BUDGET HEARING 6PM MONDAY SEP 21

Monday's Budget Hearing will be your last chance to have a say about your taxes for 2010.  Speak up, or don't complain when all your living costs increase.  I'm always surprised to hear people bitching about their increases when they don't speak out.  I guess they think someone else will speak for them.  The commissioners love Stupid people!

GOB - not just a bunch of GOBbledegook

Amid all of the financial turmoil in the City, two projects, the ArtsPark amphitheater and a new training center for the Hollywood firefighters, appear to be moving forward like nothing is wrong.  They are being funded with GOB's, General Obligation Bonds.  That's essentially money we don't have being spent hoping we do have it, and if we don't have it, then you'll have it.  Think higher taxes!
The ArtsPark project almost seems like a drop in the bucket when you talk to many local officials.  After all, the County still owes the City about one and a half million dollars, so the City seems compelled to spend five or six million dollars to complete the project.  This is a project that can and should be put on indefinite hold.  We simply can't afford it now.
The new Fire Safety Training Center is the other big ticket item that is no more than a luxury for our firefighters.  You might say, hey, we want our firefighters well-trained to save our home and our life in an emergency.  Well, they can be well trained, right in their own back yard.  Davie, our next door neighbor, has a multimillion dollar facility that they're willing to share with the firefighters of Hollywood.  It's a state-of-the-art facility that could train firefighters from all over the county.  Alas, our firefighters only argument for their own state-of-the-art facility is that "they would have to drive out of the City of Hollywood to train".  That's coming from the mouths of the 195 firefighters who already LIVE OUTSIDE OF THE CITY.  This is another project that could and must be stopped for lack of money.

GREED and BANKRUPTCY - A CITY ON THE BRINK...

There can be no doubt that we respect and value the service of our police and fire departments in Hollywood, Florida.  Their job to protect us requires a special commitment, and for that they deserved to be appreciated and paid well.

It’s when greed and self-interest begin to interfere with their job that we, the citizens, should become concerned.  That has become the case in our City.

Our police and fire department have become a privileged class of workers, whose pensions more than double the average workers.  This year alone, more than half of the 80 million dollars in property taxes our City collects will fund their troubling pension fund.  They are bankrupting our City, for a job not even in the top ten most dangerous jobs in the United States.  Yes, you read that right, even an average garbage man (#6), truck driver (#9) or fisherman (#1) has a more dangerous job then our police and firefighters.

Sadly, the Hollywood taxpayers are being put into a no win situation by the political clout of the police and fire department.  The stranglehold they have over many of our elected officials is enormous, coercing them to make irresponsible choices.  That discussion will follow over the next few days.  Let’s get back to the dollars and sense of the fatal path five of our elected officials continue to walk on.

Recently, Mayor Bober and Commissioners Blattner, O’Sheehan, Sherwwod and Russo voted for the Golden Nest Eggs that our firefighters have lobbied for.  On Wednesday, September 16, 2009, they intend to do the same for the police department.  Handing over hundreds of millions of dollars to them, as our City falls apart!

With over 300 million dollars in unfunded pension liabilities and the same or more in unfunded health care liabilities, these five elected officials have approved a guarantee of 8% on the police and firefighters pension fund investments.  The police and fire department have said they’re making concessions – only a 6% guarantee for new hires.  You, the taxpayer, make up the difference when the market does not meet that 8% obligation.  That's one heck of a guarantee, right now the return is at 0%, maybe even negative percentage.  Wall Street should put their money in the police and fire pension fund.  Shame on the police and firefighters and shame on our elected officials for avoiding their fiduciary responsibilities to the City and citizens of Hollywood..

The City of Hollywood is involved in nothing less than a gigantic Ponzi scheme.  People go to jail for this in the private sector!  If you are even minimally capable of calculating simple math problems, you can easily see that we are headed for BANKRUPTCY.  And, maybe that’s not so bad.  Vallejo, a city in Northern California, about the size of Hollywood, recently declared bankruptcy.  The judge has ruled that the police and fire department contracts are null and void.  Will that be the fate of our City, and is that what really must occur to break the pensions of the police and firefighters?  Stay tuned for more on this subject.  

BERNIE MADOFF BEWARE!

