Fort Lauderdale’s Building Department: Another example of managerial incompetence?
Posted Under: Economic Improvement Suggestions,Ft Lauderdale Development Issues,Important Issues for Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale’s Building Department:
Another example of managerial incompetence?
For most of us, the departure of City Manager George Gretsas has been a relief. However, the incompetent people he has placed in Managerial positions over the last 6 years will be a damaging legacy that will take years to clean out. The Police Department, Fire Department, Budget Department, Planning and Zoning and Human Resources (among others) have all been damaged to various degrees, due to unqualified Managers being selected to head those Departments. Gretsas’ selection of Department Managers has not been based upon professional or managerial abilities; it’s been based on how well these people “sucked up” to George.
The Building Department is a prime example.
The Building Department Director is currently headed by Valerie Bohlander. Prior to her selection by George Gretsas to be Director of the Building Department, Ms Bohlander served as an “Administrative Coordinator”. (Basically she was a glorified file clerk.) What catapulted her into the Head of this important Department, over the heads of dozens of people more qualified to serve? No one seems to know.
Under the “Freedom of Information Act”, I asked the City for copies of her “training certifications”, classes, etc., to see for myself what qualified her for the position of the Building Department Manager. I received a packet of documents from the City. I read through them, including her employment application: “Notary Public, Leadership Principles, 5-year and 10-year “official service award”, Defensive Driving Course, Several “Occupational Licensing” Classes, Sexual Harassment education, and so on. Problem was, all of this training was taken for her position as “Administrative Coordinator” and was taken during the 1980’s and 1990’s. No training in the last six years except for two classes: “The Road to a Harassment-Free Workplace” (2006), and “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (2007). Does this qualify someone to be the Head of the Building Department?
I contacted a retired City official who used to work in the Building Department. He agreed with me that Ms Bohlander is neither qualified nor certified to be the Head of our City’s Building Department.
The Building Department’s budget has remained essentially unchanged over the last 6 years ($10.08M in 2004/2005 when building here in Fort Lauderdale was at its peak, versus $10.9M for this year). Why is that Department’s budget still so high? The amount of building has dropped off more than 90%. The need for a huge Building Department staff has evaporated and will not be coming back again anytime soon. But an insider tells me: “The Commission and the staff want to keep everyone employed, in case the economy turns around and we need these people again”. Yeah, like that’s going to happen anytime soon.
Meanwhile, Fort Lauderdale residents who are trying to get permits for those few building projects are finding that it is taking even longer. Why? I have spoken to one long-time contractor here in the City who told me:
“It’s simple. Everyone in the Building Department is trying to find work to do. So rather than 2-3 people getting involved in a permit process, it’s more likely now that 6-8 staff people are involved in that permit. There’s not that much building activity going on. Everyone wants to appear busy even if they are not. So it takes longer, as more staff people want to be involved on those few permits that are going through.”
And Ms. Bohlander, as an unqualified Department Manager, refuses to recognize the need to have the Department reflect economic reality. Rather than cut the Department down to a reasonable size to save taxpayer dollars, she’ll continue to voice the “business as usual” mantra. There are many people in the Building Department now who have the qualifications and the managerial experience to properly downsize the Building Department and reduce costs. But guess what? We don’t have a qualified City Manager to make those Departmental changes, either. (The Mayor and Commission are prohibited through our City Charter from making any changes to City staff or Departments.)
An unqualifed City Manager and unqualified Department Managers. We the taxpayers will continue to suffer, as bloated City Departments continue operating with no reform, and our Commission unable to do anything about it.
Earl Rynerson
Reader Comments
Yep, this is a reflection of one of my posts. It is literally taking forever to get anything off the ground in construction. Being that there aren’t as many construction projects anymore what any normal business person does is get through the project a.s.a.p. You know the old saying, time is money. It has taken us since May to receive plans for one of our construction projects we have been hired to do. If time is money, we’ve just lost all of it. Literally 6 months. Inside those 6 months there were No you can’t, No we won’t, You need this other permit now, So and so has to see it first, the list goes on, and there is nothing we can do about it. All we do is just keep looking for other projects, keep paying our workman’s comp and liability insurances so that when the day arrives that we can actually work on the project, we have those pre-requistes too. Getting and keeping business moving is quite difficult these days but they appear as though they are trying to put people out of business.
