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Tag: Police Chief John Cosby

Cosby responds to Cushing allegations

Cosby responds to Cushing allegations

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Bradenton Beach, Community News.

BRADENTON BEACH – Police Chief and Public Works Director John Cosby responded at a Feb. 20 commission meeting to allegations made by former Building Official Darin Cushing that he was pres­sured to approve permits by city staff.

“Cushing is claiming that certain staff members, or the whole team, that he was being pressured into approving major developments or homes,” Cosby said, adding that he spoke on behalf of senior manage­ment staff, not the mayor or city attorney. “There was nothing to approve. The building department was not accepting any plans or any permits of that caliber.”

“We in some way had a build­ing moratorium that was never approved by anybody because we were not issuing anything and we were not accepting anything for review,” he said.

Cosby said the allegations rep­resent the first time his character been called into question in his years in Bradenton Beach.

“The thing that I’m most upset about, I have been here for 37 years. My integrity has never, ever been called into play,” Cosby said. “This man has made accusations that he was being forced to do things that don’t exist. The bad part about this is he knows they don’t exist, because he’s the one that told them, the clerks, to put things on the back burner.”

The city never got information they requested from Cushing about numbers of permits completed or in the queue, he said.

Cosby said the city found inaccu­rate permits and permitting clerks said they had received no guidance from Cushing.

Cosby said Cushing approved permits for air conditioning units without the state-required elevation in flood zones, and those approvals are now causing turmoil among contractors.

“We could see that there was a problem,” Cosby said. “We kept asking him if he needed help and he responded that everything was under control.

“At every meeting Mr. Cushing would state that this was supposed to be his retirement job and he shouldn’t be working this hard,” Cosby said. “One day he made that comment, and I said maybe we should get a new building official.”

Sandpiper, Pines Trailer parks

After the hurricanes, Cushing told the emergency staff that the trailer parks were uninhabitable, because of FEMA guidelines, they had substantial damage and “had to go.”

Cosby said he looked at mobile homes at Sandpiper Resort Co-op.

“Water had come in through the door and all they had to do was mop up the water,” Cosby said. “This didn’t seem right to me.”

“They’re considering selling because they’ve been told that it’s done,” Cosby said. “I thought we needed to reevaluate this, so we did.”

Cushing and Steve Gilbert, the retired city building official called back into service by the city, took another look, Cosby said.

“Cushing then said the Sand­piper was “good to go,” so the city started the process of issuing letters that they could repair their trailers under the 50% rule,” he said.

“He told us the same thing in the beginning, about the Pines, ‘It’s no good.’ He brought up the FEMA rule,” Cosby said. “He said no, we can’t move forward with this.”

Cosby said he asked Cushing to get that message to Pines residents.

“Then we had the meeting at city hall. The people from the Pines came,” Cosby said. “The next day he tells city staff, ‘Everything is OK, we’re going to say that they’re not substantially damaged.’ ”

Cushing declined to comment.

Related coverage:

City outlines ‘deficiencies’ in Cushing’s work

 

Former building official alleges pressure to condemn properties, threats

Christmas tree lights up Bridge Street

Christmas tree lights up Bridge Street

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Bradenton Beach, Community News, Featured.

BRADENTON BEACH – Just two months after Hurricane Helene’s storm surge pushed piles of sand and debris into the city, a concerted clean-up effort enabled the festive spirit to return to Bridge Street.

At the city-hosted Christmas tree lighting at the post office on Nov. 21, Mayor John Chappie welcomed the crowd to the town’s main street.

“It’s been 56 days since this storm hit and it’s been tough,” Chappie said. “We are going to step up and do what needs to be done to get our city back up and better. We are survivors and we are going to survive.”

Christmas tree lighting takes place on Bridge Street
Luca meets Santa and Mrs. Claus for the first time at the tree lighting on Bridge Street. –
Leslie Lake | Sun

Chappie applauded Police Chief and Public Works Director John Cosby as the driving force behind the massive cleanup and the restoration of activity in the city.

“Chief Cosby and his team have been amazing with the recovery that’s happened out here,” Chappie said. “He is an expert in his field of emergency operations and he has helped to develop this team of our city, our public works, our city clerk, our building department, the SERT team that came down to help our community to beat this. We have and we will continue to beat this.”

He introduced Cosby, who was chosen to light the Christmas tree.

“This is the first normal thing we have done since the hurricane,” Cosby said. “And if you look around, we all made the decision to do this five days ago – all the lights and the tree. We weren’t going to do it, then we decided we needed to do it.”

Cosby said following Hurricane Helene, there was 4 feet of sand on just about every road in the city.

“Even when the governor (Gov. Ron DeSantis) came, he looked at me and said, ‘I’ve been to a lot of disasters and I’ve never seen this much sand,’ ” he said.

Cosby thanked FDOT for the help with sand removal, Bradenton Beach city staff and City Attorney Ricinda Perry for organizing the tree lighting.

As Cosby pushed the button to illuminate the tree, cheers sprang up from hundreds of attendees.

