 BUDGET COMMENTARY
FROM THE EDITOR ...
  | | Acting City Manager Alan A. Silva |
Mr. Alan Silva is a successful City Manager with both Federal and Municipal government experience to his credit. Fort Lauderdale should consider itself fortunate to have "the right man at the right time in the right job" during this fiscal conundrum. Galt Mile residents, however, are concerned about Commissioner Teel's statement regarding one of Mr. Silva's budget adjustments, "Fire apparatus selectively removed from service only to minimize overtime". While every realistic resident needs to encourage Christine Teel's support for fiscal sanity and the intelligent ministration of the unpleasant "recovery" medicine prescribed by Alan Silva, residents of the Barrier Island are rightfully leary about the possibility that their access to Emergency Medical Transportation (ambulance service) could be impacted.
Fire Chief Otis Latin indicated at a Public Meeting at the Beach Community Center that the intermittant displacement of "certain shifts" in Fire-Rescue Station #13 was being considered to offset anticipated "overtime expenses". The Barrier Island differs from the mainland in one unique aspect; crossing a bridge is required to reach a hospital. While the Oakland Park and Sunrise Boulevard Bridges are in radio contact with the Fire-Rescue service, the Commercial Boulevard Bridge is not! Most of our area hospitals are near to or north of Commercial Boulevard and an additional 20 - 30 minute wait for the bridge to close followed by a traffic battle up Federal Highway (one of the few streets where traffic CANNOT be preempted by Fire-Rescue for some incomprehensible reason) could yield devastating (if not lethal) results. When the Cleveland Clinic closed, local officials promised that a full time Emergency Medical Transport would be stationed on or near its former site to allay the fears of Barrier Island residents. Click Here to read about the November 24th Public Meeting at the Fort Lauderdale Beach Community Center wherein residents were informed about how the City's budget woes might affect Fire-Rescue's operational status and diminish the availability of Emergency Medical Transportation. An "occasionally deleted shift" would intermittantly reduce the number of Emergency Medical Transports serving the Barrier Island from 3 to 2. It has been argued that 2 Fire-Rescue Units serviced the Barrier Island for many years prior to the closing of the Cleveland Clinic. The obvious difference is that the Transports enjoyed the availability of a hospital ON THE ISLAND at that time.
 As Commissioner Teel emphasized that "NO POLICE OFFICERS OR FIRE FIGHTERS WILL BE LAID OFF", it is apparent that the City recognizes the importance of not balancing the budget at the expense of Fort Lauderdale's critical services. The Galt Mile Community Association is confident that our representatives will achieve our fiscal objectives without impairing our Emergency Medical Transportation capabilities. In fact, we're betting OUR lives on it ... as well as YOURS!
 Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Christine Teel's office is located at 100 N. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301. Her telephone no. is (954) 828-5004 and FAX no. is (954) 828-5667. Click Here to Email Commissioner Teel. Click Here to access Commissioner Teel's City of Fort Lauderdale web address.
Commissioner Teel's assistant, Catherine Wichmann, can be reached at (954) 828-5033 or Click Here to E-mail.
Acting City Manager Alan A. Silva's offices are located at 100 N. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 and his telephone # is (954) 828-5013, Fax is (954) 828-5021 or Click Here to e-mail Mr. Silva.
Pam Brown is an Assistant to the City Commission. Phone: (954) 828-5004, Fax: (954) 828-5667. Click Here to E-mail. Her office is located at 100 North Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301.
For complete contact information, go to Report Card.
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“Doctor” Silva Plays the Budget Music
Who pays the piper...and how much?
 The Budget Crisis faced by Fort Lauderdale has been diagnosed by a fiscal physician, Acting City Manager Alan A. Silva. Mr. Silva has volunteered to suffer a six-month ordeal in which he aspires to wean the City of Fort Lauderdale from the devastating fiscal habits to which it has become accustomed, administer a dose of reality into its “wishful thinking” budget projections and help its stunned residents (us) to face the music. The medication prescribed is a combination of fee and tax increases, service cuts and the temporary freezing of programs that have played a large part in Fort Lauderdale’s evolution.
 | | Alan Silva & Vice Mayor Carleton Moore |
Mr. Silva, former Director of the Office of Human Resource Development for the U.S. Agency for International Development (1994 - 1997) and City Administrator for Fall River, Massachusetts (1981 - 1984, 2000 - 2001), presented the inimical budget facts to the City Commission on December 3rd. He awaited their reaction with the caveat that he would only continue as Acting City Manager if the City was willing to realistically face its dilemma and take the difficult measures necessary to put its affairs back in order. Pleased with the City Commission's recognition of the magnitude of the problem, he characterized the Commission's resolve to take the hard steps back to solvency as a “watershed” event. In an effort to soften the harsh effects, Silva relegated the authority/responsibility for the cutbacks to the Department Heads that would have to live with them. Each Department Director would, in turn, accept full responsibility for “living within their means” and face dismissal for outstripping their budget. The Commission faced the music on December 16th and passed the austere budget measures by a 3-2 vote (Vice Mayor Carleton Moore and Commissioner Cindi Hutchinson dissenting).
The fees, taxes and fee/tax increases approved by the City Commission at their scheduled December 16th meeting to soften the budget shortfall are as follows:
- Fire assessment fee: 50 percent increase, from $42 to $63.
- Ambulance transport fees charged to Medicare: Increased from $330 to $425, $452 or $525, depending on level of treatment.
- Water and sewer rates: 5 percent increase, amounting to about $2.71 more per month for the average user.
- Parking fines: 32 percent increase, from $19 to $25.
- Parking rates: Various increases citywide.
- Home or business alarm systems registration fee: $50, with an annual renewal fee of $25.
- Alarm response fees: Doubled, to $100, if more than two alarms are responded to in one year.
- Sanitation fee: A 10 percent increase, amounting to $34.74 more for a single-family home.
- Property taxes: 10.16 percent tax increase. The impact varies, depending on the value of an owner’s property and whether it is entitled to a $25,000 homestead exemption. The increase ranges from $12 more for the average homesteaded single-family house, to $215 more for a non-homesteaded house.
As things currently stand, the City is about $12 million short in meeting its anticipated $215 million operating budget. While fees and taxes increase income, layoffs and program cutbacks decrease expenses. The City has adopted a buffet of rescue efforts to address possible layoffs:
- No current Police or Fire-Rescue personnel will be laid off
- Police Public Safety Aides: A code lien “amnesty program” in which code violators can have fines reduced to 25 percent if they pay during February is designed to raise $550,000. If not, aides would face layoffs in the spring.
- Mounted Police Patrol Unit: Private citizens and developers have pledged $44,500 to sustain the unit.
- 50 unnamed municipal employees face layoffs.
- Forced unpaid days off and unpaid furloughs are expected to make up $2.4 million of the operating shortfall.
The $12 million recovered by this painful venue will provide us with a one year reprieve. The expected shortfall for the next year is $15 million - $16 million. Commissioners agreed that next year portends a tax increase.  | | POLICE & FIRE UNIONS PROTEST BUDGET CUTS |
They will also determine whether a $125 million Bond Issue should be placed on the March ballot to finance new police headquarters and fire-rescue stations. City Unions representing the beleaguered municipal employees who will have to pay the “human cost” of these budget measures have been placed in the difficult position of having to balance the needs of their constituencies with Fort Lauderdale’s fiscal realities. Police, Fire-Rescue and other union representatives have been making a cogent case for the fact that their membership will be forced to “take the lumps” for the City Administration's inexcusably poor fiscal judgment. While Mayor Naugle and the City Commissioners have committed to avoid any Police or Fire-Rescue layoffs, the fact that the unions haven't come to an agreement on a new contract could lead to layoffs down the road.
