Tuesday night's commission meeting does not include the much heated Vacation Rental issue even though the commission voted to bring it back at the May 21 meeting. Instead, Glen Torcivia, city attorney, will give a report, one of the few he has ever given. The report is NOT in the back-up. This commission was to evaluate him and his firm after 6 months nearly 6 months ago and so far he has been allowed to continue with no commission statement of any kind.
Prior to that, the city manager's review is on the agenda. There is no matrix form in the back-up. There is no self-evaluation report included in the back-up. All of this is probably unnecessary as it will be a slam dunk that his evaluation will be "over the top," as this commission, along with the public, adore him and consider him to be "Mr. Nice Guy," and what they consider a different but refreshing kind of "drug." Even though the city manager report category appears on every agenda, he has never given a report. This verifies that this administration, supported and encouraged by this commission, is not transparent and believes that the public has no need to know what the city manager is up to. We know what he wants to achieve, which is no different than the wish lists of past administrations, and all of those "wishes" take millions and millions, $63 million for a starter if he goes forward with an overhaul of our roads and infrastructure in a city that doesn't have a pot.
With Susan Stanton, we could see results:
Reduced general fund spending by 19%
Reduced the PBSO contract by $1,200,000
Reduced the city's contribution to the Police Retirement fund by $200,000
Reduced the city's contribution to the General Employees' Retirement fund by $1.3 million.
Reduced electric rates by 5% and transferred $500,000 less from the utility to the general fund.
and many more too numerous to mention.
One thing on which we all agree is that the city manager's job is difficult. However, it was made easier by the former city manager who had to make a lot of tough and unpleasant decisions to get the city going in the right direction. It was headed towards municipal bankruptcy when she began her employ in April 2009 because of previous administrations robbing reserves with no idea of where the money was spent. Housekeeping was in order and Susan Stanton terminated many, replacing them with top-notch professionals.
As far as transparency, the Stanton government was the most transparent city government (excepting when staff tried to hide things from her) in my memory... everything was aired in the public domain. Meetings were often and they were always long. We were beginning to see the light when she was fired because of politics and egos and the Commission did not think that she was "Ms Nice Guy. Scott Maxwell, Pam Triolo and Andy Amoroso replaced her with someone with "personality" and a ready smile, Michael Bornstein, and discussion on city business got shorter and shorter.
Hopefully the public will learn what all has been accomplished over this past year--if there are any concrete plans and solutions. Hopefully, on Tuesday night we will walk away convinced.
Read the PBPost editorial which says Bornstein, like a politician, is taking his message to the streets.
14 comments:
Seems like just about everybody has a good impression of him but you.
True, he's not a bully and screaming hormonally and psychologically unbalanced "happy as I am now" Stanton, but he does manage to get things done.
How's "Ms. Nice Guy" doing out in Greenfield? Tried to bully them into hiring their own "top notch" police chief. How'd that work out for her?
How 'bout that old sewer partnership with our neighboring cities citing that they owed us, what was it $10 Million?
She may be trying to fool mother nature, but she's not fooling many of us here. Welcome Mr. Bornstein!
I like Mike Bornstein-- just don't know what he's up to.
True, he's not a bully. He leaves that up to certain commissioners. I NEVER witnessed Stanton being a bully on the dais or any meeting I ever had with her.
Ms. Nice Guy in Greenfield is probably working 16 hour days and turning around that city just like she attempted to do here.
The Sewer partnership was BEFORE Stanton and she relied on numbers and proof provided to her by the finance Department. No one has really said that these monies were not owed. What they have said is that accounting was SLOPPY and receipts lost, etc. There was no way to really prove it in court. We swept it all away.
To mention Stanton being transgendered is very small of you. There for the grace of God...
I do not agree all the public adores or likes him. I know I don't. The man doesn't even have the decency to respond to your emails, calls, or concerns. He dismisses you and is not addressing the problem of blight, codes, and crime in this city enough. Just look a few blocks west of City Hall, all you see is blight, drug dealers, prostitutes, and no code enforcement at all. He does nothing about this at all and when you email him or ask him to, he doesn't respond or do anything, is this the way to treat citizens? No! I do not see him any better than any of the other lame CM we have had, I can't recall a really good one in this city in 15-20 years actually.
"All of this is probably unnecessary as it will be a slam dunk that his evaluation will be "over the top," as this commission, along with the public, adore him and consider him to be "Mr. Nice Guy," and what they consider a different but refreshing kind of "drug." "
I feel very sorry for the commenter who just tried to post here with the most horrible of personal attacks towards Susan Stanton and myself. I know that she wanted a secure office because of you and your outbursts. You are harboring dangerous feelings. Maybe a priest would help...do an exorcism and get rid of all those awful zits wile he's at it.
