One of the great passions of my life is aviation.

While other kids were interested in baseball cards and comic book heroes – I grew up, looking up – scanning the skies for airplanes and dreaming of the thrill and freedom of flight.

I remember as a young boy, sitting at the dining room table in my parent’s home, with a cut-down broom for a control stick and an open Encyclopedia Britannica – reading about aerodynamics and chair flying to exotic places in my imaginary Grumman Albatross.

One of the first books I ever read was Wind, Sand and Stars by the incomparable “winged poet,” Antoine de Saint-Exupery.  It kindled in me a love of flight and the sense of adventure that only rising from the earth, defying gravity, and returning when and where you want can bring.

It is written that flying changes your vantage point, literally and metaphorically.  As Amelia Earhart said, “You haven’t seen a tree until you’ve seen its shadow from the sky.”

It is also incredibly unforgiving of errors in judgement.

While training for my commercial pilot’s license, and later the certificated flight instructor rating, I learned many interesting things that have carried over into my personal life, like the process of analytical thinking – the discipline to use a systematic mental process to determine the best course of action in response to a given set of circumstances.

It is what pilots call “aeronautical decision-making.”

While many systems exist, the one I learned in flight school is the DECIDE model – Detect, Estimate, Choose, Identify, Do and Evaluate.

Detection of a problem begins with recognizing that a change has occurred, first perceived by the senses – perhaps no more than a “feeling” that something isn’t right – then using experience, training, skill and insight to identify the nature and severity of the issue.

When a problem has been properly identified, the pilot must evaluate the need to react to it and determine what, if any, actions are required to resolve the situation in the time available – then assess the risks and choose the best course of action by identifying solutions that will lead to a successful outcome.

Then, do something – perform the most suitable action – and evaluate the decision to see if it was correct.

Sometimes the pilot has the time, altitude and airspeed to think analytically and work through a problem – and sometimes this decision-making process must come almost instinctively to affect a desirable outcome.

Proper decision-making is important because it defines our options for the next choice we make – good decisions give us greater options later, while bad choices limit alternatives – and, with practice, analytical thinking becomes second nature.

For months I have brooded about how Volusia County government arrived at this dismal place in our history – a time marked by a complete dearth of ethical leadership and fiscal stewardship by our elected and appointed officials.

We are trapped in a repugnant system that exists solely to transmit tax dollars to the private profit motives of uber-wealthy political insiders through a well-orchestrated scheme cloaked as “economic development incentives” – a shadowy process that serves only those who can “pay to play” in the form of hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions to hand-select candidates for local public offices.

Perhaps it’s my intellectual limitations – I’m not the brightest bulb in the box, really – but I’ll be damned if I can come up with a logical explanation for how this happens.

However, I’m pretty sure I have a handle on why it happens.

Almost daily, we open the newspaper and read yet another horrible story of mismanagement, negligence and ineptitude in county government that continues to baffle anyone who understands the relationship between responsibility and accountability – the onus that comes when one accepts huge sums of public funds in salary and benefits – and is given extraordinary latitude and power to manage the affairs of government in the public interest.

Look, I understand mistakes – the human factor.

I’ve made a million of them.

Given my experience, I also understand that most people can forgive honest errors – but what they will never excuse is an abject refusal to learn from mistakes.

This is different.

From the unfolding debacle at the medical examiner’s office, unchecked sexual harassment and hostile workplace issues in the Beach Safety Department, unaddressed growth management and infrastructure needs, to the expanding life-or-death crisis in our county’s emergency medical transport system – we see real problems that are invariably dismissed by our elected officials as the ravings of naysayers, misguided stoolpigeons or some mean-spirited social media critic with an axe to grind.

On Saturday, we saw the beginning of something I find chilling – and dangerous to the legitimacy and processes of our system of governance.

In an article entitled, “New ME eager to end ‘bad luck,’ The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported on Sheriff Mike Chitwood’s questioning of County Manager Jim Dinneen’s “shady” process for hiring Dr. Jon Thogmartin to serve as interim medical examiner after Dr. Sara Zydowicz blew the whistle on years of budgetary neglect, overcrowding and substandard facilities which compromised the integrity of this vital public service.

Just as they did for Dr. Z – now, it appears our ‘powers that be’ have set their sights on discrediting Sheriff Chitwood and marginalizing his efforts to shine a very bright light on the machinations on a county government run wild – a clearly concerted and truly disturbing effort to protect the one who facilitates access to the public spigot at all costs.

No one disputes the fact that Dr. Thogmartin is a highly qualified pathologist with a positive track record of correcting administrative and operational issues in offices statewide.

But neither can anyone dispute the fact that the manner in which Thogmartin was brought on-board as interim ME – immediately after his out-of-hand dismissal of the issues brought by Dr. Zydowicz and complete exoneration of Jim Dinneen – followed by his near instantaneous confirmation by the Volusia County Council without so much as a written contract in place – smells a lot like payback.

When Sheriff Chitwood publicly questioned the timing of Dr. Thogmartin’s hiring – and provided documentary evidence showing that it could not have happened in the manner Dinneen described to the county council – he was set upon by Dr. Stephen Nelson, chairman of the Florida Medical Examiner’s Association, who called the Sheriff’s criticism “counter-productive.”

“Nobody is going to want to come to an office that is in constant turmoil, that has stakeholders throwing constant barbs on social media,” said Dr. Stephen Nelson, chairman of the commission. “This is not part of what a search should be for a professional. We are not talking about a dog catcher; we are talking about a pathologist and there’s only about 400 in the country.”

