LINKS TO RECENT HOME PAGE ARCHIVES
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MAY 17 2012 PORT ORANGE AREA NEWS ARCHIVES.html
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no May 15 archive file saved.
MAY 14 2012 PORT ORANGE AREA NEWS ARCHIVES.html
MAY 13, 2012 PORT ORANGE AREA NEWS ARCHIVES.html
MAY 12 2012 PORT ORANGE AREA NEWS ARCHIVES.html
MAY 11 2012 PORT ORANGE AREA NEWS ARCHIVES.html
MAY 10 2012 PORT ORANGE AREA NEWS ARCHIVES.html

 

It will be some time before I can get back to posting the statistics. The hard drive went on my desk computer, and from it I had access to my web statistics. I will have to get a new password for my lap top, and that will probably be after I buy a new desk computer.

4 20 12

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As of April 14 2012
Since Sept. 2009 there have been 293,242 visits to the Port Orange Area News web site according to Urchin web statistics.
 

 

Our videos are on You Tube at captnemo 72000
port orange area news video on you tube
Port Orange Area News is on Twitter at
Hank Springer
@poimages

 

October 21, 2012: 
Port Orange Library
Country Singing Sensation Bobby Meeks.  Join us for a toe tapping afternoon of great music!!!

 

December 14, 2012:
Port Orange Library
  Bella Legato Duo featuring vocalist Linda Flynn and Julie Baker.  Join us for an afternoon of wonderful holiday melodies.

 

PORT ORANGE COUNCIL MEMBERS

Mayor Allen Green

(386) 322-0247 • fax: (386) 756-5285

 

Vice Mayor Dennis A. Kennedy

DISTRICT 4

(386) 756-3286

 

Council Member Bob Ford

DISTRICT 1

(386) 756-8245

 

Council Member Donald O. Burnette

DISTRICT 2

(386) 295-5760

 

Council Member Robert N. Pohlmann

DISTRICT 3

(386) 756-4435

 

http://ifunny.mobi/

Port Orange Police Press Releases

 

LINKS TO WEB PAGES ON THE PORT ORANGE AREA NEWS WEB SITE
ADVERTISE ON THE PORT ORANGE AREA NEWS WEB SITE
All Childrens Park Port Orange Fl
Citizen's concerns for Port Orange and the nation
CODE VIOLATIONS IN PORT ORANGE FLORIDA.html
Death Investigation, Sunset Cove Drive
(homicide)
Deland, Fl., Dog Park
EDITOR PORT ORANGE AREA NEWS.html
FORMER SOUTH DAYTONA OFFICIALS CHARGED BY FBI
Freedom of the Seas Cruise
I-95 PORT ORANGE FATAL FIERY WRECK 12 29 11
Images and Video of Port Orange Fl
Laurel Rogers missing from Port Orange
MISSING ITEMS FROM PORT ORANGE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT.html
Music for an old guy in Port Orange
Pavilion Shopping Center Port Orange Fl
Port Orange Area Images
Poan's 5 part video series featuring local fire union officials can now be found at
Port Orange Citizen Complains About Fire Union Pensions
 
PORT ORANGE CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JAN 3 2012.html
Port Orange Police Radio Log Archives
Riverwalk Project Port Orange Fl
THE NEW GLOBAL COMMUNICATION ERA.html
Useful Links
To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward. -- Margaret Fairless Barber
Visit our sister web site
Long Island State Parkway Police

 

Sign up to receive e mails of breaking news and summary of the day's items posted on the Port Orange Area News web site.
e mail Hank
News Media - - ask for the special news media e mail alerts from poan.
As of 4 6 12, there were 76 recipients of poan e mail alerts.

 

Port Orange Police Radio Log Archives
FHP traffic accident information: Volusia | Flagler | Florida
visit the volu;sia scanner net for public safety radio reports
See IPN public safety reports for Volusia County
See active calls list for VCSO
VCSO daily activity reports
Florida sexual offenders

 

May 18 2012
PORT ORANGE, FL – The deadline for the 5th Annual Port Orange Government TV (pogTV) Film Festival is just a few weeks away. The festival is open to high school and college students from Volusia County and Seminole County. Entries are due May 18, 2012 by 4:00 p.m. Filmmakers must submit four DVDs along with the pogTV Film Festival Entry Form to Kent Donahue, City of Port Orange, 1000 City Center Circle, Port Orange, FL 32129. The Entry Form is found on the City’s web site under pogTV at www.port-orange.org. The goal of the pogTV Film Festival is to enhance and encourage the educational experience of the participants by providing a real world educational opportunity beyond the classroom. The Film Festival would like to thank Waste Pro USA, Inc. for their community spirit and for being a grant sponsor of the 2012 Film Festival. Students from Daytona State College, Bethune-Cookman University, University of Central Florida, Stetson University, Seminole State College, Full Sail University, and Flagler College are eligible to submit films. Entries will be separated into two groups – high school and college. There is no fee associated with the entries and there are no individual categories such as drama or animation. Judging criteria will focus on, but is not limited to: concept, overall production, technical talent, and creativity. For questions, please contact Kent Donahue, Special Assistant to the City Manager, at 386-506-5522 or kdonahue@port-orange.org.

