Has the City Of Port Orange Just Become a Military Base? | And Are We Now Under Martial Law?
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FYI the new city manager has for all practical purposes as a part of his strategic communications initiative effectively phased out the city manager read file. He has announced in front of numerous city employees that he does not feel his email address should be open to the citizens as a public blog.
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This may not yet be known to all of the council members or the city activists yet but it will become abundantly clear soon. Hopefully the council does not give its assent to this kind of arrogant autocratic behavior that abjectly disrespects our elected officials, citizens, and workforce.He has also announced something to the effect that he does not want the citizen activists having that kind of access to him and is not in favor of their participation in open and transparent governance.
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There has been no posts on the read file for two days now, and it has been observed that certain emails sent to the city manager are not being posted on the read file. He has been progressively dialing down the read file over the past two weeks to see if he gets a negative response. Since there has been no resistance he has continue to do so until it has been effectively phased out.
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The general perception from a number of people from within the organization is that part of his SITREP is to control & order the city council around, shut down employee due process under civil service, destroy open & transparent governance, and eradicate dissenting citizen activism & community participation in city affairs. It looks like he thinks he has a new military base to command and citizens, elected officials, and employees are part of his enlisted subordinates under his unquestioned command. This means that he may not be able to acclimate to civilian life and comport himself as a public servant instead of a military commander. Unless someone sets him straight it looks like were all in the Navy now
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We Are All IN The Navy Now?
Nice catch. I looked at Teds post of the Mystery Document and it certainly involved the CM and Harden. Not a trace of it on the City web site. Had it not been for Ted publishing that the transparency was null. I wonder how long he can push Council around. Characteristic of a radical tyrant. Who’s in charge here anyhow? What a mess if not nipped in the bud. Thanks Ted for all you do.
Harden has screwed the Captain over in ways his arrogance won’t allow him to figure out until he has burnt every bridge there is in sight in Port Orange. and then it will be to late. No one follows the story line better than Ted and when this dust off starts for real I pity Johnsson. With 4 Councilmen never in favor of hiring him in the first place I would not be buying any green bananas around about March if I were the Captain. . Anchors Away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5onkl2EHV4?rel=0
WHOA Tonto – not a good start there Mr. City Manager !
This behavior alone will lend to a short tenure sir.
Did Johansson tell Council what to wear to the workshop on Tuesday evening ?
Here is the best version!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InBXu-iY7cw?rel=0
It looks like Mr. Johanssen’s strategic communication initiative has begun. Will he be providing us with the metrics on his propaganda? I hope he doesn’t start telling our elected officials, “When I twist your ear squeal like a pig”.
WOW a bit condescending, he must think he is still in charge of the Fleet
Poor Drew and his ice machines
https://youtu.be/rI-jlTsBsbY?rel=0
in reply to WOW
Boy; he really slapped Councilman Bastian down. Look at the expression on the face of Barnette and the city attorney, but nobody on the dais said anything in defense of Bastian so they all must be falling into line.
Excuse meee! …. If someone makes a FOIA request to the city clerk for a copy of all his emails and he refuses — he goes to the brig
I guess he just “Can’t handle the truth”
NEW CITY MANAGER ADDRESSING THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7xsMiiRaMc
If this is true, it would be an appalling start to Mr. Johanssen’ s tenure. This is a city that demands transparency. And there are some ferocious intellects on both sides of the city’ s podium. Nor will any of them permit a return to the years of secrecy that so corrupted this city. Pursue this course at your great peril Mr. Johanssen.
Thomas Paine somewhere around the time of the American Revolution: “government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.”
Jake Johansson somewhere around the time of his hiring: “government activists are a necessary evil.”
Should the council be discussing dirty ice machines?
To onlooker2
A Councilman (or citizen) has a right to discuss anything they may feel is important to them, whether or not the City Manager thinks it is unimportant.
ROBIN L. FENWICK, CMC
City Clerk
City of Port Orange
City Clerk’s Office
1000 City Center Circle
Port Orange, FL 32129
TEL: 386-506-5563
FAX: 386-756-5290
EMAIL: rfenwick@port-orange.org
WEBSITE: http://www.port-orange.org
Hi Robin
Kindly email me (click forward) a copy of all emails sent or received by the Port Orange City Manager for the week of Sept. 13, 2015 (that are not exempted by state law). So I may post them on my public Blog site for Port Orange taxpayers to review.
