In our country, it used to be that if you had the initiative to build a company, offer an honest product or service and provided good customer service, you were able to make a decent living, even become well-off. That was the “American Dream” and was what enabled people to work optimistically toward a better life here.

No more.

Today, more often than not, it is how well connected you are, or how well you can cheat, take advantage of, steal & rob your way to a better life, and do it off the backs of others. We’ve seen too many examples of this nationally; the Madoff scandal & the Wall Street meltdown with investment firms &banks lying to investors are just two examples. Here in South Florida we’ve seen the Rothstein “Ponzi” scheme, the Stanford investment scandal, developers trying to get land rezoned for their own financial benefit, and numerous Broward County elected officials “on the take”.

And now in Fort Lauderdale we have this. A scumbag by the name of (my attorney asked me not to mention his/her name yet) is driving around Fort Lauderdale looking for businesses to sue under the “Americans with Disabilities Act”. A Federal law allows anyone (anyone who is classified as “disabled” that is) the right to sue a business if there is any (no matter how small) element of current ADA non-compliance.

The person doesn’t even have to go in to the business; if they see any violation from the street, they can sue and the business or property owner suddenly finds him or herself on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, having to pay both the plaintiff’s attorney and their own attorney. It’s nothing more than a scam, dreamed up by attorneys, for attorneys (in my opinion).

Currently this “person” has sued 26 businesses in the last 4 months (my business included), claiming “irreparable harm” by not having proper access (never mind that he or she may never have entered the business). I have had numerous people in wheel chairs come to my place of business to shop. No one has ever had a problem getting around. But the way the federal law is written, if your business or property is not up to ALL current ADA standards, or has even minor issues, you can still be sued. There is no warning or time given to correct any issues that are not up to current ADA standards; all you can do is to try to settle with the attorneys involved to minimize the legal fees.

It’s a cottage industry and the winners are the attorneys, both the plaintiffs’ and the defendants’ attorneys. The losers are the small business or property owners who have only two options: try to settle out of court for tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. Or take it to court and end up having to pay 3-4 times that. And the way the law is written, the chance of being successful in court is very slim. It is simply legal extortion by the Federal Government and the attorneys who wrote the law.

So a small business like mine, along with an appliance store, a carpet store, a clothing store, a bank, bicycle shop, along with several doctors and dentists offices and at least ten other businesses here in Fort Lauderdale have all been sued by the same person, using the same attorney since April. Local judges are upset about these claims, but because of the way the law is written, they too have little flexibility.

We wonder why we are losing our competitive edge in the world. Here’s why. We are too busy trying to cheat and steal from each other…

For those of you who have small businesses here in Fort Lauderdale; be forewarned! Make sure your place of business meets ALL of the current ADA requirements.

Earl Rynerson

A study that was done last year examined the properties that the City of Fort Lauderdale owns. How many properties does the city actually own? What is the estimated value of those properties? One of the following answers is correct:

          A:  45 properties with a value of $25 million

          B:  178 properties with a value of $150 million

          C:  345 properties with a value of $500 million

          D:  600 properties with a value of over $1.1 billion

The correct answer is D. Believe it or not, the City owns over 600 parcels of property in Fort Lauderdale with an estimated assessed value of over $1.1 Billion dollars!

Now, before you start screaming about this as another waste of taxpayer money, there are a few caveats to these numbers:

·        Out of the 600 properties, several hundred pieces of property consist of the small medians, right-of-ways, bridges, and other un-usable strips of land that are scattered throughout the City.

·        Out of the $1.1 Billion in property value, almost half of that value comes from properties located on and around the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport ($530,000,000 in assessed value).

·        The list also includes cemeteries, parks, fire stations, properties for non-profits, schools, parking lots, the Bahia Mar property, and the Swimming Hall of Fame, among others.

But there are (according to the report) over 100 properties that are useable properties that could be sold to generate income to the City. And the assessed value of those properties is almost $50 million.

Now, most of these properties that could be sold are lots of vacant land each about 4,000 to 5,000 sq ft in size in the northwest part of the City, currently assessed at about $25,000 to $30,000 per parcel. There are a number of former landfill properties in the northwest part of the City listed that could be sold too.

But in this economy, (with property values in the toilet), does it make sense to even try to sell them? And with the City’s budget as bloated as it is right now, shouldn’t our priority be to cut the budget (rather than to try to find additional revenue sources to keep the budget in its boated state)?

NOTE TO OUR COMMISSION: Why not take many of these vacant lots in the northwest part of the City and allow the residents there to develop them into vegetable gardens? Fresh fruits and vegetables are missing from many of the resident’s diets there, due to a lack of full service grocery stores in the area. Many other cities (including Miami) have developed similar properties in this manner for local residents for their benefit; the residents are able to form co-operatives to grow their own healthy produce and could even sell excess produce to others. And it wouldn’t cost the city a dime. Not a bad deal!!

The discussion of this topic is coming before the Commission in September. And apparently, the City needs to get voter approval before they can sell any of these properties. I think they could make better use of these properties which would help local residents. Let’s not try to sell them at bargain prices to some developer trying to make a quick buck.

For a complete review of the properties that the City of Fort Lauderdale owns, go to:  http://ci.ftlaud.fl.us/auditor/reports/2008-09/0809-04.pdf.

But there’s one property the City should be buying:

The old American Golf Course and Coral Ridge Country Club, between Federal Highway and Bayview Drive, north of Oakland Park.

A brief history:

About 4 years ago, a number of well-known local developers came together to buy the roughly 200 acres of prime land for an estimated $17 million dollars. A ridiculously low price, but the properties were zoned for (and could only be used for) parks at that time.

What these developers were trying to do though, was to buy the property, then lean on elected officials (through gifts and “donations”?) to get them to change the zoning of these properties from parks to residential development. Their intent was to build homes there; increasing the value of their property from $17 million to hundreds of millions of dollars, a nice little profit for them selves…

This has been a common tactic here in South Florida; a number of stories have appeared in papers over the last few years about “less than reputable” groups of people buying parks, then trying to get the properties re-zoned for home building by “greasing the palms” of elected officials.

Whether that was the intent here in Fort Lauderdale with the purchase of American Golf Course and Coral Ridge Country Club is unclear. However, this group’s purchase was ill-timed, as they bought just before the property values collapsed and a glut of homes appeared on the market. Any rezoning or development ideas now have been shelved.

Currently:

So what we have now is a large, 200 acre piece of property that is stagnating. The golf course is still in use, but the adjoining American Golf Course has fallen into disrepair and is an empty lot. The old pro shop mysteriously burned down (after the developers purchased the property), and the entire parcel is fenced off.

What our City should do:

We should buy the property! If we purchased the property at the price they paid ($17 million), the developers would be able to get their money back, a good deal given the decline in property values over the last three years. The City would get a beautiful large piece of property that could be transformed into a beautiful public park, (a jewel for our City) with the adjoining golf course for public use.

But there are reports that Mayor Seiler has close personal ties to several of the wealthy developers that bought the property, and would not be inclined to try to buy the property from them if they didn’t want to sell. It is believed that the developers want to wait it out, to keep it for the long term, then try to get it re-zoned.

I think we should encourage them to sell it to the City now; perhaps we should investigate the “eminent domain” laws or apply property tax increases to those properties to help encourage them to provide this property to the City so that all of us could enjoy it.

What do you think?

For a previous article I wrote about this land grab, go to: http://abetterftlauderdale.com/?p=165.

Earl Rynerson

Convenient Commuter Rail??

How would you like to hop on a commuter train at Broward Blvd (by the bus terminal downtown) and ride down to the Miami airport? Or arrive at Fort Lauderdale Airport and ride the rails to Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, downtown Fort Lauderdale or Miami?

The dream of many residents here in South Florida to get a commuter rail system established through downtown coastal cities, (including Fort Lauderdale) is slowly rolling its way toward reality. I recently spoke to Scott Seeburger, Florida’s Department of Transportation (FDOT) point-person for the establishment of a commuter rail system here. The plan is to link both Tri Rail and the FEC freight tracks together for a commuter rail passenger’s dream: to be able to travel from Jupiter, Florida (to the north) all the way to downtown Miami or to the Miami International Airport. We used to have regular passenger service through all our downtown cities here in South Florida; you could easily ride a train from Miami to New York. (Unfortunately, that passenger service ended in the late 1960’s).

This project is on track (pardon the pun) to provide us a much needed and long awaited transportation alternative to the Turnpike or I-95. The project is called the “South Florida East Coast Corridor Project” (SFECC) and has been in the planning stages for years. I asked Scott what are the complexities of this project that keep it from being implemented quickly.

“We (FDOT) have to work with over 100 different government groups, including Florida East Coast Railway (who own much of the track), the EPA, Federal Transit agencies, South Florida Water Management, National Marine Industries, AMTRACK, and dozens of local city and county government organizations. And then there are numerous civic groups that need to be a part of the planning process as well. It’s a complicated process, not only in working with all these groups, but also in deciding what to build and how, and in finding funding solutions”

What will the final track layout look like as of now?

“We plan to construct rail links between the existing Tri Rail tracks and the FEC freight tracks to enable two sets of North-South routes. One connecting rail link will be just north of West Palm Beach; the second will be in Pompano Beach. This will enable passengers to travel from one rail line to the other on four planned lines.”

The green FEC local line (below, graph) will be the main line with many stops; the red, black and blue “flyer” lines will provide express service between main stops.

