Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the newsmakers of the day – the winners and losers – who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life, or detracted from it, in some significant way.

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

What a glorious week it has been around Barker’s View HQ! 

On Wednesday evening, Patti and I joyously welcomed our third grandchild – a beautiful heaven-sent baby girl named Julia – who arrived in this big ol’ goofy world a happy and healthy 7-lbs 13-ounces!

Once again, our lives are blessed beyond measure…

I am happy to report that mom, dad, and baby Julia are doing well and resting comfortably.    

Through these rambling screeds, my goal is to provide you with an alternative opinion – neither always right, nor always wrong – a slightly skewed perspective on our collective experience for which you may have forgotten to ask in the fervent hope that we can change tack and leave this beautiful place we call home a better place for those who come after us.

In my view, as stewards of the future, preserving, protecting, and enhancing the interconnected spheres of our civic, social, economic, and environmental assets is the sacred obligation we have to our children and grandchildren – and I believe that should be the guide star by which our elected and appointed leaders focus their actions, appropriations, and policies.  

I know.  But new beginnings bring optimism even to this cynical old soul, hope for a better life for those we are borrowing all this from, a life filled with good health, happiness, purpose, service, challenges bested, integrity, knowledge, curiosity – and love… 

From the bottom of my beat-up old heart, thank you for the prayers and well-wishes! 

I would like to begin our weekly installment of A&A with a parable of sorts. 

Perhaps you’ve heard it?

Protogroup & The Beanstalk  

It reads like a weird Aesop’s fable.

The tale of a Chief Building Official in a kingdom by the sea who allowed himself to be made a fool, time-and-again, by the developer of a high-rise condominium – great twin spires the villagers were told would eventually wind into the heavens like a magical beanstalk – a panacea that would cure their down-at-the-heels resort town of all its woes…

Secretly, everyone knew in their hearts that the great pinnacles lacked the funding required for completion – but the building inspector kept a brave face, repeatedly rattling his rusty sword and threatening bold enforcement action – yet he always blinked with the developer’s every feint and false start.

Oh, the building official huffed and he puffed – as the townsfolk grew increasingly nervous about the condition of the unfinished monolith’s exposed and corroded bones – but every time they thought the developer would finally be held to account, the slightest stir on the site would stay the inspector’s threatened enforcement proceedings until it became clear the one person responsible for protecting the public’s interest (and occupant safety) had no teeth.

Ultimately, the town’s only hope was exposed as a neutered watchdog – and the kingdom’s enforcement apparatus was laid bare as a frail and impotent sham. Over time, the villagers lost confidence in the very system designed to safeguard their interests…

The moral?

In the aftermath of the tragic Surfside Condominium collapse, when it comes to protecting the public trust and ensuring developers live up to their promises:  Don’t bluff.  

After months of tough talk from Daytona Beach’s Chief Building Official Glen Urquhart following years of stagnation at the Protogroup’s unfinished oceanfront project’s north tower – to include threats of condemnation and revocation of construction permits – it appears things are back to square one after a sandblasting session on the rotting rebar jutting from the foundation was all it took to stop enforcement action. 

Again…

In September 2022, the City of Daytona Beach issued a condemnation and demolition order citing the lack of construction activity and questions surrounding the structural integrity of the exposed steel reinforcements – ordering that the site be cleaned up and a structural engineer create a plan to ensure the columns are strong enough to support the proposed 31-story tower – which, if it ever sprouts, would be the tallest building in Daytona Beach.

Many were disappointed when that order was rescinded, and a new work order issued – this time good for six months – so long as Protogroup adhered to a city mandate to “keep things rolling.”

They didn’t.

In April, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that the project had once again stalled out, quoting Director Urquhart:

“When the city agreed in September to give Protogroup another chance, the company was told it would have to show work was well underway on the condo tower by April 9 and undergo a city inspection by that date. Urquhart said the agreement was clear: No progress and no inspection, no more construction permit.”

Ultimately, the City of Daytona Beach made good on its promise, pulled the construction permit, and denied the Protogroup’s request for a 180-day extension.  

According to an article by Eileen Zaffiro-Kean writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal last week:

“A month ago, city Chief Building Official Glen Urquhart was losing his patience yet again with an unfinished oceanfront condominium tower that’s been stalled out over the past few years.

Urquhart said in mid-June that if he didn’t see a real attempt to get the $100 million project back on track, he was probably going to hit the construction site with a condemnation and demolition order.

But after a few meetings between city and project officials, Urquhart is seeing developer Protogroup make moves toward restarting construction on the proposed 31-story tower at the eastern tip of Oakridge Boulevard.

Urquhart has decided to give the beachside venture a stay of execution, the same thing he did last fall after slapping the project with a condemnation and demolition order, and then withdrawing the order.”

Again…

Perhaps more ominous, according to reports, buyers who have already put deposits on units were originally told the condominium would be completed by December 2024 – now, that date has been pushed to “…the spring of 2027.”

From an unauthorized “contra-lane” on Oakridge Boulevard, to blocked beach access, the cluttered eyesore in the heart of our core tourist area, and lengthy periods of inactivity, it is now apparent that Protogroup can do as they wish – while city and county officials act like comically distracted professional wrestling referees – because there is nothing anyone can do at this point.

Now, we are at Protogroup’s mercy.

In Mr. Urquhart’s defense, our elected officials castrated the regulatory apparatus the very minute they allowed a project of this enormity and magnitude to proceed with only “loose” agreements and a malleable performance assurance plan in place – and they cemented this impotence by failing to maintain constant oversight, inspection, and monitoring – which apparently has fostered a laissez faire regulatory environment and a “we do what we want, when we want to do it” attitude in the executive suite. 

Now, there is no going back.

Look, I hate to be the one to keep receipts, but…

“In an October 2018 piece in The Daytona Beach News-Journal by reporter Jim Abbott, the former chairman of the ill-fated Beachside Redevelopment Committee, Tony Grippa, said:

“The city still lacks an overall strategy as it relates to A1A and the beachside corridor, and this is what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket.”

At this point, however, completion of the project is imperative, Grippa said.

“It would be absolutely devastating to have, in addition to all the old boarded-up buildings, now a new partially completed building,” Grippa said. “That sitting vacant and empty would really hurt the beachside, optically, economically and emotionally.”

Does anyone remember the Beachside Redevelopment Committee?

I didn’t think so…

Perhaps the real lesson is, “Rules without enforced consequences become mere suggestions.”

Angel               Environmental Consortium Fighting for Spruce Creek  

As a Florida resident, I often feel like we are living in a topsy-turvy parallel universe…

A bizarre fourth dimension where, rather than defend our environment, protect the source and quality of our drinking water, and respect our interdependency with Florida’s sensitive ecology – the opposite holds true. 

Our elected policymakers defend the indefensible – allowing greed-crazed insiders to shit in our collective nest and destroy those life-giving ecosystems – as though paving over every square inch of our state is the inalienable right of those who can pay-to-play.

Now, a consortium of courageous local environmentalists is challenging a stormwater permit issued by the St. Johns Water Management District to the Florida Department of Transportation which would facilitate the controversial interchange at I-95 and Pioneer Trail, something experts believe will destroy a diverse wildlife habitat on one of the most sensitive watersheds in the state. 

Recently, national media outlets – including the Washington Post and Forbes – exposed the murky allocation of $92 million in federal Covid relief funds to expedite construction of the interchange, which (as everyone with two synapses still firing knows) will service our High Panjandrum of Political Power, Mori Hosseini’s, massive ICI Homes Woodhaven development.

According to a report by Mark Harper in The Daytona Beach News-Journal this week, Mr. Hosseini denies receiving favorable treatment based upon what many see as his transactional relationship with Governor Ron DeSantis – “…noting he purchased the land some 20 years after it first landed on transportation plans.”

Now, FDOT claims the “purpose and need” for the interchange “…is as much about economic development as it is transportation.”

Yep.  Here we go…

Whenever government gets caught with its pants down – the bureaucracy immediately retreats to the “high paying jobs” argument to wheedle their way out of an embarrassing jam – knowing that, when people have been denied a living wage long enough, they will acquiesce to just about anything to feed their families…   

Now we are asked to believe a 2017 “justification report” that claims the interchange is to “…support the economic viability and job creation associated with planned and approved future development in the vicinity of the study area, to reduce congestion at the adjacent I-95 interchanges, and to better serve regional trips originating in and destined to the study area.”

Of course, the FDOT narrative swings a wild-ass guess that the interchange will contribute $2.5 billion in economic impacts during construction – and $775 million annually in “…permanent, ongoing impacts from spending associated with new household operations and additional office/retail/hotel employment.”

Bullshit.

According to the News-Journal:

“Another 2017 FDOT study looks at how the interchange will affect the surrounding area. The impact on wetlands and surface water will be “substantial,” the study concluded, while there could be a “moderate” effect on historical and archaeological sites, water quality and quantity, and wildlife and habitats.”

“The study acknowledges that “indirect effects” have already occurred on the preserve and other rural areas near Pioneer Trail and Turnbull Bay Road on both sides of I-95.”

In my view, “substantial” adverse impacts to wetlands and surface water should have been a hard stop for the interchange. 

It wasn’t…

To their credit, the group – identified by the News-Journal as Bear Warriors United Inc., a Seminole County-based nonprofit, the Sweetwater Coalition of Volusia County Inc., and four individuals, including Bryon White, Katrina Shadix, the founder of Bear Warriors; Derek LaMontagne, a Port Orange resident who’s affiliated with Sweetwater; and Lori Sandman, a Daytona Beach attorney – have joined forces to protect the threatened Doris Leeper Spruce Creek Preserve and environs from what many see as a foregone conclusion.

According to the report, the group’s petition cites, among other environmental and procedural concerns, that “FDOT, in presenting to the River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization in January for its approval, misrepresented facts, primarily using an outdated map and stating the “direct” impact of the project would be on 49 acres, while an Environmental Protection Agency letter from Oct. 4, 2022, stated there would be 55 acres directly impacted and 10 acres of secondary impacts, according to the petitioners.

The petition cites other concerns, including the St. Johns River Water Management District permit, which “belittles or hides” the impact on Spruce Creek by referring to it only as an “unnamed canal” and an OFW, or Outstanding Florida Waterway.”

The matter will be heard by an administrative law judge in Tallahassee next month. 

Kudos to these courageous environmentalists who are standing firm in a David and Goliath fight to preserve the Spruce Creek watershed for generations to come from the devastating impacts of the malignant spawl that the Pioneer Trail interchange is tailormade to serve. 

Asshole           Roundtable of Volusia County Elected Officials

It is no secret that the Roundtable of Volusia County Elected Officials – that political insulation committee that ensures ‘groupthink’ and crushes independent thought to preserve the mirage of competence – rarely accomplishes anything of substance. 

