FW: FY2016 Budget – Public Works Personnel Reassignments
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Ted Noftall via bounce.secureserver.net
Attachments3:57 PM
to Branford
Good afternoon Branford,
As regards the attached memo can you please advise:
Where are the locations and sizes of the respective parcels that constitute the 15% your department will continue to mow ??
Have you prepared a budget in terms of manpower, equipment and costs required to service this mowing ??
Why were these areas not put out for completive bid ??
Additionally in the last short while I observed a truck marked Drainage with a trailer attached and an operator mowing around a medium sized retention pond west of Nova Road. In addition to the mower operator two other city employees were sitting on the tongue of the trailer. This situation remained un-changed for about the 30 – 45 minutes it took me to go to and return from a local job site.
My questions and they stem from the one I raised at the Tuesday evening budget is:
How do you set the size of your work crews ??
How do you measure their performance ??
Thank you
Ted Noftall
Candidate for Mayor
City of Port Orange -2016
From: Rivera, Cynthia [mailto:CRivera@port-orange.org]
Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2015 11:32 AM
To: City Council
Cc: Johansson, Michael; Harden, David
Subject: FW: FY2016 Budget – Public Works Personnel Reassignments
Please see attached from the Public Works Director.
Thank you,
Cindy
Cindy Rivera
Executive Assistant to the City Manager
City of Port Orange
1000 City Center Circle
Port Orange, FL 32129
From: Adumuah, Branford
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2015 3:32 PM
To: Rivera, Cynthia <CRivera@port-orange.org>
Subject: FY2016 Budget – Public Works Personnel Reassignments
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I pay an annual tax of $99.00 for Port Orange Storm projects including drainage and water control/mgmt. It seems to me from questions asked by those “damn” city activists that no city administrator or city councilman can explain where that money went or how it was used. If I am wrong about this understanding of mine, please correct me.– hank
Hank
It is sad that so many people in this town live in constant fear of a heavy rain event. That is no way they should have to live. Much of this anxiety is the result of someone at city hall misspending or absconding with the city’s storm-water drainage funds during the past several years.
Why are more people not upset with the state and or county and there failure to make sure that there roads do not flood, and that there set evacuation route is not set up correctly? Does all tax payer money for drainage only go to the city of Port Orange? Does no tax dollars go to the drainage of state and county roads? Hank I am not sure where your money goes, but do you also message the county and the state to ask where your money goes? If I am wrong that all of the tax dollars just goes to the city to maintain all drainage including county and state drainage responsibility please explain it to me. I also hope that the so called activists are also asking the county and the state about drainage issues on state and county roads.
When you say it is sad that so many people live in fear of a heavy rain event what do you mean? Do you mean 10 people? ten percent of the people? 30 thousand people? I would like to see some numbers on how many people live in fear when there is a heavy rain event. I am not trying to down play any flooding events, I know it has happened, but I also want to be fair and see what is true and what is not true. Not fair to anyone to make a statement that is not true!
How many does it take to be to many? 10 people? 10% Thousands or maybe just one? I cringe every time heavy rain is forecast. The the neighborhoods on either side of Dunlawton are affected hundreds of people there including the apartment complex. Sleepy Hollow, White Acres, The Cove, come to mind for frequent flooding problems there are more. The entire region was affected by the shutdown of Dunlawton, the sustained submersion could have damaged the roadway costing us all long term grief and dollars. Oh and yes the state and saint johns water management responses to mis or not spent money have been underwhelming, but then so was their lack of oversight and concern over our money from the other pocket in the first place.
Assuming you are actually a Port Orange resident and property owner you should be concerned why you have been paying a drainage FEE that has no doubt been spent mowing medians and who knows what else over the last several years that have left our city wide system without proper maintenance, in distress and disrepair. I think any person flooded or not should be irate about it, and if you have had the misfortune of having flood water in your home while the staff and council members have glad handed your done a little digging and not fixed the causes of the problems you would be very angry when it comes to the top of the agenda.
Yeah, I am angry about flooding. Yeah, I might be ripping my carpet and walls out by Tuesday night. Yeah, I blame it on the city that issued the CO on my house in 1990 for not doing their job.
and I think anyone being flooded is too many, a goal that may never be reached but that is no excuse for diverting workers and funds and neglecting collecting the proper engineering and right consideration of new construction affecting existing properties in real life is unacceptable and I will fight from the audience or the dias if I run again.
I am Newton White and you can contact me at Newton@NewtonWhite.org
Correct me if I am wrong but last year we were told from the city council dais that the stormwater drainage funds would no longer be diverted to the mowing grass function. Now in the letter dated Aug 26 from Public Works Director he admits that the drainage foreman and 3 drainage maintenance workers are still cutting grass. Really !!!!
