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…

“S.R. A-1-A Resiliency Strike Team”

Before we start this hayride, please know I didn’t conjure up that name.   

I couldn’t pull something like that out of my backside if I tried… 

Last week, the Ormond Beach Observer reported that construction on the second of two “buried seawalls” is set to begin disrupting traffic, destroying the natural dune line, and displacing beach walkovers along A-1-A in Ormond-by-the-Sea this week.   

The cost: $82.5 million… 

According to the report, the sections will span some 2.6 miles of oceanfront, apparently to provide “long-term protection against future storms and erosion.”  

(Sorry, I’m always overcome with incredulous chortles and snorts when some state agency says that…) 

The project is the brainchild of something called the “S.R. A-1-A Resiliency Strike Team” (I’ll just bet you and I paid for polo shirts with that embroidered on the tit…) an imperious sounding “interagency effort” involving those Mensa members at Flagler County, City of Flagler Beach, Volusia County, FDOT, the Florida Department of Environmental Destruction, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers… 

Look, I’m not an expert – just a rheumy-eyed observer who has lived around these parts for over six-decades now. 

In that time, I’ve seen what works – and what doesn’t – and I found it interesting that “…the next steps in construction will be clearing vegetation from the dune and adding sand to create a wide platform,” apparently to accommodate the drilling rig that will drive pilings in the ground.

Wait.

What about the $109,543 sand fence installation that brought 1.75 miles of slatted wood barrier to collect sand along the same dunes in 2020 (something that appeared to be working)?

Or the $500,000 dune stabilization project the Florida Department of Transportation completed on the exact same section of beach just two-years ago?

Remember?  I do.

At the time, we were lectured by state “experts” that we shouldn’t even think about parking east of A-1-A (even as more permits were issued for oceanfront condo/hotels a few miles south?), while FDOT replanted a half-million-dollars in native vegetation on the natural dune line from Ormond-by-the-Sea to Beverly Beach in an effort to “support the existing dune ecosystem,” anchor sand in place, and reduce erosion.    

Now another state agency is telling us they’ve got to kill the natural barriers and vegetation that organically control beach erosion in order to save them.  Really?

Seriously.  I don’t make this shit up, folks.     

In the meantime, motorists along the two-lane stretch should expect “rolling daytime lane closures” while crews install what will ultimately become an extremely expensive 2.6-mile artificial reef system when Mother Nature decides to rightfully reclaim her dunes…

Friends of Tomoka State Park & Dream Green Volusia

Speaking of disastrous ideas, poorly executed… 

For those paying attention, there are certain expenditures that epitomize government’s bureaucratic inability to prioritize, adapt, and change course.   

Recently, the Florida Department of Environmental Destruction announced plans to pave 1.5 miles of roads inside Tomoka State Park at a cost of $1.5 million.  I can assure you this decision required meticulous planning and analysis by multiple strata of state agencies and officials.   

In fact, this project represents weeks/months/years of meetings, high-level confabs, developing working strategies, engaging engineering consultants, conducting topographical surveys, producing reams of reports, graphics, and schematics; pouring over design plans, issuing bid solicitations, hours/days/weeks of staff time, more meetings, briefings, press releases, status updates, etc., etc.

Unfortunately, the one thing missing from the state’s decision-making process – a method firmly based on the concept of plan continuation bias – which means blundering along the same ill-fated course regardless of changing conditions, experience, or public outcry – was the fact no one in state government thought it important to ask those who visit, maintain, and serve Tomoka State Park if paving interior roads represents the best use of limited maintenance funds at this time.   

In an excellent article by Jarleene Almenas writing in the Ormond Beach Observer last week, we learned that the paving project is part of a “Unit Management Plan for Tomoka State Park” – based on an FDEP led “public workshop” and “advisory group” meeting held to develop the strategy which was later summarized in perfect bureaucratese. 

The management plan, “…identifies the goals, objectives, actions and criteria or standards that guide each aspect of park administration, and sets forth the specific measures that will be implemented to meet management objectives and provide balanced public utilization.”

How did you miss the opportunity to provide input and voice concerns at the public workshop?

It happened in 2012… 

According to the Observer, “The Tomoka Basin State Park Unit Management Plan was due to be updated in 2022. This was not completed.”

