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Chapman: High Springs needs experienced leadership

Letter to the editor

If you live in High Springs and wonder why much of the storm debris from Hurricane Helene (Thursday, Sept 26) is still piled up on the streets, a recent public records request sheds much light on this subject.

In spite of the spin by Mayor Weitz and others on social media, the fault lies squarely at the feet of the “new”, and woefully inexperienced, city manager. Instead of making sure the City was well prepared for the storm, he, at the height of hurricane season, flew to a conference in Pennsylvania from September 20-25. It appears from the records request that the storm debris removal contract had expired. A review of text messages indicates that the new Public Works director was also out of town for the week of the storm, returning Sunday, September 29.

Time cards and overtime log sheets from public works (PW) employees were requested and revealed 90 man-hours for Thursday, 42 of which were sewer calls, on-call or storm preparation. On Friday there were approximately 86 man-hours expended by PW workers, of which 11 hours were documented for waste plant duty and sewer services. That leaves 75 man-hours for undocumented duty and/or debris clean-up. On Saturday PW workers put in 31 man-hours. Only approximately 7 of those hours were dedicated to clean-up. The remainder was for pumping basins and servicing lift stations. Sunday PW workers toiled only 18.5 hours, all of which were for sewer leaks and pumping basins.

Visiting many areas of the city on Friday, Saturday and Sunday I saw no city vehicles or workers with the exception of the police. A city official on Saturday evening informed me that Duke could not repair the outages until the City cleared the trees and the City could not remove the debris until Duke told them it was safe. A county commissioner and former city officials remedied this issue on Sunday.

When the “new” city manager returned from his conference, the Mayor gleefully reported that he took down the decorations on Main Street in preparation for the storm. However, text messages from this request revealed that the decorations were removed because a citizen had alerted the city the day before. Another surprise from this request was that Chad Howell, a candidate for the City Commission, was responsible for securing the opening of the public restrooms.

The City’s response to Helene was chaotic, at best. Although police and fire, being directed by experienced professional leaders, ran smoothly, the City was effectively closed from Wednesday noon until Monday. A text message from the Mayor lamented that city phones were not being answered.

During the storm it was the PIO/IT Kevin Mangan managing the emergency, linking himself, the Fire and Police Chiefs and the public works director via texts. The city manager was absent from this thread.
In fairness it should be noted that the new Public Works director was available by telephone, but in light of the importance of that department in a storm emergency, he should have been recalled.

A review of the City manager’s telephone calls during the storm and recovery is eye opening. On the day of his return, Sept. 25, his cell phone records list 8 calls with his wife, two each with his assistant, the chief of police, public works, and a commissioner, one each with the fire chief and building official, one meeting call and a handful of what appear to be personal calls. On Thursday he logged 13 calls with his wife and children, 4 with the CRA director, two with the Mayor, one each with the fire chief and public works, a phone meeting, and five apparently personal calls. On Friday his phone log shows 16 calls with his wife and children, 5 with public works, 4 with the recreation department, 3 with a commissioner, two with the chief of police, and one each with the PIO officer and the building official. Saturday revealed 13 calls to his wife and family, 4 to the Mayor, and two to the Fire Chief, and one each to the Police chief, the PIO officer, the building official, and public works. On Sunday there were 16 calls to his wife and children, 4 to the city clerk, 2 to his assistant, and one each to two individual commissioners, the chief of police and the finance director and public works. There were also multiple calls to his real estate agent, his mortgage broker, and Norwegian Cruise lines.

The City of High Springs needs a City Manager who is experienced and on duty. With the forced resignations of so many long term employees there is little institutional knowledge left in High Springs. The Commission, with the exception of one member who is retiring, are all first timers. Sue Weller, a former commissioner and mayor with vast municipal administration experience, is running against Mayor Weitz. Chad Howell, a first responder, is also running for election. Both of these individuals are well versed in emergency management. Please vote on November 5, or before. Weller and Howell will right the listing High Springs ship and we will be ready for the next storm.