 Look, I don’t care if pathologists are scarce as hen’s teeth – with $780,000 of the people’s money at stake – we have a right to expect a proper vetting, to include in-depth questioning by our elected representatives – before a rush to hire.

Call me apprehensive, but this isn’t the first time Jim Dinneen has created a pseudo-emergency to facilitate a very expensive solution. . .

 In his interminable defense of Mr. Dinneen, Dr. Nelson droned on, “There’s nothing nefarious here,” Nelson said. “He (Thogmartin) spent all day at the morgue, watched people conduct autopsies and was looking at policies at the morgue and procedures. On the way out of the door, he talks to the county manager and told him that this isn’t as bad as everyone says it is.”

All day?  Really?

If I understand this, Dr. Thogmartin was able to determine that Dr. Z’s allegations – and those of the National Association of Medical Examiner’s who yanked the office’s professional accreditation in 2015, issues which were confirmed in correspondence from former ME Dr. Marie Herrmann, or the horror story brought by the family of a dead child whose misidentified body lay in the morgue for days – are complete falsehoods; the maniacal ravings of an inexperienced chief in just one day? 

Then, in lock step support of the one common denominator in all of these debacles – our own Rip Van Winkle of local politics, “Sleepy” Pat Patterson – sounding for all the world like he just awoke from another long nap – piled on Dr. Zydowicz, further ostracizing her concerns with the asinine remark, “A lot of this has been ginned up that I think is undeserved.”

But WHY? 

Why would a professional – a trained physician in perhaps the most in-demand segment of her field – jeopardize a hard-earned professional reputation and standing in the medical community by fabricating or “ginning up” serious allegations of administrative negligence and mismanagement at the morgue she was responsible for?

Why?

Why would Sheriff Chitwood – a politically accountable elected official and highly respected law enforcement professional with a pristine reputation – suddenly transform into the Boy Who Cried Wolf?  

Why?

And why would Dr. Stephen Nelson viciously turn on a colleague – then question the motives of Volusia County’s chief law enforcement officer as he openly calls bullshit on a clearly compromised process – one that reeks of remuneration for a favorable evaluation?

Even if that isn’t the case – one simply cannot dismiss the optics of it.

In my view, the craven method of self-preservation that Jim Dinneen and his cronies on the dais of power used to openly destroy the good reputation of Dr. Zydowicz is certainly more prohibitive to attracting quality candidates than a duly elected sheriff attempting to protect, serve and educate his long-suffering constituents.

After all, what professional in his or her right mind would take a job knowing that if they bring serious concerns regarding this essential medicolegal service to the attention of elected officials – or the state’s regulatory commission – they face the very real possibility of personal and professional destruction?

I’m asking.  Because none of this makes sense.

Given all that has occurred – and the stench of lies and corruption that continue to ooze out of the impenetrable information lock-down in DeLand – perhaps it is time for State Attorney R. J. Larizza to join Sheriff Chitwood’s call for an independent investigation of these serious and growing issues by an outside law enforcement authority.

Anyone with the ability to think critically can see that what we are witnessing is not normal.

It is not legitimate.

It bears no semblance to good governance.

It is wrong.

The time has come for someone – anyone – with a sworn responsibility to protect the public’s trust and interests to step up and put an end to this deepening crisis of leadership and conscience.

Remember when I said that good decision making gives us more and better options down the line?

I hope you will use that knowledge to our collective advantage in the voting booth this fall.

 

 

 

Hi, kids!

Through the years I’ve had my share of life’s up’s-and-down’s, but I can honestly say, I’ve led a charmed life – so incredibly blessed.

I’ve always put a lot of stock in the immortal words of the great Key West legend, saloonkeeper, bootlegger, gunrunner and politician, Captain Tony Tarracino, who once remarked:

“All you need in this life is a tremendous sex drive and a great ego, brains don’t mean a shit.”

 I’ll admit, Captain Tony’s advice can make for an expensive education – and a very interesting life – but on balance, I’ve found it’s true.

Ego I’ve got – brains, not so much.  I’m certainly not the smartest guy in the room.

Like a wise old boss of mine used to say when I was a rookie police officer, “Barker, you’re about as sharp as a sack of wet mice.” 

In my professional life, I epitomized the Dilbert Principle – the theory that organizations tend to systematically promote incompetent employees to management as a means of limiting the amount of damage they are capable of doing. . .

By some divine intervention, a few incredibly kind people took a chance on me at pivotal points along my path, and their friendship, faith and confidence has meant everything to me.

Count yourself among those who have had a very positive impact on my life.

When I first began this experiment in alternative opinion blogging, I was amazed when a couple-dozen people would actually take the time to seek out and read my disjointed take on the issues of the day.

Imagine how I felt earlier this week when Barker’s View closed the month of May with over 21,400 views!

Wow!  Thank you!

I’ve said this before – when I retired from law enforcement, I lost a sense of purpose and personal satisfaction that I thought would never come my way again.

My profession had become a bigger part of my identity than I cared to admit.

It made for some pretty dark times initially, but I’m not one to get trapped in the spiral of melancholia, so my silent mantra became, “Barker, Begin Again.”

The result of that reaffirming refrain was this cathartic exercise in voicing my goofy opinions of our political leadership and collective direction here on Florida’s Fun Coast.

These screeds are not right nor wrong – neither total fact or utter fiction – just one man’s not-so-humble opinion on the news and newsmakers of the day.  But they seem to resonate with an increasingly larger audience.

Please know that I am forever grateful to you – the loyal members of the Barker’s View tribe –  for taking time from your busy day to digest my take on the latest political intrigues in Volusia County and beyond.

I sincerely appreciate your support of alternative local points of view – and our right as interested citizens to speak out and seek the positive change we so richly deserve.

