Raw Sewerage

UPDATE: These people, who had flooded homes, were treated MISERABLY the night of the commission meeting to discuss this matter ! Not only was the City LATE in acknowledging the problem, but the City put aside the meeting agenda item until 10:30 PM. Then - those people finally met the "motor-mouths" of the City government!

What the City Manger has implanted for an agenda item on Monday, November 7th, is a study of complete hypocrisy, and countless untruths. Tapes alone support those citizens whose homes were backed up with "RAW" sewerage. Why is the City playing ignorant on this issue? This writer says it's a cover-up ploy engineered by the City manager. If the City has a problem with that statement --- SUE ME !

It is WELL known the League of Cities had dropped the City of Winter Springs legal liability insurance because of the risk, and past history. The City had to pay HIGHER premiums to maintain their coverage. Hey -- City Manager/City Attorney -- let's see how you worm out of that fact! You can't --- it's on tapes !

The tapes show the city manager interrupting, and injecting contradictory material to offset testimony being verbally inserted by city employees. Once again an "honest" person is trying to revert back to the his rendition of the TRUTH --- which McLemore is trying to dis-spell. He'd better hired another consultant to dig himself out of this "sewerage" hole. This man (CM) belongs in the unemployment line --- NO city should hire him !

PFGG was sent an email containing the following dialog, or lack of such, from people who suffered greatly during Hurricane Charley, because of an ERROR by an employee of the City of Winter Springs. These people have been going through a tremendous siege of hypocrisy as directed by City Manager McLemore of the City of Winter Springs, and the claimed ignorance by city officials.

The below letter and dialog is a true story yet to be finalized as held in hostage by that city manager. The story is an unbelievable situation that NO CITIZEN of a city with a "representative" government should ever have to go through, much less the complete distorted ignorance of those "elected" representatives.

The story goes beyond all belief as to the iron rule of an individual --- the city manager --- that obviously has/is attempting to cover-up his total stupidity in assigning responsibility to a un-knowledgeable individual to carry out the most expedient, and efficient means to solve the problem. This is the city manager who probably couldn't find his own office if he didn't hire a consultant for directions.

His first gigantic step of ignorance was to appoint a "gentleman" to handle the City's error by assigning an individual so remote from the problem that is beyond all comprehension. Not that the person is not a good, and he is a wonderful man, but he was put in a position totally foreign to his background. That very good man was the "FIRE CHIEF" of the City of Winter Springs.

What happened to the Utilities Director/Engineer who should have been close to the ERROR ?

The error by a City employee is well documented, and that in itself is another story, and the attempted closure of the matter has been short changed by the City Manager. This OTHER story will be told later, because of the obvious deception by a City of Winter Springs in an internal cover-up. However PFGG has the story, and an upcoming "farce" commission meeting will dictate how we handle the information available to us.

This writer was aware of the situation back when it first surfaced as was the news media. PFGG still has this incident available in our web site archives, and we will give you the links below the amazing correspondence, or lack of such, between the City and the residents involved. They will have "three minutes" at the commission meeting of November the 7th to try to bring forth the TRUTH on the issue, while the dais will have ALL night to address their other higher priorities. There are tapes of where the City has it's priorities, and we are sure it will amaze you, the reader of this web site, on the emphasis of the subject of City's HIGHER priorities --- "Tiny Town" !

The first is a letter begging for assistance written to the Mayor of Winter Springs, his lack of answer, which prompted a letter to Commissioner Sally McGinnis for lack of knowing their true representative. One can NOT believe the lack of even sympathy from either City elected officials, or even a note of direction. Both of these politicians ( no -- not even a politician would be this ignorant ) either didn't answer, or were wishy-washy in any attempted reply.

It’s been awhile since we last spoke after my home was flooded with raw sewage. You were very understanding regarding the emotional and physical upheaval suffered by my family as a result of this horrific event.

The Florida League of Cities did provide assistance during the rebuilding, although it was a long and difficult process. We were forced to leave our home but were able to return in time for Thanksgiving, and believe me, we were very thankful for that.