Linda Rice Chapman, Esq.

The opinions expressed by letter or opinion writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AlachuaChronicle.com. Assertions of facts in letters are similarly the responsibility of the author. Letters may be submitted to info@alachuachronicle.com and are published at the discretion of the editor.

  • This is eye opening and yes ut us concerning. I hope the current mayor and city commission give their side to this matter. Unfortunately being one side it sounds like a campaign ad. But never the less it needs to be investigated.

  • City personnel took care of the sewer grinders and pumps, so no one had sewage backing up in their homes, which was appropriate and primary in importance. As I read it, city personnel were not out removing trees because they were making sure sewage was not backing up, which led to a tremendous amount of overtime.These people do have to sleep, and they have families and damage too. You have a problem with the city manager–address it with him, but do not fault the hardworking city employees who went above and beyond to keep everything going after we got slammed by a hurricane.

  • The attorney who wrote this biased letter fails to acknowledge that she represents omen of the former employees who is suing High Springs. Conflict of interest, bias or just plain causing trouble. Have you expressed your opinion to the city manager in a sit-down mtg or just prefer to blast it via news? How many letters will you write? You’d already sent letters to your other rag, Alachua Today. Also, maybe this attorney/letter writer can also shed light on the raid of her and her son’s law office in Alachua. What’s up with that?

    • Thank you for reminding us that on July 3, 2024 the FDLE conducted a raid and searched the building at 14804 Main Street in Alachua and hauled away lots of evidence. I cannot wait till the Chronicle can update this story.

      We do not yet know WHO was raided and what FDLE were searching for. It takes months for investigations and grand juries to do their work, but it should be done about now. However, the State Attorney is up for reelection and perhaps he is waiting till after the election, just speculating.

      14804 Main Street is a small red brick building. It houses three companies:
      The Alachua County Today publication.
      Law offices of Brian Boukari.
      Law offices of Linda Rice Chapman.

      For those who wonder why I refer to the ACT as a publication, not a newspaper, it is because it is not a newspaper, but a propaganda sheet that heavily slants the news. For example, Brian Boukari’s brother Ben was a Alachua City Commissioner who not once but twice was arrested for DUI, being drunk in the middle of the day, causing accidents, and running from the police, resisting arrest, and getting Tasered in the butt. Facts. ACT did not print one word of this story.

      ACT did not report the story that their offices were visited by the FDLE. It is not a newspaper.

    • A Letter to the Editor is just that. A letter that you feel strongly enough in your convictions about that you are willing to sign your name to it. It may be biased or one-sided, but aren’t we each limited to our own perspective to some degree? Do you want to challenge the letter? Send in your own letter. A dialogue among concerned citizens is informative and makes for great reading. And don’t forget about Freedom of the Press. A Newspaper or Publication can run the letters or stories at their own discretion.

      And while we are all having some amusement by playing fast and loose with the anonymous comments, two of these posts here stand out as taking a big leap away from High Springs, emergency response, etcetera. Instead of going out of the way (across city lines) to muckrake old stories, why don’t we put the focus back on doing good for High Springs? Grudges indeed!

  • Yea, and Alachua needs far better leadership than the Watson/Boukari cabal and their lackeys that has mismanaged the city for 20 years. Why do you not complain about that? Why?

  • As a neutral party in High Springs, I find this to be an interesting and selective hit piece. Never mind the fact that some of that loss of “institutional knowledge” happened because the former public works director flirted with resigning, finally did it, and the city moved on by accepting his resignation (contrary to the false claim that he was fired). I recall a failed paving project that happened under his watch, why no mention of that? This letter gives zero consideration for the other side of the story.

    The new city manager has improved morale amongst city staff, increased transparency, and streamlined different areas of the budget, while our former city manager (who was great at planning but not at people management) cost the city tens of thousands of dollars due to her negligence in contract negotiations, yet you’d like to paint our current manager as a failure?

