idontevenknow.net

A thought was voiced to a member of the IDEK staff the other day, and it was this: There are a group of County employees who work part-time, yet receive significant salaries - about $60k/yr. These employees all have regular employment besides the part-time work they do for the county. There are five of them, and they are the County Commissioners. Together they draw about $300k/yr in salary and are provided office space, all for part-time work. Here's an idea: Lets let them use the same flawed and un-thought-out logic they used to approve the reorg plan if they like, but rather than removing five people from their jobs and putting actual productive workers out of work in order to add a layer of management and give raises to other managers, how about the Commissioners simply vote themselves a 50% pay decrease? That way, there'd be $60k/yr x 5 / 2 = $150K/yr savings, which is even more than the demonstrable $137K that the reorg promises, some part-time workers get compensation commensurate with the part-time jobs they hold, and nobody who works for the County full-time to actually support a family has to lose their job. Just a thought, and a worthy one.

A lot has happened since the last update. IDEK has been trying to get information about it all through the proper channels, but for some reason the information seems to be slow in being released. We can't imagine why Hernando County would be reticent to disclose the reasoning behind their actions, but it appears as though they are. What we do know is this: There is a Reorganization of the county government structure underway; one that is supposed to save the County a load of cash. That savings was outlined on a "spreadsheet" provided to the Commissioners as a piece of paper with handwritten notes and other pieces of paper taped to it by Susan Goebel*. The math on it was based on erroneous assumptions and even then didn't actually add up. That's her usual level of competence, so it wasn't surprising. A few responsible individuals took it upon themselves to correct the math and the assumptions and the one glaring gross conceptual error that the plan included, and showed that the projected $800K+ savings actually ended up reducing the budget by about $135K at the expense of five workers but adding four administrative positions and giving raises to six others. Because that's what the poor, broke, deficit-ridden County budget needs is to cut $50K/yr jobs of people who actually accomplish work while adding a layer of $90K/yr management between Len Sossamon (the County Administrator) and the managers of the various departments. That information was transmitted to several of the Commissioners prior to the vote. To their credit, two of the Commissioners (James Adkins and Diane Rowden) quizzed Susan Goebel about the reorg, and ended up voting against it. Nick Nicholson, when told of the flaws in the plan, made lip service about voting against it, but in the manner of a typical politician, when it came time to keep his word he not only voted for the reorg but praised Susan Goebel for the plan. Those of you who voted for Nicholson: remember that his word is... fluid at best. So, since Wayne Dukes and Dave Russell can't get past Susan Goebel's hair twirling, the measure passed 3-2 and five workers lost their jobs while four new middle management positions were created and raises were given to several other middle managers. We at IDEK wonder if Dukes and Russell know that Susan Goebel doesn't really have any interest in people like them beyond manipulating them to suit her wants. Might be worth a question or two, just to keep her honest. Might be interesting to find out what kind of people Susan Goebel does have an interest in.

Now, let's talk about the jobs that got reorg'd out. All were in the Utilities Department, and all were people that the incompetent Susan Goebel and the petty whiny Denise Agosto don't like. That's the common thread - not that the jobs were redundant or unnecessary. One of the victims had an opportunity to bump in the same office, and Susan Goebel went so far as to try to reclassify that potential bumpee's job so the reorg'd out person could not bump. That's how pathetic this has become. That's how small and petty and childish Susan Goebel is. And it's so obvious that even IDEK, outside the organization, can see it while the Commissioners choose to ignore it. Some will bump into other offices, but even then that's a person out of work. Putting people on unemployment (paid by the County and the State) to try to find work in this economy is apparently preferable to keeping them employed but bothering Susan Goebel and Denise Agosto.

The reorg progresses and those who are most affected by it are acting accordingly. IDEK would ask that, if the actions of the County government bother you, please go to the Commissioners' meetings and use your 3 minutes to tell them so. Susan Goebel and her cadre are making three of the five the Commissioners look foolish and all the county look corrupt. Ask the other three Commissioners to grow a spine and do the right thing.

