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…

Decision 2024

“All power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people, which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty and the right of acquiring property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their government whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purpose of its institution.”

–James Madison

I’m not one to gloat or pout in the aftermath of an election.

“Magnanimous in victory, gracious in defeat” I say.   

Whether you agree with the outcome or not, the American people have spoken with their sacred vote – and our democracy worked as well as it can in 2024. The will of the people.  A peaceful transition of power.   

Some of the candidates and amendments I voted for won, others lost.  That’s what makes a horserace – and a government in this representative democracy…   

There was a time when we accepted the results of elections, coalesced as a nation and community, respected diverse opinions, worked toward a common goal, and moved forward with a clear understanding of the will and direction sought by the majority of voters. 

Not anymore. 

But at this pivotal moment, I believe how we as neighbors work out the serious issues facing our nation and community will define us – and the unblinking eye of history is watching…   

As loyal readers of these screeds know, I focus on the local issues important to your family and mine, and I was elated to see the biggest race on the local stage go to incumbent Volusia County Chair Jeff Brower in his epic fight against “Car Guy” Randy Dye. 

In my view, while Mr. Dye – a gentleman with a long history of civic and charitable involvement – may have gotten into the race with the best intentions, he was quickly used by Volusia’s stodgy “Old Guard” who saw him as their best hope for achieving lockstep conformity on the horribly compromised County Council.

As the race progressed, Mr. Dye seemed to embrace that role – even when he was being trotted out like a show horse by sitting Councilmen Danny Robins and Jake Johansson to publicly pooh-pooh the very real concerns of Volusia County flood victims – an ugly and callous scene that unfolded on the steps of a courthouse in Daytona Beach that painted Mr. Dye as just another dull tool of influential development interests… 

Not a good look – and something many believe will be remembered into 2026…     

Per usual, those stalwarts of the status quo pulled out all the stops, with the Republican Executive Committee of Volusia going as far as using some weird parliamentary shenanigans to intentionally block Brower from the infamous “Official Republican Voter Guide,” even after he carried the primary.

Something that left many local Republicans suggesting that Brower’s win on Tuesday represents the last time the tyrannical RECV Chair Paul Deering and Co. will manipulate an election…   

In addition, Tuesday saw a refreshing changing of the guard on the Volusia County School Board as perennial politician Carl Persis lost big to newcomer Donna Brosemer in District 4; while the impressive businesswoman and entrepreneur Krista Goodrich took the District 2 race.

The other half of Volusia’s former ‘power couple,’ Susan Persis, lost to freshman politician Jason Leslie – a virtual unknown in the cloistered world of Ormond Beach politics, where one’s pedigree seemed to command more respect than vision, leadership, or strategic thought.

Not anymore. 

Congratulations to Mayor-elect Leslie on doing what many thought was impossible – wrenching the reins of power from the entrenched influential insiders Ms. Persis represented… 

Over in Wild West Volusia, things took a distinctive turn on the Lost City of Deltona’s dais – where James “Nick” Lulli defeated incumbent Commissioner Jody Lee Storozuk in a nasty District 6 race – with Dori Howington defeating incumbent Commissioner Dana McCool in District 4.

In District 1, the intrepid Deltona civic activist Brandy Lee White lost to Davison Heriot.  I hope Ms. White continues to bring the heat to the Deltona City Commission.  She is more influential speaking her truth from the podium than if she had been taken into the confines of elective service.   

According to whispers I’ve received here at Barker’s View HQ this week, in coming hours/days Deltona residents are about to get hit with yet another fusillade of disturbing allegations and insinuations emanating from City Hall…not what Deltona needs now. 

To add insult, according to a report by the West Volusia Beacon, the now lame duck Commissioner “Jody Lee” plans to hold a special commission meeting to “…discuss two items. I want to talk about charter officers, and I want to talk about election interference in Deltona. People are not going to like what I have to say.”

“Storozuk said he plans “to name names” and give details about his allegations.

As for his loss at the polls, Storozuk decried the Volusia County Republican Executive Committee for refusing to endorse him over Lulli. Municipal elections are officially nonpartisan races, but the parties do usually support or oppose candidates for these local offices.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same…

Some Deltona residents I’ve heard from are concerned their “new” commission was tailored by powerful Volusia County political and special interests to accommodate the wants and whims of developers.  That’s disturbing. 

And therein lies the problem.  

Call it post-election fatigue – and I hate to sound blasé amid the post-election euphoria many Volusia County residents are feeling – but regardless of who “won” or “lost,” nothing changes anyway. 

On Florida’s fabled “Fun Coast” our entrenched bureaucratic “system” ensures that.

Here, the stagnant status quo is still protected by staggered elections, a deep pocketed and incredibly powerful Donor Class, and the strict obedience the “system” demands from those who serve it; all perpetuated by the legalized quid pro quo corruption of our skewed campaign finance scheme.    

