" … Why doesn’t the city council direct Mr. Neff to produce records? …."
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Video of different types of I&I
Submitted on 2015/12/02 at 6:02 pm by P.O. Taxpayer
Private property and clean out tops are the inflow problem and represent the bulk of the I&I problem in the city. Neff and his two engineers want the taxpayer to shell out two million dollars to line sewer pipes to reduce intrusion in the public system with little or no research when the problem is inflow from private infrastructure.
Neff could not, and has not to date answered Ted Noftall’s questions about how much money has been invested in relining pipes in the public system during the last few years and what records exist documenting and mapping where the work from this investment has been performed. He has not been able to answer Bob Ford as to what the average percentage of I&I is in the system or answer Ted Noftall as to the percentage break down on how much is inflow and how much is intrusion. He kept on saying he did not know and would get back with the answer in spite of spending $17,000 on a study and suggesting the taxpayer shell out two million dollars on public infiltration projects.
The system has not even been smoke tested yet to determine the extent of the infiltration problems in the public system if any exists at all and where the problem areas are located so that taxpayer money is not wasted. The new city manager also said he would get back with Ted Noftall about the investment in the system, the location of the work done, and whether the two million dollars proposed in FY2017 was programmed and budgeted for in the capital budget or whether it would require a rate increase.
Not one thing was mentioned about this at the December 1st council meeting nor did Mr. Johanssen or Mr. Neff make one attempt to supply Mr. Noftall or the city council with any of the answers to his questions he asked two weeks earlier at the workshop when the city manager gave his word that he would get back to him with the answers.
The citizens of Port Orange had been waiting with baited breath and hoping that Mr. Johanssen would keep his word and supply those answers in a transparent manner to the citizens of Port Orange at the December 1st council meeting.
Mr. Ford and Mr. Noftall appeared to know more about I&I than Mr. Neff and the two engineering staff that attended the workshop on November 17th. Who knows, maybe the inflow situation at private infrastructure is really the new Port Orange flood mitigation initiative.
Why doesn’t the city council direct Mr. Neff to produce records of investment costs, project data, and mapping of the locations of the intrusion mitigation that has been performed in the public system over the last few years to compare it to the two million dollars he is proposing that taxpayers shell out to perform work that he seems to know very little about or can demonstrate the need for performing?
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This is an amazing indictment of the incompetency, double standard, and lack of accountability at city hall and the unwillingness of council to do anything about it. If a middle management, a supervisory, or a technical/professional employee was summoned to a meeting or workshop to address matters in their field of expertise that they spent $17,000 on additional studies and had two additional engineering support staff and could not answer a series of rudimentary questions pertaining to a subject that they are actively in charge of administrating in front of the city manager, they would not have their jobs for long. To add insult to injury, after saying I can’t answer the questions and will have to get back to you, and after the city manager reiterating that, three weeks later neither one feels compelled to supply the rudimentary answers to those they were promised to. This all being done in front of the city council and the public right on POG television. To date the council has not said a word about this nor compelled the manager and his department head to keep their word to the council, to Mr. Noftall, and to the citizens of Port Orange in supplying the answers that they promised they would in a timely manner. Is this transparency or is this the new order of strategic communication? It sounds more like strategic non-communication complacently approved by our elected officials with a wink and a nod.
Ted,
Have you received any of the answers to your questions from the workshop? If so would you be kind enough to share with the rest of us?
Thanks
The hands down number one failure of the Port Orange city council ( since the system wide lack of internal controls became evident for all to see in the spring of 2012 with the Warren Pike firing ) has been their collective failure to hold anyone accountable for anything.
Sure we have gotten some good sound bites of outrage BUT NOT ONE councilman has gone to the mat to convince at least 2 of the other 4 on council that multiple managers and even more department directors needed to have been held accountable for their non-feasant performance.
We currently have at least 3 department directors who are under performing by any measure that would be deemed acceptable in the private sector AND nothing is being done about it beyond making excuses. My efforts in discussing blatant non-feasant performance in hopes that council would take meaningful action have not borne fruit worth picking,
This council is in desperate need of Mayor possessing a credible intent to actually solve problems instead of pretending everything-is coming up roses. Well everything is not fine in Port Orange government, nor will it be until the Dias becomes an excuse free zone and obvious deficiencies are addressed in a no nonsense manner.
