Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/100825
LOOKING BACK YEAR IN REVIEW: NOVEMBER Sarasota City Hall/Photo by Norman Schimmel NOV. 5 Sarasota Mayor Suzanne Atwell rails against The Sylint Group, the local cyber-sleuth firm that uncovered anecdotally a raft of problems in the city���s Information Technology Department, including allegations of illegal actions by the former city manager and current deputy city manager. City Manager Bob Bartolotta resigned amid the furor. ���I���m very frustrated and angry,��� Atwell says. ���This has been about a year, us sitting here at the mercy of Mr. Jorgensen. The cancer isn���t on the city, it is [on] the reckless accusations of our workers. ��� It���s time to exonerate those most egregiously affected by this. It is time to end this,��� Atwell adds. It turns out she received a letter on Nov. 2 from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. saying the investigation requested by the City Commission into the city���s computer issues is ���completed��� and ���FDLE believes that no probable cause exists to support a viable criminal charge and no further action is warranted.������ ��������� The ���Mess at Mound��� is a molar-grinding problem for neighbors living south of Hudson Bayou. Time and again, sewage spills into the bayou and immediately into the bay from City of Sarasota utility stations. After the neighbors found out the stations were squatting on non-city land, and they counted up the environmental fines and penalties the city was incurring as a result of its failing system, the political stars suddenly seemed to align for a multi-million dollar, ���state-of-the art��� lift station and innovative tunnel to be built under the bayou to move the effluent. Under the plan, Osprey Avenue would be closed (and later partially closed) at Mound Street while engineers constructed the station and punched the tunnel directly under the bayou bridge. Four years after the engineering began, the project is a shambles. Construction law attorney Alan Tannenbaum, with the Sarasota and Clearwater firm Tannenbaum Scro Hanewich & Alpert, asks the city commissioners, ���Is this a problem with design or construction or both? We found fault on both the contractor