SFECC Proposed Trains

“We hope to have two types of trains; one similar to the existing Tri-rail locomotive, the second type would have the engine compartmentalized into a passenger car.”

SFECC Trains

Where are you now on this project?

“We are nearing the end of the current “Phase-2 Alternatives Analysis”. Phase 2 has examined transit technologies, including regional rail, rapid rail, light rail, and bus rapid transit; station locations and types; railroad grade crossing issues; maintenance facility and yard locations; waterway crossings, locations for interconnecting passenger services between Tri-Rail and the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway; costs; funding; ridership; economic development; land use; conceptual engineering; and environmental factors in the corridor . Once we have finished this phase, we should have a more complete picture of what the project will look like.”

Where will the stops be for Fort Lauderdale?

Proposed SFECC Rail Lines

“We started with over 120 potential stations and have now reduced that number to about 52 stations. For the Fort Lauderdale area, at least 6 stations are planned including “Five points” in Wilton Manors (at 26 Street and Dixie), NE 13Street, Andrews Ave near Sistrunk, the bus terminal at Broward Boulevard, SE 17 Street near the Hospital, then on to the Fort Lauderdale airport and down to Maimi.”

Anything in particular that people in Fort Lauderdale should know about this project right now?

“One of our biggest challenges is how to get across the New River on the FEC tracks. It takes seven minutes for that drawbridge to make one cycle. We hope to eventually have as many as 20 trains running on all the lines. Even if 8 trains an hour came through downtown Fort Lauderdale, that bridge would be closed all the time. It won’t be a near-term issue, but in 15-20 years it could become one.”

When will we see this project come to fruition?

Scott couldn’t give me a specific date, but I got the distinct impression that this project is for real and we could see our first commuter rail train sooner rather than later. Not only could it reduce traffic on the Turnpike and I-95 and make it easier to get to many city centers and airports, it could also serve as a key component in helping to move people out of harm’s way in a threatening hurricane. Can you imagine the gridlock if all of South Florida tried to drive north on I-95 and the Turnpike to get out of the way of a major hurricane? This commuter rail line would provide a helpful alternative. 

For further information about this project, go to: www.sfeccstudy.com. You can pass your comments over to Scott on that web site. You should also know that there are two hearings scheduled here in Fort Lauderdale in Holiday Park, 1150G Harold Martin Drive on Wednesday September 22; one at 3:30 -5:30 and the second from 6pm -8pm. At these meetings, FDOT will be providing the latest project information.

Let’s hope this project doesn’t get derailed. Stay tuned!

Earl Rynerson

Fort Lauderdale’s Budget Advisory Board calls proposed budget “unsustainable”.

This week, Fort Lauderdale’s Budget Advisory Board reviewed the swollen budget proposed by newly departed City Manager George Gretsas, and has called it “unsustainable” (my words exactly).

Last year, Mayor Seiler and our Commission sat on their hands and allowed a similar swollen budget to be approved, using up precious financial reserves. City staff lied about the budget being “zero-based”. Mayor Seiler took no initiative to cut the budget then; he instead approved an out- of-control spending program that jeopardizes the long term financial health of our City.

Next month, Mayor Seiler and the Commission will once again be deciding on a new budget. Gretsas dropped off that new proposed budget on his way out the door. It essentially is no different than the year before, with all the same spending excesses, plus 2.5% -5% salary raises to boot! It is not a balanced budget, as it continues to eat away the rest of our available reserve savings.  (To see how our much our city’s budget has grown over the years, go to the graph in my previous post: http://abetterftlauderdale.com/?p=1119).

Mayor Seiler and our Commission will have to make a decision next month: will they approve another swollen budget like last year, or will they start to show some backbone and force City Management to make the cuts necessary? 

This week’s findings from the Budget Advisory Board to Mayor Seiler and our Commission are in a word: “blunt”. They mirror much of what I have been saying over the last two years: that our City’s budget has grown to an unsustainable size, caused by City Manager Gretsas’ spending addiction, coupled with Mayor Seiler and our Commission’s lack of interest in cutting the costs to the taxpayer.

The Budget Advisory Board (BAB) has just provided to Mayor Seiler and our Commissioners four observations and recommendations, which include:

1. Develop a Budget Strategy that “strategically shrinks the size of city government”.

The BAB notes that City Management has no incentive to reduce spending; it is up to the Mayor and Commission to start to “provide more explicit direction”.

2. There is a lack or rigor in establishing the Budget Process.

The BAB correctly observed that Department Heads do not seriously look at ways to cut costs; they instead just take the previous year’s budget and tack on new salary increases.

3. The budgets of key Department Leaders set the “wrong tone” for budget austerity.

The BAB singled out the budgets for the City Commission, City Clerk, City Auditor, Finance and Office of Management and Budget, totaling about $9 million, an 8.2% increase over the year before! How can the rest of the city government be expected to reduce their budgets when these executive Departments are increasing their budgets?

