The illegals are voting:
A gentleman arrives in Brookings was viewed by 120 people and received 131 voes, for Pelican Bay Fiber Network, the numbers were 73 and 131.
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( 2.9 / 12 )May 1, 2008
[Editorial] Candidates won't work for free
by Ralph Martin, Harbor Community Action Committee
Editor:
At the Commissioner Candidate Forums I heard the line, “You get the government you pay for,” repeated over and over. If you believe we are getting the government we pay for from the Federal Government on down, either you are very naïve or you’re not paying attention.
We have Marlyn Schafer, the person most responsible for the financial mess the County is in, and seven new candidates that are looking to be paid an $84,000 a year pay and benefit package, when they are all vying for a learner’s permit.
They all say you can’t get good volunteers. All you have to do is look at the volunteer County Planning Commissioners who are much more professional than the current crop of County Commissioners and that argument doesn’t hold water. If you really want to see why the current Commissioners are putting in so many hours to do their jobs, one only has to watch a County Commissioner meeting in person or on cable channel 99. What you will see is government by giggles and guffaws. The lack of professionalism is very apparent.
The candidates have all adopted the Schafer philosophy that this job takes 50 – 60 hours a week. With Home Rule and an experienced professional County Administrator, the Commissioners job becomes part time and as advisory policy setters only. There is no need for the Commissioners to micro-manage the department heads as they do now. The job of the Commissioners would be to hire good people, then get out of the way and let them do their job.
During the candidates forum, I heard a lot of totally impractical pie in the sky ideas on ways to bail the County out. Not once did I hear a candidate say they would look for ways to eliminate unnecessary positions.
For the good of us all, sign the petition and vote for the Charter when it’s placed on the ballot in November.
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( 3 / 10 )Note: Our readers may want to read articles in the “Curry News Wave” at BrookingsHarborLocalNews.com.
Your thoughts are appreciated, please post comments in the Navigator.
The City
A recap of the City’s Financial Systems Status Report of March 10
Brookings Mayor Pat Sherman Quits
City of Brookings Network Contract: Interview with NWTEC - 7/26/07
A gentlemen's agreement at the city 7/24/07
City of Brookings Network Support Contract: My pre-interview comments – 6/14/07
Chronology of the pelican bay fiber network - 5/10/07
The Port
Highlights of some Port Meetings, starting with Sept. 2007 meeting
Why was the offer of a multimillion endowment plan withdrawn?-12/14/07
Clean up the port ... – 11/28/07
Financial irresponsibility at the port - 10/7/07
A renewed sense of purpose at the port? - 9/7/07
The Byrtus encroachment - 8/30/07
Good bye, Mr. Scott - 8/28/07
A Gentleman's agreement (at the port) - revised 8/11/07
A gentleman arrives in Brookings – 7/25/07
Objective Pilot reporting? – 4/28/07
The Pilot runs out of paper – 4/25/07
Opinion: Foresight is needed – 4/20/07
Other
Book review: Animals and the Afterlife 12/11/07
George Washington – 6/8/07
To find an article not printed on the first page, click on "next" on the bottom of the page.
Or go to the right hand column, you have several options:
Click on "Archives," then on the month of publication.
Or click on "stats" and select an article of interest in "10 most viewed articles" or "10 most commented articles".
Or use the search function. Enter any word (or portion of a word) in the "Search" box in the right-hand column. However, the search may not list some old articles in which the word occurs.
You can find "Byrtus” in 8 articles
Crabtree in 9
Davis in 3
Drehobl in 3
Gold in 4
Hughes in 4 (plus numerous comments)
Lindley in 5
Pilot in 7
Relafor in 6 (plus 6 comments)
Scott in 11
Number of articles as of December 9, 2007
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( 3 / 50 )The full report was printed in the Curry Coastal Pilot on March 12.
(Note: It is also reprinted in the Navigator. I forgot to mention in my letter to the Pilot that ex-mayor Sherman was complaining about not getting the monthly financial report - this was due to Paul Hughes unceremonious premature departure, which left city staff shorthanded. Sherman did not criticize Hughes - you can read quite a bit about Hughes in the Navigator.)
For the convenience of the reader who does not have the time to read the full report of about 1,500 words, here is a recap of several points of the full report, printed in todays' letter to the Pilot:
Our new Administrative Services Director was able to achieve an interest rate enhancement of two points on our investment.
Management is evaluating and making some changes to operating systems. Areas of duplication of effort and other operating inefficiencies have been identified.
Internal controls systems:
Management has requested information from employees concerning use of technology. Current accounting system practices used by the City involve a large number of manual transfers and postings. This makes the system susceptible to errors. Staff is reviewing alternative systems available through the City’s existing accounting software provider to help resolve this situation.
The administration has implemented a system of cross training.
Operating Department managers are now required to “code” invoices for purchases made by their Department to the appropriate budget account, rather than having accounting staff perform this function. This also helps the Department directors to manage their own budgets and to take more responsibility for this.
All invoices are reviewed at two or more levels before payment is authorized.
Some record keeping functions need to be brought current. Job descriptions need comprehensive review and updating.
About engineering costs, management has implemented new operating procedures to reduce the cost of professional services for public improvement review.
Sven Edgar Eldring
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( 3 / 30 )Mayor Pat Sherman resigned on March 3, 2008, citing serious problems with finance director Patty Dunn and city manager Gary Milliman. She stated, “I take my oversight responsibility seriously. … In the present circumstances the finance department required … the highest level of scrutiny.”
Pat, where was your scrutiny and your zeal to take your “oversight responsibility seriously” when former finance director Paul Hughes was in charge? Your past shortcomings in showing “responsible oversight” put your judgement of the present finance director’s performance in question.
You did not scrutinize the performance of Hughes. Hughes allowed PRNdata to provide computer service support for several years without a contract. For many years he accepted at face value “PRNdata-invoices” for computer services – no original bills were required. Also, there were no records that would account for the disposition of older equipment that was replaced.
His role in awarding the computer service support contract to PRNdata was reported thoroughly in the CurryNavigator.com last year. He managed to withhold vital information from the city council, thus seemingly disqualifying NWTEC’s bid for the contract. This resulted in the council accepting PRNdata’s skimpy six-page personal history/proposal (a "proposal" consisting of 1 page plus 5 lines) over the professional 30-page proposal from NWTEC. Is the quality of the bids an indication of the quality of the service provided?
Why did Hughes precipitously leave town, shortly after this exposure? This, according to city manager Gary Milliman, has caused problems in the finance department, because it took the city two months to find a replacement. Why did the Pilot delay reporting his resignation for three weeks? Did it take him that long to find a new job, after quitting or being fired?
The Pilot wrote on March 5: “[CPA] Robert Wall … seemed to back the mayor’s concerns about the current situation. “ (emphasis supplied.) But the city’s auditor Wall&Wall rubberstamped the aforementioned irregular proceedings in Hughes’ finance department for many years.
Sherman charges that: “Dunn has destroyed the finance department.” Good, in my opinion Hughes’ finance department cried out for drastic changes.
On March 4, Milliman stated that Sherman’s action is part of her ongoing effort to force him to resign after six months on the job. Her disparaging remarks about him were "unfounded and distorted." "For example, she has used the e-mail comment by … Mr. Wall concerning his knowledge of the city's accounting practices for the past seven months completely out of context.”
Did Patti Dunn’s four-month-work as finance director unearth other shortcomings, to activate Sherman’s new-found sense of oversight responsibility?
The Pilot’s cartoon shows smoke in the finance department. The reader might draw conclusions from the cartoon and the articles, but in my opinion, Dunn and Milliman are the firefighters.
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