There’s an old joke, “I used to be a people person, but people ruined that for me.”

That about sums up my outlook these days.

It seems that every news cycle brings a new political fiasco that reinforces the notion that those we have elected and appointed to represent our collective interests are really only interested in benefiting themselves or the uber-wealthy cabal of influential insiders.

Whether you follow the constant ebb-and-flow of politics or not, eventually, even the most disconnected citizen begins to feel the consequence of government corruption, ineptitude and insider influence in their daily lives.

Even if they don’t immediately recognize the forces at play, they instinctively sense that they – and their tax dollars – are being used to grease the cogs on a much larger wheel.

I read with interest the Daytona Beach News-Journals recent editorial, “Fine line between watch dogs, attack dogs,” regarding the Florida Commission on Ethics decision to ask a judge to decide whether Flagler County should be allowed to recoup legal fees and “costs” associated with ethics complaints filed against county officials.

While I agree that any regulatory system – especially one as complaint driven as the Florida Commission on Ethics – is subject to abuse; in my view, sincere reports of actual or suspected corruption far outweigh the malicious or petty misuse of the process.

During my career in law enforcement I was the subject of several baseless complaints, and I frequently fielded frivolous allegations against my officers – usually esoteric grumbles citing “rude” conduct stemming from a traffic ticket, or more severe cases involving people seeking revenge for an official action taken by the officer.  It goes with the territory.

While I agree that we should take definitive action against those who abuse the system, I am just not sure that the imposition of Draconian judgments – awarding legal fees that are far in excess of the penalties often assessed to adjudicated wrongdoers – against whistle blowers who bring earnest suspicions to light is ultimately beneficial.

In Florida’s ethics system, there are numerous and quite specific checks-and-balances which ensure due process at every step, and permit a thorough vetting of accusations while protecting both the subject of the complaint and the integrity of the process.

The Commission on Ethics has a very detailed and statutorily dictated mission with a clearly defined assessment process.

When a complaint is received, it is reviewed for credibility and appropriateness under the law.

Most cases are dismissed at this level as either lacking sufficient legal merit under state ethics statutes, or identified as a malicious attempt to besmirch the character and reputation of a sitting official.

If the complaint is found to meet the rather high standards necessary to proceed, a thorough inquiry is conducted by the commission’s own independent investigators.

If the evidence collected during the investigation warrants, the full Commission holds a hearing to determine whether probable cause exists to proceed.  If so, the case is prepared and presented to an administrative law judge by an attorney serving as an “advocate” for the Ethics Commission.

During this hearing, the subject of the complaint has the right to present evidence and testimony in their defense, cross-examine witnesses and present legal arguments and challenges.

The process is very much like a non-jury trial.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge – serving as an independent adjudicator – makes a factual finding and comes to a legal conclusion based upon the totality of the evidence.  That ruling is then sent to the full commission for final action – which can be anything from complete dismissal of the charge to sanctions for sustained misconduct.

The process isn’t a fly-by-night kangaroo court where a citizen is allowed to throw dung against the wall until something sticks.  To the contrary – it is a strict, highly defined process that ensures fairness and incorporates due process at each step.

Clearly, Flagler County has had its share of ethically challenged politicians.

If anyone doubts the exhaustive process required to find an elected official guilty of statutorily defined ethics violations, look no further than the epic saga of Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre, his predecessor Don Fleming, or the 2015 indictment of former Supervisor of Elections Kimberly Weeks on twelve felony counts.

In the case of Sheriff Manfre, following a two-year imbroglio, in July Governor Rick Scott finally signed an executive order reprimanding and censuring him for a series of blatant ethical lapses, to include misuse of a public agency credit card and accepting unreported gifts.

That’s rich.

At the end of the day, the Sheriff – while serving as the highest law enforcement official in Flagler County – received a scolding by perhaps the most corrupt governor since Louisiana’s Huey P. Long – along with a paltry $6,200 fine.

That’s funny.  It’s like the fox admonishing the coyote for raiding what’s left of the hen house.

According to the News-Journal, since November 2014, some 26 complaints have been filed against Flagler County officials with the Commission on Ethics – all by members of something called the “Ronald Reagan Republican Assemblies” – and by Supervisor Weeks herself.  (Presumably before her arrest.)

Now, I don’t know the merits or the impetus of these complaints, but apparently all but three of them were dismissed by the Ethics Commission, and that clear abuse of the system deserves a second look.

However, one of those allegations – filed against Flagler County Commissioner Barbara Revels – was thoroughly investigated and proven to have merit.

In fact, the Commission on Ethics ultimately found that Mrs. Revels voted without first disclosing a very real conflict of interest when Flagler County purchased the old Memorial Hospital in Bunnell for $1.23 million in the summer of 2013.

It appears that Barbara had a personal financial relationship with Palm Coast Intracoastal Bank, one of three owners of the hospital property – and I don’t mean a Christmas club account, either.

In fact, the investigation found that the bank had increased Revels’ line of credit just before her vote.

The report of the investigation reads like a good, old fashioned Florida mystery novel.

Ultimately, Revels was found to have violated Florida law, and for her trouble, she was fined a measly $2,500 – again, no more than an inconvenience – just the cost of doing business in Flagler County.

In a 2015 study by the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, Florida was identified as one of the most corrupt states in the union – as if we needed an Ivy League research project to confirm it.

The report found that the Sunshine State ranks in the “very common” category for both “illegal” and “legal” corruption.

According to the Safra Center, “Illegal” corruption is defined as “The private gains in the form of cash or gifts by a government official, in exchange for providing specific benefits to private individuals or groups.” 

Sound familiar?

“Legal” corruption is defined as, “The political gains in the form of campaign contributions or endorsements by a government official, in exchange for providing specific benefits to private individuals or groups, be it by explicit or implicit understanding.”

Sound familiar?

According to Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard University and former director of the Safra Center, such dealings are but one aspect of the broader issue of institutional corruption, which sounds eerily similar to what we experience here:

“Institutional corruption is manifest when there is a systemic and strategic influence which is legal, or even currently ethical, that undermines the institution’s effectiveness by diverting it from its purpose or weakening its ability to achieve its purpose, including, to the extent relevant to its purpose, weakening either the public’s trust in that institution or the institution’s inherent trustworthiness.” 

Hello, DeBary?  Are you listening?

How about voters in Volusia County?  Sound anything close to what you’re feeling?

Me too. . .

I think it’s clear that the State of Florida generally, and Volusia/Flagler Counties specifically, have a problem – one that won’t be solved by weakening the ability of citizens to refer their suspicions to the very organization charged by law with investigating and correcting public corruption.

In my view, Florida’s ethics statutes – and increasingly, our public records laws – are being viciously attacked and eroded by the very politicians who seek to benefit most.

Permitting prohibitive financial judgments for legal fees and subjective costs against citizens who file complaints – even those with merit that are not acted upon – will not only have a chilling effect on would-be whistle blowers, but it will add yet another layer of insulation to corrupt politicians who know citizens simply won’t risk their family’s financial future to hold them accountable.

I would like to thank Big John for hosting me on Gov Stuff Live yesterday – Volusia County’s premier public affairs forum.

It has been my pleasure to call Big a friend for nearly 30 years now, and I always enjoy his unique take on the topical issues and newsmakers of the day.  I also enjoyed speaking with a few regular readers of Barker’s View – thank you for taking the time to call.

While I normally try to stay local, I feel compelled to weigh in on a serious matter of growing national concern.

Like many of you, I have followed with interest – and now utter disgust – the building coast-to-coast shame of National Football League players following the lead of San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick by engaging in various “protests” during the playing of our national anthem before regular season games.

Look, I understand that the same First Amendment rights that allow me to spout-off ad nauseum about government and politics offer Mr. Kaepernick the same protections.  What I don’t understand is the blatant disrespect he, and a rising number of other multi-millionaire NFL players, have shown to the United States, our way of life, and those who have given their lives in defense of our communities and this great nation.

Naturally, President Obama quickly weighed in on the issue – from the G20 summit in China of all places – offering his automatic tacit approval of all things anti-police.

In my view, no one – and I mean no one – currently living and thriving under the cloak of freedom and security provided by the United States of America should openly and publicly denigrate our nations flag and national anthem.

I didn’t say they don’t have the right to – I said they shouldn’t do it.

Why?  Because it’s wrong.

Because young people adulate and emulate them as role models.

Do we have problems in this country?  Certainly.

Do we, as American citizens, have the inalienable right to protest issues of the day?  Absolutely.

But for millionaire prima donna athletes to use their celebrity and access to stage these orchestrated, insensitive, and highly inappropriate attacks on our flag and the law enforcement community during these extremely popular nationally televised sports-entertainment events is shameful and quite frankly – repulsive.

Especially on the 15^th Anniversary of the September 11^th attacks.  A day of service and remembrance – Patriots Day.

As a retired law enforcement officer am I bitter?  You bet your ass I am.

Damn angry, too.

If the owners, coaches and the league are either unwilling, or incapable, of effectively addressing this on-going and patently shameful slap in the face to the men and women currently serving in our armed forces, our veterans, and our law enforcement officers, then it is time for the fans to correct the problem externally.

After all, the NFL leadership has sent conflicting messages from the outset.

