Hi, kids!

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

Volusia County Voters

“Politics is the art of controlling your environment.”

–Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

To the ~20% of Volusia County voters who cast your sacred vote during the primary, I salute you!

Thank you for participating in our democratic process, a civic responsibility that reaffirms our commitment to freedom and the idea of government “…of the people, by the people, and for the people.”  A time when, for one brief shining moment, the balance of power swings to We, The Little People. 

The sad reality is some eight out of ten registered voters in Volusia County couldn’t be bothered to cast a ballot… 

Depressing.

The basic right and responsibility of our representative democracy is voting in free and fair elections.  In my view, as this apathy and indifference continue to erode our foundational principles, and individual civic virtues continue to decline, the influential oligarchy (or technology?) will eventually govern us all by default.

Maybe they already do? 

Here on Florida’s fabled “Fun Coast” we repeatedly see the outsized weight of extremely wealthy insiders who long-ago purchased a chip in the game – those who contribute massive sums of money, both individually and through myriad corporate entities under their control, to the campaigns of hand-select candidates – while their political puppets on the dais try and convince us that their benefactors don’t expect a return on investment. 

I always get a perverse chuckle whenever I hear that… 

Now the die is cast and the field whittled down to the true players; the Big Dogs who are moving to the general.  Like Dr. Thompson so eloquently said, “That is the nature of professional politics.  Many are called, but few survive the nut-cutting hour…”

The “also-rans” – the fringe candidates, retread politicians, ringers, and political dilettantes whose tired message rang hollow will soon be laughed at and forgotten, their excuses ignored – because in politics, winning is all that matters, and quaint notions of “issue-focused campaigns,” “sportsmanship” and ‘how the game is played’ are for losers. 

Now, the gloves really come off… 

Trample the weak, hurdle the dead is the new political ethos.  

For instance, do you think Volusia County’s ‘movers and shakers’ literally poured cash into “Car Guy” Randy Dye’s groaning $336,000 war chest so he could garner just 28% of the vote against current Volusia County Chair Jeff Brower? 

Or was it so he could crush his competition like crippled insects early in the game?

That’s why every vote matters.  Because votes beat money every time.    

When Jeff Brower, a gentleman farmer from Deleon Springs and the political pariah of Volusia’s stagnant “Old Guard,” emerged on top of a field dominated by well-known, well-financed, and experienced political sharks, that told me his message of limiting unchecked sprawl, flood mitigation, and opposition to a massive fuel farm proposed for Ormond Beach are the issues resonating with John and Jane Q. Public.    

In Flagler County, where about 30% of eligible voters turned out, that self-serving champion of malignant growth, Palm Coast Mayor/Realtor David Alfin, was denied a second term, coming in third behind challengers Mike Norris and Cornelia Manfre who will continue to a runoff in November’s general election. 

According to reports, Alfin received just 18% of the vote.

In a post primary interview with The Daytona Beach News-Journal’s Frank Fernandez, Mayor/Realtor Alfin lamented:

“I think an older community facing growth is confused by the inevitability of the future. And I think that they may have listened to folks who told them that they would stop growth, reduce taxes,” Alfin said “Those are the kinds of pandering’s that I’ve heard and I think that an older community wants to be believe those kinds of things.”

Since when did limiting growth, requiring ecologically smart and sustainable building practices, trimming bureaucratic bloat, mitigating flooding, and reducing onerous taxes and fees become fairytale political pandering? 

Perhaps the remaining contestants in local races will learn something from the success of smart growth and environmental advocates in Tuesday’s primary – grassroots candidates willing to take a stand and protect their neighbors from the pernicious greed of those who trade our quality of life for more, more, more development – including the threat of a bulk fuel facility proposed for the worst possible location on the eastern seaboard. 

Time will tell, eh?    

In my view, political accountability is just one reason it is vitally important to let your voice be heard at the ballot box in November.    

Geosam Capital & Venetian Bay’s Town Center

Two things are certain each lunar day here on the “Fun Coast” – the Atlantic tides will ebb and flow like clockwork – and more area restaurants and small businesses will close their doors forever.

The quiet death of these establishments is usually proclaimed with a blurb in the newspaper and a heartbreaking statement to loyal customers, “It is with a heavy heart that we announce…”

Considering all the “Good times are here again, again!” bilge being spewed by redundant “economic development” shills – and the enormous incentives, tax breaks, and public subsidies being handed out to lure and prop up big corporations – I find these small business failures, and the personal toll on owners and employees, terribly demoralizing.  