So, twelve-years later, in February 2024, completed design plans were finally submitted, and the project went out for bid in April.

“This took place mostly unbeknownst to the park’s many volunteers and engaged community members, including the Friends of Tomoka Basin State Parks, the citizen support organization specifically formed to advocate for the local state parks. Most found out about it last week.”

In the same disturbing article, we learned “That’s one of the most frustrating aspects of the project,” said Suzanne Scheiber, founder of environmental advocacy organization Dream Green Volusia.

“I don’t think anyone would know if some of the park rangers [hadn’t] talked about it amongst themselves and to a handful of people,” Scheiber said. “It’s frustrating that the members of the Friends of Tomoka didn’t find out before now. I think that the lack of transparency to date has just been troubling.”

With $1.5 million allocated for road paving that no one seems to want – a project with the potential to disturb an important archeological site on the National Register of Historic Places, while ruining the unspoiled dirt road natural experience one seeks when visiting a state park – volunteers have been doing their level best to meet ongoing needs and expenses, including repairing pavilions, benches, and picnic tables; even replacing the transmission on the park ranger’s truck. 

Unpaid (and largely unappreciated) helpers and environmentalists augmenting what should be normal repair and replacement expenses the Florida Department of Environmental Protection should be budgeting for annually. 

According to the Observer’s report, “The recreational hall’s air conditioning unit has been broken since the spring, though that will be repaired in the coming days. The Friends stopped meeting in the hall because the temperatures were so hot. The hall also needs a new roof, and 19 septic systems for the park’s bathrooms are in need of maintenance.”

Regular readers of these jeremiads know that I use this space to poke fun at the absurdity of government and those who practice it. 

My fervent hope is that those in the arena will catch a glimpse of how those of us who stand outside the closed portcullis, peering through the translucent pane that separate the decision makers from those who pay for it all, view this bureaucratic intransigence, then recognize the need to change course and embrace timely public input when necessary. 

Instead, even when times or circumstances change, and the costs (and potential damage) clearly outweigh the perceived benefit, its full-speed ahead – current needs and future consequences be damned – a convoluted and insular process that can only happen in government. 

In the private sector, these expensive defense mechanisms that protect ensconced senior bureaucrats from external criticism would put any commercial entity out of business in a heartbeat…  

Kudos to Friends of Tomoka State Park and Dream Green Volusia for shining a bright light on the challenges faced by this beautiful state park, and for their continuing efforts to protect our natural environment. 

Volusia County Councilman David “No Show” Santiago

In my view, District 5 Volusia County Councilman David “No Show” Santiago personifies the arrogance and insolence of the modern political puppet – and stands as a noxious example of all that is wrong with Volusia County government.

Elected marionettes like Santiago “serve” solely at their own convenience – answering only to those influential insiders who own the paper on their political souls and use them like dull tools – and they don’t give a tinker’s damn what We, The Little People have to say. 

In fact, Mr. Santiago and his ilk believe the power and might of government is all-important – convinced the administrative illuminati who wander the cloistered halls of the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Building hold the collective knowledge of the age – the all-knowing, all-seeing clerisy who deftly manipulate a system where elected policymakers meld with the whims of the omniscient bureaucracy and the tail always wags the dog.

Don’t take my word for it. 

Ask Chairman Jeff Brower the tragic fate that befalls any elected official who refuses to take the solemn Vow of Conformity, pledging their strict obedience to the “system,” dedicating themselves to stagnation and mediocrity and a devotion to groupthink, promising to crush creativity, insulate senior administrators, and abjure individual responsibility.     

For instance, on Tuesday, during one of Mr. Santiago’s rare appearances in the District 5 chair, we witnessed an infuriating example of his brash snobbery during discussion of a public hearing for a proposed Planned Unit Development which would place a 90-unit duplex subdivision near DeLand.

Before the hearing, Mark Watts of the Cobb Cole law firm representing the applicant, respectfully advised the council that in recent weeks his staff has monitored social media platforms and decerned negative reactions from surrounding property owners. 

In turn, Mr. Watts requested a 90-day continuance to allow time for a neighborhood meeting which would allow him to “listen to what the concerns are” and possibly develop a compromise that would address the issues.