She is the wife of Paul Bohlander…need I say more?
http://www.miamibeachfl.gov/hr/jobs.aspx?ID=55004
Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration, Business Administration, Engineering, or a related field.
Progressive responsible governmental experience for at least 15 years, with five years in a senior
management position.
·Extensive knowledge of governmental operations.
·Outstanding customer service skills and motivational skills.
· Desires:
Masters degree in Public Administration, Business Administration, Engineering or related field.
o Excellent communication skills.
o Proven track of accomplishments.
The link and description above is for the job opening of the Miami Beach Bldg. Director. This does not sound like Valerie Bohlanders credentials. If she was placed in this postion by Gretsas, it was because he counted on her for LOYALTY and to cover his backside. Is she related to Paul Bohlander in Engineering?
Most Bldg. Directors have a state GC, Arch. or PE license. In my opinion she is unqualified to hold this post. Gretsas ran good professionals out of the city, particularly the P&Z Director fired before on Labor Day weekend in 2007. The current commission relies on whatever they are told in mtgs. by city staff, at great expense to tax payers. This is not likely to change anytime soon.
I agree Mary. Most of the senior Department Heads are not seasoned professionals and are there because of their allegiance to Gretsas. The current City Manager (herself a “Gretsas Go-fer”) will do nothing to make an overall improvement to the efficiency of our operations or to reduce costs. Her incentive is to protect other city employees and their high salaries & keep the status quo. Meanwhile our part-time Commission relies on these people to run the city effectively?? Sad….
Earl
Earl, don’t blame this on George. Connie was the culprit behing thiss action. Val, came into the Building Department then run by another Good Ol Boy, who for the present I shall not identify.
The mangement level position became open after the office manger was subjected to years of ongoing harassment by the Chiefs and Managers of “Code”. They dove him out by bullying, harassing, intimidation, and ongoing mental and psychological attacks for their own personal amusement. The “Managers” of “Code” thought it was amusing the way J’s hands shookuncontrollably when the Good Ol Boys took turns badgering, bullying, tormeting and harassing him. He was run out of the city by the Managers to intentionally vacate the Office Manger position on “Code”, don’t blame this one on George, put the blame where it belongs – on Connie. I was there and Jim commented he didn’t intend to winf up on a slab in Wilton manors like ___who I believe was driven to his death is a similar manner because the bosses thought it was funny how red in the face ___ became when bullied in the same manner, Suggest you send this on to the City Commisssion. Who knows maybe someone will start to listen – You have my permission to go public with this. I regret any typos but I am in the middle of a study guide-workbook for another Federal Law and just knocked this out. Jim D.
BUILDING SERVICES
BOHLANDER, VALERIE
SALARIED, REGULAR FULL TIME DIR OF THE BUILDING DEPT $152,276.80
Average salary an employee makes in this department $56,164.8
PUBLIC WORKS
BOHLANDER, PAUL
SALARIED, REGULAR FULL TIME ASST UTIL SRVC DIR-ENG $128,107.20
Average salary an employee makes in this department $52,175.47
This should frost your windshield the two of them together make a combined income of $280,384.27 !!!
http://databases.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/ftlaudFortLaudSalaries09/ftlaudFortLaudSalaries09_list.php?pagesize=500
Boy did I put out a list of typos with my initial comments on this. Earl, the city has a lifetime pattern of corruption, racketeering, kickbacks, payoffs, and other wonderful things, it did not start with George who may have been shot down by his own ambitious staff. Ask a few of the oldtimers about the City Manager before Connie, the guy who was the city manager who had five deadbolts on the door to his office and purchased an oversized sofa so he and the girls earning their pay raises and promotions could get their clothes on – that was quite a while back and a lid was clamped down tight on this by our first woman mayor. Check the files of the Sun Sentinel for a follow-up on this where our “Manager” was caught doing the same thing out in Texas. Also check up on an employee in Delray Beach who was fired because he was taking full pay for working in Delray Beach in the morning the booting down to Fort Lauderdale to spend the afternoon working for Fort Lauderdale and where the City Manager at the time was his friend. The article was in the Palm Beach Post a few years back. Do some thinking about a major, major investigation of Fort Lauderdale by the FDLE and the FBI and possibly a Civil Rights and a Class Action lawsuit against our City. Jim D.