The roundtable was exposed for what it is (and isn’t) a few years ago when the group was led around like a dazed bull with a ring its nose by that mysterious camera stellata over at the CEO Business Alliance – who tried desperately to use their elected hired hands to levy a half-cent sales tax on Volusia County residents ostensibly to fund transportation infrastructure projects – even as the bulldozers roared in a disastrous “cart before the horse” growth strategy.

Fortunately, Volusia County taxpayers overwhelmingly voted down the money grab – refusing to give more of our hard-earned money to the same dipshits who got us into this gridlocked mess in the first place – especially after we witnessed them lavish funds on the whims of their oligarchical political benefactors.

In November 2021, the late great political watchdog, Big John – who moderated the political affairs radio forum GovStuff Live! – addressed the Knights of the Roundtable, then waited patiently for someone, anyone, to address the fact Volusia County had no discernable transportation infrastructure plan in its then $1.1 billion budget.

When it was clear the meeting would adjourn without any substantive progress on the most critical issue facing Volusia County residents – Big John asked why the powerful group of preeminent politicos refused to address the 800-pound gorilla in the room?   

In March 2022, Volusia’s half-bright Bilderberg finally formed a “transportation subcommittee” ostensibly to address infrastructure needs now that growth has been allowed to outpace our antiquated roads, utilities, water resources, stormwater management systems, medical facilities, etc., etc., etc.… 

Now, 20-months after Big John demanded answers – the Roundtable’s subcommittee finally met last Monday at the Volusia County Road and Bridge Northeast Services Facility in Daytona Beach.

What a friggin’ farce…

Unfortunately, it is frighteningly evident to existing residents that gridlocked roads might be the least of our problems.

Clearly, some very important people in our community have convinced our ‘powers that be’ that the continued erosion of our land development codes, bending over for speculative developers, and slashing our natural places to make way for more cookie cutter zero-lot-line cracker boxes that allow out-of-state developers to haul even more money out of the pine scrub constitutes the “highest and best use” for the thousands of sensitive acres that once comprised the source of our drinking water. 

According to reports, during the meeting, talk naturally turned to reanimating the festering corpse of the half-cent sales tax…

Who saw that coming, eh? 

In Volusia County, no tax initiative is ever dead – even when 55% of voters scream “We don’t trust you, assholes!” 

According to a report by Jarleene Almenas writing in the Ormond Beach Observer:

“(Port Orange Mayor) Burnette said the committee should discuss funding opportunities for road infrastructure.

He noted that Volusia considered implementing a half-cent sales tax to fund infrastructure and water quality projects in 2019, but 55% of voters rejected it in a special election. Burnette said he was hesitant to consider a sales tax as a future funding source, given that history.

“If that’s where everybody wants to go and we want to float it, then that’s fine and great,” he said. “But I want to make sure that we do this right and that we have citizen committee involvement.”

The committee will meet again on Aug. 28.”

And, just like that, ol’ Don “I’m against it, but if you guys are for it, then that’s fine and great” Burnette’s run for Volusia County Council Chair was D.O.A… 

Now, standby to standby for more, more, more expensive studies, polls, cross-county dog-and-pony shows, frittering over ballot language, “visioning sessions,” scary yarns spun by hired consultants, expansive municipal “wish lists,” and extensive meddling by wealthy insiders with a chip in the game.   

While the clock ticks, and the bulldozers roar…   

Quote of the Week

“Nothing is certain in life but death and taxes” (and fees). The Palm Coast City Council is poised to continue charging us all more for the privilege (or whatever) of living here.

They already know, and we should, that the situation of increasing taxes and/or fees will continue indefinitely, unless we stop it.

Right now, the mayor and council have this grand dream of a new Palm Coast doubled in size with the addition of their planned new developments west of U.S. 1. This would be their forever legacy.

But perhaps that legacy would be tainted by the ongoing deterioration of the old and gray and uninteresting current Palm Coast. Traffic jams, huge trucks tearing up the roads, dangerous streets without sidewalks, every stitch of greenery torn away, drainage and flooding concerns, etc., etc.

They need to hold back the developers and their city staff pals from forgetting the “old” Palm Coast and only looking to the wonderful new city they say is ahead of us.

Well, I say to hold off on this brave new world for at least two years and focus all the time, money and staff on getting the city that is here and now up to par. Streets and drainage repaired, sidewalks where necessary, a touch of the natural Florida in all neighborhoods, parks, and more.

It’s a lengthy list of our needs, but one that should be met prior to any of their grand dreams.

Otherwise, it’s a nightmare.”

–Jeffery C. Seib, Palm Coast, Letters to the Editor, Palm Coast Observer, “Council should focus on existing Palm Coast, not expansion,” Thursday, July 20, 2023

What he said…

And Another Thing!

For good reason (namely what remains of my tenuous sanity) I shy away from state and national politics. 

But sometimes (like you) I shake my head and ask, “What the hell were they thinking?”

Last week it was announced that Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign fired thirty-eight staffers as his poll numbers continue to plummet and deep-pocketed donors rethink their support for what has all the appearances of a rudderless scow…

That does not bode well for Gov. DeSantis’ political aspirations as the hits just keep on coming.

Despite what we are asked to believe, these are not the machinations of a vindictive media – or the ravings of blowhard bloggers like me – but self-inflicted gaffs that have led even Gov. DeSantis’ most committed supporters to question who is choreographing his shambolic campaign? 

Last week, a number of outlets exposed trouble in the ranks of Gov. DeSantis’ ill-thought Florida State Guard – the resurrection of a force once used to augment Florida National Guard units deployed overseas during World War II – which now appears to be a weird cross between state sponsored costumed roleplay and a private militia… 

As the first 120 members of the FSG graduated from what one recruit (a former military officer) described as a ‘slapdash’ training program at Camp Blanding – information has emerged regarding the militarization of a force originally billed as a means of supplementing community resources during natural disasters. 

In a statement, Gov. DeSantis said:

“Even though the federal government has underfunded our National Guard, we are ensuring that we have the manpower needed to respond during emergencies. I’m proud of these men and women who answered the call to take on this important mission. When the need is greatest in their communities, these Guard members will be ready to answer the call.” 

As polo shirts gave way to camouflage fatigues, some former recruits are reporting that “inexperienced” Florida National Guard troops trained the FSG volunteers in what was described as a “boot camp” style program – two-weeks for prior service military and 28-days for civilians – that devolved from emergency management and Red Cross sheltering skills to combat and simulated weapons training. 

You read that right.

One retired Marine Corps officer – a disabled veteran – claimed he was subjected to “abuse” by two National Guard non-commissioned officers who forced him into a van “after he expressed his displeasure at how recruits were being treated.”

According to reports, the guard force has been beset by leadership issues since its inception, with its first commander, retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Chris Graham, lost to suicide last October.  In January, Gov. DeSantis appointed the program’s deputy director, Louis Soler, a captain in the United States Navy Reserve, to lead the FSG.

In June, DeSantis’ office announced Soler was stepping down due to “personal reasons.”

According to reports, before his departure, Soler recruited retired Navy veteran Brian Newhouse to lead one of the Guard’s three divisions.

Newhouse was also escorted off the joint training base on the first day of the course after lodging complaints about safety and scheduling – to include the fact physical training was conducted without emergency medical personnel present. 

According to a report in the Tampa Bay Times, Newhouse said, “The program got hijacked and turned into something that we were trying to stay away from: a militia.” 

“I don’t even think the governor knows what’s going on.  I don’t think this is a fly on his radar right now,” Newhouse said, noting that DeSantis himself is a Navy veteran who would never countenance the physical abuse of a retired military officer and FSG volunteer.

With its mission still undefined – and detractors equating the State Guard to the Governor’s private Tonton Macoute – in my view, now is the time to ditch the military cosplay and return focus to the emergency response and humanitarian mission.

With hurricane season heating up, that is something all Floridian’s can support – and those who have offered to serve their fellow citizens in the Florida State Guard deserve better…

As a former credentialed Florida Professional Emergency Manager, I can say with confidence that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Florida Emergency Preparedness Association, State Emergency Response Team, and other recognized disaster response and recovery groups are experts at providing professional classroom training, equipment, and scenario-based exercises that can prepare Florida State Guard personnel to operate effectively within the National Incident Management System. 

In my experience, that is the difference between being an asset – or an obstacle – during a disaster. 

In my view, Gov. DeSantis has a variety of hurdles ahead in his quest for the White House in 2024 – not the least of which is the gnawing doubt affecting even his staunchest supporters who continue to shake their heads and quietly ask “WTF?” when these unforced errors continue to surface. 

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!

This week Volusia County District 3 Councilman Danny Robins saw the self-serving need to wade into the latest skirmish in the “Culture Wars” when he voiced support for an ‘alternative country’ artist named Jason Aldean, who released a song some have used to stoke yet another contrived controversy.  

I’ve never heard Mr. Aldean’s music.

Don’t hold that against me.

I grew up on old Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Guy Clark, George Jones, and Earnest Tubb – which means I abhor the alternative…

According to an article by Sheldon Gardner writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, last Friday, Councilman Robins posted his support for Aldean on social media after fiery criticism of his recent release “Try That in a Small Town” – a contrived product, no doubt composed by a writers consortium, recorded over an electronic drum loop, packaged by a marketing team, and sung by a young man who is carefully dressed, coiffed, hatted, and presented by a record company’s image group – then consumed by millions of young people who have no concept of what ‘country music’ was. 

That’s why they call it the ‘Music Business.’

Because everyone is offended by everything these days, self-absorbed culture warriors on both sides of the divide, seized on the opportunity for a Summer of ‘23 brouhaha (as though it wasn’t annoyingly hot enough already) – with those on the “left” claiming the tune represents racist dog whistle – while those on the “right” defend it as “God, Guns, and Apple Pie” patriotism.

The fact is, it’s neither.

For the uninitiated, we live in a shameless age where any publicity is considered good publicity, and I have no doubt this latest sociopolitical tempest in a teapot was carefully crafted by Mr. Aldean’s record label and management team ahead of his 39 city “Highway Desperado” tour which began July 14. 

They should send Mr. Robins a thank you note for helping perpetuate the horseshit and hype…

Look, I haven’t listened to the song – but I read the lyrics to “Try That in a Small Town,” and, in my view, there is nothing overtly racist about it.  (Although the “coincidence” wasn’t lost on me that the accompanying overproduced music video was filmed at the infamous Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, where an 18-year-old African-American was brutally lynched in 1927…)

According to Aldean’s detractors, the song is a call for racial vigilantism – full of triggering tropes and emotional hot buttons like lawless riots, anti-police rhetoric, gun confiscation, looting, violent crime, and “anti-American” behavior – something the self-promoting Councilman Robins took full advantage of when he grabbed on to Aldean’s coattails. 

According to the News-Journal, “Robins added that the music video contains images or clips that were real, and that Aldean “refuses to sit back and be quiet anymore.”

“He refuses to be silenced, he stands by his values and not afraid of backlash and he’s got a pair. If some people don’t like it, o well. Their thin-skinned interpretation, feelings and opinions don’t change the facts,” Robins wrote. “As far as I am concerned he is a good man and we need more people like him. I stand by my public support.”