I am eternally grateful for your readership – and your kindness.

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

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole:          County of Volusia

NOTICE TO ALL VOLUSIA COUNTY EMPLOYEES AND CITIZENS:

Should you discover evidence of government malfeasance, ineptitude, corruption or mismanagement – word to the wise – keep your frigging mouth shut. 

Capiche? 

This is the very clear message sent to anyone with a working conscience this week by the not-so-subtle political protection racket operating under the guise of an elected body on the dais of power in DeLand.

After watching the County Council’s despicable maneuvering on Tuesday, we learned the chilling fate of whistleblowers and maverick elected officials who break ranks and seek to hold County Manager Jim Dinneen accountable for his continuing course of conduct at the helm of this foundering ship of fools.

Seriously – after watching what happened to Dr. Sara Zydowicz – the only appointed senior county administrator with the courage to point out glaring negligence and mismanagement in perhaps Volusia County’s most sensitive area of budgetary responsibility – why would anyone take the risk again? 

Her dark allegations include overcrowding, critical understaffing, a macabre suggestion that dead bodies be stored under cooling blankets and handled by county prisoners – along with a shocking backlog of some 200 autopsy reports, a substandard facility and a former Chief Medical Examiner who simply stopped testifying in court proceedings.

In fact, Dr. Z reported that conditions at the morgue had deteriorated to the point of being “potentially dangerous,” a fact she made clear to the state regulatory commission which oversees medical examiners when she said, “I don’t wish harm to my well-being.” 

The cost of attempting to shine a light on the inner workings of a county government run amok included withering, well-orchestrated attacks on her personal character – and the wholesale obliteration of her professional reputation – by the very elected and appointed officials she relied upon for budget and administrative support.

Tragically, Dr. Z’s concerns fell on deaf ears – both at the state ME commission and in the executive suites of the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Building.

But more ominously, when our ‘powers that be’ sensed a real exposure – they began circling the wagons and mounted a very effective counter-attack that painted Zydowicz as a reckless liar who made up wild allegations out of whole cloth.

In short, they vilified her.

And sent a clear message to anyone who dares question the machinations of a politically insulated administration – totally devoid of ethics, oversight or accountability – that exposing the system will result in your personal and professional destruction.

Abandon hope all ye who enter here.

The status quo WILL be protected – damn the cost.

Don’t believe me?

Just ask Dr. Z how it worked out for her.

As real pressure mounted, County Manager Jim Dinneen reached out to Dr. Jon Thogmartin – a noted forensic pathologist and contract medical examiner for hire of the “Have scalpel, Will travel” variety.

With an impressive curriculum vitae and a true gift for extemporaneous bullshit – Thogmartin deftly dismissed each of Dr. Z’s allegations based upon a single-day walk-through of the morgue and an even shorter written report of his “findings” issued six-days later.

However, as both Dinneen and Dr. Thogmartin pointed out – at least he did the evaluation for free.

(I don’t know about you, but whenever someone offers me a free lunch – I instinctively gird my loins for the inevitable. . .) 

In turn, at Mr. Dinneen’s request, Thogmartin appeared before the County Council Tuesday – and in a fast-talking monologue right out of the Quincy, M.E. episode, “The Case of the Mucked-Up Morgue” – our “independent” out-of-town expert systematically poo-pooed each of Dr. Z’s allegations as the ravings of an inexperienced newbie – and calmed the waters with anecdotes like, “You think this is fucked-up?  You should see what I found during my inspection of the Rue Morgue – now that was fucked-up!”   

Like any good government contractor, Dr. Thogmartin frightened everyone with a “all’s well for now – BUT – your ME’s office is going over the cliff come Friday…” scary story – then strategically launched into an incredibly well-rehearsed sales pitch for his apparently indispensable brand of proprietary autopsy protocols and super-human administrative skills.

In fact, he all but promised that not only could he right the ship, but he would restore professional accreditation – then time-travel the office back to those bucolic days of 1997 – before big pharma began killing more people on a daily basis than smallpox, and the workload wasn’t near what it is today.

Remarkable man.  Just ask him.

Even more remarkable was the fact that, after Thogmartin brushed off the issues at the morgue as little more than a minor inconvenience for a man of his superior skills – Jim Dinneen told the council that he offered the good Doctor a job as interim medical examiner.

That revelation didn’t sit well with most – it fact, it had the whiff of payback to it.

Still does.

Then on Tuesday, after Thogmartin finished his marketing spiel – his appointment was approved (with Councilwoman Heather Post opposing) before a contract had even been written(?)

(Our weaponized County Attorney, Dan Eckert, had something to say about this facet of the crisis – but he always hems-and-haws like a horse trying to recite the Lord’s Prayer – so, I’ll be dipped if I couldn’t interpret his point. . .)

Not unexpectedly, what passed for the council’s “questioning” of Dr. Thogmartin – dissolved into a carefully choreographed farce refereed by our doddering fool of a County Chair, Ed Kelley – who repeatedly shouted, “Your out of order!” like some demented Justice of the Court of the Absurd in a powdered wig – rudely interrupting and shutting down Ms. Post anytime she got close to a complete material question.

All Old Ed wanted to do was “move forward” – and by that, I mean he wanted to get home to supper and a nap.  Literally.

I think District 4 Councilwoman Heather Post acquitted herself extremely well under very difficult circumstances.

Look, given her voting record – and my natural suspicion – I’m not ready to canonize Ms. Post as “The People’s Champion” just yet, but I’m warming up.

The fact is, she stood tall – and alone – on Tuesday.  I respect that.