Forward the above to: inbox@port-orange.us
Thank You
P. Nelan
Fenwick, Robin via bounce.secureserver.net
to Pat, Theresa
Pat,
I have received your request and will work with IT staff to compile the records. If there is a cost associated with the request, an estimate will be provided to you and a deposit may be required.
Thank you,
Robin
This after consulting with the City Manager we presume.
Has anyone spoken to Bob Ford and got his reaction ?
Is she serious about a cost? Did she even hear what Pat said. All you have to do is click forward and put Pat’s email address in and then click send. There is no paper, no ink, and most of all is that if this bonehead tyrant city manager did not shut the read file down their would be no need for this. If their is any cost associated with this F.O.I., the cost should be that of Pat Nelan charging the city for the opaque stupidity that Mr. Johanssen has demonstrated that costs Mr. Nelan time in posting these emails to the Cub Reporter in order to provide this service of transparency to the taxpayers that Mr. Johanssen has treated with utter disrespect. Mr Johanssen, you are a civilian public servant now so get out of the shade and into the sunshine, and while your at it, drop down and give us fifty pushups.
Why should Mr. Nelan have to pay for CM emails that were put online by Council resolution to begin with? Perhaps the new CM should consult Council and learn the rules of engagement and what authority he really has. Council created this policy for transparency that was lacking that originally caused much incompetence. Working in the Sunshine has increased accountability in our great city. Let’s not go backwards.
Fenwick, Robin via bounce.secureserver.net
1:22 PM
to Pat, Theresa, Cynthia
There are approximately 500 emails that were reviewed for possible exemptions. This took an hour and a half to review. The first 30 minutes is done at no charge; however, the remaining time is charged at $15.05 an hour. Please submit payment of $15.05 to the City Clerk’s Office at the address listed below and I will provide the emails to you via email. Payment can be made by check, cash, or credit card.
Thank you,
Robin
Fenwick, Robin via bounce.secureserver.net
Attachments4:42 PM
to Pat
Attached is your receipt. IT has had a technical issue on the email search but said they should be able to provide the link for you within a day or so. I’ll forward it as soon as I get it.
Thanks,
Robin
ROBIN L. FENWICK, CMC
City Clerk
City of Port Orange
City Clerk’s Office
1000 City Center Circle
Port Orange, FL 32129
TEL: 386-506-5563
Description: Description: PO email
Excellent article on transparency and argument on council insisting commander Jake to reinstate the read file.
http://www.unitedformissouri.org/news/government-transparency-important-missouri
Recently the Port Orange IT people have upgraded the search functions on the website so that with a key word the taxpayers are able to obtain email communications of any city employee on the server that has not been blocked or extracted. IT has also added the citizens alert function to the website so that taxpayers can contact any department they like with specific complaints that will be tracked, responded to. and logged for the city council’s inspection. This shows that our elected officials have endorsed transparency and open governance for the taxpayers. If this is so obviously our elected official’s desire and every other employee in the city and previous city managers have been held to this policy and standard, who does this ex-military commander think he is that after just a few weeks he can come in here and disregard the councils will, disregard the taxpayers rights & desire, and turn our city into an opaque regimental military system where he and he alone strategically controls what is communicated to elected officials and the taxpayers? Our elected officials need to either subordinate him immediately or make a motion to cut our losses now and vote him down the road. It is much better to take care of this now even if it means resuming the process of selecting a proper city manager than catching a falling knife and sustaining the collateral damage that will follow. If this was any other position in the organization and it became obvious that it was a bad fit we would dismiss the person early before we were stuck with them and all the future damage we would likely sustain.
I would agree, on the surface of this sole issue it seems that a bad choice may have occurred. Things can only get worse moving forward. I just don’t think that this sitting council has the guts to speak up at the next meeting. They just don’t have the citizens in mind when making decisions.
As usual our chicken schitt councilmen are nowhere to be sen or heard on this issue.
Does anyone have any doubts as to whether Ted would tolerate this power grab by Johansson to roll back open government a dozen years if he were on that Dias ?
Nobody’s talking yet everybody knows. Ted, Newton, ??
Guess next public council meeting will indeed be a gem.
