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Stumbled across these postings on Craigslist...
To Our Elected Officials...
We got to put pressure on our elected officials. We helped build this town and instead of our “elected officials” helping us attract business with incentives and other ideas to create more jobs...
they only came up with ways to increase our cost of living our tag fees by 100% they over charge us with water taxes and fees ($35,000 for city water for my house because it is a corner lot?)…..
We are the fools that stayed behind hoping things would change but the only thing we stayed behind for is to see our home go on the rocket docket and lost forever then being sold to some northerner for less than half of what is worth...
I can list twenty other examples of how you have failed us but one good thing you did well was push the people that lived here out, it’s only a matter of time before you screw your new rats that took our homes also. Thanks.
And someones reply to the above!!! RE: To Our Elected Officials (Cape Coma)
Cape Coral has been an absolute mess for 30 years. That is why it is the land of newly weds and nearly deads and NO trees.
Your city council consists of people that are way too old to have clue about what it takes to run a city and the young ones (Rosato and Grill) are thieves.
You chose to live there...Deal with it!! 10 minutes worth of research online would have told you that.
As someone who lives at the other end of the county all I can say is stop whining or move.
The Nattering One muses... Ouch! I thought these were supposed to be job postings, not open mike night at the city council.
Is this a barometer of peoples agitation levels. And how. The current administration is getting its feet wet. The learning curve involves being bombarded by insiders.
Most of whom are crackpots and/or backstabbers ready to throw momma from the train, just to avenge some perceived grievance.
In regards to the situation at hand, its easy to throw rocks from the outside, now nestled inside, you become painfully aware of certain realities.
Said realities heretofore unbeknown st, suddenly make mountains out of what seemed mere molehills.
Most of the insiders are not only clueless, but vision less as well, only being able to plan into the future as far as their next budget.
Which they manage to spend every single dime of, and more. Being rewarded for saving money is not in the "conditioned to spend" public servant's vernacular.
This makes sifting through the pile of humanity amidst the mountain peaks a herculean task.
So far, some progress has been made. During the holiday hiatus, the Mayor and Co. need to start separating the wheat from the chaff, AKA...
Identifying clueful insiders with a vision and a sense able plan, then assembling the core of a task force to be headed by a new city manager.
Cm on guys, quit being gun shy and put the wheels of change into motion. Now, that's what I'm talking about.
Found a copy of CCC's ON THE MOVE, stuffed in a mailbox... The Nattering One has some random musings on items that stick out, like sore thumbs..
1. Cape TV Contract renewed without FAC meetings.
Not good, wouldn't be prudent at this juncture, ALL the Financial Advisory Committee meetings, discourse and findings need to be public.
2. Public Works reorganized for efficiencies.
Word on the street has it that so far, the "reorg" has had the opposite effect; i.e. costing the city more money, while reducing service levels.
3. The New ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, from JD Edwards using Oracle databases.
Rumor has it, in short, a disaster. Very complicated to deploy, modify, maintain and use. To be filed under, if it works, don't F with it.
4. 2nd Phase of Public Safety Broadband Wireless Network; the 4.9Ghz band for fire & schools.
This radio network will stand alone, but would have piggy backed nicely on the WW12 communication towers proposal.
That being a $12 million proposition for four 100 ft plus communications towers; and a network control center; that MWH tried to bamboozle the city with.
Rumor from Paco at Capevine sez: some intrepid and enterprising city insiders can achieve the same end results as WW12 for under $500K. No surprise here.
Someone needs to club the soon to be ex-manager at risk over the head with this one.
5. Paco from Grapevine also reports that certain council members have been making the rounds at the water treatment & water reclamation plants.
If you want the real inside dope on all the system improvements; additions; and manager at risk mistakes being paid for with taxpayer money...
have some private meetings with those who are intimate with the process and daily operation.
Suggestion: Grant immunity, then listen closely.
The Nattering One muses... Water, Sewer & Irrigation which is within Utilities and Public Works...
is the ONLY department in this CITY that pays for itself and generates SURPLUS cash for the city. Go ahead check the CAFR.
Water, Sewer & Irrigation provide on average $12 to $14 million NET to the city coffers every year.
Proving that WATER and the systems that process, reclaim and deliver water, ARE this city's MOST VALUABLE RESOURCES.
Rule Number One: Never mess with, sell, lease or privatize the operation or management of your civic CASH COW.
Rule Number Two: Refer to rule number one.
Question to ponder: Where did all the surplus water money from past years go? Answer: Ask the parties who had fiduciary responsibility at the time.
Some notable retail BK filings since 2007: Circuit City; CompUSA; Gottschalks; Shabby Chic; Ritz Camera...
Sportsmans Warehouse; Chrysler; Filenes; General Motors; Eddie Bauer; numerous Dunkin Donuts LLC's; restaurants too numerous to list...
Golfers Warehouse; Old Time Pottery; Samsonite; Linen's n Things; Mervyns; Sharper Image; Woolworths; Bombay.
Our query from the previous posting: Where does one find such an individual? AKA Turnaround specialist who is NOT a hack, slash, burn and run type.
The Nattering One muses... Naturally the retailers of essentials...
WalMart & Costco will thrive as many flock to their scales of economy and command of the supply chain.
To find a pearl in the rough, one must look to the retailers of "non essential" goods that have so far managed to survive this depression.
One such retailer that comes to mind would be Cost Plus, hardly the poster child for essential goods, and certainly a "discretionary cash" retailer.
How have they survived this pullback? One might review their financials and ask their CEO since 2005, Barry Feld.
Hey Barry, SOS from Cape Coral, I got some really nice ex swamp land in Florida, if your interested?
Sorry for the absence my little droogies and fellow Naybobs... during the interim, seems the City Manager had a revelation and decided to git along.
A public council vote of no confidence and termination would not have helped his future in public service.
Seems the new mayor and council are sending out a clear message...
That being, those who are suspect of obfuscation, omission or any commission of disinformation to the council, are going to be, shall we say, summarily dismissed.
Rumor has it that certain financial services, parks & rec and public works directors, might already have their e-tickets punched.
The acting CM & economic development director, ne assistant CM has some be-heady tasks ahead of him. (No pun intended)
That is if he wants to keep the CM post permanently.
The Nattering One muses...
If the acting CM can't "Schwing" this sinking ship around, then... this town needs an outsider coming from a corporate or private sector background.
A CEO turnaround specialist, NOT a hack, who burns, slashes and runs.
The slash and burn mentality of angry stock holders allowed ex GM CEO Rick Wagoner to destroy the number one automobile manufacturer in the world.
Wagoner, the anathema, should be the poster boy for what the Cape doesn't need. In short, what this town needs is an enema, not an anathema.
Emphasis should be on some in house cleansing to promote the CREATION of NEW business and GROWTH of revenue sources...
NOT on the further slashing of rank and file benefits, pounding out union concessions...
or the wholesale reshuffling and DECONSTRUCTION of the organization... which is all that has happened in the last year or so...
much to the detriment of employee morale, public service levels, and the local economy.
Not a tight fisted machine gun hand, but a kinder, gentler, helping, healing hand, is much needed.
Where does one find such an individual? More to come...
Regarding Mayor Sullivan's request for Cape Coral City Manager Terry Stewart's resignation...
In April 08 we nattered on CEO lip service... as GM’s Rick Wagoner blamed multi billion dollar losses on the locusts…
"I'm deeply disappointed with our Q1 results. The precipitous decline in housing market conditions and unprecedented changes in consumer behavior.."
Wagoner's excuses were just as lame as the rest of Wall Streets "best and brightest" whose hubris and greed have brought us to this point.
One could also blame Bush for not working hard enough at his job and hiring badly.
In July 08 we put GM on Death Watch and noted Wagoner's track record…
Since CEO Rick Wagoner took over GM in 2000, the shares have fallen 87% and are at a 54 year low; GM has cut its U.S. salaried workforce to 32,000 from 44,000.
GM has not posted a profit in the last 3 years while losing $51 billion;market share is at a low not seen since 1925; GM has not suspended a divident since 1922.
In August 08, with regard to American auto industry management we asked… Where were their heads?
Over the last several years, Wagoner, Mulally, Nardelli et al. have yet to retool and build a new generation of fuel-efficient vehicles for North America.
Now they collectively panhandle for a low interest handout to "remain competitive".
Nature should be allowed to take its course and these dinosaurs who have their collective heads buried in the sand, should go the way of the dodo... extinct.
In November 08 we lamented on crybaby capitalism, taking accountability; unjustified bailouts; and overpaid CEO’s...
Overpaid and overrated executive management the likes of Rick Wagoner at GM and Richard Syron at Freddie Mac.
Rich Wagoner has run the world's largest automaker into the ground for the past 8 years, presiding over $73 billion in losses beginning in 2005.
