Why is it that most of our top 5 candidates have jaded pasts, have gotten shit canned from past assignments, received golden parachutes, and are FCCMA retreads? Here we go again. Is this the best council can do? Remember what the great essayist and philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
That’s what you get when you are in a hurry, your back is against the wall and you must act fast.
The one guy who pulled out was not in that category, go figure. If you select anyone with CM experience, they will have baggage. Basically we are screwed right now. Did hear that Green wanted Parker to return temporarily. That would not be good based on the last two years of his tenure.
AS I STATED IN AN EARLIER BLOG, WHY ISN’T DONNA STEINENBACH ACTING AS INTERIM CITY MANAGER UNTIL A PERMANENT ONE CAN BE FOUND BY THE FIRM WE ARE PAYING TAXPAYERS MONEY TO FOR DOING A SEARCH? SHE DID THIS BEFORE.
JUST MORE CITY MONEY GOING DOWN THE TOILET TRYING TO HURRY UP AND SELECT A TEMPORARY REPLACEMENT. NONE OF THESE CANDIDATES LOOK GOOD.
HOPE THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL ENJOY THE LUNCHEON. I’D LOVE TO SEE THE FINAL TALLY FOR THE FIASCO.
I would hope if they are all as bad as they appear to be that Council asks for five more names.
But they are in a race against time to select a warm body. This is not a good scenario.
Shannon got a sweeter golden parachute job than Kisela did. I wonder how long she knew about her exodus. When she went in the back room with Mayor Green during the special council meeting about who was going to take over the city manager’s spot on an interim basis and she said she would be the interim interim I bet she already knew that she would shortly thereafter announce her resignation and new assignment. I bet Green knew about it then. What a bunch of undedicated opaque hypocrites. Everyone at council expressed their confidence in Shannon and at the end of the day she has been a part of this dog and pony show we call Port Orange upper management and city government.
Kent Donahue told me that the interviews will aired live on TV. I hope to watch it and report significant information learned from the candidates as it happens on Twitter. Port Orange News@poimages is my twitter account. — hank springer
GIMME AN F
GIMME AN A
GIMME A FARCE
GIMME AN F
GIMME AN A
GIMME A FARCE
GIMME A D
GIMME A U
GIMME A D U M B MOVE
YEA COUNCIL, YEA COUNCIL
RAH, RAH, RAH
HIT THE CITIZENS HARD
IN THE POCKET, IN THE POCKET
HA, HA, HA
YEA COUNCIL, YEA COUNCIL
In this morning’s News Journal Vice Mayor Don Burnett states “the interim C/M candidates will go through less scrutiny because the position is short term” but that he’s doing his homework and has lots of questions.” I’m not focusing so much on someone who is capable of long term planning”.
Didn’t I hear council say that anyone selected as an interim could apply later for the permanent position:? What the hell is going on here? This leaves me with a bad feeling in my stomach. These candidates should be scrutinize just as thoroughly as if they were to become permanent C/M. Port Orange cheerleader had it right….farce, farce, farce.
P
So the council is wasting tax dollars paying for these candidates to come here for interviews and not focusing on them being capable of doing the job on long term? We should be looking for a person capable of doing the job as a CM, not just putting a butt in the seat, so we can say we have a CM. Don’t we have enough problems already? What kind of a golden parachute are we promising them?? This is such a half-ass approach! If council took more time to select a CM we might get one that could do the job and save money in the long run. Most of the council must be millionaires (like the mayor) and don’t care that most of us might have to sell our homes because we won’t be able to afford to live in our City of Port Orange. Raising taxes and water bills are going to hurt us seniors seriously.
The council selected Mr. Harden as interim. He has a lot of experience and isn’t interested in the job long term and is not taking any special deals or benefits other than salary. Hopefully in nine months he will be able to clean up the mess, identify the excellent employees and discard the hanger on’s from the old regime. This will give us time to do a thorough job in the hiring process…or at least I hope it will.
As usual Don Burnett’;s questions we inane and repetitious. Dennis was whining about wanting someone who would eventually be permanent C/M. The Mayor didn’t participate very much expect to say “haviing said that” and passed the questions on to the others.
Great that he is seeking interim job only. Kennedy just doesn’t get it and never will. This guy could be a good band aid if he is allowed to perform his job.
Thanks for the update Margaret. Appears that candidate Chapman had little to offer and was last on everybody’s list ?
What did they agree upon for compensation ?
The first three reminded me of Parker and Kisela, especially Harden. Shimun and Bonner seemed open to transparency in government. Chapman came off as clueless. I don’t have a good feeling about their choice. Time will tell.