4. Using $13 million in our financial reserves to balance the budget “does not appear prudent”.

My words exactly.

But so far, Mayor Seiler and our Commission have ignored the suggestions of the Budget Advisory Board. In fact, the BAB sent specific cost reduction suggestions to Mayor Seiler and our Commission back in August 2009, November 2009, February 2010, March 2010, and again on April 2010.

In fact there are 16 specific cost-cutting suggestions that the BAB has provided to Mayor Seiler and the Commission over the last year, including Department consolidation, shared administrative services, restricting salary and wage levels, and headcount reduction to name a few. In all, out of the 16 different ways to cut costs and save money, Mayor Seiler and our Commission have enacted only one.

The only real budgetary instructions heard from Mayor Seiler over the last year and a half regarding the budget has been to “not fire any City employees”. This indicates to me how “out of touch” our Mayor is with the real world of the tax payer. Since Mayor Seiler and our Commission have been elected, not one ounce of budgetary fat has been trimmed.

Alan Silva, one of the BAB members, posted an additional note on how to save taxpayer monies and reduce the City’s spending addiction. According to Mr. Silva:

“The Commission should explore the following reorganization of departments, which could reduce management layering and costs, reduce duplication, and enhance coordination of activities:

a.       a new Department of Administration and Finance consolidating Finance, Human Resources, Information Systems, Office of Management and Budget, Office of Professional Standards, Procurement, and Public Information (NOTE: the internal audit function of OMB would be transferred to the City Auditor);

b.       a new Department of Community Services combining Public Works, the Fleet (of Parking and Fleet), and the Parks and Recreation;

c.       an expanded Department of Business Enterprises to include Parking (from Parking and Fleet), operated on an enterprise fund basis, privatizing through out-sourcing or sale of assets that compete with the private sector (or other governmental entities);

d.       a new Department of Economic Development and Regulation to include Building Services, Economic Development, and Planning and Zoning.

This would reduce the number of departments reporting to the City Manager from 16 to 6 (Admin & Finance, Community Services, Business Enterprises, Economic Development/Regulation, Fire, and Police). “

Although I have not agreed with Mr. Silva on everything in the past, I believe he is “spot on” in recognizing one of the key problems that Gretsas created while he was here; Gretsas doubled the number of City Departments and their management staff, creating an unsustainable, swollen budget that we can no longer afford.

Do you agree? Then let Mayor Seiler and our Commissioners know! Here are their email addresses (cut and paste):

jack.seiler@fortlauderdale.gov; broberts@fortlauderdale.gov; crodstrom@fortlauderdale.gov; bdubose@fortlauderdale.gov; rrogers@fortlauderdale.gov

And here is what you can say (cut and paste):

To Mayor Seiler and our Commissioners:

Follow the suggestions of your Budget Advisory Board! Tell city management to significantly cut the budget this year and make the necessary organizational changes to reduce our costs. Get rid of overpaid supervisory personnel. Reduce service and utility fees. Keeping the millage rate “as-is” is nothing to be proud of.

We are spending more than we should and our future revenues will be even less. If you do not take serious steps now, you will be demonstrating your lack of concern to the everyday taxpayer here in Fort Lauderdale.

You’ve done this before and they got the message. Let’s do it again!

Earl Rynerson

Fort Lauderdale’s Spending Addiction and High City Employee Salaries

Last year, in the middle of a horrible economy, City Manager George Gretsas grew the City’s budget from $600M to $605M. He called it a “zero-based” budget, when everyone at City Hall (including Mayor Jack Seiler) knew that description was a complete fabrication.

This year, City Manager Gretsas has presented to the Commission a budget that continues to swell, from $605M to $612M! It provides even higher salaries and pay raises. Today, HUNDREDS of city employees receive total compensation well in excess of $100,000 per year. Mayor Jack Seiler, who approved last year’s bloated budget, (as well as salary increases for these City employees), appears to be on track to approve yet another swollen budget this September.

If Mayor Seiler approves this budget without making significant cuts, he will be making a big mistake. The rest of our available reserves will be used up. Our City will be faced with an even worse revenue shortfall next year and will be forced to raise property taxes. We are fast approaching a financial cliff that will negatively affect everyone who lives in Fort Lauderdale. Yet for the last year, the only advice from our Mayor has been: “Don’t lay off any City employees”.

We see homes in foreclosure, people losing their job (or are having to accept lower pay to keep their job), and housing values almost half of what they were a few years ago. How bad does the economy have to be, Mayor Seiler, before you start to cut the budget?