In a shocking display – after snootily reminding Mr. Watts who held the power to approve his request – Mr. Santiago vented his disgust over the very idea of taxpayers, citizens who struggle to find a way to provide substantive input on issues that will directly and forever effect their lives in the vacuum of Volusia County government, would be heard on every person’s soapbox that is social media:

“I have to make this public announcement, it concerns me, um, that social media is driving your narrative. I hope that this is not the case, I hope you are working with our staff. Certainly we want to address the neighboring residence concerns, I don’t want to diminish that, but social media has become such a poisoned well lately of the keyboard warriors, normally there’s a small handful of people who try to dictate the future of half a million people or more in this County.”

Let that sink in… 

To his credit, Councilman Matt Reinhart astutely countered that social media is a public outlet, explaining that he has received several emails regarding the proposed development, and made a motion to approve Mr. Watts’ request for a continuance. 

At the risk of rising above my status as a member of the great unwashed hoi polloi – a caste whose role is to pay the bills and keep our pieholes shut – I’d like to provide my thoughts on what happened next:

In another not-so-shocking development, during what passed for a public meeting, Mr. Santiago took another swipe at eliminating citizen input – this time on the emergent issue of stormwater management and areawide flooding – when he moved to effectively silence and disband the Environment and Natural Resources Advisory Board.

The board, which was recommissioned in 2022 to provide policy guidance on minimum standards for environmental protection, was earlier this year charged with advising on flooding and stormwater issues – items of grave concern to many waterlogged Volusia County residents. 

But not ‘ole “No Show.” 

This dictatorial martinet assured his vassals that he doesn’t “govern by committee” (unless, of course, he needs the political insulation…)    

Instead, “No Show” does exactly what he is told by those influential insiders with a chip in the game, especially when it comes to developing smart growth policies:

“I think the intent of the council, at least the majority of the council at that time, was to bring this board into a closure, and I think we’re there.  I’m prepared to let the terms expire until we need to reactivate them to anything specific. I say, ‘Mission accomplished.'”

I say bullshit…

Not surprisingly, the wholly compromised Councilman Danny Robins – another developer sock puppet who couldn’t care less what you have to say – agreed with Santiago.

According to a report in the Ormond Beach Observer:

“I know for me, as long as we are reducing some of these layers of bureaucracy and not having as much overlap, I think we’re heading in a better direction,” Robins said.

Just because the county has minimum standards regarding development, doesn’t mean they are “minimal,” he said, citing higher standards compared to the state and federal regulations, an argument he would later raise to Council Chair Jeff Brower during his closing comment, as the chair had said the county needed to change how it developed.

Brower, and Councilmen Matt Reinhart and Don Dempsey were against disbanding ENRAC. Councilman Troy Kent was absent from the meeting.”

Trust me.  Councilmen Robins and Santiago aren’t “reducing” that morbidly bloated bureaucracy in DeLand – rather, they are trying desperately to eliminate a citizen advisory board comprised of independent experts in the field of environmental sustainability.

Why? 

Because their puppet-masters are scared shitless of what the board will have to say on the issue of development induced flooding…    

According to the report, Councilman Don Dempsey and Chairman Brower saw the value in keeping these experts together:

“Dempsey said the board had “heavy hitters” in terms of expertise and pointed out they were all volunteers.

“We need these people to maybe offer better ideas later on and just to sit here and say, “We don’t need you, we’re smart, we’ll take care of it,’ I think is wrong,” Dempsey said.

Brower agreed and said he didn’t believe disbanding ENRAC and handing its duties to the PLDRC and county staff would make the county more efficient.

“I think the information we’re getting from these professionals is really beneficial and flooding and LID — Low-Impact Development — are two of the most important things we face for our future,” Brower said.”

It is amazing the flexibility Messrs. Santiago and Robins exhibit when they bend over backwards to smooch the sizeable asses of their political benefactors in the real estate development community – yet intractably scoff at any reasonable efforts to develop low-impact development standards that may help protect your home and mine from the devastating effects of regional flooding.  

Why is that?