"The Sewer partnership was BEFORE Stanton and she relied on numbers and proof provided to her by the finance Department."
The partnership may have been formed before Stanton, but the finance department you refer to was that same "top notch" crew she brought in. You sound like Obama now. She handled it badly.... very badly. Poisoned the waters all the way around us. So much so that many are looking to spend millions of dollars to go around us. You give her credit for everything good that she did but all bad things are by administrations before her..... sound familiar at the Federal level?
Look... she wasn't all bad. She wasn't all that good either. She had issues and they were brought on by herself. That does not make me "small". She is the one who pushed it in everybody's face. Documentaries aren't done without her permission.
I'm happy she is happy. That's doesn't mean I must approve of or even understand it. There are a lot of wierd people around in many different ways. I like to live and let live. Just don't pee on me and try to tell me it's raining.
She counted on Steve Carr. You trust him, right? Ii believe you have said that in front of the commission on what a great asset he is, etc., etc., etc.
She never talked about being transgendered after she was hired--NOT ONCE. In fact, the CNN documentary was done well before she was hired here. You didn't have to view it. What a complete phony you are. You say "live or let live" and don't believe a word of it. Let's throw in bigot too.
I don't think I'm a bigot. I have prejudice just like everyone has. If I don't care for someone, I don't have to deal with them. In Stanton's case, many DID have to deal with her.
I do think Steve Carr is competent. I can't ever remember saying so in public. But it was you that said everyone she brought is was "top notch", the insinuation was that those who came before were incompetent.
So did Steve give his boss bad advice that she went to the carpet on? Remember how adamant she was about suing the partners? Aren't you concerned about the difference between them owing us $10,000,000.00 to them owing us zippo and we owe ourselves $2,000,000.00?
I know it's inconvenient.
She did NOT go to the carpet on this sewer issue. Politics now wants to condemn her and it is BS.
Where did you get that from?
What I believe I think I answered...this $10 mil was covered up and swept under the damn rug. So, yes, I am VERY CONCERNED that we would do this but then, sloppy accounting was done prior to Stanton. She got rid of aLL of them. And yes, everyone she hired WAS top notch.
I would bet that there is plenty of stuff being covered up that they don't want the public to know about or even the commission that affects us all. Why does a city mgr sit up on the dais if he won't contribute anything during his segment of the agenda? One good thing, we don't have Joe Kroll lying his azz off.
The city has been mismanaged for years. In fact, only recently, we had a guy manage us from Lauderdale. Also, we had a utility director who also was on the board of an organization we were desperately trying to resign from. So, when she resigned from L.W. we said no,please stay and we will pay you 25 thou. a month. We hired a utility consultant who is leading us into the same problems a sister city is now recovering from. Did our commission contact this city? No! The mayor said let a volunteer board reach out, if they want. I think this city mgr. can do his job if this commission would do theirs. Tonight, make a decision on vac. rentals, whatever it is. Legally they can. Cerainly one side will be upset, but we elected you to look at an issue and make a decision.
The LW City Manager we have now is a coward, he will not even do or respond to your emails or address issues, the city is getting bad again and the elected ones and him all say there is nothing they can do, go figure? ALL a huge dissapointment, until we see action, we need to hold them to the fires, thanks Lynn for your website and caring so much about our great city, you do so much more than any of them to get things done here, you care and that is what matters. What do you think about that Michael?
I agree with the other posting, I do not think that "Mr. Nice Guy' the CM is very nice, he kisses up to the commission only to keep in good graces and have a job, he doesn't care about the citizens, making that much money, no one would, he treats many citizens poorly, not all but many and some I know, his actions and cover ups will catch up to him someday and the truth and his real side is slowly coming out to all of us, oh we thought he was a breath of fresh air didn't we? CM Bornstein needs to respond, speak to the public, and serve us all, not just the commission, he needs to respect the public, he shows little respect for most citizens really. What does he really contribute, good point in other post?
"I would bet that there is plenty of stuff being covered up that they don't want the public to know about or even the commission that affects us all. Why does a city mgr sit up on the dais if he won't contribute anything during his segment of the agenda? One good thing, we don't have Joe Kroll lying his azz off."
Personally, I think, Mr. Bornstein is a real phony, there is nothing real or sincere about him, a puppet to the commission, not really that nice either, he needs to do more to take responsibility to keep this city cleaner, safer, and more orderly. Address the citizens who deserve to live in a nice city, clean it up, address the blight and codes issues, there is nothing nice about what you are doing and how you have not addressed the biggest problem facing this city.
he really works hard for the gay community---he is very gay friendly
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