He has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he and his team are clueless blue blood imbeciles.
Isn't it about time this pack of mismanaging idiots were shown the gallows, er, I mean the door?
And regarding potential bailouts of automotive and financial sectors we asked: Does this fantasy world of yours have amusement rides too?
As it turns out, many E ticket rides were to be had by all, indeed.
In November 08 Wagoner painted a grim picture, if GM were not to receive a bailout, we called for a clean sweep.
GM CEO Wagoner commented on a GM BK: "the economy would suffer a catastrophic collapse"
We natter, the only catastrophe is that Wagoner is still employed, no bailout without a complete exec mgmt sweep, including directors...
and voting control of the board... I wouldn't hire this pack of executive ass clowns to wash my car, let alone build me one.
In October 08 we nattered about Ricky boy’s Golden Parachute…
Instead of planning and building a smarter mouse trap; brainchild CEO Rick Wagoner,
wants to trim $15 billion to stay afloat, and so he can collect a bigger bonus.
We have a request for Ricky boy, set an example for all the derelict whores on the hill, bankers & CEO's; man up and do the honorable thing,
take out an insurance policy naming the employees as beneficiary; then commit Hari-kari or jump out a 30th story window.
Now thats the kind of golden parachute we need...
In March 09, Seator Chuck Grassley must have been reading us and echoed our sentiments with regard to AIG…
Senator Chuck Grassley said that AIG executives should follow the Japanese method and...
“come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry. And then either do one of two things, resign or go commit suicide.”
The Nattering One muses... profilgate spending, overpaid CEO's, bailouts, golden parachutes, greed and hubris... sound familiar?
Today's breed of executive or CEO, they collect their heady paycheck repleat with bonus and stock options, at the expense of the rank & file and stockholders.
And much like our elected officials, they then move on to bleed out the next victim.
These are not men of honor, for in Japan, when asked to resign, you do the honorable thing, resign.
Men of honor, take ownership for what transpired under their watch, and if necessary, they man up and move on.
This isn't a question of "just cause" on the City's or council or Mayor's part.
If you want cause, look at the track record, look at the spending, the price, and who benefitted...
Then wonder if The Cape will be able to make its future debt obligations and will the Cape's resident tax payers be able to come up with the necessary money?
Food for thought... Regardless of circumstance or cause, would you stay at a party where you were being 86'ed?
There's an old saying: If you can't get along, git along.
We are going to toll the doctrine of fradulent concealment and sprinkle it with a hint of conflict of interest...
Looks like MWH are in big trouble over in Los Osos, CA. and could well be headed for the same reception in Cape Coral, FLA. very soon indeed.
Fraudulent Concealment defined:
"Deliberate hiding, non-disclosure, or suppression of a material fact or circumstance (which one is legally or morally bound to reveal) with intent to deceive or defraud in a contractual arrangement. See also suppression of evidence."
From Sewer Watch... and Calhoun's Cannons and from Los Oso's Lisa Schicker.
In June 28, 2004 Response to CCC, MWH and the 2004 LOCSD deliberately hid over $5 million (at least!) in amenity and O&M costs in their cost estimates -- which they were legally AND morally bound to reveal -- with the intent to deceive the California Coastal Commission into approving the Tri-W project, and it worked!
In Exhibit 3-C, where low-balled numbers for the mid-town Tri-W sewer plant benefited that "project," the dog park is estimated at "$60,000," however, just a few months later, in their "value engineering" report, MWH, and the Los Osos CSD, estimated that exact same dog park at "$690,000," more than a factor (factor!) of 11 from their previous estimate.
Better yet, how about this one which should be filed under Conflict of Interest by a public official...
"Considering the fact that Bruce Gibson was elected with the help of Montgomery, Watson, Harza's money, via his Parks Commissioner, and now the engineering firm stands to make tens of millions of dollars off of his decisions, via his Parks Commissioner's former employee, Paavo Ogren...
Gibson, at the very least, needs to immediately recuse himself from ALL SLO County discussions involving the Los Osos wastewater project, or, more appropriately, immediately resign."
The Nattering One muses... Does any of this sound vaguely familiar? Something that the manager at risk and city officials should be readily aware of and if they aren't... oh well...
here we go in tolling the doctrine...
"it would be manifest injustice for this Court to conclude, as a matter of law, that ‘reasonable diligence’ includes an obligation to sift through a proxy statement, on the one hand...
and a year’s worth of press clippings and other filings, on the other, in order to establish a pattern concealed by those whose duty is to guard the interests of the investor.”
Where a fiduciary relationship exists between the parties, “it is unnecessary to prove diligence in discovering the fraud.”
Where there is a fiduciary relationship and a corresponding fiduciary duty, a fiduciary can be liable for fraudulent misrepresentation by silence...
even in the absence of fraudulent statements or intentional concealment.
John Sullivan on Financial Services Director Mark Mason: Mr. Mason put on quite a show Monday night.
He sounded like a “slick carney hustler” while he cut through the adjusted budget components smooth as silk. This was most defiantly a command performance.
He really “suckered” the new council and I think that performance would have been worth paying admission to see.
It was a real show. I could almost hear the crowd in the background and could barely hear, “Come One Come All”in the distance.
John Sullivan on City Manager Terry Stewart & Financial Services Director Mark Mason: My congratulations go out to Mr. Stewart and Mr. Mason...
since they apparently have managed to render the Cape Coral Comprehensive Annual Financial Report completely useless.
There must be some kind of accounting award for this or maybe we can start The CPA Hall of Fame (Shame). We could install Mr. Mason as the first member.
John Sullivan on Public Works Director Chuck Pavlos & MWH Project Manager Larry Laws: There is a rumor floating around which may have some serious implications...
and that is that Mr. Pavlos and Mr. Larry Laws the MWH Project Manager in Cape Coral were friends or associates before Mr. Pavlos came to Cape Coral.
The City of Cape Coral has 36 or 38 ongoing projects with MWH.
And when you look at the facts we are paying 2 to 5 times more than residents in nearby communities for essentially the same utility services.
Why did we have three audits and wind up with essentially the same outcome including possible bid-rigging?
Why did the city not ask for the Attorney Generals' opinion concerning violations of state statutes?
Why is there an F.B.I. and Department Of Justice Investigation going on?
As it turns out, the rumor is true; they (Pavlos & Laws) did serve in the Navy together.
The Nattering One muses... Alrighty then, we certainly know where Mayor Sullivan stands on the trinity, as he doesn't mince words and we respect that.
Na Na Na Na hey hey, good bye or 1st down & 2 to Go?... Yesterday, newly elected Councilman Chulakes-Leetz said...
"If Mr. Stewart is the honorable man I believe he is, it will be his due diligence to provide and offer his resignation."
Today, Mr. Stewart confirmed he is a finalist for a job near Myrtle Beach, SC; and Paco from Capevine confirms; Terry told his staff that he may be a short timer.
Rumor Central: There is another twist being floated about on the Pavlos-Laws Navy link...
While stationed at Penascola in the Navy... they both served together under the same CO... Steve Daignault, former Cape Coral Public Works Director & City Manager.
The other variant on this rumor is they worked together in Hawaii... Aloha! Paco from Capevine has another twist...
If any of this can be substantiated, with regard to fiduciary responsibilities...
Happy Guy Fawkes Day... More to come.
Mayor Elect Sullivan on privatization:
this is telling us that we need to take control of the utilities away from the city and bring in a non- profit entity to run them.
In fact, I would rather see someone like Al Capone running the utilities rather than the city of Cape Coral.
We have been paying too much for utility line installations. Someone at the city level must take control of these projects as they have become unaffordable the way they are being delivered.
Either that or the utilities must be privatized. We cannot afford to let the city run the utilities any longer.
If our administration can’t deliver the same services at the same price as other communities in Florida by taking these projects in-house and/or by getting rid of manager at risk...
then the utilities need to be privatized in order to curb the financial destruction brought on by these projects as they exist today.
If the city refuses to take these projects in-house, then there is only one other alternative and that is to privatize the utilities.
We are paying a premium for the construction because we use the manager at risk methodology.
I suspect we are paying a premium of around 37% to make it more convenient for some of our utilities' employees.
There is one other alternative; that would be to sell the utilities and pay down the debt and privatize it. It would be regulated and we would have experts running it.
We don't appear to be able to run this ourselves without the prospect of huge rate increases each year.
We need to get the utilities out of the hands of the city because it is too expensive and will only make it unaffordable to stay in Cape Coral.
Two words pop into my mind, gross incompetence. This administration is not capable of running the sewer and water utilities.
The Nattering One muses... we concur with the Mayor elect...
the current administration is not capable of running the city, much less the sewer and water utilities.
Don't blame the worker bees... Its not the utilities employees or the supervisors and managers where the rubber meets the road that are the problem.