Despite the odds, Ms. Post made a valiant effort to get to the bottom of this steaming quagmire and expose Jim Dinneen as the person solely responsible for this, and myriad other debacles, that have haunted county government like a golem.

Sadly, rather than let Ms. Post do the people’s business, Ed Kelley sat smugly in the catbird’s seat, angrily questioning her motivations, as our appointed County Manager insolently barked at her like a rabid chihuahua – crudely deflecting questions and angrily downgrading Post’s valid concerns.

His treatment of a sitting elected official was rude, disrespectful and wrong – and Mr. Dinneen knows it crossed a very clear line.  But he doesn’t care.

Unfortunately, despite her best efforts to keep focus on accountability, it was clear Ms. Post was no match for these low-class thugs with a pack mentality that recognizes no boundaries when it comes to keeping their choke-hold on power and the public purse strings.

I thought District 1 candidate Jeff Brower did his best to support Heather Post from the floor – but it’s hard to spar with folks who control the tilt of the ring – and Old Ed quickly painted Mr. Brower into a very narrow box, brusquely limiting his comments to one tiny sliver of a very complex issue.

However, Mr. Brower cleverly demonstrated how the average citizen is treated at the podium by our incredibly arrogant elected officials when they seek to address uncomfortable issues of public concern.

Most important, Mr. Brower made the bold call for an outside investigation of this debacle by the Florida Attorney Generals Office – a move quickly seconded by Sheriff Chitwood and many others.

In perhaps the most tragic moment of this sickening spectacle – an impassioned young lady, Tiffany King, approached the lectern and lambasted Mr. Dinneen and our hapless council members for their collective ignorance of a heart-wrenching misstep at the ME’s office that goes beyond the pale of decency.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal reporter Dustin Wyatt captured the moment well:

“When the remains of a 16-year-old girl were found in DeLand off Gasline Road in May, family members of Justis Garrett, who’d been missing for days, feared the worst. Her parents called the morgue and asked if the body was their daughter’s, said Tiffany King of Edgewater, a neighbor and close friend of the family.”

“They were relieved to be told the body wasn’t their daughter. A week later, however, they learned it was, in fact, Garrett.”

“Can you imagine going through that?” King told the council through tears. “This is a big deal. This is important. This is every parent’s worst nightmare.”

“Everybody behind the dais should be held accountable, she added.”

I know the recurring theme on Tuesday was that Mr. Dinneen was too stupid to oversee the medical examiner’s function – even if he wanted to – arguing that he doesn’t possess the medicolegal knowledge to keep watch, and maybe he doesn’t.  (Something tells me that’s what accreditation is for. . .) 

But you don’t have to be a forensic pathologist to understand that what happened to the Garrett family is unconscionable – or take definitive action to prevent it from ever happening again.

My God.

Under these horrific circumstances, how dare Ed Kelley and Jim Dinneen give us this cavalier, “show’s over, folks – nothing to see here – move along” bullshit in the face of this flagrant and disgusting example of the ineptitude so passionately and courageously exposed by Dr. Zydowicz.

It is beyond shameful.

At the end of the day, Ms. Post was simply outmaneuvered by an entrenched system intent on self-protection – but at least she tried, dammit – and that’s infinitely more than her craven “colleagues” did for us.

To her credit, Post made a yeoman’s effort to get at the truth and hold Mr. Dinneen accountable for allowing an essential service to wither on the budgetary vine, then spinelessly lie to his council and their constituents to avoid culpability.

And just like that, the medical examiner’s debacle died (pun intended).

Or did it?

Last evening, Sheriff Mike Chitwood made public on social media a copy of an internal email from Jim Dinneen to State Attorney R.J. Larizza dated May 25, 2018 at 12:24pm – announcing that Dr. Thogmartin would be serving as interim Medical Examiner until a process could be put in place to find a new chief.

Interestingly, that document directly contradicts Mr. Dinneen’s written and verbal statements to the Volusia County Council wherein he states, “After his positive review of our medical examiner’s facility, which he performed on Friday, May 25, 2018, I asked Dr. Thogmartin if he would consider assisting our county by temporarily acting as our interim medical examiner from June 8 to December 31, 2018.  He agreed to help out Volusia County as the Interim Medical Examiner and to manage the contract under his medical license for the contract doctors that would be utilized until we can hire new staff.”

Folks, unless the good Doctor completed his “positive review” of a very busy medical examiner’s facility by lunchtime on May 25^th – Jim Dinneen lied to us – because Dr. Thogmartin’s written report is dated May 31, 2018.

If that’s not a ‘smoking gun’ I don’t know what is.

Clearly, Jim Dinneen has been caught in yet another bald-assed whopper.

The man is an unconscionable liar who has lost the moral authority to lead – and he clearly doesn’t have the guts or good sense to resign.

In my view, it is past time for our elected officials to jettison this lying sack of shit for the good of county government – and to preserve what little remains of the public trust and their own political reputations.

Disgusting.

In over 30-years of local government experience I have never witnessed this whale-turd level of no-class base cowardice and gross irresponsibility by an elected body.

That’s scary – and speaks to a level of institutionalized corruption and an organizational culture that permits the county’s chief executive to openly lie to us whenever it serves his timorous interests.

And no one who is paid to care seems to give a damn – in fact, they tacitly condone the practice through their strategic ignorance and acquiescence.

Gentle readers, I fear we are truly lost – and because I care more than I like to admit – it saddens me terribly.

Please remember this at the ballot box this November.  Please.

Angel:             City of Holly Hill

Kudos to Holly Hill’s Economic Development Coordinator Nick Conte on his recent big catch – Florida Health Care Plan’s “Pharmacy of Tomorrow” – which, after extensive renovation, will occupy the former SunTrust Bank building on Ridgewood Avenue!

