Jake said: "It would take forever to turn a aircraft carrier going 12 knots"
New Port Orange city manager looks to lessen turmoil
Published: Thursday, October 8, 2015 at 8:47 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, October 8, 2015 at 8:49 p.m.
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PORT ORANGE — Encased in glass behind the desk of new City Manager Jake Johansson is a football bearing the seal of the Vice President of the United States. It’s signed by Dick Cheney.
Before Johansson came to Port Orange, he spent 35 years in the U.S. Navy and for 2½ of those years, he carried the nuclear launch codes in a briefcase nicknamed the nuclear “Football.” Working in a rotation with four other servicemen, when he had the “Football,” he had to remain within 3½ minutes of the vice president at all times.
“It was a very rewarding tour when I was a very junior officer,” the 52-year-old said of the post.
Now his briefcase carries the strategic plan for Port Orange city government, which in recent years has seen an exodus of six department heads, agitation over budget issues and $1.2 million in revenue lost to water billing errors.
“I watched the turmoil. I watched the distrust in government,” says Johansson, who looked at hours of video of city meetings before he interviewed for the top job this summer. “I represent a government that was at one point not trusted. I get that. I get that I have to develop trust, but I have to do it my way.”
Since starting work Aug. 17, he’s been replacing city officials who have left or will soon leave, including a police chief and an assistant city manager.
He wants to move the city forward by researching and analyzing city issues, and adding more technology to improve city departments.
He also made waves last month when he stopped posting the city manager’s emails on the city website, a practice that began in 2010. Some city council members feared it would mean less transparency, but Johansson said city staffers were spending too much time managing the mail.
cont ……….
Before Johansson came to Port Orange, he spent 35 years in the U.S. Navy and for 2½ of those years, he carried the nuclear launch codes in a briefcase nicknamed the nuclear “Football.” Working in a rotation with four other servicemen, when he had the “Football,” he had to remain within 3½ minutes of the vice president at all times.
“It was a very rewarding tour when I was a very junior officer,” the 52-year-old said of the post.
Now his briefcase carries the strategic plan for Port Orange city government, which in recent years has seen an exodus of six department heads, agitation over budget issues and $1.2 million in revenue lost to water billing errors.
“I watched the turmoil. I watched the distrust in government,” says Johansson, who looked at hours of video of city meetings before he interviewed for the top job this summer. “I represent a government that was at one point not trusted. I get that. I get that I have to develop trust, but I have to do it my way.”
Since starting work Aug. 17, he’s been replacing city officials who have left or will soon leave, including a police chief and an assistant city manager.
He wants to move the city forward by researching and analyzing city issues, and adding more technology to improve city departments.
He also made waves last month when he stopped posting the city manager’s emails on the city website, a practice that began in 2010. Some city council members feared it would mean less transparency, but Johansson said city staffers were spending too much time managing the mail.
cont ……….
Read more via: New Port Orange city manager looks to lessen turmoil
Man, this Jake dude is out there.
Sure is. I would have never come here after watching the council meetings and researching this place.
Isn’t that sad, because the taxpayers of this bedroom community for the most part are all decent individuals that pay their taxes, mind their business, and have no special interest agendas like the career politicians in this city. The bottom line is that their is a nefarious special interest political and business agenda behind all of the administrative problems that have existed for over ten years now in the city. Jake Johannson will ultimately become a pawn in this nefarious hidden agenda and his aspiration to join the I.C.M.A. club is a signal that he is demonstrating his willingness to get right on board with this hidden special interest agenda and establish a protocol internally to facilitate the party line that will ensure that this objective will be successful. As a career military person he is mission based and does not question his superiors. If Dick Cheney says the mission is to verify the existence of and divest the identified enemy of weapons of mass destruction than the mission will proceed until it is changed to something like, “Obfuscate the fact that there was never any WMD’s and whitewash the failure of the mission to suggest it was really a success. If the mission is train Afghanistan police on U.S. military compounds to fight insurgents even though the police are pedophiles that rape children in their barracks right on the military base, stay on mission and look the other way because this is simply the collateral damage of the mission.The only way this shit is going to stop in Port Orange is if someone radically different, like Ted Noftall gets elected in 2016, and Allen Green is not able to get his son or one of his cronies into office so that he can continue to pull their strings from the background. If that is possible, then I think that will be the day the city hall special interest administration will be gutted, we see the last I.C.M.A., city manager running the administration, the chamber of commerce and its preferred members will not be the special interest recipients of taxpayer dollars, and the city administrative paradigm will not be a microcosmic manifestation of that of its parent trilateral commission, namely the Florida League of Cities, the Chamber of Commerce, and the I.C.M.A. Go Go Go! Ted Noftall for Mayor in 2016! Let’s slay the beast!
The over / under betting line is 18 months tenure for Shakey Jake.
Then its off to another municipality on another I.C.M.A. MIT Lifesaver placement.
From: Ted Noftall [mailto:Ted@tednoftall.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2015 1:02 PM
To: Jake Johansson (mjohansson@port-orange.org); Robin Fenwick (rfenwick@port-orange.org)
Cc: Bob Ford (rford37@cfl.rr.com); don@amlsfl.com; Drew Bastian (db2070@cfl.rr.com); Mayor Green (agreen@port-orange.org); Scott Stiltner (sjstiltner@cfl.rr.com)
Subject: Modified Approach & Half Truths
Manager Johansson,
The commentary accompanying Item # 23 on October 6th 2015 council agenda listed 3 requirements to use, or in the City’s case continue using the Modified Approach for Reporting Infrastructure Assets. That commentary further advised that ” the auditors have noted that the required documentation is not being maintained at the appropriate level to support ” using the Modified Approach.
When I inquired as to the level of documentation, that was being maintained ( all be it not to a standard deemed appropriate by the auditor ) neither you or your staff were able or willing to answer that question, Which IS strange because annual CAFR’s including the 2014 CAFR at page 87 & 88 have boasted about the wonderful job the City has been doing in this regard.
Accordingly pursuant to Florida’s open government statutes I would request a copy of :
* the current inventory of eligible infrastructure assets being maintained.
* the condition assessments of all eligible infrastructure assets that was performed for each of the last 3 years
* the documentation prepared showing that roads are being preserved at or above the established condition level.
Additionally it should be noted that the auditor did not just up and abandon the Modified Approach in favor of Depreciation as the agenda commentary would lead one to believe. Rather what the Auditor said in recommendation 2014-005 is as follows. ” As a result, we recommend the City enhance its monitoring, documentation, and reporting of infrastructure assets if the modified approach continues to be used. Otherwise we recommend all infrastructure assets be depreciated over their respective estimated useful lives ”
AND that brings us to the crux of a most important explanation.
* Why didn’t you have your staff step up to the plate and implement the first part of the auditors recommendation and ” enhance ” their monitoring, documentation and reporting of infrastructure assets as required by the Modified Approach instead of adopting lesser standards required for Straight Line depreciation ? AND
* What formalized standards will you be implementing regarding infrastructure inventories, assessments and reporting now that the structure imposed by the Modified Approach has been lifted, and when will those standards be made public.
Regards,
Ted Noftall
Candidate for Mayor
City of Port Orange -2016