If you want to see a train wreck in progress and you have two and a half hours to waste, watch the City of North Miami Beach Sanitation Workshop that was held on May 1, 2012. The Miami Herald also published an article about this workshop entitled NMB council wants public input on trash service, in which reporter Nadege Green gave a brief synopsis of the meeting. I can only imagine how hard it was for her to sit through, too. I had to watch the entire meeting in small bites to get through it, so I feel her pain.
Let me start by saying that at this point I find it hard to muster up the energy to brew a pot of Give A Crap about whether we keep city garbage services as opposed to contracting with a private company. Watching this meeting, however, it became clear to me that everyone in the city has an opinion, none of which agrees with anyone else. As usual. What is obvious is that the usual suspects, a/k/a some of the public officials, have private agendas regarding this issue.
Councilwoman Marlen Martell, speaking the most forcefully that I’ve ever heard her speak, gave a presentation about the current budget for the sanitation department, pointing out discrepancies that she found. She obviously took a lot of time to review all the figures. She also was obviously adamant about keeping sanitation in house, giving credit to our garbage department for such things as reporting code violations, pot holes and water leaks. She might as well have said that our code department is such a mess and needs all the help it can get. She’d be right about that! What does that say about our code enforcement department if our garbagemen have to be their eyes and ears? Hey, I have an idea! Why don’t we keep sanitation in house, ditch code, and give the garbage employees code enforcement detail, thereby killing two birds with one stone? Sounds like a capital idea to me. Ms. Martell also worried if there would be a quick response by a private company after a hurricane.
Councilwoman Phyllis Smith, luring me in by sounding more coherent than usual at first, was upset that the council is only now getting this information at the eleventh hour. After talking for quite a while, and losing my attention several times, she ended with her typical campaign-like speech that she wants to make sure the residents are getting the best possible service. She was also concerned about hurricanes.
Councilman Philippe Derose claims he received many phone calls from residents who expressed their dissatisfaction with privatization. While he “doesn’t disagree that it wouldn’t save this city money” (yeah, read that a few times and make sense of it), and in fact he believes it would save three million dollars. But, he doesn’t believe the services would remain the same. He wants yet another workshop about this so that residents and employees can weigh in. Finally, he said he wouldn’t support privatization at any cost. Helloooooo! Why does he want a workshop then if he’s already decided how he’s gonna vote? Because we get hurricanes, of course.
Councilwoman Barbara Kramer was concerned about Ms. Martell’s bombshell and wanted more information before making such an important decision. She said agreed with Mrs. Smith, but didn’t say whether that included the business about hurricanes.
Court Jester/Councilman Frantz Pierre wanted to make a statement before he tackled this issue because he wanted to confirm “our mission here tonight.” He claims he was under the impression that they were only meeting for the purpose of discussing the proposals to determine if privatization was the way to go. But first, the Great Pontificator wanted “to take a minute to reflect on the very nature of all of this.” Yes, let’s. WTF? He then began what can only be described as a Phyllis Smith-like rant. Pee-Air stated, “Two factors are missing from the equation: The residents and the city employees. It’s not whether I’m for or not for it. It’s our job as council to look at all options. But at this point I feel like we make one step but that we need to look at other avenues. My recommendation would be to include the employees and the residents before we know exactly which way to go.” L’il Frantzie P continued, “Is it common practice for a panel to allocate perfect scores to anything you are assessing? As a matter of principle, I feel like everything that gets 100% in life tells me that is perfection. Personal experience would teach me that there is no such thing as perfection. We always have rooms (rooms?) for improvement. I notice that at least one of you give perfect score to [unintelligible]. That itself does not change my opinion of whether we should go this way or that way. But how reliable is this? Is a question to ask.”
City Manager Lyndon Bonner tried to explain that scores were based on each individual criteria of the proposal and not the entire proposal itself, although I’m not quite sure if that was the answer since I didn’t quite understand the question.