Budget History:

• For the last six years, Fort Lauderdale’s Budget has been set based on how much revenue was coming in through property taxes, not on what it actually cost to provide services to residents.
• Since property values increased, the budget was simply pegged at whatever the expected revenues would be. Rather than reduce the millage rate and control the budget, the budget grew at almost 10% per year. Most municipal budgets grow annually at around 1-2%. City spending went “out of control”.
• In six years, our budget grew from $345 million to over $600 million. If our city ran well on a budget of $345 million six years earlier (with essentially the same population we have now), why should it cost us almost twice as much today?
• With today’s swollen budget, we now have a larger-than-necessary bureaucracy.  City Departments have grown from 8 to 18, each with more overpaid managers than we need. This over-staffed bureaucracy has impeded, (rather than improve), city services to residents.
• City Manager Gretsas has not asked for cutbacks from a single Department this year. Why? Because our Mayor did not want him to make any cuts!

Examples of Budget Mismanagement:

• Longevity bonuses (merit raises) and 5% annual pay raises for City employees are continuing unabated. The total compensation for the average City employee today is almost double what the average Fort Lauderdale resident earns!
• There exists an almost $400 million debt in pension liabilities that we tax payers will have to pay City employees, yet it does not even appear in the budget.
• The City continues to spend money lavishly on city vehicles that are not needed. Other cities usually get almost twice as much use out of their vehicles (before they trade them in) than we do. Why?
• Most cities our size have an employee base of 1,600 city employees. Our city seems to require 2,600 employees, year after year. Why?

There continues to be a disconnect between the real world, (where taxpayers live) and the stratified world of City Management, who continue to ask for pay raises, higher pension benefits, and larger Department budgets. Our current budget must be reduced significantly THIS YEAR, or you will be paying more in property taxes next year. Either our Commission must do it, or we must do it ourselves.

Compare our City’s budget to a fiscally responsible budget:

Attached below is a graph showing the budget growth of the City of Fort Lauderdale (red bars), coupled with a typical black growth line of a fiscally responsible city. The green bars are what we are suggesting, starting this year:

Proposal for Fiscal Reform:

1.     A 10% reduction in the proposed $612 million dollar budget be made to bring the Total Operating Budget (General Fund and Enterprise Fund) back down to approximately $550M. (This would still be an increase over the 2007-2008 budget).

2.     Thereafter, we suggest an annual 2.5% budget reduction in the Total Operating Budget (General and Enterprise Funds). This will serve two purposes:

a.       It will force City Management to start to cut the fat, to carefully plan for future reductions and make the necessary operational changes with minimal impact on employee staffing.

b.      A five-year period of gradual cuts will insure that the police & fire and general employee’s unions understand that their next round of salary negotiations will probably include salary cuts or other concessions.

3.     Cutting the General Fund Budget will insure that property taxes are either cut or are held steady (no future tax increases).

4.     Cutting the Enterprise Fund Budget will insure that taxes and fees can be reduced in utility bills, parking fees, etc. It has been those pesky and ever-rising fees and taxes in our bills which have hurt businesses, homeowners and tourism in our city. And cutting the expenses and reducing the fees by an equivalent amount should have no negative impact on our financial ratings.

We believe that with aggressive action taken this year by our Commission, we can stave off even more dire cutbacks next year and insure that fiscal responsibility returns to our City, hopefully under new more professional management.

What do you think? Should our Mayor start to look out for our interests, instead of just overpaid City employees? Should we start a grass-roots effort to bring the budget back under control (and reduce our taxes and fees), if our elected officials won’t do it?

Let me know.

Earl Rynerson

www.abetterftlauderdale.com

“Planned Unit Developments”.

With all the outrage we’ve voiced lately about governmental decisions being made without our input (such as the Las Olas Boulevard fence and the Homeless Feeding Center), we need to be especially vigilant about how future development projects may impact our quality of life too.

Developers in Fort Lauderdale have (for years) become accustomed to having free reign in deciding what gets built and where. They decide what future projects will be most profitable, and then lobby our elected officials to get approval of those projects. This has (in many cases) left us with a “patchwork” appearance to many parts of Fort Lauderdale.

About eight years ago, a piece of legislation was written (with lobbyist’s help) called PUD, or “Planned Unit Development”. It is essentially a way for developers to get around existing zoning ordinances.

PUD’s or “Planned Unit Development” allows for “development incorporating planning initiatives that achieve unique or innovative development that is not otherwise permitted”. In other words, it bypasses existing zoning laws if a developer can convince someone that part of their plan is unique or innovative. Of course, what is described as “unique or innovative” would vary from person to person.

“It’s a giant loophole that developers have created for themselves”, one neighborhood activist mentioned to me recently.  “Worse, as soon as one developer gets a project approved using that logic, then others can use that approval as justification for even larger projects of their own, in other parts of town. Why even have zoning laws?”