Does anyone know the rain total for the last event in Sept? I recall hearing like 6 inches of water in an hour time span. If this is true, has anyone looked into what has to be done to make sure that every inch of this city can withstand 6 inches of water in one hour? How much would it cost to divert six inches of water in an hours period of time? Were the houses that were flooded in a flood zone? Could the city afford to make every inch of the city able to disperse 6 inches of rain in one hour? Has the state been contacted and asked what part of the blame they share? Should the state be responsible for the flooding? Has the state altered there evacuation route because of the flooding on their road? Should Port Orange tax payers be responsible for all county and state roads that flood? These are the questions I think that should deserve at least some consideration. Anyway I hope all is well and everyone is safe from flooding and that all government is blamed for the floods and not just the local!
Really, Me2 you are so creative with that pseudonym. Somewhere I have heard most of this same line of not being safe from flooding. Please do not forget the project to keep Dunlawton open during a storm event that could be expected to produce a foot of rain in a day was a total failure. Now just cruise on down there and take a look down Ruth and Powers from Dunlawton, if Dunlawton was kept from flooding so would the lower ground around it.
Do not assume people live in a flood zone my home is NOT in a flood zone check it out for yourself https://www.port-orange.org/gis/Gallery/Planning/Flood%20Zone.pdf
Despite rules for retention and such the elevations most recently built to have created runoff and entrapment of water. Roads have been over paved and new development built at higher elevations and drainage has not been improved in twenty years to flow the increased water. Add to that the cities admission that some drainage maintenance is 7 years behind, and your allegation that protection from a bad rain day is pretty silly.
Newton, knowing that Florida for a century has had flooding problems, I should be amazed at the construction of homes in my community on Magnolia Loop. But I am not amazed, because I understand that developers, real estate agents and construction companies were involved in making a good buck. The situation is such that on a sloppy incline in Summer Trees West, homes were built where one could see that surely during and after a heavy Florida rain storm, gallons of rain water would flow into the homes situated next to Magnolia Loop. In addition, the paved street of Magnolia Loop is at a higher level than many homes, and more gallons of rain water come off a city street into these poorly positioned structures.
What certainly comes to mind is buyer beware when buying in Florida, of homes stupidly built on the bottom of hills.
Joan and I bought a home in Selden L.I. in 1963 and the land for this new development had been level farm land. Wisely, all home plots were built up with dirt, to be higher than the streets.
And while I am thinking of new developments in Port Orange, don’t we just love how the streets are built so narrow, that vehicles which park in the street next to the curb are in the way of emergency vehicles coming down the street. There seems to be no law to stop development construction which cheats on the width of a street, but now there is a law that on such streets no parking is allowed opposite a parked vehicle on the opposite side of the street.
Newton I wonder if you mean that new developments are built higher than the neighboring development? Or do you mean homes are now built at a higher elevation than the street or canals?
Yes to both. Elevation requirements have been elevated. (punny) It leaves older construction sitting lower and once the on site swales are full in a heavy rain here comes the flood. swales and engineered contours level and fill over time and then the water just runs down hill, even during a short storm.
In Reply to Me 2
You guys keep mentioning that the State should participate in solving the Dunlawton flooding problem. ***NEWS FLASH*** Both the State and Federal governments gave Port Orange Officials the millions of dollars to fix the flooding problem at that location. Port Orange Officials wasted that money and screwed-up the project BIG time.
The only mistake the State and Feds made was thinking our local officials could do the job.
A foot of rain a day is way different then more then half of foot in one hour! I agree if Dunlawton did not flood those roads would not flood and I think the city should never try to fix a State or County roads problems. I want the state to maintain state roads, the county to maintain county roads and so on. If you get money from them that means they want to pass a huge problem to you that will cost way more to fix. I would hope that people would agree that the city should let the state and county fix there own problems, if you don’t agree Its ok everyone has there own opinions and that is fine also. I just think if I was the state and my evacuation route flooded 2 or 3 times I would have my own people fix the problems. They must know its not worth there time because it would cost 2 or 3 times as much money to actually fix the problems at hand. I am not sure if they live in a flood zone please don’t assume that I did, I asked the question if they did live in a flood zone because I did not actually know. You are making assumptions for me I think. I don’t know where you live and to be honest I don’t want to. Where you live is your own business. I asked a bunch of questions and instead of answers I got grief about a few questions I asked. I believe if were going to share opinions it would be better if we shared information then not to. Once again I hope nobody has to go thru flooding or any other horrible event. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and I also hope that these problems can be solved with cooperation, information, and education. We have a kick ass city here over all and it can get better.
Me2
I may have mistaken you for another poster that has pretty much said we flood victims are dumb for building at the bottom of a hill. The same lines about extraordinary rain events,being safe and living in a flood zone were similar. At any rate I am a bit touchy when it comes to flooding as my whole problem that has cost me thousands in insurance premiums and damage over what insurance has ever paid is directly related in my opinion to the city not doing its proper jobs in controlling development and paving roads, and I have he survey to show it.
You are right we have a “kick ass” city and as any good coach or businessman will tell you being at the top of the game is the hardest place to be. To continue in the top spot you have to beat the best team (yourself) every week. Our city cannot be allowed to slide or become lazy, we must fix our errors of the past and continually improve. Improvement means change, which is where the establishment has become resistant. Keeping our tax rate low and providing superior services and environment for family and business will set us apart and on top.