Now that the bizarre théâtre de l’absurde that passes for our local elections is over, it is time for newly elected politicians to put their words into action and finally live up to the lofty promises that flowed so freely during the thrust and parry of the campaign season.  

They won’t. 

Sadly, these elected figureheads are just cogs on a wheel – and given the fact that incumbent District 2 Councilman Matt Reinhart will be returning to the dais following his defeat of Steve Miller – the composition and obstructionism of the Volusia County Council remains exactly the same… 

The only difference is the citizen mandate that Chairman Jeff Brower was handed on Tuesday – a demand by Volusia County residents to take control of the malignant sprawl that is destroying our remaining greenspace, overwhelming our existing infrastructure, and has resulted in recurrent development induced flooding.

But the fact remains, Chairman Brower is still just one vote. He cannot do it alone.

Time will tell if the remainder of the council got the memo and join with Brower to enact a temporary moratorium on growth until solutions can be found.

(Wanna guess how that vote will go?)

Regardless, the real power remains in the executive suites of the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Building, and they will continue to craft public policy behind the scenes as our future is dictated in spite of those we elect to represent our interests, not because of them.

That’s not unique to Volusia County government.   

Like every year before, in City Hall’s everywhere, senior staff and those political benefactors who invested so much money supporting hand-select candidates are busy taking their newly elected chattel into the maw of the horribly bloated bureaucracy by reminding them which side their bread is buttered on.  

(Mark my words, Ormond Beach Mayor-elect Jason Leslie, you’re about to have more “friends” than you know what to do with…)

Obsequious backslappers and “advice-givers” inside government and out who suddenly laugh at their jokes, feign interest in everything they say, and slowly receive them into the inner sanctum of the Ivory Tower of Power where they will remain welcome, relative to the discussion, and politically protected so long as they go along and have a good relationship with “the way things work” in Volusia County politics. 

And, once again, the cycle of bureaucratic self-protection comes full circle…

Don’t take my word for it.  Join me up here in the cheap seats and watch. 

Politicians who once promised to listen to We, The Little People, will soon view entrenched bureaucrats as the only “experts” on any issue coming before them, droning PowerPoints full of confusing acronyms will provide political insulation, and our “representatives” will become firmly convinced of their own infallibility, while constituent concerns (and solutions) are scoffed at.

Then, slowly but surely, our newly elected egomaniacs will transmogrify into everything they hated when entering politics… 

Most ominous, freshman commissioners and councilmembers learn that anyone who breaks from the carefully choreographed script becomes the victim of organized political shunning – the physical, parliamentary, and emotional rejection of a duly elected member of the Volusia County Council as a means of modifying behavior, limiting influence, and forcing allegiance to the status quo. 

Ask Chairman Jeff Brower how that works…

For good reason, we no longer expect much from our elected representatives – that sense of having someone on “our side” in the halls of power has been beaten out of us by the machinations of bait-and-switch campaign tactics – where politicians say one thing at election time, then do another once in office, painting rosy pictures that don’t comport with our experience, asking us to doubt what we see with our own eyes.

The result is a stodgy and homogenized conventionality, a rigid closed system protected and perpetuated by those elites with a chip in the game who use government for its power while perverting its purpose.

If we are in fact a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, then those we elect should elevate that lofty goal in everything they do.  In my view, that begins by returning a more egalitarian and transparent system to Volusia County.

Each election, I am astounded by just how tone-deaf and selfish our local ‘movers-and-shakers’ can be. 

Call it an obtuse insensitivity to what the average Volusia County resident is feeling, or just a cruel indifference to the suffering of others, the sole focus being that the public teat remains patent and accessible for all the right last names…    

Regardless, there is a real disconnect between the social, civic, and economic elite on the “inside,” and those trying to eke out a living in this artificial economy, where incentives and infusions of public funds go to some well-connected businesses, while others are allowed to wither and die.

Now, add to that list waterlogged homeowners who have once again gutted their worldly possession after the latest flood and you see just how out-of-touch some “Very Important People” in our community truly are.  

Like I said, that “disconnect” was never more evident than in the waning days of the campaign season when flood victims gathered with Volusia County Chair Jeff Brower in Daytona Beach to demand a temporary moratorium on development until a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy can be developed.

Unbelievably, At-Large Councilman “Jake the Snake” Johansson and District 3 Councilman Danny Robins (both of whom have continuing political aspirations) marginalized the suffering of their constituents for political gain, while stumping for “Car Guy” Randy Dye – doing their collective duty to those who hold the paper on their political souls by kowtowing to the demands of their “Rich and Powerful” benefactors.

In my view, that wasn’t just cruel – it was stupid.      