Even with the decline in development, there are numerous examples of PUD’s being currently used to try to “shoe-horn” large projects into relatively small spaces. Many people have expressed concern over the Bahia Mar project. The developer is using the Planned Unit Development (PUD) loophole to propose a taller set of structures along A-1A than the current zoning laws allow. Although the current property (as is) certainly shows its age, care must be taken to insure that any planned development proposals are part of (and integrate into) an overall larger “Destination” plan for the area that incorporate parking, mass transit, vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

And since this property (owned by the City), is leased to the developer for a 50-year period, we need to make sure that whatever project is approved will provide the greatest financial benefit to the City over the optimum period of a new lease.

Another PUD-inspired project is the expansion of First Presbyterian Church along Las Olas Boulevard, near 15 Avenue. This project is clearly beyond the scope of what the zoning laws allow. There is nothing unique or innovative about the project except that it would increase traffic and congestion into a historic area that needs to be better protected.

But the church is using its connections with a local developer and elected leaders to try to muscle this oversized project (including a five-story parking garage, classrooms, gym, etc) into a fragile residential neighborhood. Church leaders are saying that since it is their property, they should be able to put in what they want. WRONG! This is nothing more than a special interest group using bullying tactics to try to get their way over the objections of their neighbors. To have this sort of bullying come from a so-called “religious organization” or church is frankly, quite hypocritical. The Planning and Zoning Board will be hearing arguments again on this issue this week; let’s hope they voice a resounding “NO” on this proposal.

Besides a PUD moratorium, we need to encourage our Mayor and Commission to become more proactive to the long term development needs in our City. We must embrace future development, and our Mayor and Commission need to become an active part of that development process. They need to:

·        identify areas in our City where large, multi-use development projects would help an area (such as the Sistrunk area, the 13 Street Corridor, and the South Andrews Business District).

·        “roll up their sleeves” and get actively involved with developers and property owners, providing financial incentives (tax relief) to those who turn vacant or underused parcels into part of an overall larger project (a “Destination”) that provides jobs to local residents, enables new businesses to start and helps project Fort Lauderdale into more of a forward-thinking city.

One thing’s for sure. If our elected officials continue to act in a “react” mode to every little project that comes before them, we’ll never see the large multi-use development projects that our City needs. It will be more patchwork projects that benefit only the Developer.

Just as you have done in the past, (in voicing your concern over the Las Olas fence, the Homeless Feeding Center, and in the future of spend-aholic City Manager Gretsas), so too should you make your voice heard over the issue of “Planned Unit Developments”. Call the Mayor’s office (954-828-5003) and tell Jack Seiler: “Put a moratorium on future Planned Unit Developments!”

Earl Rynerson

Two positive steps occurred last week here in Fort Lauderdale and it was through the efforts of YOU!

Things are getting better!

The first thing was the Las Olas fence. As you recall, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) began installing ugly barrier type fences along Las Olas Blvd. I posted 6 articles about this debacle, including who was originally involved in the discussions and who dropped the ball (City Manager Gretsas). Enough of you raised a ruckus with our Mayor, Commission and with FDOT that the fence portion of the project has been put on hold. Our Commission has decided to look at other fence options that will instead add beauty to the area.

On July 12, Commissioner Rodstrom sent this letter out to Las Olas residents:

“I would like to express my sincere thank you to all who came out last week to the City Commission meeting and for the many emails in support of Las Olas Blvd. As a result of your advocacy, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District Secretary agreed to put the rails on hold to provide time for the city to look into decorative railings (including costs) versus powder coating the current railings and to provide community input with regard to selection. In the meantime, FDOT advised that they will modify the current railings to adjust for safety concerns”.

The second issue that you changed was the proposed additional Homeless Feeding Center on NE 8 Street.This proposed site was the result of a request by our City Commission last year to look for an additional feeding center in Fort Lauderdale. This was something that our City Commission should have never gotten involved with in the first place; homeless issues are the domain of (and are funded by) Broward County Government. Our Broward County property taxes fund service programs for the homeless. Fort Lauderdale City Government should be keeping their noses out of County programs and not trying to add an additional layer of bureaucracy that we have to pay for.

Again, you flooded our Commission with calls and emails. They got your message. The 8 Street location is no longer being considered.

On both of these issues, you spoke up. Our Mayor and Commission heard you and are making corrections. Congratulations. You are helping to make Fort Lauderdale an even better place to live!

Earl Rynerson

Last year I commented on a project that is as wasteful of taxpayer dollars as it is useless as a transportation system; “The Wave”, a light rail system dreamed up by property owners of Fort Lauderdale’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA).