Congratulations, Councilman Robins, like a swooning teenybopper, you bought the marketing strategy – hook, line, and sinker…

Whatever.

Hey, Danny – Word to the wise:  It was a business decision. 

Get it? 

My God, how heartbreaking. I feel like I’m telling Mr. Robins the Easter Bunny isn’t real…

Whenever I read about one of these engineered controversies, I always ask myself “Cui Bono?”

To whom is it a benefit?

Media and entertainment companies – especially social media – have a vested interest in stirring controversy because they profit from the audience it drives, politicians gain notoriety when they get their name in the paper, and professional crybaby’s benefit from their next 15-minutes of victimhood…

It is similar to how both political parties work to divide voters with increasingly outlandish “Us vs. Them” rhetoric – fostering conflict and creating a distraction to better serve those special interests who feed the machine with massive campaign contributions – rather than find common ground and compromise on those issues important to all citizens.   

In my view, it is time citizens (and our political leadership) come to the realization that patriotism isn’t a beer brand – and it damn sure has nothing to do with another cultural controversy designed, subliminally or on purpose, to exploit our differences – and provide another forum for the fringe elements to fan the flames of divisiveness and controversy as a means of pushing an agenda.

Or selling concert tickets…

In my view, We, The Little People are being manipulated by forces, internal and external, intent on destroying the United States of America without ever firing a shot – and when those elected officials we expect to demonstrate strong leadership engage in gross political grandstanding by wallowing in the muck of another manufactured controversy – it fans the flames of conflict, legitimizes polarization, and pushes us ever closer to the goal of those who seek to divide and conquer.

It is time that citizens recognize this tripe for what it is.

Trust me.  We have enough issues right here in Volusia County to keep Mr. Robins and his “colleagues” on the dais of power in DeLand busy for the foreseeable future – real problems – like our inadequate transportation infrastructure, overdevelopment, traffic congestion, dwindling water quality in our lakes, rivers, and springs, devastating flooding, disastrously low wages contributing to a workforce housing crisis, gross mismanagement and distrust in County government, our dwindling quality of life, coastal erosion, rising taxes and fees, and the myriad other civic, social, and economic issues that are wholly ignored, or kicked down the dusty political trail, by these dullards we elect to serve our interests. 

In my view, as Mr. Aldean sells out arenas and cashes massive checks thanks to his carefully developed notoriety – it is time for Mr. Robins and others to stop the political showboating and focus on the issues important to the lives and livelihoods of long-suffering Volusia County residents.

Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the newsmakers of the day – the winners and losers – who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life, or detracted from it, in some significant way.

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole           Volusia County Council

“I would like to thank the County Council and County Manager Recktenwald for giving me the opportunity to serve Volusia County,” said Ryan. “I’m honored to join such a creative and dedicated team with a proven track record of effective messaging and a strong foundation of transparent and proactive communication about the many services, programs and amenities Volusia County offers its residents.”

–Volusia County’s Director of Community Information Michael Ryan, Tuesday, July 11, 2023

“We will continue to be your single source of truth … unless you hear it from us it is not the truth.”

–George Orwell ‘1984’

According to Barker’s Paradox:  Once a bureaucracy reaches a certain size and consistency, it exists only to serve, protect, and perpetuate itself.

Externally, it accomplishes that by controlling the narrative, rewriting history, and directing the flow of information in a way that limits criticism and protects those at the top from being openly exposed as incompetent – or worse…

Last week, the Volusia County Council rubber stamped County Manager George “The Wreck” Recktenwald’s new senior director for communications, marketing, and media relations – arguably one of the most important functions of government – whose role is to keep constituents engaged and informed.

Either Mr. Ryan hasn’t been here long enough – or, after 20-years in the trade, he fits the stereotype of the obfuscating government spinmeister perfectly – because his radiant description of the county’s, “…proven track record of effective messaging and a strong foundation of transparent and proactive communication” is complete bullshit…

It’s also a big part of Volusia County’s “trust issue.” 

I would have preferred Director Ryan looked weary Volusia County residents in the eye and said, “We haven’t always been as open and up-front in communicating with our citizens as we should have been.  I’m here to fix that.” 

According to reports, Ryan’s appointment fills the vacancy created when The Wreck transferred his former senior mouthpiece, Kevin Captain, to head the Emergency Medical Services division. 

In my view, if Director Ryan’s conscience allows him to report that Volusia County has a record of transparency and “effective messaging,” then he will have no problem picking up where the equivocating Mr. Captain left off, and will serve the needs of the Recktenwald administration seamlessly… 

As anyone paying attention will recall, it wasn’t so long ago that Volusia County became infamous for “Public Policy by Ambush” – voting on important issues that directly affected our lives and livelihoods after strategically leaving details off the printed agenda to prevent even the possibility of contention or public input.

A weird time and place where a $50,000 publicly funded study recommending massive increases in impact fees for oligarchical developers was willfully suppressed – hidden from policymakers and the public – as the operative ethic became “let sleeping dogs lie” with whispered discussions held, sotto voce, behind closed doors…

How about the blatant lies that were pushed regarding Amendment 10, etc., etc.?

Remember?  I do.

Let’s face it, Volusia County’s communications strategy has historically been the exact opposite of open and transparent – a noxious exercise in rapidly putting copious amounts of smoke in the air and circling the wagons during times of internal crisis – then carefully crafting an opaque message that quibbles the facts and defends the indefensible. 

It’s called ‘polishing a turd’ – and it has become a mainstay of Volusia County’s process of political procrastination – kicking the can down the dusty trail, dragging things out (often through multiple iterations of the county council), and ensuring that nothing disrupts the stagnant status quo. 

The unfortunate result has been a slow erosion of the public’s confidence in their government…

Perhaps once Mr. Ryan gets established in his comfortable office at the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Building and looks through the dusty scrapbook left by his predecessors – he may want to “walk back” (as spin doctors like to say) his initial glowing description before history returns (as it always does in Volusia County) to bite him in the ass… 

During last week’s Council meeting, we also learned that Volusia County will be spending $3.2 million of our money to purchase a former car lot at 1720 Mason Avenue in Daytona Beach to relocate the Emergency Medical Services facility. 

Why?

Because the County’s previous building on Carswell Avenue in Holly Hill has been allowed to strategically rot – suffering from several “major and costly structural issues,” including a “termite infestation” and roof repairs estimated at a whopping $2,000,000. 

You read that right.

According to the July 11 agenda report, “…repairs cannot be undertaken without shutting down and relocating operations for 8 consecutive days in order to fumigate the building.” 

God forbid.

So, our ‘powers that be’ simply went out and bought a new one… 

To my knowledge, there is still no word on who in this byzantine bureaucracy was responsible for allowing the current EMS facility to fall into complete disrepair – so broken-down that a valuable public asset had to be abandoned in place – because accountability is anathema in the Recktenwald administration.   

According to the agenda report, prepared by something called the “Facilities Management Division” – a bureaucratic subsidiary of the “Business Services Department” (who reports to God knows who in the hierarchy) – explained the rationale for the new building: 

In June, a proposal was floated in the five-year capital improvement plan that would have placed taxpayers on the hook for a new EMS facility costing an astronomical $23,000,000.  Now, after renovations to the recently approved building totaling an estimated $4,500,000 – you and I will pay $7,700,000 to replace the ruined facility in Holly Hill…

Wow.  The old Volusia County ‘switcheroo’ – where senior staff tells taxpayer’s they are going to put the shaft to them for a $23 million replacement – then act like they did us a favor at $7.7 million…    

In the private sector, if someone in a position of responsibility fails to perform preventive maintenance and allows a critical asset to become so dilapidated and unserviceable that it requires over $7 million in replacement costs – stockholders would demand the head of anyone who failed to provide adequate oversight and facilities management.

Right? 

Trust me.  This isn’t the first-time senior executives in Volusia County have allowed public facilities to deliberately decay – then ask our elected dullards for permission to dip into that bottomless Pot of Gold we golden geese magically keep brimming with cash – to pay for their gross irresponsibility… 

My ass.

In my view, with a budget now pushing an obscene $1.6 billion – it is high time our elected representatives began the difficult process of holding senior appointed officials accountable for their continuing mismanagement of public assets.

Angel              Flagler Beach City Commission

The old proverb “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is never truer than in local government – where City and County Managers tend to gather some baggage during their service as itinerant administrators – moving from one place to the next, often leaving under tumultuous circumstances, only to be welcomed by another community just coming off a similarly turbulent period.

Fortunately, sometimes a council or commission goes to the Island of Misfit Toys and finds just the “right fit” for their community – and it appears the Flagler Beach City Commission has found the leadership they desperately need in their new chief executive, Dale Martin – who was recently appointed by unanimous vote. 

Now that Mr. Martin has officially accepted the position, contract negotiations are expected to begin soon. 

According to reports, earlier this year, Mr. Martin was terminated on a 3-2 vote of the Fernandina Beach City Commission following a messy period of political horseshit and internecine upheaval. 

In an odd twist, just two-months later, a Fernandina Beach citizens advisory council assisting with the search for a new manager briefly considered recommending Mr. Martin be rehired – but ultimately decided that door had closed…

According to FlaglerLive!, Mr. Martin was “Born and raised in Michigan, and served four communities there before moving to Connecticut “before learning to love Florida,” where he served until March this year as city manager in Fernandina Beach. “I’ve come to enjoy the Florida coastal life. I think that’s where my skill set is involved,” he said.” 

During a public Q&A last Friday, Martin was asked by Commissioner Rick Belhumeur “What scares you about taking the job in Flagler Beach?”

According to the report, he responded confidently, “Absolutely nothing,” he said. “I was a former military officer. the decisions I can make as a military officer could kill people. The worst we’re going to have here is flooding, drowning or fire and you will be notified the instant I am of any of those instances.”

What I liked most was when Mr. Martin described Flagler Beach as “quirky” – intended “lovingly” – because it is. 

In my view, that proves Mr. Martin understands what is special about one of the last remaining slices of “Old Florida” on the east coast…

Congratulations and best of luck to Dale Martin – and the Flagler Beach City Commission – for coming to unanimous agreement in service to the citizens of this unique community. 

It’s nice to see a sense of hope, enthusiasm, and collegiality return to Flagler Beach!

Asshole           Volusia County School Board  

I recently received this screenshot of a now-deleted social media post by Volusia County Schools Recruitment & Retention – the arm of our school district scrambling to fill the critical shortage of qualified teachers ahead of the 2023-24 school year:

Wow. 

It appears Volusia County District Schools has taken to publishing quotations from the radical Marxist and murderous dictator Vladimir Lenin – father of the Red Terror during which hundreds-of-thousands were imprisoned, tortured, and exterminated between 1917 and 1922, along with countless other atrocities – as a means of inspiring its tepid recruitment efforts.

Of course, as soon as a smart watchdog pointed out the ominous connection for those who have clearly forgotten history at Volusia County Schools – the quotation quickly evaporated from the district’s public social media site…

So much for preserving the public record, eh? 