At the December 16th City Commission meeting at City Hall, many speakers repeated their willingness to pay higher taxes and fees to help navigate through this difficult time rather than face the cuts in manpower and services that threaten the City. In addition to higher fees and reduced services, residents face shorter hours at recreational facilities like the Aquatic Complex. Vice Mayor Carlton Moore indicated that he received many budget-related emails. He asked the people that sent the emails whether they would support a tax increase. Moore said, “I think only one of them said no.”
Alan Silva’s unrequited challenge entails walking a tightrope between cutting expenses (jobs, services, etc.) and increasing resources (taxes, fees, etc.). Perched precariously between those that demand more services and those reluctant to pay for them, he has agreed to temporarily serve as Fort Lauderdale's fiscal “piñata”, universally taking the heat resulting from the mismanagement practiced by his predecessor and others. Remarkably, he is doing it “Pro Bono”! How many “Doctors” do you know that work for free?
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 What Happened
A Chronology - Who Did What...and When? 
The 168,000 residents of the City of Fort Lauderdale pay more taxes per person ($570 in 2003) than any other large city in the State of Florida (See Table Below). A 3 year period of gross mismanagement has transformed a city with an $18.3 billion tax base into a municipal basket case. On December 16th, the City Commission approved a package of tax & fee increases along with service cuts, layoffs and program freezes that stunned residents and employees alike. Contrary to appearances, this fiscal deterioration didn’t occur overnight. Despite protests of surprise and shock by municipal representatives, the budget disaster we now face did not ambush Fort Lauderdale. City officials have had a ringside seat to a three year fiscal mismanagement spectacle. They were not, however, spectators. They were participants. “How did we get here?” acting City Manager Alan Silva asked rhetorically. “As I have said many times, we had been living beyond our means.” This is what happened...
- August, 1998 - Floyd Johnson was selected as city manager. Johnson’s relationship with the City Commission was simple. The City Commission’s job was to distribute tax revenues to the projects they supported. Johnson’s job was to create a viable financial structure through which this could be accomplished. It was a simple arrangement, the City Manager wouldn’t say “no” to any project or curb the financial outflow and the Commissioners would turn a blind eye to the fact that Johnson’s budgets made no sense.
- July, 2000 - Johnson warned in a budget message that the City should be “more foresighted and strategic in our financial planning” and that “we have tended to be too incremental with some past decisions.” Johnson elaborated, “We have prided ourselves on lowering taxes and holding utility rates steady; however, there are times when reasonable increases are prudent and this year requires such increases.” No one, including Johnson, paid heed.
- Summer, 2001 - The City’s new self-insured health plan showed a substantial jump in costs but nothing was done. Johnson and his top budget staff (Director Damon Adams, who retired last spring, and current Finance Director Terry Sharp) knew of the growing financial problems and repeatedly warned city commissioners by memo. Sharp, for example, spelled out in a November 2001 memo the possible loss in pension investments and sales tax revenue in the sluggish economy after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. However, following nine pages of forecasts of economic downturn and allusions to budget cuts, he concluded: “No action is requested at this time.” He rated the severity of “fiscal stress” as “low.”
- March, 2002 - Sharp states in a memo that water-sewer projects staff overtime and the city jail and stadium continue to sap money. Labor contracts, annexation, pension upgrades and insurance hikes were costing the city more and a health insurance deficit was looming. He recommended no budget cutbacks.
- Spring, 2002 - Commissioners and employees were told that the city’s health insurance program was failing (the fund currently carries a $6.5 million deficit); officials acknowledged program mismanagement and longtime finance director Damon Adams retired.
- June, 2002 - City risk manager Scott Denham resigned, taking responsibility for the failed health insurance program. Simultaneously, Sharp warned that the city’s contribution to the general employees’ pension would jump $4 million. He optimistically asserts that “The FY 2003 budget is tight but doable.”
- September, 2002 - Commissioners approved a budget that included $1.3 million towards restoring the city’s self-insured health program, which had a negative balance of $8.7 million that was expected to worsen. In the City’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (FY ending 9/30/2002), the Management’s Discussion and Analysis states that “the City’s insurance fund had assets of $7.3 million but liabilities of $22.4 million of which $21.9 million represent estimated claim liabilities.” Ironically, it continues, “The health plan has undergone major renovation” and “appears to be on a better financial track.” The budget, not surprisingly, also included new expenditures. Commissioners raised taxes and fees, but excluded homesteaded property.
- April, 2003 - Commissioners are told the budget outlook is bad but no action is taken.
- June, 2003 - Johnson established a hiring, travel and purchasing freeze, and a ban on nonessential overtime.
- July, 2003 - Muni-war broke out. Johnson and Sharp announced an official deficit of $5.4 million and that the city would run out of money before the end of the budget year. Commissioners denounce Johnson’s budget and its proposed tax increase as a “shell game” of shifting funds with cuts in the most sensitive, and wrong, places. In response, Johnson vows to avoid layoffs. Retiree Alan Silva critiqued the budget, saying it is out of balance and “fiscally irresponsible” and that layoffs are needed.
- August, 2003 - Auditor Ernst & Young LLP confirmed that “the city’s financial condition is deteriorating.” Johnson writes a letter denying the city is in a crisis. He says a three-year economic downturn and the City Commission’s failure to raise taxes high enough created the problems. The city’s coffers are empty (about $10 million in the hole) and its emergency savings depleted.
- September, 2003 - Commissioners ordered Johnson to resign or be fired. Then they passed a budget with higher taxes and fees, and cuts in services. (Johnson later agreed to quit.) However, Commissioners find out the budget they passed is not balanced and that major cuts are needed immediately. Moody’s Investors Service placed Fort Lauderdale on a watchlist for possible reduction in its bond rating, an indicator of financial health.
- October, 2003 - Silva is selected to be interim city manager, working for free. He’s told the city must start saving $25,000 a day to avoid a deficit. Standard & Poor’s Rating Service changed its outlook to "negative," a warning of possible downgrade in the city’s bonds. A lower bond rating makes it more expensive for a city to borrow money.
- December, 2003 - Commissioners made final the $12 million in cuts Silva recommended, a decrease that would cut $15 million out of next budget year’s base. They also set aside $2 million in reserves (enough to pay the bills for about 4 days - Alan Silva asked for $10 million - Click to Table). They will reduce the workforce 6 percent, including layoffs for 50 employees, the first layoffs in almost a decade.
Taxes Levied (Per Person) in Major Florida Cities
Major Florida
Municipality |
2003
Population |
Tax Base
(In Billions) |
2003 Taxes
(Per Person) |
| |
|
|
|
| Fort Lauderdale |
168,000 |
$18.3 |
$570 |
| Miami |
373,000 |
$19.4 |
$454 |
| Jacksonville (Duval) |
782,000 |
$34.2 |
$454 |
| Hollywood |
143,000 |
$8.2 |
$403 |
| Tampa |
317,000 |
$18.3 |
$383 |
| Orlando |
202,000 |
$13.1 |
$382 |
| Clearwater |
101,000 |
$6.7 |
$351 |
| Saint Petersburg |
252,000 |
$1.0 |
$284 |
| Pembroke Pines |
148,000 |
$7.3 |
$233 |
| Coral Springs |
124,000 |
$6.7 |
$233 |
| Tallahassee |
162,000 |
$6.7 |
$158 |
|
Source: State of Florida
The City’s finance officials consistently warned of impending budget troubles. Memoranda went to Commissioners, the Mayor and their staff personnel. Although memos were sent about the need to curb spending, raise taxes and plan for the future, finance officials never acted on their own advice. While official budget documents acknowledged the anticipated problems, no timely recommendations were made. Instead of setting aside additional cash for emergencies, officials ran through contingency funds (meant for “unanticipated demands after budget adoption”), reserve funds (meant only for extreme emergencies), one-time funds like grants or money that had been set aside to maintain roads and buildings. The “undesignated” fund balance dwindled from $9 million in 2001 to nothing by early 2003.