 

Port Orange Library
www.portorangefol.org-  For updates to our programming calendar.

 

Local Area Businesses in Port Orange, Fl.
Port Orange Shops

 

The Volusia County council agenda for the May 3, 2012 council meeting is now available online at
vcservices.org

 

Port Orange City Council ... City of Port Orange Administrative Offices ... 1000 City Center Circle, Port Orange, FL - 32129, (386) 506-5500 • fax: (386) 756-5290 ..
go to Port Orange City web site

 

A Moment of Science

 

PORT ORANGE CITY HALL

Main Number
386-506-5500

Customer Service (Water)
386-506-5720

Community Development
& Building Permits
386-506-5600

Code Compliance Hotline
386-506-5604

Public Works
386-506-5575

Police Non-Emergency
& Animal Control
386-756-7400

Fire Non-Emergency
386-506-5900

Parks and Recreation
386-506-5850

Public Utilities Emergency
386-756-5380

City Manager, Mayor
& City Council
386-506-5501

 

It is not how old you are, but how you are old.
-- Marie Dressler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADVERTISE ON THE PORT ORANGE AREA NEWS WEB SITE

 

 

COMMENTS
BY EDITOR/PUBLISHER OF PORT ORANGE AREA NEWS

HANK SPRINGER

"Those who can't do, comment."
from www.newyorker.com

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Our works are the mirror wherein the spirit first sees its natural lineaments, Hence, too, the folly of that impossible precept, Know thyself; till it be translated into this partially possible one, know what thou canst work at. -- Thomas Carlyle

 

Those who think they know it all are very annoying to those of us who do. -- Robert K. Mueller

 

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INEFFECTIVE PROCEDURES?

1. Special magistrate hearing,----- decision not binding for the city of Port Orange, and the city rejected the magistrate's opinion and conclusion.

2. Pension board submits the name of an applicant to the pension board, to the Port Orange City council for approval, which person the city council must approve and confirm, and cannot reject.

3. Civil service appeal hearing,----- which decision the city does not have to implement and can reject.

The public pays for all these make believe hearings.

I guess only the lawyers make out ok through these hearings and we pay our city administrators to waste time and money preparing and attending the hearings.

Something seems wrong here. Just remember - if you want to replace your front door, you must get a permit to do so, or you risk a $500 fine. I wish I could advise you to just disregard the need to get such a permit, since the city can disregard hearings that we pay for. But,somehow, it doesn't work that way,does it Remember, who tells us that we can't fight city hall? -City Hall?

---- hank poanposted 4 24 12 at 712 am-

 

YOUR OPINIONS AND COMMENTS GO HERE.

send them to Hank the editor

 

One cannot make up stories; one can only retell in new ways the stories one has already heard. -- Carolyn Heilbrun

 

Ted Noftall calls for an independent investigation of the Port Orange Finance Department:

From Ted Noftall, Port Orange, Fl.