Ted ain’t gonna tolerate it from the cheap seats. No doubt he is gonna handle this like he does everything else. Hell, even Mayor Green suggested that the other councilmen get with Ted for help to understand the budget. Hey Ted….Has Mayor called you for help? He is as lost as the rest of them.
I am pretty sure that a council resolution to establish the read file was promulgated a number of years ago as a measure to promote open and transparent governance. It is possible that this ordinance predates all of the present city council other than the mayor. The rest of the council may not be aware that this is an existing city council resolution. That being the fact then Mr. Johanssen’s act of blatantly shutting down the read file may be in violation of a council resolution. If this is so then our elected officials need to do their history homework to find this resolution and set the new city manager straight.
The council has the ability to overturn this resolution with a new resolution with at least three votes signifying that they are not in favor of a transparent government and that they really want to shut the taxpayers out of participation and receiving any information. This would be returning to the dark ages and is against everything the new council professes to stand for. I think it is very unlikely that the city council will vote in a new resolution to eradicate the read file. If that is so then our elected officials need to admonish the new city manager and at the next public meeting make him aware of the resolution and their intent for passing it and direct him to immediately and retroactively reinstate the read file. Hopefully Ted Noftall will hold their feet to the fire at the next meeting.
Not only the e-mail but the weekly update has stopped (last was Sept. 4).
We should also notice that the use of the distribution list for city council has stopped, that keeps interesed parties that were placed on that distribution from seeing what council sees.
Close the windows and pull the blinds! Run silent run deep.
If Pat is required to pay I would hope to see him put up a PayPal account or GoFundMe.
Has anyone seen a recent City Manger Update? The last one listed on the Port Orange website is September 4.
What is happening here? This is beyond unconscionable! Violating a city council resolution with impunity and the council sitting back silently when this happens? Shame on you! Our elected officials need to forcefully nab this in the bud at the next council meeting and do it in a way that the taxpayers see the admonition and directive they send to the new city manager in public,
They also need to make sure that the read file exists in real time and that nothing but legally exempt emails are restricted. The communication sham that Harden and Kisela perpetrated should not be tolerated. The threats to city employees not to communicate to the city manager via his email and the concerted effort to back door email through other staff to and from the city manager should not be tolerated. Any employee coming to a city council member with the revelation that they have been directed to communicate to the city manager in any other manner over the internet or through someone else’s email address other than the city manager’s direct email and has been admonished for doing so and threatened not to should reult in council severely reprimanding the administrator that levees such a threat. If you inspect any supervisor or middle level manager’s daily email you will see around 3 dozen significant emails that chronicle the daily business activity of their position. Look at the city manager’s email and you will see a few mundane posts and an invite to a luncheon or an advertisement or two. If this is what constitutes the city manager’s daily activity then we probably do not even need a city manager. Do you actually think the city manager’s duties and responsibilities are less complex or important than a front line supervisor?
This would be ridiculous to think. What is really going on here is an orchestrated obfuscation of the city manager’s daily business communications by only permitting benign minutia to be posted on the read file. The only substantial emails that you have seen in the past is when one of the city activists asked important questions and request specific information. In essence transparency has to be pried out of the city manager and upper management. Now Johanssen has taken it upon himself to violate council resolution and totally shut down the read file to shut down any honest communication with the taxpayers. I sincerely hope that our elected officials that have posted on this website in the past, who obviously read this site will post their position on this travesty and reassure their constituency that they will publically put this issue to rest at the next city council meeting.
In deed. There would be great concern if their were much meaningful content in the public file or weekly update. Face it since Kisela little city business has come across the read file, think about how little volume appeared daily. Kisela’s invention of the weekly activity report was nice to make us remember all the things our workers do, with the extraordinary worthy act or completion of a project to make it worth reading.
Their is a strategy it seems to use the letter of the sunshine law, communicate on unrecorded means, and charge as much as possible for all record and document requests, within the state law. Other agencies are doing the same and any of us who have requested enough documents have seen the I’ll get back to you with the cost, and time.
My babbling will carry no persuasion, we should be asking where our media is, has the News Journal, radio, and TV stations been shut out of the information loop, will they be treated the same as humble citizens and invoiced for information?