While the Administration’s Finance officials did nothing to stem the washout aside from mentioning it, the City Commission behaved as if there was no cause for concern, pointing to the anticipated increases in tax revenues from several large but incomplete real estate developments. It is unfathomable that City officials were oblivious to the downturn in the economy and how that would impact pension investments ($96.7 million in losses last budget year in city employee pension funds required an additional City contribution of $8 million), tax revenues (property taxes came in $1.15 million short) and interest income (interest earnings plunged $600,000 from expectations). Generous union contracts, a self-insured employee health insurance plan that leaked money like a sieve and a non-stop stream of porky municipal projects chewed through the paper thin reserves in a flash. City records show that in the last budget year the city dipped into its emergency cash to pay for a $19,380 roundabout on Miami Road, $137,000 for a Downtown Master Plan, $45,000 for a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, $12,366 to give the city manager a raise, and another $946,101 to give all other managers raises. City Commissioners didn’t pay serious attention to the collapse until pieces of plaster started falling on their heads. The self-insured health plan that the City implemented to save money paid rich benefits, with low employee contributions. The troubled program’s deficit peaked at $13 million and will cost the city $2 million extra this year. The City’s workers’ compensation insurance fund needed a $2 million boost and franchise fees from FP&L and People’s Gas dropped $475,000. The parks, police and fire departments collectively overspent their budgets by $4.9 million, resulting in a two-year $7.75 million “overtime” deficit.
To imply that intelligent elected political officials and experienced career bureaucrats were either distracted by a shell game, had the wool pulled over their eyes or were misled in any other way, shape or form is simply not credible. In fact, there is no credible explanation for this collapse. Vaudeville is widely presumed to be dead...not in Fort Lauderdale!
Cities Fund “Reserves” in their annual budgets to address emergencies. Of Broward County's 4 largest municipalities, Fort Lauderdale’s “Reserve Fund” has been the smallest for the past five years!
| Broward City |
99-00 |
00-01 |
01-02 |
02-03 |
03-04 |
F.Y. 2003 - 2004 |
| |
(In Millions) |
General Fund Budget |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Coral Springs |
$15.8 |
$16.8 |
$22.9 |
$26.2 |
$27.1 |
$78.5 |
| Hollywood |
$4.8 |
$4.7 |
$6.0 |
$6.0 |
$5.8 |
$137.1 |
| Fort Lauderdale |
$1.5 |
$1.5 |
$2.0 |
$1.5 |
$2.0 |
$215.0 |
| Pembroke Pines |
$7.2 |
$8.3 |
$10.3 |
$16.9 |
$16.9 |
$118.0 |
|
Source: Cities of Coral Springs, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale and Pembroke Pines
Fort Lauderdale’s Annual Operating Budgets and Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) are available on the internet. Click Here to go to the City's Budget Page and access the Annual Operating Budgets from 1997 to the present. Click Here to access the City of Fort Lauderdale Finance Department’s web page.
Acting City Manager Alan A. Silva’s offices are located at 100 N. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 and his telephone # is (954) 828-5013, Fax is (954) 828-5021. Click Here to e-mail Mr. Silva at ASilva@fortlauderdale.gov and Click Here to access the Acting City Manager’s web page.
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 Barrier Island Community Meeting
  Fire-Rescue Budget Broken
 November 24, 2003 - The City of Fort Lauderdale held a November 24, 2003 Public Meeting at the Beach Community Center (3351 NE 33rd Avenue in Fort Lauderdale) to address Fire-Rescue budget issues affecting the Barrier Island. It would appear that Fort Lauderdale has been operating in a state of “financial denial”. The former City Manager, attempting to pacify a wide range of fiscal demands placed by the Mayor and the City Commission, has been addressing “this year’s expenses with next year’s income” for many years. The City is broke. We are, however, not alone! It seems that the tax cuts, givebacks and giveaways that politicians have painted as a brave new world have an inconvenient repercussion. No taxes - no money, no money - no services! When this is combined with the “Rose Colored Glasses” worn by our representatives while spending over a half million dollars on the Air-Sea Show and dozens of other financial gaffes, it presents a recipe for disaster. Municipalities across the nation are coping with various levels of financial distress; some better than others. The Barrier Island got a dose of the bitter medicine required as part of the remedy for fiscal ineptitude...CUTBACKS.
 | | Fire Chief Otis Latin |
The 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM Public Meeting, despite being inaccessible to anyone who works for a living, was attended by over one hundred and fifty residents, Fire-Rescue and Police personnel. The barely publicized meeting was an exercise in softening up the community for some bad news. The unfortunate “messenger”, Fire Chief Otis Latin, was joined by City Commissioners Christine Teel and Cindi Hutchinson in an attempt to clarify the impending pitfalls in the new Fire-Rescue budget.  | | Commissioner Cindi Hutchinson |
Chief Latin explained that the Fire-Rescue overtime budgeted for last year was $1.2 Million dollars. The department exceeded its budget by 60%, actually spending $1.9 Million dollars. This year, the overtime budget is $956,000...$56,000 of which is for Ocean Rescue, leaving $900,000 for Fire-Rescue (less than half of last year’s expenditure). As a result, the Department is undergoing a “temporary reorganization”. The four Battalions that cover the city will be consolidated into three. He admonished that the city will have the same number of transports, engines, quints and trucks despite the one battalion administrative cutback. Several Battalion Chiefs and Lieutenants will be shifted from Administration to Operations to help reduce the overtime demand. Unit size will sporadically shrink from 4 to 3 firefighters while Rescue Unit staffing could diminish from 3 to 2. The Chief described the overall Fire-Rescue organizational venue as being “a fluid system that constantly shifts from one area to the next” as demand dictates. Chief Latin then lowered the Boom!
When the Cleveland Clinic, the only Barrier Island Hospital, pulled up stakes (and their Certificate of Need) and moved to Weston, there was a tornado of community protest. Local officials worked overtime to allay the legitimate concerns of tens of thousands of angry and frightened beach residents. Although no viable medical services replacement could be found, the promise of Fire-Rescue Ambulances standing “at the ready” near the site of the former Cleveland Clinic dissipated much of the community “angst”.  | | Fire-Rescue Station 13 |
The three Fire-Rescue Stations that service the Barrier Island are Station 54 located at 3200 NE 32nd Street, Station 13 at 2871 E Sunrise Boulevard and the southernmost Station 49 at 1015 Seabreeze Boulevard. Chief Latin told the assembly that the Transport (Ambulance) at Station 13 would intermittently lose a shift. The Chief again pointed to the fluid nature of the system, often placing one or more of our Barrier Island teams on the mainland and conversely finding mainland-based units responding to Barrier Island emergencies. Chief Latin then opened the floor to questions.