I have recently called for an independent investigation of the Port Orange Finance Department in light of revelations of a total lack of internal controls throughout various departments in the City. The incumbent in this year’s election, Vice Mayor Pohlmann has not joined me in calling for such an investigation preferring to continue in his role as the City’s Cheerleader-IN-Chief. The City Manager recently explained that he decided to terminate, and to not reinstate the former Public Works Director because fundamentally as a department head he had - breached a fiduciary responsibility to place the public’s interest above all other interests. That decision was logical, compelling and believable. What is not believable, is Vice Mayor Pohlmann’s repeated assurance as to the integrity of City systems and his confidence in all City staff. Nor is the assertion that no one else shares any culpability in the loosely enforced or non-existent internal controls that facilitated the Public Works breach in the first place OR THAT that loosely enforced, or non-existent internal controls were not the exact conditions that facilitated other thefts of employees such as (two names deleted by poan editor) who stole upwards of $ 400,000 The current 800 lb gorilla in the room that the City will not or cannot quantify is the original allegation of stolen fuel which was the very first piece of intelligence POPD received in the Public Works thefts. I have inquired and have been advised that the City does not track its total fuel purchases, or at which of the City’s 4 fuel depots that fuel is placed for subsequent disbursement. Nor does it track fuel dispensed for off road use. Consequently it does not perform any fleet mpg calculations. At this point the City is either not saying, or does not know how much fuel was stolen. What we all know however is that every other aspect of the theft intelligence given to POPD proved to be correct. Internal audit disclosures further revel that: Off road fuel usage is not tracked at all. The Fleet Manager manually adjusts fuel charges without any additional review, and is able to add and delete transactions without generating audit trail reports. Three of the City’s four fuel depots do not have video surveillance and two of those three are on an honor system as they do not even require an authorization card to pump fuel. Finance staff did not realize how much fuel is even being purchased and thus failed to apply for State fuel rebates correctly by omitting fuel purchases assigned to two of the City’s four fuel depots and fuel purchased at commercial gas stations. If the Vice Mayor does not believe this in and of itself is more than enough grounds for a full investigation of the Port Orange Finance department then what would be enough. Other current and recent disclosures from limited internal audit testing include: Easily altered Excel spreadsheets are used to track vehicle maintenance. Major parts purchases are expensed rather than inventoried at time of purchase in violation of city policy. Rate data tables at Parks and Recreation can be adjusted by all employees that perform transactions. 40% of Recreation scholarship applications approved by that department’s Director failed to meet established criteria. Rate date tables may also be changed by employees at Community Development. Community Development employees calculate and enter fees without subsequent review or approval. 100% of all building permits and impact fees tested were calculated incorrectly. 32% of commercial drainage utility billings tested that had been “corrected “ by staff had been corrected “incorrectly” Payroll inquiries and discrepancies are investigated by the same employee that processes payroll. 43% of all timecards submitted by one department that were tested had missing timestamps. Bank statement discrepancies and issues related to cash postings are handled by the same person preparing the bank reconciliations themselves including posting reconciliation journal entries. I have been an accountant and in business long enough to know something just isn’t right with the whole finance equation in Port Orange. Audit comments such as these, and others over the years that have been dropped with no discernible change in the underlying conditions that prompted them in the first place speak of such lax to non-existent controls that it would have been impossible for the Finance Director to not have known exactly how inadequate the internal controls were in various City departments. The Fraud Risk Assessment recommendations from the City’s external auditor in the 2008 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) were dropped from the 2009 and subsequent years CAFR’s ostensibly because those recommendations had been enacted. BUT were they, because those recommendations sure proved prophetic in the 2011 Public works scandal. What individuals have the opportunity to misappropriate assets, having access to assets susceptible to theft and to records that can be falsified or manipulated to conceal thefts.? -- Public Works Director and Fleet Manager. Any known pressures that would motivate employees with the opportunity to misappropriate assets.? -- Maybe a nasty divorce . What assets are susceptible to misappropriation. ? -- Fuel and Vehicle parts. How could assets be stolen. ? -- Try an honor system for dispensing fuel. How could potential misappropriations be concealed.? -- Expense rather than inventory purchases and then track everything on an easily changed Excel spreadsheet. What Factors might indicate that the City has a culture or environment that would rationalize committing fraud.? -- How about the scandalous “opportunity fund” where-in Public Works employees on the clock in City vehicles were permitted to scour the City for “scrap” which they would take to local junk yards to be sold for their own “opportunity”. Vice Mayor Pohlmann was on Council when this 2008 Audit recommendation was made AND he knew that failure to implement and enforce adequate controls would invite on going theft, and had directly facilitated earlier thefts. If adequate controls were never implemented as appears to be the case then how exactly did the Manager or his Finance Director not breach their fiduciary responsibilities to place the public’s interest above all others ? The former Public Works Director is not alone in having breached a fiduciary responsibility to place the public’s interest above all other interests. He is however the only one to have been sanctioned and that is far from acceptable by any measure of justice with which I am familiar. Who knew what and when, and those actions that were taken or not taken to safeguard the public’s interests needs to be disclosed AND the Vice Mayor should be insisting on that disclosure. Indeed the Comptroller testified under oath in the Public Works hearing that she had conveyed concerns with the since discontinued Public Works “opportunity” fund to her boss the Finance director and no subsequent action was taken. Did the Finance director in turn take those concerns to his boss the City Manager ?. The Comptroller further testified that on more than one occasion purchases of 50 tires at a time were expensed rather than being inventoried as required AND that she cannot say with certainty where those tires went. Were those concerns reported to the Finance Director also ?, and what other concerns did she or others have, and were those concerns communicated up through the chain of command to the City Manager ?. These and other questions need to be fully investigated by other than the Manager and his Finance Director who are responsible for the internal control weaknesses in the first place. To the Vice Mayor and any others who would suggest matters such as these should be handled on the QT I would say fiddlesticks. Port Orange is no one’s fiefdom……… Port Orange belongs to the residents of Port Orange AND they have a right to see their business conducted in public—warts and all. The Vice Mayor needs to very much explain why he is not calling for a public investigation. Ted Noftall Candidate Port Orange City Council

poanposted 5 3 12 at 1149 am


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