Like watching government use our tax dollars to skew the playing field, and callously determine who will thrive, and who will be allowed to die… 

Admittedly, it takes a lot to shock my gin cauterized conscience, but I shook my head in utter disbelief last week with the news that Canadian developer Geosam Capital – the owner/developer of the sprawling Venetian Bay “master-planned community” off State Road 44 in New Smyrna Beach – has announced plans to charge customers $2.50 an hour to park and patronize the development’s struggling retail, dining, and shopping locations in Town Center.

You read that right.

According to a disturbing story first reported by WFTV’s Demie Johnson last week:  

“Dozens of people packed into the Happy Deli on Wednesday with signs to push back against the new parking plan.

Homeowner Carl Scharwath was bothered by the notice from the developer called Geosam, encouraging neighbors to walk instead of drive if they don’t want to pay to park where the shops and restaurants are located.

“We live in Florida! There is rain, there is heat. That is ridiculous,” said Scharwath.

Business owners have already lost a large chunk of customer parking because of the construction of the new apartments. They claim, people often call and cancel orders or reservations because they can’t find a place to park.”

According to Venetian Bay’s elegant website – one of those typically over-the-top adverts uniquely crafted by a developer’s marketing apparatus – the contrived “active lifestyle community” (aren’t they all?) promises:  

“Residents a sense a feeling of belonging. Whether it’s visiting the shops and restaurants at the Town Center, spending a family day at the Beach and Swim Club, playing a round of golf at our Championship Course or taking an evening walk along our miles of Nature Trails.  Children can be seen enjoying Venetian Bay’s Parks and Playgrounds. There is something for everyone at Venetian Bay!”

Except, it would appear, when Geosam wants to shoehorn more apartments into a space without adequate parking – then the almighty law of supply and demand rules the day – and that sense of “belonging” residents were sold is quickly replaced by the feeling of being gouged… 

Because they are.

In a cruel twist, Geosam’s announcement explained that Town Center merchants can opt to validate parking for customers, placing an additional burden totaling thousands of dollars annually on already strapped small businesses.

According to WFTV’s report, “We’ve got nine businesses and all of us live and work here, and we all have to share this space and it is difficult,” said owner of Happy Deli, Thomas Greiner.

“To ask people to pay more or our businesses to pay more when our food cost is up, our labor cost is up, I mean I don’t really know how we are supposed to survive off that,” said Bistro 424 employee Jenna Hawkins.”

Admittedly, I’m not a fan of these ubiquitous “master-planned” faux ‘lifestyle’ communities that our elected and appointed officials continue to rubber stamp on demand – homogenized, zero-lot-line cookie cutter subdivisions, wholly controlled by the developer, that now blanket much of Florida like an ugly patchwork quilt, dull places that offer the illusion of community in exchange for dues, fees, and fealty to the covenants – however; in my view, given the current retail climate this cash grab seems shortsighted.

In Venetian Bay, welcome to the new reality of $2.50 an hour to park when enjoying the “…wide variety of community events, activities, restaurants,” you were promised when you signed on the dotted line…

Will an “amenity fee” be next? 

Good luck, residents and merchants of Venetian Bay. 

You’re going to need it.

Quote of the Week

“Volusia County is hosting public meetings this month to generate community feedback on the proposed Road Priority List. One meeting will be held in each of the four impact fee zones to give residents the opportunity to comment and provide input into upcoming transportation and safety improvements.

Proposed capacity projects include widening roads, improving intersections, building new roads, and extending existing roads. Potential safety projects include adding paved shoulders, widening narrow lanes, and installing turn lanes. The information and presentations will be identical at all four meetings.

The meetings are scheduled from 6 to 7 p.m. on the following dates and locations:

Thursday, Aug. 22, at the Brannon Center, 105 S. Riverside Drive, New Smyrna Beach

Monday, Aug. 26, at the Deltona Regional Library, 2150 Eustace Ave.

Wednesday, Aug. 28, at the Ormond Beach Regional Library, 30 S. Beach St.

Thursday, Aug. 29, at the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Center, 123 W. Indiana Ave., DeLand”

— Clayton Jackson, Volusia County Community Information, “Volusia County Road Improvements and Capacity Community Meetings,” Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Something stinks…

Five-years ago, Volusia County government – in concert with their friends and political benefactors at the CEO Business Alliance – pushed hard for a half-cent sales tax ostensibly to fund our now insurmountable transportation infrastructure needs.   

Given the pernicious modus operandi of many area politicians, most Volusia County voters were rightfully convinced the sales tax would become another slush fund for rewarding political favors, rather than a means of improving desperately needed transportation infrastructure. 

Does anyone remember state priority funding for the Pioneer Trail interchange with Interstate 95, while that Monument to Mediocrity that is the two-lane pinch point at the LPGA/Tomoka River bridge remains unaddressed? 