*IDEK will no longer refer to Susan Goebel as "Susie G". Not out of respect, of course, but because the more occurrences of a text string appear in the internet, the more likely it is that a search engine will locate and return that string in context.

Well, you have all probably heard about the layoff notifications that went out today. All part of the reorganization that mentioned below, and none of it mentioned in either the agenda packet or the Commissioners meeting. IDEK has learned that at least two Inspectors and an Admin Assistant (names withheld out of respect for privacy) all received notices of layoff, and there may be more. An interesting thing to note here is that every job cut is from the union staff. Not one single management position was cut. Not. One. In fact, as mentioned below, the county is adding management positions. Seems... counterintuitive. Doesn't it?

One of the inspectors has enough seniority that he can bump someone else, but that's still a person out of a job. Interestingly, the Admin Assistant that received the notice has the experience and seniority to bump the troublemaking Denise Kane-Agosto from her job. IDEK would like to suggest that he or she pursue that option. If he or she does that, one of two things will happen. 1) Denise Kane-Agosto will be out of the county government and all the problems she causes will likewise evaporate, or 2) The county will somehow magically find a way to keep the noticed Admin Assistant in his or her position so Denise Kane-Agosto doesn't get bumped, clearly and blatantly demonstrating the favoritism that Susie G shows for Denise Kane Agosto. There's no downside! You know who you are: if you're reading this, please consider the option of bumping Denise Kane-Agosto. It would do everyone in the Utilities offices a lot of good. Consider yourself encouraged by IDEK.

Happy New Year, everyone! Let's get to it. IDEK observed the Hernando County Commissioners meeting yesterday, specifically to hear the plans for the reorganization. Leonard Sossamon spoke on it for 20 minutes or so. His plan is to add four new management positions, all reporting to him, to oversee various consolidated aspects of day-to-day county administration. In the few minutes he spoke, he shows some slides, which you can see in the first few pages of this pdf we cut out of the 78MB Agenda Packet presented on the HCBC website. The other 10 pages we cut out are the job posting details for the positions, which Sossamon did not even mention in the meeting.

In Hernando county, we have a nearly $2M budget shortfall looming. County employees are being told to accept wage reductions as part of austerity measures necessary to keep the county running. And then along comes Mr. Sossamon adding management positions with salary increases (if filled from within the county) or new salaries (if filled from without). He says filling the positions from within will only cost an additional $40K/year. Apparently, the positions vacated by those who move up will not be filled, because if they were then there'd be salary increases for those moving into the vacated positions which would add even more cost. So, it must be that he wants to take people who are doing management jobs even he thinks can just be eliminated, and move them into higher management positions. Either way, what he's after doesn't add up to his cost estimate.

Now let's look at the consolidation, particularly the Operations department. The new Operations department is described by Sossamon to encompass the "out in the field" type work done throughout the county. Except, for some reason, the Parks department, but whatever. Operations will include DPW, the County Engineer, Public Safety, Fire/Rescue, Animal Services, Utilities, and Water/Sewer/Solid Waste Departments. The job description for that position requires a Master's Degree in Public Administration and three years experience, or a Bachelor's degree on Public or Business Administration and 5 years experience. Do you see what IDEK sees? No one currently in these departments, as far as IDEK is aware, meets these requirements. Sossamon wants to pay someone with a very non-technical background and absolutely no clue what any of these departments actually does on a day-to-day basis six figures to make sure they do it right on a day-to-day basis, so he doesn't have to administrate the county on a day-to-day basis despite his title as County Administrator. IDEK thinks that is just foolish. The person you need in that position has a broad technical background and experience not only doing technical projects but also managing technical workers and staff. Not, and IDEK means not at all, do you want someone who's trained for years to be a mid-level government manager, without any care as to what they might actually manage once they get the position.

