City of Deerfield Beach Commission Meeting: Hope You Wore Your Boots and Brought a Shovel

At tonight’s City of Deerfield‘s Commission meeting I hope everyone brought their boots and shovels because the Commissioners filled the room will their usual “B.S.”  It was so thick that many of us had to wade out of the room to avoid suffocating from the obnoxious fumes emanating from the DIAS.

Basically, the Commissioners told the citizens, including the 6,200 who signed the rescind the Utility Tax petitions to STFU and Sit Down.  Then out of the other side of their mouths the citizens were asked to participate and join City boards and help the communities. 

Does this even mash up?

How can you tell people by your actions that their opinions don’t matter, their daily financial struggles don’t matter, their voices don’t matter.  Then with a straight face (albeit an inebriated  red face) admonish citizens for speaking out and then tell everyone you want them to participate with the City. 


What is wrong with this City Commission and City Staff?  They continuosly shut the public out of  every major decision, even asking amongst themselves that it be a management decision and then tell us the residents that we are the ones being divisive.  It is "us" who is creating the division amongst ourselves.  Then 2 seconds later Bill tells us how District 4 has being carrying the load of the city and it isn't fair because District 3  has more units.  Well, isn't that a divisive statement meant to enrage the residents in D4 against the residents of D3?  Did anyone stop to ask Good Ol' Bill could it possibly be that D3 has a higher concentration of apartment units, which could attribute for that 5,000 more units he keeps spouting about?  


Well, in the City of Deerfield Beach this happens every 1^st and 3^rd Tuesday of each month at the City Commission Meetings.  Tonight was no different, the Commissioners did just that.  They even had their usual cheerleader (A woman who I refuse to mention her name, but I will call her the Ganz Gremlin, but we all know who she is) got up and told the audience that we elected these people and it is none of our business to question their decisions or even inquire about the salaries that they are handing out.  I don’t know what third world country she was imported from, but this is America and the citizens do have a little thing called the Constitution.  I am not sure if the Ganz Gremlin has made herself fully aware of it, but she did make reference to certain rights, but quickly told us to shove our rights up our collective “arses” because we disagreed with or inquired about City dealings.

A theme which Peggy Noland, Bill Ganz, and even Ben Preston continued with their sentiments about the Budget hearing and the opinions expressed by the 6200 petition signers, and the individuals who spoke up during the public hearing.  Ben Preston even indicated that the most important resource of the City is its residents.  He then went further to state that we hired the Commissioners and staff to do what is in the best interest of the majority of the people and that we may not always agree, but we should trust that they are acting on our behalf.  Well, when the majority of the voters and people come to you and say don’t do something and you do it anyway, well that is how do you say in English, Arrogant.  He even went further to indicate that it is almost like when a parent tells a child “no”.  The difference is parents are paying the bills (like the ones that in October will include the City's 10% Utility tax) with their own money and the Commissioners and staff are playing with ours (I should say "paying" because they are paying themselves hefty salaries with seemingly semi-monthly raises).  In his scenario, if it were true then the City of Deerfield Beach must have taken parenting courses from Casey Anthony because it is killing it’s residents, non-uniformed employees and small businesses and getting away with it.

The Commissioners stated almost in unison that they have cut everything and are acting fiscally responsible.    Bill Ganz even stated that the City Manager has cut to the “bone”, well to get to the bone you have to trim the fat and how could any Commissioner or Staff state that they have trimmed the fat when they just, to take a phrase from Bill, "handed out pay raises like candy", albeit slyly by reclassifying pay grades, but raises none the same. 

The City is even stating that this is to share the burden and must be a shared sacrifice, but where is their sacrifice.  It would seem that the only City Employees that are making a sacrifice are the non-uniformed employees and the retirees.  With Department Heads and Supervisor receieving pay upgrades/raises then how are they contributing to the sacrifice.  How is having an office redecorated for about $10,000.00 sharing in the sacrifice.  The City will have us all believe that these things didn’t happen, as they never address them.  We have several people that have put in prr for this information and none have been fulfilled as of yet. 

We citizens of Deerfield Beach should be pissed, miffed, perturbed, and upset at how they are playing with us.  They place all the blame on citizens and past commissions, but these pay raises during a time when the City is crying broke is unconscionable.  How do you look at people in their faces and blatantly lie.  I guess this is where a theater degree from FSU comes in handy.

I am not even going to touch on the subject of Bill Ganz stating that prior to 9/11 this year, someone ran into a newspaper building with a mask on “frightening” helpless defenseless woman, all in attempt to poke fun or take a shot at him.  Now my question is why this event not in any newspaper that I read was and is there a police report?  I have a hard time believing the Grand Ol Actor Ganz, whose long winded soliloquys  would send the dead into a coma, when he boast about scenarios that he has witnessed or have heard about.

When will the residents of Deerfield Beach begin to realize that something shady is going on here in our fair City?  Peggy Noland did one good thing tonight by asking for people to help the City and to get involved.  The only thing is the City has done so much damage and has alienated so many people that I don’t even know if we can move pass this without a major shakeup.    The City Commission and it's staff keep mixing the numbers and then having their City Manager dictate to his staff to not provide the actual reports to the public until he gives the OK, is unconscionable.  Where is the transparency in government that I guess the Commissioners and the Ganz Gremlin don't want the public to have, even though it is one of our rights afforded to us by Florida's Sunshine Law, which the City of Deerfield Beach so conveniently has learned how to circumvent.  Heck, one person tonight even mentioned that he couldn’t wait until a new mayor and set of commissioners were elected so Burgess Hanson could be fired and take all of his cronies with him.  I too, can’t wait for this very near future and will do everything in my power to contribute to the City and make this a reality.  I call upon all the laid-off employees and all of the employees who have been harassed and victimized by this administration into silence to come together  and speak out against the tyranny and incompetence that we as citizens of Deerfield Beach  and the employees have been victim to for far to long.  So in the drunken and slurred words of Peggy Noland, get involved, get informed, and don't let them get away with this any longer.

The rights of a City should never supersede the rights of its Citizens.