Me neither…   

Those “loyalties” remain a legitimate fear in a place where the legally mandated concept of concurrency – having roads, sanitary sewer systems, stormwater facilities, emergency services, schools and other public infrastructure and utilities in place to support increased demand – have been wholly ignored by elected officials beholden to their political benefactors in the development industry. 

Is there another reason?

It didn’t help when our ‘powers that be’ ignored the concerns of residents who repeatedly pointed out that growth doesn’t pay for itself – and the claustrophobic effects of this “shove ten-pounds of shit in a five-pound bag” growth management strategy that has allowed developers to haul untold millions out of clear-cut pine scrub across the width and breadth of Volusia County.   

Don’t get me started on the “secret impact fee study” of 2018…    

As the bulldozers continue to roar, it is becoming increasingly clear that Volusia County officials are getting anxious, fidgeting nervously, and staring at their shoes each time we ask how they plan to get us out of the gridlock and congestion resulting from unchecked growth that far exceeds our frighteningly inadequate infrastructure, while they continue to feed that monstrously bloated bureaucracy in DeLand? 

Now, they want us – the already strapped taxpayers – to list our transportation priorities so they can turn the table and ask, “We see your Christmas list, how do you plan to pay for it?”

The fact is, we already pay for it – in exorbitant taxes and fees – and we should expect a reasonable return in the form of civic infrastructure that keeps pace with growth…

Earlier this week we learned that Volusia County is currently considering a budget totaling an astronomical $1.3 Billion.  In a county with an unincorporated population of 117,000?

Really?

So, where does that money go?   

I’m asking, because whenever “answers” to legitimate budgetary questions ooze from the inner sanctum in DeLand, they are convoluted and strategically mired in cryptic acronyms, cloaked in mind-numbing PowerPoint presentations, and spoken in obfuscating bureaucratese, so no one can figure out just how horribly overtaxed we truly are. 

Just pay the bills and keep your pieholes shut, okay?   

My ass…

For those with a short memory, a similar tactic was employed in 2019, during Volusia County’s second ill-fated bite at the sales tax, when officials asked the municipalities to cobble together a massive “priority list” of road construction, water quality, and flood control projects that, we were told, would be funded over the next 20-years or so. 

Anyone paying attention could see the wish list was another failed attempt to generate “buy in” from taxpayers – much like the laundry list of “needs” Volusia County District Schools used 25-years earlier when it persuaded voters a sales tax was needed to fund new schools.   

Fortunately, Volusia County voters recognized this shameless shim sham for what it was and rejected the “transportation” sales tax.  Twice.      

However, both the 2019 road priority inventory, and our collective “trust issues,” are still perfectly valid today – and growing by the minute…   

Which begs the question, why are Volusia County officials seeking “resident input” on another “priority” list of transportation projects now? 

More to the point, why would anyone in their right mind believe our elected officials will give two-shits what we think when the “…collected public feedback and the Road Priority List will be presented to the Volusia County Council at a future meeting”? 

Trust me.  This latest bait-and-switch bears watching. 

I could be wrong (I’m not) but it smells like the rotting corpse of the twice failed transportation sales tax initiative is being slowly resurrected from Volusia County’s ash heap of bad ideas…    

And Another Thing!

Once upon a time ago, my wife and I took the family to one of those professional haunted houses, where theatrically trained and costumed actors leap from hidden spaces, scenes of contrived carnage and gore unfold around each turn, and the suspense builds the deeper you move through the frightening maze.    

One of the downsides of being a career law enforcement officer is, once you’ve seen real houses of horror, the staged variety don’t hold much excitement; but I agreed to accompany my young nephew as we toured through the shocks and shrieks, bloody chainsaws blaring, ghouls clawing out in the dark, disorienting lights flashing through the smoke and mirrors.

The giddy screams from our fellow visitors continued to build as we entered the final scene, I looked down and the boy was taking it all in stride, no more unnerved by the sights and sounds than I was. 

The fact he had been raised in this crazy family of mine told me it would take a lot more than an imitation spook house to shake him, but the child was completely unfazed by it all.    

When we reached the end, I asked him if he was scared and he explained, “No.  I’m brave.” 

“Yes, you are,” I assured him – and he responded, “You have to be brave to look at scary things.” 

It showed wisdom far beyond his years… 

I was reminded of that last week when the cowardly First Step Shelter Board refused to pursue an incomplete investigation into serious allegations of fraudulent practices, financial irregularities, rule violations that created a dangerous environment for staff and clients, discrimination, and workplace harassment that originated from three former senior officials of the facility. 