For those of you still appalled at the recent crime perpetrated by Bernie Madoff, you ain't seen nothing yet.  
Simply look at the books for the City of Hollywood's Police and Fire Pension Program, it's in a shambles.
It's one BIG PONZI scheme waiting to unravel.  Ask your commissioners to explain it to you with a straight face!  
Call the mayor and these commissioners at 954 921 3321, or e-mail them:  Fran Russo - frusso@hollywoodfl.org;  Linda Sherwood - lsherwood@hollywoodfl.org; Richard Blattner - rblattner@hollywoodfl.org; Peter Bober - pbober@hollywoodfl.org; Heidi O'Sheehan - hosheehan@hollywoodfl.org

A1-rated, schmay one-rated!

Remember the fire department's argument that all the extra money we spend to have an A1 rated department meant lower insurance premiums, well, like a lot of other things we're learning about our fire and police department this year, it's a lot of hooey.  None of the major carriers - Allstate, Travelers, State Farm. et al - consider it in writing policies.  What they do consider is where you are in relationship to the fire house and the fire hydrant.  Why is it we're spending 17 MILLION dollars in fire fees again?

FIRE FEE INCREASE

The original "temporary" fire fee was $ 59.00, today it has been raised to $ 159.00.  From a FIVE MILLION dollar windfall to a 17 MILLION dollar fund today, your dollars are not providing you better or more service, those dollars are paying for the underfunded pension program the firefighters have recklessly saddled the City of Hollywood with.  For the record, the current administration did not initiate such a ridiculous pension plan, guaranteeing 8% returns, previous commissions are responsible for this.  What this current commission is guilty of is playing politics with your hard earned tax dollars.  They have been unable to garner the four votes necessary to simply say no.  If you're not mad as hell, you're not paying attention!

Hollywood's Pension Plan - "RECIPE FOR DISASTER"

Reprinted from September 11, 2009 Daily Business Review, article by Mike Seemuth
Some city governments’ contributions to pension funds for police and firefighters are getting dangerously high, accounting for half or more of their annual police and fire department payrolls, said Kraig Conn, legislative counsel with the Florida League of Cities.

Conn said city contributions last year to pension funds for police or firefighters, or both, accounted for 50 percent of the annual payroll for these employees in Miami Beach, 56 percent in Hollywood, and 57 percent in Miami and Pembroke Pines. “If it fluctuates from 15 to 25 percent, that’s something you can predictably budget for, as a governmental entity,” Conn said. But if pension contributions as a percentage of payroll rises to “40, 50, 60 percent or higher … it is a recipe for disaster.”
READ THE REST OF THIS STORY IN TODAY'S (Sep 11, 2009) DAILY BUSINESS REVIEW
http://search.dailybusinessreview.com/sp?aff=1101&keywords=mike+seemuth&submit=Go

SAY NO TO ALL HOLLYWOOD FLORIDA TAX AND FEE INCREASES!

The City Manager can and must go back to the City Commission with real substantial cuts before taxpayers will accept any 

tax or fee increase!  

Where can he begin cutting?

1.  OVERTIME - Did you know that top management earning $ 100K or more per year also made

     TWO MILLION DOLLARS IN OVERTIME!

2.  SICK PAY AND VACATION PAY - Over 23 MILLION DOLLARS, at a cost of $ 161.00 per

     resident could be eliminated if they simply say no rollovers - USE IT OR LOSE IT!

3.  PENSIONS, HOLIDAYS, OVERTIME, REGULAR EARNINGS AND VACATION PAY

     The top 300 employees earn $ 43.8 MILLION DOLLARS.

4.  RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS - Did you know that 195 (87%) of Hollywood's 223 firefighters

     do not live in Hollywood, and nearly 65% of the police force live outside of Hollywood.  We can
     save millions by simply not letting city vehicles go outside the city.  Some of our firefighters live in

     Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.  Others live in Tequesta and Jupiter.

     They spend their money outside of Hollywood!

5.  TOO MANY CHIEFS - The last three efficiency studies, paid for by the City of Hollywood, all

     came back with one conclusion - WE'RE TOO TOP HEAVY in management, salaries and

     benefits, yet  the City has taken no action to fix the problem.

        CALL THE CITY MANAGER 

- 954 921 3201  -  

CUT NOW, OR YOU WON'T PAY!!! 

COMING SOON  

POLICE AND FIREFIGHTER'S PENSION PLAN 

YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT