pinned down by Bob Ford and asked a meaningful question about failed city operations, or is checkmated and unable to perpetrate a whitewash any longer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz2_d6zWDhg
This is priceless! I wonder if Dr. Smith does that when he gets his marching orders from the mayor? Will Dr. Smith be screaming when he finally has to stop avoiding the PEA in the matters concerning the utilities director? Why haven’t we heard anything more about that? Lifesaver whitewash? Has Dr. Smith received any more E- Mails from Vince Champion or the PEA? If so why haven’t they been on his read file? My My are we at it again?
Here’s a link to a nice history lesson on the Florida Council/Manager form of government. Based on the proposed budget over years past we are spending more and getting less. The property values are on the rise. Commercial business in Port Orange has exploded. Staff expects tax and utility incomes to increase. Why in the world in this environment should we charge forward into debt? What right do we have raising citizens debt going forward and raising fees for services at the same time. Slow down.
Again those of us on a fixed income are being held hostage by City Government while wealthy investors are subsidized by them for their projects. How about some concessions for seniors? We cannot maintain your irrational spending racing forward. This is not someone’s personal kingdom. It is a community of fine citizens. Thank you Mr. Ford for remembering those of us in my position. You must be the only one out there that had elderly parents and to observe their day to day challenges. There are many of us out here whom need your consideration.
Fiscal conservatism is imperative. With all of the strife and based on the published article our City Manager will soon be leaving. Unfortunately he will not take the messes or the debt with him. It will be left behind for the taxpayers. Perhaps Council should have more control mechanisms. This form of government has been failing for years. Is it time for change?
http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/assets/pdf/A5211761914.PDF
A MONUMENTAL EYESORE. Figured I may as well get in on some of the criticism for Kisela’s ‘DREAM TEAM” A Ponce Inlet resident commented in todays News Journal that the WELCOME TO PORT ORANGE sign on the corner of Ridgewood and Dunlawton is,and has been an eyesore for several year, fountain not working, etc. Isn’t this under the responsibliities of Mary Anderson another high paid, underqualified Kisela hire? Just asking.
Just finished reading the City Manager’s read file. Being the pessimist that I am I looked up the name Ron Mervine in the phone book but found no listing. Of course, he could have an unlisted number but anyone praising the good works of the city lately raises a red flag with me. Especially when it contains the City Manager’s favorite word..CAPTURE.
Margaret; we are not sure if that email compliment in the Managers read file is legit or just a shill message. It is amazing that a copy of a compliment from the Citizens Connection database shows up in the managers email read file but none of complaints from the Citizens Connection ever shows.
I have been told by a city employee that there are 10 to 15 complaints for every 1 compliment in the Citizen Connection database. But we will never know because the City Manager keeps all those records top secret.
Yes, maybe he likes to extract emails from the employee association about investigations of his MIT’s from the read file also. Maybe this is to whitewash a bad situation. Maybe it is to keep the citizens from knowing about the imminent implosion of his Lifesaver/MIT management team. Maybe it is to bide his time and keep the fact that his failures are about to reach critical mass from the council. Looks like he may be a MIT soon in need of a lifesaver.