As ludicrous as this sounds – the vote to disband the ENRAC stalled on a 3-3 tie – with Councilmen Jake Johannson, Danny Robins, and “No Show” Santiago opting to further limit citizen input in our county government. 

The fix is in, folks.  Never more evident than when the Volusia County Council is in session… 

The I-95/Pioneer Trail Interchange

“There are so many improprieties associated with this interchange.  So many.  So many legal improprieties, it seems like this thing has just been greased through…” 

–Attorney Lesley Blackner, as quoted by reporter Mark Harper in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Spruce Creek supporters raise roadblocks for FDOT’s Pioneer Trail interchange at I-95,” Friday, August 30, 2024

Last week, the Florida Department of Environmental Destruction’s “Great Outdoors Initiative” went through the Sunshine State like an ice water enema. 

The mysterious “plan” (if it could be called that) would have seen golf courses, pickleball courts, disc golf, and a 350 room “lodge” constructed in state parks from South Florida to the panhandle – something Gov. Ron DeSantis later called “half baked” and “not ready for primetime” – immediately after he and his friends were caught with their hands firmly wedged in the cookie jar.   

Turns out, the Great Outdoors Initiative was a little further along than the Guv would have us believe. 

Earlier this week, the courageous FDEP whistleblower who exposed the inner-workings of this clandestine “plan” that would have traded pristine wildlife habitat for commercial development, has been summarily fired – a stark warning to others inside state government of the horrible fate that awaits those who bring public corruption and malfeasance to light.   

In my view, this still simmering debacle proved to weary Floridians just how things work here in the biggest whorehouse in the world – a place where shadowy figures and influential insiders manipulate a legal quid pro quo system to their very lucrative advantage – and political patronage, favors, and outright graft seem to be the grease that lubricates the wheels of government and commerce.

In fact, the enigmatic FDEP “initiative” confirmed to many shocked Floridian’s just how quickly environmentally sensitive areas we were promised would be held, conserved, and protected in perpetuity can fall to greed and political favors…

Which brings us, once again, to the controversial $120 million interchange proposed for I-95 at Pioneer Trail – a project many believe was shuffled to the top of the deck in Tallahassee to the advantage of our own High Panjandrum of Political Power Mori Hosseini – whose sprawling ICI Homes Woodhaven development would gain the most from the interchange.

According to reports, Mr. Hosseini denies receiving any “favors” from Tallahassee… 

What most assuredly won’t benefit from the interchange is the environmentally sensitive Spruce Creek – a designated Outstanding Florida Waterway – or the threatened flora and fauna who call Doris Leeper Spruce Creek preserve their natural habitat.  

Unfortunately, fish and wildlife don’t buy 3/2 zero lot line cracker boxes in gated communities – and those critters damn sure don’t give massive campaign contributions to hand-select candidates for high office – which means, in Florida, they don’t have a say.  In anything.

Neither do you.

In a previous News-Journal story, one that could only have originated in the abject lunacy of this anything goes world of Florida’s environmental regulatory agencies, we learned:

“More than a year ago, the St. Johns River Water Management District first granted the Pioneer Trail project a permit to allow stormwater runoff from the interchange into an unnamed canal that connects to Spruce Creek. FDOT engineers presented the district with findings showing their plans would actually reduce phosphorus and other harmful runoff to Spruce Creek and will not impact wetlands, fish and wildlife because of a mitigation plan.”

Yeah.  I know.  Read it again… 

Fortunately, there are resolute environmentalists working hard to challenge the state’s specious sign off for the interchange – ensuring those federal authorities charged with protecting our environment understand what the St. Johns River Management District apparently does not: 

Foul runoff from the ramps, traffic lanes, and bridge will pollute the watershed and threaten animals, plant life, and “the sanctity of the 2,513 conservation acres.”

According to the News-Journal’s latest report:

“Bear Warriors United, Inc., the Sweetwater Coalition of Volusia County, its founder Derek LaMontagne, and New Smyrna Beach resident Bryon White petitioned the state 5th District Court of Appeal to overrule an environmental resource permit granted to FDOT by the St. Johns River Water Management District in April. Arguments are proceeding. 