Harden seems awfully old, and I find it hard to understand why he would want an assignment that might last less than a year at this stage in his life But he was very honest about simply wanting an interim position. He also stated that he did not want to select a permanent management team for the future city manager. This makes a lot of sense.
Essentially he will be doing what Shannon is supposed to be doing in the absence of a permanent city manager. I think this is good because the other candidates left much to be desired and if they were selected might be a shoe in for permanent city manager once they entrenched themselves. With Harden in this will allow the council plenty of time to do their due diligence an hopefully select a cutting edge manager.
More importantly it is imperative that the selection of a permanent city manager should not be made until after the election and the first of the year when the new council is formed. This way the council members that will be working with the permanent city manager will be those that select him.
The majority of decent and honest citizens that are advocates of open and transparent governance can only hope that the balance of the council changes in favor of our two honest political leaders Bob Ford and Drew Bastian that are also in favor of open and transparent governance and are not affiliated with any special business interest. If our citizens are that fortunate than maybe an excellent city manager will be selected that will assemble a professional management team that is performance and not politically driven. This will trickle down into middle management, supervision, and the work force in general. Ass kissers and incompetents will not line up to support whatever political faction emerges in order to further their careers and good people will no longer be blacklisted for standing up for open governance, transparency, and citizen’s value. With Harden being simply an interim manager it still leaves hope that the Green/Burnette regime will dwindle and the citizen’s and employees of Port Orange will get their city and government back. We shall hope and see.
Stacey Jax I think you hit it right on the head.
I liked everything about David Harden. He would have been my first pick.
I do not know why at his age he would want this interim job. The only thing I can think of is he likes the challenge.
My thoughts about Don Burnette; Kennedy could have been the one for the Mayor to be put on Ted. But maybe Kennedy did not want to do it. Don wants to look like a Mayor and so he took the chore of wanting to eliminate Ted. For Don it means the support of special interests. I would guess there are more supporters for Bastian and Ford than supporters for Green but I could be wrong. When Stiltner gets on council I think he will not side with Mayor Green. Scott spoke for the landscaper who quit hit his Port Orange city contract and Scott asked that the $5 million that had to be promised to LaCour be put to a referendum vote by the tax payers. I don’t think Green and LaCour would have wanted a referendum about that $5 million dollars.
It may not be popular on this blog site, but I like the way Burnette can operate before the people in a council meeting, and the way he is able to analyze issues and explain his reasoning to the other city council people and the public. But because he took on the Mayor’s and special interests arch enemy Ted, it does look like he threw his future in with special interests.
For me, he is a question mark as far as being for special interests or the citizens. I think it will matter to me as to who might run against Burnette in the next mayoral election. If Burnette wins the next mayoral election I think it will be a slim chance that Burnette will suddenly be for the people and surprise his political supporters as did Harry Truman. If Burnette wins with special interest support I think he will safeguard with them his chances for future reelection possibilities.
I am all for transparency and so I do declare now, that Burnette arranged a HARP loan for me, and made the entire process as easy as possible for me. Nevertheless although I appreciated his help in securing the HARP loan for me, I think he knows and I know that my judgment of his work as a city council member is and will not be influenced by his prior business job for me. Nothing special was asked for or given in securing the HARP loan and probably with my good credit any mortgage broker could have easily gotten a HARP loan for me. But my experience with Don’s work in getting what I needed was that he made it very easy for me. A lot of documents were needed. I brought all my files down to him in a box and left it for him to find what he needed. That was great.
I went to Don and asked him to apply for a HARP loan for me because the News-Journal had run an article about Don and HARP loans with interviews of people who were very happy getting harp loans and the assistance of Don.
Now wouldn’t it be nice if politicians could put things like this up in front of the public and avoid unnecessary possible speculation and suspicion in the future? I think the reason they do not is because they know that it is quite probable that more favors for themselves or someone else will be asked for in the future of a business acquaintance or friend and who knows if this business man might have to bend some rules to grant those favors.
I would like to think I can keep an open mind about Don Burnette putting citizens’ interests before special interest concerns, but at this time I think the chances are slim. I think it might be good if we heard from Don about what looks like a siding with financial special interests.
Hank springer
Harden gave all the right answers. He is exactly a temp or interim. Hold the fort down for 9 months.
Every other word from the first guy (Schliger and Chapman) was “um”. They were poor speakers and obvious non candidates.
Now Shinmun may be a possibility down the road. I liked Bonner too but he may clash quickly.
Maybe the intensive and costly search will get someone outside of Florida to consider.
Why is it that most of our top 5 candidates have jaded pasts, have gotten shit canned from past assignments, received golden parachutes, and are FCCMA retreads? Here we go again. Is this the best council can do? Remember what the great essayist and philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
That’s what you get when you are in a hurry, your back is against the wall and you must act fast.
