City Attorney Tim Oksman requests Margarita Mixer

In an email I obtained via the Virginia Freedom of Information Act from City of Portsmouth, City Attorney Tim Oksman makes a request to the Commander of the Police Training Unit Lt. Scott Burke to obtain information about “any good margarita mixers”. This was in response to Lt Burke’s email he sent soliciting information requests from the Police Department for any items/products the Police Department might be interested in him gathering information about while he is at the IACP (International Association of Chief of Police) Conference.

Now does anyone think that this might be inappropriate?

We have enough problems in the City of Portsmouth and the Portsmouth Police Department management then to make requests for items that are at the least not appropriate for the work place. They would be City of Portsmouth policy violations and an automatic termination if used in the work place by an employee.

That brings me to some other interesting information. It appears that the City of Portsmouth Police Department’s Detective Bureau Management likes to encourage team-building. A noble concept if used in an appropriate manner and setting. But somehow I just don’t see how they can justify having supervisors and management go to a Norfolk Tides baseball game, consume alcohol and then put it on their time sheets with the taxpayers of the City of Portsmouth having to pickup the tab. Well from what I have been told that is exactly the case. Whatever happened to morals and ethics?

So perhaps alcohol use is in fact an accepted on the job/on duty endeavor given the City Attorneys email?

I can tell you first hand that the City of Portsmouth Management and the Executive Management of the Portsmouth Police Department follow whatever rules they feel like and disregard those they don’t. Actually this doesn’t just go with City and Police Department Policies but they have routinely broken the very laws that they are sworn to protect. It’s a very said state of affairs for the City of Portsmouth and the Portsmouth Police Department. The actions of a select few individuals in management give a bad name and reputation to a large group of honest City Employee’s and Police Officers that are hard working and dedicated to their jobs.

I have more to follow on these issues including some very interesting photo’s that the Federal EEOC might want to see.

For those few people that think the City of Portsmouth management looks out for their employee’s and that the City is a big family that takes care of its own I have a word for you, bunk.

Below is a passage from the City of Portsmouth’s Professional Occupational Medical Management Services contract last approved on April 13, 2006. I have a question for all, why would an employee ever have to pay for occupational health services? I can’t think of any, you’re going there because the City has sent you there for a medical exam, fit-for-duty test etc or you were injuried on the job and covered under the “Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act” where you select a city approved doctor from the Workers Comp Panel.

Are you one of the City of Portsmouth Employee’s that ended up receiving an overdue medical bill for some type of Occupational Health Services while an employee of the City of Portsmouth? I received numerous late/non-payment notices from just one on the job injury incident. I also ended up with a negative credit entry because the City of Portsmouth or Bon Secours (don’t know which) didn’t take care of the bill in a timely matter.

I can’t think of any instance why the City should be giving Bon Secours/Maryview Occumed permission to bill a City of Portsmouth employee. What is even more appauling is that they state that they will assist Bon Secours in billing the employee by providing “adequate documentation and other information necessary for prompt and accurate billing for denied services being billed to the City’s employees”. If you read the whole contract their is nothing included that provides any information about criteria to deny a claim. It appears they can deny it for any reason they want and don’t have to justify it to anyone.

I spoke with Susan A. MacLeod, executive vice president and administor for Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center in her office at the beginning of August. She told me that Maryview/Bon Secours tries to lookout for the Police and Firefighters. Sorry I just don’t see it given this contract and the number of people that have negative credit entries on their credit history because of either billing issues by Bon Secours or the City of Portsmouth not paying their bills in a timely manner.

I am interested in hearing from anyone that is a past or present employee of the City of Portsmouth who received any late payment notices involving Occupational Health services that was rendered by Bon Secours under the City of Portsmouth contract. If you are one of the people that have negative credit or received a late payment notice for a City of Portsmouth Occupational Health incident please click this link or send an email to mvh<at>portsmouthvapolice.com with the information and a way to contact you, email would be best.

Lets see if we can get the City of Portsmouth and Bon Secours to address this unacceptable level of service the employees of the City of Portsmouth have received. I am going to ask the Portsmouth City Council why its employees are treated like this.