Meanwhile, Lesley Blackner, a Tallahassee attorney, has sent letters this month to the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Transportation alerting them to what she believes is proof of the state skirting federal laws to streamline the process for getting the interchange built.”

In addition, Volusia County Council Chair Jeff Brower has worked tirelessly to oppose the interchange.  In fact, he was the only member of the council with the backbone to speak on behalf of wildlife, water quality, and the existing residents of Pioneer Trail and Turnbull Bay Road. 

Look, I freely admit to giving Chairman Brower and his “colleagues” on the dais of power in DeLand a hard way to go.  Most of it is well-deserved. 

However, I commend Chairman Brower for his commitment to water quality and environmental conservation.

For his vehement opposition to the Pioneer Trail interchange, Mr. Brower has been marginalized, maligned, and had his every idea and initiative crushed under the boot of Volusia’s stodgy Old Guard – those slavish loyalists who are passionately committed to the stagnant status quo and ensuring the profit motives of their well-heeled political overseers.  

According to the News-Journal, “Brower argued that the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act requires the Pioneer Trail project to have an Environmental Impact Study.

“I take exception to these claims finding the I-95 Pioneer Interchange has no significant impacts and thus categorially excluded from NEPA review when absolutely no honest investigation was made,” Brower wrote, adding the categorical exclusion “is completely inappropriate and unlawful.”

I stand with Chairman Brower and those intrepid environmentalists with the courage to speak truth to powerful forces intent on ramrodding this environmental disaster in the Doris Leeper Spruce Creek Preserve. 

Find Mark Harper’s outstanding exposé here: https://tinyurl.com/y4m3sudb

Pay attention, folks.

Here in the Sunshine State, our demoralizing motto should be “Money Talks and Bullshit Walks” – and it is going to be interesting to see how our ‘powers that be’ march this odoriferous turd past an increasingly suspicious constituency…

Quote of the Week

“It is disconcerting just for this project to have gotten to this point in the process,” Gunter said. “I say ‘no’ to changing our comprehensive plan and our zoning. No to the Deering Park project.”

Steve Gunter also spoke out against the project, highlighting the magnitude of the 6 million square feet of the proposed development and the potential impacts he said it could have on stormwater drainage.

“Now what you’re trying to do is have Deering Park say that, ‘We’re going to conserve 400 acres for conservation,’ which really means 1,200 acres are going to be elevated, covered in concrete, and you’re going to push that stormwater somewhere,” he said.

The city’s west side resident said he is worried that the stormwater from the development will be “pushed down on homes in Corbin Park, Ellison Acres, Quail Hollow, Hidden Pines — all these mature neighborhoods. We’re going to receive that stormwater.”

–Concerned New Smyrna Beach residents speaking against the proposed 1,618-acre Deering Park Innovation Center at their August 27 City Commission meeting, as quoted by The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Concerns raised over Deering Park project,” Tuesday, September 3, 2024

I find it heartening that citizens in New Smyrna Beach and beyond are awakening to the “hurt here, help there” legerdemain of those ‘growth at all costs’ shills inside government and out, as existing residents begin to question the who, what, when, where, why, and how of things, before their homes are inundated with fetid standing water. 

Or worse…  

To me, these passionate three-minute testimonies presented at public meetings by those who see the unique characteristics of their community being threatened, speak to the concept that small local government is infinitely more receptive, efficient, accessible, transparent, and fiscally responsible than unwieldy state and county government, who have proven that the needs, wants, and necessities of individual neighborhoods are of little concern in the scheme of things.    

Unfortunately, those we elect to the state legislature (and the lobbyist who keep them informed of what’s important to their future campaign funding) remain one step ahead of those of us who pay the bills.    

Each legislative session brings more limitations on a local government’s ability to control the character of their communities – forbidding them to pass moratoriums that preserve water quality (while refusing to tap the brakes on development), dictating local comprehensive plans, pre-empting local government rules on zoning, density, and building heights; ensuring concessions for commercial and industrial development or face the threat of gargantuan “affordable housing” complexes sprouting in inappropriate locations, etc., etc.  

Essentially blocking the ability of We, The Little People to envision, plan, and control our civic future.

Although the New Smyrna Beach City Commission has agreed to put the Deering Park project on hold while they seek more answers – if the developer, Farmton North LLC, choses to push the issue – they will get everything they demand and more.