Undaunted, Frantzie continued (and I quote verbatim as much as humanly possible, even with rewinding it several times throughout), “[Unintelligible] liability and valididity (valididty? WTF?) of the ranking, we do not have all our first stats in check I don’t think I’m in a position to, uh, uh, whether or not I should give a green light in my position I feel like I sit two major [unintelligible] I’m missing the equation the employee and the residents. And on the sidebar I have a question for [unintelligible]. You heard all the [unintelligible] present. You heard every single [unintelligible] member of the panel say they have no prior contacts with the company. Now my question for you…”
At this point City Attorney Darcee Siegel spoke up, stating that she didn’t hear from the entire panel because Dr. An was not present. Mr. Bonner acknowledged that some of them (the panel) had some limited contact of some kind with them (the garbage companies) over the last year.
Pee-Air went on, “Assuming everything was perfect, and we find out that one or several members had personal ties with companies, how does that play into this?”
City Attorney Siegel said that “if there were personal ties that would be a violation of city policy, county and city ordinances and resolutions, and possibly state statutes, as well.”
Brian O’Conner, procurement director, stated that the review committee had to sign an affidavit stating there was no conflict of interest, and that if there were a conflict, that committee member would be replaced. (You know, Frantzie. An affidavit like the one you refused to sign!)
Even though the P-Man shut up at that point, this was not the first time he’s made false accusations or insinuations against other people. In fact, that’s becoming his trademark! Every time he’s called on his you-know-what, he clams up.
Councilwoman Beth Spiegel announced that she has made absolutely no decision on this matter yet. She did acknowledge that during the course of a ten year period she lived in an area where there was private sanitation, including hurricane cleanup, and she noticed no difference between the two services. In other words, she has no pony in this race (unlike L’il Frantzie P). Her only concern is to save the residents money. She is concerned about the fact that for a year she’s been asking for a (garbage) route efficiency analysis and claims analysis. She mentioned various accidents the garbage trucks have been in and noted that since the city is self insured this is also a major cost. Councilwoman Spiegel also wants the pension costs for keeping sanitation in house, and also wants answers to Councilwoman Martell’s questions. She also wants to hear from Union President Janice Coakley and the employees’ proposal. Ms. Spielgel would like a public workshop to be held so the residents can weigh in.
Smith spoke. Again. Her opening lines were too good not to quote them word for word. Phyllis said, “I know we have a lot of employees here and I think we need to maybe have to readdress, and I understand it’s in their contract that sixty day notice. But, I think our system here in North Miami Beach has to be adjusted and readdressed. And whether that comes now or in negotiations or however it’s gotta be because here we are three months later and people were given notices so that they could possibly I think that’s a terrible way to go home. I think it’s a terrible way to be with your family, and I think it’s a terrible way to come to work. So I’d like that addressed in this process. I would also and I apologize to all of them because that’s the way the system is.”
I’m guessing Phyllis didn’t get the memo.
According to emails between Luke Savage, Esq., the city’s pension lawyer, and the ASFCME union negotiator, copies of which I expect to receive today, Mr. Savage has been trying to schedule contract negotiation meetings since March 6, 2012. He requested several dates in March and April to begin the rounds of meetings. When the union negotiator finally deigned to return Mr. Savage’s repeated emails nearly two months later, he agreed to a meeting date of July 1, 2012. Until he changed it to July 5, 2012.
As soon as I have all those emails, I’ll be able to report my findings, but the point is that the city has been desperately trying to move forward to finalize employee contracts, and like the police union has been doing with the cops’ contracts, ASFCME is also stalling and keeping its members living on the edge.
Yes, Phyllis. It IS a terrible way to live, and the employees have no one to blame but their own union reps. But that’s the way the union system is!
Back to the meeting. Phyllis wanted the city to consider piggybacking with the county as Aventura does, stating, “That’s an avenue that needs to be addressed.” Then Phyllis did what she does best. She bloviated. For more comic relief, I really must quote her verbatim. Phyllis said, “The public that’s here, and that come up, and we’ve heard from a few at council meetings is not an avenue to change their lives is not I agree that a formal workshop and I also need a proposal from Mrs. Coakley and the department as one of the proposals that we can evaluate when we’re evaluating this. I think this is something very serious. You know our world is changing and the way people do business is changing. They’re no longer sending a letter. They’re no longer, you know, um, making photocopies and hand delivering them. And, I think it may be changing in the municipalities in the way business is done. But it definitely cannot be changed without us doing our proper homework.” She also thanked Councilwoman Martell for finding the numbers faux pas and for “comparing apples to apples.” Not being able to shut up once she has the floor, Phyllis went on, “I always said it and I’ll say it again. I just want accurate, complete and truthful so that I can make the best decision I possibly can for the residents and I really think we need to check in with the county as well.”