    You’re cherry picking information to paint him in a negative light and it reeks of a lack of decency and respect. You should consider a career in journalism with Buzzfeed, MSNBC, or WaPo.

    I have a great deal of respect for Sue Weller’s past service to the city, and this isn’t the way to make a case for her candidacy. Do better.

  • Oh wow – imagine starting out my work week with this bright shining light to guide my way to clarity and focus!! How DO you do it? Your ability to pour through the volumes of public records requests that you submit AND have a life outside of that one task alone? Indeed – we High Springs residents are much more informed and elucidated this morning thanks to your tireless efforts at checking to see how often our city manager checks in with his wife and kids.

    Imagine what you could have written had we not taken down the lovely fall decorations that our fabulous CRA director carefully and lovingly put together and hung? Thank goodness you pointed out that we sprang to action to get them down after a resident had contacted us, for if we hadn’t, then you could write about how we failed to act and cost the city money because we couldn’t be bothered. And for the record, you fail to mention that our Fire Chief also helped to get the wreaths down. He didn’t miss a beat. Most rational people would just say thank you.

    Hurricane Helene was a storm such that we have never seen in High Springs in all the time I have lived here. Many lessons have been learned because our City Manager is a leader and engaged with his staff. They have had many conversations about what lessons they learned and that was already evident in their planning for potential impacts from Milton.

    Did you know that the City Manager slept on an air mattress on the floor of his office during Milton? Did you know that he personally walked to all of the businesses downtown to check on them (other than restaurants during their lunch hour) and make sure there were no issues that he might address? He could have mentioned that at the meeting last Thursday during one particular public comment, but instead chose to continue showing infinite restraint and professionalism.

    And since you (rather unwisely I might add) chose to try to bring details about his family in to your rant, I doubt you have met his wife or any of his children. She is one of the loveliest creatures on the planet and he has been willing to live here for more than 6 months apart from her to serve you better. Most decent people would just say thank you. Perhaps she and I may cross paths with you one evening at a downtown establishment while you are having one of your well known displays very publicly and at full room volume. I’ll make sure to steer her in another direction.

    Every city, city manager, and elected official learns from their mistakes, and we course correct to do better next time. And then there are others who continue to paint a sad picture of filling their days with voluminous public records requests. Thank you for your efforts at providing even more clarity to what has been going on in High Springs for many years.

    Kudos to the Alachua Chronicle for publishing your letter – this is what it looks like to be open and accessible to all points of view. As a candidate running for re-election, I am very grateful to them.

    • Wasn’t the CM living in an RV and therefore required to evacuate durning the hurricane? It’s good he was at City Hall but possibly not as noble of a gesture as portrayed by KW.

  • With such a large area impacted by storms and the need for debris services everywhere contractors are swamped. The County contract did not expire. Finding workers to fulfill the contract has been difficult. Power has been restored and no one was killed in the County life was only inconvenienced. Not destroyed and disrupted as it has been in the Carolina’s. Deal with some debris for a while. It will get picked up. Count your blessings it could have been so much worse.

  • I support Weitz, but it would be nice if Marshall stayed put for a while – considering he is still very new to the job and has already missed several meetings. Maybe try to err on the side of showing up for meetings instead of more conferences or whatever (at least for a while).

  • I concur that Weller and Howell are the better choices. Institutional memory is important and a strong consideration.

  • I respect everyone’s opinions here, but being a past employee of the City has been very eye opening. No matter your opinion, do not be upset about the authors letter because she drilled down on the City, by public records requests. Her information is perfectly accurate, per the records she received FROM the City. Emotions and personal issues have no place in politics. Please do not be upset by the truth. We should all be working together and not letting personal feelings obscure the truth.

    • Here Here! Finally someone who does not get their soft little feelings bruised by a few harsh truths!!! SNOWFLAKES

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