Monday, February 25, 2013

[Invest in the 3Doodler] The world’s first and only 3D printing pen. Using ABS plastic (the material used by many 3D printers), 3Doodler draws in the air or on surfaces. It’s compact and easy to use, and requires no software or computers. You just plug it into a power socket and can start drawing anything within minutes. Link

~The Journal sat down with school board member John Dick for interview. His most important thing is to get students a proper education in a safe environment. School board meetings rotate from Key Largo to Marathon to Key West. To understand your child’s education, one must participate in attending school board meetings to volunteering time in the PTA. John wants people to participate in the education of our students. PTA and School Advisory Council are places to help. The long list of bad events in the news would cause worry for some, but John Dick believes such public scrutiny is healthy. Military brats bring extra money for education, kind of double dipping if a military family owns their home paying property taxes as well. Future funding concerns are centered on teachers and students in the classroom. Coupled with that is employee retention. Salaries need to keep up with the increasing cost of living and teacher’s salaries up north. The continued loss of population seems to be turning around with an improving local economy. Fund savings are had by that and the decrease in administrative positions. One of the best changes was appointing a superintendent instead of electing one. John is a family man with children and grandchildren. He is a Viet Nam veteran. John is in his second term ending in 2014. Let’s hope he runs again.

~Patrick Farritor a KCB candidate for city commission. He is very experienced with a long, successful professional career. Pat worked in Sales and Marketing for healthcare equipment. He and his family visited the Keys regularly since 1994. Pat is a young 63. Farritor was raised and born in Chicago. He has 8 children and 15 grandchildren. Pat is a proud ex-marine. Pat has volunteered his talent and experience for many organizations. He has homeowner associations experience. Pat believes in good, sound policy. He is a new face, full of fresh ideas. He is a new resident taking an innovative look at the commission. Fiscal responsibility and capital infrastructure projects are part of his platform. Pat wants to hire a financial expert. His wide array of experience, responsible leadership, ethical conduct, and professional successes qualify him for KCB commissioner.

~KCB candidate Ryan Schaffenberger missed his appointment. He did not return calls to reschedule. Ron Sutton has yet to be scheduled, but he assured us that he would make the appointment after February 26. He lamented his long list of responsibilities and wearing many hats. KCB candidate Jerry Ellis is scheduled for February 27. Marathon City Councilman Chris Bull is scheduled for a walk through the Rock neighborhood, the central part of the community.
~[Publisher@MarathonJournal.US

[Tax Day] In 1913 the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to levy income taxes, went into effect. To this day there are Michigan Militia who don’t believe this ever happened. 

Coming from Burdines to US1 to go home is nerve-wracking, I’m sure someone or some little animal is going to get out in front of the car, and I’m going to run over them, at 15 miles an hour, but still.  I’m just a working stiff, I don’t need the lawsuits, court time, loss of work, or problems over splurging for a burger at Burdines.  The problems of drug-dealing on the side road and being able to better control their side street marketplace, notwithstanding.  Fence off the 15th Street side of Trailerama, and do it quickly, please, before a little child is injured!

In 1836, Samuel Colt patented his revolving cylinder pistol. 

Prime Rib Dinner    Live Music

[Global Warming] Take a look at the water line on Long Key bridge. It has not changed in over 100 years. global warming is now called climate change. Why, because global warming is not true. Climate change has always been true.  There is so much money being made by the purveyors of The Sky is Falling that you should not trust what you hear and see on the TV, or hear from the government. Think for yourself, do some research. Now look at the Long Key Bridge water line.   (Sorry Ed, I thought I attached this photo to yesterday’s e-mail)

Free eBooks at the Gutenberg project. Link 

[Nutty Professor] I wonder if the person using Nietzsche quotes to bash religion has read anything at all about him?  Some say Nietzsche was the inspiration for the Nazi party. He had serious mental problems and his final years were spent at Villa Silberblick in grim mental and physical deterioration.  

On the lighter side, I do like a couple of his  quotes as they seem to pertain to life in the Keys: Without music, life would be a mistake.

A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love (aka reverse beer goggles).

Oh, how those priests hurt so many boys — I hope they pay. 

No matter how big and bad you are, when a two year old hands you a phone you answer it!

FPL pitches new Turkey Point Nuclear Reactors to Upper Keys. Link

[Electric] It is starting to look like the NNK folks will get their “real” power in time for Summer AC and refrigeration.  By that time the fly in the ointment of all this will probably have buzzed way back up north again to cooler climes where such things aren’t needed as badly. 