boy, you hit the nail on the head, try being an architect in this city, few years ago it took months and months to get a permit because they were so busy so they cme up with the expedited permit process (expensive) now it still takes months because they have nothing else to do.
I have had the same problem getting our permitting, it was in for 5 months, what is going on???? They are adding to the failure of our economy. We could be putting people back to work, but instead waiting, and wondering…… I am happy you are addressing this.
Is it deliberate that those in charge/management positions in the Bldg. Dept. are NOT licensed? You cannot sanction unlicensed staff and they will follow direction and do what they are told to keep their jobs. However, licensed staff must comply with the various statutes for their profession, i.e. 481, 489, 471. Just a thought…….
To be fair, Earl, the ’10-’11 budget cuts nine Building Dept positions — and that is on top of nine other positions eliminated in last year’s budget (117 full time employees in ’09, 108 in ’10 and 99 in ’11). The upcoming budget cuts a Clerk II, Bldg Inspector, Comm Inspections Supv, Asst Bldg Off, Clerk III, Building Inspector, Structural Plans Examiner, Plumbing Plans Examiner, Mechanical Inspector.
You’re right, the building department needs to be downsized in light of the long-term economic outlook. But the city’s reliance on “attrition” leaves the management decisions to whoever decides to quit, retire, etc. There needs to be a strategy as to what positions should be cut — not leave it to random events. That’s what managers are for. If one followed the city’s attrition strategy to its absurd conclusion: we don’t need a new city manager ‘cuz the old one was fired. I’m not sure if the eliminated positions in the building department were positions that should have been eliminated. I’ll guess more community inspections are needed in light of the foreclosure mess.
With a reduction in staff, one would expect the payroll costs to drop too. But that is not the case according to the ’10 budget document. In the ’09 budget, employee compensation for the Building Dept (wages + fringe benefits) was budgeted to be $9.51 million and the actual costs for that year were $9.20 million (one good piece of news!). In ’10, the total compensation in the adopted budget was $9.54 million — that’s $340,000 more than the previous year’s actual payroll costs but with 9 fewer employees.
The ’11 budget document doesn’t provide detail on department wages and fringes, so it’s hard to know what we’ll be paying for the reduced staff. (Note: there is a new fund to cover the cost of about half of the department’s employees, so when comparing with past numbers, be sure consider both the general and special funds)
According to the ’10 budget document, the average compensation package per employee in the building department has been:
’08: $74,000 ($51,000 wages + 23,000 fringe benefit)
’09: $78,000 ($53,000 wages + 25,000 fringe benefit)
’10: $86,000 ($58,000 wages + 28,000 fringe benefit)
Ain’t no recession at the One Stop Shop.
Excellent insight Bob- My comments were about the overall budget, not specifically how many people were working there. But your data is correct. I think everyone can agree that like most City Departments, the Building Department could use a good pruning…AND those salary increases!!! That’s what is causing our City’s budget to be so swollen! We need to make some serious reductions in salaries…
Earl
Earl
Bob – I respectfully disagree. It is those in the trenches that do the work – i.e. plan review, inspections, etc. Those are the 2 most critical positions. We do not need clerks to do DATA ENTRY for the reviewers and inspectors.
Per past practices they looked to lay off those individuals and we lost many experienced long time, ‘old school experienced staff’, which is why we have the inexperience and ineptitude now. They do not know FBC, and definitely did not know SFBC. Its your loss if you are a design professional, builder, sub or owner/builder. All those permits that got issued when they shouldn’t have made for interesting press and lawsuits – cghs lights, FLL marine steel boat sheds, etc. etc.