CCC does not need any outsourcing or privatization. Utilities need the mayor elect to clear the deck, so they can get their jobs done without any interference.
Privatization to "for profit" would be a disaster of epic proportion. For profit, means FOR PROFIT, as in we hire the cheapest labor...
and defer maintenance on new equipment, till the system is run into the ground. Thus dropping service levels to the bare minimum, while raising rates to the maximum.
Better check the records, utilities employees never asked for a manager at risk. It was someone else who convinced the council on that one.
Keep it in the house... Baton Rouge, which was ranked No. 6 in the top 40 cities to weather this depression by the Brookings Institute...
"grew jobs every month until August 2009 and in August it only lost nine-tenths of a percent, compared to 5.1% nationally,"
said Lauren C. Scott, professor emeritus of economics at LSU.
Scott said $5.1 billion of construction projects have been announced or are under construction in the Baton Rouge metro...
including a new plant for French chemical company SNF and the expansion of an ExxonMobil chemical plant.
Most of the projects are infrastructure buildout being done by local government.
Again, Mayor Sullivan, no privatization, no outsourcing of utility management or jobs, get the UEP on track by taking the project in house...
and expanding services down the main buisness corridors. Thereby, letting local business defer the costs to cut a path to the residents.
More to come.
On paying a billing rate of $238.51 per hour to at risk contractors such as MWH:
Can’t you think of a better way to spend that kind of money? Just give it a little thought and I’m sure you can come up with a better solution...
such as paying 10 city employees at the rate of 23.81 per hour rather than paying an exorbitant rate to keep someone else working.
On building a durable local economy: The mayor says we need to put people to work.
Well we can start by giving city business to local firms. There are big bucks in utility projects.
The mayor should think about what that kind of money would do for our local economy and our local job market.
Instead he would rather give our money to someone else to help our utility department sit on its collective behinds and have someone else from out of town do their jobs.
We hire many out of town and out of state companies to do our work. We don’t even have our utility bills printed in Cape Coral.
As far as job creation is concerned most of the workers are foreign workers laying the lines. You might have an American supervising 6 or 8 foreign workers.
These people send the money out of the country to support their families elsewhere.
In fact we don’t even know if these workers are legal nor do we know if the American running the heavy equipment are even residents of Cape Coral.
There was talk of creating 500 jobs with the N–1 thru N–8 project.
Projects like these were never meant to be an efficient way to put our residents to work and get the biggest bang for the buck.
The Nattering One muses... Again we concur with the Mayor elect...
we would much rather have 10 city employees working for one hour, than one manager at risk employee.
When CCC cannot perform the task at hand, we should use local subs with expertise, with CCC personnel managing the tasks.
However, we do take exception because the utility department doesn't sit on its collective behinds.
Utilities doesn't want anyone in town (private) or out of town (manager at risk) doing their jobs.
Send the at risk manager packing and lets get this done from inside the house.
We will hire local's at prevailing wages, creating durable economic jobs which will create service sector jobs, and keep the money in the Cape.
Bring it on Mayor Sullivan, CCC utilities are ready and waiting, when you are. More to come in Part III.
Remember, tomorrow, November 5th is Guy Fawkes day.
John Sullivan on KBR, MWH & Halliburton: One of our council members attempts to create the illusion that MWH was initially hired.
It is common knowledge that KBR was hired but was not capable of making the bond so MWH and a number of KBR employees came on board to run our utilities projects, in Cape Coral including the project manager (Larry Laws).
We have a city council and staff which refuses to have third party consultants do an analysis of a $100 million utility project when we all know the price is over-blown.
We have something called Construction Manager at Risk. What is construction manager at risk? I define it as Highway Robbery.
This is a do it yourself method to install water and sewer lines and upgrade plants.
If you are willing to pay the price, then anyone can run a project using this methodology.
We use manager at risk even for building fire houses and the cost is twice that of a fire house in Charlotte County.
The incentive for the manager is to charge the highest possible price?
John Sullivan on City Engineering & Project Management: We have an engineering department that is supposed to be running projects of this nature.
They should be doing the design and building the system. They should be putting the jobs up for bid and selecting the subcontractors and inspecting the work.
We are paying people on the engineering staff that will not take the bull by the horns and get the job done in the most cost-effective manner.
If the engineers on staff do not have the qualifications or skills to run these projects then, why are they working for the city?
The city staff refuses to look for alternative ways to deliver the utilities.
It has been stated that our engineers have in excess of 100 years of experience yet we continue down the same path that we were on 25 years ago.
We have supervisors and engineers making in excess of $100,000 a year and yet they refuse to take the responsibility of running the projects themselves.
We have a highly paid staff and city manager. They created this mess it should up to them to fix it.
If they can't clean up their own mess then it's about time we get someone who can.
Why do we not get skilled people who can run these projects and cut the profit margin to the bare bone...
rather than making the people at MWH and KBR wealthy on the backs of the taxpayers?
The Nattering One muses... We concur. We don't need any outsiders or outsourcing, we can do it in house.
Now what is Mayor Elect Sullivan going to do about it? The MWH contract ends this January.
Are you going to bring in another MWH? or CDM? in the form of CH2MHill? Really, this is just trading the devil you know, for the devil you don't.
We Natter loudly and clearly... CCC need to hire the necessary road crew labor and an additional project manager experienced in infrastructure buildout...
to run these jobs inhouse; save the taxpayer 66% on their money; and provide much needed local jobs where the money stays in the Cape.
Mayor Sullivan, just talk to the guys in the trenches or where the rubber meets the road.
More from the Minutemen web site...
Larry Barton on the last administrations answer to the Kessler audit:
The Price Waterhouse Coopers -one of the Big-four- audit of the City-MWH contract did NOT establish this “legitimacy or validity,” but only that they...
“did not find anything materially wrong,” and that “[t]he city and MWH performed as their contracts required and that the labor billing rates were competitive.”
The MWH bought-and-paid-for audit (opinion) by PWC is not and should not be the ultimate qualifying authority.
Remember that Arthur Anderson, once the #1 accounting firm that sacrificed its integrity, went down with Enron, their well-paying client.
William P. Deile:
On City Manager Terry Stewart: It appears as if Mr. Stewart is an adherent of the Josef Goebbles theory of journalism...
if you keep repeating your story long enough people will begin to believe it.
On City Project Management: Mr. Stewart argues that the reason the city outsources project management is because management of the utility project is “terribly difficult”...
yet further on he extols the competency of those on city staff who “have a combined 100 years of engineering and management experience with projects of various sizes and complexities.
On UEP costs: The city staff’s steadfast refusal to consider anything but a central gravity fed system is one reason.
A second reason is the refusal to do value engineering and the stacking of management fee upon management fee to insulate the city from responsibility.
A third reason, cited in multiple audits lies in the details of the contractual arrangements and yet another may be found the methodology used to apportion costs.
The Nattering One muses... Again, revisit the Kessler audit. Much that was obfuscated, omitted and gerrymandered will be revealed.
This city should not be outsourcing anything. No more at risk managers, we take ownership and pull the necessary O&E (omissions & errors) & liability insurance.
We hire the necessary talent to manage and perform the tasks. Its as simple as that.
No one is this town has wanted to step up and take ownership and assume the responsibility.
The low lying fruit was left to be scooped up by the manager at risk and their profiteering cronies. How could we value engineer anything?
The "meddling" personnel where the rubber meets the road were kept out of the loop by the manager at risk and their designated lackeys?
We can value engineer the bio solids building and the UEP project, and create additional durable economic jobs for Cape residents.
This can all be done in house at a minimal cost to the taxpayer, as it should have been from the start.
We now have the chance Mayor Sullivan, don't drop the ball and succumb to arrogance and greed.
Mayor Elect Sullivan is a founder and member of The Minutemen.
Some noteworthy observations from the Minutemen web site:
The current administration: No Response to Public Input, Promotes Special Interests, Unaffordable Assessments, Taxation Without Representation.
Our mayor and our city council keep taking until we have nothing left. We have no voice here in Cape Coral (Florida), just as the colonists had no voice.
The people here go before the council and speak. The mayor and council just ignore the people as if we don’t exist.
The administration’s arsenal consists of unaffordable assessments and taxes. Like the English, the administration has a contingent of foreign troops.
The English had Hessian Soldiers. Today our mayor and council have special interest groups.
The administration has builders, large land owners construction companies like MWH and speculators.
The city manager and all his flunkies must get out of town and never look back.
What real choices do the public have when they are abandoned or even exploited by their representatives?
The first thing on our agenda must be to stop the utility expansion projects.
The projects are being used to extort money from the residents and therefore the water and waste water utilities must be taken out of the hands of a city that cannot be trusted.