My husband and I remain concerned, however, that the raw sewage flooding will devalue our home. I spoke with Craig Kesler, a local realtor with years of experience selling in Tuscawilla, and he said that he has had numerous clients call our homes the “sewer homes”. None of our affected neighbors have attempted to sell their homes, but we fear that when the time comes, we will be forced to accept a lower price.

That’s why I and four of my neighbors who were also flooded sent a letter to Ron McLemore asking for what we feel is reasonable compensation for the devaluation of our home, for expenses incurred that were not paid by the Florida League of Cities, and for compensation for the extreme duress suffered by my family.

We want to finally put this unpleasant incident behind us and avoid any negative feelings, publicity, or legal action. That’s why I would welcome your input as we enter this last phase of compensation. In fact, it might be a good idea to openly discuss our letter to Ron at an upcoming Commissioner’s meeting. We are all neighbors who belong to the same community and I feel confident that a fair understanding can be reached.

Please feel free to call me or my husband David at 407-971-4379 to offer your ideas for a positive outcome to this situation.

This PFGG writer spent over two hours on the phone with these people after receiving the emailed correspondence. What has resulted as total despair and lack of decency by City officials has never been published in the prior eight years of this web site.

This is the most egregious story of deceit, deception, and ignorance by the City involvement. I won't go into some of the events as described, because some of the people involved were merely "pawns" of the City Manager move as HE DIRECTED. The total egomania of the "head-master" of the City's action is astounding. Read on --- the dialog is one of despair.

I sent this letter via email to all the Commissioners and the Mayor.

I received no answer. After a week or so, I followed up with an email to Mrs. McGinnis, whom I thought would be most sympathetic to my case, being a woman, and asked if we could meet one-on-one, to avoid jeopardizing the Sunshine Law.

She refused, saying she was told we were in litigation. I replied and said we were not in litigation. She still refused, saying that there was a "general policy" to not to meet with us since there was a "threat of litigation".

I then asked the City Clerk to send me this "policy" in writing. She replied in an email that it was on "general advise" from the City Attorney. - WM

Here is the correspondence to McGinnis --- the LAST person who should have been contacted !

Dear Commissioner McGinnis:

I don't know what you have heard or received from Ron McLemore or Anthony Garganese regarding the homeowners' request for a meeting to discuss outstanding claims as a result of the City's failed sewage system flooding our homes with raw sewage on August 15, 2004. Please allow me this opportunity to present our side to you and to perhaps help you to understand what we have been through since last summer.

It was the promise of the City, in the words of City Manager Ron McLemore, to "make things right...to bring us back to where we were before the events of August 15, 2004." You and some of the other Commissioners also expressed this desire during the August 23, 2004 public meeting -- nine days after the flooding and the first time that you were made aware of this situation, despite Mr. McLemore's full knowledge of those events.

The City's insurance company, the Florida League of Cities, has not restored us to where we were before. They have not made things right. They paid our claims on a depreciated rate, not full replacement dollars -- meaning that we had to pay thousands of dollars to replace furniture, personal belongings, carpeting, even paying for the removal and replacement of a bathtub that was one of the primary sources of raw sewage intrusion (the City's insurance company would only pay for the cleaning, not the replacement, of this tub, although they did pay for ceramic tile and showers to be removed throughout the rest of the house including the kitchen floor).

My husband and I were forced to apply for an SBA loan through FEMA in order to bring our home back to where it was, and to pay for items that the City's insurance company devalued by nearly 50%. Our homeowners policy paid $10,000 -- the full amount of our sewage flood rider -- and then subrogated that amount to the League. The League did pay out an additional $35,000 to remove, replace, and rebuild the nearly 60% of our home that was contaminated. Yet because of their depreciated rate, we have spent nearly $20 thousand of our own money replacing furniture, carpeting, and other items, including replacing the duct work in our ventilation system. Despite our repeated request for the City to test for airborne containments, they did not. My husband and I were not willing to gamble on our or our children's health, and replaced the system at our own expense. We believe that the City should compensate for all or at least part of that duct replacement since dangerous bacteria including e-coli and fecal coli contaminated our un-air-conditioned home for more than 36 hours in 90+ degree heat.

How much money would you be willing to pay for the replacement and rebuilding of your home if the City flooded it with sewage?