One of the largest employers in Volusia County, Florida Health Care Plans – headquartered in Holly Hill for over two decades – plans a state-of-the-art pharmacy with expanded parking, advanced technology and other customer conveniences in the now vacant building the insurer recently purchased for $1.15 million.

The City of Holly Hill has the largest concentration of light industry in Volusia County, and – as the News-Journal’s Clayton Parks reported, “. . .is home to a number of thriving manufacturers, including Metra Electronics, Product Quest Manufacturing and arcade game maker Bob’s Space Racers.”

 Folks, “Manufacturing” = “Jobs” – and that forms the basis for a strong and vibrant community.

 I am incredibly proud of Nick – and all the elected and appointed officials in my beloved “City with a Heart” – who, despite the challenges, continue to transform this quaint riverside community in so many wonderful ways.

In my view, this represents the possibilities inherent in the many vacant buildings and properties that dot the Halifax area.

All it takes is vision and ingenuity – attributes that Mr. Conte clearly brings to his important role.

Asshole:          International Speedway Corporation

It seems ISC suffers from a split-personality disorder – a schizophrenic identity that greedily accepts massive amounts of public funds (read: Our Money) to mitigate overhead on “synergistic” projects like the One Daytona complex – even operates a quasi-governmental Community Development District to fund, maintain and operate public infrastructure at the shopping and entertainment multiplex – yet, they abhor the transparency that naturally comes with tax dollars.

I think they call that a corporate-created grey area. . .

They aren’t very forthcoming with attendance figures for their various racing and entertainment events either.

It’s no secret that NASCAR has seen dwindling attendance over the past few years – and by “dwindling” I mean some televised races appear to have so few fans in the stands I’m surprised they even bothered to check tickets.

Of course, no one governed by the France dynasty will release gate figures – or information on anything else – that would shine a light on the company’s finances, operation or future.

Apparently, it’s against “company policy” to share with your fans and investors in an open, fair and unguarded way – things that build confidence and a sense of ownership in the sport.  I mean, it’s not like ISC has many competitors in the very narrow marketplace of stockcar racing.

But what do I know?

I wasn’t surprised when the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported earlier this week that the speedway was refusing to release attendance figures for the big Memorial Day weekend Country 500 hoedown.

Although some in the local hospitality industry have criticized the festival for what they describe as a “weak line-up” – the fact is, the show included Dierks Bentley, Chris Stapleton, Billy Currington, Toby Keith and the popular duo Sugarland – not exactly lightweights in what passes for “country” music today.

Then, our tax-funded Masters of Wisdom at Volusia’s redundant tourism leadership circles cited the weather forecast – anything but publicly acknowledge the abject blight, dilapidation, omnipresent homeless, political stagnation and overwhelming sense of hopelessness that is crippling our beachside and seriously compromising “the brand.”

According to a report by the News-Journal’s Austin Fuller and Jim Abbott, “Spokesman Andrew Booth cited “company policy” in not releasing the attendance figures for the three-day festival in its third year. The first two years of the event, New Orleans-based Festival Productions, Inc. — producer of the event with concert industry giant AEG Live — had released attendance figures of 75,000 each year. Spokespeople for Festival Productions did not respond to News-Journal questions about attendance at this year’s event and instead forwarded them to Booth.”

“While estimates have been provided in the first two years, that was to give perspective to the scope and size of the event,” Booth wrote in an email.”

I can read between the lines – and so can you.

When government and corporations attempt to shield themselves in matters of great public interest, they simply prime the well of speculation, rumor and conjecture. After all, when a reporter asks the soft-soap question, “How many people showed up, Andrew?” – a reflexive “no comment” just seems weird.

Clearly, attendance figures at the Country 500 were down this year – so why not say so?

I’m no expert, but the music business is a hard dollar – and concert promotion is double-tough, with a big risk/reward trade off and incredibly tight margins.

Trust me – if a simple mathematical comparison shows a declining three-year trend – I’m afraid the handwriting is on the wall.

Unfortunately, I think we can all gather in the north parking lot of DIS next Memorial Day and wave a mournful goodbye to another promising annual festival come and gone.

I know, maybe the speedway can double-down on another transient Monster Truck event?

That seemed to work out well for them. . .

Angel:             Bethune-Cookman University Athletics

 From the Barker’s View sports desk – more good news for our own B-CU ‘Fighting Wildcats’ last week when they took two of the top four conference-wide honors at the 2018 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Spring Meeting!

Bethune-Cookman was honored with the prestigious Talmadge Layman Hill Men’s All-Sports Award for the third time in four years.

In addition, B-CU’s women’s sports teams were named runners-up for the Mary McLeod Bethune Women’s All-Sport’s Award.

In recognition of the university’s outstanding athletic programs, Conference Commissioner Dr. Dennis E. Thomas presented a check in the amount of $20,000 – along with his congratulations to B-CU interim President Hubert Grimes, and all administrators, coaches, student-athletes and support staff for their extraordinary commitment to excellence in college sports.

Congratulations to all Wildcats on this outstanding achievement!

Angel:             CANDO II

On Tuesday afternoon, those intrepid Ormond Beach grassroots activists of CANDO II held a peaceful protest of the City’s inexplicable support for the environmental atrocity at the site of the proposed WaWa convenience store on Granada Boulevard – and the continuing asinine wetland and zoning policies that encourage unchecked growth citywide.