1.4    Compensation and Billing

1.4.1    Amount of Payment.    In consideration of the Service rendered under this Agreement, the city will pay Contractor a monthly fee pursuant to the fee schedule attached hereto as Exhibit “A,” or such other fee agreed upon by both parties for additional services requested by the City. The City agrees to provide payment to the Contractor within forty-five (45) days of receipt of a properly submitted invoice and according to the terms delineated in Exhibit “A,” attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference.

1.4.2    Billing.      In the event the City has denied payment for a services rendered hereunder by Contractor, Contractor shall have the sole right to bill the City’s employees or responsible third-party payors for any billable Services rendered by Contractor to such employees. All fees collected for such services will be the sole property of the Contractor. The City will cooperate with and assist Contractor in providing adequate documentation and other information necessary for prompt and accurate billing for denied services being billed to the City’s employees or responsible third-party payors.

Click link to the right if you want to read the entire Bon Secours P05/04 Occumed Contract April 13, 2006 Professional Occupational Medical Management Services contract.

Portsmouth is in financial crisis and appears to be the first city in this area to start laying off employees claiming budgetary shortfalls. Could these layoff’s have been prevented? It’s a complex question, but if you look at some of the previous actions of the Portsmouth City Council and the City of Portsmouth Upper Level Management the question might actually be yes.

After significant research several things become clear. First, the City Council saw fit to give the city’s executive management huge pay increases over the past 10 years compared to the rank and file general employee’s including the city’s Public Safety employee’s. Click here to see the Portsmouth Pay Increases Comparison 1998 through 2008 which documents the huge pay increases the City Manager, City Attorney and others in the upper levels of management have reaped in the past 10 years while the rank and file were given pittance pay increases. The data for the graph was obtained from the City of Portsmouth via FOIA and was contained in their own pay plans that the City Council approves each year placing them by ordinance into the city code.

I learned a long time ago that a true leader leads by example and is willing to make sacrifices for their people to see that they are taken care of. That has not been the case in Portsmouth. While the rank and file employees which include Public Safety have had to struggle, work second jobs or part time work to cover their family expenses or were forced to leave Portsmouth and seek employment elsewhere the city management has received significant pay increases. This certainly demonstrates what the Portsmouth City Council thinks about their rank and file employees that do the real work of the city. They don’t…

I am currently working on a study of the cost to City of Portsmouth tax payers every time a Portsmouth Police Officer is forced to leave employment because economically they simply can not afford to stay in Portsmouth.  I don’t have all the numbers crunched nor all the records I have FOIA’d from Portsmouth yet but hope to soon. My estimate from what I have already is that each officer that leaves costs the tax payers in excess of $50,000. You multiply that out with the number of officers that have been leaving and you could have had the funds to provide pay increases over the years. The city has continued to take away benefits from the Police Officers such as take home police cars. They used that as a recruiting tool for years. They would say hey, “we don’t pay as much as some of the other cities but after 5 years you are entitled to a take home police car with city gas to burn.” That benefit was taken away last year from many of the officers resulting in what amounted to a pay cut to many police officers who are already struggling to make ends meet.

A contributing factor to the current financial crisis is the continued trend over previous years to spend, spend, spend but not build up a contingency fund to cover just such a financial crisis. The city has an obligation to provide for a functional and safe court facility but instead they have invested in hotels and traffic circles.

The city contends that it was the consultant’s independent study that determined the positions were not needed.  That very well may be the case but unfortunately the city has no choice but to lay people off because of poor fiscal decisions made in the past. Had it not been a financial crisis because of poor decisions the city would not now have to place dozens of it’s employee’s into a crisis of their own. Portsmouth claims that it’s work force is a family, if that’s the case I suggest they start making sacrifices at the top to help some of their family at the bottom. The increased salaries given to management over the past decade were not even comparatively close to the raises the rank and file employees have received. The amounts involved actually could fully fund a number of the positions that were eliminated or provide funding to transition those employees to other positions within the city.