The next event, Christmas on Bridge Street, will be held on Dec. 7 beginning at 2 p.m. with a Table of Hope banner signing. In a display of city resilience, the signed banner will be hung across Bridge Street.

Debris pickup complete in Bradenton Beach

Debris pickup complete in Bradenton Beach

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Bradenton Beach, Community News.

BRADENTON BEACH—The city’s hurricane-related debris and vegetation pickup is complete, and homeowners are responsible for any further post-storm debris removal. The city’s focus is now on sand removal.

“All debris is done, no more C&D, no more vegetation, no more white goods, everything has been picked up,” Police Chief and Public Works Director John Cosby updated city commissioners at a Nov. 4 emergency commission meeting. “We did two passes, we do have a few down on the south end that we’re finishing up today and the only thing we have left is the sand removal and that is starting today.”

Cosby said the debris removal timeline exceeded his expectations.

“Ashbritt (Debris Removal Company) did an awesome job for us,” Cosby said. ”We thought it would be mid-January before we were done and they did it in five weeks.”

Cosby said FEMA provided guidance regarding debris removal on private and small commercial property.

“Basically, what they have said now is we can get right of entry to go into the trailer parks and clear the debris from the private roads,” he said. “We are allowed to pick the debris for small commercial, such as the Moose Lodge and Bridge Street vendors. Under their guidance, we still cannot remove any debris from Runaway Bay. That’s considered large commercial and they will not allow us to go in there and do debris removal.”

The city right of entry ordinance pertains to city workers entering private property to remove storm-related debris in an emergency situation. Under that ordinance, the city must have written consent from the property owner before entering the property. The owner must also sign an affidavit stating they do not have insurance that covers debris removal.

“We’ve gotten the go-ahead to do right of entry for the structures that have collapsed or have been marked as unsafe,” Cosby said. ”We’ll need the property owner to give us the right to go on the property. Ricinda (City Attorney Ricinda Perry) is working on that, and trying to get as many as we can.”

Cosby said that once the sand is removed from city streets, public works will begin sweeping the streets.

“The crew is taking the loader and scraping some of the sand off, because there’s still quite a bit of sand on the road, and the street sweeper is going in behind them and will take a few passes,” he said. “Now that I know there’s going to be rain coming potentially Wednesday and Thursday we’re going to do one pass and get as much as we can before things get wet.”

Cosby said the city is in the process of getting contractor bids for stormwater drain clearing.

“There is no sense in doing that until we get all the sand because the sand is going to wash right back in,” he said. “When the sand goes this week, then we’ll be in a position to start that.”

Cosby said the Florida Department of Transportation will begin sand removal on Gulf Drive, which is a state road, in Bradenton Beach around mid-November.

“They started north and did their first push going south to the end of Longboat, now they’re turning around and headed back this way,” he said. “They’re estimating the week of Thanksgiving they’ll be in the city and starting that.”

Cosby said storm debris remains on the rocks by the city pier.

“We don’t have the equipment to get that close,” he said. “I’m going to reach out to Duncan (Duncan Seawall) because they have the correct equipment to get close in shallow water and see if they can help us clear that stuff out of there.”

Mayor John Chappie said Cosby and the public works department have done an amazing job in post-storm cleanup.

Debris pick-up impeded in Bradenton Beach

Debris pickup impeded in Bradenton Beach

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Bradenton Beach, Community News, Featured.

BRADENTON BEACH — Police Chief and Public Works Director John Cosby outlined what he said would be a long process to remove all debris from the city at an Oct. 21 emergency commission meeting.

Cosby said the mounds of sand and the lack of a temporary debris site in Bradenton Beach have impeded the city’s ability to remove debris.

“The latest issue we’re dealing with is the debris removal,” he said. “We have asked everybody that we can ask for assistance with the sand and it’s crickets in the field.  Nobody is willing to help, we’re going to have to take care of it ourselves. I’m hoping to hear back from the DOT (Florida Department of Transportation) lead supervisor this week.”

He said debris pick-up is going slowly.

“We have a serious issue. We have nowhere in the city to set up a temporary debris site,” Cosby said. “We’re direct hauling to its final resting space which is over on the east side of the county 13 miles away and to complete the round trip it’s taking 2-21/2 hours with traffic.”

He said that many private residents and businesses are getting dumpsters to remove debris and that’s been a big help to the city.

“I don’t know if we can finish debris cleanup in 90 days which means we lose our 100% FEMA reimbursement,” Cosby said. “It is definitely going to be a long road.”

He said he asked FEMA for an extension because of the mitigating circumstances related to the sand after Hurricane Helene.

“When everybody else was starting debris cleanup the next day or two after the storm we could not get anybody out here because we had to get the sand out of the roadways,” Cosby said. “We allowed FPL (Florida Power and Light) to come in and we spent most of the day pulling FPL trucks out of the sand they were sinking in.”

He said the sand put the city a week and a half behind in starting cleanup, and then Hurricane Milton came in.