A Physician-resident of the Bermuda-Riviera Condominium described a scenario wherein the team from Stations 54 or 49 was on the mainland while Station 13 was unavailable because of this overtime plan. If two emergency calls were received, how would the remaining unit respond to both? Chief Latin exclaimed that an EMS team would be dispatched to stabilize the situation but the victim would just have to wait for the next available Transport unit to get to the hospital. He reminded the audience that the Barrier Island operated successfully for years with only two Stations. A resident pointed out that the Cleveland Clinic’s prior presence greatly reduced the required transport time but that patients now had to be brought over a bridge to a mainland hospital. While the bridges at Sunrise Boulevard and Oakland Park Boulevard were accessible by radio to accommodate emergency closings, the Commercial Boulevard Bridge could only be contacted by telephone. In addition, Fire-Rescue’s ability to “preempt” traffic does not extend to Federal Highway, the main thoroughfare to most of the area hospitals.
Ian Kemp, one of several dozen red tee-shirted Fort Lauderdale firefighters in attendance, remarked that the enormous overtime expenditures were a direct result of the Department’s staffing policies. He claimed that “institutional understaffing guaranteed the chronic need for overtime.” He also reinforced community life-safety concerns by warning that “the service cuts would substantially increase the critical response time that often dictates survivability in an emergency.”
| | Acting City Manager Alan A. Silva |
GMCA President Robert Rozema asked Chief Latin why the City reduced Fire-Safety services by about 7% after increasing the Fire-Rescue Assessment by 40%. Alan Silva, the Acting City Manager who represents the only bright spot in the City’s murky financial outlook, explained the financial basis for the belt-tightening and hinted at the ridiculous fiscal environment in which City Hall denizens proliferated. Mr. Silva said that even with the 40% increase, the Fire-Rescue assessment only covers 50% of the Department’s operational expenses. Prior to the increase, the assessment barely covered 25% of the Fire-Rescue budget. The fairy-tale environment under which the City Hall budget existed for years relied on next year’s projected income to satisfy this year’s overdrafts. While he intentionally avoided fixing responsibility for the City’s rubiks cube financial dilemma, he is recommending that all regular critical functions of City government be fully funded every year. He warned that if any department head overspent their budget, they would be summarily dismissed. Mr. Silva, a veteran City Manager with Federal and Municipal government experience, exhorted that he would quit were he pressured to allow any “budget-busting” measures by anyone in City government. Mr. Silva, however, does not appear to be micromanaging the various departmental budgets. Fire-Rescue, for instance, has been given certain budgetary parameters within which Chief Latin and his staff are responsible for exercising their discretion while delivering Fire-Rescue services.
 | | Commissioner Christine Teel |
Three glaring questions as yet remain unanswered. 1) Why didn’t any elected representative serving in City Hall notice that they were spending more money than was available? District 1 Commissioner Christine Teel remarked that she inquired of the former City Manager about the Air-Sea Show expenses and was told “about $100,000”. Realizing that the amount was far from credible, she continued to investigate. The actual amount exceeded $500,000. Apparently, these highly suspect fiscal representations were accepted by the Mayor and every City Commissioner for years. 2) The second dilemma arises from scrutiny of the priorities exercised at City Hall. Sacrifices unquestionably have to be made. Common sense would seem to dictate that Police, Fire and Emergency Medical Services should be the last sources of recovery through cutbacks. Most people agree that it is preferable for some Parks to go unattended and the Sister Cities Program to temporarily lose a “Sister” before risking anyone’s life! 3) The last issue relates to the recent Fire-Rescue Assessment. The 40% increase in the Fire-Rescue assessment amounts to about $27.00 ($36/unit in 2002 to $63/unit in 2004) more than the previous assessments. If the increase brought the Fire-Rescue budget to within 50% of operating levels, why didn’t the City assess a few dollars more and completely fund the critical services? Whereas nobody enjoys paying taxes, they like the prospect of an unavailable or delayed Ambulance during an emergency even less.
Informing a community that they have to pay for the services that they receive is a politically abhorrent task. It took a fair amount of hard nerve for Otis Latin to risk the wrath of those predisposed to “killing the messenger” that delivers bad news. Similarly, Acting City Manager Alan Silva is courageously intent on not sugar-coating the harsh realities attendant to fiscal prudence. Would it have been too much to expect our City Fathers and Mothers to trust us enough to ask that we fund the critical services instead of cutting them? Mayor Naugle asserts that we can expect a modicum of financial relief in about two years (when the recently completed downtown development projects start realizing tax benefits for the City). How our representatives steer Fort Lauderdale through this temporary fiscal “gauntlet” will likely determine their future occupations!
To contact Fire Chief Otis Latin (at 101 NE 3 Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301), call (954) 828-6800 or Click Here.
Acting City Manager Alan A. Silva’s offices are located at 100 N. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 and his telephone # is (954) 828-5013, Fax is (954) 828-5021 or Click Here to e-mail Mr. Silva.
Click Here to email Commissioner Christine Teel and Click Here to email Commissioner Cindi Hutchinson.
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Update: Mayor James Naugle
Fort Lauderdale Mayor James Naugle, a longtime political benefactor of the Galt Mile community, was the guest speaker at the October 16th, 2003 Galt Mile Community Association Advisory Board meeting. Shore Preservation, Fire Safety and Insurance dogma were placed on “hold” while the Mayor addressed a municipal issue that impacts the City’s ability to contend with each and every other challenge...MONEY! Fort Lauderdale’s financial condition is dire. The City’s coffers are empty and funding is the primary item on every City Hall agenda.
 | | Mayor Jim Naugle |
Mayor Naugle distributed a multi-page collation to support his presentation. The first page was a two-line chart entitled "Full-Time Budgeted Positions". The top line shows that there were 2103 full-time budgeted positions in 1996 and there are 2551 full-time budgeted positions proposed for 2004, an increase of 448 positions. The average annual compensation for a municipal employee is currently $71,924.00 ($86,835.00 for Police and $81,622.00 for Firefighters/EMTs). Annual compensation for the 448 additional employees amounts to about $32,221,952.00.
Despite the fact that a certain increase in governance expense is to be expected to accommodate the growth of our City, this 21.3% increase in staff is indicative of a “do it in-house” policy that has historically proliferated in City Hall. Three conditions need to exist for this policy to continue unopposed. The first two are {1} the need to control every aspect of every service that the City delivers and {2} the general sentiment that the City can deliver the services more efficiently than its commercial competitors. It is, of course, a gamble. If your “in-house” effort supplants some inefficient vendor whose business is based on the siphoning off of tax dollars into the company's strong-box, you're a hero. If, however, your competition does it better and cheaper, you're a goat. The third condition is always necessary whenever you gamble, {3} the resources to cover your bet. Funds adequate to equip, staff and house the operational needs of the indicated service need to be available. When you can’t pay, you can’t play. Currently, the City can’t pay.
Fort Lauderdale's mission has been refocused. While treading this financial tightrope, the City has to find a way to deliver acceptable levels of service for a lot less money! The Mayor explained, by way of example, that the “Bulk Trash” component of the Sanitation Rate on the Garbage Bill could be moderated by outsourcing collection to a commercial Sanitation business. To deliver the service in-house, the City needs to buy and maintain expensive equipment (trucks, roll-offs, claws, etc.), hire collection staff and retain administrative and support staff to oversee the division. The fiscal stress of this labor-intensive service is magnified by the benefit costs (pension, workman’s compensation, health insurance, etc.) that outsourcing sidesteps. When GMCA President Robert Rozema asked Mayor Naugle about replacing the large number of broken uplights along the Galt Mile, the Mayor explained that the number of City electricians had diminished from 12 to 8. The electrician responsible for maintaining the uplights had been downsized (retired). The Mayor implied that the City might be better served by outsourcing services like this.