I don’t make this shit up, folks.

This week, I was reminded of another line once uttered by the district’s communist hero that our elected “representatives” on the Volusia County School Board seem to be rapidly embracing:

“Why should freedom of speech and freedom of press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes to be right allow itself to be criticized?”

–Vladimir Lenin

Sound familiar? 

Next Tuesday, the School Board will consider draconian changes to the way We, The Little People are permitted to provide input on public policy and interact with those we have elected to represent our interests on the dais of power. 

These proposed amendments to the policy on “Public Participation in School Board Meetings,” include:

Achtung!   

“Citizen’s remarks should be directed to the presiding officer or the Board as a whole and not to individual Board members. Speakers may not address Board members by name, and personal attacks against individual Board members, the Board as a whole, the Superintendent, or District staff are prohibited.”

“Speakers commenting on agenda items shall confine their comments solely to the agenda item being discussed. During the public hearing, speakers must limit their remarks to matters related to business of the District. Unless it is an agenda item, speakers are prohibited from discussing their own pending court cases and filed claims or complaints against the District or District personnel. Similarly, employees are prohibited from discussing any disciplinary matter that affects them individually unless it is an agenda item.”

“Speakers may not use any form of profanity or loud and/or abusive comments Speakers shall not engage in personal attacks, abusive language or other conduct which interferes with conduct of the meeting. The Chair has the right to terminate any speaker’s privilege to address the board if this rule is violated. Members of the audience should be courteous to all speakers and shall refrain from making audible comments or applauding speakers during the meeting.”

“Any action or noise that causes or creates an imminent threat of a disturbance or disruption, including but not limited to, clapping, applauding, heckling, shouting comments from the audience, or verbal outbursts in support or opposition to a speaker or his/her remarks is prohibited. No signs or placards shall be allowed in the Board meeting. Persons exiting the Board meeting shall do so quietly.”

You get the gist – and the list of controls and prohibitions goes on.  Ad nauseum… 

Don’t take my word for it, read the proposed amendments here: https://tinyurl.com/29rrw926

Penalties for any insolent Subject of the Realm who fails to properly genuflect before our Monarchical Clerisy – or is found guilty by imperial edict of the chair of “making impertinent or slanderous remarks” that offend the cognoscenti – will be subject to having their microphone disabled, the meeting recessed so board members can flee the glare of their constituents, or be physically removed from the public building… 

In my experience, self-serving politicians and entrenched bureaucrats always attempt to quash dissent, public participation, and civic activism by cloaking their overweening censorship under subjective “rules of decorum.”

It has become obvious to most that some local government entities would prefer taxpayers simply acquiesce to their symbolic “public meetings” – choreographed façades where predetermined policies and expenditures are rubber-stamped – while the ‘people’s business’ is hammered out behind closed doors, shaped by insider influence, far from the prying eyes of us rubes who are expected to pay the bills and keep our pieholes shut.   

In my experience, expansive rulemaking designed to enforce a one-sided notion of “decorum” is usually the first sign that an elected body is in serious trouble (à la The Lost City of Deltona) – and it’s no secret that the Volusia County School Board has been mired in deep doo-doo for years…

The symptoms of internal dysfunction begin with the discussion of “public participation” as a means of maintaining the “dignity” of the proceedings – which, by their very nature, should be contentious, participative, and filled with the vigorous debate of competing ideas – because the lofty decisions that come from these deliberations directly affect our children’s futures. 

Now, for reasons known only by those who reside in the Ivory Tower of Power in DeLand, the School Board has reconfigured the meeting space, placing physical and subliminal barriers between the board members and those they serve, and now seek to outlaw substantive interaction from the public podium.

They don’t like applause.  They don’t like signs.  They don’t like your opinion. 

And they don’t like you.   (Unless they’re groveling for your vote come election time.)  

Despite what the district may believe based on their fascination with Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov – good citizenship is not silent subservience to an entrenched power structure convinced of its own infallibility – and the process of crafting inclusive public policies should not be at the comfort and convenience of a few hypersensitive prima donnas perched high on the dais of power.

In fact, the Florida Supreme Court has likened public meetings to “…a marketplace of ideas, so that the governmental agency may have sufficient input from the citizens who are going to be affected by the subsequent action of the [public body].”

If citizens cannot make themselves heard before their elected representatives at a public meeting – in a building paid for with their own hard-earned tax dollars – among politicians and senior staff who accept public funds to serve in the public interest – then where can they voice their passion on matters of civic importance?

In my view, it is time for those who hold elective office – especially on the Volusia County School Board – to be reminded that all political power is derived from the consent of the people.

Under our democratic system – that reminder comes at the ballot box…

Angel               Beach Advocate Richard Waters

This week Volusia County lost a tireless warrior for beach driving and access with the sad passing of civic activist Rich Waters. 

As a proud member of Sons of the Beach and a dedicated environmentalist, Rich worked hard to preserve our most precious natural resource, diligently conducting research, checking the facts, advocating for public access, and courageously sounding the klaxon. 

All Volusia County residents and visitors who enjoy our beautiful beaches owe a true debt of gratitude to Richard Waters.  

My sincere condolences to Karen Waters, and all of Richard’s countless friends and colleagues, on his immeasurable loss. 

He will be missed… 

Quote of the Week

“Concerns among the residents ranged from increased traffic and lack of medical infrastructure to support further growth, to the incompatibility of lot sizes and a decrease in quality of life, particularly for the estimated 170 property owners whose homes back up to the golf course.

Residents don’t want cookie-cutter houses, said Tomoka Oaks homeowners Barbara Handsman Doliner. They don’t care if the subdivision is gated or if the developer puts in sidewalks. That’s not the point, she said to the board.

“The point is the shoe doesn’t fit,” Doliner said. “This Cinderella will never have that shoe fit, no matter how many different ways it’s going to be packaged to us.”

–Editor Jarleene Almenas, writing in the Ormond Beach Observer, “Too important to rush through: Planning Board asks developers of Tomoka Oaks golf course to reevaluate plans,” Friday, July 14, 2023

A tip o’ the cap to the Ormond Beach Planning Board and city staff for tapping the brakes and carefully considering the myriad issues surrounding a proposal to shoehorn 276 cracker boxes onto the former Tomoka Oaks Golf Course – a plan many believe will have devastating impacts on existing residents and already fouled traffic on busy Nova Road. 

Look, I’m not ready to go crazy with fawning accolades for Ormond Beach’s planning apparatus – because history proves that, when it comes to development issues, there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip…

According to the Observer’s report, during a recent public meeting to consider the development agreement, Planning Board Chair Doug Thomas – who lives in Tomoka Oaks – said, “I’ve been on this Planning Board for 33 years, and I’m going to tell you: This is in the top five of the most important issues I’ve ever heard.  And I am not going to go along with forcing this through — If it takes us two months, if it takes us three months.”

Chairman Thomas is right. 

And, if development in Tomoka Oaks is inevitable, then residents – and their elected representatives on the Ormond Beach City Commission – should demand the “highest and best” product to ensure property values and the quality of life of existing residents.

As board member Al Jorczak said:

“We should not be looking at just augmenting what has been done in the past,” Jorczak said. “We should be looking for excellence — what can we do that goes above and beyond what we’ve already done, that helps make Ormond Beach the jewel on the East Coast that people want to come here and live.”

Regardless of where you live in Volusia County, this is one to watch…

And Another Thing!

Visiting Volusia County beaches this summer?

Prepare to self-rescue. 

In a disturbing exposé in The Daytona Beach News-Journal this week, reporter Sheldon Gardner explained that Volusia County Beach Safety and Ocean Rescue is experiencing a chronic shortage of lifeguards.

More troubling, it appears they are also unable to adequately manage the ones they have…

By any metric, protecting 47-miles of coastline is a difficult and essential task – currently covered by what Volusia County Beach Safety estimate at some 44 full-time lifeguards/EMTs and “about” 190 part-time lifeguards currently on the roster.

I guess +/- “190” is close enough for government work, eh? 

According to a News-Journal interview with Beach Safety Director Andy Ethridge, “…about 65 of the part-timers haven’t worked this summer. Some of them are traveling or have other jobs but like to remain on the books so they can return to work for Beach Safety when they want to.

“But if they’re not actively working for me it doesn’t help me. So it sounds bad when I say I have 200 lifeguards but only 120 of them are working,” he said. “That’s not a good look. So we’re trying to find out ways to motivate them and get them in here more often.”

Wait.  Not a good look?  

Back when I was a productive member of society, responsible for providing for the public’s safety – when I scheduled someone to work, they were expected to show up on-time and prepared to perform the task they were being paid for.

Or they didn’t work there anymore… 

In fact, in my former agency, part-time personnel were required to maintain the same training and readiness standards as full-time employees – and worked a mandatory number of hours each month as a condition of keeping their position. 

In my view, if you want to count yourself in a vital public safety role – then you should be willing to serve in that capacity when and where you are needed.  In over three-decades in public service, I have never heard of a situation where part-time employees keep themselves “on the books” and work – or not – at their leisure. 

That ‘do what ‘cha wanna’ policy makes it virtually impossible to adequately schedule qualified personnel, plan for seasonal needs, or maintain good order and discipline in the lifeguard corps. 

As I’m fond of asking, how’s things around your place of business?   

Outside of reasonable accommodation, do you permit employees to dictate when and where they will work, then play a guessing game whether your operation will be adequately staffed day-to-day? 

I didn’t think so.  Because that is the textbook definition of mismanagement…

In my experience, people work to make a life and provide for their family.

In Volusia County – the cost of living is increasing exponentially, while wages remain relatively stagnant – with options increasingly limited to $15 an hour warehouse scutwork at (insert most recent mega-logistics center here). 

Ironically, $15 an hour is the same wage offered to part-time lifeguards – while full-time employees fall into a salary range of $36,691 to $60,029 for this dangerous and demanding role.

So, if Director Ethridge wants to “motivate” his lifeguards – I suggest our ‘powers that be’ in DeLand start prioritizing what is important – and what is not – then pay those brave souls who enter the ocean to save lives what they are worth.

I fear if the Volusia County Council continues to do nothing, all beachgoing residents and visitors can do is wait helplessly – hoping their name doesn’t follow the next grim headline, “Another victim dies after being caught in rip current on Volusia County beach…”

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!   

Hey, taxpayers of Daytona Beach – welcome to the restaurant business!

According to a report this week by Eileen Zaffiro-Kean writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Mexican-based Grupo Anderson’s – the venerated international hospitality consortium with over 50 business units and a portfolio of 15 brands operating in four countries – will be partnering with the citizens of Daytona Beach to bring Señor Frog’s to a publicly owned beachfront lot in the city’s core tourist area.   

What?  You don’t know anything about running a bar and nightclub? 

No worries, Grupo Anderson’s will be doing the heavy lifting. 