[Ammo] About 39% of the small arms ammo in the world is made in the US. Annual production of the world is about 14 billion rounds of ammunition. With that you have to consider how much is used for all the militaries, police and security forces for target practice along with responsible civilian target practice, not drive-bys. (Yesterday’s posting was a tad off)

Get ready for genetically altered mosquitoes. Link 

[Kiev WWII] Defiance, the Story of FC(?) Start. Video

I’m glad he’s here, Ramsay should promote him, and he’s prime to be an FTO(?)

[Gunslinger] Almost unbelievable! Watch at the end when he’s in slow-motion.  This expert could shoot someone while being held at gunpoint . Your Reaction would not be fast enough to pull the trigger. He must have started wearing glasses just after adolescent puberty, huh?  Fastest shooter in grade school I bet! (Ed: Supplied link didn’t work, so here’s another gunslinger Video)

[New Reality TV show] Gun nuts and anti-gun nuts shooting it out.  Could be an exciting prospect. 

The Moon passes Regulus a day before it turns full today, the 25th.

Some people are so inept or just plain stupid, no matter how you prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they are thinking is incorrect, they will never change their minds, then they make others suffer for their actions like voting. Take Democrats for example; it is a fact they must love the taste of excrement because they will not say it tastes like shit no matter what! Then they have the idiocy to knock those who would bring prosperity back to America.

“Global Warming”  People have been spun into thinking this means the planet is getting hot and the water will drown everything. Not true. GW was the wrong term invented to describe the real reason for the scare, which was and still is the poisoning of our atmosphere with carbon based chemicals from oil and other man made chemicals. We are killing ourselves for profit and the government and media are on the corporations side. Is your rain getting a bit thicker and oilier lately?

I think as a fair and balanced person I need to give GW Bush a bit of credit. I feel he did the right thing when he followed President Clintons policy of using drones to kill Americas enemies. The policy has grown with every President since and it has proved to be a very effective program.

The interesting thing about the program when Clinton was in office was that the administration at the time didnt want the program to gain a lot of publicity. It was controversial at the time and was used as a highly sensitive and
secretive plan. Thank heavens George Bush Jr. followed President Clintons lead in using drones as a way of keeping our military safer. Kudos also to President Obama for taking full advantage of the program.

Democrats open doors and don’t care about spending. Republicans close doors and care about spending. 

Another example is Rick Scott. The man Republicans think invented sliced bread. He was their savior and the end all for the world when he was against Obamacare Now he’s starting to see the benefits of Obamacare and has turned his anti Obama cool guy rhetoric way back and the right is left trying to figure out what they believe in again.  As I have said many times on here. You let a conservative keep talking  he/she will always end up proving your point for you if you disagree with them and usually better then you can.

US President Barack Obama quietly signed his name to an Executive Order on Friday, allowing the White House to control all private communications in the country in the name of national security. Link

FROM THE RIGHT

 It’s fascinating to watch this sequestration boondoggle playing out. It doesn’t seem to bode well for the left of center big government minions. A large majority of Americans are opposed to our mammoth debt and to our level of federal spending. Americans are very skeptical of Washington’s commitment to cutting government spending. For the last 50 years government spending has gone up year to year. The last time spending went down from one year to the next was 1954. Now only 17 percent of Americans believe that sequestration will really reduce government spending. Fifty-eight percent correctly recognize that they will merely reduce the growth of spending. 68 percent believe that cutting government spending is the best thing the government could do to help the economy. But the real reason for the panic in Washington is that the American people ultimately may applaud the spending cuts. That might mark the beginning of the end for politics as usual. Source

The Republicans have offered several compromises that would avoid any chance of a fiscal Armageddon on March 1.  The Reps have suggested giving the affected agencies the power to prioritize the cuts in the individual agencies. For example, a government agency might cut or minimize travel or conferences and conventions. It might cut or minimize acquiring new cars. The process is called “transfer authority.” Now the sequestration requires a broad ax that would cut a percentage of all budget entities.  The Democrats won’t even consider it.

Parts 2) Here in Florida, Republican elected officials are working hard to save us money on the state level too.  Senate Banking and Insurance Chair David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, is exploring ways to revamp Citizens Insurance to save us big bucks.  The committee has learned that tens of thousands of Citizens Insurance policy holders do not actually live in Florida. Citizens mails 20k bills to Canada, 25k to New York, 11K to New Jersey, etc. Citizens Insurance is backed by Florida taxpayers. And so the question becomes should the Legislature end out-of-staters’ access to taxpayer-backed Citizens coverage for their vacation homes, particularly in high-risk coastal areas where Citizens’ policies are generally priced below market rates? It sure sounds like a good idea to this Olde Fart.