Clearly, residents of Ormond Beach care deeply about their quality of life – and rather than acquiesce to the demands of developers who are blindly intent on ruining the character of one of the Halifax areas most unique communities – they are courageously standing up to an entrenched power structure that puts profits over common sense regulations.

As the late cultural anthropologist Margret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

 Perhaps Deputy Mayor Troy Kent – who seems completely tone deaf when it comes to the needs and concerns of his constituents – should look out the window of his ivory tower at City Hall.

Those throngs of angry people you see waving signs in the street below are called “voters.”

Ignore them at your own political peril.

In my view, groups like CANDO II represent the very essence of community engagement – a real movement that will ultimately change the current tack (and composition) of the Ormond Beach City Commission – and take back this charming community from the hands of greed-crazed speculators intent on destroying our natural places and paving over those precious civic attributes that we hold dear.

Thank you, CANDO II – you are making a difference in the life and future of our beautiful city.

By your example, you restore our faith in the power of the people to effect positive and lasting change.

 Quote of the Week:

“County officials may think they doused a fire with Thogmartin’s report, but hiring him immediately afterward only poured gasoline on the flames of public opinion.  Ham-handed doesn’t begin to describe how sloppy and tone-deaf that move is.  At minimum, it undermines the validity of the report.”

–The Daytona Beach News-Journal editorial, “Dig deeper on morgue,” Tuesday, June 5, 2018

According to the inviolate Volusia County Charter, the county manager “shall be responsible to the council for the proper administration of all affairs of the county.” 

In other words, Jim Dinneen works for – and at the pleasure of – our elected representatives on the dais of power in DeLand.

Not the other way around.

In past weeks, the long-suffering taxpayers of Volusia County have been inundated with editorials and essays from a long-line of has-beens and political hacks extolling the virtues of home rule – marginalizing Sheriff Mike Chitwood’s revelations – and trying their best to convince us that our charter form of government “works.”

They’re right, it does – but not for us.

The fact is clear – this bastardized oligarchy bears no resemblance to a true council/manager form of government – and the tail has been wagging the dog so long our elected officials have all but abdicated their sworn responsibility to provide oversight and accountability as a counter balance the incredible power vested in this foul ball of a County Manager.

Instead, they put blinders on and perpetuate a morally corrupt system which exists to provide powerful political insiders unfettered access to public funds.  After all, going along with the ruse keeps the campaign contributions flowing.

For instance, on Tuesday, when asked to consider the politically sticky wicket of raising impact fees, these cowardly assholes once again chose to punt – trying desperately to buy time for their pitifully vulnerable “colleagues” currently standing for reelection.

First, the always arrogant Deb Denys suggested another do-nothing political insulation committee – populated with all the right last names – charged with developing “recommendations” to be shit-canned much like those of the much-ballyhooed Beachside Redevelopment Committee were when it’s purpose of putting time and distance between the News-Journal’s Tarnished Jewel series and the County Council was accomplished.

To her credit, Heather Post saw through this stall tactic and called bullshit, “I’m not real big on the committee idea.  When committees are created it sort of prolongs the process.  I think we might be able to make these decision with transparency to the public without appointing committees and lagging.”

Ultimately, our representatives agreed that you and I, the long-suffering taxpayers, should spend through the nose for yet another expensive “study” – conducted by yet another out-of-state consultant – who will light candles, perform a voodoo incantation, run the “numbers” through some magic formula, then produce a long-winded report telling our elected officials exactly what they want to hear.

The elected developer’s shills at all levels of government have factored in so many variables and assumptions in calculating impact fees that, quite literally, We, The People may end up owing Mori Hosseini money when it’s all said and done. . .

Remember just a few weeks ago when our addle-brained dipshit of a County Chair crowed in the newspaper that he “didn’t need no stinkin’ study” to tell him what to charge his cronies in the development community?

I wonder what changed? 

Either Old Ed finally admits the obvious nexus between the council’s do-nothing stance on impact fees and their embarrassing failure to launch on the half-cent sales tax initiative – or he has discovered how easy it is to avoid making a decision by kicking this rusty can even further down the road.

Fucking coward.

And Another Thing!

After several unavoidable delays – the much-anticipated Sons of the Beach protest of the theft of our century-old heritage of beach driving behind the Hard Luck Hotel is on!

I’m asking everyone who reads Barker’s View – whether you agree with my screeds or not – to please join me this Saturday, June 9^th, on the semi-private strand between the poisoned poles behind the Hard Rock beginning at 9:00am.

SOB President Paul Zimmerman invites everyone who cares about beach access, and the amenities that make our area unique, to peaceably and respectfully assemble on the beach Saturday morning and let our county officials know how we feel about “their lawless disregard for our traditions and their own laws.”

So, slather on the sunscreen and get yo’ butt to the beach! 

It’ll be fun – besides, a little civil disobedience is good for the soul.

Please feel-free to bring homemade signs to express your First Amendment right to be heard!

As always, kids are welcome – after all, we’re fighting hard for their future right to beach access!

If I could ask a small favor – please share the date with friends, family and neighbors – and post on your social media page to ensure widest possible dissemination.

Thank you!

I look forward to seeing everyone this Saturday!

 

Yes, our doddering fool of a County Chair, Ed Kelley, really is that thick.

Old Ed’s weak-minded attempt to defend Volusia County’s charter government in the Daytona Beach News-Journal quickly turned into a mean-spirited hatchet piece, further besmirching the character and professional reputations of former medical examiner Dr. Sara Zydowicz and Sheriff Mike Chitwood.

Rather than explain to his constituents the benefits of home rule, Mr. Kelley used his recent Community Voices column to further discredit two high profile critics of a system run wild – a bastardized oligarchy that consolidates enormous power in the hands of one little man with a raging Napoleonic complex and no apparent situational awareness of the operational and administrative issues that have plagued his reign for years.