You can review the other department responsibilities and job requirements for yourselves if you care to. But here's a couple things to keep an eye on: Per the attached Job Descriptions, Susie G doesn't qualify to run the Operations department. But, she's a friend of Sossamon and the hair-twirling darling of Wayne Dukes. Also, Cheryl Marsden doesn't qualify to run the General Services department, but she's also a friend of several of the people who will vote on who gets the job. Think the requirements will get relaxed so the 'right' people get the job? IDEK does. We'll see. The Commission is supposed to vote on candidates in the January 22nd meeting.

Yesterday, this article came out in the Hernando Today. It concerns Jesse Goodwin and his responses to the Sexual Harassment charges leveled against him. You can read the article, but this is a quote from it:

"Goodwin said in the investigative report that he is tends to have a friendly attitude to female subordinates, which they could perceive to be 'flirtatious.' He doesn't deny that. 'If I'm guilty of anything, perhaps it is I like to think of everyone as my friend and maybe sometimes, someone could interpret it as flirting,' he said. That is not sexual harassment, he added. Sexual harassment, he said, occurs when someone expects sexual favors, and that did not occur in this case."

OK, regardless of whether you believe Bobbie Hamilton's version of the events (in which Jesse Goodwin expected Ms. Hamilton to lift her shirt for him) or you believe Jesse Goodwin's (in which it was all a joke), that's Jesse Goodwin admitting that he knows the way he interacts with his "female subordinates" can be considered "flirting", and admitting that he doesn't believe "flirting" is sexual harassment.

Hernando County is committed to fostering positive business practices that are designed to ensure that all employees are treated with respect and dignity. An important objective of these policies is to prevent a working environment from developing which because of prohibited conduct interferes with an employee’s work or is intimidating, hostile or offensive. Hernando County prohibits harassment and discrimination based on an individual’s race, religion, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, medical condition, mental and/or physical disability, marital status,

Additionally, any sexually harassing or offensive conduct, whether by managers, supervisors, employees, or non-employees who enter the County’s workplace, is prohibited. Such prohibited conduct includes, but is not limited to:

1. Unwanted physical contact or offensive conduct of a sexual nature, including flirtations, advances, or propositions;

OK, that's the Hernando County policy on Sexual Harassment plainly saying that flirting is sexual harassment. This is information Jesse Goodwin, as a supervisor, should not only be aware of but should be knowledgeable enough on to know when it's happening to his subordinates.

So, Jesse Goodwin admitted in the Hernando Today newspaper that he sexually harassed at least one of his subordinates and he's unclear about the contents of Hernando County's policy on Sexual Harassment though he is required to be current on it. Now, the question is this: what will Cheryl Marsden and Susie G do about it?

RETRACTION: The post date December 27, 2012 (below) included a link to a website which was apparently the location where Hernando County's Sexual Harassment Training materials were at one time or were to be available. IDEK received an email indicating that the Sexual Harassment Training materials are no longer kept at that location, and that those materials are available through Hernando County's intranet. Since this information is not available from outside the County computer network, IDEK cannot comment on the thoroughness of the current Sexual Harassment Training materials. IDEK apologizes in general and specifically to Cheryl Marsden for the error.

IDEK would also like to see copies of the current Sexual Harassment Training materials so that comments may be made, and is pursuing this course of action through the usual means.

Today, this article appeared in Hernando Today. It concerns allegations of sexual harassment against Bobbie Hamilton by her then-supervisor Jessie Goodwin. You can read the article for the explanations of what occurred, but that's not the point of this IDEK post. The point of this post is this: while the 'investigation' was ongoing and even now, as Goodwin has been found guilty of this charge and awaits determination of the extent of whatever 'punishment' Cheryl Marsden decides is appropriate for her friend Jesse, *pause for effect* Bobbie Hamilton is now being required to report to Jesse Goodwin. Yes, you read that right. He sexually harasses her as she's leaving the department he supervised, and now that transfer is void and she has to continue to work for the guy. That's Hernando County HR for you. Cheryl Marsden clearly hasn't a clue how a real HR department is supposed to be run. It's time to get someone into that office who's less concerned with the immediate welfare of her friends and covering up damage to the office garage, and more concerned with making the County a good, fair place to work where the employees don't have to fear retribution when they raise an issue. There's an idea.

