Keep in mind, if you will, that it was these supervisors who thought that the bloated staff that we had was necessary. They built the bloated government and they built-in the redundancy. The Mayor and previous City Council went to great lengths to retain an in-house City Manager who was recommended by the last City Manager, who thought it best to retain an in-house Police Chief who was recommended by the last Chief of Police. What has really changed besides the part time City attorney, the names on the doors?

What would have been discovered by an outside City Manager or Chief of Police and what might have changed had those choices been made?

Doing a Cost-Benefit Analysis for all City operations will give the citizens and their representatives a logical means of approaching the budget issues. Frankly, I think that the assessment should be outsourced, given the ramifications of the facts and findings that some here at Watchdogs suspect may not reflect rational budgetary standards. Your mileage may vary.

The point of mine above is that the Directors spend alot of time doing things that take away from the time / opportunity to analyze processes and attempt to initiate improvements, technology etc., because of the limited staff and to maintain purported customer service levels though I am not sure that they have even been quantified.

This city has alot of opportunity to become more efficient and save money long term and 95-99% of it has nothing to do with people not working or not doing a good job. The bottom line is that the organizations needs to analyze processes in detail including creating flow charts and identify the opportunities for improvement and do the necessary cost benefit analysis’ to go with this. There are many ways to do this with Six Sigma among them. Then a decision needs to be made as to whether the city wants to continue to operate circa 1980-90 or actually move into the 21st century thru technology, less paper shuffling and less customer hand holding.

Let me rewrite the hypothetical using your numbers and see if that makes you and our citizens more comfortable.
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Some like to compare this City to corporate operations so let’s compare. If 132 trucks (and trailers) were vandalized in a freight shipper’s parking lot, and they paid $3.9 million dollars for security, what would the CEO do? Well 132+/- houses (or property) will be burglarized this year and the Mayor has nothing but praise for the responsible party. The problem with government is that they get paid before the work is done. There is no competition, and the wolves assess their own chicken coops.
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The responsible party for securing the trucks in the parking lot in my hypothetical was the trucking companies management who paid a security department to carry out the task. The responsible party for securing personal property is the property owner in this city, who pays a police department to carry out the task.

In my former post I wrote that the police department has 29 employees and 9 supervisors…I should have written that there are 29 police officers in the department, 9 of which are supervisors.
Compartmentalization to the Max. 1 supervisor for every 2.22 employees.

Observing your own statistics from a distance, (pick any State) and then reading the national data on Gulfport, would you, as a Watchman, find the City of Gulfport Florida to be a place to retire? How about a safe place to raise a family? Sure, if you live in Kipp’s Coral, a gated community with it’s own private security, but not in the open City.

A 31 year old woman who maced her mother, cousin and children, hitting some with a hammer in May returns to the streets of Gulfport and then hits a citizen with an axe on the sidewalk while she was holding an infant. This doesn’t sound like a safe place to me…sounds like Hell’s Kitchen, South Central, East St. Louis or any other jungle in the inner Cities of America. Gulfport is becoming the inner City of St. Petersburg and under the present leadership, I suspect, it will only get worse.

References for the Cinderella Lavine saga
May 2010
Police have arrested a Gulfport woman on charges that she sprayed mace at her mother and hit her cousin in the head with a hammer.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/woman-accused-of-spraying-elderly-mother-with-mace-attacking-cousin-with/1098232

August 2010
GULFPORT — A 31-year-old mother is accused of using a hatchet to rob and attack another mother while the victim was holding her newborn daughter, according to Gulfport police.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/gulfport-mother-accused-of-attacking-another-mother-with-hatchet/1116072

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Welcome to Gulfport Florida

Gulfport, FL, violent crime, on a scale from 1 (low crime) to 10, is 6. Violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. The US average is 4.