In the view of many, the Brower/Dye matchup was a referendum of the “growth at all costs” strategy and the resultant detrimental impacts on flooding, density, and infrastructure that has forever altered our way of life.

Many also believe it foretells further political change in 2026…

Let’s hope so.

For now, the Cult of Mediocrity lives on – and it will continue unabated until enough Volusia County voters come to the realization that the truth is being manipulated each election cycle for the sole purpose of protecting and promoting the very lucrative status quo.

Let’s hope Chairman Brower’s important victory sends a clear message across the width and breadth of Volusia County that there is some shit We, The Little People won’t eat – and long-suffering taxpayers will no longer accept the greed-crazed profit motives of a few over the quality of life of exiting residents. 

Quote of the Week

“For example, the Flagler School Board prohibits public speakers from addressing board members or anyone but the chair by name, or–as do all local municipal boards–from directing a comment to anyone but the board chair, or from mentioning staffers by name. In other words, happy talk is ok, critical talk is not, the same way that boards approve of applause during happy occasions but ban it when they don’t want a speaker applauded. That’s content discrimination. It’s rampant at our local board meetings.

The court found those rules unconstitutional, especially since no board applies them when a speaker is lavishing praise on a board member or a staffer. The court ridiculed the prohibition on naming staffers. In Brevard, echoing similar and frequent censoring by current and past chairs in Flagler, the chair stopped one speaker with this Soviet-styled rebuke after the speaker mentioned an employee: “You’re putting their information out there in the public and it’s not yours to share.” Only at such board meetings is public information and names often documented in meeting materials considered “not yours to share.”

“Not only does this policy against personally directed speech not advance the goals that the Board claims it serves,” the court ruled, “it actively obstructs a core purpose of the Board’s meetings—educating the Board and the community about community members’ concerns. If a parent has a grievance about, say, a math teacher’s teaching style, it would be challenging to adequately explain the problem without referring to that math teacher. Or principal. Or coach. And so on. Likewise when a parent wishes to praise a teacher or administrator.

Such communications are the heart of a school board’s business, and the ill-defined and inconsistently enforced policy barring personally directed speech fundamentally impedes it without any coherent justification.”

Meetings may get tense, “But that is the price of admission under the First Amendment.”

–Pierre Tristam, FlaglerLive!, “Speech Codes at Flagler School Board and Palm Coast Council Are Now Illegal, Thanks to Moms for Liberty,” Friday, October 25, 2024

Last month, while most of us were busy cleaning up from Hurricane Milton and sorting through the inherent nastiness of “election season,” a federal appeals court ruled on an important constitutional challenge by the group Moms for Liberty against certain public participation policies of the Brevard County School Board. 

According to reports, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that policies targeting “abusive,” “obscene” and “personally directed” speech violated the First Amendment.

This important ruling has far-reaching implications for dictatorial edicts and subjective “rules of decorum” that elected boards, commissions, and councils often use for political insulation, a draconian means of silencing the fury of angry constituents seeking redress of grievances. 

In my view, our democratic processes work best when vigorous debate allows the truth to emerge – which is why the United States Constitution places such emphasis on protecting our inalienable right to free speech – allowing the competition of ideas to elevate the best solutions, resulting in informed and inclusive public policy. 

For far too long citizens in Volusia County and elsewhere have been told by petty politicians that their perspectives on the issues are wrong – or that we lack the capacity to understand the intricacies of things like impact fees and frivolous spending that has nothing to do with improving essential services and public infrastructure.    

The fact is, we live in a time and place where elected officials sit stone-faced on their gilded perch – gazing down on their subjects, placing stringent limitations on the public’s right to be involved in decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods – hiding behind one-sided “civility ordinances” while obstinately refusing to communicate, explain decisions, or listen to the fervent pleas of those they serve.   

Recently, I watched a Volusia County Council meeting where the acting chair repeatedly interrupted citizens as they respectfully addressed issues of concern to their elected officials, ordering that the speaker only direct comments to the chair, interjecting some ridiculous and bureaucratically contrived rule to dampen the foundational element of our democracy – citizen participation.

Bullshit. 

It seems the only time these monotonous marionettes break the fourth wall is when they are groveling for our vote (or a campaign contribution) during an election cycle – or whenever one of their extremely wealthy political benefactors enter the chamber.

When that happens, the mere presence the exalted insider renders the outcome painfully obvious as their obsequious hirelings preen and posture to the delight of their well-heeled masters…

As a result, citizen apathy reigns.

Knowing the deck is stacked against them, John & Jane Q. Public are no longer willing to take time off from work to attend public meetings, voice an opinion, or participate in their government – especially in an atmosphere where their thin-skinned elected representatives have made it clear that even constructive criticism is out-of-line.

The foundational principle of our representative democracy is that all power is derived from the will of the people. 