When the Cowboy’s organization sought to show unity with the Dallas Police Department following the tragic deaths of five officers in a July sniper attack by wearing simple “Arm-in-Arm” decals on their helmets, the club’s request was swiftly – almost immediately – denied by league officials.

Yet, players wearing socks depicting pigs in police uniform during practice, or those openly engaging in outrageous physical protests (sitting, kneeling, raising fists, etc.) during the playing of our national anthem, go completely and very noticeably unaddressed.

These failures of leadership fall squarely on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who clearly has the power to control this embarrassing chapter in our nation’s history under the terms of the league’s collective bargaining agreement with the Player’s Association.

There are important reasons to keep politics out of sports.  Mr. Goodell and the owners know that.

Traditionally, football is something we can all unite around.

Regardless of race, religion or socioeconomic status – we sit shoulder-to-shoulder in a neighborhood bar or in the comfort of our living room recliner – to cheer on our team, celebrate our city or regional pride, and forget about life for a while.

Are we reaching a point in this country where specific teams will now represent various points of view along the political spectrum?

“The police supporters of Dallas do battle with the San Francisco 49ers and Black Lives Matter tonight on Monday Night Football!”

What is professional sports becoming?

What are we becoming?

Frankly, there is little difference anymore between the NFL and the WWE – except everyone knows that pro wrestling is carefully orchestrated theater – while the domestic violence, rape, animal abuse and thuggery by certain NFL players is all too real.

I would like to share a personal request that I believe represents our collective best response to both the players involved and the National Football League:

While I respect the players right to political demonstration; we, the fans, also have a right to be heard.

In that spirit, I hereby refuse to watch or attend any NFL game, or to purchase any officially licensed merchandise, until this appalling practice of “protesting” during our national anthem is stopped.

It is time to boycott.

If the National Football League stands by its decision to prohibit police unity emblems – while openly supporting public demonstrations against law enforcement during the playing of The Star Spangled Banner – then the choice is clear.

At the end of the day, we are not Saints, Dolphins, Packers or Seahawks.  We are Americans.

While we may face difficult issues and entrenched political divide in this country, national pastimes like professional football should remain unsullied by self-aggrandizing personal protests and shameful demonstrations on the most popular and most watched stage in America.

Some things are infinitely more important than sports.

In my view, there is no place for this open contempt of our most hallowed national symbols by overpaid, ego-driven sports figures, and it is time we let the National Football League – and companies who advertise their goods and services with them – know that the fans are watching.

In more ways than one.

 

 

 

 

 

In coming weeks, Floridian’s will begin to experience what passes for the “change of seasons” here in the sub-tropics – a gradual decrease in the oppressive heat and humidity of summer; cool mornings and warm days, a sharper angle to the evening sun – if you live here, you know what I mean.

Don’t haul out the sweaters just yet, we won’t need those until January – and if you’re looking for the splendor of fall color, well, that’s going to require the obligatory October pilgrimage to western North Carolina.

Like many things in Central Florida, the autumnal equinox is subtle but noticeable.

For good or for ill, what we will see quite vividly is a rapid rise in the tone and tenor of political campaigns at the local, state and national levels.  In a few short weeks, things will heat up to a fever pitch – the debates, endless soundbites, and more crazy rhetoric and speculation.

No substance, mind you.  Just smoke and mirrors.  All pap – no substance.

If you thought the primary season was weird, trust me –  you ain’t seen nothing yet, baby.

I have always considered myself to be the archetypal ‘every man’ – you know, that guy from the “reasonable man standard” who is often cited in tort and criminal law as a hypothetical person in normal society who exercises average care, skill, and judgment, and serves as a comparative standard for determining liability.

For instance, you might pick up a brick and bash your neighbor in the head because – despite repeated warnings – he insists on blasting a ramjet-powered leaf blower at dawn’s early light.

Well, when you’re clapped in irons and hauled before the court for grievously battering your fellow citizen, the judge will explain that a ‘reasonable man’ would have suffered the noise in silence – not stoned their neighbor like a Neanderthal – as he has you locked away for everyone’s safety.

People often say that the police are all that stand between our civilization and chaos – order and anarchy.

I disagree.

The police have become mere societal referees with their every call subject to video review in the booth.  Law enforcement is slowly being neutered and soon they will have no more effect or influence on the actual prevention of crime than they currently have curbing our collective propensity to exceed the speed limit when we’re late for work.

I still believe we have more sensible, law abiding and rational people in the social order than we have unreasonable kooks – although it seems my argument gets more flimsy each news cycle.

But for how much longer?  And what happens when the scale tips in the opposite direction?

And what will that do for our ‘reasonable man’ standard when the inmates actually take over the asylum, eh?

“Barker, these are dark and difficult questions that no one wants to be bothered with.  You’re disturbing people, dammit.  Get back to calling politicians funny names, okay?

Got it.  Let’s save those ominous ramblings for another day, shall we?

Look, the nut I’m trying to extract here is that, like the average guy, I don’t normally attend local political debates at the News-Journal Center.  You won’t find me at a goofy “hob nob” or any other political soirée where the local elite gather to see-and-be-seen, discuss the issues of the day, and rub elbows with candidates groveling for elective office.

It’s not like the candidates will actually flesh-out their unique vision and plan for changing our lives for the better, right?

So, like most of you, I just don’t bother with all that haughty political backslapping.

Besides, like most ‘reasonable men,’ I’m more of a complainer than a ‘doer.’

If you’re anything like me, you read the newspaper, watch what passes for mainstream “news,” and hit the mute button whenever any political advertisement comes on television.

Even in this vast void of hard knowledge, somehow we form opinions – even strong ones – on the issues that are important to us.  Then we naturally equate those needs to the one candidate who most closely represents our individual views and values.

Unfortunately, this information vacuum gets stronger the closer you get to local politics.

Even this far into the election cycle I still don’t know the individual candidates’ stance on many of the issues that are important to me.

I hear rumors.  I listen to smart people ruminate on what they think they know.

But the fact is – I’m clueless, and so are they.

For instance, can anyone tell me county chair candidate Ed Kelley’s actual strategy for correcting the myriad problems facing Volusia County?

Just one?

According to Ed’s campaign material, he will provide something called “leadership and unity” on issues such as “homelessness, transportation, environment and efficient spending.”

Great news!  But how?

I mean, you haven’t done it in any post you’ve held to date, right?

Nothing – and I mean nothing – about Ed’s past political history demonstrates that he has ever had an original thought in his life.  I think we can all agree – like him or not – Ed Kelley is not the most creative thinker to ever come down the political pike.

At best, Ed Kelley is just another homogeneous, perennial politician who, despite being in one elective office or the other for years, has done nothing to correct the economic, social and political problems that threaten more of the same for east Volusia.

He’s just changing seats.

But Ed has a pseudo-celebrity son who made it big in ‘Bro Country’ following what must have been some weird Faustian bargain with the Publicity Devil.

And for some voters – that’s all it takes.

I’m not even going to mention Ed’s opponent, current VCC Chairman Jason “The Mad Hatter” Davis.  He’s a cartoon character, really – a pathetic oddball that has presided over the most ineffectual council in perhaps the history of Volusia County – and that’s saying something.

How about Al Smith?  Or Heather Post, for that matter?

What do we truly know about their positions on beach driving, growth management, environmental issues, the use of ECHO funds for parking lots, or our current county council’s inability to be taken seriously by our SunRail “partners” or anyone else?

We’ve heard the anecdotes and gossipy chit-chat – but what do we actually know?

It’s clear that Al has an abysmal history when it comes to good decision making – he owes the citizens of Daytona Beach tens of thousands in back power bills after determining that ice skating would be a good fit for a beach community (or whatever the hell you call it.)

At some point, Smith ran his family’s chocolate factory – then, for some reason, he transformed into a giddy radio windbag and something called an “event promoter.”

His opponent’s past is even murkier.

Apparently Heather Post’s law enforcement career has more holes in it than a moldy slice of Swiss cheese.  I believe she was terminated by Sheriff Ben Johnson for gross misconduct – then mediated her job back – and later received a settlement or buyout, before quitting public service altogether to become a soi disant ‘entrepreneur’ with dubious resources.

Do we really want someone who is legally prohibited from working in Volusia County government sitting as an elected policymaker?

I’m just asking.

Frankly, I don’t know anything about her – or where she stands on the issues – and I bet most of you don’t either.

Mrs. Post claims to support reducing “redundancy in government and increased collaboration and communication.”

Oh, and she wants to improve our “general quality of life.”

That’s like saying, “I like ice cream.”

How?  What is your strategy?

How to you plan to accomplish these lofty goals from the loneliness of the District 4 County Council seat?

Hell, Doug Daniels actually knew what he was doing and he threw up his hands and ran jabbering for the hills.

Ah, screw it – it’s all so confusing.

My point is, this is what passes for potential ‘leadership’ in Volusia County – political retreads and a few unpolished newcomers with dubious backgrounds and even foggier stances on the important issues facing all of us.

Let’s face it – these political novices don’t have a clue.  They are outsiders looking in at government through a greasy, opaque glass and telling us what we want to hear, hoping we will give them the key to unlock the door.

As for Ed and Jason, we know what we’re getting with them – we’ve seen it all before.