The Mayor feels that a majority on the City Commission is predisposed to exploring these cost-cutting alternatives. He expressed concern about a proposal by one commissioner to install a new bureaucracy designed to monitor rental properties for possible code violations. The rental property owner would be subject to obtaining a license or paying for an annual inspection. Properties would be reviewed for cleanliness, upkeep, repairs and the warranted permits. The new division could require resources to fund operational expenses, office space and the salaries and benefits for about 22 new municipal employees - roughly $2.5 Million per year. The offering will be considered in conference by the City Commission, reviewed by the City Attorney and subject to Public Hearings.
Mayor Naugle injected an element of irony into the presentation by including a “Fiscal Year 2002/2003 Ad Valorem Tax Profile” of selected municipalities compiled by the State of Florida Department of Revenue in his fact sheets. He offered a table contrasting Population Estimates, Operating Millage, Total Taxable value and Taxes Levied and 2002 Per Capita Taxable Value and Total Taxes Levied in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, Hollywood, Tampa, Clearwater, Saint Petersburg, Pembroke Pines, Coral Springs, Hialeah and Tallahassee. It demonstrated, among other things, that the 2002 Per Capita Taxable Property Value in Fort Lauderdale was $98,114.00. Aside from Orlando at $70,399.00, the rest of the municipalities were about half that of Fort Lauderdale (Miami - $47,785.00, Hollywood - 53,653.00, St. Petersburg - $40,124.00, Pembroke Pines - $47,587.00, Coral Springs - $51,950, Tallahassee - $42,060.00, etc.). At $475.58, Fort Lauderdale had the highest 2002 Per Capita total taxes levied of the major Florida municipalities. This superior income stream should lend itself to a speedier economic recovery for our beleaguered municipal bankbook as compared to our sister cities. The challenge for our City Fathers (and Mothers) will be to sustain the relatively inexpensive “Quality of Life” programs that are usually the first to go when a government becomes financially strapped. If they can “walk the walk” and tighten the City’s belt without succumbing to the political heat, our Mayor and Commissioners should benefit from an expected revenue spurt in about two years.
 Our Mayor emphasized the financial impact that The Galt Mile has on the City's finances. District 1 (our district) represents 37.06% ($5,347,229,990.00) of the total assessed property values for the City of Fort Lauderdale. While the Member Associations (condos & co-ops) of the Galt Mile Community Association account for 22% ($1,163,544,450.00) of the District 1 valuations, they comprise more than 8% of the total municipal valuation ($14,428,491,910.00). We historically receive, in return, substantially less than we contribute.
| Acting City Manager
Alan A. Silva |
The Mayor spoke to the replacement of recently departed City Manager Floyd T. Johnson. Referring to the City Commission, Naugle stated, “We should have exercised closer oversight of the former City Manager’s budgets.” Fort Lauderdale has engaged Alan A. Silva, 53, as “Acting City Manager” for a six-month term effective October 9, 2003 (Pro Bono!). Mr. Silva, former Director of the Office of Human Resource Development for the U.S. Agency for International Development (1994 - 1997) and City Administrator for Fall River, Massachusetts (1981 - 1984, 2000 - 2001), will be responsible for directing the City of Fort Lauderdale’s day-to-day operations, administering a total operating budget in excess of $375 million and overseeing a staff of nearly 2,500 employees.  | | Chief of Police Bruce G Roberts |
Fort Lauderdale and Miami belong to a minority of municipalities functionally administered by a City Manager. The Mayor’s preference for a permanent solution, aside from Chief of Police Bruce G. Roberts, is to lure a highly qualified proven commodity away from some successful “City Manager-based” municipality instead of promoting from within the existing hierarchy.
 | | PALAZZO - LAS OLAS |
Mayor Naugle touched on several other issues. He voiced his concern over the Palazzo development on Las Olas Boulevard and the Intracoastal Waterway. He’s understandably uncomfortable with allocating a paltry $5 Million valuation for the foreseeable future on one of the most desirable locations in the Greater Fort Lauderdale area. In response to a query by GMCA Presidents Council Chairman Pio Ieraci, he expressed consternation over the unbridled development taking place downtown. Thousands of units are coming online with no adjunctive relief from the concomitant traffic. He advocates the development and promotion of public transportation to reduce the exploding congestion. While not advocating a moratorium on development downtown, the Mayor asked that the City be afforded the opportunity to “catch up” with regard to traffic control. He also encouraged progressive solutions like the efficient, convenient sub-rooftop parking provided by the downtown Publix Supermarket.
Mayor Naugle can be contacted by E-mail at MayorJames@aol.com and maintains a website is at http://www.fortlauderdale.gov/commission/bios/naugle.htm. For complete contact information, go to Report Card.
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Code Amnesty Program Could Save Safety Aides
 One of the efforts that elevated Fort Lauderdale's public safety reputation from spotty to sterling is the Public Safety Aides Program. This successful program is in danger of either being suspended or sacrificed in the “budget bonfire” ignited to restore the municipality’s fiscal sanity. Every Public Safety Aide frees up one trained police officer to fight crime instead of answer phones. As part of Police Chief Bruce Roberts’ $6.4 million contribution to diminishing Fort Lauderdale’s budget, the “Public Safety Aides” program was included in the package of cutbacks approved by the City Commission to relieve the severe budget imbalance. As hope springs eternal, the threatened program may yet exact a reprieve and survive the budget axe.
A deal was struck at the December 16th City Commission meeting to approve the emergency budget adjustments. In a clever attempt to kill several birds with one stone, the City is offering a Code Amnesty Program designed to raise the half million dollars needed to perpetuate the Public Safety Aides Program. Should the code amnesty program underperform, layoffs could loom in the spring.
 | | Public Safety Aides |
Here’s how it works. From February 1st to March 1st, any eligible property owner with an outstanding code enforcement fine or lien can settle their balance due by paying the City 25% of the debt’s face value. There are, however, certain prerequisites to participation in this municipal 75%-off sale. In addition to owing outstanding fines or liens, the violated property needs to be currently in compliance with the City’s code of ordinances. If the violation persists, the property is ineligible for the discount. If you feel that your property is in compliance but has not been inspected, please call the Community Inspections Division at (954) 828-5207 to schedule an inspection in order to verify your eligibility for this program.
Payments may be made in person Monday - Friday from 7:30 A.M. - 4:30 P.M. at the City’s Community Inspections Division, located at 300 N.W. 1st Avenue. Payments made this way may be satisfied with a credit card, cash, personal check, cashier’s check or money order payable to the City of Fort Lauderdale. Payments may also be mailed to: City of Fort Lauderdale, Community Inspections Division, 300 N.W. 1st Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301. Payments that are mailed (no cash or credit card payments will be accepted through the mail) must be postmarked no later than March 1, 2004. Payments made in person must be made no later than 4:30 P.M. March 1, 2004. Once the amnesty period ends, outstanding code enforcement fines and liens will revert back to 100% and will be aggressively collected using every means available to the City, including foreclosing on properties.
The benefits derived of this program’s success are manifold. Procrastinating property owners have a substantial incentive to “fix” their safety violations to secure participation in the discount program. Whenever this occurs, our world becomes a little safer. The benefit to “violated” property owners is self-evident and substantial (75% off is a BIG discount). The program’s central mission is to bring in $550,000 to bridge the budget gap that threatens to swallow Fort Lauderdale’s Public Safety Aides Program. The current pool of outstanding liens and fines from both corrected and non-compliant properties amounts to more than $73 Million. If 3/4 of one percent of the total indebtedness is realized, 30 very important jobs will be saved.