The one guy who pulled out was not in that category, go figure. If you select anyone with CM experience, they will have baggage. Basically we are screwed right now. Did hear that Green wanted Parker to return temporarily. That would not be good based on the last two years of his tenure.
AS I STATED IN AN EARLIER BLOG, WHY ISN’T DONNA STEINENBACH ACTING AS INTERIM CITY MANAGER UNTIL A PERMANENT ONE CAN BE FOUND BY THE FIRM WE ARE PAYING TAXPAYERS MONEY TO FOR DOING A SEARCH? SHE DID THIS BEFORE.
JUST MORE CITY MONEY GOING DOWN THE TOILET TRYING TO HURRY UP AND SELECT A TEMPORARY REPLACEMENT. NONE OF THESE CANDIDATES LOOK GOOD.
HOPE THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL ENJOY THE LUNCHEON. I’D LOVE TO SEE THE FINAL TALLY FOR THE FIASCO.
I would hope if they are all as bad as they appear to be that Council asks for five more names.
But they are in a race against time to select a warm body. This is not a good scenario.
I hope it’s a unanimous decision and not a 3-2. Nobody should be able to B.S. all 5 of them.
Shannon got a sweeter golden parachute job than Kisela did. I wonder how long she knew about her exodus. When she went in the back room with Mayor Green during the special council meeting about who was going to take over the city manager’s spot on an interim basis and she said she would be the interim interim I bet she already knew that she would shortly thereafter announce her resignation and new assignment. I bet Green knew about it then. What a bunch of undedicated opaque hypocrites. Everyone at council expressed their confidence in Shannon and at the end of the day she has been a part of this dog and pony show we call Port Orange upper management and city government.
Kent Donahue told me that the interviews will aired live on TV. I hope to watch it and report significant information learned from the candidates as it happens on Twitter. Port Orange News@poimages is my twitter account. — hank springer
GIMME AN F
GIMME AN A
GIMME A FARCE
GIMME AN F
GIMME AN A
GIMME A FARCE
GIMME A D
GIMME A U
GIMME A D U M B MOVE
YEA COUNCIL, YEA COUNCIL
RAH, RAH, RAH
HIT THE CITIZENS HARD
IN THE POCKET, IN THE POCKET
HA, HA, HA
YEA COUNCIL, YEA COUNCIL
In this morning’s News Journal Vice Mayor Don Burnett states “the interim C/M candidates will go through less scrutiny because the position is short term” but that he’s doing his homework and has lots of questions.” I’m not focusing so much on someone who is capable of long term planning”.
Didn’t I hear council say that anyone selected as an interim could apply later for the permanent position:? What the hell is going on here? This leaves me with a bad feeling in my stomach. These candidates should be scrutinize just as thoroughly as if they were to become permanent C/M. Port Orange cheerleader had it right….farce, farce, farce.
P
Seems like Burnette has become the official spokesman lately ?
So the council is wasting tax dollars paying for these candidates to come here for interviews and not focusing on them being capable of doing the job on long term? We should be looking for a person capable of doing the job as a CM, not just putting a butt in the seat, so we can say we have a CM. Don’t we have enough problems already? What kind of a golden parachute are we promising them?? This is such a half-ass approach! If council took more time to select a CM we might get one that could do the job and save money in the long run. Most of the council must be millionaires (like the mayor) and don’t care that most of us might have to sell our homes because we won’t be able to afford to live in our City of Port Orange. Raising taxes and water bills are going to hurt us seniors seriously.
I read the resumes and watched the interviews. My pick was Bonner with Shimun second.
The council selected Mr. Harden as interim. He has a lot of experience and isn’t interested in the job long term and is not taking any special deals or benefits other than salary. Hopefully in nine months he will be able to clean up the mess, identify the excellent employees and discard the hanger on’s from the old regime. This will give us time to do a thorough job in the hiring process…or at least I hope it will.
As usual Don Burnett’;s questions we inane and repetitious. Dennis was whining about wanting someone who would eventually be permanent C/M. The Mayor didn’t participate very much expect to say “haviing said that” and passed the questions on to the others.
Great that he is seeking interim job only. Kennedy just doesn’t get it and never will. This guy could be a good band aid if he is allowed to perform his job.
Thanks for the update Margaret. Appears that candidate Chapman had little to offer and was last on everybody’s list ?
What did they agree upon for compensation ?
I believe they said $12,500 per month.
Not bad for a little retirement money. Little over $3,000 a week. The normal prevailing wage for Volusia County.
The first three reminded me of Parker and Kisela, especially Harden. Shimun and Bonner seemed open to transparency in government. Chapman came off as clueless. I don’t have a good feeling about their choice. Time will tell.