Part 3) Tell me this won’t happen to us! A little old lady was going up and down the halls in a nursing home. As she walked, she would flip up the hem of her nightgown and say “Supersex” She walked up to an elderly man in a wheelchair. Flipping her gown at him, she said, “Supersex” He thought for a moment or two and answered, “I’ll take the soup.”

Respectfully submitted: FTR@bellsouth.com

LONG WINDED TOMES

February 8, 1995
To:  Ms. Alicia Roemmele-Putney

“Dear Ms. Putney:  We are in receipt of your letter concerning your petition requesting that electrical power not be installed on No Name Key.  City Electric’s position on this issue is that we will provide electrical service to NNK if permitting is made possible to the applicable agencies and payment is made to bring power to the island.  From: Utility Board-City Electric: Leo Carey and Alex Tejeda

May 9, 1995
Dear Ms. Putney: Pursuant to your request, I am sending you the estimates we have compiled to various individuals for the No Name Key Project.  The original estimate was based on crossing Bogie Chanel using poles placed in the water.  The total price is $434,700. From L. Carey and A. Tejeda. City Electric

As with every situation, there needs to be a motive.  We all know what that was-Galleon Bay.  Lots of homes being built next door to her once pristine, away from it all, house on the water.  Lots of homes and commercial fishing activities, now that’ll bring the property values down.  Face it, Ms. Putney isn’t an environmentalist, she is just a NIMBY who didn’t want neighbors.  Us taxpayers will be footing the bill for the multimillion dollar GB lawsuit very shortly.

Another interesting letter-
Letter from Monroe County to Keys Energy
Feb. 15 1996
From Dave Koppel Monroe Co. Engineering to Dale Finnigan, Keys Energy (then City Electric)

“Dear Mr. Finigan:  We have reviewed your request for conceptual approval to provide electrical service to NNK by attaching conduits to the NNK bridge.  While we feel confident that the technical details can be worked out this issue IS A POLITICAL ONE.  Thus, said approval must come from the Monroe County Commission….”

That is what the Florida Public Service Commission was created to prevent, to prevent public servants from losing sight of right and wrong and selectively discriminating against certain people.  What isn’t said in this letter is most important.  It doesn’t say that Keys Energy needs to stop building a power grid on NNK because it was illegal, because it wasn’t.  At the time this letter was written (and its important to note that most homes were already built) there were no federal, state or local laws preventing NNK from receiving electricity. In fact, quite the contrary, there is and was a state statute that gives all residents equal access to grid electricity, but Keys Energy stopped the project.

Then, in 2001, at exactly the same time when Americans were pulling together within their communities following the horrible 9/11 attacks, Ms. Putney, as a MOCO Planning Commissioner, pens a law that prohibits her neighbors, living in legally permitted homes, from getting ANY utilities.  She claims in the newspaper article that this was all merely coincidence.  Do you really believe that was possible? Was it really just a fluke that a woman living on NNK, involved in a lawsuit to keep electricity off the island just happens to walk into a situation where her first assignment on the job is to rob her neighbors of electricity?  And are we sure it was just another coincidence that none of her neighbors were even officially notified by the County about this onerous resolution that would steal their most basic of property rights?  Ok, yea.

Aren’t we all just really sick of this?  Seriously, this all needs to end Tuesday.  Our elected officials need to move forward with issuing building permits to residents on NNK who have been waiting for decades.  They deserve to be treated equally and fairly, and without discrimination.  We also need to stop wasting our precious taxpayer dollars on this insanity.  Am I to understand that we have just agreed to “study this situation” a little further, at a cost of an additional $150,000 that will be paid for the consultants writing the new Comp Plan.  (If you don’t believe this, please take a look at the agenda for Tuesday’s special meeting).   And if you aren’t outraged, you should be, because that little island of 43 homes is taking up a huge chunk of Monroe County financial resources with corresponding legal battles and wasted staff time.  It is time that people stand up for what is right, please contact your BOCC or attend the special meeting on Tuesday to demand an end to this madness.