Property owners who think they may be eligible, or have any questions about the Code Fine Amnesty Program, are encouraged to contact the City’s Community Inspections Division at (954) 828-5207.
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Parks Department Fails Audit
 Overtime Abuses Uncovered
 City Auditor Allyson Love has acquired new status as a result of the City’s Budget Boondoggle. Her office is the center of a power struggle between the City Commission and the City Manager’s office. The City’s Charter Review Board, contemplating a reapportioning of governance controls, is examining the possible relocation of the Auditor’s responsibilities to the City Commission from the City Manager’s office. Commissioners have asserted that this would effectively give them a “handle” on past and potential spending missteps such as overtime abuses. Any changes to the Fort Lauderdale City Charter require approval of the voters.
 The value of this office has recently revealed itself as completion of a partial audit of Parks Department overtime yielded startling abuses. Some Parks Department employees have substantially increased their incomes (up to 45% above their base pay) through the use of essentially unaudited overtime pay. The audit, recently distributed to city commissioners, also determined that the department has no written policies on overtime, lax oversight and no way to determine what work was done. Love’s office stated in a review of overtime spent during the 2002-03 budget year, “Overtime usage and distribution appears excessive, not adequately documented and/or monitored”.
City auditor Stacey Thomas found that supervisors themselves were paid overtime without demonstrating proper authorization, employees didn't always clock in or out when on overtime, and some were paid overtime in the same week they took sick leave, compensatory leave or vacation. Supervisors weren’t required to document reasons for the overtime. The audit states that, “Crews worked overtime on weekends without a foreman/supervisor to monitor their productivity, and the overtime work was not distributed equitably”.
 Parks Department exceeded last year's budget of $474,864 by $242,015, running it up to $716,879. The audit covered only about 20% of the department’s staff. Abuses ranged from mild to severe, with one employee earning the equivalent of 45 percent of his base pay -- or $28,829 -- in overtime, and another clocked $26,316 in overtime, or 40.4 percent of his $65,111 base pay, according to the audit. Three other employees made 30% over and above their base pay while twenty others racked up 20% increases.
The audit determined that 78 percent of the overtime audited in the parks division, and 18 percent in the recreation division, could not be justified with any documentation. The unjustified overtime during the audit period amounted to $61,493 of the $106,503 that was reviewed. The few available records show that overtime was doled out to employees staffing festivals, pools, beach patrol, parks, tennis courts, teen programs, and after-school and camp programs. The biggest overtime earner, for instance, is the only individual in the Department who can drive the “showmobile” a mobile stage used at city events.
Parks and Recreation Director Ernest Burkeen said that while he doesn’t believe that abuse is widespread, he’s pleased to learn about the sloppy practices so that they may be addressed. “Our failure has been to document in terms of writing down what exactly we’re doing,” said Burkeen, who inherited the department in 2001. Burkeen said he thought all employees adhered to an unwritten policy to document the reason for the overtime. Burkeen asserted that, prior to the City’s budget crisis; the Department’s emphasis was on service, such as trying to reinvigorate the Himmarshee area with weekly Downtown Live events, staffing summer camp and programs and overspending the water budget by trying to rescue new landscaping. “Our focus has always been on the aggressive side about trying to provide the service first and then where to find the money later,” said Burkeen. “It was ‘provide the service. Do whatever you can to provide the service.’ Now we have different times, and we’re not doing nearly as much as we have in the past.”
A recent budget memo shows that since this year’s budget began October 1st, his department had spent only $31,736 in overtime by December 31st. By the same time the previous budget year, the department had spent more than seven times that amount, or $235,032. Remember, this audit only covered one-fifth of the department! In the meantime, because of the light that her office can focus on cloudy fiscal scenarios, Auditor Allyson Love’s stock can only go up. The times, they are a-changin.
The City Auditor is attached to the City Manager’s Office and can be contacted by E-mail at ASilva@fortlauderdale.gov or Click Here to access the City Manager’s We Page.
Call 954-828-PARK (7275) to contact the Parks and Recreation Department or go to Web Page Here.
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 Love Nails  Another Audit 
 Audit lightning strikes again! One of City Auditor Allyson Love’s troops, auditor Renee Foley, uncovered a contractor’s repeated overbilling of the city, apparently in cahoots with city employees. Love’s office also brought into sharp focus the glaring absence of a written business ethics policy for vendors doing business with Fort Lauderdale and the marked lack of reasonable controls on city projects. Fort Lauderdale contractor Recreational Design and Construction Inc., or RDC, billed the City $110,000 in “questionable costs” during the construction of Civic Peoples Park in southwest Fort Lauderdale, according to Ms. Foley. As a result of the audit, $85,800 out of the total $258,114 paid by Fort Lauderdale to RDC for the park project was determined to be “overbilling”, for which the City intends to invoice the company.
Fort Lauderdale, after years of nurturing a free-spending culture that ultimately resulted in the City's budget imploding, is currently in a heightened state of fiscal awareness. The City Auditor’s office is operating on all cylinders, seeking budget leaks to plug and historical mistakes to rectify. A recent audit of the Parks Department yielded a veritable buffet of abuses and costly inefficiencies. This effort is adjunctive to Acting City Manager Alan Silva’s declared program of financial reforms, service cuts and tax/fee increases designed to insure that Fort Lauderdale “lives within its means”. In reviewing the City’s relationship with RDC, Foley wrote, “we found significant issues of a material nature that jeopardized the City’s assets.”
 | | RIVERSIDE PARK - FORT LAUDERDALE |
The Civic Peoples Park project, a passive neighborhood park at 3781 SW Riverland Road built between 1999 and 2001, included a walking path, playground equipment, picnic shelter, landscaping and a half dozen parking spots. RDC enjoys a multi-year contract with the City to provide general design and building services for small projects within the City’s Park system. The company also performed construction services for Welcome Park and recently completed work on Riverside Park in Fort Lauderdale..
 | | CIVIC PEOPLES PARK - FORT LAUDERDALE |
The City paid RDC extra for items, like a portable toilet, that were already included in the main contract. They picked up lunch tabs for RDC’s project manager, Scott Greiner. Fort Lauderdale was billed for a slew of items that were unsupported by any documentation like permit fees and concrete. They reimbursed RDC for undocumented American Express and Home Depot bills. They also paid for consultant work done before the project was even approved.
RDC, located at 3990 North Powerline Road in Fort Lauderdale, invoiced the City for a variety of suspicious expenses. Among them were pass-through costs of unverified staff overtime and monies paid to subcontractors or consultants directly affiliated with the company for which RDC provided no actual receipts to back up vendors’ statements. Because the City failed to include any business ethics standards in the contract, this possible conflict of interest was accepted in stride. It was also discovered that RDC and its subcontractors didn't carry the proper insurance. Company officials claim that the city’s contract administrator, Peter Sheridan, had “verbally” assented to these “contract modifications”.
Other conflicts cloud the City’s relationship with RDC. In a controversy termed, “unusual, suspicious and probably unethical” by Assistant State Attorney John Countryman, Sheridan was forced to resign after it was discovered that RDC built a spa in his private home. Sheridan’s mother, in an attempt to mute the potential blowback, paid for the $11,000 spa months later. In another RDC project overseen by Sheridan, the $328,614 Welcome Park project, a 2002 audit uncovered $200,000 in questionable or ineligible payments made by the City to the company. Sheridan currently works at Keith and Schnars, a Fort Lauderdale consulting firm that does substantial repeat business with the City, including improvements to the Holiday Park Gymnasium and George English Park.