According to the News-Journal, “Señor Frog’s has agreed to lease the city-owned property just north of Harvey Avenue for the next 50 years, and the city will give the project a boost by covering $500,000 of its construction costs. The city will also pay a broker’s commission subsidy of $61,625.”

What’s the return on investment for Daytona Beach taxpayers?

Well, the City of Daytona Beach will serve as the eatery’s landlord – collecting monthly rent of $10,000 – doubling to $20,000 per month by the sixth year of operation – with a 3% annual increase beginning in year seven. 

In addition, “The city will also charge Señor Frog’s percentage rent, collecting 3% of annual restaurant revenue that exceeds $5 million. The 3% payment on all sales over $5 million can provide an additional $30,000 per $1 million in sales.

The city is also getting a $9 million development on the .75-acre parcel between the beach and Ocean Avenue that’s been empty for decades and only used for parking in recent years.”

To help grease the skids, in addition to approving the $500K contribution and 50-year lease – concessions were granted “…that includes land development code waivers to allow the bar use and to reduce the minimum number of parking spaces required.”

I’m just curious, but which department at City Hall will be responsible for auditing the books at Grupo Anderson’s to ensure the accuracy of reported revenues?

Or will our new business partner be on the honor system? 

So, how’s things at your mom-and-pop shop?   

Anyone at City Hall bending over backwards to help cover your construction costs, run interference for permitting hurdles, or offer flexible operating hours in exchange for a slice of the pie when (and if) you become successful? 

No? 

According to a report by Charles Guarria who covered the announcement for Hometown News Volusia, to her credit, when the City Commission voted as the Community Redevelopment Agency – Commissioner Stacy Cantu cast the lone “No” vote for gifting Grupo Anderson’s the $500,000 buildout spiff and brokerage fee.

“I don’t believe our CRA should be giving them a $500,000 buildout,” she commented the next day in a phone interview. Commissioner Cantu has nothing against Señor Frog’s opening in Daytona Beach. However, the $500,000 and $61,625 amounts didn’t sit well with her. Commissioner Cantu would have preferred to use the money for already established bars and restaurants.”

As I see it, therein lies the problem of a municipality using tax dollars like a private hedge fund…

It doesn’t matter if taxpayers would prefer that public funds be used to repair potholes, provide water and sewer utilities, fund police and fire protection, and provide for the common good – residents of Daytona Beach are now part of a pooled investment fund with diversified interests in real estate, hospitality, office space, and multi-family housing.

I’m not sure that’s how any of this is supposed to work in a free, fair, and open marketplace – but after decades of dissuading entrepreneurial investment, penalizing existing businesses, and erecting so many hurdles that many new enterprises have established themselves in neighboring communities – it’s one way of stopping malignant blight and igniting interest in redevelopment.

In a June 22, 2023, article in the News-Journal, “Daytona Beach hopes buying $2 million of mostly blighted land will help start a renaissance,” we learned:

“Within the course of four hours Wednesday night, city commissioners took a series of votes that maybe someday will be remembered as the spark that ignited the redevelopment desperately needed east of Clyde Morris Boulevard.

Commissioners agreed to spend nearly $2 million buying privately owned property in Midtown and on the beachside that’s hoped to become the site of a new hotel, restaurant, shops, a movie theater, office space, multi-family housing, and an African-American museum.

Commissioners also voted to donate 10 city-owned lots, some of which are in the impoverished Midtown neighborhood, to two agencies that will use the land to build affordable housing.”

Look, no one likes a rum drink by the beach more than I do – and I am the first to scream and kick that something must change in the Halifax area.  In my view, a destination like Señor Frog’s is a wonderful addition to Daytona Beach and has the potential to serve as a catalyst for good things in our down-at-the-heels core tourist area. 

Now that the spark has been struck with public investment in for-profit interests – perhaps it is time for government to get out of the marketplace – and work to make the permitting and approval process easier for private businesses to open and thrive without the need for “creative” (and risky) public subsidies and corporate welfare schemes…

Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the newsmakers of the day – the winners and losers – who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life, or detracted from it, in some significant way.

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Angel/Asshole            Volusia County Council           

Whew!  This one could have gone either way…

In an unusual departure from the stagnant status quo, on Tuesday, the Volusia County Council voted 6-1 to approve an 18-month pilot program beginning November 1 to evaluate allowing dogs on the beach along a 0.6-mile section between Milsap Road and Rockefeller Drive in Ormond Beach! 

Trust me.  This is kind of a “big deal.”

Not because our elected dullards finally got one right – but because this represents the first time in a long time that We, The Little People were thrown a bone (pun intended…) by those we elect and appoint to represent our interests. 

To ensure the initiative didn’t receive unanimous support, West Volusia Councilman Don Dempsey (who seems to loathe everything east of the Palmetto Curtain) considered the wants of a handful of beachfront property owners over the tens-of-thousands of residents and visitors who use (and pay for) our most precious natural amenity, and cast the lone “No” vote…    

Whatever.

Expanding pet-friendly sections of the beach had originally been a campaign promise of Chairman Jeff Brower.  Unfortunately, the initiative was universally shit-on by the previous iteration of the council because, well, it was a campaign promise of Chairman Brower…

Upon taking office in January, District 4 Councilman Troy Kent expressed interest in establishing limited dog-friendly sections of beach in each coastal community – and resurrected the possibility of allowing residents to drive on the beach toll-free by charging out-of-county visitors a little more for vehicular access and parking in beachfront parks.

In March, in an unforeseen eleventh-hour hurdle, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service put the kibosh on the idea of opening a dog-friendly pilot program near Bicentennial Park in Ormond-by-the-Sea over concerns it could violate provisions of Volusia County’s Incidental Take Permit – a federal decree that protects shorebirds, sea turtles and other threatened species which some fearmongers warned could potentially end our century-old tradition of beach driving.

Make no mistake, this decision took a measure of political courage.  `

Throughout the process, some residents spoke passionately in opposition to the idea – and “staff” made it extremely easy for our policymakers to have nixed the idea out-of-hand.

In fact, the dog-friendly pilot became the perfect example of government taking a simple suggestion and making it so onerous, complicated, and expensive that it takes the fun out of the concept, paints any elected official who supports it as a spendthrift and exasperates supporters until they simply give up and go away.

According to a report by Jarleene Almenas writing in the Ormond Beach Observer, “…the county will install 26 dog waste bag dispensers, placing them at each beach ramp and all trash and recycling bin stands” with an installation cost of $2,574 – coupled with an annual expense for waste bags estimated at $6,000 (really?).

Of course, the bureaucracy will expand by one full-time animal control officer who will work four-days a week with salary and benefits totaling “…$96,500, including startup costs like equipment.”

(Beachgoers will undoubtably be able to recognize the officer by the Rolls-Royce Corniche he or she will use to patrol their half-mile area of responsibility…)

Fortunately, Ormond Beach philanthropists Nancy and Lowell Lohman generously donated $100,000 to offset the cost of hiring the new animal control officer. 

During a brief presentation on Tuesday, Ms. Lohman advised the Council that our area beaches are listed as “not pet-friendly” on two national websites. 

“Whatever this costs in animal control is more than offset by the impact of not being pet friendly nationally,” she said.

In my experience, Volusia County beaches haven’t been very “people-friendly” either… 

Maybe that’s beginning to change? 

Time will tell…

Special thanks to the dedicated animal rights activist Nanette McKeel Petrella, president of Daytona Dog Beach Inc., and her intrepid volunteers for working tirelessly – never taking “No” for an answer – to see a dog-friendly section of beach become a reality for responsible pet owners in Volusia County. 

Well done!

Angel               “Transform 386”

Most of what our elected and appointed officials do involves spending our money – or figuring out pernicious ways to get more taxes and higher fees out of us to feed the insatiable machine.

From the millions of dollars arbitrarily spent on “non-controversial” items crammed onto a consent agenda – to the over one billion allocated during what passes for the annual budget process – the collection of public funds, and the stewardship required to ensure they are spent in the public interest, is an essential function of our representative democracy. 

Don’t worry, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, on the dais aren’t exactly toiling away under green eyeshades, crunching numbers, cutting the fat, and ensuring our hard-earned tax dollars are safeguarded as they would have us believe.   

The heavy lifting is done by career staff members in the finance apparatus – and absent a few inconsequential appendages that the council or commission can ceremoniously chop to appease tax strapped voters – the bureaucracy knows what it needs to thrive and expand exponentially. 

When politicians hold themselves out as “fiscal conservatives” each election cycle, then quickly forget the source of that endless supply of tax dollars they piss away, they seem to have little interest in public input in the process…

For instance, have you ever wondered why those we elect to represent our interests set “civility ordinances,” refuse to acknowledge our presence when we prostrate ourselves before them to seek redress of grievances, or move public comment off the agenda altogether? 

Now We, The Little People have become a necessary nuisance for local government. What should be the most accessible and responsive institution providing our most visible essential services – now seems as unapproachable as our aloof state and federal government.

In my view, this self-serving “system” has become the epitome of taxation without representation – with our elected policymakers now solely beholden to those with the wherewithal to pay-to-play. 

As political scientists have known for years: The more distant our government is, the more it tends to be distrusted.

Increasingly, that “distance” does not mean Tallahassee or Washington, D.C. – but the growing “Us vs. Them” chasm right here in the increasingly secluded confines of City Halls or the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Building…

Despite the often-theatrical nature of budget hearings, much of what happens in public has been choreographed in advance – those appropriations important to the bureaucracy carefully staged and insulated – then behind-the-scenes collaborations between the city or county manager and the individual elected officials ensure there are few surprises. 

This strategic gaslighting gets more apparent in the leadup to an election year – when craven politicians who must defend their abysmal record fear they will be found out. 

That’s why these disingenuous assholes employ political sleight-of-hand like listing “Revenues” on the Volusia County Council consent agenda in bold/underlined text providing subliminal messaging – while massive “Expenditures” are printed in normal font with no attention-grabbing embellishment – and we begin to see more slanted press releases, carefully knitted by government mouthpieces, like “Taxpayers can expect flat or reduced property tax rates in the next budget year…”

Bullshit.

As the outcome of this annual political Kabuki becomes more predictable, trust in government declines and citizen apathy increases. 

Sound familiar?

Fortunately, on occasion, a brief opportunity presents for the masses to be heard. 

Over the next several weeks, Volusia County officials will be holding informational meetings to seek citizen input on the expenditure of $328.9 million in funds from the federal Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery program.

Why does Volusia County care what we think?

They don’t. 

However, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires citizen participation in the grant allocation process.   

Look, I’m not promising that your input will have any influence on how these important funds are ultimately spent, but prior to HUD approval, Volusia County’s “action plan” must include a detailed explanation of how the public will be in informed and engaged throughout the lifecycle of the grant.

That’s important. 

If you are one of the thousands who have been victimized by the widespread flooding resulting from (enter rain event here) now that overdevelopment has changed the topography of the land across Volusia County – I encourage you to attend one of the remaining meetings and let your thoughts on how this transformative grant can help with disaster relief, recovery, and restoration. 