Gulfport, FL, property crime, on a scale from 1 (low) to 10, is 6. Property crime includes the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The object of the theft-type offenses is the taking of money or property, but there is no force or threat of force against the victims. The US average is 4.
http://www.bestplaces.net/
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According to our research of the Florida and other state lists there were 19 registered sex offenders living in Gulfport in April 2010.
The ratio of number of residents in Gulfport to the number of sex offenders is 649 to 1.
http://www.city-data.com/
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-2008 data-
Forcible Rape 2
Robbery 27
Aggravated Assault 34
Burglary 132
Larceny, Theft 393
Motor Vehicle Theft 48
http://www.idcide.com/citydata/fl/gulfport.htm

And the responsible party for high crime are criminals, just fyi.

I’ve seen how this city and others operate mtober, very compartmentalized.

Example= there has been a table and some branches sitting on City easement property for three months and will most likely sit there for three years as the City trash trucks drive by three times a week. The pile does not fit into any category so no truck stops to pick it up. You would think that someone would see the trash and want the City’s property to be inviting, but not at the expense of de-compartmentalizing their duties.

Mr. Carpenters job is NOT task specific, he is the manager and as manager he needs to be able and willing to do every job in front of him or delegate it to his work force. If the job is too much then maybe outsourcing it should be considered to meet the work load requirements and save on a 6 figure salary, Long Term Health Insurance, Life insurance, Health Insurance, Vacations and a Pension plan.

Some want to reduce the budget while retaining their friends and favorite employees, some want to reduce the budget, some want to increase revenue. What is the priority?

I don’t want anyone to loose their jobs but we can’t continue to relieve minimum wage employee positions and then complain when the only thing that’s left is supervisors who find it beneath their pay grade to answer the phone. We have a Planning department that had three city planners, what are they planning? We have a Fire department that had three lieutenants. We have a Police Department with 29 employees and 9 supervisors.

Now all we hear from every corner is how the staff is sacrificing pay increases that we owe them. Listen to the Major at the council meeting on 8-17 promising to make up the lost income when the city can afford it. This mindset is toxic, its an unfunded mandate that just spills out of the Mayor like exhaust fumes.

How about demonstrating that the increases are justifiable? How much of a crime reduction have we experienced since our new Chief revamped the department? Was the 49th street overlay project worth 2 years of three planners compensation? Prove it.
Where is the cost analysis? Are the potholes being filled? Prove it.

Some like to compare this City to corporate operations so let’s compare. If 200 trucks were vandalized in a freight shippers parking lot and they paid $3.9 million dollars for security, what would the CEO do? Well 200+ houses will be burglarized this year and the Mayor has nothing but praise for the responsible party. The problem with government is that they get paid before the work is done. There is no competition, and the wolves assess their own chicken coops.

If the budget need to be reduced then examine the inefficiencies and be willing to cut. Moving chairs on the Titanic will do little to keep it afloat. If what your saying mtober is accurate and the City is positioning itself to sink then sometimes it’s necessary to trough the big gun overboard.

Maybe we should outsource Mr. Carpenter’s duties since he has so much time on his hands and we really don’t need a full time employee? Hiring additional employees would not address the issue. If they need someone to answer the phone they can outsource that task as well. A salary, benefits, full health insurance and a pension for someone answering a phone is hardly justifiable.

Looking carefully at the cost of employment.. v.. subcontracting one quickly realizes that there are immediate and long-term benefits built-in to outsourcing. Examine the Insurance debate and Pension plan discussion during that workshop and you could see the savings long term.

A discussion needs to begin that considers all management and the cost effectiveness just like the discussion that was held for an attorney. We didn’t need a full time attorney, as we may not need other management positions on a full time basis.

Another thing they need to do is a cost benefit analysis of potentially outsourcing certain functions such as IT, Sanitation, Building Dep’t., etc. It may not be cost effective to outsource, but these are things that should be investigated. Again, this is something a responsible staff should do proactively. They should not have to be told to gather these numbers.

Dr. Salmon requested that the total cost per service offered be outlined for assessment. With this in hand the council could get a grip on cost, depreciation, and subsidy.