Go on – speak your mind, demand answers, hold those who accept public funds to serve in the public interest accountable – and do it fearlessly, boldly, and with civic purpose. 

Silence is complicity.  

Kudos to the 11th U.S. District Court of Appeals for striking a wide-ranging blow for our essential right to free and unfettered speech. 

And Another Thing!

“The first casualty of war is truth.”

–Sen. Hiram Warren Johnson, 1917

Many believe that the death of the American Dream – the end of our national post-war optimism – began with the death of President John F. Kennedy and the still lingering questions of what actually happened that day in Dallas.

Others say our national trust in government began to crack in May 1960, when a U-2 “spy plane” was shot down by the former Soviet Union while conducting an aerial reconnaissance flight. 

Initially, the Eisenhower administration explained in a lengthy release to the American people that a “civilian weather research aircraft” had gone missing after the pilot reported “oxygen difficulties.” 

The well-crafted cover-up lasted about a week – right up to the second Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev paraded the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, into the public eye – along with parts of the U-2’s surveillance equipment taken from the crash…

While the need for secrecy and sensitivity was understandable, many were shocked that for the first time their government was caught in such a baldfaced fib to the American public. 

Regardless, our collective trust in those institutions we once held sacrosanct in this country has been on a downward trajectory for decades.

According to a 2023 opinion poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, just 22% of respondents reported that they “trust the federal government to do what’s right “most of the time” or “just about always.”   By contrast, in 1958, when the National Election Study asked the question, some 73% of American’s affirmed their trust in government… 

Now, six decades on, we live in a time of overwhelming cynicism in those institutions we once placed our trust in – government, the media, what many believe is a weaponized judicial system, the corruption of our democratic processes – made worse by political polarization, a politicized press, the misinformation firehose of social media, the emergence of “artificial intelligence,” etc., etc.  

In my view, this election cycle brought a new low in carefully crafted disinformation campaigns and the use of outright lies in the political process. 

Not exactly a new concept.

For instance, at present, one million Floridian’s legally use marijuana for medicinal purposes, with millions more actively using the substance illicitly, and still more who have experimented with it at some point in their lives. 

Yet, throughout the campaign cycle, we repeatedly saw popular elected sheriffs in uniform, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, doctors, politicians, and other once trusted figures who looked us square in the eye from our television screen and openly lied to us about adult-use marijuana – such as the ridiculous blather of how if the unsuccessful Amendment 3 had passed (it almost did) – Cheech and Chong would be openly smoking dope inside restaurants, stadiums, and theme parks…  

Most Floridian’s understood that the proposed constitutional amendment did nothing to weaken or overturn clean air regulations that already prohibit smoking in public spaces – yet that is exactly what those fearmongers who opposed the measure wanted us to believe.  

It worked.  Although Florida voters overwhelmingly said “Yes” to adult-use recreational marijuana – the measure failed to reach the 60% legislatively imposed threshold required to pass.   

But how will those authority figures who openly told us falsehoods ever command our trust again?

With the proposed amendment commanding over 55.9% of the vote – that’s a statewide total of 5,934,139 votes – was defeating legalized weed worth their sacred personal integrity?

Now, many are questioning whose bottom line these powerful politicians are supporting – controlled, regulated, and taxed marijuana producers – or the Mexican drug cartels? 

More important, why?

So, for now, the State of Florida and our myopic law enforcement apparatus will continue to do the same thing over-and-over while expecting a different result? 

What do you think – are we “winning the war” on illicit marijuana in your community?

Look, I am a realist – a pragmatic seeker of that which is real and possible – and I tend to dismiss those who live in some chimerical fantasyland created by those who stand to profit and parroted by elected officials who have been bought and paid for by those same special interests. 

For me, authenticity has always been infinitely more fascinating (and elusive) than political smoke and mirrors.  Perhaps because the truth is such a rare and precious commodity in modern life, I tend to critically question everything…   

My life experience, which includes graduating magna cum laude from the prestigious Institut des Coups Durs, has taught me that things are never quite as good – or bad – as we think they are.

But this inquisitive personality trait has made me hyper-suspicious of politicians, magicians, and snake oil salesmen (sorry for the redundancy) who spin the truth and use deceptive persuasion, half-truths, and exaggerated sleight-of-hand to create an alternate reality that, over time, we have come to accept as fact.

Now that the hype and horseshit of the election season is over, please don’t let your guard down.  

I encourage everyone who pays taxes and lives on this increasingly claustrophobic salty piece of land we share to remain vigilant, demand that our elected officials work collegially and cooperatively in our best interests, drop the obstructionism, political bullying, and one-upmanship to find answers to the disastrous effects of insatiable greed on our collective quality of life.

Demand they stop the political gaslighting and speak the truth.

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