For more information – and an opportunity to take an online unmet needs survey – please visit the “Transform 386” website here: https://www.transform386.org/

In my view, as our regional vulnerability increases due to the impacts of malignant sprawl and the wholesale destruction of our natural environmental buffers, citizen input in the disaster mitigation, response, and recovery cycle is vitally important.

Quote of the Week

“It was May 2009, and many streets in the city of Holly Hill were under water, the result of an unexpected, unprecedented series of thunderstorms that dumped 29 inches of water in northeast Volusia County over a five-day period. Police Chief Mark Barker was searching for ways to get the word out about roads that were unsafe, ways to get around them and the availability of emergency services.

So he fired up a relatively new social-media platform with a bird logo and a strange name. The department started Tweeting out information, and got a surprise: Holly Hill residents started responding with their own information about routes to avoid, and others who were stranded by floodwaters called out for help via tweets.

“It was a good experience,” Barker said, adding that he heard from many who signed up for the app just to get his department’s updates. At the time, it was revolutionary in Central Florida, but rapid communication via Twitter quickly became pro forma for fire, police and emergency operations and other governmental agencies across the nation, becoming a reliable source of breaking news and critical public safety information during dangerous, developing events and natural disasters.

So convenient and immediate was the service that many public agencies — local governments, law enforcement, fire departments — embraced Twitter as a preferred medium for citizen outreach. If a gas main ruptured, major thoroughfares were closed or criminal violence required the public to be notified, Twitter was the easiest way to get that information out quickly.

That is more precarious following the platform’s purchase last year by Elon Musk, whose subsequent changes have rendered Twitter glitchy, erratic and less vigilant about removing willful, sometimes vicious misinformation. During recent hurricanes Ian and Nicole, public safety officials made heavy use of Twitter but replies were often nonsensical or political, rather than informational.

“It can take you to some dark places,” Barker (who has subsequently retired from law enforcement and now runs the popular local-politics blog Barker’s View) says of the service today.

That has many users scrambling for the exits and should prompt public institutions to consider their next steps.”

–The Orlando Sentinel, “Editorial: Twitter’s slow collapse poses challenges for public institutions,” as adapted from the original opinion of the Virginian Pilot/Daily Press, Wednesday, July 12, 2023  

Many thanks to Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and the Orlando Sentinel’s Editorial Board for mentioning this over the hill has-been earlier this week. 

It does my beat-up old heart good to know someone remembers the ones we got right… 

And Another Thing!

Call me what you will.  You can’t hurt my feelings.  

Over the years and miles, I have grown some hard bark, and no one knows better than I that my hypocrisy knows no boundaries…

As regular readers of these screeds know, I rarely opine on law enforcement issues in this blog. 

The fact is, if you want to bash cops there are plenty of those sites available – this isn’t one of them.   

Since I was a young boy, police officers have been my personal heroes.

They still are.

Because the vast majority of law enforcement officers understand that the badge is a sacred symbol of public faith – and the citizens they serve will have confidence in the profession only so long as those who wear it are true to the principles and ethics of the police service. 

Serving and protecting others is not an easy pursuit – and it never will be. 

Over a lengthy career, I lost friends and colleagues who paid the ultimate sacrifice serving their communities under heroic circumstances – and others who served with honor and succumbed to the demons that often come with a strong devotion to a cause greater than ourselves.    

I don’t mean to be melodramatic – but those great souls are just a few of the reasons I prefer to limit my crude philippics to the frustrating machinations of local politics. 

Over the past week, I have received several criticisms and swipes condemning my refusal to weigh in on the two Daytona Beach Shores officers who, for reasons known only to them, thought it would be clever to potty-train their toddler by incarcerating him in a jail cell (which, for the uninitiated, can be a virtual Petri dish of every foul germ, virus, and bodily excretion known to modern science…).   

For some reason, a few people thought it was important for me to voice an opinion on that abject idiocy – as though anything I could possibly add would help make sense of the nonsensical?

Look, sometimes people do stupid shit. 

I know this because no one made more regrettable mistakes over a thirty-one-year career in law enforcement than I did.  Fortunately, I worked for a community that allowed me to learn and grow, personally and professionally, from those expensive, embarrassing, and hard-earned experiences.

The fact is sometimes human beings who wear a badge – or serve in other high-visibility professions that have an obligation to “keep their public and private lives unsullied as an example to all” – fall short of that difficult goal.   

But we must never lower that lofty bar.   

This week, as the unfortunate saga of Daytona Beach Shores Lieutenant Michael Schoenbrod deepened, we learned in an article by Mark Harper writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal that Director of Public Safety Michael Fowler has placed his second-in-command on paid leave pending yet another internal investigation into disturbing allegations of possible misconduct. 

In my view, the reported nature of these recent claims transcends a parental mistake in judgement – and could have an adverse impact on the public’s confidence in the Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety – something I am certain is not lost on City Manager Kurt Swartzlander, who is an inherently good man of impeccable character and one of the finest public servants I have ever known.   

According to the News-Journal, in April, Director Fowler commissioned a second internal affairs investigation following a department briefing during which Lt. Schoenbrod was alleged to have spoken, “…critically of other officers who he believed were involved in reporting him to the Florida Department of Children and Families and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement…”

Then, last week, Director Fowler issued a third notice of investigation citing serious allegations of misconduct against Lt. Schoenbrod. 

According to the News-Journal:

“The memo cites three code of conduct policy violations “that may have occurred on or after April 7, 2023.”

The first reads: “Employees shall not commit any act or crime defined by state or federal law as a felony, whether chargeable or not.”

Another: “Employees shall not steal, alter or forge or tamper with any kind of public safety record, report or citation.” It goes on to state that the unlawful or unauthorized removal of any such document is prohibited.

The last states employees “will not edit, alter, erase, duplicate, copy, share or otherwise distribute in any manner digital recordings without prior written authorization.”

According to reports, a judge has sealed all records related to the inquiries into the child’s brief incarceration – and, to protect the integrity of the pending internal investigations, Florida law prohibits public disclosure until all aspects have been administratively settled.

In my experience, Director Fowler is doing everything possible to protect the public’s trust while providing Lt. Schoenbrod, a 23-year law enforcement veteran, with his right to due process under the law – because that is his legal and ethical obligation to those he serves.

Again, not an easy task when many in the community are demanding immediate answers… 

Serving as a senior law enforcement executive is a hard dollar. 

Like spinning plates – it requires a 24/7 focus on multiple high liability/high-profile operations simultaneously – and the idiom “you’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t” should be listed in the job description. 

But nothing worth doing is easy, and I know of few callings that are more personally fulfilling or important to the life of a community. 

On good days and bad, the role demands being fully engaged, taking care of those under your command, encouraging others, maintaining morale and esprit de corps under difficult or dangerous circumstances, ensuring discipline and good order, having the humility to admit mistakes and take a joke – always setting the example – supporting productivity and professionalism in the face of withering criticism, accepting personal responsibility for the acts and omissions of those under your command, and putting faith in others while ensuring the buck always stops at the top.

Most important, the job requires a robust 360-degree commitment to maintaining internal and external trust through strong leadership – because earning and retaining the confidence of the public, officers, and staff is critical to the success of law enforcement’s important mission – and anything less is unacceptable. 

It can be a long day…

And I miss it terribly.  All of it.    

Because on those elusive occasions when you get it right – what an incredible sense of pride and satisfaction you receive from those dedicated men and women who give so much of themselves in service to a grateful community…

So, there you have it.  The Gospel of Law Enforcement Leadership according to this washed-up has-been. 

The fact is, no one realizes better than I do that it is easy to wax philosophic on the tenets of management and leadership while sipping my morning coffee behind a computer screen. 

I also know nothing I say will salve the rash of my most ardent critics – that comes with the territory – but I hope these rambling thoughts explain why I tend to give my former colleagues the benefit of the doubt…

Hypocritical? Probably. 

But my devotion to those who leave their families and go into harm’s way to protect my family and yours is not going to change…   

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all! 

Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the newsmakers of the day – the winners and losers – who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life, or detracted from it, in some significant way.

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole           County of Volusia

The brilliant mathematician, computer scientist, and US Navy Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper succinctly explained the difference between people and resources for those holding positions of high responsibility:

“You manage things; you lead people.”

Unfortunately, it is now embarrassingly evident that the senior leadership of Volusia County does neither…

This week, the News-Journal’s Sheldon Gardner took a deep dive into a recent report by Volusia County Internal Auditor Jonathan Edwards, who uncovered a year-over-year “alleged fraud” in the Animal Services Division (which, I think, falls under the “Public Protection” bureaucratic umbrella) that has cost taxpayers an estimated $26,000. 

A low-level veterinary assistant who operates a DeLand area nonprofit pet rescue has been singled out for the financial irregularities – which include undercharging, or not charging “…at all for various services for her own nonprofit as well as others.”

The employee has denied the accusations.

According to the report, a subsequent investigation by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office found:

“…about 56 invoices where services weren’t properly charged, which cost the county $1,020. The sheriff’s office forwarded the investigation to the state attorney’s office for possible misdemeanor charges of petit theft and altering records.”

The state attorney’s office filed a notice of intent not to prosecute on March 9.

But more information was uncovered — with a much larger financial loss — during the audit process, County Manager George Recktenwald said. So the county has turned the audit report over to the sheriff’s office for further review.”

Apparently, the largest loss occurred when customers were not properly charged for services by Animal Service employees – including discounted fees, inconsistent billing, and unaddressed situations where an employee had a clear “conflict of interest” – all the result of “weak internal controls” and “a lack of supervisory oversight of daily activities.”

According to the News-Journal’s report, Chairman Jeff Brower and Councilman Danny Robins understand the need for accountability:

“It’s just my … feelings: Obviously this was orchestrated. It was larger than what it was,” Vice Chair Danny Robins said. “And I have a hard time believing the staff at the time or possibly the director or the leadership at the time that oversees that did not or could not know about this, and I’m really curious to see the outcome in this investigation.”

Robins said whoever was involved needs to be held accountable “to the maximum.” Council Chairman Jeff Brower said he agreed and added it “should have been caught by the supervisor there.”

“I’m glad that senior staff had suspicions and instead of kind of letting that out they went to (the auditor) and did a full investigation, and that does need to be carried out,” Brower said.

The veterinary assistant was subsequently terminated by Volusia County for “workplace issues” – “…including using county property for personal gain and unprofessional conduct: slamming doors and cursing at the workplace and at an event.”

The employee is also appealing the dismissal. 

“Keep moving, folks.  Nothing to see here.  We’ve found the culprit toiling away in virtual anonymity in the bottom ranks.  Everything is all right now – move along…” 

Feel better? 

Me neither.

And the hits just keep on coming…

On Monday, former Volusia County Corrections Director Dr. Mark Flowers filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court alleging acts of retaliation and a violation of the state Whistle-Blower Act.

As horrified Volusia County taxpayers will recall, Dr. Flowers was effectively terminated last December after counteraccusations resulted in a scandalous investigation into inmate abuse and employee morale. 