Look, I think it’s high time we got some new blood on the Volusia County Council – but are Al Smith and Heather Post the answer?  I hope so – because they represent our only choice in District 4.

What does this mean for you and I?

It means business as usual – regardless of who we elect.

Does anyone still wonder why only one-in-four people bother to vote in Volusia County?

In recent days the Daytona Beach News-Journal’s editorial board seems to have awoken from their Rip Van Winkle act and come the collective realization that Daytona Beach – and to a much larger extent, Volusia County – suffers from a lack of identity and vision.

Welcome aboard.  Where have you been?

It appears that the News-Journal has finally taken off the black armband, dried up their tears grieving the untimely demise of the Hard Rock, and come to terms with the fact that there truly is no one at the helm of this drifting ship of fools.

In a recent editorial addressing the issue of homelessness – and more to the point, why our elected officials can’t seem to find a reasonable solution – the News-Journal wrote, “Volusia County has plenty of ideas on how to address homelessness.  What it lacks is a cohesive strategy, the result of a dearth of leadership.”

Bravo.  That one well-constructed sentence so eloquently explains all that is wrong is Volusia County – and not just as it relates to chronic homelessness.

Recently, News-Journal columnist Mark Lane wrote an outstanding essay touting the value of a strategic vision to transforming our community.

I agree.  The only thing that will ultimately bring positive and fundamental change to our quality of life in Volusia County is vision and leadership – strong, effective and focused leadership.

Unfortunately, I don’t see anyone on the local political horizon who remotely possesses those qualities.

Do you?

 

 

 

It’s all about perspective.

Regular readers of this forum know that I can be less than kind when calling out certain elected and appointed officials who seem incapable of either recognizing, or understanding, the depth of the entrenched issues facing us here on the Fun Coast.

Some see it as constructive criticism, others as a mean spirited cheap shot, but one thing is certain – nobody likes the bearer of bad news.

I’m frequently accused of being a maudlin naysayer – you know, the caviling whiner who never gets the fuzzy-wuzzies about anything.  The contrarian thinker with nothing good to say about the Turkish bazaar that passes for government in Volusia County.

Guilty as charged.

We live in troubled times, and as I’ve said before, someone has to stay on the outside.

Watching.

In recent days there has been a whole lot of mawkish hand-wringing, gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over the untimely death of the Hard Rock project – a refulgent high rise condo/motel that we were told would have risen from the dunes like a magical, transformative panacea and suddenly cured all the evils that afflict us.

The media reports of the project’s demise were almost funereal.

Hell, I all but drew the curtains and draped the mirrors in black crepe.

The Toronto-based developer, Henry Wolfond, rode into town like a lion, full of big promises and big demands.  He was the latest Bodhisattva of the Beach – an enlightened, compassionate visionary who quickly won over the local mandarinate and convinced them that he held the answers – the magic bullet that would forever kill the economic wolf that has had us by the collective throat for far too long.

As always happens, Volusia’s influential insiders and their hand-selected politicians, worked valiantly to convince us – the ignorant, unwashed rabble who have been burned so many times by speculative developers that we smell like charred ham – that if we just acquiesce to the demands and allow the removal of yet more beach driving, the tradeoff would drag us up from this squalid ash heap and save us from ourselves.

When we, the people, wouldn’t relent and dutifully bend over to the demands of Bayshore Capitol – or accept the sycophantic toadying of our own ‘high panjandrums of progress’ as being in our best interest – they did what they wanted anyway.

To hell with what their constituents wanted or didn’t want.

By 6-1 vote, the Volusia County Council folded like a cheap beach chair to the ultimatums of the developer and enacted ordinances removing beach driving from the strands behind the fictitious “Westin” project and the magical cure-all that would be the Hard Rock.

At the time, our own J. Hyatt Brown was quoted as saying, “It is a positive step.  It is one that we will never regret, and it is a step that in the future we will look back and say, ‘Good job you all.’

Never say never, J. Hyatt.

In an interesting December 2010 article in the Toronto Star, business reporter Tony Wong noted that our prospective Canadian savior, Henry Wolfond, went cross-border shopping for real estate during the depth of the recession.

Like any good scavenger – or speculative developer – Wolfond took full advantage of a bad situation and began acquiring Florida oceanfront real estate for literally pennies on the dollar.

According to Wong:

“But even by Florida deal-making standards, the deep discount price on the beach front property he closed on in September was astonishing.  The buzz reached a fever pitch among real estate circles in Daytona Beach after some “Canadian guy” had apparently purchased 3.82 acres of prime land in Daytona Beach that sold for $23 million in 2006.  The cost?  $2.5 million, representing an astonishing 89-percent discount.  The original buyer had taken a $20.5 million haircut. . .”

 I just love that part – “even by Florida deal-making standards.”  Classic.  It proves that the whole world looks at these self-important politicians and “economic developers” like the obsequious dupes they are.

 At the time, Wolfond self-righteously commented that he had picked up the beachfront property in Daytona for not much more than a “very nice home in Thornhill” (a suburb of Toronto).

In addition, Wolfond’s well-capitalized real estate fund, “Fenix Opportunity” (by-the-by, Fenix is apparently Spanish for Phoenix – the mythical bird who rose from the ashes symbolizing renewal) was on a feeding frenzy in Florida, snapping up distressed properties like a chicken on a swarm of June bugs.

Wow.  It was all cotton candy clouds and big rock candy mountains for Henry and his partners.

Life was good.

Bargain basement prices on prime real estate and a political environment that proved our elected officials would sell their children’s souls for a buck meant the potential for huge profits.

I mean, it was the perfect scenario – and I’m not even talking about the gravy:  All of us unfortunate locals were in line for jobs cleaning hotel rooms, working in an industrial laundry or toting bags for the pretty people who would come and luxuriate on the Hard Rock’s exclusive private beach.

Man.  The world was spinning in greased grooves, just like Steinbeck said.

Then, on a recent late summer Sunday morning, we poured a cup of joe and opened the Daytona Beach News-Journal, only to be taken to the proverbial woodshed by our very own benevolent redeemer, Henry Wolfond.

Yep.  Seems it was our fault that he was forced to pull the plug on the ‘Hard Rock Daytona Beach’ – or, as he described it, “a catalyst for massive investment into the Daytona Beach beachside community.”

Many of us read the article twice and came away with the uneasy knowledge that – despite what Glenn Ritchey told us – Mr. Wolfond was no longer our friend.

According to Hank, “obstructionist” elements in the pro beach driving community crushed our little goose that shit the golden egg with “continuous and ongoing litigation” as part of a “strategic effort to prevent the certainty needed to allow the construction of this project.”

Following Mr. Wolfond’s weepy and condescending eulogy, the News-Journal expended rolls of newsprint ensuring that all involved with this much heralded, yet dead-on-arrival, theme hotel got an equal chance to point their finger and lecture us on what a bunch of poopy-heads we all are for “killing” the project with our sinister stratagem of “uncertainty and delay.”

It appears that Bayshore’s highly paid mouthpiece, Glenn Storch, took the loss personally.  He was last heard lamenting in mournful terms, “It is as if many folks want Daytona Beach to fail.”

My ass.

Note to Mr. Wolfond:  If you can’t find a way to turn a reasonable profit on 3.8 acres of prime beachfront property that you literally picked up at a $20.5 million discount – knowing full-well that we’ve driven on this beach for, oh, the past hundred years or so –  then you probably should have shown up at business school the day they taught, well, business.

Just maybe there is some shit we won’t eat.  Did you ever think of that?

Maybe there is a certain segment of the silent majority here on the “Fun Coast” that are sick and tired of being manhandled by government overreach.  Beleaguered taxpayers that have learned through near constant trial and error that, despite the glittery promises, speculative developers really don’t have our best interests at heart.

Listen, don’t lecture me – you greedy bastard – about how exercising our God-given, constitutionally protected right to petition our government for redress of grievances has negatively impacted your ability to fleece a bunch of hapless rubes into buying overpriced rock-n-roll themed condominiums.

Don’t presume to tell me that citizens seeking judicial review of their county councils “give till it hurts, then give some more” economic development strategy – a policy that is quickly stripping our local heritage – somehow gave your “investors” a case of the heebie-jeebies.

If Henry Wolfond – or any of these goddamn leeches that throw in with him – thought that they could make a dime off this place there would be nothing, and I mean nothing, that could stop them.

Every pirate in the world has sacked and looted this strip of sand for the past 500 years.  So if Henry thinks he can puff out his lower lip and make us feel bad, he’s sadly mistaken.

We’ve become grizzled veterans of these petty little storms created by people who make their living gambling with other people’s money – usually ours.

Hell, going broke in Daytona Beach is almost a rite of passage for speculative developers, land rapers, and greedheads.  Just ask Bray & Gillespie – or any of the poor saps still holding the paper on their big time promises.

Maybe ol’ Hank should have done his homework.

If you can’t turn a dollar on dirt-cheap beachfront property – in an environment where local government will literally agree to anything and cough-up corporate welfare like a dyspeptic dog – then perhaps the problem goes a little deeper than beach driving and disobedient locals.

Perhaps it’s time the powers that be turn their accusatory fingers at themselves and determine exactly where this shit-train jumped the track.

Regardless, I’m tired of being harangued by a cheapjack Canadian hustler and these ‘oh-so-smart’ fools in local and county government who so enthusiastically bought into the hype.