We need to start a water and waste-water authority or it must be converted to a non-profit entity or a Co-op.
The Nattering One muses... Strong words indeed, and perhaps a rush to judgement...
We agree, taxation without representation has been the MO of government for many years...
Anyone who thinks this is a democracy, or government is by the people and for the people, is naive and mistaken.
Our Republic is based upon goverment by the rich and for the corporations.
The first thing on the agenda should be what Jason did for the Argonauts...
cut the many heads of the hydra off and slay it. Then revisit the Kessler audit to root out the rest of the suspects...
As we have stated before in these pages...
the UEP can be completed by in house city staff at one third of the manager at risk cost estimates.
At the plant level, the in house staff are competent, knowledgable and capable of managing the Capes utilities.
With the hydra's many heads out of the way, this will become readily apparent to Mayor Sullivan and the Minutemen.
Apparently the man on the street was an accurate reflection of voter sentiment.
Sullivan was elected in a landslide, as predicted. Interestingly enough, only 18% of all registered voters cast a vote.
The final tally rounded: 11.5K to 6.5K or 64% to 36%. That's right 18K voters decided for an estimated population of 125K.
With the election of Mayor Sullivan and District 4:Chulakes-Leetz, add District 2: Brandt and District 3:Deile for a tally of 4 council votes.
Opposing them will be 3 votes: District 1:McClain, District 6:McGrail, District 7:Donnell
Leaving the wild card or swing vote: District 5:Grill
Now that the man on the street's will has been imposed... we have a piece of advice for the victors... walk softly, carry a big stick and...
do not become victims of the same malady that struck down those who went before you, arrogance.
Regarding tomorrow's City of Cape Coral elections... whether your Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, Independent, etc...
Get out and vote! If you don't, you get the government you deserve.
Predictions? If the man on the street is any indication... when asked how they were planning on voting...
two comments, one from a stranger, one from a neighbor...
The neighbor: "Well, I will tell you this, I'm not voting for the guys already in there..."
The stranger: "Voting for the incumbents would be like placing a loaded gun to your head, and pulling the trigger."
Alrighty then, sounds like these two are voting for change, any change, but at what cost, if any?
TBD (to be determined) Tuesday night. More to come.
The last two "jobless" recoveries... it took 11 months for job growth to turn positive in the wake of...
the 1990/91 recession and an interminable 19 months for payrolls to become positive on net after the 2001 recession.
Small business expansion is being hampered by constrained access to financing. Grants, loans and bailouts are going almost exclusively to the big guys.
The financial houses being bailed out are hoarding the money, rather than lending and spurring growth.
Firms of less than 500 employees account for some 50.2% of total payroll employment.
Pressure on small businesses needs to ease for a more durable economic recovery.
We keep banging this drum... no durable economic recovery until 6 million outsourced jobs are repatriated.
It took 25 years of financial deregulation, globalization and outsourcing to labor at the margin to decimate and emasculate our durable economic base.
This emasculation was bipartisan, and led by an army of lobbyists that our whores on the hill still pander to, witness the latest round of banking bailouts.
We no longer manufacture anything, so we have a non durable service based economy which is comprised of tourism, hospitality, food service and 1/6 health care.
Thats right, 1/6 of our economy is based on health care of which 35% goes to middlemen or health care management firms.
In other words, the sicker the population, and less health care insurance regulation, the greater the profit.
Our non durable economy is dependent on the generosity of foreigners willing to lend us money for our profligate spending habits.
Now is the time for small business and government to swell their employment ranks with durable infrastructure build out projects.
Keep the money local for small business (utilize small local companies) and employees (hire local people at prevailing wage).
In order to save taxpayer money, State, County and City governments need to abandon "at risk" managers and take projects on internally.
Hire managers proven competent in infrastructure buildouts and value engineering. Then staff up with local people and do the work in house.
This will keep local people employed at a decent wage for some time to come.
This is not the time to outsource to outsiders, large companies or foreigners.
Worse yet privatizing vital resources or assets to "for profit" entities would be the Coup de Grace.
Doing so would further cripple the remnants of our durable economic base and make any recovery improbable.
Looks like MWH is at it in Los Osos, CA as well, interesting reading, an excerpt follows...
In 1999, MWH won the engineering contract when the Los Osos sewer was still in the hands of the Los Osos Community Services District and not the county.
By 2006, the district terminated its contract with MWH because of alleged contract violations, over-billing, and conflicts of interest.
Around the same time MWH sued the district for about $1.1 million in unpaid services after the CSD reversed course and canceled the project.
That lawsuit is still pending while the district is in bankruptcy. According to Los Osos residents, MWH helped put the district in bankruptcy.
It wasn’t the first time MWH had problems. In the city of Cape Coral, FL, the contractor was hired to expand the coastal community’s water and sewer system.
The cost of that project quickly rose to just under $1 billion, according to the News-Press.
A 2006 audit found a number of “red flags” in the MWH contract with Cape Coral, including inflating the project cost and bid rigging.
The audit findings were forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Justice.
A representative from the DOJ declined to comment on any investigation and the FBI did not return a call before press time.
A livid group of Los Osos residents have recently shifted their focus away from the design of the new sewer system and more toward Public Works Director Paavo Ogren.
They have accused Ogren of having connections to MWH. Ogren was the Los Osos CSD’s interim general manager shortly before MWH was hired in 1999.
Ogren: “I was the contract interim general manager prior to Bruce Buel, but the proposal process for project management services was independent from the work I was doing. … I didn’t have involvement in the hiring of Montgomery Watson back then.”
There is, however, also an MWH connection to the evaluation committee.
The current project engineer, Carollo Engineers, used MWH as a subcontracted consultant for the project in 2006.
The Nattering One muses... this wreaks of the same stench that plagued the Cape in the aborted Kessler Audit.
Sources indicate that FBI & DOJ have both investigated bid rigging allegations. Neither agency will confirm nor deny, whether the investigations are ongoing.
With the city in dire economic straights, could a lawsuit from MWH put the Cape into BK territory?
One can only wonder what other connections exist between MWH and high ranking Cape officials? More to come.
The Nattering One muses... the relevance of this topic to the Cape and Lee County, which is ground zero for foreclosures is not lost...
50 to 60 Million loans held by MERS could be effected by multiple court rulings in favor of homeowners.
For all those who have or might be losing their home to a foreclosure. As we learned long ago in the REO and reconveyance departments...
the Deed and Note must stay together. Otherwise, these is nothing to foreclose on.
Op-Ed: 60 Million Mortgages May Have Fatal Flaws
Commentary by George W. Mantor
RISMEDIA, September 29, 2009—The latest chapter in the mortgage meltdown is being written in court, as one by one, judges are putting a halt to foreclosures.
The latest was a recent Kansas Supreme Court case. In Landmark National Bank v. Kesler, the court held that a nominee company called MERS had no standing to bring a foreclosure action.
Nor was Kansas the first. In August 2008, Federal Judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada ruled MERS had no standing.
”Indeed, the evidence is to the contrary, the Note has been sold, and the named nominee no longer has any interest in the Note.”
In September of 2008, A California Judge ruling against MERS concluded, “There is no evidence before the court as to who is the present owner of the Note. The holder of the Note must join in the motion.”
On March 19, 2009, the Supreme Court of Arkansas determined that MERS was not the true beneficiary because the Note had been sold. Alabama and Florida have made similar rulings.
In each case, the reason stems from a fundamental misstep in the handling of Notes and Trust Deeds that runs contrary to established court policies which require that the real parties identify themselves to the court.
Each of these cases involved MERS and, in each case, the courts’ rationales were almost identical.
First, a little background. Over the last 40 years, mortgage lending has evolved from a bank holding the mortgage to the mortgage being bundled and sold as part of an investment pool, usually in the form of a bond.
As a registered security, the Note is a negotiable instrument, like money or a cashier’s check, and under securities law that Note must be given to the investor.
In this case, mortgage backed securities, (MBS) were bundled together in a pool and shipped to…well, we don’t really know.
One of the impediments to an MBS is the need to file assignments for the beneficiaries in each county each time the mortgage is resold. And apparently, no one holds them for very long because most have been passed around several times.
In order to avoid the logistical nightmare of trying to maintain a public chain of title, the biggest lenders joined MERS, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.
MERS was created with the sole intent of evading the recording fees due to the county in which the security is located.
In so doing, in my opinion, they also destroyed the age-old practice of making a public record of information concerning real property in general, and legal interest specifically.
The chain of title is a vital record produced to resolve many a dispute. Now, that’s gone.
I believe, erased simply so they themselves, MERS, could siphon off the recording fees for themselves. They sold their business model to lenders as a better way to track mortgages that were being sold and resold all over the world.
But, as there often is with a BIG IDEA, there were also unintended consequences. Only now are they coming to light. Until MERS was challenged in a foreclosure proceeding, no one had taken a look at the law.