Newton, I suspect there are some scandalous revelations lurking in city hall that will surely raise their ugly heads in the future. The back building of the obfuscation administration by manager Harden and the recently retired administrative services director is apparent in the depletion of the nearly $500,000 from the general fund that has been already spent on raises to a minority of employees connected to the city hall elite that will result in the farce of a salary study, namely the Cody study not being funded to execute the third world wages we pay most of our bargaining unit employees, especially public health and safety such as police officers and others. Six figure administrators that have been hired at the top of the salary range at $110,000 a year will automatically move up to $122,000 a year in October. In the meantime we are loosing police officers, firemen, and public utilities professionals in droves because the smallest and poorest cities in the region are paying substantially more and are beginning to reintroduce salary progression. Most of the new administrators that are being hired have spurious pasts and are being vetted contrary to the organizations civil service rules. Yes something is very wrong at city hall, and I think the only way to correct it is to modify the city charter and split the authority of managing the city on a day to day basis between the council and the city manager. The problem in Port Orange is that the city charter gives the city manager too much power and whomever controls the city manager controls the city. If a balance of power is good enough for the United States Government. it should be good enough for the Port Orange City Charter.
‘ this is no big deal because there is nothing useful on the read log anyway ‘
Once again Newton is trying to have it both ways by being a loyal dweeb to the Manager and still be perceived as an activist.
Once again no one has any idea where Newton stands on this issue or any other issue.
Newton is not that stupid because no one could be that stupid. His ambiguous statements are calculated to try and suck up to both sides in every issue.
They are not having the desired effect and if he doesn’t start stating clear positions he will be through as a political voice anyone can depend on.
Once Again, you are a not willing to place you name with your constant factless critique of what I wrote. I do not give the manager respite, in fact if you would read the second paragraph you would know that. In fact you seem to be just another low information rock thrower. Port Orange is not the first entity to build a shade wall to control information, look for a strategy.
What really of importance has been published in the read file? Instruction to department heads?
budget approvals? Spending requests, approvals, denials? Personnel issues?
In the third paragraph the major media is questioned, will the NJ,WNDB et.al. stand by or have they been bought out?
Your nameless shameless attacks, are really best left nameless, one day you may actually make a thoughtful fact based post, maybe then you would be willing to put a name on it.
Newton, it would be interesting find out just how many people visit and read the city manager’s read e mail files. I can very easily see how that statistic would be hidden in the number of citizens going to the web site to pay their water bills or whatever. Most citizens are unaware how the city operates in back rooms, and will probably not be concerned that city hall info is in no way impinging on their interests in TV entertainment.
I would like to see a citizen journalist start a streaming TV segment reporting the local news of PortOrange and this can be done either by You Tube,Vimeo or UStream modes. Citizens prefer their news to be spoon fed to them through TV and there is a great need for more local news among our local TV media.
“Interesting” makes a point I agree with. The city manager’s read file was used to broadcast activists thoughts and opinions. We should now look elsewhere to broadcast such opinions and I suggest that the medium of TV into our citizens’ living rooms can be inexpensively instituted. I urge such local news to be delivered in simple plain speech, and not lengthy monalogues which tend to bore the average citizen who is probably more interested in turning on “Jeopardy”.
“interesting” should not be shocked that some of us are spreading the alarm about city hall communication going underground. That’s why activists keep alert and watch what city hall is doing. This issue of communicating straight forward and as easily , conveniently as possible has once again come up front and center as to what is wrong with Port Orange. Chamber of commerce people came before the city council once before pleading for negative criticism to stop. Now really, is this the time for any governmental organization to stifle communication, transparency and the opinions of citizens, in any way or manner. I think not, and the city manager is now responsible for bringing back the old ghosts into the city council chambers. Mr.Johansson will pay for this blunder. Mr. Johansson if any city council member has guided you into this bumbling mistake, did that city council member also warn you that you do so jeopardizing your career and respect of the citizens?
don’t count on the wimps on the city council taken much of a stand on this issue — two weeks ago they adjourned the budget workshop meeting so they could have time to find additional savings in the proposed budget. they reconvened this past week and instead of finding cuts in the budget they decided to increase the budget — stiltner wants to increase the budget by $77,000 for a new employee — bastian says we should give city staff everything they ask for in the budget with no cuts — burnett wants to change the millage rate without cutting the budget — only the mayor and ford are still on-board in trying to cut the budget — take a look at the council meeting video on the city web site if you think this stuff is made up but hurry the manager may also want to delete all city videos.