(How Dr. Flowers went from a promising senior administrator worthy of promotion in 2017 (and a salary of $148,460) to pillory, humiliation, and termination in 2022, will be an interesting story, eh?)   

According to reports, Flowers’ attorney, Kelly Chanfrau, has alleged that her client repeatedly reported misconduct by corrections officers — including the abuse of an inmate who reportedly “… suffered two black eyes after a beating administered by correctional officers.”

However, the county’s own internal investigation turned the tables, sustaining a laundry list of violations against Flowers that included ordering the isolation of inmates, violating suicide protocols, creating a hostile workplace, and directing corrections officers to place an unidentified inmate in a four-point restraint — in the nude — for several days.

Yeah.  I know…

As for Flowers’ original allegations, Volusia County’s internal investigator found, “Based on the information gathered during this investigation, I am unable to determine if the force used against (an inmate) on April 26, 2022, was excessive in nature.”

A subsequent investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was turned over to the State Attorney’s Office who determined there was “insufficient evidence to proceed…” with criminal charges. 

Following the release of these reports, Volusia County Spokesman Kevin Captain (who, in May, was promoted to the role of Director of Emergency Medical Services under, you guessed it, the Public Protection Division) mischaracterized the findings in a press release, stating “An independent, outside review of an altercation at the Volusia County Branch Jail in April found no evidence that corrections officers used excessive force while gaining control of a combative inmate.”

Which, in my view, is not just bureaucratic embroidery – but a complete whitewash…

Ultimately, Dr. Flowers made claims of unfair treatment to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and appealed his termination. 

Now, Chanfrau has filed a lawsuit on Dr. Flowers’ behalf.

Regardless of how these latest revelations play out – now that all the low-level scapegoats have been publicly terminated – the focus turns to why our elected representatives refuse to hold anyone in the senior executive ranks responsible for these ongoing debacles?   

The fact is, these repugnant scandals occurred on Mr. Recktenwald’s watch – and the inviolate rule of command dictates that responsibility may be delegated, but ultimate accountability cannot be abdicated – and “The Wreck” either knew, or should have known, what was going on in the Public Protection Division.

I’ve said this before, but the old dodge, “I didn’t know what was happening,” is not a privilege typically afforded to those who are held to exacting standards of professionalism and personal accountability – required by position to maintain three-dimensional situational awareness – and a chief executive commanding an annual salary of over $224,000 plus benefits and perquisites should understand that.

In my view, as an act of conscience, Mr. Recktenwald should step aside – and if he does not have the strength of character to accept responsibility for his actions and those under his supervision – then our elected representatives have an ethical obligation to act decisively.    

Don’t hold your breath…

If history repeats (and it always does in Volusia County government) no one in the county’s bloated maze of overlapping senior managers, department directors, division directors, a deputy county manager and beyond will ever be held to account.

For anything…

Angel               City of Ormond Beach Planning Staff

I like to say, if you care about good governance in your own backyard – you should champion good governance everywhere. 

Especially in this time of unprecedented greed and growth – when every square foot of vacant land is being slashed, burned, and clearcut to accommodate more, more, more development – while transportation infrastructure, utilities, medical facilities, and civic amenities are overwhelmed, and our sensitive natural places are churned into a foul black muck.

Next week, the anxious residents of the Tomoka Oaks subdivision in Ormond Beach are facing an important milestone in their valiant fight to stop developers from shoehorning 276 additional homes on the community’s former golf course.

On Thursday, beginning at 6:00 p.m., the Ormond Beach Planning Board will consider the proposed Tomoka Oaks development agreement at a public hearing to be held at the Calvary Christian Center, 1687 West Granada Boulevard. 

It’s going to be a barnburner…

In an article by Jarleene Almenas writing in the Ormond Beach Observer this week, many were heartened to learn that city staff will be recommending the Planning Board deny the development agreement:

“City planning staff cited incompatibility with the existing Tomoka Oaks subdivision, as well as concerns with the proposed buffer and the design of the subdivision, in a city staff report, the latter of which staff stated, “could cause nuisances or have visual impacts on adjoining properties.”

In this current no-holds-barred development environment, that’s encouraging.

Increasingly, residents of Ormond Beach and beyond are standing together to let their elected officials know, enough is enough – and those cowardly retread politicians who plan to stand for reelection in 2024 should take notice.

In the case of Tomoka Oaks, the residents of this established community face the threat of having their lives upended – with projections showing an additional 2,774 daily car trips inundating the already congested intersection of Tomoka Oaks Boulevard and Nova Road.   

Recently, Mayor Bill Partington published a weird manifesto in support of his announced run for the Florida House of Representatives decrying his own handiwork, which has resulted in near gridlock on Granada Boulevard and beyond.

Fortunately, many weary Halifax area residents recognized Hizzoner’s half-assed attempt to commiserate with his claustrophobic constituents for what it was:

“We all know that traffic congestion can cause frustration, wasted time, and a negative impact on our overall quality of life. It is an issue that affects not only our daily commutes, but also our local businesses, visitors, and the environment.”

As residents of the “Fun Coast” know all too well – talk is cheap in politics – and an elected official’s voting record tells us all we need to know about where their true loyalties lie. 

Despite what we are told by real estate developers and those compromised politicians who serve them – explosive growth is not a moral imperative.

Existing residents do not have an ethical obligation to sacrifice our safety and quality of life to accommodate newcomers seeking more zero-lot-line wood frame cracker boxes “starting in the $300’s” – and rubberstamping more growth at this critical stage flies in the face of concurrency and commonsense. 

Regardless of where you live in the region, I hope you will stand with your neighbors in Ormond Beach on Thursday evening and let those who seek to destroy the threatened neighborhood of Tomoka Oaks know how you feel about the pernicious effects of greed, growth, and transactional politics on our dwindling quality of life in Volusia County.

Angel               Sons of the Beach

On Sunday, July 9, Sons of the Beach – Florida’s premiere beach access advocacy – will host its Summer Rally 2023 at the Oasis Tiki Bar, (behind the Fountain Beach Resort), 313 South Atlantic Avenue, Daytona Beach from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.!

Everyone is welcome. 

The rally will feature live music, a 50/50 raffle, door prizes, and some brand-new SOB swag for purchase, with cold beverages and a great menu available at the Oasis Tiki Bar!

In my experience, this is a wonderful opportunity to join with neighbors committed to protecting our most precious natural amenity – and preserving our century-old heritage of beach driving and access.   

Quote of the Week

“Thomas Jefferson is attributed with saying that “a well-informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.”

The Florida Constitution specifically ensures that all citizens have the right to be informed about their governments. That right is part of the fundamental Declaration of Rights for each citizen which Declaration relates to important matters such as our political powers as citizens, religious freedom, freedom of speech and the press, the right to assemble, the right to work, the right to bear arms, the right to due process of law, our access to the courts and trial by jury, and the right of privacy.

The Florida Constitution provides that the right to review and copy public records is part of each citizen’s fundamental rights. So, if a citizen of Volusia County or one of its cities desires to see the documents by which a company was paid for goods or services or how much someone received from a government grant, the citizen is entitled to view and copy the public documents that relate to those matters.

Indeed, if a citizen wants to view and copy the receipt for the lunch of a mayor and city manager, that is likewise available as a public record. Good, open, and transparent governments ensure that all that the public trust is honored. The Florida Constitution also provides that “public office is a public trust.”

If we citizens in Florida are entitled to know, for example, the cost of the sandwiches and fries for lunch between a mayor and city manager, we should be entitled to know about the most critical and important issues before our governments.”

–Lonnie Groot, Daytona Beach Shores, The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Letters to the Editor, “Ability to review and copy public records is a fundamental right,” Sunday, July 2, 2023

Mr. Groot is right.   

Article II, Section 8, of the Florida Constitution is clear: “A public office is a public trust.”

And the people have the right to secure and sustain that trust against abuse…

For many, public service is a sacred calling – a chance to serve a cause greater than one’s own self-interest – and help make their community, state, and nation a better, safer, more prosperous place. 

In fact, some of the finest people I have ever known spent their lives in local, state, and federal government holding positions of trust.     

Unfortunately, for others, it has become a means to an end, a lucrative “gig” where those with the gold make the rules – and compromised political pawns play with other people’s money with little oversight – cloaked in employment protections and “golden parachutes” the average citizen will never know.

Sometimes those holding powerful public positions, who hold incredible influence over the lives and livelihoods of others, get confused.

When very important people laugh at their jokes, complement their tie, and agree with them on decisions large and small – these “leaders” – from small town mayors to the highest offices in the land – can lose touch with reality and consider themselves invincible – blinded by that hubristic feeling of pompous omnipotence.

In my view, when the external pressure of seeking massive amounts of money to fund political campaigns results in malleable politicians paying fealty to their oligarchical benefactors from the dais of power – We, The Little People are quickly forced out of the process – ignored like a necessary nuisance by the “system.”

That’s just one reason why open meetings and public records laws are so important. 

A lack of transparency and behind-the-scenes wrangling is a problem as old as politics – and the ash heap of history is littered with the festering political carcasses of those who could not balance power with openness and humility.

Like some maniacal Paul Revere on a drunken midnight ride, for years I’ve been screaming to anyone who will listen that Volusia County has been hijacked by a cabal of cheapjack greed-heads who use our intentionally loose campaign finance laws to pour hundreds-of-thousands of dollars into the war chests of hand-select candidates as a means of maintaining direct access to the public trough.

If you don’t believe me – simply take a stroll down memory lane and match the campaign contributions to the names, addresses and corporate entities – then see how our honorable council and commission members voted when it came time for their sugar daddies to collect their reward.

Sadly, and I take no pleasure in this – it looks like I was right after all…

And Another Thing!

“In his 1944 book That Vanishing Eden: A Naturalist’s Florida, Thomas Barbour bemoaned the environmental damage caused by development to the Miami area and wrote, “Florida … must cease to be purely a region to be exploited and flung aside, having been sucked dry, or a recreation area visited by people who …  feel no sense of responsibility and have no desire to aid and improve the land.”

Even then, a dark vision of Florida’s future was clear.

Most of this harm has been inflicted in the service of unlimited and poorly planned growth, sparked by greed and short-term profit. This murder of the natural world has accelerated in the last decade to depths unheard of. The process has been deliberate, often systemic, and conducted from on-high to down-low, with special interests flooding the state with dark money, given to both state and local politicians in support of projects that bear no relationship to best management of natural resources.”

–Jeff Vandermeer, writing in Current Affairs, “The Annihilation of Florida: An Overlooked National Tragedy,” May 2022

Earlier this week, I published my thoughts on the Washington Post’s disturbing exposé on the lucrative relationship between the DeSantis administration and our own High Panjandrum of Political Power, Mori Hosseini, the president and CEO of ICI Homes, who stands atop the pyramid of powerbrokers who many believe have normalized a pay-to-play system across the Sunshine State. 

