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           Flagler County School Board

Flagler County District Schools has had a rough week…

As everyone in the Free World is now aware, last week, a horribly ill-advised plan was hatched by a few so-called “educators” at Bunnell Elementary School that segregated Black fourth and fifth grade students from their classmates, brought them into the cafeteria, and subjected them to a now infamous five slide PowerPoint presentation entitled “AA (African American) Presentation.”

The presentation, rife with grammatical errors, was ostensibly intended to increase standardized test scores – although some of the students forced to endure the lecture were already earning A’s and B’s.    

Sadly, the segregated “assemblies” included teachers frightening children with threats they could end up in jail or killed if they failed to excel – then pitted students against one another in a weird scholastic competition that would earn the winners a meal at McDonald’s… 

Yeah.  I know.

As a result, last week, Interim Superintendent LaShakia Moore rightfully suspended the principal and a faculty member at BES – placing them on paid administrative leave while an investigation into the incident continues.

As I opined in this space last week, Interim Superintendent Moore responded to this crisis – one which saw the Bunnell Elementary School plastered across international media outlets, including the popular news aggregate Drudge Report and Fox News’ Hannity – with great skill and leadership, including accepting personal and professional responsibility and offering a heartfelt apology to the students affected and the community. 

I found Ms. Moore’s response a positive example of transparent crisis management – and how strong leadership can foster healing.   

The Flagler County School Board’s response? 

Not so much…

Following Ms. Moore’s press conference, the elected members of the School Board gathered behind closed doors ostensibly to discuss the Interim Superintendent’s performance – but who knows? 

For the uninitiated, under Florida’s open meetings law it is illegal for elected members of the same board to meet or discuss active matters that may come before the board outside of a properly noticed public meeting…

Ultimately, School Board Attorney Kristy Gavin entered the room and broke up the private klatch – but the damage had been done – adding fuel and speculation to the crisis.

In a hilarious sidenote to this abject absurdity, a reporter from the online news site FlagerLive! snapped a photo of several Flagler County School Board members still seated around a conference table – looking for all the world like kids caught with their hands wedged firmly in the cookie jar…   

See it for yourself here: https://tinyurl.com/bdzhtetc

Angel               Charlene Greer & Jeep Beach, Inc.

One of the most successful and philanthropic special events in the Halifax area Jeep Beach continues to make a positive impact beyond drawing thousands of enthusiasts to our area each year. 

Recently, Jeep Beach, Inc. donated more than $600,000 to the Halifax Health Foundation to support mental health counseling at Halifax Health Behavioral Services.   

According to a press release, “Halifax Health Foundation is thrilled to announce a groundbreaking philanthropic partnership with the Jeep Beach organization, who have generously donated over $600,000 to fund the renovation of the lobby at Halifax Health – Behavioral Services. This transformative gift will not only enhance the physical space but also contribute to the development of crucial mental health counseling programming.”

Now celebrating its 20th year, Jeep Beach has proven a true benefit to the Halifax area and is now universally embraced by locals as a quality annual event that gives back to the host community.

According to a report by Jim Abbott writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Incorporated as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charity in 2017, Jeep Beach Inc. has donated over $3.8 million to area charities over the past decade through the event’s annual weeklong fund-raising efforts. Recipients include the Boys & Girls Clubs of Volusia & Flagler Counties; the NASCAR Foundation; the Childhood Cancer Foundation, as well as more than 70 additional nonprofit groups.

This year’s Jeep Beach event in April attracted more than 230,000 attendees and 30,000-plus Jeep SUVs to Daytona Beach and throughout Volusia County. The 2024 Jeep Beach event is slated for April 19-28.” 

Unlike many “pop-up” invasions and “truck meets” – mechanized mayhem that leave area residents trapped in their homes as rowdy assholes turn our streets into a congested dragstrip and our beachside neighborhoods into Party Central during three days/two nights of gridlocked debauchery – Jeep Beach brings thousands of visitors to our area for a great week of fun at various venues throughout the area.

Kudos to Jeep Beach, Inc. Chair and Executive Director Charlene Greer and her legion of dedicated volunteers who work hard to make Jeep Beach an incredibly special Daytona Beach tradition! 

Quote of the Week

“A spokesperson for Port Tampa Bay said Citgo is a “privately-held terminal,” which means the port itself has no oversight over Citgo’s facility, even though it rests within the port’s footprint. That means any details about the “human error” leading to fuel contamination would have to come directly from the company, according to spokesperson Lisa Wolf-Chason.

“They employ their own people, they have their own operators, and they own the land they operate off of,” Wolf-Chason said in a phone interview. “I know this is unfortunate news for Citgo, but we have been working with other fuel operators to make sure they’re prepared for the storm and can help supply the state with fuel.”