1.  The most glaring issue is the continuation of problems over the years.  The Auditor General highlights thirteen “findings” or problem areas.  Five of them have been reported now three years running, including the “Significant Deficiency” of insufficient “Financial Reporting”.  A sixth, while not reported last year, was reported two years ago.  As Yogi Berra would say, “It’s deja vu all over again.”  Or, as I might say, “SS/DD”.
        I am especially disappointed in the number of repeat findings when you consider that the Board, after last year’s Auditor General’s Report, instructed the Director of Finance and Performance, Ken Gentile, to correct all of the previously cited problems before June 30, 2012.      
        Obviously, this was not done.  I fault the Board for its failure to hold the Director of Finance and Performance accountable for what they instructed him to do.  But, then again, neither the Board nor the superintendent ever hold anyone accountable.   The Board’s behavior is reminiscent of how it handled the Waste, Fraud and Abuse Hotline.  After initial interest, they failed to follow up and allowed it to languish much as they did with the corrective actions to last year’s AG Report.   

2.   I found Finding No. 3: Board Minutes especially interesting and amusing.  The staff member responsible for maintaining the minutes is handsomely paid over $50,000 a year and only had two responsibilities:  assist at the Board meetings and then do the minutes.  Apparently, timely presentation of the minutes was more than could be handled.  Of course, the Board did not care any more about this issue than they did about their instructions to the Director of Finance and Performance to correct last year’s problems.

3.  Perhaps most alarming are the AG’s comments about the “fund balance” or “Reserve Fund”.  Those comments appear in Finding No. 2: Financial Condition and Finding No. 6: Net Asset Deficit-Worker’s Compensation/General Liability Internal Service Fund.
        The District began the year with a deficit balance of $981,278 that increased to $1,901,332, or nearly $1 million!  That unfunded liability has a decided impact in the “Reserve Fund”.  The District contends that it has a fund balance of $4,145,064 as of June 30, 2012 or 5.5 percent of General Fund revenues.
        If you factor in the unfunded liabilities, “the District’s General Fund… may be further reduced to below 3 percent….”  (emphasis added)  It looks to me like the District is again playing games when it comes to the size and health of the “Reserve Fund”, at least that’s what the AG believes.  This gamesmanship has been going on for as long as I can remember.  The Monroe County School District “Reserve Fund” is very much a moving target.   
        The AG’s Recommendation clearly directs that the Board and Superintendent “take the necessary actions to ensure that an adequate fund balance continues to be maintained in the General Fund.”   The AG notes that “A similar finding was noted in our report No. 2012-170.”
        An aside on the subject of workmen’s compensation.  I was doubly surprised to see that there was an increase and a marked increase at that of the costs.  When the custodial function was contracted out, one of the observations made was that workmen’s compensation expenses would go down because the custodial staff was responsible for the lion’s share of claims.  That decline did not occur.  I would be interested to learn just why workmen’s compensation claims have jumped so dramatically, especially since the custodians are no longer District employees.

4.  The only “Significant Deficiency” is Finding No.1: Financial Reporting.  If you cut to the chase, the AG is chastising the District for its inability to properly report its finances.  In that regard, I am reminded of an exchange earlier in the week with “Poor” Superintendent Mark Porter about some financial documents he provided to me in a Public Records Request.  I told him that one record in particular was virtually incomprehensible.  His response was as if to say “Sorry about that, but that’s how we keep our records.”
        That the AG would be disturbed and insist that the “District should improve its financial reporting procedures…”  comes as no surprise to anyone who has ever looked at the District’s financial reports.  It seems that a highly paid CFO could not correct the problem and an equally highly paid Director of Finance and Performance has not done any better.  Perhaps we should call back the more humbly paid Kathy Reitzel to run the District’s financial operations as these problems did not exist under her stewardship.

5.  As you know, the plug is being pulled on the Hotline at Tuesday’s Board meeting.  The explanation given is that the Hotline has lost all credibility because of mismanagement.  Interestingly, the basics of one finding, Finding No. 9: Payroll Processing-Time Records, was reported to the Hotline.  So, it was not a complete failure had anyone paid attention.  

6.  On a personal note, I was particularly gratified to read Finding No. 13: Construction Contract-Change Orders.  The subject of Change Orders at Horace O’Bryant School is, to put it mildly, a hot issue and, hopefully, will be discussed at Tuesday’s Board meeting as part of the 60 minutes devoted to the HOB construction project.
        It was very nice of the AG to cite Florida Statute and Board Policy with regard to Change Orders so that “Poor” Superintendent Mark Porter will now know how to properly process Change Orders, something he apparently did not know before.  It’s gratifying to read the auditors helping the lawyers when it comes to the law.

        I am sure that I will have additional comments after I have had an opportunity to seriously dig into the AG Report.
~Dr. Larry Murray