Knowing the cost and the income they can create a budget and set fees for services and millage rates for property with a sense of fairness and accountability.

Henderson made a point that I think was important and that is, it’s not all about the numbers, otherwise they could just let Dan Carpenter run the show and the Council would not need to be involved. There is an element of redistribution to consider and that is the complicated portion of the job.

I am not suggesting anyone is lying but I am quite curious to know how we’ve gone from a millage rate of 3.8 to 3.4 in just a couple weeks and haven’t had the 1st line item review nor received the explanation of costs. What was the point of approving 3.8 if the finance department has already decided that the rate will be 3.4? Sounds like a little sandbagging going on. The question would be.. is this in tandem with members of council to make them look good so that they can voice their bravdo over how they didn’t raise taxes?!? Or is staff going to come back with a list of unjustified savings as they did last year? You’ll recall the most recent audit report indicated that the city had a deficit of $300k this past year. Why is that?? Because staff presented a budget that was based on savings that were overstated by $300K. In essence, the city is currently operating on an unbalanced budget. If I’m not mistaken, that is against the law. Of course no one one Council seems to have a concern with this in light of recent unbudgeted expenditures and staff certainly isn’t going to tout it if no one is asking about it. 1)WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO RECOUP THE $300k?

2)WHERE ARE THE DETAILS OF THE SAVINGS TO BE CARRIED OVER THIS YEAR TO GET DOWN TO 3.4%?

3) IT APPEARS TO ME THAT AT LEAST $600K IS REQUIRED IN SAVINGS IN ADDITION TO THE SHORTAGE TO BE RECOGNIZED AS A RESULT OF THE LOWER PROPERTY VALUES. Where is this coming from?

4) PURPORTEDLY “Substantial savings in payroll have been achieved” — “Substanitial”, “fantastic”, “alot” significant”, etc. etc. they all sound good, but have no meaning without supporting data. WHERE IS IT?

A couple months ago the Council had a brainstorming session to think outside the box. Some members thought outside the box while others shot down their associates’ ideas only to grandstand their own. And the Mayor, he of course likes status quo. Part of the exercise of this brianstorming session was to priortize ideas. Council memebers each identified their priorities with post it notes placed on the charts where the ideas had been captured. Staff was going to assimmilate all thes ideas and priorities and the Council was to have another session to discuss next steps. What happened to this? Are these documents in the public record? Why wasn’t this exercise completed? OR was the real purpose of this exercise to get Council to say the magic words…”no reduction in services”?

Last year the budget committe recommended that the residents be surveyed for their ideas on how to reduce costs or increase revenues. Hundreds of ideas were presented. Staff compiled the responses in a very elementary report and we’ve heard nothing since. This, IMO, is a huge indication of how much respect the staff and council have for their constituents. What happened to these ideas? Were any of them analyzed for benefit vs. cost? I’ll go out on a limb and say NO!! WHY? And why is no one on Council asking this question?

A few years ago, taxpayersin Florida spoke up and said that government needs to operate more efficiently. Last year, when it appeared that the millage rate may go up, the Council Chambers were filled with people protesting any type of increase. many of these people came from the sub-city “behind the wall” and said the exact same thing: governement must operate more efficiently! many of these people were business owners/ executives who also said that it is time for government to operate like a business! Does anybody really believe that is happening in Gulfport? If you think so, tell me how reducing staff to the point that the Director of Finance, who earns approx $100k (with benefits), has to answer water bill phone calls is efficient? Maybe this is why he has to be told to compile the cost of services? The Code Enforcement Officer does clerical work and one of the city planners is collecting and tabulating contest entries to rename our downtown. We pay the trash collectors for eight hours work but they only work 6 – 6.5. The IT department costs approx. $200K per year for two people and the city website has essentially no on-line capabilities. How is any of this efficient? This would never fly in the world of business.

This city needs to take a look at every operation and analyze it for actual productivity and measure that against costs. It is time for the City of Gulfport to become proactive and progressive in it’s operations!! the point of no return is closer than you think and or want to believe.