It’s time to remove the “Cancer” in Fort Lauderdale!
Posted Under: Important Issues for Fort Lauderdale,Issues pertaining to the City Manager
It’s time to remove the “Cancer” in Fort Lauderdale!
This Tuesday November 3rd marks the day that our City Commission will have to make a decision on retaining City Manager George Gretsas. Most of you who have read my articles on our web site (www.abetterftlauderdale.com) and have heard me speak about the issue over the last year know that I feel that George Gretsas has become a significant and costly liability to our City and must be replaced.
BACKGROUND:
Let me re-state the reasons why Gretsas must go. The points I make below are facts. There’s no debating these points, unfortunately.
1. Of all the final City Manager applicants that were originally reviewed and rated in 2004, Gretsas placed last.
2. Gretsas has been able to manipulate the Commission over the years into paying him a salary (over $230,000/year) that is higher than the Vice President of the United States and any other elected official in Washington, DC, except the President.
3. He receives a salary that is higher than any full time Mayor of major cities, such as New York, Chicago, Boston, or San Francisco. (Most of these Mayors receive a salary between $150,000 to $200,000/year.)
4. With all his benefits added on top of his salary, (including a hefty retirement pension, car allowance, paid for health care and vacation time), his total compensation swells to over $330,000 per year, almost ten times what the average Fort Lauderdale resident earns!
5. Once hired, he brought in unqualified friends from White Plains NY to serve as “Assistant City Managers”. These individuals each receive over $200K per year.
6. He has increased the City’s budget by more than 10% each year since 2005 (versus controlled annual municipal budget increases of 1-3%). The City’s budget has been artificially inflated for years, wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
7. This year, (when asked to provide a zero-based budget), he brought to the Commission the same budget as last year ($602M vs. $605) and had the gall to call it “zero-based”. It was not.
8. He has alienated the Police and Fire Unions, making it more difficult for the City to reach future fair salary and pension negotiations.
9. He has mismanaged the Fire Bond, wasting millions of dollars and causing several critical new Fire Stations to be incomplete.
10. He has lost control over the huge Waterworks project, causing the project to be millions of dollars over budget.
11. He could not account for the expenditure of over a million dollars in Federal HUD monies, which caused the City to have to return those monies back to HUD.
12. He ignores numerous neighborhood groups.
13. He refuses to work with the City’s CERT volunteers.
14. He refuses to communicate with many of the City’s various Advisory Committees, most recently the Utility Advisory Committee. This lack of communication caused the Commission to feel rushed into renewing a Florida Power & Light utility agreement (which now will lock us into a bad agreement with FPL for the next 30 years).
15. He hides information from the Commission, most recently involving a secret meeting he held with City employees and not asking for, or even informing the Commission.
16. He has fired dozens of experienced Department Managers and replaced them with unqualified people. They are there not to manage the Department but to simply do Gretsas’ bidding.
17. He focuses on manipulating Commission meetings and brings in City employees or neighbors to speak on issues to insure that the Commission votes the way he wants.
18. He manages not by consensus, but by yelling and screaming at people (both city volunteers and city employees) whenever he feels he is not getting his way.
Our City deserves much better than what this person provides us…..
WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
Here’s what’s going to happen at the Commission meeting on Tuesday night:
1. George Gretsas is right now working on packing the Commission meeting with people who will speak on his behalf. These people will be a combination of City employees and people from Point of Americas (where he lives) and from the Galt area. (I question the ethics of this. His time should be spent working on behalf of the residents of Fort Lauderdale, not manipulating others so he can try to keep his job).
2. Commissioners Charlotte Rodstrom and Bruce Roberts, knowledgeable about the manipulations of Gretsas, will see through this tactic and will be voting to not renew his contract.
3. Commissioners Romney Rogers and Bobby DuBose are the newer Commissioners and have been “spoon-fed” by Gretsas since they were sworn in on March 17. They enjoy having him cater to their needs. You can expect both of them to vote to keep Gretsas.