Pregnant pause.
“Thank you.”
There was a collective moment of silence in case she had any more pearls of wisdom to cast before swine.
She did not. Whew!
Councilwoman Kramer spoke and said that she wanted the committee to basically go back to the drawing board, fix the mess, and then have a workshop where residents and employees can speak.
Councilwoman Martell then stated that her intent was not to throw a bombshell, but to bring forth the truth and correct any misinformation. She also explained the difference between an enterprise fund and the general fund, and that if you do away with the enterprise fund it will increase the deficit of the general fund. She also got quite animated explaining that you need to compare apples to oranges. She ended by emphatically stating that getting rid of the department will not necessarily save us money. No hurricanes were blamed.
The Mayor then tried to speak his mind, when Phyllis just had to pipe in, claiming that Ms. Martell asked her a question, which she did not, despite the fact that she already burned up the clock. When the Mayor stopped her from interrupting him, she got visibly insulted at finally being told to STFU. The Mayor gets extra Brownie Points for that! Phyllis sat in her seat, harumphing for the camera for at least a full minute while the Mayor tried to address the panel. Get over yourself, Phyllis. You’re just not that important!
Mayor George Vallejo wanted to “cut to the chase.” He acknowledged that this step would necessarily cause jobs to be lost. If, in fact, we could save three million, or even half, we still have a choice to make. He claims that there would be jobs and services created by those savings. He then asked the manager if the panel evaluated every single impact that a change would make on every single department, referring to Ms. Martell’s analysis. Ms. Martell further explained that any employees being paid by the sanitation enterprise fund would still be needed in the city, and those salaries would be moved to the general fund. She also said that 80% of the cost of fleet maintenance is being paid by the sanitation fund, but that actual costs for maintaining the sanitation fleet is nowhere near 80%. The Mayor wanted to know the total budget for the fleet, which was $1,700,000.00 (not including police). Eighty percent of that is $1,360,000.00, but Ms. Martell claims that only $200,000.00 is for sanitation.
The Mayor wanted to know who is responsible for clean up after a hurricane. Hurricanes again.
He also asked what percentage the costs go up now, as compared to the maximum increase of 3% with private contractors.
Then Mr. Vallejo brought up the emails between the labor attorney and union negotiator as I mentioned above. He stated that there was no way to get meaningful reform until those negotiations were completed and a contract was finalized. He also stated that he estimated saving a quarter million dollars a month by privatizing and asked the Manager how that savings could be spent to improve parks and other services. The Mayor also had questions regarding the scoring by the evaluation committee, and was concerned that the rankings were not done scientifically. Assistant City Manager Mac Serda explained how the committee came up with the rankings while I took a power nap. If you’re interested in the explanation, go watch the video and fast forward to 2:17. The exchange between the Mayor and the committee is worth watching. In the final analysis, the Mayor wanted to hear from the employees’ union and to finalize the collective bargaining agreement before any decision was made on privatizing the garbage department. It seems to me that right now the horse has been put before the cart, so to speak.
The Mayor tried to close the meeting, but Phyllis had a final question for Frantz Pierre, immediately redeeming herself in my eyes for bringing this back on the table. She turned to Frantzie and said, “[You] alluded that one of the five people on the panel could have had a vested interest in one of the [companies] … That was the question you asked and I wondered if you had any substance behind that?”
Squirming in his seat, L’il Frantzie P said, “This is something I want to discuss with our City Attorney before I [unintelligible] any volitions [sic].”
City Manager Bonner took offense with good reason! He said that his panel worked very hard, and that he feels that their integrity is on the line. He emphatically stated that “people could get fired over this.” Mr. Bonner also exclaimed that if there was any information Pee-Air had he wanted to know right now!
PIERRE HAD NOTHING TO SAY BECAUSE HE JUST MADE IT UP! HE IS NOTHING BUT A LIAR!
He just makes shit up as he goes along, and it’s become more than obvious by now!
That’s my report on the Sanitation Workshop. If you want to know what happened during the Council Conference and Council Meeting, you’ll have to watch it yourself. After two and a half hours of this BS, I had enough.
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