The law, according to a Nevada Judge, is that for purposes of foreclosure, both the Note and the Deed of Trust must be assigned. When the Note is split from the Deed of Trust, the Note becomes unsecured.
A person holding only a Note lacks the power to foreclose because it lacks the security. MERS lost track of the Notes. In some cases, according to my research, they deliberately destroyed them.
Every thing was fine until the economy contracted. MERS began foreclosing on delinquent home loans and then one day; someone said “show me the Note.”
In reviewing the judge’s rulings in the above matters, several key points have been determined:
• MERS is not the beneficiary of the Notes and has no skin in the game. It did not lend any money, collect any payments or do anything more than track the sale of the securities.
• Judicial procedure requires that parties identify themselves and prove their standing.
• Splitting the Note and Trust Deed leaves no party with standing to foreclose. The true holder of the Note, the security, paid the lender so the lender is covered. The true holder of the Note was insured by AIG so they are covered. AIG and the banks were bailed out by taxpayers.
So, unless the American tax payer can produce a “blue-ink” original Note, no one has standing to foreclose.
• Allowing a foreclosure to proceed without the original Note places the homeowner in double jeopardy. If the original Note were to surface, the holder of the Note would be entitled to payment, but from whom? The borrower is still on the hook.
MERS currently holds 50 to 60 million loans so this is no small matter. And, just because they have lost repeatedly doesn’t mean they will give up. They will keep right on foreclosing in hopes that the homeowner won’t fight back and, in most cases, they won’t be stopped.
After attempting to club Cape residents into submission on the UEP MWH Halliburton scam by raising the utilities rate (95% phased in over five years); the council decided to raise the millage rate. But why is all this new revenue needed?
The City is currently in negotiation with all three unions for a new contract and despite all the new souces of revenue, they are using this budget review from the “advisory” committee to club the unions into legacy concessions.
The City negotiated its contract in “good” times; and now as is the modus operandi of “management by crisis” wants to take back what it gave. Didn’t these crazy spenders realize, you have to put something away for a rainy day?
We stumbled across an internal document being used in the process: The FAC (Financial Advisory Committee) FY2010 Budget Review Presentation to the City Council.
Some of the “reviews” relevant contents in normal font, our Natterings in Italics…
Further reduction in taxable property values
Controlled growth should have been the mantra, instead of spend, spend, spend…. Now the wanton spenders have raised utility and millage rates to hide their tracks.
Approval of items that were previously scheduled for elimination:
DCD Code Enforcement Team $380K
Yet on Page 16: DCD should evaluate activities requiring permits and inspections (currently seems excessive). So yets just approve the enforcement team that was going to be eliminated???
Parks & Recreation funding from General Fund $1.385M
Public Works
Dredging of canals $637K
Road Maintenance $750K
Street Lighting $1 Million
Total $ 2.387M
Total add back to general fund $4.153M
Total add back to general fund $4.153M
Page 17 if our recommendations are utilized, the City should realize an overall General Fund budget adjustment of $3,372,284
In other words, if you follow our recommendations, we just advised you to SPEND $3.3 Million more. Simply brilliant.
The committee recommends the following:
Salary Freeze
COLA Freeze
Salary reduction across the board
Unpaid Furloughs
Reduction of Work Force
Continued Control of Overtime
Comp Time
Reduction in benefit costs through an employee contribution of $50 per month
(1786 employees x $50 x 12 months = $1,071,600)
Standardization of the leave policy across all employee groups
Reduction of hours that can be accumulated, less vacation.
Implementing an employee funded short term disability program
Not a benefit, but a program that costs the employee and furthers the cities goal of reduction of participation in the leave policy and associated costs.
Elimination of the leave buyback program
A counterproductive elimination of accumulation over 400 hours, which will make bad employees out of good ones.
Instead of saving your time and working, you are forced to take time off. Increasing overtime costs in most cases.
The idea of a 400 bank, in case of accident it fills the gap (10 weeks) till long term disability takes over.
Hire an external consultant to report to Council to identify actionable means of reducing benefit costs for FY09 to achieve an overall reduction in benefit costs from 38% to 30% overall personnel costs leading to an expected $10.1 Million savings. Cost of consultant to be borne by realized savings.
In other words, deforestation by a for profit logger, the more the hatchet man cuts, the more he earns. You eventually wind up with no trees and no forest.
Actual benefit cost as a percentage of salary for FY10 is projected to be 47.4% across all funds, which is excessive and represents an area for significant expense reduction.
This is excessive only because, contrary to public opinion, government wages are well below private sector for the same job. However, the government benefits are usually more comprehensive and cost more. Higher benefit costs divided over lower salaries will always yield a higher benefit cost as percentage of salary.
Benefits as a percentage of salaries
Police 35.6%
Fire 33%
General 22.4%
ICMA 12%
Again we see how police and fire much like the Bush administration, have milked the fear of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. What makes these groups who volunteered at a very generous rate of pay; to collect so much more than the rest of the public?
We never could figure out why anyone in their right mind would allow pensions to be based on total earnings (best five of the last ten years), rather than a straight 40 hours multiplied by the hourly rate.
This total earnings clause causes overtime abuse in the extreme. In particular during the latter part of ones career, when their wage level is higher.
In effect this is a double whammy, paying out more hours at a higher rate; and ballooning a pension (in the case of fire & police; some are collecting a higher pension than they did while working.)
This along with bloated budgets and overly generous pension benefits (100% of wage for police and fire; as opposed to 80% for rank and file) are driving many cities to bankruptcy.
Consider public/private partnerships
Expand use of volunteers
Consider outsourcing eligible services as opportunities arise
All euphemisms for sell, lease, outsource or privatize assets to FOR PROFIT orgs such as CH2MHill or MWH.
These carpetbaggers will spend the minimum to avoid maintenance and higher service levels, resulting in substandard service and the assets getting run right into the ground.
In a 4-3 vote, the Cape Coral City Council voted to delay voting on the utility expansion project indefinitely.
A step in the right direction. Again, the recipe for future economic success is:
The city should be allowed to move forward with UEP ONLY IF:
1. NO MORE OUTSOURCING: MWH is removed and no outsource or at risk contractors are involved. The Cape does not need to spend taxpayer money to benefit Halliburton.
2. CREATE JOBS & AN ECONOMY: The project must involve city project managment & labor; we need jobs to create a durable economic base for the Cape.
This is when the City should be spending to hire and create a permanent base, rather than cutting back.
3. NO PRIVATIZATION: no infrastructure assets are sold/leased to service ANY debt.
NEVER sell or lease the rights to your most valuable asset of all, your water.
Beware of demagogue's wearing sheeps clothing...
Word has it that for a sack of gold, old "Sleepy" Sullivan would sell the city's future out from under it to CH2MHill at the drop of a hat. Say it ain't so Sully!
4. TRIM THE FAT: Deficit ridden fire & police payrolls need to be trimmed...
along with fire & police bargaining units cutting back on outrageous 100% & overtime aided pension benefits. This is what truly bankrupt's municipalities.
Fire & Police could actually benefit from major concessions being proposed by the rank and file bargaining unit. (More to come on this in our next post.)
These four steps are the Cape's ONLY way out of this economic depression. This Mayor and future council's would be well advised to heed the above advice.
This may be a bit off topic, but may satisfy enquiring minds that need to know...
I was asked recently by a Naybob of Realty, in so many words "what do you stand for?" My retort follows...
I stand against the following: Big Brother.
the moral majority "Strength through Unity. Unity through Faith."
the Orwellian "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength."
a society that is ruled by government, rather than the government being run as a voice of the people (vox populi).
government surveillance, torture, fear mongering, media manipulation, not to mention corporate corruption and religious hypocrisy.
Remember the 1605 Gunpowder Plot? A group of Catholic conspirators led by Guy Fawkes plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament while King James I of England and VI of Scotland and most of the aristocracy were in it.
The plot intended to kill the king, his family and most of the Protestant aristocracy by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening on 5 November 1605, in order to spark a revolution in England.
Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot
Guy Fawkes was ranked 30th in the 2002 list of the 100 Greatest Britons, sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public...
he is referred to as the only man ever to enter parliament with honest intentions.
and to this day, Guy Fawkes night is celebrated in the UK every November 5th. Proving that the spirit still lives on.
The Nattering One believes that the pen is mightier than the sword.
Those who make the effort to fight the good fight may suffer or die for their efforts, but not in vain, as their ideas live on.
Behind this mask there is more than flesh... Behind this mask there is an idea, and ideas are bulletproof.
Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici
LCEC’s non demand rate is much like a residential bill in that...
it has only an energy charge for the electricity consumed during a billing period plus a customer charge to cover the meter reading and billing costs.