4. That leaves Mayor Jack Seiler. He will have to be the deciding vote and he hates that. Jack, (as an experienced politician), likes to make decisions that maintain the status quo. He doesn’t like to chart new directions or make a decision that requires future work on his part. He prefers to “sidestep” any issue until the last possible moment.
So the vote will end up being 3-2. To see how Seiler will vote, you will have to watch this 4-minute video to the end. It shows another politician sidestepping an issue very effectively, and indicates (at the end of the video) how politicians like to handle difficult decisions. Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mNDHTfdn1A and see for yourself!
Earl Rynerson
Reader Comments
I agree completely. Its outrageous the salary we pay him. As a fort lauderdale resident and homeowner, I believe our elected city officials should do his daily work tasks and save the taxpayers.
Sure is a shame Seiler doesn’t sing and dance. It would make the show more tolerable.
But really, he’s going to what whatever serves him, not FTL. If it means keeping Gretas, and it probably will, so be it. He was, alter all the people choice ( at least the majority of those who bother to vote), and they should get exactly what he gives them.
As for me, I’m finally getting the hint that complaining doesn’t matter and won’t change a thing. The only action that matters is taking my money and spending it in another city. And, frankly, that’s all any of can do, unless we run for office, and keep running until we’re in, Earl.
Replace Gretsas, He censors Police Officers I have had Officers tell me in Private and at Civic Association meeting when they Give the Crime Reports that they can only read from the Script Giving to them by management and cannot speak freely and openly that is wrong Gretsas is only thinking about himself is image as a great manager and not the Truth and safety of the Residents and that should not be allowed to continue.
Imagine how powerful it would be if concerned citizens staged [some sort of] a civil action, large enough to gain national media attention, enough to create an open dialogue about the “state of cities and politics on main-street”.
This could be done very simply, and have a huge impact.
However, most people view local politics, and problem solving principally as a spectator sport. This attitude underlies why most of our cities and towns are in trouble, and the majority of political leaders tend to be idiots. For people who feel powerless it’s easier to see problems / solutions as being the domain of others, much like living with an abusive spouse we hope will one day reform – but never does.
Ft. Lauderdale’s political landscape will slowly change. Gretsas will run into his own serious trouble, Seiler will be replaced, the commissioners will retire, and the problems they leave behind will become someone else’s concern.
None of these people mean anything, not really. Their significance derives from their own childish, unevolved imagination, and our willingness to agree. Soon enough most of them will be too old to cause any trouble, and in a blink of an eye, die away, one at a time. Their significance is ephemeral, as are the problems facing Ft. Lauderdale. Consider Naugal, and his slow, steady disappearance. Soon enough he will be completely forgotten, as will all the rest.
Why get so upset over things that really don’t matter, like the voices of these silly little people?
Mayor and Commissioners Please replace City Manager Gretsas, I have been informed that all big building Projects get reviewed by the City manager is that beyond what we want him to decide. I do not believe He is a professional Planner and He is not a Elected Official I think its that King George way of managing also I have been told by Private Architects that they feel threaten by the City Manager Office. and One Architect stated his business has been hurt by his speaking out on Issues that he felt the City manager did not agree with. Just look at where Gretsas came from read some of the articles from White Plains New York same thing was happening there is this what we want for Fort lauderdale !!!
Regarding the issue of the visioning process for the city I note the following; the process should have on-going annual or semi-annual milestones for continued improvement and redirection, the city could sponsor a forum for multiple contributions to the vision by as many local groups and organization that would like to make a submission for a qualified jury review. This would cause involvement of the citizens (including commissioners and city staff (you are us)) to find a way to get active and at least think about the future of the city. With the cities help establishing simple criteria for submissions, a gallery for their display, and then a jury and selection of finalists that would be used as our current vision. This could be repeated each year or two. Sort of like the Community Appearance Board awards program except reversed. Instead of celebrating the results (good or bad) after the plan and development are complete. Let’s celebrate the best plans, and watch and experience together the results of a living and sustainable plan with joy and prosperity.