Harden is Parker Wake up counsel
Harden seems awfully old, and I find it hard to understand why he would want an assignment that might last less than a year at this stage in his life But he was very honest about simply wanting an interim position. He also stated that he did not want to select a permanent management team for the future city manager. This makes a lot of sense.
Essentially he will be doing what Shannon is supposed to be doing in the absence of a permanent city manager. I think this is good because the other candidates left much to be desired and if they were selected might be a shoe in for permanent city manager once they entrenched themselves. With Harden in this will allow the council plenty of time to do their due diligence an hopefully select a cutting edge manager.
More importantly it is imperative that the selection of a permanent city manager should not be made until after the election and the first of the year when the new council is formed. This way the council members that will be working with the permanent city manager will be those that select him.
The majority of decent and honest citizens that are advocates of open and transparent governance can only hope that the balance of the council changes in favor of our two honest political leaders Bob Ford and Drew Bastian that are also in favor of open and transparent governance and are not affiliated with any special business interest. If our citizens are that fortunate than maybe an excellent city manager will be selected that will assemble a professional management team that is performance and not politically driven. This will trickle down into middle management, supervision, and the work force in general. Ass kissers and incompetents will not line up to support whatever political faction emerges in order to further their careers and good people will no longer be blacklisted for standing up for open governance, transparency, and citizen’s value. With Harden being simply an interim manager it still leaves hope that the Green/Burnette regime will dwindle and the citizen’s and employees of Port Orange will get their city and government back. We shall hope and see.
No special interest groups except for the unions which will cost us millions.
Stacey Jax I think you hit it right on the head.
I liked everything about David Harden. He would have been my first pick.
I do not know why at his age he would want this interim job. The only thing I can think of is he likes the challenge.
My thoughts about Don Burnette; Kennedy could have been the one for the Mayor to be put on Ted. But maybe Kennedy did not want to do it. Don wants to look like a Mayor and so he took the chore of wanting to eliminate Ted. For Don it means the support of special interests. I would guess there are more supporters for Bastian and Ford than supporters for Green but I could be wrong. When Stiltner gets on council I think he will not side with Mayor Green. Scott spoke for the landscaper who quit hit his Port Orange city contract and Scott asked that the $5 million that had to be promised to LaCour be put to a referendum vote by the tax payers. I don’t think Green and LaCour would have wanted a referendum about that $5 million dollars.
It may not be popular on this blog site, but I like the way Burnette can operate before the people in a council meeting, and the way he is able to analyze issues and explain his reasoning to the other city council people and the public. But because he took on the Mayor’s and special interests arch enemy Ted, it does look like he threw his future in with special interests.
For me, he is a question mark as far as being for special interests or the citizens. I think it will matter to me as to who might run against Burnette in the next mayoral election. If Burnette wins the next mayoral election I think it will be a slim chance that Burnette will suddenly be for the people and surprise his political supporters as did Harry Truman. If Burnette wins with special interest support I think he will safeguard with them his chances for future reelection possibilities.
I am all for transparency and so I do declare now, that Burnette arranged a HARP loan for me, and made the entire process as easy as possible for me. Nevertheless although I appreciated his help in securing the HARP loan for me, I think he knows and I know that my judgment of his work as a city council member is and will not be influenced by his prior business job for me. Nothing special was asked for or given in securing the HARP loan and probably with my good credit any mortgage broker could have easily gotten a HARP loan for me. But my experience with Don’s work in getting what I needed was that he made it very easy for me. A lot of documents were needed. I brought all my files down to him in a box and left it for him to find what he needed. That was great.
I went to Don and asked him to apply for a HARP loan for me because the News-Journal had run an article about Don and HARP loans with interviews of people who were very happy getting harp loans and the assistance of Don.
Now wouldn’t it be nice if politicians could put things like this up in front of the public and avoid unnecessary possible speculation and suspicion in the future? I think the reason they do not is because they know that it is quite probable that more favors for themselves or someone else will be asked for in the future of a business acquaintance or friend and who knows if this business man might have to bend some rules to grant those favors.
I would like to think I can keep an open mind about Don Burnette putting citizens’ interests before special interest concerns, but at this time I think the chances are slim. I think it might be good if we heard from Don about what looks like a siding with financial special interests.
Hank springer
Harden gave all the right answers. He is exactly a temp or interim. Hold the fort down for 9 months.
Every other word from the first guy (Schliger and Chapman) was “um”. They were poor speakers and obvious non candidates.
Now Shinmun may be a possibility down the road. I liked Bonner too but he may clash quickly.
Maybe the intensive and costly search will get someone outside of Florida to consider.