Sheridan is not the only municipal employee under suspicion for a conflict of interest. Fort Lauderdale Engineer Peter Strelkow, while overseeing an RDC project for the City, concurrently provided private services to the company. Strelkow, although still employed by the City, is awaiting discipline for yet another conflict of interest controversy.
In response to the disappointing discoveries made by Auditor Allyson Love’s office, the City intends to recover the sorely needed $85,800 overbilled by RDC and exercise substantially stronger controls for effective oversight of future City projects. The Fort Lauderdale Engineering staff has also committed to establishing a written business ethics policy by March 22nd. To preclude a recurrence of this embarrassing (and expensive) scenario, all City contracts would be subject to the terms of this newly created policy. Difficult lessons learned by our municipality in reaction to these audits serve as poor excuses for silver linings. However, if Allyson Love bags a few more juicy ones, not only will she help the City shed its "fiscally casual" reputation that threatens our bond ratings, she'll have the makings of a $20 million four-part pay-per-view mini-series!
Call 954-828-PARK (7275) to contact the Parks and Recreation Department or go to Web Page Here.
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 Tickets  OR Taxes 
 | | MONEY MACHINE |
Hard times tend to sharpen the senses and stiffen one’s resolve to make difficult decisions. The City’s budget crunch has encouraged City officials to increase fees and enforce unpopular regulations from which they would normally distance themselves. Few things generate more complaints from residents, merchants and visitors than the unexpected toughening of parking rates and regulations. A controversial income source, nourished by the public’s need to park their cars, is one of Fort Lauderdale’s underutilized cash cows. On Las Olas Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale’s popular municipal showcase, visitors who used to enjoy free street parking after 9 PM are now slaves to the meter until 3 AM, after which vehicles parked in local lots will be subject to the tow truck. The increased parking meter rates throughout the city, unchanged since 1981, range from the former 25 cents to $1.50 per hour. The new rates are comparable to those experienced by neighboring municipalities like Miami, West Palm Beach, Hollywood and Pompano. The $7.5 million it accrues to the City’s coffers is a substantial piece of Fort Lauderdale’s budget puzzle.
Another unexplored fiscal resource that has recently attracted the attention of our municipal representatives is the variable yet reliable income borne of parking and traffic violations. Commissioners are looking past the “political incorrectness” inherent in raising the penalties for parking and traffic tickets above limits considered conscionable as a deterrent, concentrating instead on the number of city jobs that can be saved by the additional funds. Parking fines have jumped from $19 to $25 for an expired meter and from $24 to $30 for illegal parking. The $3.3 million expected from parking scofflaws exceeds by 50% the $2.2 million required to meet Acting City Manager Alan Silva’s minimum budgetary objectives for traffic citations.
| | Chief of Police Bruce G Roberts |
Fort Lauderdale’s parking enforcement team, unlike many city departments plagued by budget-driven personnel cutbacks, has been fully staffed this year. The 23 parking meter specialists that populate the unit were moved into Police Chief Bruce G. Roberts’ domain. Under the Police Department, team efficiency has improved, with citation output increasing by 21.5%. Roberts’ minions were responsible for adding $3.08 million to the City’s bottom line last year, the result of 144,150 citations issued.
Serious opposition to this “rates and fines” crackdown has been mounted by business owners and the tourism industry. Merchants characterize the effort as a “wet blanket thrown on the City’s economy in exchange for pennies” and point out that while most cities assign a low priority to parking meters, Fort Lauderdale maintains “23 specialists that do nothing but forage for expired meters.” Travel industry spokespersons have complained that the policy is alienating visitors and undermines Fort Lauderdale’s main source of income, tourism. The arguments have been afforded some credibility by the City Commission. To prevent automobile accidents or DUIs resulting from the mandate to evacuate vehicles from lots at 3 AM by potentially inebriated celebrants, the Commission allowed a six month reprieve to study the issue. City Commissioner Dean Trantalis responded to the policy by exhorting fellow commissioners to “not be so Gestapo-ish in our approach to parking enforcement, we’re trying to make this a fun city.”
 | | SMARTPARK DEVISE |
The city is working to soften the impact by offering a debit card that can be slid into the meter as payment. While this should be available in two to three months, it will probably be two to three years before the meters can accept credit cards. The Parking Services Division has introduced a new in-car parking meter known as “SmartPark”. A small pocket calculator-size electronic device, it uses a smartcard that’s loaded with a prepaid amount of parking hours. According to the City, “The smartcard is inserted into the SmartPark, which is then placed inside the vehicle and displays the parking time purchased. An initial one-time refundable deposit for the SmartPark unit is $55 and customers must purchase the smartcard for $10. Customers can preload the SmartCard in increments of $25, $50, $75 and $100.”
While meting out citations has been honed to a science, collecting the money has always been a disturbingly inexact art. The heart of the City’s collection system has historically been prayer. Irrepressibly, City officials would “hope” that the fines were paid. If that didn’t work, the next step would be to “sulk”. Under the sobering effects of the “budget gun”, Fort Lauderdale has decided to trade in “hoping and sulking” for something more effective, particularly with regard to visitors’ violations. Superficially, this refers to those who, while vacationing here, indebted themselves to the city by not attending to where, or how long, they parked their rentals. Upon closer inspection, it clearly includes the myriad snowbirds and snowflakes driving vehicles registered in their “other” home town. In either case, the City has decided to capitalize on the software it purchased in 2000 designed to track delinquent citations.
Last year, after researching the potential benefit, Fort Lauderdale commenced an experiment centered on rescuing revenues lost due to the inaccessibility of scofflaws, primarily out-of-state. If it costs $30.to track and invoice a $19 debt, the “hope & sulk” system starts to sound reasonable. Instead, they opted to engage Enforcement Technologies Inc., or Etec, of Irvine, California, on a trial basis to recover the outstanding fines “on consignment”. Darlene Pfeiffer, the parking services division’s financial administrator, explained how Etec operates. Etec uses the information collected during the issuance of a violation and recorded on the new software to run a nationwide motor vehicle search and locate the scofflaw’s home address. When successful, they follow up with fairly standard collection procedures. Their success has been stunning. In a memo to commissioners, Parking Manager Doug Gottshall wrote, “Of the $351,000 in citations sent to Etec to date, approximately $308,800 has been collected, for a success rate of roughly 88 percent.” Etec nets 30% of the funds collected for its efforts. The results were so encouraging that on March 2nd, the City Commission unanimously voted to authorize a $60,000 payment to Etec (estimated annual), thereby extending the trial.
The benefits from effective implementation of these systems hold special fascination for our elected officials. The budget crisis has presented them with a dangerous responsibility. Every day, our representatives have to explain to the public (in all its forms) that we have to either pay more or receive less. They are required to do so while artfully dancing around the use of politically suicidal terms such as “service cuts”, “taxes”, “fees” and “layoffs”. If a method of pumping $10 million+ into the Fort Lauderdale economy can be offered without using any of these “unmentionables”, it’s considered a blessing. Of course, the complaints by merchants, visitors and those of us that “get caught” are still a factor...but not nearly impactive enough to offset the budgetary benefit. Tickets or taxes...what would you do?