On the other hand... demand is measured to determine the amount of the utility’s equipment that is dedicated to serving a specific customer’s peak needs.
When a facility demands twenty or more kW of power at its time of peak use, it becomes a demand rate customer as opposed to a non demand customer.
As opposed to the energy charge being based on the ACTUAL amount of electricity consumed over the entire billing period…
the demand charge is related to the maximum demand for electricity that a customer COULD place on the utility’s system during the customer’s peak use.
This theoretical “demand” is calculated by the total electrical load of the equipment turned on at a facility during the highest fifteen minutes of use in a billing period.
A charge is assigned by LCEC to recover the investment in the under-used utility equipment.
At LCEC, the demand charges range from $6.99 to $12.07 per kW, depending on which of the demand rates is applicable.
The mechanism for insuring recovery of investment is demand ratchet and ratchet charges.
Ratchet charges require that billing demand (as compared to the actual demand) for any month will...
not be less than 70% of the peak demand set by the customer during the previous twelve months.
So, it only takes fifteen minutes to set a demand peak, and using a large amount of energy for fifteen minutes on any one day can affect your billing for the rest of the year.
As is normal, during new systems startup in June 2008, to test electrical capacity handling...
the Everest Water Reclamation plant separately loaded both sides of its “circuits” for several days.
To accommodate the Everest plant redesign, LCEC had provided a newer second service with two meters, in addition to the existing service with meter.
Bare in mind that the plant improvements were designed to (and actually did) DECREASE electrical demand through greater efficiency.
Thus, LCEC did NOT actually have to provide any additional capacity for the new plant design.
However, LCEC assessed the City of Cape Coral with a ratcheting charge for the atypical performance testing.
The Everest plant used 1500kw on each side during the test, but their average usage is only 700kw.
This generated a 70% of 1500kwh (1050 kwh) charge on each side for each month during a twelve month period.
Actual use was only 700kwh, resulting in a (1050 – 700 = 350kwh) 50% over charge on both meters for one year.
Worse yet, LCEC charged CCC, $6.99 per KW for demand on the new meters and $12.07 per KW on the older meters...
resulting in further excess cumulative demand charges for Q409 of $80,000.
If the service provided to the Everest plant was treated as a single bill by LCEC, the actual demand charge would have been $39,000 for the same period.
In other words, CCC is paying 100% more in demand charges for electricity that it NEVER has nor will consume.
This situation has resulted in an additional $10K per month being billed to CCC since June 2008.
Multiply $10K by 14 months you get $140K paid to LCEC by CCC for electricity NEVER USED.
The original intent of the demand charge was to compensate the utility for their investment in the size of service required for the maximum power use.
LCEC is a FOR PROFIT power distribution coop which still charges the city non demand charges for infrastructure...
that was put in to place thirty years ago and has long since been paid for many times over.
2008 Water, Sewer & Reclamation revenue totaled $55 million, while costs were $42 million...
that’s $13 million in profit being spent by the city fathers on bloated fire, police and other cost centers.
LCEC’s ratchet charge scam has resulted in the 2009 water reclamation operations budget running into the red.
To date, LCEC refuses to rectify the situation, hiding behind their co-op and “non producer” distribution only mandate.
Further, why is each CCC facility not extended a consolidated municipal rate for bulk or volume electricity usage citywide?
The City of Cape Coral is no longer a trailer located at the CC Pkwy & Del Prado intersection.
Isn’t it time that the CCC fathers seek legal redress for LCEC’s long time price goughing and also negotiate a blanket non demand rate for city wide operations.
After all, who is LCEC’s largest customer? Not the 52,000 individual Cape Coral customers...
but the City itself, who blindly misappropriates those very taxpayers monies to line the pockets of LCEC and it’s constituents.
MWH sold the city Bio-solids processing equipment for $14 million...
But wait, that’s not all you get, as this fiasco gets even better….
Would Martha Stewart order and pay for furniture to be delivered to a house that was not yet built?
The equipment was ordered, paid for with city money, then shipped to the Southwest reclamation plant.
But, a funny thing happened on the way to the new Biosolids Building…. it wasn’t built or funded yet.
So there the $14 million worth of equipment sits, out in the open, loaded on pallets...
wrapped in plastic, waiting for a building to be constructed, that funding was never approved for.
That might be the end of our story, except for the fact that MWH wanted $40 million...
to build a 45 ft tall building with six ft CBS walls, with the remainder finished in metal.
Some people in the city finance dept and a certain young business manager thought that $40 million might be a bit on the high side.
So MWH struck out certain items and came back at $32 million, sounds good eh?
To Bin or not to Bin… MWH eliminated several items, the most important is called as a bin activator.
Bin Laden or Activator? Biosolids come in three forms, final pellets, liquid or cake sludge, preprocessing each is a viable source for revenue.
A bin activator facilitates trucks loaded with cake sludge from other county’s plants to dump their loads at the plant. We take their sludge and turn in into money.
Don’t let them eat cake… Alas, no bin, no revenue from Cake sludge, and that’s a 33% revenue loss on the operation.
But that’s not all folks… this MWH offer gets even better…
In early 2007, Bonita Springs finished a new bio solids building (all CBS construction...
which was almost the same height with half the square footage and half the equipment (1 train, 1 dryer).
Interesting enough, the equipment came from the same manufacturer chosen for the Cape. Can you guess how much BS paid for half the equipment?
$2 million, not half of $14 million. How about the building cost, and mechanical installation of the equipment?
Can you say another $4 million? Add another $1 million for incidentals and you get a grand total of $7 million out the door.
If you DOUBLED this price to $14 million for twice the building and equipment, you get what the Cape paid for the equipment alone.
No building with MWH, that’s an EXTRA $30 million without our buddy Bin.
Out the door, $14 million vs $47 million, sounds like MWH’s standard 3X markup strikes the good citizens of the Cape again.
Who approved ordering equipment for delivery to a building that was unapproved? Where was the cost oversight on this project?
The Cape could manage this project and do the build out internally for around $13 million...
then pay engineers $2 million for the mechanical install of the bio solids equipment.
Oh, and one other thing, the BS building did not have a bin activator either.
Incidentally, the equipment vendor is now threatening to void the three-year warranty.
MWH is trying to use the warranty ploy as a way to coerce the city into approving their plans.
The city could still do for $15 million what MWH is essentially attempting to extort out of them for $42 million.
Coercion and extortion, sounds like the Soprano’s do run this town.
Regarding current MWH activity in Cape Coral...
The Nattering One has cultivated some unique sources over the years.
This time we have come across some inside information that needs to be shared with the public.
Please bare in mind that in all three of these cases, city employee's at both plant's...
have been adamant in their complaints about MWH's lack of engineering and refusal to rectify the situation that MWH directly caused.
Peroxide Blonde Design?: Both Everest & SW water reclamation plants have a malfunctioning sodium hypochorite (bleach) system & untenable bleach building's.
The skids where the VFD's (variable frequency drives) & pumps sit are a maintenance & operational nightmare.
VFD's were placed directly on the pumps, on the ground, open to the elements (rain) and separated by only 6-8" inches.
Because of the spacing and due to the pump/drive combo positioning the skids are almost impossible to maintenance or repair.
The VFD's & pumps are not even water resistant, so last year, 8 of 10 pump drives failed with the first seasonal rains.
Next to monitoring for dissolved oxygen, sodium hypochlorite levels are extremely critical to the process of reclaming waste water for safe public use.
These buildings and pump skids are a $750K disaster that MWH still refuses to take ownership of and insists that the city must pay to rectify.
Bar Screens: MWH replaced perfectly functioning 2 year old bar screen systems at both Everest & SW.
The new bar screens cannot perform allowing large clumps of debris to enter each plants process...
causing both plants massive deragging and maintenance problems downstream.
True Grit Blast? The grit system at SW Reclamation can only capture 45% instead of 95% of the grit as guaranteed.
The vendor was the only vendor which would guarantee 95%, the same vendor whose "teacup" systems failed miserably in the Cape a few years ago.
The system failed the initial test, so the vendor hired an “outside” firm and claimed passage of a dubious 2nd test.
City employees witnessed the 2nd test failure, nevertheless, MWH stood behind the vendor’s vailed legal threats.
Excessive grit entering the system would not only cause excessive downstream maintenance and process issues...
but it would also cause premature catastrophic failure of the new biosolids centrifuge systems at SW reclamation.
More to come on the Southwest Biosolids fiasco in our next post.
According to the United States Public Interest Research Group, as of year end 2008...
15 roads in the U.S. had been privatized, and another 79 roads in 25 states were being considered for some form of privatization.
States and municipalities eager to find ways to finance transportation, and facing large budget deficits, are increasingly considering public-private partnerships to fill the void.
Misinformation: MWH performs quality work that the City could not manage to perform.