 

Photo Credit: The Daytona Beach News-Journal via Twitter

 

 

“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

 Plato

Here it is Labor Day.  To say I enjoyed working in a pursuit important to the life of my community is an understatement.

During my professional life I served in a very active and dynamic police department.  Our agency served a small town that was often challenged with “bigger city” issues due to our very close proximity to our larger, much more troubled neighbor.

It was a busy, rapidly changing life – moving and jumping from one thing to another.

A career full of challenges to overcome, increasing responsibilities, wonderful camaraderie, interesting and exciting situations – never a dull moment, as they say.

Then one day you turn around and 31-years have come and gone – literally in the blink of an eye.

A nice party is thrown in your honor, people say lovely things about your service to the community, commemorative plaques are bestowed, and then around midnight the party starts to wane and you find yourself standing alone, realizing how ephemeral it all was.

The following morning starts “the next phase” of life – retirement – what everyone waits for.

The great reward we all swap the best part of our lives for. The recompense for our sacrifice.

Trust me – the transition can be difficult.  And I suspect some of us never quite make the leap.

Last January I found a constructive outlet for my limited energy but boundless opinions when I founded this blog – Barker’s View.  Unbelievably, in just nine months my little experiment has been viewed some 30,000 times and continues to generate some healthy, even heated, criticism of my views and opinions on local politics – good and bad.

Recently, a reader referred to me as a “hack” whose only “claim to fame” is blogging about issues in DeBary.

The critic is right – I am a hack.

I have no formal training in either creative writing or journalism – and anyone who mistakes these missives as anything other than one man’s opinion is delusional.  These essays aren’t fact-based reporting – they are, at best, the nonsensical rants of someone who sees wrongs but no longer has the strength of character or practical means to right them.

Little more than a voice from the wilderness, I suppose.

After all, someone has to stay on the outside looking in, right?

I have also received some very uplifting, heartfelt and constructive observations from friends and strangers who enjoy reading this blog.

On a recent afternoon I received a very kind note from a very prominent person in our community – an individual who I’ve never met and with whom I’ve often disagreed.  Suffice it to say, he draws a lot of water in circles that I’m not privileged to travel in.

This very important reader told me that, despite the fact I often take him to task, he believes my essays are valuable in the context that they hold those in government accountable.  He urged me to continue.

Perhaps he’s right.

Truth be told, I have an on-going dialog with a few of the politicians and appointed officials that I write about – ones whose hearts are in the right place, and who are smart enough to know that my missives aren’t that influential, good or bad.  Public servants who can find humor and perhaps some kernel of insight in my prattle.

I find that refreshing – especially in today’s ‘take-no-prisoners’ political environment.

I respect those who can disagree with me – even vehemently – but still laugh at themselves and be agreeable at the end of the day.

Another person I deeply respect told me that one reason these “movers and shakers” read the blog regularly is because – even if I’ve called them a gutless pig, or worse – the fact that someone took the time to mention them means they are politically relevant and still essential to the discussion.

That’s true.

It’s all fun, but interestingly, I find that the older I get the less I actually care about how others view me – or my opinions – than I did when I was a younger man and the stakes were higher.

I think it was the late, great poet and author Jim Harrison who said that one of the benefits of aging is the fact you truly don’t have to care anymore.

Young people say, “I don’t care,” but they know in their hearts they don’t really mean it.

They haven’t the luxury.

In actuality, they care deeply because their career, family or other important personal or professional obligation requires that they pay attention and commit themselves both physically and emotionally to all that life demands.

But as we get older, we have earned the preference of simply becoming disinterested; less concerned about the day-to-day trivialities of life.

For instance, when I say that I really don’t care what people think of me anymore – I mean it.

I could give a Tinker’s damn.

The negative perceptions of others simply don’t matter anymore.  I suppose that I have outlived whatever level of vanity causes anxiety over whether or not someone else agrees or disagrees with what I do, or how I think.

Perhaps it’s just been beaten out of us by a certain age.

While certain aspects of my life no longer interest me in the least – I find that other, more complex concerns, really bother me. Issues like environmental crimes, political influence, bullying behaviors by government, and cruelty toward children and defenseless animals top the list of things I feel passionate about.

I suppose it’s why I speak out in the one venue I have left – a personal opinion blog site.

Recently, the Daytona Beach News-Journal posted what I felt were some rather strange views on the recurring issues facing our beachside – and the role beach driving advocates may or may not have had in obstructing what some consider “progress”.

The newspaper went so far as to say that since traditional beach driving candidates were almost unanimously rejected at the polls during the recent primary, the results nullify the argument that beach access is a “live or die” issue for local politicians.

Interestingly, both of our current county chair candidates – Ed Kelley and Jason Davis – campaigned on a strong pro beach driving platform.  Even though smart people – voter’s familiar with the candidates’ histories – understood going in that what Ed and Jason say is often counter to what they actually do when it comes time to vote.

In my view, what nobody in a position to matter wants to admit is that east Volusia still suffers from a deep-seated apathy – the result of long-term political disfranchisement – and an acute identity crisis exacerbated by a lack of vision for the future or focus on the serious problems we face.

A large segment of our elected officials still believe that the right development is all we need to collectively rise like a Phoenix from the fetid ashes of beachside blight and degradation.

For instance, take Daytona Beach City Manager Jim Chisholm’s remarks in the aftermath of the Hard Rock announcement – “It’s just a matter of finding the right high-quality hotel.”

He just doesn’t get it.

There is no individual developer – or single project – that will ultimately serve as a panacea for the problems that face us.

Perhaps we should begin to listen to those who are actually in the arena working to make a difference – folks like Daytona Beach urban redeveloper Jack White.

In an interview with the News-Journal, Mr. White was right in his assessment that there is no “silver bullet” solution to the host of ills plaguing renewal efforts.

Smart people like Mr. White understand that it will take more than a “Margaritaville” hotel to turn things around long term.  People need a reason to come to the World’s Most Famous Beach beyond speed weeks and motorcycle rallies.

They need entertainment and vitality in a safe, fun environment.

Steadily falling occupancy rates and a lack of strategic vision by our local and county elected officials has more to do with why investors shy away from the Halifax area than beach driving or any silly theme hotel.

Face it.  Absent the beach, there is simply no reason for people to spend their disposable income vacationing here.  None.

And our elected and appointed officials have the unmitigated gall to point their finger and blame us for their colossal failure to ignite interest and effect positive change.

It’s time the powers that be realize that we live in an environment where just 27% of the electorate still care enough to vote.  I can only assume that the remainder of our friends and neighbors – the silent majority – have simply given up.

They have come to accept that no matter who they vote for, nothing changes.

Shapeshifting politicians like Ed Kelley, Jason Davis and Josh Wagner have done more to damage the reputation, credibility and stability of Volusia County government than anything – yet the electorate has become uncomfortably numb to the political atrocities, insider influence and government overreach that have become the norm here on the Fun Coast.

Over time, it’s been beaten out of them.

The News-Journal – and those influential insiders in local and county government – should understand that this primary was not a ringing endorsement of those who would fritter our heritage of beach driving away to the highest bidder; but rather a gross indictment of a system that has become so detached, unresponsive and ineffectual that no one truly cares anymore.

Congratulations.  You won.  Who cares.

 

 

 

 

 

The role of a police chief, especially in a small municipality, can take many interesting forms.

You are often called to serve as ombudsmen for community disputes, solve neighborhood crime problems, or calm anxious nerves during emergencies.

How you do that is often left to your own creativity.

For instance, I once “divorced” an elderly couple when they had way too much to drink and began a drunken squabble.  After our third visit to the couple’s home, we settled the matter for the evening by writing out a formal divorce decree on a blank police form – pink copy went to the lady, yellow to the gentleman.

The very next day they showed up at the police department begging to be re-married.  They just couldn’t live without each other.

It certainly wasn’t a “de-escalation” tactic taught at the police academy – it was something I remembered from an old Joseph Wambaug movie – but everyone lived happily ever after.

And isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?

You could come up with imaginative solutions back then.  Today, I most likely would have been clapped in irons for practicing law without a license.

Besides, government doesn’t deal with community issues with any degree of creativity anymore.

Normally, government slugs along at a snail’s pace – not very nimble and with far too many moving parts to spool-up quickly.  Even simple actions can take months of deliberation and study, the hiring of consultants, commissioning studies and meetings to weigh options.

In actual fact, so much of the inner workings are make-work formalities for mid-level shovel leaners and contractors who speak in acronyms and complicate most issues far beyond acceptable reason.

Then there are the examples of what happens when the beast suddenly awakens, kicks off the traces, and sets its sights on an individual or entity that raises its fury.

During my career, I saw this phenomenon take many forms, but the one common denominator in each case is that the offending party somehow challenged the authority of a government official (usually a petty but high-ranking pen pusher or politician), or somehow found a way to offend the devout social mores of a few – but very vocal – zealots in the community.

Once that happens, the offending person or entity cannot simply walk away from the gauntlet and make-nice.  Too late for that.

The meat grinder has been engaged, and it will eat.

For example, remember the bloody two-year war between the City of Ormond Beach and the now defunct “Cheaters” – a tawdry “bikini club” located on north U.S.-1 in unincorporated Volusia County?