I love how quickly the ones that were praising this hire are going to blast him. I think the biggest problem with the CM’s read file was that it was used in a way that was never intended. Many of the emails were basically a blog and really was not designed as information but a way to get their information to a larger audience.
So basically a military man is bringing what he has been taught to do to a civilian organization… No one saw this coming? I mean come on everyone with a brain saw this coming and now it is here you are all shocked! This man has NO experience in running a city. He has military experience but it is very different, and the learning curve is very different. I will be interested in how this is going to work out because this is looking like a 2 year CM at this time.
Possibly more like two months ?
Ted Noftall
9:29 PM
to Jake, Bob, don, Drew, Mayor, Scott
Good evening Manager Johansson,
The blogs are alive with employee observations regarding your decision to no longer have the Manager’s read log serve as source of insight into City operations.
Their observations would appear to be confirmed by members of Council who are unhappy with their own perceived involvement in this gambit, AND in particular with your efforts to obtain the acquiescence of the News Journal and talk radio to go along with this intrigue.
Would you please take a few moments to explain exactly:
* what new measures you have enacted AND;
* how you perceive those measures will intersect with the City residents ability to understand that Port Orange government is both open and transparent.
Thank you
Ted Noftall
Candidate for Mayor
City of Port Orange -2016
Mr. Noftall,
Cindy is setting up a coffee talk with you, Mr. Nelan and others where we can discuss. I am open to a conversation as long as we all can keep an open mind about the issues from a citizen and city manager perspective.
Best, mhj
Jake Johansson
City Manager
City of Port Orange
1000 City Center Circle
386-506-5501
mjohansson@port-orange.org
http://www.port-orange.org
cid:image001.jpg@01D0D05C.222A23A0
Top Ten Mistakes Transitioned Military Officers Make in Their New Private Career.
1. I know it all – You have been taught to maintain a “command presence” and be in charge at all times which includes showing zero hesitation or doubt in leadership decisions even if all the details are not clear to you. In the world you come from this embodies leadership and confidence to accomplish the mission. However, in the private sector, this comes across as a “know it all”. You must be willing to embrace that you are in a new world and be open to learning all you can. You must identify and acknowledge your weakness gaps and work tirelessly to close those gaps.
2. Communication is King– Be very mindful of how you communicate with co-workers and those who potentially report to you. Think about the language you use. It is more important to be respected and heard as opposed to imposing your authority. This can be broken up into three important sub-categories.
a. Language – use of profanity is a no-go!
b. Content – What might be acceptable topics of discussion in the military are not in the private sector. Keep it clean.
c. Translation – Military jargon doesn’t translate well. In reverse, some organizations have a language all of their own. Bottom line is you need to depart from the military terminology and work to understand communication within your organization.
3. I am going to fix it all – Day one you will most certainly identify things that you feel could be “improved upon”. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you are going to fix, repair, or change policies and procedures that don’t make sense to you. It is up to you to adapt to the new organization and demonstrate flexibility in the new environment. Some policies, while not perfect, have evolved overtime to be a best solution for now as opposed to the optimal solution. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work towards process improvement…just don’t walk in day one thinking it will happen overnight and being frustrated when it doesn’t. It’s a marathon effort.
4. Thinking: “Why don’t you crazy people have a plan?” – Don’t laugh, you will be there! Everything in the military had a standard operating procedure that formed the basis of common understanding and implementation/execution. Missions were clear, objectives were understood, resources were outlined and at your disposal, even the process of formalized Operations Orders was well taught and standardized. You knew who to talk to for each resource, understood your limits of authority, and were given very clear coordinating instructions. Guess what…that is no longer the case. To survive you must become more adaptive than ever before. You must be creative and resourceful in how you deal with issues. No longer are you able to deploy an additional platoon or company to accomplish the mission, in this new world you have to come up with creative ways to navigate the existing system to get things done. Don’t get frustrated with this, it is the new norm.
5. It is hard to delegate to no one – When you make the transition it is likely that you will find yourself no longer responsible for a team of individuals you are able to direct. You will most certainly find yourself trying to accomplish your job with far fewer team members than you are used to. You may try and direct other’s in functional areas to “do as you ask” and only become increasingly frustrated when they won’t listen to you or don’t accomplish the task to your level of expectation. You must learn to work with, around, and through these challenges. This will evolve uniquely for each individual, but it takes time, a willingness to learn and an acknowledgement that things have changed. Keep a positive attitude and maintain your standards.