In fact, the only section of Chairman Kelley’s nervous meltdown on Sunday’s editorial page even remotely linked to our charter form of government was his wobbly opening statement, “Yes, the current council/ manager form of government spelled out in our charter does work for all departments and residents/taxpayers of Volusia County.”

Now, you and I – the long-suffering “residents/taxpayers of Volusia County” – know that Ed’s unsupported gibberish is complete bullshit.

Why?

Because we live and scratch out a living here – and most of us have the cognitive ability to think critically – which places us head-and-shoulders above those lumbering dullards we elected to represent our interests on the dais of power in DeLand.

If Old Ed’s treatment taught us anything (it didn’t, but let’s pretend) it is that he’s a whole different guy under pressure – transmogrifying from the dotty grandfather into a vengeful loup-garou who goes for the jugular whenever he perceives any real threat to the status quo.

I already knew that – I’ve seen Ed in action before – but I’m glad his constituents are getting a front row seat to this latest no-holds-barred, wholesale destruction of his critics – and anyone else with the audacity to question the self-serving motivations of his handler, County Manager Jim Dinneen.

And if you think he gives any deference to a fellow council member – a colleague, duly elected by the citizens of Volusia County – think again.

Since taking office, Chairman Kelley has done everything in his power to keep District 4 Councilwoman Heather Post quiet and contained – lest she get “out of order” and expose the base ineptitude in county government that has hampered any substantive progress on the Fun Coast for a decade.

The cross-dais criticism has been unmerciful.

It’s like watching a group of gandy dancers driving a square spike into a round hole.

Any independent thought expressed by Ms. Post was immediately met with withering condemnation – and any attempt to question Mr. Dinneen brought blistering ridicule and counter-allegations of official impropriety in her fact-finding attempts.

I can only imagine how Ms. Post must have felt – because it was painful to watch.  In fact, the always arrogant Deb Denys did everything but throw her Jimmy Choo at her recoiling “colleague.”

It was like a weird Milgram Experiment on obedience to authority figures – only the electric shocks contained real voltage.

As a result, Ms. Post entered a self-imposed silence, refusing to take questions from reporters, preferring to communicate with her constituents from the relative safety of a canned social media page where she controlled both the content and the message.

Then, last week, it appears Ms. Post finally cast off the oppressive yoke, kicked free of the corral and broke ranks – refusing to conform to the unwritten rule of lock-step conformity that has paralyzed the council/manager process and allowed Jim Dinneen to physically control the elected body for years.

In a series of extraordinary Facebook vlogs, Ms. Post publicly discussed her outrage at the myriad management blunders that have come to light – everything from the debacle at the medical examiner’s office, to the complete lack of transparency in an information black market wholly controlled by the Dinneen administration, where knowledge of the important issues is doled out only to those who agree to play along.

She even did the unthinkable and formally apologized to those who have been victimized in Dinneen’s crude attempt to deflect accountability – and empathized with county employees who strive valiantly to provide essential services in an increasingly toxic environment of mismanagement and flagrant incompetence.

Frankly, I find Ms. Post’s newfound independence refreshing.  However, the acid test will be at tomorrow’s Volusia County Council meeting.

You can bet your bippy Old Ed’s fangs will come out as he does everything conceivable to silence critics, discredit detractors and maintain control of this building shitstorm.  It’ll be like watching some crazy yahoo trying to rope the wind – but, like the bully he is – Chairman Kelley will try his best to protect the system at all cost.

How Ms. Post stands up to that aggressive defense of an entrenched system that seemingly exists to funnel public funds to the private profit motives of uber-wealthy political insiders (a power structure that Old Ed would have us believe doesn’t exist?) will tell us all we need to know about her commitment to fundamental change and government accountability.

Any reasonable person can see that in recent days this comical farce has taken a darker, more ominous tone as the ugly truth comes to light.

For instance, Mr. Dinneen’s brutal assassination of Ms. Post’s personal character in the Daytona Beach News-Journal should result in widespread outrage, the unequivocal support of her fellow elected officials, and an ethics investigation by the Florida City and County Management Association.

For an appointed county manager to ambush an elected official in the newspaper by dredging up her 2010 dismissal from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office – a personnel action Ms. Post successfully fought and received a $44,000 settlement – most likely violates a slew of human resource policies and the tenets of the International City/County Management Association’s code of professional ethics.

It crossed a very clear line – and Mr. Dinneen knows it.

In my experience, most smart politicians, especially those standing for reelection, know when its time to distance oneself from blatant liabilities – they step over the steaming piles of noxious dung, not in them.

But sometimes, despite their best instincts, ostensibly smart elected officials can’t help themselves – rather than avoid the shit – they lay down and wallow in it.

Apparently, everyone except our addle-brained County Chair understands that Jimmy Dinneen has become a very heavy millstone to wear during this election cycle.

Now is the time for our representatives to drop this farcical defense of the indefensible – and if Mr. Dinneen doesn’t have the common human decency to resign and end this interminable distraction from the important business of the day – they should jettison him as efficiently as possible.

Only then can they begin the difficult process of rebuilding the public’s trust in county government.

 

 

 

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

This quote is attributed to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist and one of the most inherently evil men to have ever lived.  Unfortunately, this practice is still actively employed by politicians and “spin doctors” the world over.

It’s called the “illusory truth effect” – defined as our human tendency to believe information to be correct after repeated exposure – regardless of how outlandish it may seem at first.