I guess the board members lack the courage to look at scary things… 

Now, many concerned taxpayers are questioning why the First Step board engaged in such blatant blame deflection and victim shaming before the investigative report was made public?

Orchestrated defamation that destroyed the character and reputation of three brave whistleblowers – contemptuous condemnation that sent a chilling message to any other First Step employee having knowledge of malfeasance or misconduct who would dare to come forward. 

Perhaps most disturbing, several prominent local elected officials and community leaders populate the First Step Board – to include Ormond Beach City Commissioner and mayoral candidate Susan Persis, Port Orange Mayor Don Burnette, board president Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry, and their stroppy spokesperson Mike Panaggio – supposedly responsible public officials who should understand the potential ramifications (and optics) of maligning whistleblowers while shutting down an investigation with so many unanswered questions remaining.

Now, citizen suspicion has rightfully turned to the motivations of the First Step Board of Directors…    

The Daytona Beach City Commission appoints the board members, who are charged with “…being advocates and champions throughout the community, ensuring the establishment and implementation of appropriate policies and procedures, actively participating in resource development, and exercising stewardship and oversight.”  

That “stewardship and oversight” includes fiduciary responsibility for safeguarding some $4 million in essential public funds that are gifted by the citizens of Daytona Beach and Volusia County taxpayers every five years – to include contributions from other cities, individuals, and faith-based organizations.

Regardless, the First Step Shelter is most strongly associated with the City of Daytona Beach – who owns and leases the incredibly expensive building which sits on city owned land off US-92 – a city administration inextricably linked to the enigmatic program since former City Manager Jim “The Chisler” Chisholm schemed it into existence.

A program never fully explained to the community and fraught with divisive issues from its inception, not the least of which was the incredibly lucrative no-bid arrangement that Chisholm hammered out in effective darkness that allows P$S Paving, a private for-profit company, to haul publicly owned fill dirt off city property during the most prolific period of growth in our region’s history.

Given the ugly questions still swirling around the board’s response to serious accusations brought against First Step executive director Victoria Fahlberg – earlier this month, Daytona Beach City Commissioners Stacy Cantu and Ken Strickland rightly moved to table consideration of continued funding for the program and a lease renewal with First Step until more is known. 

It was the fiscally responsible thing to do. 

That’s why many found it odd when earlier this week the First Step lease renewal was placed on the City Commission’s consent agenda – a sparse explanation, devoid of any substance beyond City Manager Derek Feacher’s recommendation for renewal – without benefit of a fiscal impact statement, or even the estimated value of the lease as donated by Daytona Beach taxpayers?

Yet, inexplicably, the Daytona Beach City Commission threw caution to the wind and voted unanimously to renew the lease and extend funding for the First Step program for another five-years – with the same administration that is currently under suspicion still firmly at the helm…    

To add insult, on Sunday evening, prior to the City Commission’s vote, and apparently speaking as a member of the board, Mr. Panaggio went on one of his nonsensical afterhours raves on Facebook’s Volusia Issues – a grammatical nightmare that left stunned onlookers in absolute disbelief – when he launched with a double-entendre, calling the whistleblowers “disturbed,” explaining, “Disturbed can mean many things, and in this meaning it means they were upset by management.”

Sure.

Then Panaggio claimed the board “investigated” the whistleblower complaints but “got no where (sic).” 

Bullshit.

“We wasted money badly needed by the shelter residents. Mr Simpson did the best he could but was the wrong person got the job.”

What the hell is he blathering about?

Apparently, this is how wary Volusia County taxpayers are going to be advised of the secretive results of the board’s publicly funded partial investigation – in subjective midnight dribs-and-drabs by Mike Panaggio?    

Unbelievable.  And horribly irresponsible.    

In my view, this time Mr. Panaggio’s late-night nattering has crossed a very bright line and created an intractable mess for the City of Daytona Beach, the First Step’s beleaguered administration, and its compromised Board of Directors – a nasty quagmire of mounting questions and potential civil liability that cannot be tidied up with more of his egomaniacal hubris, blame shifting, and absurd counteraccusations.     

Now, the damage is complete. 

Made worse by the Daytona Beach City Commission throwing good money after bad before all the facts are known – citing the irrational conclusion that propping up this puzzling “shelter” somehow takes precedence over the sacred fiduciary responsibility of elected officials…     

In my view, how the remainder of the First Step Shelter’s directors – and those elected officials charged with allocating additional public funds for the program – choose to deal with the Panaggio Problem will tell taxpayers and potential donors all they need to know about the culture and future of this terribly troubled program going forward.     

Scary things indeed…   

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