Reality: MWH has spent all of the citys contingency money to fix their engineering mistakes.
This has left the city without critical funds to finish the reclamation plants with much needed improvements.
Reality: The City Council will revisit the UEP in their next session with several financing alternatives...
and one alternative which removes MWH as the contractor while issuing the contract for a rebid.
Removing MWH is a good start but... don’t let these politicians sell your future’s out again.
Keep the pressure on and make them take their time, reevaluate the assessments and rather than go with an outside contractor, do the job in house this time.
Create a future for the Cape or destroy it through gross mismanagement & taxation, the choice is yours.
Misinformation: MWH doesn’t need all the trouble here in the Cape, they have plenty of work elsewhere.
Reality: The Cape Coral project is MWH’s largest, worldwide, with the exception of Australia.
This job is so big that MWH hired a telemarketing firm to call North residents in an attempt to sway their opinions with a disinformation campaign.
Misinformation: The City needs to use a contractor to perform all the work because of liability issues.
Reality: The City can take out Errors & Omissions & Liability policies at a fraction of the cost of hiring ANY at risk contractor such as MWH.
Since 2000 this would have saved the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars paid to MWH, which now have to be paid back to keep the city solvent.
The City could have hired competent staff to manage and oversee city employees on the projects. This would have created thousands of infrastructure jobs.
Infrastructure jobs are the key component to a durable economic base.
A durable economic base would have been much more resililent than the service economy based on vapor loans.
Instead, the Cape decided to avoid taking ownership and pay extra to OUTSOURCE.
Now the chickens have come home to roost and the future economic costs will be enormous.
Misinformation: Doing just water in the NW instead of water/sewer/irrigation is cheaper.
Reality: Three separate pipes, three separate trenches, three separate paving jobs, three separate upheavels to achieve what you could have done in one fell swoop.
Yes, the pipes are still in separate trenches, but it’s easier to get the crew to dig, lay and bury all three at once. A single upheavel, reduced costs and your done.
Misinformation: We should move ahead with the UEP now, because later it will be more expensive.
Reality: If the City elimates MWH, the rebid would come in at 35% less.
Better yet, if the city does the right thing by taking this job on internally, taxpayers will save 66%.
That means water/sewer/irrigation for $6K upfront, not $18K.
Not to mention the incalculable benefit of creating a durable economic base in the Cape, which will reap multiple benefits for years to come.
Misinformation: De-salinization is the way to go, why are we bothering rebuilding the RO & reclamation plants?
Reality: At one time the SW RO plant was the largest in the world.
Pulling from our aquafiers rather than the Gulf allows us to pass water through the membranes at lower pressure.
Less salt means lower pressure, which means the pumps use less energy and reduces the cost per gallon by seven fold.
Misinformation: The Cape doesn’t need reuse water for irrigation.
Reality: 40 to 60 percent of all water usage is for lawn irrigation.
Without the reuse water from Cape water reclamation plants, the residents would already have caused massive salt water intrusion into the aquafiers and wells.
Would you send Martha Stewart to do your shopping? Probably not, unless price was no object….
As Martha would go to the most expensive market she could find (Whole Foods or Bristol Farms) and pick only the highest priced name brands off the shelf.
What would normally be a $100 basket, suddenly becomes a $300 basket.
This is how is works when there is plenty of money floating around and nobody is watching the till.
You want to spend $750K to install a security system for the Kismet North RO? $450K for card readers? $300K for networking and cameras?
Do you really think terrorists would even bother coming to Cape Coral? Much less the water plant?
Couldn’t you have your in house people do this for around $250K on equipment? Yes you could.
A $30 Million Bio Solids Building for the Southwest Water Reclamation Plant?
The city bought $17 Million in equipment and have it sitting on palettes under tarps with no building. Simply brilliant, but don’t blame the city.
Blame the at risk contractor MWH for spending the cities money like this. This is what happens when money flows freely, and nobody is watching the till.
The city could manage this project and build the structure for under $10 Million, but they are afraid to. Why?
The city fathers are afraid of taking ownership because of the risk involved with a new process...
and the three year warranties on equipment which MWH will not honor if they don’t build the structure.
This is what insurance is for. The insurance premium would be far less than the $20 million in tax payer dollars saved.
MWH’s behavior sounds more like blackmail and bullying through FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt).
This is what happens when the people in control can’t grow a pair. They shake at the mention of liability and would rather point fingers and delegate for blame’s sake.
Nobody in this town wants to take ownership and MWH likes it that way.
The city fathers are afraid of a redux of the CDM (Can’t Design Much; Cost’s Double the Money) fiasco in the late nineties.
That was then, this is now. Nobody likes finger pointing, and everybody likes to delegate. Too bad, because when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Hire the best project managers on the city payroll that money can buy. Manage the job and build the infrastructure by creating durable economic jobs.
Build a durable local economy by hiring local Lee County and Cape Coral citizens as city employees at prevailing labor rates.
The 2008 budget deficit was $17 million; 2009 will be on the order of $26 million (when the anticipated revenues dematerialize);
2010 will be even worse coming in at around $35 million (after bond downgrades and another wave of foreclosures).
The solution: The city fathers cannot outsource all the work and risk, while in effect taxing the citizenry to death.
Go to the $250 Million Lee County surplus for a temporary loan, take ownership and complete the following tasks.
The city should be allowed to move forward with the UEP ONLY IF:
1. MWH is removed and the assessment amounts are downscaled by 66% with in-house labor.
2. The project must be performed in-house with a majority of city mgmt & local labor; creating a durable economic base.
3. NO infrastructure assets are sold/leased to service ANY debt.
4. In the future, reduce deficit ridden fire & police payrolls.
The city father’s need to grow a pair, take ownership, and take back the process and risk from MWH.
Is this asking too much from the city manager (Terry Stewart, not Martha), head of finance and utilities director?
Is it asking too much from the part time pay city council with full time side jobs that have a conflict of interest? (developer, attorney, real estate agent).
From the track record so far, it seems like Martha Stewart has a bigger pair than all the city fathers combined.
Let's see what happens at the vote tonight.
Tonights meeting is a work shop. Wonder if anyone will ask MWH about their triple estimated assessment costs?
Better yet, will anyone ask MWH about their triple excessive +$30 million price tag on the Southwest Water Reclamation Bio Solids Building?
That's right, it could be yours for only $10 million, but will anyone ask?
The public has been in an uproar with the City Council voting to proceed with the utilities expansion...
bringing water, sewer & irrigation at an upfront cost of $17K (financed $34K) to SW Areas 6,7; and water to North 1 through 8 at $6K (financed $10K).
The Nattering One muses... these heady cost estimates are based upon calculations used by the incumbent contractor MWH...
during the last surge in commodities & service prices during 2003.
Rebar, concrete, services & labor all cost far less today than during those halycon boomtown days.
In fact, the city could cut costs by 66%. How?
Fire the carpetbagger locusts at MWH, manage the project, hire permanent employees from Cape Coral & Lee County at prevailing wages to work the project.
Re-estimated costs based on this scenario prove that MWH is attempting to gough the public AGAIN while employing out of area labor at half the going rate.
Taking fiscal responsibility & ownership by bringing this project in house would help to build a durable economic base and save the taxpayers countless millions.
Will the City step up? Will Mark Mason, Terry Stewart & Chuck Pavlos man up? Will the Citzens of the Cape wise up?
From a Ducky Naybob, excerpts from The Perils Of Privatization... found in The American Prospect.
International finance institutions, funded by the United States and other developed nations,
provide loans to developing nations on the condition that they privatize services and charge steep user fees.
Indeed, the very institutions that are charged with alleviating poverty, like the World Bank,
are implementing policies that force people who make $1 or $2 a day to choose among food, housing, or water.
From a Ducky Naybob... excerpt from Global Policy Forum:
In the battle for a sustainable water future, a far-reaching revolt is needed to reclaim citizenship and redefine how we interact with our environment...
otherwise, these twenty-first century water wars could be merely a last stand against an inevitable corporatized future.
The spiraling collapse of the financial system may only intensify the quest for private investments in what is now the public sector.
Billions in private assets are now parked in "infrastructure funds" waiting for the crisis to mature and the right public assets to buy on the cheap.
An excerpt brought to our attention by a Naybob whose temperance is that of a waterfowl or of a "Ducky" nature...
The Water Barons...Based on past experience in other countries, though, privatizing water carries risks.
The water giants not only will raise rates to cover costs, critics say, but will use monopolies over water systems and rights to manipulate the system.
Critics fear that these companies will not be held accountable, so jobs will be lost, quality will wane and the poor will lose service.
"Why does somebody need to make money on your water?" said Dick Hierstein, city manager of Pekin, Ill., which decided to buy back its water system from American Water Works.