Ted Noftall
for Mayor – 2016
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Shouldn’t Port Orange make budgetary appropriations for their staff to perform smoke testing, GPS the locations that require repair, map this, budget for and set up a schedule for repairs, and document the work that has been performed each year in conjunction with metrics of the commensurate reduction of I&I percentage and percentage breakdown of each component of the I&I equation relative to those repairs that have been made before capriciously asking the taxpayers to shell out 2 million dollars for repairs that have not been properly researched or identified?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8Clh7zId2A
Thank you Due Diligence Reporter for graphically illustrating the non-feasant behavior of the manager and his department directors that I have been complaining about for years.
The quality and thoroughness of the presentations and studies given to council by Finance, Works and Utilities AND ON WHICH important decisions including tax and fee increases are being made are frequently error prone, one sided, incomplete, and amateurish at best.
Council has never ever made a concerted effort to reject slapdash presentations. If they had they would not have been offered what was served up by Utilities two weeks ago. .
This whole paradigm must be changed with the election of a mayor credibly committed to eliciting real comments from council and codifying those comments on which at least 3 agree into clear instruction to the manager with meaningful measures of responsibility and accountability attached.
Ted Noftall
for Mayor – 2016
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After watching the videos supplied by Port Orange Taxpayer and Due Diligence Reporter I am incensed.
A ten year old could easily understand the videos on Sewer System Smoking Testing and Types of l&l. We have a Utility Director (an engineer) and also two other high paying engineers working with him and they have to pay a consultant $17,000 for something they should be able to figure out themselves. Obviously they don’t know their asses from a hole in the wall when it comes to utilities .As a taxpayer I live on $19,000 a year and I sure hope the council doesn’t give this Neff guy $2,000,000 of my money under the current circumstances. Councilmen, WATCH THE VIDEOS..IF A TEN YEAR OLD CAN.FIGURE OUT WHAT’S GOING ON HERE I’M SURE YOU ALL CAN. THEN ACT IN A RESPONSIBLE MANNER FOR THE FUTURE SAKE OF THE CITY AND THE TAXPAYERS.
After watching the video it is simple to see that there is nothing a consultant can do to help our I&I. In the end it will ultimately be city staff performing simple smoke testing and documenting the deficiencies to be corrected. That is the only logical solution. Hard to believe there is not someone smart enough at city hall to just do it and be done with it. It is simple, cheap, and effective. I’m sick of paying consultants for pretty studies, more tax dollars and no action. Maybe we should smoke test Public Utilities Management and see where our tax dollars are really leaking out and to whom. Spend the money on the fix and quit talking about it. If they can’t fix it themselves its time for them to hit the road. That’s what we hired them for. Good management should have the capability to manage and not have to purchase a solution for every problem encountered.
You are right on the mark in your observations Concerned. Everyone knows that the talent and institutional knowledge exists within the utilities department to address all of these issues. The only problem is that the new director has neutered and disenfranchised that talent by an ill conceived and currently failing departmental reorganization and a systematic assault on all of the long term middle managers and supervisors that possess all the technical expertise, institutional knowledge, and where withal to address these issues in a cohesive and practical manner. The new director has these people chasing their tails in an attempt to divide and conquer, run them down the road, and import lackeys that will help facilitate the construction of his own personal dynasty. This failed for him in Seminole County, it failed for him in Marion County, it failed for him in Treasure Island, and it failed for him in Clearwater. It took the city politic in those institutions several years in each case to finally have an epiphany and come to the conclusion that they needed to cut their losses before the destruction of the rest of their utility workforce infrastructure and their citizen rate payers’ well being was destroyed. Hopefully it will not take them two or three more years to have that epiphany in Port Orange.
The manager and his senior staff are ditz heads for sure but Ted is right – the real problem is with council inaction.
I have listened to Ted long enough to know it is time to give his knowledge and commitment a try.
His criticism of council no matter how painful is right on target. Council as a body have failed to take unified action on anything. .
Ted has shown more leadership from the podium than Burnett has in five years from the dais. If that gasbag is moved from councilman to mayor it will be the biggest laugh at the city’s expense there has ever been.