The City of Fort Lauderdale's parking services are managed by the Parking Services Division of Administrative Services. The division is located at 290 NE Third Avenue on the southeast corner of NE Third Avenue and NE Third Street. To ask about the “SmartPark” in-vehicle portable parking meter or the SmartCard used to activate the unit, call (954) 828-3700.
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Fort Lauderdale Faces Fire Fees 
It was inevitable. An acquaintance that has visited us with increasing regularity of late has scheduled another appearance. By now, you’ll probably recognize the envelope containing the announcement. It starts with “Notice To Property Owner” and at the bottom of the page is the admonition that “****THIS IS NOT A BILL****”. Under the title is the familiar “Notice of Hearing to Impose and Provide for Collection of Fire-Rescue Non-Ad Valorem Assessments”. That’s right...it’s the legally mandated warning that the bill for Fire-Rescue services is on the way (Section 197.3632 of the Florida Statutes).
| ACTING CITY MANAGER
ALAN A. SILVA |
Conceived in 1999 as a $36 fee to residential property owners, the assessment was created when the “ponzi-like” budget juggling that Fort Lauderdale was engaged in started to yield noticeable shortfalls. In keeping with the current anti-tax political propriety, our municipality’s fiscal management sought any alternative to a Property tax increase. Instead, the “fee” was bumped up to $42 per property owner. As per the existing format, revenues from “next year’s” ever-increasing tax base (owing to new development) would be penciled in to offset “this year’s” deficits. This use of tomorrow’s revenues to address yesterday’s debts only works as long as the economy expands. When the economy hit the skids, so did Fort Lauderdale’s budget. City officials endured incredibly difficult fiscal contortions simply to avoid telling the electorate that they would have to pay for City services. The Fort Lauderdale equivalent of President Bush’s (the FIRST one) exhortation of “no new taxes” restrained officials from delivering the bad news and using the dreaded “T” word. On September 3, 2003, the hearing prerequisite to a startling 50% Fire-Rescue increase was held at the City Commission Chambers at City Hall. At the sobering December, 2003 City budget meeting wherein Acting City Manager Alan Silva spelled out the sacrifices that were in store for the stunned electorate, it was admitted that the new $63/unit fee only paid for half the Fire-Rescue tab. The other shoe just dropped!
A whopping 89% increase ($119) for residential property owners will completely fund our tenuous Fire-Rescue service. The tab for small businesses housed in 20,000 to 29,999 square foot properties would jump from $2,092 to $3,975. Larger concerns that occupy 100,000 square feet or more will see their bills increase from $10,459 to $19,872. (Click to See Full Table Below!) When the budget bubble broke, Alan Silva warned that we were going to have to start living within our means. When you’re broke, you learn to live on a cash basis. Because Fire-Rescue was still underfunded, residents had to face cost increases or service cutbacks. During the May 4th Conference Meeting (Tuesday), the City Commission took the first steps to putting our Fire-Rescue Department on a solid financial footing. A Commission majority gave the green light to Acting City Manager Alan Silva to design the budget around the anticipated $119 Fire-Rescue assessment. The increase will not contain the customary exemptions for non-profit organizations, tax exempt properties and government buildings. All users will be payers.
| | FIRE-RESCUE STATION 13 |
The projected assessment is consistent with the recently instituted fee increases for fire inspections, sanitation, ambulance transport, water and sewer, parking meters, parking and traffic fines, stormwater, and alarm response. Commissioners, still leery of the political blowback from a Property Tax adjustment, feel that fee increases are more palatable than raising taxes. The public has had a taste of how service cutbacks affect their lives. Engine 13 on the Barrier Island has undergone intermittent service lapses adjunctive to the budget crunch. While the medical transport at Station 13 hasn’t as yet missed a shift, it is in line to do so. While Fire Chief Otis Latin has explained that Fort Lauderdale enjoys a “floating” system for medical transport, with units from the mainland able to cover emergencies on the Barrier Island, the bridge-borne isolation owing to the Intracoastal poses a real danger to Island dwellers during a medical emergency. City officials have been swamped with local objections to this gap in our medical transport safety net. Residents have clearly indicated that they would rather fund the Fire-Rescue shortfall than risk the absence of a medical transport when needed.
 | COMMISSIONER
CARLETON MOORE |
Commissioner Carleton Moore, while acknowledging the need to pay our way, addressed an inequity that is inherent in the fees vs. taxes controversy. Fees always hit the least solvent of us the hardest. While fees are the same for everyone, property taxes are assessed according to the value of a property, placing a lesser burden on those less financially grounded. Referring to user fees as a regressive tax, Moore asserted, “Come on, you know who that’s going to hurt the most” after the Tuesday commission meeting.
| | Fire Chief Otis Latin |
Tagging historically exempt non-profit, tax exempt and government properties as donors will add $1 million to the City’s bottom line. The cost of delivering Fire-Rescue services to these heretofore non-contributors is almost $2 million annually. Chief Latin explained, “The bottom line is that it costs the city money to provide fire protection service to those entities and that they should be paying, like everyone else, for that service, as authorized by law.” Coupled with the assessment increase, Fire-Rescue would receive almost $2 million in additional funds to help contend with its annually underestimated overtime budget. The assessment should also afford Fire-Rescue the opportunity to plug its portion of the City’s talent drain that arose from the severe measures taken to avoid layoffs. Disgruntled employees on all levels have left municipal service to avoid experiencing the pay cuts, assignment shifts, unstable working conditions and other fallout from the budget squeeze.
It is unlikely that the suicide rate will increase owing to any single fee hike. However, the cumulative impact of all these increases is substantial. Those of us that rate the City’s effectiveness in managing its fiduciary obligation by checking to see if our Property Tax assessment was elevated will be fooled. User fees are taxes - PERIOD. The alternatives, an ambulance being unavailable when needed or adding minutes to the 911 response time, are unacceptable. We are limited to two responses. We obviously have to do a better job of monitoring those who oversee our money. Secondly, we have to get used to paying our way. This crunch is far from over.
Fire Chief Otis Latin can be reached at 101 NE 3 Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301, call (954) 828-6800 or Click Here to email.
Acting City Manager Alan A. Silva's offices are located at 100 N. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 and his telephone # is (954) 828-5013, Fax is (954) 828-5021 or Click Here to e-mail Mr. Silva.
Click Here to email District 3 Commissioner Carleton B. Moore.
Projected Fire-Rescue Non-Ad Valorem Assessment Increase
for Commercial Properties
Building Classification
(Square Feet) |
Current Assessment |
New Assessment |
| |
|
|
| Less than 1999 Sq Ft |
$105 |
$200 |
| 2,000 - 3,499 |
$210 |
$399 |
| 3,500 - 4,999 |
$367 |
$697 |
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The 168,000 residents of the City of Fort Lauderdale pay more taxes per person ($570 in 2003) than any other large city in the State of Florida. A 3 year period of gross mismanagement has transformed a city with an $18.3 billion tax base into a municipal basket case. On December 16th, the City Commission approved a package of tax & fee increases along with service cuts, layoffs and program freezes that stunned residents and employees alike. Contrary to appearances, this fiscal deterioration didn’t occur overnight. Despite protests of surprise and shock by municipal representatives, the budget disaster we now face did not ambush Fort Lauderdale. City officials have had a ringside seat to a three year fiscal mismanagement spectacle. They were not, however, spectators. They were participants. “How did we get here?” acting City Manager Alan Silva asked rhetorically. “As I have said many times, we had been living beyond our means.” This page will provide information about the history that brought us to this sorry state, the participants in that history, the effects that we will have to live with (and pay for) and the steps being taken to dig us out. This is what happened...