“As we were ready to bring the equipment in to do cleanup the next storm appeared so we had to stop,” Cosby said. “The second storm hit, our public works cleaned the roadways a second time, and got it again back open and debris cleanup is underway, but because of the sand it’s hard to get people to come in and they’re really trying to price gouge. And FEMA will not pay for that.”

He said some contractors want to charge 10 times the normal amount for debris removal.

“We can’t do that. Pinellas County tried it and FEMA came down and shut down their debris operation for two weeks,” Cosby said.

He said the 90-day deadline for FEMA brings the city to about Christmas.

“We’ll have to get creative and come up with grants or maybe have to do a bond,” he said.

“We have eight trucks now removing C and D items, which is furniture, and five trucks are hauling sand,” Cosby said. “They’re doing an awesome job; the problem is it took us two weeks to do one street. It’s tough to overcome and we haven’t even gotten to the south side where the sand is worse.”

The second debris pickup pass will be to get appliances and the third pass will pick up vegetation.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do about sand on commercial property,” Cosby said. “We’re going to have to make some decisions. And again, no one has had this amount of sand. Everybody that comes here is in awe, including the governor. We’re doing the best we can, I just don’t know what the end result’s going to be.”

Cosby said the debris removal may impede the development of the city.

“It’s sad because we’ve done so much,” he said. “This is going to be a long process; it’s going to be months and I know people want to get going.”

Cosby said they had considered a deal with developer Shawn Kaleta to use his parking lot at 101 Bridge Street as a temporary debris site, but the idea was rejected.

“That just really impedes the whole idea of cleaning up the city. Bridge Street looks good. Nobody wants to look at a big pile of debris, we’re just not going to do that,” Cosby said.

“Everybody is exhausted, some of this we’re going to miss, you can only handle people yelling at you every day for so long and that’s all we’re getting is yelled at,” he said.

Cosby said the massive amounts of sand on Bradenton Beach roadways following storm surges from hurricanes created an unusual situation.

“The other cities will probably be done by the end of November. We wanted to be close but now with the sand we’re dealing with, it looks like a desert and nobody wants to take responsibility for the sand,” he said.

Commissioner Debbie Scaccianoce asked if the sand could possibly be placed back on the beaches.

“The sand has to be sifted, it has to be tested for toxins and oil. I don’t think there’s any plan of putting this sand back on the beach,” Cosby said. “It’s going to another site. Once it’s down there the county’s taking responsibility for it.”

He said sinkholes are another issue.

“The problem is sinkholes are right up against the properties, but I can’t fill a right of way in without filling private property and that’s not allowed,” he said. “We are in a serious bind.”

The city commission renewed its storm emergency declaration for an additional seven days.

“We’ll do this every Monday until we can get some kind of a foothold,” Cosby said.

Related coverage:
Anna Maria debris removal nearly complete

 

Bradenton Beach declares local state of emergency in advance of tropical storm

Bradenton Beach declares local state of emergency

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Bradenton Beach, Community News, Featured.

BRADENTON BEACH – City officials declared a local state of emergency beginning on Aug. 2 at 9 a.m. in advance of a tropical system expected to bring heavy rains this weekend.

“We have tropical mass 97-L that’s out there,” Police Chief John Cosby said at an Aug. 1 city commission meeting. “Just as a precaution, Manatee County is going to be declaring a state of emergency tomorrow at 9 o’clock. Ours will go into effect tomorrow at 9 o’clock to coincide with the county’s just in case we need it.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 54 Florida counties, including Manatee County.

Cosby said the state of emergency status can last up to seven days and, if a longer period is needed, it will need commission approval. Cosby also asked the commission to give him discretion to cancel it sooner if necessary.

“Public works will be checking all the storm drains tomorrow, high water signs will go out and any loose objects will be removed and precautionary measures of course as always,” Cosby, who is also interim public works director, said. “Everybody’s been put on notice, they’re on call and if we need to bring everybody in, we’ll bring everybody in.”

The declaration of a local state of emergency allows the city to suspend day-to-day activities and concentrate on storm preparation.

“It also gives the mayor and myself some leeway as far as finance procedures to get things done. It also changes how we pay our employees so the exempt employees can earn overtime during a disaster,” he said.

The local state of emergency declaration is also required in order to apply for state and FEMA funding, according to Cosby.

“In Manatee County we use an incident command system so decisions are all made pretty much as a group, and recommendations are given, everybody agrees on what we need to do. We talk about times if the evacuations should occur, when shelters will open,” Cosby said. “No one can do it by themselves. And under Chapter 252 of the state statutes, every county is required to have an emergency operation center and then everything else falls under that, so once they declare an emergency, they’re taking the lead.”

T​he National Hurricane Center (NHC) says development is likely by this weekend with impacts felt along the Gulf Coast of Florida. According to NHC, “heavy rainfall could linger until early next week, and gusty winds and coastal flooding could also accompany this system, with the details of those impacts hinging on how well organized it becomes.”