–Tampa Bay Times, “Widespread fuel contamination’ reported at some Florida gas stations as Idalia looms,” Monday, August 28, 2023

As Hurricane Idalia bore down on Florida’s west coast earlier this week, many residents preparing to evacuate or top off generators were met with the chilling announcement that, due to “human error,” a private terminal at Port Tampa Bay was distributing contaminated fuel to Florida gas stations. 

More disturbing, initial reports said that the owner of the fuel terminal, identified by the Tampa Bay Times as Citgo, “…will not release the list of gas stations that received contaminated fuel.” 

However, after state officials determined the extent of the distribution, an accurate list of effected gas stations was later released by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services as required by law.  

On Sunday, August 27, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson posted to X (formerly Twitter), that his department would “keep you (consumers) informed as we learn more.”

In my view, concerned residents of Ormond Beach can learn something by examining this ham-handed response to a critical incident at a privately held fuel terminal…

As St. Petersburg-based Belvedere Terminals seeks to place a 20-million-gallon bulk fuel terminal on Hull Road – in dangerously close proximity to the Ormond Beach Municipal Airport, Sports Complex, a children’s playground, dance studio, and established light industry – thousands of citizens have signed a petition and flooded both the Volusia County Council and Ormond Beach City Commission to express their fervent opposition. 

A quick review of industrial petroleum accidents from around the nation, including last week’s chemical fire at the Marathon refinery at Garyville, Louisiana, finds that the ‘corporate-speak’ assurances by company mouthpieces touting public health, safety, and environmental concern, quickly turn into abject silence in the aftermath of mishaps when frightened residents start clamoring for answers regarding air quality, water purity, and when they can return to their threatened homes.

As a result, those who will be asked to coexist with this potential catastrophe in Ormond Beach are increasingly skeptical of the safety assurances made in the leadup to this wholly inappropriate facility – and suspicious of why their elected and appointed officials are projecting faux-surprise, strategic ignorance, and plausible deniability – clumsily pointing fingers, blaming anyone and everything (other than themselves) for why they (and us) were embarrassingly blindsided by the news.

I encourage you to stand with anxious residents from throughout the region who are boldly demanding answers and courageously fighting for the safety of their children, property values, and quality of life. 

This one’s important.

And Another Thing!

“A commentary on the mass exodus of Deltona city officials in August of this year: Mr. Chisholm’s resignation letter leads one to think that there was a poor relationship between himself and the City Commission. If so, this can be corrected.

In addition, his statement that politics must be eliminated tells me that he was subjected to a savage barrage of criticism about himself personally and professionally. By whom? The City Commission or the public. I believe that it was the public.

Deltona residents, unlike other Southwest Volusia cities, do not understand the disconnect between an experienced city manager and his decisions. There is no excuse for calling Chisholm stupid, dumb and ignorant just because one does not agree with his decisions.

Chisholm was not used to this constant barrage of unwarranted criticism and did not have to endure this in his previous jobs. This too can be corrected, but it will take positive efforts by the city attorney and the commission itself as described.

My wife was an executive assistant for 29 years to Bob Dallari, chairman of the Seminole County Commission and also a commissioner for many years. Whenever a citizen came into the office or called on the telephone and directed derogatory comments, for example, calling the commissioner stupid, dumb or ignorant, my wife would immediately call security and that person would be escorted from the building and told not to return to his office unless the insults were stopped. She did not have a recurring problem.

Our city needs to implement this type of policy. No city employee deserves this type of commentary. No one deserves to be talked to like this. I am certain that the city attorney would have to draft an ordinance of some type to curtail this without infringing on the person’s First Amendment rights.

It can be done. This barrage of criticism led to the resignation of our city manager as well as others. It does not have to be this way. It has to stop forever!”

— Douglas MacDonald, Deltona, Letters to the Editor, West Volusia Beacon, Tuesday, August 22, 2023

A smart friend of mine likes to say, “Never ask your government to tax you more” – perennially perplexed by those who say, “I don’t mind paying more for (insert essential service here) if it means better (insert what’s lacking in your current governmental service or access here.)”   

Because that begets the question, “What in the hell are you doing with the money we’re already paying for the service, utility, beach access, transportation infrastructure, etc., etc.?”

I would add, “Never ask that your neighbor’s thoughts and opinions be silenced by the ‘powers that be’…” 

While I defend Mr. MacDonald’s right to voice his views – I wholeheartedly disagree with his dangerous premise that elected and appointed officials should be shielded from pointed criticism by force of law.  