For a history, go to: http://abetterftlauderdale.com/?p=291 to see my analysis last year of this project. This group of multi-millionaires have been working quietly with local politicians (perhaps “greasing some palms”?) to get government tax dollars to pay for a large part of this 2.7 mile light rail system in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

The project on the surface seems interesting. A light rail system that would help to project Fort Lauderdale as a forward-thinking City, with a transportation system to handle future growth. It would be a perfect way to transport people around a mixed use area of cafes, shops and residential buildings. But we don’t have that. After my analysis (and a subsequent meeting I had with DDA executives last year), I’ve learned that this project is little more than a way for Downtown property owners to increase the value of their own properties.

That is why the DDA members were willing to put up millions of dollars for this project. The rail system would go along their properties, immediately increasing their values. The same concept that you’ve seen numerous times on the “old west” movies, individuals want the railroad lines to go where their properties lie. It makes them wealthy.

Now, I don’t have an issue with that as long as the DDA members pay for all of it, but here are the reasons that I am against “The Wave”:

1.     The DDA group wants taxpayers (you and me) to pay for part of the construction costs.

2.     The DDA group wants taxpayers to foot the bill for the operation of it. And if it operated at as loss (as it most assuredly would), we would be on the hook for millions more, year after year.

3.     There is no ridership to warrant the expense. The tracks form a loop. You have to be on the loop and want to go somewhere on that loop in order for you to want to ride it. The only people who might consider riding it would be:

a.     downtown businessmen going to business meetings or lunch

b.     those people who want to go to Broward General Hospital, or

c.      those condo owners living in the Flagler area

This is not a large enough group to justify the tens of millions of taxpayer dollars that would be spent building and maintaining it. The project is expected to cost almost $130 million dollars or almost $50 Million dollars per mile.

4.     If it ever gets installed, the rail cars will be one more thing we’ll have to avoid on the roadways of downtown. Congestion isn’t bad now, but it will become bad as these mostly empty rail cars compete for road space.

5.     It would conflict with plans to establish a north-south commuter rail system along the existing FEC tracks (I’ll be reporting on that in the next couple of weeks).

6.     Look at the local bus system (and the local trolley that travels around downtown and along Las Olas Boulevard). Neither has ridership. What would cause the Wave to have any more riders?.

And now we have this.  A Federal Government Watchdog Group, “Citizens Against Government Waste” is now listing this project as the second worst pork barrel spending project for transportation this year. For details, go to this link: http://www.cagw.org/newsroom/releases/2010/pork-alert-house.html to see what they say about this waste of taxpayer dollars. (I’ve been saying that this was a waste of money; now a federal watch dog group agrees with me….)

Unfortunately, two of our local politicians : Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) are behind the scenes trying to secure funding for this wasteful project. They should be spending their resources trying to get the north-south commuter rail project implemented along the FEC tracks first, before doing favors for the wealthy DDA property owners.

Do you agree that this is a waste of taxpayer money? Then call them and object to this project! Here are their phone numbers:

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz:  (954) 437-3936

Rep. Alcee Hastings:  (954) 773-2800

Let them know how you feel about this!

Earl Rynerson

True to my prediction this week, in the final Commission meeting prior to George Gretsas’ departure on July 31, the Commission (at 3:15AM!) decided to select an Interim City Manager, to serve until their next meeting on August 17. Three names came up: City Auditor John Herbst (the most qualified), City Attorney Harry Stewart, and Assistant City Manager Allyson Love, a former City Budget Director and a Gretsas protege. Allyson Love was selected in less than 25 minutes.

First, I have to say this (and for all you Seiler supporters, I apologize). But the conclusion of this week’s Commission meeting was laughable. It was a joke. It is simply an embarrassment that our elected officials (who have had 10MONTHS to set up a selection process for a new City Manager), would wait until the last possible moment, at 3:15 in the morning to throw out 3 names and then vote an interim City Manager in. No public discussion, no selection process, no neighborhood input.

This, to select someone who is authorized to write checks for millions, who is responsible for proper allocation of our tax dollars, who must effectively manage an organization of 2,600 employees, and who needs to be intelligently working now on a new fiscally-responsible budget for 2010/2011. This interim City Manager was selected with all the care and planning that one would take in selecting a potted plant.

Worse, the person selected is a Gretsas’ lackey. This lady is the one who (last year), stood up as Budget Director in the Commission meeting and publicly declared that last year’s budget was “zero-based”. That was a complete fabrication and she knows it. She was doing Gretsas’ bidding and we ended up with a budget that was tens of millions of dollars more than it should have been ($605M). For her lying to the Commission she was promoted to Assistant City Manager.

So guess who will be pulling the strings behind the scenes now? (HINT: Gretsas!) Does anyone believe that either she or our Commission will have an epiphany over the next two months and finally develop a fiscally responsible budget? It will be “déjà-vu all over again”; as a new $612 million dollar budget (using up the rest of our available reserves while handing out fat salary raises to overpaid City employees) gets approved.