The damage to our home was enormous (granted, we were one of the hardest hit). The damage to the Rutherford home was extensive. The Bibiloni's also suffered significant damage, and the German's had contamination in several rooms of their home. We have all spent our own money in paying for the City's failed sewage system.

Ron McLemore has copies of our bills. So does the Florida League of Cities.

Most importantly, there also the very serious issue of devaluation to our home -- our primary financial asset. Realtors call our homes the "sewer homes." Clients don't want to see them. Florida law requires us to reveal that our homes have been flooded, and even though we do have a piece of paper saying that there are no containments, that is not enough to encourage buyers from this negative perception.

There are legal precedents where homeowners have successfully won a percentage of their homes' value from municipalities that flooded their homes. We believe the law is on our side. But frankly, we would hope that the City would do the right thing to replace the lost value due to their own negligence without the need for torte action and negative publicity.

Finally, there is the issue of the extreme emotional stress that we suffered as a result of the City's failed sewage system. My pre-school age children had nightmares and cried about monsters under their bed and in the walls. My husband and I spent hours poring over receipts, paperwork, and correcting mistakes in the estimates prepared by the City's insurance adjuster. We were forced to leave our home for nearly three months. I did not accept client work for that time. I am still spending time and energy resolving this issue; even writing this letter when I could be reading my girls a bedtime story.

Of course, we were not alone. Our friends Jose Bibiloni and Jack Rutherford also lost wages -- significant income, as a matter of fact -- due to their homes' flooding. Theresa and Mark German's foster son, three-year old Blake, suffers from asthma and other respiratory ailments and was very ill following their home being flooded with the dangerous bacteria. Although it is goes without saying that we are grateful that no lives were lost nor anyone seriously injured during the flooding (running back and forth in the dark through gushing raw sewage, crossing the debris-strewn street to take our children out of the stench, etc.), we went through extreme emotional and mental duress as a direct result of the raw sewage contaminating our homes.

We want to put this matter behind us. You and the other Commissioners want to put this matter to rest and move on to other, equally important matters. We want to meet with the City to discuss our compensation but not in the forum of a City Commissioner's meeting (I am attaching a copy of my husband's email about this). Our attorney relayed to us that Ron McLemore indicated that we "rushed" the City to have a meeting. The fact is that our claims, copies of our receipts, and information on legal precedent regarding devaluation of homes have been in his possession since May 2005. It is also a fact that frankly, had we not asked for a continuance of the August 9, 2005 meeting, we would have been astonished and angered to know that the City's insurance company had already prepared an offer, and had you and the other Commissioners voted on it, your decision would have been legally binding and our only action to appeal this decision would have been through a civil court judge. Ron McLemore certainly didn't present the August 9th,2005 meeting as a legal hearing -- which it would have been.

It was this realization that we were in legal matters that were unknown to us that prompted us and three other affected families to engage an attorney.

Commissioner McGinnis, as of this date, our attorney has sent her third request to the City Attorney for a copy of the non-privileged information that the City has had in its possession since at least August 9 (a copy of this email is also attached) of the League's compensation offer and other important information necessary for an open and frank discussion of resolution. I would hope that the City's intent would not be to deny us the information, that the City would want to share this information as soon as possible so that we could discuss, at the staff level, issues that must still be resolved.

I am asking that as my representative, as my Commissioner, that you ask the City Manager and the City Attorney to turn over the information gathered and submitted by the Florida League and other necessary non-privileged information as requested by our attorney so that we can move forward to a fair and final conclusion. If there is to be a meeting on September 12, 2005 (or within a few days of that date, as indicated in the attached email), then our attorney must have adequate time to read and evaluate this information before such a meeting. I would also ask that you consider the events and information presented in this letter as you and the Commissioners, along with the Mayor, prepare to resolve this matter in a fair and balanced manner.

Thank you.

Regards,

Wendy Mize

Homeowner

Winter Springs, Florida 32708

Read the time line of [ events ]

There will be further follow-up on this story as it develops. Meanwhile -- visit the below links.

Also -- should you attend the 11/07/05 commission meeting, and the representatives of the above ONLY are given "three minutes" --- please put in a slip for public input, and grant it to those representatives that the City has already committed plans on cutting short.

They have the same rights as the "BIG" mouthed commissioners, and city manager!

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