6. Success at all costs is replaced with Success at a profit – In the military you are taught at the very core of who you are that failure is not an option. Success and failure is a life and death situation and failure isn’t measured in lost sales…it is measured in lost lives. The passion that you have for success is a good thing, never lose it…but you will now be forced to turn in success at all costs for achieving success at a profit. Managing the limited resources you have to be highly effective and efficient as opposed to overwhelming force to achieve success.
7. I underestimated the transition – Most individuals that we interviewed commented that looking back they found the transition to be far more difficult than they had anticipated. They underestimated change in culture, the relative lack of understanding by others of what it is like to be in the military, and ultimately the mentality of “adapt or drown” that you have to take in order to successfully transition. Most people make the transition, but they wish they had done a better job of preparing themselves in advance. Read, network, study and prepare!
8. New Social Norms -You are really going to have to work to break out of your comfort zones that you developed in the military. There are protocols around chain of command which are heavily enforced. In the military everyone understands that… in the private sector it might be vague. Organizations differ greatly and while some have this hierarchical view of communications, some do not. Watch how others behave and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
9. You need time to transition – Don’t get frustrated, the reality is that many of the challenges you will face don’t get resolved by reading another book or implementing a new system, instead, over the natural course of time and learning as you go you will evolve and grow into the private sector. Maintain an open mindset, don’t hesitate to ask lots of questions and keep an open mind for understanding new ways of doing things.
10. Not understanding the politics – In the military, while no shortage of bureaucracy exists, for the most part at the unit level there was a common understanding. Your worked to standard, not time, and had a pretty good idea of what our common objectives were while working hard to get there. It is a whole new world. That isn’t to say that there are not great teams out there with the same focus and success, there are. However, in many organizations the teams are made up of individuals with self in mind as opposed to team/mission. That isn’t to say that interests can’t be aligned, etc (example, your boss wants his team to succeed) but it is also important that people manage their personal interests. You will learn over time that you need to manage your personal interests as well, that will be one of your biggest challenges.
Educational video for the probationary city manager.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJtREgg2VYo
I would stick with decaf if I was you Jake.
http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi630300185/
Dear Manager Johansson,
I wanted to add my assent to Mr. Noftall’s observations in his email. Please do not take this city back to the secrecy of years past. That mindset almost brought us to financial ruin and destroyed taxpayer trust. We are still digging our way out of that hole. Surely that is obvious to you even after your short tenure.
Mr. Parker opened this email log for some very profound reasons after a series of terrible events fell on the backs of taxpayers. Mr. Parker’s decision was a wise and moral act. And an act of contrition. If you are not completely familiar with all that unfolded, I hope you will read up on this city’s history. The so called “Citizen Activists” were created by those events. And yes..there is a “silent majority” out there too who support the goals of open transparent government.
You and anyone on council who supports a return to a closed system mindset, I believe will live to rue that decision. Obviously across this entire country the electorate is hungry for leaders who tell the truth. On all sides of the political spectrum.
Those of us who seek open, transparent and fiscally competent city government will not be silenced nor cowed.
Closed systems only end badly. In America wise politicians welcome dissent. Please be cognizant of that as I hope will our elected council who owe their positions and allegiance to the taxpayer. Reopen the city manager’s read log. We are owed government in the sunshine.
Sincerely,
Dianne Templeton Gardner
618 Ruth Street
Port Orange, Florida 32127
dtgardner@cfl.rr.com
386-527-1641
Please post the clip where the Mayor again admonished Drew Bastian by staring him down and stating “I’m running this meeting” (near agenda item 26)
Thanks Ted for speaking up, nobody else did. It’s a done deal, council wouldn’t speak up. Everybody is spineless.
You know, all this blog does is bitch, bitch, bitch. We live in a great city, Yeh, there are problems. But, you know what, other cities and communities would love our problems compared to their own. You guys, especially Ted and your hero Ford, wanted someone not associated with ICMA. You got him, now, less than a month in his tenure, you’re ready to get out the pitchforks and torches. So what, he took away your toy, the read file. I like this guy, he’s a strong leader, that’s evident. Don’t run another one off because he doesn’t fit your mold of what YOU think should manage MY city. We will be unemployable when it comes to management. We already had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to get this last group of candidates. Don’t screw up my city!