And there’s not a damn thing anyone can do about it. 

I suspect the NSB City Commission – and the city attorney – are aware of that…  

Perhaps this election season it might be prudent to ask those seeking our vote for state office where they stand on the concept of Home Rule.

In my view, the ballot box is the best place to send a message to “Big Government” bullies in Tallahassee and prevent them from preempting local control with “one-size-fits-all” mandates.

In fact, now might be the right time to demand that our ‘powers that be’ do something to change lopsided laws and overreaching mandates that usurp local control of neighborhood issues and permit the concept of self-determination – a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” – to ensure that decisions guiding our destiny (and density) remain local.      

And Another Thing!

That acrid odor of sulfurous vapors you’ve noticed of late marks the ethereal departure of what some in local politics have called a ‘ghost candidate’ – a wraithlike and eerily mysterious entry in the Volusia County Clerk of the Court race who was known only as “Mackenzie Quinn.”

According to reports, last week the Democratic candidate withdrew from the Clerk’s race as inexplicably as he or she arrived – a move that limited the primary to Republican voters only –something many believed was strategically designed to provide an advantage to the equally weird John Flemm in his off-the-wall run against incumbent Laura Roth. 

Fortunately, Ms. Roth handily defeated Flemm in primary with 79% of the vote, and with “Quinn’s” departure from the general election, rightfully returns to the important office she serves so well.   

According to a report by Sheldon Gardner writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal this week:

“Quinn didn’t respond to calls and messages from the News-Journal during her campaign. But she told The West Volusia Beacon, before quickly ending the interview, that she ran because there aren’t enough Democrats and young people in elected roles in the county.

Quinn, 22, launched no campaign website or social media pages that could be found. The qualifying fee for the race was more than $10,300.”

In my view, the primary results prove that Volusia County voters are becoming increasingly savvy to the shady machinations of those who seek to manipulate the system.

But significant questions remain.

I don’t know which law enforcement agency, gelded ethics apparatus, or state/federal authority responsible for ensuring fair and accurate elections need to hear this – but the manner and means by which the Volusia County Clerk’s race unfolded stinks like the steaming pile of excrement it is.

In my jaded view, someone with a badge in their wallet should get to the bottom of who (or what) may or may not have supplied the money for qualifying fees, political signage, glossy mailers, and other expenses behind what has all the earmarks of political collusion between Ms. Roth’s opponents. 

More importantly, why?  

Of all the races for offices that have infinitely more direct influence over our lives and livelihoods, why would these weird intrigues surface in a rather innocuous Clerks’ race? 

I don’t know.  But it has a destabilizing effect on our democratic system. 

While all of this may sound inconsequential now that “Quinn” is out, in my view, Volusia County voters deserve to know that our local/county elections will, to extent possible, remain free of the manure-slinging, conspiracies, and schemes that have undermined confidence in other elections around Florida and nation. 

In other headshaking happenings, last week, after perennial politician “Dishonest Deb” Denys was beaten like a gong (for the second time) by incumbent Volusia County Chair Jeff Brower in the primary, she tried to get the last word in her own obvious attempt to draw votes away from Brower by “endorsing” his opponent, “Car Guy” Randy Dye. 

Who cares? 

In my view, Ms. Denys is yesterday’s news.  No longer relevant to the discussion.

When it comes to Deb Denys, the only thing that continues to resonate with Volusia County voters was her ill-fated attempt to besmirch Chairman Brower during their 2020 matchup when she linked him to then and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, using a nasty mailer to paint Brower as “A radical, rightwing puppet publicly supporting President Trump & his radical agenda!”

Yeah.  That didn’t end well… 

After shitting on everything her fellow Republicans hold dear in some self-serving gambit to be all things to all people – why anyone in the local party apparatus allowed “Dishonest Deb” anywhere near a second bite at the apple defies reasoning – other than prove Volusia’s stodgy Old Guard will stop at nothing to defeat Brower and return lockstep conformity across the dais of power in DeLand.   

Perhaps Mr. Dye would be best served to send Ms. Deny’s “endorsement” back to ash heap of political has-beens from whence it came…

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