Now that Governor Ron DeSantis has announced his presidential run, the national media – including Forbes (hardly a bastion of left-leaning lunacy) – is questioning the connection between Mr. Hosseini’s campaign contributions, a “loan” of an elaborate golf simulator to the Governor’s mansion, and frequent private jet travel for Governor and Mrs. DeSantis, etc., etc., and the allocation of some $92 million in Covid/ARPA funds which Gov. DeSantis approved for a proposed interchange at Pioneer Trail and I-95 to service ICI Homes’ massive Woodhaven development in Southeast Volusia…

For years, as compromised local politicians championed the interchange – local environmentalists have warned of the devastating impact the interchange would have on the sensitive Spruce Creek watershed – and the quality of life enjoyed by established residents of the Turnbull Bay Road area.

According to an excellent article by reporter Mark Harper writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal:

“In 2021, Volusia County Chair Jeff Brower held a press conference with environmentalists to protest a maneuver that he said is in violation of a federal court opinion requiring such projects to be assessed under the Federal Environmental Policy Act. He continued his objections in an interview Thursday.

“It’s a shame,” Brower said, expressing concerns that the new interchange is on land that is part of the Spruce Creek watershed, which feeds into the environmentally sensitive Indian River Lagoon.

The lagoon, which resides within six coastal Florida counties and is home to more species than any other estuary in North America, has suffered a loss of seagrass, which has led to spikes in manatee deaths in recent years.

In May, a group called Save Don’t Pave Spruce Creek, issued a news release calling for a halt to the interchange.”

I would argue that since speaking out on the issue, Chairman Brower’s bread hasn’t landed jelly-side up again… 

While proponents of the galactically expensive interchange tout the need for improved transportation for the Woodhaven development – now that our elected officials have put the cart before the horse and allowed thousands of new homes to be wedged into every nook and cranny of Volusia County – the same can be said for (insert your neighborhood here). 

Although the Pioneer Trail interchange was dubbed “shovel ready” – many other areas also face enormous pressure – such as the LPGA/I-95 area whose reconfiguration is still years away – even as the bulldozers continue to roar west of that Monument to Mediocrity that is the two-lane bridge of the threatened Tomoka River…

Last week, Mr. Hosseini took to the News-Journal to refute the Washington Post’s assertions, stating for the record that, “I have never, ever in my life gone to any governor and asked for anything. Not a governor, not a speaker of the house, not a Senate president, nothing about me. Nothing about my projects,” Hosseini said.

Hosseini said he has solicited help for institutions he supports, including the University of Florida, Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University, and Daytona State College.

“I take care of my community and my students of this state,” he said.”

Fair enough. 

But one could argue that Mr. Hosseini, and other well-heeled insiders, have created an environment where it is extremely difficult for the beneficiaries of their “support” to say “No” and remain in the game…  

It is clear to us rubes looking on from the cheap seats that the disturbing correlation between Mr. Hosseini’s incredible largesse and his apparent return on investment in public funds, appointments, infrastructure, and insider access is hard to ignore.

In his important examination of the greed and bureaucratic incompetence that threatens Florida’s future, Mr. Vandermeer wrote:

“An oligarchy, with its system of favoritism toward certain elites and special interests, deliberately fosters corruption as a function of its existence. It is often stacked against environmental causes in ways different from a decaying representative democracy. Combine the worst attributes of capitalism with oligarchy and in the future, Florida’s leaders may actually give developers and other special interests even more tools of suppression.”

(Read more of Mr. Vandermeer’s unique take here: https://tinyurl.com/2by9ss7k )

I believe in the best tenets of capitalism and a free marketplace – based on a level playing field without undue government intrusion – and the freedoms, rights, and responsibilities our nation holds dear, where everyone is equal under the law.

In my view, this rapidly evolving oligarchy isn’t representative of that – as this pernicious pay-to-play system continues to perpetuate itself… 

In my view, Florida residents have a right to expect that any elected or appointed official who secures a special privilege, benefit, or exemption for themselves or others will be held accountable.   

Regardless of your political persuasion, the appearance of this wheeler-dealer backroom bullshit transcends partisan bickering, presidential campaigns, and the deep political dysfunction in Tallahassee and Washington as the mere appearance of quid pro quo arrangements and cronyism is detrimental to our foundational principles.

Now is the time for those we pay to investigate public corruption to get off their collective ass and preserve, protect, and defend those constitutional protections that separate our state (and nation) from some fetid Banana Republic, where access to power is bought and sold and the allocation of public funds goes to the highest bidder…    

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!

“The administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) steered $92 million last year in leftover federal coronavirus stimulus money to a controversial highway interchange project that directly benefits a top political donor, according to state records.

The decision by the Florida Transportation Department to use money from the 2021 American Rescue Plan for the I-95 interchange at Pioneer Trail Road near Daytona Beach fulfilled a years-long effort by Mori Hosseini, a politically connected housing developer who owns two large tracts of largely forested land abutting the planned interchange. The funding through the DeSantis administration, approved shortly after the governor’s reelection, expedited the project by more than a decade, according to state documents.”

–The Washington Post, “DeSantis agency sent $92 million in covid relief funds to donor-backed project: Mori Hosseini, who donated a golf simulator to the governor’s mansion, championed a new exchange on Interstate 95 that feeds into his housing and shopping center project,” Thursday, June 29, 2023  

In my best impression of Casablanca’s cynically astonished Captain Renault, “I’m shocked, shocked to find well-heeled insiders get whatever they want in this pay-to-play system…” 

Truthfully, what I find shocking is that it took so long for the bright national spotlight to swing toward the “Sunshine State” and our legal quid pro quo campaign finance scheme – something many fed-up Floridians have dubbed, “corruption in the plain sight.”

In 2018, I authored a blog entitled “The Faustian Bargain,” a disturbing corollary between Volusia County politics and the legendary bluesman, Robert Johnson, who grew up in abject poverty in the Mississippi Delta. 

According to legend, one dark night, Johnson stood at the crossroads of Highway 61 and US 49 and sold his very soul to the devil in exchange for mastery of the guitar and the incredible success, and ultimate escape, it would bring.

It’s a tale as old as time, really.

Throughout history – from St. Theophilus of Adana to Doctor Faustus – cautionary yarns have been spun of ambitious people who, in a misguided pursuit of personal riches and power, fall victim to temptation and sell who and what they are, for what they desperately hope to become.

But what happens when folklore becomes reality?

Like many of you, for years, I have been wrestling with the ethical questions surrounding Florida’s normalization of transactional politics – and which side of this strategic assignation is more culpable – the “John” or the hooker?    

In my view, Volusia County – like the rest of our state – has become a despicable example of just how pernicious crony capitalism, facilitated by the corruption of the campaign finance system, can be when uber-wealthy individuals and their corporate entities repeatedly secure a political quid pro quo from elected officials.

In fact, it represents a legal return on investment in a system that permits a privileged few to develop financial relationships with office holders, then obtain direct access to the public purse in the form of preferential tax breaks, “corporate welfare,” infrastructure, and even direct subsidies for their private projects.

Of course, the weak defense of sitting elected officials is that “No one has ever asked me for anything!” 

That may be true – but a few of our oligarchical overseers make it damn difficult for any perceptive politician to say “No.” 

By all appearances, in exchange for the all-important financial resources and political clout local candidates receive as an anointing from Volusia’s “Rich & Powerful,” our elected officials are expected to perform their role like the bought-and-paid-for chattel they are whenever an issue directly involving the self-interests and profit motives of their campaign benefactors presents itself before the dais of power.

In Volusia County, Mr. Hosseini stands at the top of a small clique of influential insiders whose mere presence in a council or commission chamber changes the temperature of the room as their elected livestock sit up a little straighter and become hyperattentive.

Invariably, the issue or project these heavy-hitters support or oppose is settled to their complete satisfaction.

Every. Damn. Time…

That attentiveness to the wants of their masters is not lost on We, The Little People, whose voices and needs are routinely ignored by our malleable ‘powers that be.’

The result has been a slow erosion of the public’s trust in the legitimacy of government – and the Washington Post’s scandalous report hit weary residents hard…

It’s no secret that our High Panjandrum of Political Power, Mortenza “Mori” Hosseini – the powerful CEO of ICI Homes, Chairman (and de facto president) of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Board of Trustees, Chairman of the University of Florida’s Board of Trustees, and the undisputed titan of political powerbrokers in Florida and beyond – swings a lot of weight in local, state, and federal political circles.

Residents of these parts have known that for years…

In my view, what makes this so brazen is the bright connection between Mr. Hosseini’s campaign largesse, use of his private jet, the “loan” of an elaborate golf simulator to the Governor’s mansion, and other “gifts” to high-powered politicians – and the historical return on that investment, such as funding for the long-sought Pioneer Trail/1-95 interchange to service ICI’s Woodhaven development – or the $20 million Embry-Riddle was gifted this year in the state budget after an appropriation request by first-year State Representative Chase Tramont – apparently to fund and equip a mysterious “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility” at ERAU’s research park… 

In the aftermath of the damning Washington Post exposé, Mr. Hosseini spoke to News-Journal reporter Mark Harper and denied seeking favoritism from Governor Ron DeSantis for the Pioneer Trail interchange.

“I have never, ever in my life gone to any governor and asked for anything. Not a governor, not a speaker of the house, not a Senate president, nothing about me. Nothing about my projects,” Hosseini said.

Hosseini said he has solicited help for institutions he supports, including the University of Florida, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Daytona State College.

“I take care of my community and my students of this state,” he said.

Jeremy Redfern, the governor’s press secretary, tweeted several attacks against the Post and its reporter, Michael Scherer, including a digitally enhanced photo of Scherer dressed as a circus clown. He called the story a “nothing burger.”

Guess it’s all a matter of perspective, eh? 

Except, here in Florida – the biggest whorehouse in the world – no one in a position of political power gives two-shits about your viewpoint – or our perception of honor and ethics in public service – unless you articulate it on the back of a campaign check…   

The unfortunate reality is that this “system” of ours did not develop overnight – and had it not been for Governor DeSantis’ presidential run – none of this would have mattered to anyone north of Tallahassee.

With the national spotlight now on the Sunshine State’s pernicious pay to play system – and even Governor DeSantis’ staunchest supporters looking on in disappointed silence – in my view, he owes his constituents an explanation beyond clown memes and flippant dismissals.  

Now those responsible for protecting the integrity of our system of governance must launch an aggressive investigation into the glaring connections and behind-the-scenes machinations exposed by the Washington Post and area environmentalists working hard to protect the Spruce Creek watershed.   

In my view, the process of restoring the public confidence should begin by shifting the $92 million earmarked for Pioneer Trail to far more pressing transportation needs – like expediting the LPGA Boulevard interchange, including replacement of the two-lane Monument to Mediocrity over the threatened Tomoka River – as the bulldozers continue to roar west of I-95…

The stench of insider access in a pay-to-play environment undermines the foundational principles of our democracy.

Business as usual cannot continue.