Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Yours truly, Eleanor McAdams, Democratic candidate for County Commission District 2.

T’was the night before elections

They had come for my wallet,
They wanted my pay
To hand out to others
Who had not worked a day.

He snatched up my money,
And quick as a wink,
Jumped back on hiband wagon
As I gagged from the stink.

He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart.
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!

‘On Fannie, on Freddie, On Biden and Ayers, On Acorn, on Pelosi’
He screamed at the pairs!
And as they flew out of sight,
I heard him laugh at a nation,
Who wouldn’t stand up and fight!

Second it’s only in the last 3 or so years that fiscal responsibility has finally reared its head at FKMCD. Prior to that, with Smith on the board, Monroe taxpayers, were suckered by the then Board to pay its Director $183,000.00 dollars per year. Making him the highest paid public employee in Monroe Countyand probably the highest paid mosquito control director in the state. Smith was on that Board. FKMCD had only a fraction of the number of employees that were then on the county payroll. Why the board thought that exorbitant salary was in the public interest is a mystery.

In his posting Smith wrote: “Benefits for FKMCD retirees has become a talking point.” I don’t believe that to be true, the issue is whether or not it is appropriate for a board member to receive a public pension and health benefits for life. I think not. Especially when you consider that the Board, with Smith leading the way, sought and received salaries well in excess of $20,000.00 for working 3 hours a month.

Mr. Smith seems to be mentoring and is supporting candidate, Roger Cousineau. Smith is a huge fan of attending conferences. In fact his attendance at conferences routinely consumed the lion’s share of the budget allocation for that budget item. We can expect that if Mr. Cousineau is elected he will be a compliant clone of Mr. Smith. Indeed he has promised to try and raise taxes and to “learn on the job” by attending conferences. Smith and Cousineau oppose term limits.

In Mr. Smith’s rose colored view of the history of the FKMCD, he failed to mention some important items.

In 2009, with Smith on the Board, Dengue fever appeared in Key West. It is a mosquito borne disease. Those were the bad old days that Mr. Smith longs for. Dengue fever, aka Break Bone is a mosquito transmitted disease. Many charged that it was the incompetence of FKMCD that left the door open for the mosquito borne illness.

Mr. Smith, while denying any corruption, failed to address the fact that an FKMCD employee was accused of grand theft from FKMCD in 2007, but the board apparently demurred on prosecution. Smith was on that Board. The Board permitted that employee to keep his job on the condition that he “behave.” Subsequently that same employee received a traffic ticket that he allegedly failed to report to his boss. The employee was fired for that infraction. The employee sued. After lengthy legal wrangling, and beacoup sums of your tax dollars paid to lawyers, the Board handed over $30k of your hard earned tax dollars to settle the case. Mah-velous, just mah-velous management and oversight by the then board. Who was there then who is here now? Smith
Mr. Smith is very eager to have you forget the culture of corruption that seemed to permeate FKMCD in the bad old days.

In 2010, in the bad old days, a year after Dengue Fevor reared its ugly head, The Florida Keys Keynoter – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services, reported infighting among commissioners; a director bashing his own employers; accusations of board member pilfering a dead man’s identity; a felony grand-theft arrest of a FKMCD Superintendent for stealing usage of FKMCD cell phones; a TV show host with no TV show — the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District had it all in 2010. Those are the bad old days that Mr. Smith yearns to return to. Smith was there then and now.

Any sentient person would have to find Chairperson, Steve Smith’s comments on the loss of the Navy contract astounding. Incredibly Mr. Smith tells us that he has no firsthand knowledge of the contract executed between the Navy and FKMCD’s competitor. That loss of that contract cost FKMCD 6% of its annual revenue. That is huge. Instead he gives us a litany of excuses that include the claim that the new contractor is using many fewer personnel and procedures that are substantially different from the previous Navy/FKMCD contracts.

By so doing, Smith is suggesting that the Navy did not precisely define the services and methods to be used. That, Deer Friends, is not the Navy way. Most certainly the Navy in its Requests For Proposals (RFP), carefully delineated its requirements. It’s nearly certain that the Navy got exactly what it wanted.

It certainly appears that FKMCD failed to adhere to the parameters of the RFP. One has to wonder if management even read the Navy RFP or did management, as in years past, simply add 5% to the previous year’s contract and send it along fully expecting the Navy to play along.

Further, even more incredibly, Mr. Smith tells us that he “….inten(ds) to charge the Navy for any significant difference” in the cost to FKMCD for mosquito control in the environs adjacent to NAS Key West. Mr. Smith has zero chance of collecting a single nickel. His statement is pure puffery. NAS has no liability whatsoever. The NAS contract was lost by mismanagement — pure and simple.

The Bug Board’s bad old days should be banished forever. It was a time of waste, corruption, and ineffectiveness. Incumbent Phil Goodman has excelled as being watchdog and champion of the public interest. He has fought tooth and nail to improve service while reducing costs. He champions term limits and is always ready to find new, better, and more economical ways to get the job done. That is the way of a private sector executive. Do the Keys and yourself a favor and vote for Goodman