Here is a link to the most current edition of the Hernando County policy on Harassment, including Sexual Harassment. Note that it's been in place since July 1, 2000.

Yesterday, this article appeared in the Hernando Edition of the Tampa Bay Times. This is the first sentence: "In the nearly three years that Susan Goebel-Canning has overseen the snake-bit Hernando Beach Channel dredge, there have been few moments when the task felt like a success." That, dear readers, is the understatement of the year. The Dredge Project is one of the worst-run efforts that we have ever even heard of in Hernando County. Initially budgeted for about $8.7M and to be completed in 2011, is now at over $15M and, though the work is ostensibly "done", there are over $4M in outstanding lawsuits to be settled or arbitrated. The lawsuits pertain to unbudgeted money that the county paid out of the General Fund to contractors on the dredge project for work that was deemed necessary but missed by the project manager. Susie G is the project manager for this catastrophe. Her position that the work was unnecessary and the payments for it should be recovered will be pretty foolish in light of her prior approval of those payments. She let the project go to nearly double the budget and allowed delay after delay after delay. Consider this: The guy you hired to maintain your lawn for you told you he'd subcontracted the hedges out for $50 and they'd have them done by the weekend. He then calls several times to tell you his contractors aren't going to be able to get the hedges done because he forgot to tell them about all the hedges, and that they should be paid double for being late besides. Do you keep paying your lawn guy, or do you fire him and get someone who is not as demonstrably incompetent?

Being a project manager necessarily means managing projects. Susie G has pretty much only had one project to manage the the entire time she's been with the County, and that remains an embarrassing disaster. Being a Department Director necessarily means directing the department. Susie G has utterly failed to bring the Utilities Department together; in fact she's managed to nearly destroy the department's morale with her cliques, politics, and hair twirling. No one that we at IDEK are aware of in her department wants to work with or for her. No one that we at IDEK are aware of takes her seriously as either an engineer or as a manager. The county needs to rid itself of her, for the good of the county and it's employees. Hernando County can do much, much better.

A lot has happened since the last update, but I'm having trouble getting verification of the reports through Hernando County Human Resources. I'll keep after verification. I like to have these updates verified by the county, but for now I'll go with the normal journalistic standard of three independent sources. First, it seems that several County employees, some of whom are members of the Teamsters Local 79, have been approached by their supervisors and told that they should consider taking a lower-responsibility (and lower-paying) position or else their current job will be eliminated. You can see why I'm having difficulty getting verification. Where did the idea for these scare tactics come from? Well, Susie G did exactly the same thing when she was at the Department of Public Works, right before she fired all the inspectors and workers, made them reapply for the same job (with a slightly rewritten description to avoid lawsuits).

Next, there is Denise Kane-Agosto. She's apparently under investigation by the County for being... well, if you work for the County, then you know how she is. Looks like tomorrow (12/11) there will be several meetings involving HCHR, the union, and a number of people who are unfortunate enough to have to be in the same building with that... well, you know. Seems she's going out of her way to be especially obnoxious to a few particular people, and it seems that at least one of them has had enough and went to HR about her in a manner that requires an inquiry, rather than the usual sweep-it-under-the-rug that happens when people complain about friends of Susie G and Cheryl Marsden. Could it be that it's no longer possible for Cheryl Marsden to ignore the common denominator in the problems with the County employees, and now it's time to throw somebody under the proverbial bus? We live in hope, but Susie G should be aware: it's a big bus.

