“STILL A LEARNIN'”….
Dear Readers … Do we really want to give Commissioner Silverstone 4 more years on the dais?…. At the final Town Manager Performance Review he either chose to give out bad information or he did not read the information he gave out…Both scenarios do not bode well for this “Broom Boy”…next March…
Right after Mayor Minnet made her comments about the number of the employees we have in Town compared to our population …Comm. Silverstone presented his own analogy…He said he went online to find out information comparing our town to Surf Side in Miami Dade and Lighthouse Point…He compared them by number of top level employees…and their property taxes …What he came up with was Surf Side had 15 including the Town Atty./ LBS had 8.75 including the T.Atty./ LHP had 10 including the T Atty./….BUT… he conveniently left off the Asst. Town Manager who can be found on page 78 in the budget book in the all encompassing and tricky “community standards” . …This writer has previously spoken of the “Community Standards” category of the budget…which first started showing up in the budget prior to 2007 when Ms. Colon became the Town Manager…it’s a “catch-all” for hiding the numbers of employees…etc…making the numbers in the old stand-by depts. appear as if we have less employees… So the correct number of employees Jimmy-boy …would be 9.75 including the T.Atty. close to LHP which Jim correctly pointed out has almost double the population….Jimmy-boy conveniently chose to leave out the millage rate for the other towns…Surf Side 5.5224/ LHP 3.6118 (both according to their Sept. online meetings)…So LHP who has their own Police and Fire Dept. has a lower millage than LBTS…Hmmm….
He then wondered further into the muck by talking about the Town Manager’s contract…he said he had both contracts and did a comparison…Did he have all 4 portions of the contract info required…The Horton contract/ the 2001 memo on the agreement from Baldwin/ the 2006 memo on the agreement from Baldwin (specifically given to the comm. for him and McIntee to know what Baldwin’s agreement was) and Esther’s 2007 contract?…If so he failed miserably in his “analysis” or he purposely aimed to deceive the voters yet again on his role in the Town Manager’s contract…(prev. post of his ever changing story)… In Comm. Silverstone’s comparison he says that Ms. Colon works 52 weeks a year compared to Mr Baldwin’s 42 because he took 10 weeks off…It has been established in both the 2001 and the 2006 memos and at the May 2007 contract approval for Colon that Baldwin did not always take off the 10 weeks each year and he was not paid for any time taken…which means his $146,733 dollar salary would be less for any time taken away……And Ms Colon this year makes $160,000+ not $146, 743…so scratch that comparison!… Again, when Jimmy-boy attempts to compare that dang 10 weeks (excuse) of time allowed off…but it still is an non-entity to compare as stated above and if M.s Colon took that 10 week provision in her contract it would amount to approx. $28,00 if taken in total…much less than all her own additions……Mr Silverstone gets the 3rd and 4th comparisons wrong…In the 3rd comparison…TM Colon gets 1 yrs severance if fired plus sick /holiday accrued time for both being TM and Finance Director…TM Baldwin received no severance…The 4 months severance Jimmy-boy used was Baldwin’s predecessor Horton’s in his contract…A look at the 2001 & 2006 agreements show Baldwin received no severance if fired and only accrued sick and holiday time along with unpaid hours… In comparison number 4…again TM Colon does not get any severance for resigning that is so (although Jimmy-boy stated she should have that too!)……But neither did Baldwin…Jimmy-boy again used the Horton contract not used by Baldwin…He also uses an erroneous Comp. of time accrued before being TM for Baldwin who was hired only as TM…unlike Ms Colon who does indeed get Comp. for her prior position as Finance Director…He conveniently left out …..as stated at the meeting by the Mayor Ms. Colon’s indemnity clause…also not in the Baldwin agreement…and he has left out that Ms. Colon is to receive 2 pensions…something that was left over from the Horton contract due to the time he was hired…and finally he is most deceptive on adding “signed on 05/22/07 ALSO SIGNED BY T.A. CHEROF”…because in his possession Jimmy-boy knows Cherof signed “AS TO FORM”…which meant not to “content”…because as this writer stated on Oct. 20th at the podium former Town Atty. Cherof did NOT draw up Ms. Colon’s contract and did not meet independently with each Comm…(more on this to come)…Shame on Comm. Silverstone!…You have as many versions on the manager’s contract as your BFF has on the suicide incident…
Not done yet ….For the trifecta of piss-poor proof presented to his constituents and fellow commissioners…his comparison of town managers from Oct. 2007…He said he found it in the Long Boat Key News… and attempted to show that most city managers have this “modernization” type of contract with a full year’s severance.being standard …..except a close look at his sheet show that out of 18 cities.. …5 of the managers who had a 1 year severance in 2007 ……Of those 5 …one had been the Mgr. for 3 yrs with 324 employees/ two had been the Mgrs. for 10 yrs with 126 employees & 2,491 employees/1 had been Mgr. for 9 yrs with 203 employees / and the 5th one – LHP had been Mgr. for 4 mos with 110 employees (at a salary $117,552 for double the population!)…..The rest of the list showed… 6 had a 6 mo. severance…1 had a 3 mo. -6 mo. severance/ 1 had 3 mos./ 1 was NA/ 1 had pd vacation/ 1 had paid vacation balance…It also added at the bottom…the following… ” The results of the comparison indicate that length of time served as city manager and the number of employees the city manager manages are the main factors in determining salary.” …
Perhaps this Commissioner was counting on his fellow commissioners to join him in not doing his homework and filing his handouts in circular…thus perpetuating his false statement made upon conclusion of this information “But I’ve done my homework here and what I’m basing my numbers on factual numbers that make sense to me.”…And that Commissioner Silverstone is the problem…this made sense to you!… ARGHHHH….
Voters need to make sense on March 9, 2010…and vote for his opponent!…
more to come…
Tags: Lauderdale by the sea Commissioner Jim Silverstone, Lauderdale By The Sea Town Manager Performance Review Esther Colon, LBTS Agendas/Meetings, local government, Local Politics, Scoops