Mayor Seiler thus continues to demonstrate his incompetence as a Mayor. As a career politician, he should know better than to put the interests of bureaucrats over the interests of the tax payer. Yet Seiler, along with Commissioners DuBose and Rogers, spoke nothing of the financial hardships of Fort Lauderdale residents and the need to reduce their tax burden; their concern instead was for Gretsas who receives compensation of more than $325,000 a year, and who has received over $1.5 million in total compensation from us over the last six years. Here are some quotes heard at this week’s meeting:

Seiler:  “Unfortunately, we are stuck with this situation” (If you had done your job as Mayor, Jack, we wouldn’t be in this situation!)  “I’ve made calls to help him (Gretsas) find employment.” (Jack- How about making calls to help the Fort Lauderdale taxpayer looking for work??)

Rogers: “Let’s don’t upset the apple cart. It will be a lot easier for him (Gretsas) to find a job if he already has one. Let’s keep him employed until he finds another job”. (Romney- I wish you could spare a fraction of your sentiment for the thousands of Fort Lauderdale residents and voters who don’t have a job now and have been looking for months…)

DuBose: “It will be tough for Gretsas to find a job in this economic situation. There’s a human side to this” (Bobby- You should be ashamed of yourself! With thousands of people in your district unemployed, you’re worried about someone who we, as taxpayers have made a millionaire over the last 6 years? Are you kidding me?)

The logic of these three elected officials, along with the process to select an Interim City Manager is difficult to understand.

If you would like to see how this comedy of errors played out this week, click on: http://fortlauderdale.gov/commission/video_broadcast.htm, go to the “regular meeting” for July 7 and scroll the video to 8:45 to see how the discussion goes in picking a new City Manager. We, as residents of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, deserve much better than this!

Are you fed up with continued bloated City budgets, watseful spending and fat city employee salaries? Do you want to do something about it? A number of us are meeting and developing a plan to deal with this. Soon you will be able to play your part. We will be announcing a movement later this month on this web site. Stay tuned! 

Earl Rynerson

You may not be fully aware of the scope of the problems our City has right now, mostly fostered by our inattentive Mayor Jack Seiler, and our incompetent City Manager George Gretsas. Today is the last Commission meeting before the Commission takes a recess until September.

Seiler’s laziness may have placed our City in a difficult financial situation for the next several months.

Today, Wednesday July 7 is the final Commission meeting before the Commission takes a recess until September. After today, no public business will be done until then. Here is what’s supposed to be covered today:

·        Discussion of next year’s budget. Once again, Gretsas has submitted an absurdly swollen budget and is using up the rest of the available reserve funds rather than trim positions or reduce salaries.

·        Over $15 million in a purchase request for more city vehicles and their maintenance services, for the next three years.

·        Discussion/approval of cameras to catch red light runners at traffic intersections

·        Discussion of the Homeless Feeding Center being proposed on NE 8 Street

·        Discussion of a new lease for the Bahia Mar project

·        Discussion of the fence being constructed along Las Olas Blvd.

·        Plus over 100 other items, including presentations, purchases, resolutions, motions, ordinances, and consent items.

Trying to ask our elected officials to make proper decisions on all of these items in one afternoon is ridiculous. This meeting will run into the morning! Is this any way to run a City? It is becoming more and more apparent that Mayor Seiler has lost control of the governance of Fort Lauderdale.

And another small thing. This is supposed to be the last meeting where Gretsas will be serving as City Manager. His contract expires at the end of this month. For the last 16 months, the Mayor and Commission have had ample opportunity to discuss publicly the City Manager options after Gretsas and decide on a process that would insure we have a more professional and competent City Manager installed in the future. But for 16 months, there has not been one word spoken by the Mayor or any Commissioner about what to do after Gretsas’ contract expires!

And worse, this topic is not even on the agenda tonight either! That means that if nothing is discussed tonight, and the Commission meeting ends, then Gretsas walks out the door on July 31. This means that there will be no-one in our City Government authorized to write checks! Our government will effectively be SHUT DOWN until such time as the Commission reconvenes in September!

How incompetent can our Mayor and Commission be? And if our Mayor somehow proposes something tonight at the last minute, it will mean that he has been in discussion with someone himself, privately, without the knowledge of the Commission or the public. Maybe he’s planning to install a friend of his, or try to keep Gretsas as City Manager on a month-by-month basis. Our Commissioners, weary after hours of mind-numbing issues on tonight’s agenda, will have no other options to look at before leaving for the summer.

So what are we to think? Either the Mayor has violated his own commitment to the public about “Open Government” or else he is so incompetent that he is not fit to serve as Mayor. Either way, something stinks in City Hall and our Mayor seems to be the one that’s causing the odor.

Earl Rynerson