It seems that last Friday (October 19th), Susan Goebel-Canning, Grand Incompetent Overlord of the Hernando County Utilities Department, also known as She Who Is Respected By No One, put out a memo describing a new employee schedule. Work will commence at 8:00am and will cease at 4:30pm. Exactly 1/2 hour is authorized for lunch. Employees are also to review the County's Code of Conduct (which was last revised in 2007 and was attached to the memo). The memo states "These policies are attached for your reference with emphasis on conducting oneself in a manner that maintains the highest level of achievement and morale." Seriously? THIS is what you do to improve morale? I doubt Susan Goebel-Canning can even spell "morale". If she knew what the word meant she'd avoid saying it out of fear. She is the tied with Cheryl Marsden as the biggest detriment to morale among County employees. Ask any of them. You want to raise County employee morale, Susie G? Resign. Walk your incompetent annoying self out the door and take that arrogant pompous fool Marsden with you. Morale will go through the roof.

Also, some of you may recall how Susan Go... you know what? I think I'll just call her Susie G form now on. Some of you may recall how Susie G fired all the inspectors at DPW and made them interview for their old jobs at a reduced salary. Well, guess what: she's got a meeting with all the Utilities Department inspectors scheduled for Wednesday. What do you suppose the topic will be?

Today, this article was released by the Hernando Today newspaper. It concerns the Supplemental Letter that Susan Goebel-Canning and Cheryl Marsden placed in Koontz's personnel file without informing her and thereby violating the contract between the County and the Teamster's Local 79, of which Koontz is a member. It turns out that this is the first instance to date where the actions of a County-employed manager were reversed by the decision of another County-employed manager pertaining to a grievance filed by the Union. The case did not go to Arbitration, with all the expense to the County that would have incurred. This is because the County-employed manager that had been chosen by Marsden and Goebel-Canning to make the decision, Brian Malmberg, wisely chose to see the truth of the grievance and find in Koontz's favor rather than bow to the irrational will of these two out-of-control women. Cheryl Marsden said that the letter was removed from Koontz's file but could not be destroyed since "it is a public document".

You know what else might be a public document? The results of the drug test Cheryl Marsden had to take after damaging the exit garage door of the County complex with the County-owned vehicle she was driving earlier this week. IDEK will be checking on that, you bet. The results of the test might be a bit delayed, however, since she reportedly refused to take the drug test initially, only relenting a day or so later. What drugs can you detox from in one day? Hmmmm. Related hypocrisy: In what is not at all an amazing coincidence, Marsden is in the process of placing a reprimand in another County employee's record for waiting a day to report a traffic accident in a county vehicle. In her typical fashion, the rules she applies to others don't appear to apply to her. Marsden is a detriment to the morale and efficient functioning of the County government and needs to be fired. Replacing her with a competent manager would be a far better use of the limited funds Hernando County has to work with.

Today, this article came out in the Tampa Bay Times Hernando edition. It concerns Diana Koontz's filing with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over her treatment at the hands of several of her fellow county employees. The filing describes gender-based harassment and a campaign to prevent her from advancing in her career by Susan Goebel-Canning (Hernando County Environmental Services Director), Cheryl Marsden (Hernando County Human Resources Director), and Denise Kane-Agosto (a secretary in the Utilities Department). The article references the complaint but does not provide all the details, so since it is also public record, I'm including it below.

After I read this article and later, this article on the Hernando Today website, I wondered what the Supplemental Letter to Diana Koontz's Evaluation might actually look like. So, I went to Hernando County Human Resources and asked to have the supplemental letter written by Susan Goebel-Canning and placed in the file by Cheryl Marsden, as well as any response to that letter that Diana Koontz may have added. Again, these letters are public record, so you can read them for yourself. I scanned them and have included them below to save you all some time.