In this case, a small business owner felt the full might and power of government, the use of selective legislation, and the unchecked aggression of the city attorney’s office when the powers that be decided they wanted to enforce their narrow view of what’s good for the rest of us.

Always done in the interest of “public safety” or to “improve the community.”

The crime?

Cheaters offended the delicate sensibilities of Fred Costello, Ed Kelley, and their followers (read ‘large voting bloc’) in the “Faith Community.”

In a November 2015 piece in the Ormond Beach Observer, Costello explained the genesis of the City’s very expensive and extremely time-consuming feud with a little bar, literally on the outskirts of town:

Costello said the efforts to improve the U.S.-1 corridor began in earnest when the now defunct Cheater’s nightclub opened in 2010. 

 “I contacted members of the faith community and said we need to stop this,” he said.  Area churches protested the presence of the “gentlemen’s club.”

 Eventually, the City Commission passed ordinances which ended the performances at the club and it shut down.  It was also the existence of Cheaters that spurred the Coalition to action.
Business, government and the faith community all partnered together,” Costello said.

That’s right, our own New Puritans Fred Costello and Ed Kelley used the full force, might and treasure of the municipal government to crush a low-rent saloon that didn’t comport with their “vision” for the near desolate north U.S.-1 commercial corridor.

And guess who paid the bill?  Costello?  Kelley?  The “Faith Community”?

Hardly.

You and I did.

I’m told another dollar store is being built where the offending bikini club once stood.

Great.  2.5 jobs and whole bunch of discount plastic shit we don’t need.

The upside is that despite the fact we spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars shutting down a small business – Fred Costello, Ed Kelley, and their friends in the “Faith Community” are no longer offended.  Homeless people and improved public amenities be damned – they spent the money protecting you from a bikini bar. . .

How wonderful.

Now we see the same tactics being used by the City of Daytona Beach to shut down “Minglers,” (I love that name) apparently a local gathering spot for wife-swappers, harmless sex maniacs and cheap masturbators on South Ridgewood Avenue, downtown.

I don’t know how you feel about these things, but I come from the school of ‘to each their own.’

If a few of my neighbors want to get together behind closed doors and “mingle,” how does that negatively affect me?

Hell, how does that affect me at all?

These things have been around for thousands of years.  In 18^th century England the king and half his ministers were members of secret sex clubs, traveling orgies and violent whipping parlors that embraced every debauchery known to man.  Before that, the sexual haunts of Gaius Caligula and the Marquis de Sade were legendary.  It’s nothing new.

Look, I’m not a card carrying associate of Minglers – nobody invited me – and besides, I have a rule never to join any sex club that would have a degenerate like me as a member.

But I suspect that this went down as these things often do:  Invariably, some pious somebody catches wind that consenting adults are doing what consenting adults do – albeit with whips, chains and photos from the dark side – and they get their virtuous knickers in a twist.

Then they complain, bitch and brood until they find someone in a position to do something about it who agrees with them.

Rather than a friendly reminder that hosting “Arabian Nights – A Harem’s Orgy” two blocks from the front door of City Hall is probably not the smartest move – or the best use of South Ridgewood office space – the city’s fangs come out.

Instead of sitting down with all involved and saying, “Just maybe we can find a space where you weird little sodomites can “mingle” to your hearts content” (after all, it’s not like Daytona Beach has a dearth of vacant buildings – or sodomites) the city decides to go to war.

Surely there is someplace these swinging taxpayers can “meet” that’s not going to violate some obscure zoning regulation?

I guess not.

That would be too easy – and besides – how would lawyers make a living if local government suddenly started using common sense collaborative approaches to problem solving?

According to the News-Journal, in August the City of Daytona Beach filed for an injunction to close the club, alleging it is operating in violation of city zoning without a tax receipt (formerly known as an occupational license) and without city water service – even though the club tried to comply with both municipal requirements.

They don’t have water because the city shut it off – after they paid the bill.

The city also denied the club a tax receipt because it said the area’s zoning does not permit “adult theater” or bottle clubs.  That’s a stretch.

Of course, the attorney representing Mingler’s, Brett Hartley (who just happens to be co-owner of a Daytona Beach strip club) claims, “It’s no different than a book club or birding club.  They get together and take part in their lifestyle.”

According to Hartley, “It’s not a sex club.  It’s a lifestyle club where people use the facility to meet others and then they may leave and do their own thing.”

Hey now.

I wrote most of this missive before the News-Journal’s spot-on editorial on the subject was published.  I’m glad they are urging the city to use a soft hand.

Unfortunately, I think it will fall on deaf ears.

Trust me – when all is said and done – a ton of taxpayer dollars and senior staff time will have been pissed away to use government’s iron boot heel to crush the ability of a fringe group of otherwise law abiding citizens to harmlessly practice their goofy “lifestyle” in a vacant former church on South Ridgewood.

At the same time, the property owner will be required to defend himself through countless court hearings just to avoid the very real threat of punishing judgments and draconian code enforcement measures that have driven more than one small business owner to financial ruin.

Sorry, swingers.  You’re screwed. (Figuratively.  Don’t get excited.)

It’s been the same forever.  Put up a fence – or cover your windows – and it won’t be long before some do-gooder wants to know what’s “going on over there.”  And if it takes the full force of government to get at it, well, so be it.

If only we could get the same all-hands-on-deck response from our elected and appointed officials on important issues like homelessness, blight, crime, our crumbling neighborhoods – or the quality and quantity of our drinking water supply.  You know, things that actually have a direct impact on our lives and livelihoods.

Wouldn’t that be unique?

How great would it be if these highly paid elected and appointed officials actually met the very real needs of their constituents with the same verve and spirit with which they attack silly, nonsensical issues that generally go away on their own without much notice?

I hate to say it, but don’t you people at City Hall have better things to do?

 

Photo Credit: Daytona Beach News-Journal

 

 

 

 

 

 

As naturally happens on a foul day like today, friends and family are asking, “How about those primary results?”

How about them.

While some of the races came out to my liking – for instance, I think Arthur Byrnes is a great servant-leader who puts his whole heart into serving the citizens of Holly Hill – and Bill Hall is going to be a great mayor in South Daytona – I was blindsided by the outcome of the County Chair contest.

As typically happens in Volusia County, we are now left with the awful choice between the two special interest puppets, Jason Davis and Ed Kelley.

I’ve always lived by Mae West’s maxim, “When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I’ve never tried before.”  The problem is, we’ve seen both of these political hacks in action before.

When all is said and done, I will vote for Jason Davis – for the simple fact that he had the guts to call out Volusia Republican Executive Committee Chairman and first class weasel, Tony Ledbetter, for his arrogance and open dishonesty in attempting to manipulate the process in favor of Ed Kelley.

I will then walk pensively into the restroom and throw-up.

The more things change, the more they stay the same in Volusia County.  We are like a weird sadomasochistic tribe who derive our collective gratification from repetitive degradation and public humiliation.

I equate the recycling of politicians in Volusia County to the same phenomena that has given rise to something called “Bro Country” (which some actually classify as “music”) and the prevalence of “safe spaces” and “free speech zones” on college campuses.  And I recently read a poll that said a certain segment of the population believe that the moon is actually made of green cheese.

I recognize it, but I’ll be damned if I understand it.

Maybe we truly have grown too dumb to think for ourselves.  Is it possible that our society has become too disinterested and self-absorbed?  Do we no longer have the inclination to educate ourselves on the issues, or the records of the candidates who will govern our lives and livelihoods?

Perhaps that’s why we are constantly victimized by unchecked political corruption and hopeless greed here in the Sunshine State.

It’s déjà vu all over again. . .

This spring I became engrossed in the Daytona Beach News-Journal’s outstanding effort to unmask a fishy land deal in a small backwater of West Volusia.

As I read reporter Dinah Voyles-Pulver’s Pulitzer-worthy exposé on the City of DeBary’s attempt to incorporate 102-acres of sensitive conservation lands into a proposed transit oriented development near the SunRail station, I realized that there was more to this story than just run-of-the-mill small town incompetence.

It is apparent that Ms. Pulver has actually kicked over a filthy chamber pot of massive corruption that goes all the way to the very top of a powerful state regulatory agency – the very organization we trust to protect our most precious and important natural resources.

What I euphemistically call the ‘Debacle in DeBary’ is like a weird Spanish telenovela where the main characters are brought to personal and professional ruin by moral weakness, and their inability to control their own emotions or the devious maneuverings of those they trusted most.

It is an on-going disaster drama of epic proportions, and each week an unfortunate new development peels another layer off this rotten onion.

You couldn’t find these characters if you searched the bowels of Hollywood’s central casting.

Take for instance the strange and savage tale of the ill-fated and arguably insane Mayor Clint Johnson, who was summarily executed by his fellow elected officials; or the painfully hopeless vice-mayor – Lita Handy-Peters – whose convenient memory, political clumsiness and unfortunate stupidity are rapidly conspiring to make her the very face of this catastrophe.

Or Mike Brady, Chris Carson and Rick Dwyer – the ineffectual councilmen who sit on the dais in a catatonic state, immobilized by fear and a lack of any real situational awareness – desperately looking for leadership and guidance like a drowning man grasping for a life ring that is just out of reach.