Ok like I said I hope that no one has to go thru a flood event. I understand you being a bit touchy because it happened to you. I personally have had to help rip the carpet out of a friends house after a flood event. That being said there are lots of things to be addressed. The city should never be involved with state or county problems. I also believe that there are times that an exceptional rain event causes problems that can not be foreseen. Oh and to continue to be on top of the game is important, but that also means money! You can not expect to get the best services for a low price. I see that you want to lower taxes or have the lowest taxes for a city of this size and then in return receive the best services. I think that starts to mean paying less for the best services. I am not sure if that is fair to the workers. Once again I might be wrong, maybe paying employees less and expecting more of them is the new way of running a successful city and or business. Now if that is true it means that skilled labor should only be paid at minimum wage and that way your taxes stay low. If you want to be on top it cost money. It is not realistically possible to expect to live in a great city for the lowest taxes. Once again its my opinion, and like all opinions they are subject to being different then others. That is the greatest thing about our country, we can have a nice civilized debate. Again I hope all is well in everyone’s life and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Please be safe
When I ran for council I lost the support of some people and groups because I would not swear to hold the city to roll back. Not knowing what the budget needs would be I chose to not say never because I could not predict the future. With that being said, I am not against paying a fair price for labor or products and certainly you get what you pay for. Our city has seen pay increases to correct the pay scale and job descriptions and raises on top of that are in the personnel budget the organized labor are separate. With payroll being taken care of we move on to capital which is full of inflated items that will never be reached in actual spending. Then on the revenue side Harden had identified initially one million dollars in the 15 budget that is going to be surplus to pay for 16 , since then he has squeezed three hundred and some thousand more. That and funded some of the want/unfunded list with only a 3% increase over rollback. Now given that a little math work will show that 3% will be near neutral in terms of dollars for the average home, (using Harden’s power point) that is very palatable. However having dug into the pages it is very apparent that plenty of inflated estimates and avenues of savings have not been taken advantage of. Our city is well within being able to set the rate to roll back with the budget intact to provide for the needs and much of the desires. Other cities should be jealous, their is no need to to raise taxes to get the desired results. Please do not task me to list the things that are being paid for and increased over FY15. What a city we have!
Newton, I must confess that the details of finances are beyond me, but I have been told the devil is in the details. Even though we lost money through mismanagement in years prior, (I hope I am not asked to provide the details) I was always amazed at how Ken Parker could always find money for something new the city council wanted to undertake.
Once again Newton people have no idea what you just said.
Would you vote against the 3% property tax increase or would you vote for it ?
What part of the people want a straight shooter who they know where he or she stands on the issues are you unable to grasp.
You are darn right you lost support the last time you ran and that will continue again and again as long as you are perceived to be a whiny double talker on every issue that comes along.
Take a stand and let every one know what that stand is in a clear unambiguous manner.
Once and for all. Are you so short sighted as to not read what I wrote “THEIR IS NO NEED TO RAISE TAXES TO GET THE DESIRED RESULTS”. How you cannot understand that means I would vote for rollback, I do not know. I have in this thread explained the reasons we can go to rollback and how those that would raise our taxes will justify doing so. I chose to take the long path to explain why and how we do not need to raise taxes, do you really think I would do that and vote for a tax increase?
Thanh you for the clarification Newton and for that here is a bit of English grammar advise I can still recall from a 4th grade English teacher from more years ago than I care to remember.
Always reference your main theme or argument or position as the case may be as either the first sentence or the last sentence of a paragraph lest readers unwilling to read the whole passage will never come to understand what you are trying to convey.
Following this advice or not works equally well for Politicians who wish to make their positions clear and for those who do not.
Maybe Mrs. Templeton could find a few minutes to benefit us all by sharing some of her knowledge on effective writing skills.
oh and to you comments about me thinking your in a flood zone or not. If you live in a flood zone and get flooded are you truly surprised it flooded? That is what I asked, I did not mean any one to feel bad I just asked the question, and many more to be honest, and I got no answers at all about that.
So sorry Me2. Flood zones are different and I am not the expert on the exact conditions of each designation and they have been updated. I do know I am in a X zone no flood the likely hood of a flood has to do with the frequency of rain flooding like a 100 or 150 year event. The concerns we are hearing are from homes that had no flood history for decades and now have flooded streets and homes due to more common events. Sleepy Hollow and the homes in the Powers and Ruth street area are on that list. Dunlawton was not flooded for decades somethings have changed, more water moving in the canal and spilling in, run off from newer development that has been elevated with fill and no longer serves to absorb or store water. The drainage infrastructure that was to protect these areas has not been maintained or expanded to meet increased runoff due to changes in elevation. I feel bad for someone that is affected by man built conditions, but to your point I do not think the people we are hearing from built in a frequently flooded area when they built.