Supplemental Letter written by Susan Goebel-Canning and placed in Koontz's file without her knowledge by Cheryl Marsden	Response to Supplemental Letter by Diana Koontz
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As you can see, the letter by Susan Goebel-Canning contains not a single reference to a disagreement with Ravencraft's original positive review of Koontz. It contains only personal opinions about Koontz's demeanor in that meeting. It clearly is not a Supplemental Letter concerning Koontz's evaluation at all, but is simply an attempt to put more negative words in Koontz's file. The fact that Susan Goebel-Canning and Cheryl Marsden knowingly placed this letter in Diana Koontz's personnel file and intentionally did not notify Koontz about that action makes it clear that the whole thing was a botched attempt to further sabotage Diana Koontz's career. The fact that they were caught doing so shows their apparent ignorance of the scrutiny under which they are working (not only from the newspapers and the intrepid staff of idontevenknow, but from the county employees, their union, and a growing number of community organizations).

Diana Koontz's response to the Supplemental Letter is damning. In it she notes that she specifically asked Susan Goebel-Canning if the meeting she was called to, in which the details related in the Supplemental Letter allegedly occurred and which occurred after normal working hours, was going to concern her performance evaluation or a reprimand. Koontz said that, if that were the case, she'd like to have the meeting during normal working hours and have a union representative in attendance. Goebel-Canning assured Koontz that the meeting was not a formal one and that she didn't need union representation. Since the substance of that meeting ended up in a Supplemental Letter to the Koontz's Performance Evaluation, that means Susan Goebel-Canning flat-out lied to Koontz about the purpose of the meeting in order to prevent her from having her union representative in attendance. Another violation of the contract between Hernando County and the Teamsters.

How long do we Citizens of Hernando County have to put up with this kind of gross incompetence, petty backstabbing, and willful breaking of County contracts? Contact your Commissioner and the County Administrator by using the link at the bottom of the page. Tell them you want Susan Goebel-Canning removed from the Utilities Director position because she clearly cannot do the job and would rather spend her time spitefully scheming. Tell them you want Cheryl Marsden removed from the Human Resources Director position because she would rather violate the rules of the HR Department and a county contract than do her job ethically and transparently.

After reading this article in the Tampa Bay Times - Hernando Edition, I wondered what the full text of the letters that the paper used small parts of might look like. So, since the letters are public information, I went to the Hernando County Government building and got copies of the letters. I scanned them and redacted irrelevant info (not removed, simply blacked out). Now, when I went to get the full text letters, I waited in the Hernando County Human Resources (Room 263 in the new County Government Building at 20 N. Main St. in Brooksville). I was provided copies of the 4-page Ravencraft letter and the 2-page Koontz letter. Later, after being advised that the original Ravencraft letter was actually much longer, I went back and asked for the full, unedited version. I received another copy of the letter, but this time it is 7 pages longer. I will not speculate as to why I was given an edited version before. You can read them for yourself, as they are public records. Note: Ravencraft's letters append a copy of his resume, which I did not include.

Kenneth Dale Ravencraft's Discipline Rebuttal Letter - as provided August 9th, 2012 by Hernando County Human Resources	Kenneth Dale Ravencraft's Discipline Rebuttal Letter - Full version as provided August 14th 2012 by Hernando County Human Resources	Diana Koontz's Discipline Rebuttal Letter as provided August 9th, 2012 by Hernando County Human Resources
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Now, the TBT article seems to indicate that the discipline actions stem from a kerfuffle with the Peck Sink project wherein Susan Goebel-Canning directed Ravencraft to place a written warning in Koontz's file concerning the grass installation at the project instead of the sod called for in the plan, and subsequent rains damaged the project. When Ravencraft at first refused and then did not immediately comply with Goebel-Canning's order, she in turn placed a reprimand in his file, the reason given as 'insubordination'. Ravencraft protested the whole series of decisions by Goebel-Canning, and that protest led to his being told to resign or be fired. That's what the TBT article says.

Koontz's letter rebutting the reprimand she received is to-the-point and gives a chronology of the Peck Sink damage as they occurred, and provides an argument for each decision she made. This includes the one at issue, the one concerning seeding the ground rather than sodding. She indicates that she was directed by a county commissioner to avoid any change orders. Since there was already damage to the project from TS Beryl rain that needed to be repaired, after getting no response from King Engineering, (the Engineer of Record on the project) on how to do the repairs without increasing costs, she decided to use seed rather than sod and spend the difference on repairing the damage from TS Beryl. A decision had to be made and something had to get done.