Add to this mix the likes of A. Kurt Ardaman, Esquire – DeBary’s caricature of a city attorney and registered developer’s lobbyist – who acts like a lawyer that speaks English as a second language.  He instinctively thinks in terms of how his legal advice will best benefit him and his co-conspirators – then translates that into convincing terms the hapless dupes who pay for his counsel will want to hear.

And don’t forget the sub-plot of Mr. Ardaman’s secret business relationship with John Miklos – the slimy quid pro quo grifter who neatly ramrods the special interests of his private clients past the very state regulatory agency that he oversees.

Neither history – nor the criminal justice system – will be kind to John Miklos.

The bit players and rogues in this theater of the absurd include the developer’s shill masquerading in a manufactured public position called a “Transit Oriented Development Marketing Director,” Roger Van Auker.

Only in government would you find such a title.

He was hand-selected by disgraced former city manager Dan Parrott, a contemptuous little shit who did more to damage the future and reputation of DeBary than anyone.  When he allowed Van Auker’s head in the tent, Parrott and others in a position to do something about it knew, or should have known, that Roger was a demonstrably unethical shill for mega-developer Jerome Henin and others.

That’s right – the same Jerome Henin that in one of the most perverse scenes in this bizarre soap opera openly strip-cleared some 30-acres of old growth forest without permission or permit.  Just bulldozed 100-year old trees and churned the ground into a primordial ooze right under the noses of DeBary officials who were either completely clueless – or intentionally looked the other way.

In my view, at the end of the day, Van Auker will ultimately be exposed as the chief architect of this political disaster – and he will find that people who matter will quit taking his phone calls in the very near future.

Hey, Roger – the power-haunts of old money Winter Park can be pretty lonely places once you’re outside the circle of trust.  The big boys and pretty girls on Park Avenue have no use for the weak or the dumb – and you’re becoming the poster boy for everything they hate.

If it’s any consolation – you were never a player.  Just a tool.

Last week, I filed a formal public records request with the City of DeBary seeking a copy of a non-disclosure agreement between Roger Van Auker and an “unnamed developer” whose existence has been discussed at several public meetings.

Given the fact that the TOD as originally envisioned has been effectively halted with the transfer of the Gemini Springs Annex to the County of Volusia, I was certain that the confidentiality agreement would be considered null and void at this point.

Nope.

I received a missive from DeBary’s Public Records Manager, Eric Frankton, who assured me that – while there was no “secret developer” for the 102-acres (his words, not mine) – the city attorney has determined that the agreement remains exempt and I am not entitled to it under Florida’s Public Records law

Now, I don’t want to argue with Eric – he’s a very sensitive guy – but isn’t the fact that the identity of the land developer is being held confidential the textbook definition of a “secret developer”?

And what compelling public interest is possibly served by keeping a now unnecessary document exempt and out of the public eye?

According to Mr. Ardaman, we, the people, are simply supposed to take his word for it.

And why shouldn’t we?

Because this is the same Kurt Ardaman that came under fire for his participation in an October 2014 ‘secret meeting’ with Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs in his role as a registered lobbyist for “developers and auto auctions.”

The same person who represented the City of DeBary during the time city hall was raided by FDLE and the Office of the State Attorney following credible allegations that Dan Parrott and other officials may have violated public records law.

The same Kurt Ardaman who is engaged in a highly suspect business relationship with John Miklos in a mysterious corporation known only as “Medjool Investments” – something he willfully and conveniently failed to disclose to his clients at the City of DeBary.

The same Kurt Ardaman who is known in Orange County political circles as a “quarterback” for his ability to approach big money campaign donors – I believe while also serving as Governor Rick Scott’s personal appointment as a trustee of the West Orange Healthcare District.

(I find it interesting that two gubernatorial appointees to separate governing boards – Ardaman and Miklos – find themselves in business together?  How ‘bout you?)

Besides, how many public offices can one man hold in this state?

The fact is, Kurt Ardaman is so personally invested in high-level politics and speculative land development in Central Florida that he has no business being within a country mile of a city attorney’s seat – yet, there he is.

Yep.  Nothing to see here, folks.  Keep moving.

Now, I’m just spit-balling here, but unless we, the people, are permitted to examine documents that prove otherwise – how do we know with certainty that DeBary’s “unnamed developer” isn’t a current or former client of Mr. Ardaman?

An “investor” in Medjool Investments?

Or a commercial developer that he serves as a highly paid registered lobbyist?

How do we know it’s not a business entity that once employed Roger Van Auker?

Hell, how do we know that Ardaman isn’t in business with this “unnamed developer”?

(Do you think he would tell us if he was?)

The fact is, we don’t know.  And if the powers that be have anything to say about it – we won’t.

In Crazy Town you are expected to take the foxes word for the security of the hen house.

He sets the rules and you don’t.

In my view, Kurt Ardaman and his unscrupulous co-conspirators at the City of DeBary are doing exactly what it appears they are doing:  They are hiding evidence of their misdeeds from the public’s prying eyes through dubious exemptions and political slight-of-hand.

Vorpius de liporius octo.

I hope these shitheels understand that federal and state investigators won’t be as easy to dismiss.

I suspect Ardaman’s partners at Fishback Dominick are secretly studying their options.  After all, just how much bad publicity does a very old and very prestigious law firm need, eh?

Someone should probably tell the DeBary City Council that when the ship is sinking – and it is most definitely in peril – the prudent thing to do is instruct your goofy staff to be as open, transparent and responsive as possible.

Throw the doors and windows open, roll up your sleeves, let some air and sunlight in, and let everyone see for themselves that you have absolutely nothing to hide.

I assure you that your constituents will consider anything less as prima facie evidence of a cheap political cover-up – despite what Kurt Ardaman might lead you to believe.

But, like I said, this group isn’t that smart.

At the end of the day, these miserable wretches deserve the political fate that awaits them, and they should all be put in an iron cage, if for no other reason than to keep their special brand of squalid dumbness out of local politics.

If you still don’t think it’s important who we elect to public office, wait until the depth of the corruption is exposed and the curtain comes down on this farce in DeBary.

Then think again.

 

Politics is not just about elections.

It can seem that way, especially now, during the final few hours before the primary when local candidates – many of whom are under real pressure for the first time in their lives – go bat-shit crazy with fear, failing self-confidence and false hubris.

Like Dr. Thompson said so eloquently, “That is the nature of professional politics.  Many are called, but few survive the nut-cutting hour…”

Next Tuesday the die will be cast and the field whittled down to the true players; the Big Dogs who are moving on to the general.  The also-rans – the fringe candidates and political dilettantes – will soon be forgotten.  Their friends and family will openly laugh and humiliate them, and their excuses will fall on deaf ears.  No one will care.

Alliances will shift overnight and things will take a decidedly serious turn as campaigns gear up for the big dance in November.

Last Sunday I took a leisurely drive down to the local library to “early vote.”

The most direct route from our home takes me along the west bank of the beautiful Halifax river; and as I drove along enjoying the view on a late summer morning, I smoked an American Spirit Black and contemplated the fact that what I was about to accomplish is the culmination of what passes for our political process in 2016.

As I turned the corner to the Ormond Beach regional library, I saw that the parking area was virtually awash in campaign signs, each blending into the other to form a kaleidoscope of bright colors and shapes that encircled the entire lot like an impenetrable blockade.

So many signs in such tight confines that the individual messages became meaningless.

I slowed and navigated the phalanx of cheap nylon tents and lawn chairs occupied by perspiring candidates and their supporters, each wearing campaign t-shirts like battledress, sucking on water bottles, and staking out territory at what must be the ragged edge of the solicitation restrictions.

I assume they were acting out of some desperate belief that their very proximity to the door could sway a vote or two.

While it wasn’t utter chaos – given the strong emotions of the election cycle, it had all the elements for things to turn sour quickly.

I thought how ironic it was that for the past six-months the various candidates have groveled at our feet, spent tens of thousands of dollars, and all but publicly defiled themselves for our vote – only to impede that very process at the actual point of sale.

Honestly, I’ve seen polling place wars before – but last weekend many early voting locations around Volusia County looked like an actual skirmish encampment.

I have to admit; it was somewhat overwhelming – even claustrophobic.

Most of you don’t know this, but I have lived with social anxiety and obsessive/compulsive disorder since I was very young.

No kidding.  It can be debilitating, too.

For me, it takes several forms – mental and physical rituals dictate how I turn off lights and appliances, how food is prepared and served (buffet? Not happening), the copious use of hand sanitizer – even certain colors can be problematic (for instance, any shade of orange is a no-no in our house).

Weird?  You bet.

But to my knowledge there is no single accepted theory on why it occurs – and even less consensus on the efficacy of the limited treatment options available.

Many highly successful people have suffered with OCD, to include, Beethoven, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Howard Hughes – and celebrities, such as Howie Mandel, Harrison Ford, Justin Timberlake and Leonardo DiCaprio.

It’s quite a distinguished list, actually.  So, I feel like I’m in good company.

In most situations, I function with reasonable normalcy (I know some may debate that) and I have held positions of high responsibility most of my adult life.  In fact, I think the disorder actually made me a better police officer, given the close attention to detail, intense focus and perseverance required of a good investigator.