In fact, it speaks to all that is wrong with the bureaucratic cloistering of our elected officials – wherein the “system” isolates them from those they serve – and the current weaponization of political power as a means of suppressing legitimate criticism and dissent. 

In Mr. MacDonald’s autocratic world, whenever a citizen presents themselves to address a grievance with their duly elected representative – unless they come hat-in-hand, genuflect before the might of government, and pay appropriate fealty – then “security” is summoned by the gatekeeper and they are escorted from the inner-sanctum, ordered not to return until such time as they demonstrate obedience to the all-powerful elected elite.

Bullshit.

How much longer before outspoken gadflies and engaged citizens are “disappeared” – packed off to a Stalinist-style gulag camp for the crime of “malicious slandering” of the ruling class – stripped of their citizenship and labeled an “unperson.” 

Don’t think that can happen? 

Read history…and think again.   

Now that local governments are doing everything in their considerable power to curtail the ability of the average citizen to address their elected representatives on the issues – passing insidious “civility ordinances” and subjective “rules of decorum” that only apply to taxpayers (as our elected overseers behave anyway they see fit) while limiting when, where, and how long We, The Little People can prostrate ourselves before our increasingly monarchal rulers – blogs, podcasts, and social media platforms are now the few citizen soapboxes left for those who cannot afford to purchase a chip in the game.

In my view, this censorship cloaked in a velvet glove is morally and constitutionally wrong.

Earlier this year, State Senator Jason Brodeur of Seminole County introduced legislation that would have effectively silenced political criticism by requiring anyone wishing to express an opinion critical of state government officials to first “register” with “the appropriate office”:

“If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register with the appropriate office, as identified in paragraph (1)(f), within 5 days after the first post by the blogger which mentions an elected state officer.”

Under the proposed law, the failure of a blogger to file these state mandated reports would have resulted in fines of “$25 per day per report for each day late, not to exceed $2,500 per report.”

Fortunately, Brodeur’s bill was dead on arrival – but many suspect it will return in another form during the next legislative session…  

In March, Bobby Block, executive director of the Florida First Amendment Foundation, said it best:

“From my own experience, the only places where journalists would ever have to register with the government have been apartheid South Africa, the countries behind the Iron Curtain, the USSR, Zaire, Burkina Faso, and socialist Ethiopia,” Block said. “… I don’t think Florida being in that company of those countries is a good thing.”

More to the point, Charles C. W. Cooke, a senior writer for the acclaimed conservative editorial magazine National Review, accurately called Sen. Brodeur a “moron,” and described his bill as “…an unconstitutional, moronic disgrace, and the guy who wrote it, Senator Jason Brodeur of Seminole County, is an embarrassment to the GOP.”

What is it with Seminole County? 

If those who think as the MacDonald’s do have their way, that kind of talk would have resulted in Mr. Cooke being removed… 

In my view, Deltona’s former Interim City Manager James “The Chiseler” Chisholm was well-deserving of the ire and criticism heaped on him by residents before he fled City Hall in a huff and took his minions with him. 

Despite what Mr. MacDonald may think – The Chiseler “endured” the same “savage barrage of criticism” from many in the Halifax area who suffered through his insular and opaque form of governance for, of, and by those wealthy and influential few with a chip in the game…  

The fact is Deltona’s fractured and dysfunctional elected “leadership” failed to heed the well-documented lessons of Chisholm’s history – and they were doomed to repeat it. 

The long-suffering citizens of Deltona had both the right and civic obligation to call out a senior executive commanding an obscene $200,000 – plus the perquisites of a potentate – who then engaged in the same backroom shenanigans he was infamous for during his contentious tenure in Daytona Beach.

Upon The Chiseler’s retirement in 2020, the News-Journal wrote, “…his natural habitat is behind closed doors.”

“It’s an approach that has blindsided potential allies, cut off the city from benefits of wider partnerships and new information, and more often looks to outmaneuver rather than convert critics.

For the next phase of the city’s evolution to be successful, City Hall will need to be a more open place.”

Sound familiar?  It should.   

Last week, the great News-Journal columnist Mark Lane opined about Mr. Chisholm, “He is known as a top-down kind of administrator who likes to keep things away from public notice. I felt a twinge of nostalgia last week on reading the familiar phrase in The News-Journal, “Chisholm said … that he had no comment.” Just like old times!”

In my view, those who blame citizens for the dysfunction of their elected and appointed officials, should understand – this public outcry is what happens when those who pay the bills are repeatedly ignored and gaslighted by those who accept public funds to serve in the public interest.

What we witnessed in Deltona is democracy in action – and it should be celebrated and encouraged – not stifled by ministerial edict and oppressive ordinances intended to shield the fragile egos of pompous public officials at the cost of suppressing our right to free and open expression.

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