Part of Ravencraft's edited letter details his disagreement with the decision to place a reprimand in his file. He gives his opinion on the process that led to the decision and goes far in defending Koontz's actions and his reticence to place a reprimand in Koontz's file for a situation as unavoidable as TS Debby was. From then on, however, Dale Ravencraft's letter is quite different. Reading through it, the real reason for Ravencraft's ouster is clear: He holds a very low opinion of Susan Goebel-Canning and said so in print. His letter refers to ongoing problems with one of the staff, a secretary called Denise Agosto. Several years ago she was apparently hooking up with another county employee called Chris Soto, while Soto was separated from his wife. When Soto called it off to return to his wife, Agosto could not handle the rejection and began a campaign against him and anyone he considered a friend. This included several employees of the county including Diana Koontz. Bear in mind that the Soto-Agosto thing ended long before Koontz was even employed by Hernando County, but Agosto clearly can carry a grudge. So Agosto bent the ear of Goebel-Canning in an effort to damage Koontz's career. And as isolated and gullible as Goebel-Canning clearly is, it apparently is working.

The text of Ravencraft's full letter gives a lot of details about the petty personal agendas, obsessive grudges, and childish behavior of several employees of the Hernando County Utilities Department, specifically Denise Agosto and Susan Goebel-Canning. At 11 pages it's a long read, but worth it if you want to know how petty and small the Hernando County Director of Utilities and her favorite secretary really are. Agosto is dangerously obsessed with Soto, and she's bent on making life difficult for anyone who dares to not hate Soto. It's all right there in the letter. It is interesting that the Tampa Bay Times and Hernando Today both have copies of these letters, although they may have been given the edited version as I was. They opted out of printing some of the more pointed parts for whatever reasons they had. I will not edit the details as they have done.

On top of all this sad fifth-grade playground drama there is Ravencraft's references to his surprise at Goebel-Canning's installation as Director given her appalling lack of project management skills and experience. A person in a Director's position needs to have both the engineering skillset to understand what the projects are about and what the schedule means, and the personnel management skills to make sure the department runs smoothly and efficiently so as to make the best use of the taxpayer funds and the revenue garnered from the water and sewer bills we pay. But does Susan Goebel-Canning accomplish that task? Not even a little bit. Did you know that after she became Utilities Director she kicked everyone out of the top floor of the Utilities building on Cortez Blvd., probably so she could not be observed by anyone and to limit her contact with people who might ask her a question? True story. Read the Ravencraft letters, and you soon get a tale of a pair of small-minded petty gossiping children who would rather see the county's money wasted and the careers of good engineers destroyed than be professional and aboveboard in their dealings. Goebel-Canning's engineering project management skills are demonstrably as bad or worse than her management skills. Her only real project was the Canal Dredge, and it ended up way, WAY over schedule and budget. That, people, is really bad project management. I think she's risen well beyond her level of incompetence. Denise Agosto's obsession with Chris Soto is clearly affecting her ability to behave in a professional manner at work. She should, as Ravencraft pointed out, be transferred to another department or, as I'd suggest, fired outright. Her behavior is disruptive and her sway over the easily-led Goebel-Canning has caused far too much upset within the Utilities Department.

We here at idontevenknow.net don't even know why Susan Goebel-Canning is still in a position to use the Utilities Director office to carry out petty vendettas against people she's supposed to be supervising, people who work had and get things done, while at the same time gutting the county's capability to complete projects on-time and on-budget in favor of her own clearly inferior way of doing things. Her salary comes from your water and sewer bills, people. Are you happy with what you're paying for? Me neither, so now's when you say something to your county commissioners. How? Click here to get their District locations, contact information and email addresses. Call them, email them, let them know you're not OK with the incompetence in and around the Utilities Director's chair.

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