Mike – Scrape the bottom of the barrel?
Thanks for the input Mr Laney
Mike how you and your band who advise that Port Orange is ” MY city” and who profess to love PO more than any one else could have stood by and watched PO government sink into a morass of thefts, lies, incompetence, and confused explanations over the past 4 years without ever once voicing an objection is a puzzle to me.
Port Orange has been the acknowledged leader in ‘ open government ‘ in Volusia County for the past decade with POG TV and the MANAGER’S READ FILE. Other jurisdictions like the County who did not follow Port Orange’s lead did so for a reason, And that reason is because they do not wan an informed electorate. AND if that is not the case then you go ahead and tell me how easy you find it to follow an audio recording only of County Council proceedings.
Make no mistake the Manager’s Read File was an easy and convenient way for Port Orange residents to look in on government proceedings and to decide for themselves the extent to which they felt City government was operating in an open and transparent manner. I am disappointed Johansson took that venue away from the people and that you would sanction his action by calling that venue a ” toy ”
Information breeds controversy. It has never been otherwise and your enthusiastic embrace of ending the information available on the Manager’s Read File tells me you are not so much concerned with solving problems as you are not talking about those problems,
AND that my friend is what got PO government into the mess it found itself in the spring of 2012 in the first place.
Ted Noftall
Really! That’s what you come up with. I left high school long ago, seems you still have issues with the cool kids. Why don’t you reveall who you are! Instead of addressing issues and creating solutions, this is what you do. This blog will never create input that can help the city.
Bases
The U.S. Military’s Shameful Policy of Ignoring Child Rape On U.S. Military Bases
Thursday, September 24, 2015
The U.S. military is reportedly instructing soldiers to look the other way while young boys are raped and abused by Afghan soldiers on U.S. military bases.
American soldiers are instructed to look the other way when they encounter child rape on U.S. military bases because it is their “culture” over there.
A common Afghanistan expression goes: “Women are for children, boys are for pleasure.”
The shocking allegations came to light in a New York Times article published on Sunday.
In the article Gregory Buckley Sr. said his son, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr., described the harrowing sexual assault of Afghan children by Afghan police on military bases.
“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” Buckley Sr. said his son told him. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”
In 2012, an Afghan boy who was Kept as a sex slave by an Afghan police commander, killed 3 American soldiers — including Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. — in retribution for the abuse he suffered on a U.S. military base.
The boy was among a large group of boys who lived on the U.S. military base with the police commander.
The U.S. military has a history of retaliating against soldiers who intervene in child rape cases.
One marine sent an email warning his fellow Marines about the pedophile police commander. The marines are still trying to forcibly discharge him for “sharing classified information” about the pedophile in the email.
“[Maj. Jason] Brezler took action and spoke the truth to try to protect his fellow Marines and innocent Afghan children,” Kevin Carroll, Brezler’s pro-bono attorney and an Army veteran, told The Daily Beast. Brezler has faced the same kind of retribution as Quinn and Martland, who were also punished for confronting child sex abuse, Carroll said.
Then there is Dan Quinn, a former Special Forces captain who was relieved of his command when he beat up an Afghan militia commander who kept a young sex slave tied to his bed.
“I picked him up and threw him onto the ground,” Mr. Quinn told The Times. “I did this to make sure the message was understood that if he went back to the boy, that it was not going to be tolerated,” Mr. Quinn recalled.
Quinn has since left the military.
It is a known fact that boys are used as sex objects by rich and powerful men in Afghanistan. But U.S. soldiers are told to observe local customs as it relates to child rape.
Marines are encouraged to “observe cultural and religious briefs” when interacting with locals, and to “observe general relations” and “avoid fraternizing with local nationals of the opposite gender, especially if frowned upon.”
“It is our responsibility as the Marine Corps and as a society to send strong, clear messages that we do not tolerate sexual assault,” the training guide states toward the end of the session. But then, Marines are told, “We have the responsibility to take care of one another” and to “intervene” if they witness an “unsafe” situation that could result in a sexual assault against another Marine. Again, no instructions on what to do if they witness assaults by locals on locals, even if the victims are children. Source