"Does somebody need to make money off the air you breathe? It is as simple as that."
More of our highlights from a News-Press forum on the subject of Water utilities in Cape Coral…
The reserve covenants (on the $310 Million in water bonds) are in violation, triggering bond rating downgrades, thus raising the yield & payments.
The city will be hard pressed to find any financing to roll over the debt, especially after California defaults in July.
More of our highlights from a News-Press forum on the subject of Water utilities in Cape Coral…
"This is essential for economic development. New business won't come if we don't go through with this. " Pure misinformation.
"Yes this is a city wide concern - half of the city has either already paid or is paying now."
Pure misdirection. If all the lilliputians are BLINDLY jumping off a cliff, do you follow without question?
"This is not a contractor issue from what I can see. This is an administration/council issue problem." Disinformation, from genesis, it is both.
"If you follow the money so well please explain how you know it should have been a $100MM project? Just curious."
Vs inhouse city labor or city mgmt with local contractors, historically, MWH (or Money Wasted Hourly)...
and their subs markups are in most cases 4-5X; but always a MINIMUM of 3X. So, $100 Million is a generous est.
And NO, unlike Watergates DT, I will not meet you in a dimly lit parking structure to discuss particulars.
Stay thirsty & curious my friends, it may serve you well.
More of our highlights from a News-Press forum on the subject of Water utilities in Cape Coral…
The city should be allowed to move forward ONLY IF:
1. MWH is removed and a FULL audit of their past malfeasances is conducted.
2. The project must involve a majority of city mgmt & local labor; creating a durable economic base.
3. NO infrastructure assets are sold/leased to service ANY debt.
4. In the future, surplus water revenues should be reserved for water projects, instead of being pis*ed away on deficit ridden fire & police payrolls.
Water & Sewer IS the cities only cash cow and ASSET. Wake up, read the budget, do the math.
More of our highlights from a News-Press forum on the subject of Water utilities in Cape Coral…
You have limited options with population 150K; only 51K actually pay a water bill in the Cape; in an area that you could fit BOTH Boston AND San Francisco.
6200 in SW at $25K = $155 Million; 55000 in North at $7K = $385 Million. Lets see now, thats $540 Million we can borrow against and take from Peter to pay Paul.
Paul being the $310 Million in bond money already spent on water infrastructure, that comprises 80% of existing city indebtedness.
Bottom line: MWH did a Bernie and MADEOFF with $310 Million for what should have been $100 Million worth of work.
Already done: raise rates & expand the base.
Orders: get rid of MWH & corrupt guvmint lackeys; keep the work inhouse; create local jobs; use local contractors; under NO circumstance sell infrastructure assets.
Some of our highlights from a News-Press forum on the subject of Water utilities in Cape Coral…
Yes (the council) were sold by staff, but the staff are hardly inept as previously mentioned.
The first order of business should be to get rid of MWH...
cast out these seven year locusts so they can move on to drain their next victim bloodless.
But you (the public) should pay no heed to the man behind the curtain and keep your eyes on the prize.
A plan has been afoot to place the city into an unsupportable debt service level...
thus forcing either bankruptcy or the sale of the most precious and valuable asset the PUBLIC has.
That being, the long term rights to YOUR PUBLIC WATER treatment, collection, distribution & reclamation systems.
PAY CLOSER ATTENTION, you are being polarized for the benefit of the few and the rich.
Stop being victims and take control of your destiny. Remember, its all about the money, so follow the money.
Background
Cape Coral is a national leader in providing high quality drinking water and monitoring water quality.
Since 2006, the Cape Coral Public Works Utilities Division has invested over $170 million in its treatment, reclamation and distribution systems to ensure this quality is maintained.
In addition the Utilities Division has invested another $140 million in the new Kismet North RO plant which is 85% complete.
The Cape Coral Water Works treats water with a multiple-step process to protect public health. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has endorsed Cape Coral’s drinking water as among the highest quality in the nation.
The Cape Coral Water Works collection & distribution systems, treatment & reclamation plants are owned by the City of Cape Coral and provides drinking water to residents and businesses in Cape Coral and neighboring communities.
Problem
There is an effort underway to privatize the Cape Coral Works, an effort which is moving quickly and quietly.
The idea was first broached publicly by several councilmen in late 2008, after discussions with several business executives.
Water privatization is being undertaken in response to $35 million in budget shortfalls in Cape Coral.
The idea is to arrange a very-long-term lease of all the water operations, with the city retaining ownership; a 99-year lease has been suggested.
A one-time payment of $500 to $600 million for the lease would be set aside in an endowment to generate about $30 million annually to help fund city operations.
It is assumed that water rates will go up after privatization; the rate is currently at market rate. $30 million annually in lease revenue would substitute for additional property taxes, fees, or state or federal revenue.
If the City was to move forward, the city Council would authorize an RFP to find an “Advisor Team” to oversee and guide the bidding and contracting process.
Multiple firms would submit proposals by a deadline. The Advisor would then move as quickly as possible to prepare an RFP for the actual privatization.
In other cities where this process has occurred, advisors are paid with a combination of fee for service and “success” fees upon completion of a final contract which is an incentive for advisors to push for privatization.
Impact Analysis
This proposal does not bode well for the Cape Coral area. There are a number of serious issues at stake—costs, water quality, economic development and accountability.
There are several major companies in the world with the capacity to bid for the Cape Coral contract; three of which are Suez Environment, Veolia Environnement and RWE.
The first two are French multinational corporations with global operations related to water and waste management.
The third is a German firm which in April 2009 announced its intent to sell its water operations, including American Water which operates in the U.S.
Suez Environment owns United Water, which obtained a contract to manage the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) in 1998.
MMSD became the largest publicly owned wastewater system under private operating contract in the US. In 2008, at the expiration of the contract, United Water was replaced by Veolia on a 10-year contract.
Among other things, United Water was issued 20 notices of contract non-compliance during its tenure running MMSD.
Both United Water and Veolia have had serious problems in other cities across the United States. Veolia has managed water systems in New Orleans and Indianapolis as well as smaller communities in Massachusetts and Texas.
The drinking water in Indianapolis is rated second worst in the nation and received a failing grade from Men’s Health magazine. Residents took Veolia to court claiming the company overcharged 250,000 customers.
This privatization proposal emerged in the midst of enthusiastic discussions about the extraordinary importance of maintaining lake & river water as a resource for generations to come.
Handing control over a completely renovated water system to a multinational corporation whose only obligation is to stockholder profits would remove this valuable resource from public control.
Accountability and transparency are especially important priorities for governmental operations at all levels. Water is a fundamental necessity for families and businesses.
Unlike petroleum or electricity, there are absolutely no alternatives to water as an essential element for life and commerce.
Decisions about the operations and management of this basic resource should be made deliberately and with substantial public oversight.
The Cape Coral area—the entire state of Florida—has a huge stake in water as a pivot point for economic recovery and growth. We cannot let this slip through our fingers into the hands of companies with no stake in local growth.
Steps to take
There are four main goals:
1. Bring this issue into the public view—this should not be a secret process decided quickly behind closed doors. It is crucial to develop a coalition that can spread the word.
2. Slow down the process. There are some local leaders who want the Advisor hired in late summer, then brought in to move as fast as possible toward final privatization.
3. Develop and distribute information to community members and leaders about the water privatization issue, the corporations involved and alternate ways to address the budget shortfall at the city level.
4. Maintain public control and oversight of Cape Coral’s water works.
Most bottled waters are nothing more than tap water run through an additional RO process...
then marked up 500 to 4000% to the uninformed consumer... To cut budget deficits, perhaps Cape Coral could bottle its own water and sell it at a profit?
Excerpts from Merced Sun Star
The Safeway Inc.'s water bottling plant in Merced -- one of the top five commercial/industrial water users in the city...
which bottles Safeway's in-house purified and spring water brand Refreshe -- uses roughly 50,000 gallons a day, five days a week, for its bottling operation.
The plant, which provides most "Refreshe" water to Safeway stores in the state, filters city water, puts it in bottles and sells it as purified water.
In Safeway's case they pay more than $1,000 a month for more than a million gallons of water.
The retail cost for that much purified bottled water at Safeway is just under $3 million.
The city pumps about 21 million gallons of water a day, and Safeway uses 50,000, that works out to be 0.238 percent of the total gallons pumped.
But the plant doesn't only use water. It also produces waste.
The plant's purification process discharges roughly 52,000 pounds of salts a year into the city's wastewater system, according to their permit.
While bottled water sells itself as better than tap water, it contributes to pollution and has been found in some cases to be less healthy than tap water.
Many of the bottles end up in landfills and in some cases contain industrial chemicals and bacteria above state and industry standards.
According to the Sierra Club, nine out of 10 plastic water bottles end up as garbage or litter.
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