This condition can manifest itself in odd ways.  For instance, I can speak comfortably, even intelligently, in front of very large groups of people – yet a small dinner party or brief social interaction can result in near paralysis.

Because of my social phobia, don’t expect me to answer the phone on certain days, join a committee, run for political office – or even respond to a knock at the door.  And now that I’m retired – although I can’t do everything I want to do – I never have to do anything I don’t want to do.

Just know it’s not you.  It’s me.

I don’t take medication or participate in cognitive therapies, but when things get debilitating I have time-tested coping mechanisms that allow me to deal with acute OC flare ups with relative ease.

For example, I have a real aversion to crowds and the thought of standing in queue at my assigned polling place on election day would be extremely uncomfortable.

So, I simply avoid that situation.

In fact, I probably wouldn’t vote if the space were too crowded and I have considered casting my ballot by mail in the future to avoid these issues.

Perhaps these sensitivities are why I took such close notice of the situation in the parking lot last weekend, but I suspect I’m not alone.

I understand from social media posts and media accounts that things were worse at other locations.  Reports of petty bickering and nasty taunts between campaign operatives – and in some cases, voters – resulting in angry confrontations, etc.

Just what folks want to see on their way to the polls, eh?

It really engenders confidence in a candidate when you see his or her operatives squabbling, squawking and strutting around the parking lot like an unhinged Kelso rooster.

Speaking of unbalanced electioneers, I was particularly impressed when I read accounts of the abhorrent conduct of the Republican’s own Chairman-for-Life Tony Ledbetter.

According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, when voters began arriving at the City Island polling location last weekend they found tents, chairs and campaign signs completely blocking parking spaces which, as common sense would dictate, had been reserved for the voting public and patrons of the library.

This annoying impediment to the electoral process was met with calls to the City of Daytona Beach’s code enforcement division who responded to investigate.  After looking things over, the code officer explained the applicable ordinance – and requested voluntarily compliance from representatives of the various campaigns – rather than write citations.

We’re told everyone complied with the rules – except Chairman Ledbetter.

After all, past practice tells us that Tony feels the rules only apply to the little people.

Although Ledbetter refused to comment to the News-Journal on his latest obstructionist grandstanding; when he was caught doing the same damn thing in 2014, he denigrated officers as “nut jobs” and rationalized his conduct as, “It’s free speech.  Get used to it.”

I happen to know that this isn’t the first time Tony has attempted to intimidate code enforcement officers with his “Do you know who I am?” condescending horseshit.

And he knows exactly what I’m talking about.

What an asshole.  What a complete asshole.

In my view, it is simply inconceivable that a giddy little creep like like Tony Ledbetter is habitually permitted to openly embarrass and defame the reputation of tens of thousands of area Republicans as he rules their local executive committee like a feudal lord.

No rules, no integrity – and no restrictions on his perception of power, ethics or honor.

Look, I understand that I have serious issues.  But I can assure you that my ability to recognize and reject bullshit is just as sharp and nimble as it ever was.

Take my word for it.  It’s time for Tony Ledbetter to resign.

Now, get out there and run the gauntlet on Saturday – cast your vote and make a difference.  It’s important.

Have a great weekend, kids.

 

During my long career in municipal government I once worked for a city manager who told me I was “incendiary” based upon the tone of certain professional correspondence.  The manager suggested that I “sleep on it” before sending emails that others might interpret as angry or confrontational.

I responded that I was passionate about my service, and if others were somehow put off by that, then perhaps they should stop whining to the manager about the content of my in-house missives and focus on the important work at hand.

(This same manager later called me a Son-of-a-Bitch to my face when I refused to go along with a goofy scheme to cover-up wrongdoing.  Ultimately, the individual was cashiered out and has failed to prosper since.  Something I remain rather proud of.)

“Incendiary” and “charismatic” are how they describe people in government who make bureaucrats nervous by asking the right questions or having sharp elbows – you know, not playing well with others.

During my service, I worked with some incredibly brilliant and passionate minds – both elected and appointed.  I have also worked with, and for, some of the most preternatural scumbags, losers and base scoundrels that ever darkened a public office.

By and large, government prefers conformists.

Common bootlickers who are comfortable following in lockstep with like-minded people and banal hall walkers with malleable situational ethics generally fit the mold.

For most of my career, my sound advice for upward mobility and organizational tranquility in public service was, “Let no ass go un-kissed.”  The motto certainly served me well, and became a daily reminder for everything from proper telephone etiquette to personal interactions with citizens.

Last evening what I affectionately refer to as the “Debacle in DeBary” reached its nadir with the summary execution of Mayor Clint Johnson by his fellow elected officials on dubious charges that he violated certain provisions the city’s charter.

If there is one bright spot (there isn’t, but let’s pretend there is), the convoluted and incredibly expensive process used by the bureaucracy to protect itself from the Mayor’s tough questions and red hot criticism exposed some very disturbing facets of what passes for governance in the City of DeBary.

After several fits, starts, and postponements, last night DeBary city officials convened their long-awaited “forfeiture hearing,” a weird kangaroo court designed in whole and in part to ignore the will of the voters and publicly extract Mayor Johnson from his seat on the council like a rotten molar.

The genesis of this cheap coup d’etat began months before when the now disgraced former city manager, Dan Parrott – I suspect in a panicky attempt to conceal his crimes and those of his hand-picked toadies – grasped at straws and came up with the ill-fated idea of twisting a few of the Mayor’s more opinionated tweets and Facebook posts – along with a text message or two – into self-described “charter violations.”

High crimes that were hyped beyond any cruelty ever perpetrated by the Marquis de Sade.

To do this, he enlisted the city’s public records manager, Eric Frankton (the kind of guy you can just look at and tell that he’s a mess of a human being – pitiful, really), and the congenitally corrupt developer’s shill parading as an “economic development director,” Roger Van Auker.

It was Frankton and Van Auker’s job to squirt tears and paint themselves as pseudo-victims, then whine like hyper-sensitive little girls about how the Mayor “directed” Eric to move a box – or threatened the pair’s make-work city jobs by actually pointing out their habitual missteps and open treachery.

They played their supporting roles well last night.  Hell, I choked-up a little listening to how they were brutalized by a “tweet.”  I wanted to put my arm around them and walk them to their car.  Sad.

I just hope they know that when the dust settles, Frankton will be considered a pariah – and following his indictment, Van Auker will be lucky to find work selling toxic swampland on the outskirts of Clewiston.

I suspect Parrott also had some help from the unfortunate city attorney, Kurt Ardaman, who has made so many expensive and blatantly stupid mistakes in his representation of the City of DeBary that he should be sued for quackery and stripped of his “law degree” that he obviously pulled out of the bottom of some sticky Cracker Jack box.

Let’s face it, Ardaman is a hapless half-bright who has cobbled out a career telling local elected rubes exactly what they want to hear.  I also suspect many well-connected attorneys in the local legal community recognize that his career is rapidly becoming a cautionary tale.

Because it is.

If there is any justice, when all is said and done, Kurt Ardaman will end up defending street perverts out of the trunk of his car in the parking lot of the Orange County Courthouse.

The “forfeiture hearing” had just the right amount of drama and humor to make it interesting.  Even Interim City Manager Ron McLemore got into the act when he was sworn and questioned by Johnson’s attorney Doug Daniels.

Under direct examination, McLemore went on one of those “I like to hear myself talk” pattering rants touting his 40 years in city management, and his belief that the city charter gave him super powers to ignore Florida law and close the hearing to the public over weird and never quite explained “security concerns.”

Ol’ Ron might have squeaked out a long career in city government – but in DeBary, he exposed himself as a five-alarm fuck-up when it comes to basic decision-making.

If I were Mr. McLemore, I’d hang-up this post-retirement dabbling and take up the rocking chair.

The giddy bastard has lost his chops and apparently nobody who cares about him has the common human decency to let him know.

Perhaps he’s still rattled by those sexual harassment allegations in Daytona.  Who knows?

And who cares.

He’s become a godforsaken embarrassment to the profession – and by meddling in bullshit small town politics, rather than staying above the fray and providing much needed leadership – he no longer has the moral authority to serve the citizens of DeBary.  And in his heart-of-hearts, he knows it.

Otherwise, the hearing was exactly what I expected it would be.

A formality.

An annoying prerequisite to bouncing Mayor Johnson out on his ass.

Look, I’m not going to dissect this turd – most of you reading this either attended the meeting or watched it on the WKMG live feed.

And I’m not here to defend Clint Johnson, either.

He remains his own worst enemy and I continue to question his mental stability and basic understanding of the limits of decorum – or the benefits of strong leadership and consensus building over self-indulgent grandstanding.

In my view, “tweeting” during your own removal hearing is just poor form.

But I feel it is important to point out that what happened last night – this horrifically expensive sham that was perpetrated against the citizens of DeBary – was an affront to everything our representative democracy stands for and all that it was founded upon.

At the end of the day, Clint Johnson – love him or hate him – is a duly elected representative of the people of the City of DeBary, and in my view, the will of the people is omnipotent.

Florida law has specific provisions for the formal removal of an elected municipal official.

The statute sets out an intentionally onerous and precise process that requires the collection of verifiable signatures on a specifically crafted petition, which both names the official and explains the reasons supporting a recall election.

