It was this 'this' argument that was presented to council by City Manager Marty Black and City Attorney Bob Anderson, with one word added: We must do something fast. Out of all of the council members, only Taylor picked up on the underlying fallacy.
There were certainly grounds to terminate both Wilson and Lane's employment (or at the very least place them on administrative leave), if only because of the recent agreement to pay fines to the Florida DEP (second item on page) for several violations that happened under their watch. So why the rush to privatize the management, particularly with OMI?
Severn Trent Services was the other company that was in the running for the management contract, but staff recommendations favored OMI, ostensibly because OMI offered a better interface with union personnel, an argument that Dana Kass, Vice President of Operating Services for Severn Trent, dismissed by stating, "We submitted a draft contract not knowing what it was that you wanted to negotiate." Kass stated that he had to use a Freedom of Information Act request to get some of the documents pertinent to the proposed contract.
The city really did need to do something. But was OMI that something? Was contracting with OMI a bad move? Maybe, maybe not. Time will tell.
But, and here's my point, the process that was used to arrive at the decision to contract with OMI was very, very seriously flawed. The decision process used was based on the second line of a textbook example of a fallacious argument: This is something.
This is something, alright.
What it's not is a good precedent.
Statutory compliance is no longer a four-letter word
One of the first things that the OMI team discovered upon their arrival at the wastewater treatment plant was that the street signs designating the roadways Wilson Way and John Ln had been taken down. It wasn't Mussolini's body dragged through the streets, but it was the Venice equivalent.
Along with Lane and Wilson, some 11 other supervisors, managers and support staff members in total were handed their walking papers. In their place at the end of Bloody Tuesday was a 7-member OMI task force, some of whom didn't even know where the bathrooms were yet.
On Day 2, I was, for the first time, on the grounds of the wastewater treatment plant.
Mike Green, OMI's replacement for John Lane, and I were seated in his new digs, the same office formerly used by Pat Wilson. Green was explaining to me that one of the first things OMI had to get out of the way was a legal compliance check. For that, a team had been assembled, one that would go through checklist after checklist to validate compliance with a myriad of federal and state guidelines that govern the utilities industry.
Wow. We're actually going to have legal checklists to show where the city is in compliance and where they are not. And it'll all be public record. Hey, there's a first time for everything.
Contacts were already in the works for several of the laid off city workers. Green stated he was definitely interested in getting ahold of Warren 'Skip' Petitt, one of the EPA whistleblowers. Petitt was also laid off in the purge.
Green gave me quite a bit of information. Too much, in fact, but all necessary, so I'll focus on that in a later article. Interesting stuff, though.
Venice is poopalicious
The second amazing thing that happened to me was a sewage spill. Well, the sewage spill didn't happen to me, and sewage spills in this town aren't all that amazing, they are about as regular as the sun rising. I mean what happened at a sewage spill later on in the day on Ridgewood Avenue, just a block or so from the southern entrance to Bay Indies.
This was one nasty sewer spill that spilled into Hatchett Creek via the storm sewers -- 5,000 gallons would be later reported.
Every sewer spill I've been at, I've been shunned, and understandably so. Anyone that I spoke to would be later debriefed as to their conversation with me. Guys wouldn't talk to me or even look me in the eye out of fear for their jobs. I've even had to stage false near-altercations with sewer workers just to ensure that they wouldn't have to answer for being friendly with me.
That's all over.
On Ridgewood Avenue last night, there was sewage all over the place. It was a hell of a mess. I was allowed to get as close in as I wanted, take as many pics as I wanted, talk to who I wanted. The guys were openly answering my questions. Newly appointed Utils Director Chris Sharek (I think that's his new title) and I swapped photos and camera tips.
I wasn't really that interested in the sewage spill -- once you've smelled one pile of shit, you've pretty much smelled them all. I was totally amazed at the openness that was displayed at the scene. I wasn't an intruder, I was just part of the natural scenery that accompanies spewing feces.
Mike Green showed up at the scene, making it the second time that day that I'd met him. Standing next to him over the aromatic stew at the bottom of a huge, freshly dug hole, there was only one appropriate thing to say: "Hey, Mike -- you are now officially welcomed to Venice."