Will the needed reform ever happen?
Mary,
I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear: I was simply pointing out that some positions had been cut in the past and listed those that were being cut due to attrition this year — I didn’t mean to imply that those were the positions that should be cut.
.
Management is the art of deciding what should be done in the future — the captain steering the ship. The city’s strategy of attrition is akin to riding a raft down a river going whereever the river takes you.
Fasten your seat belts its going to be a bumpy ride.
In regards to comment #6 (Jim D’s), I totally agree…I would LOVE to see a major investigation by the FDLE and/or the FBI. The management decisions at the building department are mind-boggling. If you are an employee there with a grievence pursuit your judge & jury is not based on fairness of facts…it’s based on personal opinion (& gain) of the “decision makers”. In other words, if you don’t like how you’re being treated by your “manager” or even your own subordinates then you need to just go to work, keep your mouth shut and deal with it (or LEAVE!!!). Since most people cannot afford to just leave the result is what we have now. If a majority of employee issues that occur in this bldg dept were to occur in the private sector they would not be tolerated for one second (especially these days when there are countless people desperate for good employment). I would love to go into elaborate detail about specific instances, but instead…I have to “zip it” because I cannot afford to “just LEAVE”!!! It’s frustrating to say the least.
I empathize with your frustration. Hang in there; we are working on a plan to make to make some fundamental changes to how our City will be governed in the future..
Earl
Earl
Good article and good comments.
Way overpaid Valarie was a school teacher in Lake Wales.
Got divorced, relocated, and was a clerk in the building dept.
She is not a good manager nor does she know anything about construction. There is a morale problem in the dept.
She promotes another unqualified person to be a high-priced leader, Kathye Reily.
As a long time contractor, the building dept is anti-business. The volumns of paperwork just to do a small job is wrong. It drives contractors to just do the smaller jobs without permits. For the most part, the inspectors, with contractor licenses, are good folks.
Some of us tried to organize fellow construction industry people to establish an oversight board to monitor and clean up the mess. Cut rules and regs, like Gov Scott is doing. The economy tanked and so did we. Till we get some reduced government and qualified managers at the Building Dept, it will take longer for this economy to turn around.
Rookie City manager Love is unqualified, does not have a clue as to what capitalism is, and will never demand the changes needed to jump start the local construction economy.
The elected officals will not make needed drastic changes because they want the public employees campaign funds and campaign support for the Feb 2012 elections.
Furlough many dept employees. Better yet, privatize the building dept like other cities in Broward.
Granting them wage hikes in these difficult times is criminal.
Inspector Bohlander(Val) has worked for the City for almost 30,I repeat almost 30 years. She derserves that postion,every bit of it…
Whitey-
Just because someone has worked in a City Department for 30 years does not qualify that person to manage it. In fact, it would suggest the opposite.
Earl
Ok, so we all know that there is a problem. How do we get an investigation into this?
I am tired of all the talk, contact a regulatory agency that can do something. The city is not going to clean itself up internally. The Mayor and Commission lack the powers to do anything.
One of the legal wizards contributing to this discussion needs to identify an agency that can do something and move forward!
Maybe we would need a petition drive to get the ball rolling?
The Ft. Lauderdale building department is one of the best examples of tax payer’s money gone to waste. I really believe that they are making their own market by rejecting plans over and over with different sets of comments just to generate their fees. I have never seen so many people trying to keep their jobs by doing so little. I also know of a marketing plan of a certain architect assuring clients that his plans get through the building department quick and easy only because a family member is a current building plans reviewer. This in one of the most corrupted departments in the city; it is very frustrating and evens a big disappointment to be working in this city. In today’s economy you would think that they are there to help people and to conduct themselves as professionals and is quite the opposite, does not make any sense.
I have been working in Fort Lauderdale for many years and have seen many officials come and go but right now to get anything done is the worst building department ever!