It also provides for due process and judicial review; and the setting of a special election by the chief judge of the judicial circuit in which the recall petition is filed.

By state statute, an elected official may be removed from office for one of the following narrowly defined reasons:

Malfeasance

Misfeasance

Neglect of Duty

Drunkenness

Incompetence

Permanent inability to perform official duties

Conviction of a felony involving moral turpitude

The statute says nothing about railroading an elected official out-of-office because he hurt the feelings of a couple of mid-level, do-nothing bureaucrats – or pointed out the painful incompetence of his council.

Nowhere is it written – other than the flimsy provisions of the DeBary City Charter –  that a group of four thin-skinned council members can simply hold a “quasi-judicial” hearing on trumped-up “charges” and summarily ax a sitting Mayor simply because their sensitive egos were bruised or they were embarrassed by the exposure of a shady land deal.

This shit happens in communist Cuba – not DeBary.

And not in the United States of America.

Mark my words – this isn’t over.  Not by a long-shot.

What comes next is going to change the fundamental political landscape of the City of DeBary forever.  Eventually, once the lawsuits are settled and the criminal indictments are prosecuted – the taxpayer is going to be left with massive bills, legal fees, judgments and a shit reputation as an unstable backwater that will cripple any real progress in the community for years.

It’s unfortunate, but necessary, given what has been allowed to happen here.

I believe that our sacred war dead stand as silent sentinels to the highest ideals of our democracy, our freedom from oppression, and our fundamental rights afforded by the United States Constitution that they swore to preserve, protect and defend.

What must they be thinking?

Over-dramatic?  Hardly.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. so eloquently said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

What happened here is a travesty, and it will be talked about and analyzed far beyond the limits this tiny town for years to come.  In the end, it will serve as a shrine to what happens when vengeful, small-minded politicians are left to their own dreadful devices.

More later.

 

I have a suspicion that most people are only interested in government during an election year – or when the wheel comes off the cart.   Once the whole “thrill of victory, agony of defeat” of the election cycle wanes, government is about as interesting to most people as watching paint dry.

I also suspect that those who govern us – the politicians we elect every two or four years – know this, and use it to their full advantage.

Let’s face it, attending a local government meeting is like getting a root canal – most people only find themselves in the seat when it’s absolutely necessary to their immediate health and welfare.

In my experience, the gallery of a typical municipal meeting is populated by a handful of political gadflies, disinterested staff members, and one or two bored real estate attorneys catching up on paperwork while waiting to speak on behalf of a client.

Most agendas are pretty benign stuff to sit through after the uproar of the election season –  clamor that always seems to settle into more of the same despite the fiery campaign rhetoric promising “change.”

Things generally move too slow to generate much real interest.

I think Max Weber said it best in his 1919 lecture, Politik als Beruf, when he described politics as the “slow boring of hard boards.”

When done well, the process of municipal governance is symbiotic – functioning as a deliberative and collaborative arrangement that results in both organizational stability and quality services at affordable prices.  But like most interdependent systems, when things are mismanaged – or the written or unwritten rules are ignored – the entire structure of government comes apart like a bad flywheel.

That’s when things get interesting.

If there is a strong city manager in place, the ship can often be righted and the wild oscillations of discord stopped through effective leadership, the constructive input of concerned citizens, or even force of personality.

But in the absence of a steady hand, it can quickly become a rudderless vessel looking for a place to sink.

It also helps to have lucid, smart and functional adults occupying key roles – elected officials who have the instinctive ability to collectively put the needs of the community ahead of their own self-interests.

Unfortunately, the City of DeBary has neither.

As often happens in weakly led organizations, cliques and factions can also form in government.

When one member of the elected body sets themselves apart and openly criticizes their colleagues, or critiques the system, the others naturally feel threatened and unjustly ridiculed.  That’s human nature, and you don’t need a PhD in organizational management to understand the systemic problems it can create.

At issue for the citizens of DeBary is that their mayor, Clint Johnson – a self-described contrarian who bucks the system like a Brahma bull on acid – went completely off the reservation and began brazenly mocking and deriding his fellow council members, political detractors and city administrators – texting, tweeting and posting on social media like a deranged teenaged girl.

In the process, he pissed off a lot of people – for good and for ill.

Perhaps Mayor Johnson accomplished what he set out to do.

Sometimes shaking up the process from the inside out and stimulating good old fashioned upheaval in tired and ineffective systems can be a good thing.  Especially in situations where utter corruption and gross mismanagement are running rampant – and that was certainly the case in DeBary City Hall.

But when the ceremonial head of the municipality wages personal attacks on his colleagues and staffers – then stands behind the free speech provisions of the First Amendment – he must expect an equal and opposite reaction from his contemporaries on the dais, in the halls of power, and from the community at large.

Besides, the Mayor’s conduct was self-indulgent and beneath the dignity of his high office.  He has some weird situational ethics – but no one can argue that he’s doing the job as he sees it.  Right or wrong.

Clint Johnson should be ashamed of his strange conduct – and, truth be told – I think he is.

Unfortunately, the patently corrupt and insufferably incompetent former city manager, Dan Parrott, fell victim to the herd mentality that the remainder of the council used as a weird coping mechanism to protect themselves – and their egos – from the Gemini Springs media onslaught and Mayor Johnson’s incessant clowning.

In what I’m sure he thought was his last, best opportunity, Parrott trotted out the DeBary City Charter and began cobbling together a laundry list of “violations” – cut from whole cloth – which he would ultimately use to neuter Mayor Johnson and appease the bloodlust of those on the council that had been likewise humiliated.

These ridiculous “charges” are the most convoluted mishmash of overblown and nonsensical bullshit that I – or anyone in my sphere – have ever seen.  And when it comes to small town politics, I’ve seen some supernaturally strange things.  Trust me.

To make matters worse, the klutzy city attorney, Kurt Ardaman, put on his lawyerin’ cap (the one with the propeller on top) and rubber stamped Parrott’s silly allegations – and a few more they concocted before the hearing – like the good little sycophantically inept brownnoser he is.

But before Parrott could take his revenge, he was exposed as a congenitally greedy shit-toad and run out of town with a poke chockfull of taxpayer money under his arm.

Of course, Parrott’s departure didn’t discourage the council members from wielding his goofy indictment like a club.  For months they have used it to keep Clint Johnson treed until they can stage a kangaroo court – one where they serve as judge, jury and executioner – to publicly shame then jettison his ass.

All this despite the fact Mayor Johnson was duly elected by majority vote of the citizens of DeBary – just like they were.

And that’s what separates a representative democracy from a Wednesday night popularity contest at a sorority house.

Men and women have fought and died to protect and preserve our inalienable right to cast our sacred vote in the most effective democratic process in the history of the world.  In fact, our military is forward deployed in harm’s way right now doing just that.

And no one – not Dan Parrott, Kurt Ardaman, Ron McLemore or the feckless DeBary City Council – have the right to reverse the will of the people on dubious accusations incubated in the heat of political animus and grown from paranoid bickering.

Ignoring the will of the electorate is not being true to the vocation of politics.  That’s a lynch mob.

Another thing ol’ Max Weber said way back in 1919 that I believe still holds a kernel of wisdom for today’s elected officials:

“(Politics) requires passion as well as perspective. Certainly all historical experience confirms – that man would not have achieved the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible. But to do that, a man must be a leader, and more than a leader, he must be a hero as well, in a very sober sense of the word. And even those who are neither leaders nor heroes must arm themselves with that resolve of heart which can brave even the failing of all hopes. This is necessary right now, otherwise we shall fail to attain that which it is possible to achieve today. Only he who is certain not to destroy himself in the process should hear the call of politics; he must endure even though he finds the world too stupid or too petty for that which he would offer. In the face of that he must have the resolve to say ‘and yet,’—for only then does he hear the ‘call’ of politics.”

 And yet:

There is still time for the DeBary City Council to act like statesmen, restore trust, and achieve great things for the constituents they serve.

Time to act in the truest and highest spirit of the public service and put stupid and petty personal conflicts and political quarrels aside – begin living up to their oath of office – and stop this harmful, vengeful and counter-productive removal effort before any more damage is done.

Time to do the right thing, for the right reason – even though the alternative would bring the fleeting pleasure of vanquishing a political foe.   

 For once – act with integrity.  Act with honor.  Restore civic pride and confidence in your long-suffering community.

If you can’t do that – if you feel compelled to pursue this farcical charade – at least have the common decency to conduct this bogus hearing in compliance with Florida’s open meetings law.

Allow the citizens – the voters – their right to stare straight into the faces of these elected and appointed public officials as they perpetrate this sham against the time-honored principles of democracy, good governance and the electorate of the City of DeBary.

UPDATE:  The Daytona Beach News-Journal and other media outlets are reporting that Interim City Manager Ron McLemore has reversed course and agreed that his original memorandum limiting access to Wednesday night’s “forfeiture hearing” was wrong-headed and contrary to Florida law.

I suspect that a telephone call from the Attorney General’s Office explaining the ramifications of closing the meeting on dubious “security concerns” was a bad idea.

Now, I wonder if the AG asked Kurt Ardaman – you know, DeBary’s city attorney who keeps approving these harebrained ideas – to bring his law degree to Tallahassee so they can look at it under a light?

Just curious.