It doesn’t require a high degree of sophistication – just keep repeating an untruth until the line between fantasy and reality blur.  It’s accomplished with misdirection and diversion, selective facts, burying bad news and fostering an organizational culture where information is held close to the vest and doled out sparingly as a control mechanism.

The consolidation of power begins with information control.

Sound familiar?

To say that the wheels have come off the cart in Volusia County government is an understatement.

As the various layers of this rotten onion are peeled away, those of us who stand on the outside looking in – the long-suffering rubes who are expected to pay the bills and accept what we are told at face value – are beginning to see that things are not as neat and tidy in the Palace of Emperor Jim Dinneen as we have been led to believe.

In fact, it’s an abominable mess.

A festering quagmire of ineptitude and mismanagement that has reached epic proportions – and continues to threaten the delivery of essential government services, such as emergency medical transport, public asset protection, the medical examiners function, impact fees, infrastructure and growth management, to name but a few.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal recently published an informative article by the intrepid reporter Dustin Wyatt, “Volusia officials hope to turn the page,” which further exposed the siege mentality currently gripping the executive offices at the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Center – the last bastion of a failed oligarchy trying desperately to control the illusion of truth as the shitstorm rages around them.

Last week, in a series of video presentations to her constituents, District 4 Councilwoman Heather Post courageously spoke out on the issues of the day.

Admittedly, I’ve been hypercritical of Ms. Post – but I think she has finally realized that her silence and acquiescence has become an extreme detriment to the lives and livelihoods of her constituents.

At least I hope that’s her reasoning.

She still refuses to speak with local media outlets (something she might want to rethink) appearing instead as a weird disembodied talking head on a canned Facebook page.  That makes it difficult to ask questions and gain insight from our elected representative – but it’s a positive crack in the information void that defines county government.

The News-Journal described Ms. Post’s social media vlogs as calling out “Dineen’s “deplorable lack of transparency after she said she couldn’t get questions answered about the morgue’s operations when she showed up unannounced and without an appointment.  In a video posted Friday, she apologized to the county’s outgoing medical examiner, Sara Zydowicz, saying she’s “appalled, disgusted and outraged” that county leaders would “vilify” the doctor.”

Of course she showed up unannounced.  How else does one properly inspect an office which has lost total credibility and become the focus of intense public interest – make an appointment and ask Mr. Dinneen may I visit your morgue, pretty-please?

My ass.

In typical fashion, as soon as Councilwoman Post broke ranks – her insubordination to the unwritten rules of lock-step conformity resulted in a broadside from her “colleagues” on the dais of power – an attack led by our doddering fool of a County Chair, Ed Kelley.

“The county chair called Post’s videos unacceptable and accused her of getting too involved in day-to-day operations at the morgue, which council members aren’t supposed to do. “I think (the video) was very out of order,” Kelley said. “If you reach a point to where what you are doing is interfering with the operation of a county department, I think it’s dangerous.”

You know what’s out-of-order, Ed?  Your mushy cerebral cortex.

She’s not interfering with the operation of a county department, you bootlicking jackass – she’s exposing the maladministration and budgetary neglect of an essential public service that lost its professional accreditation in 2015 for many of the same reasons Dr. Z reported to state regulatory authorities!

Old Ed then went beyond the boundaries of human reason when – during his half-bright defense of charter government in Sunday’s News-Journal – he exposed himself as the second biggest lying sack of shit in the realm:

“In rereading the column by Sheriff Chitwood on May 20, I would like to know who are the select few deep pockets and government officials he refers to who control our county and who will stop at nothing to keep a grip on power. Who are the “powers that be”? Maybe he will tell us. In my 16-plus years of public service, with the city of Ormond Beach as a commissioner and mayor or as chair of the Volusia County Council, I have never been influenced by or asked to vote on a matter based upon a campaign contribution by anyone. This, too, I believe to be true for those I serve with on the council.”

My God.

This brain-addled dipshit would actually have you and I believe that J. Hyatt Brown, Mori Hosseini, Lesa France-Kennedy and other “Rich & Powerful” insiders have absolutely no political influence in Volusia County?

That they infuse hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaigns of hand-picked local candidates, yet expect nothing in return for their investment? 

Yes, they really think we’re that stupid.

For instance, earlier this week County Manager Jim Dinneen employed a disgusting tactic that has served him extremely well through the years when he hand-selected his own expert to conduct a walk-through of the morgue, talk to a few employees, then generate a short report confirming the opinions voiced by his chief defender, Ed Kelley, in the newspaper days earlier – a report he then used to besmirch the professional reputation of the only county department head other than Sheriff Chitwood with the guts to bring serious deficiencies to light and cast doubt on Mr. Dinneen’s management and oversight of critical services.

To further compromise the “independence” of this half-assed faux-audit, Mr. Dinneen makes an offer of employment to Dr. Jon Thogmartin – his cherry-picked assessor whose findings precisely matched the public narrative clumsily spun by Dinneen and Kelley to deflect accountability.

Unethical?

You bet your ass it is – and in my view, potentially criminal – given the fact that public funds are being lavishly expended in the most self-evident case of bureaucratic Cover Your Ass in the history of Volusia County government.

In his goofy condemnation of the social media firestorm resulting from these raging debacles, the Very Reverend Dr. Fred Lowry squawked from his high perch on the county council – “I wish people, before they got on social media or Facebook (to complain) would really investigate what is going on.”

Trust me, Freddie – the last thing you goons with a political title want is a legitimate investigation into “what’s going on.”

In my view, these cheap attempts to dodge responsibility and protect the status quo pale in comparison to perhaps the most egregious violation of the City and County Management Code of Ethics, and common human decency, on record when Jim Dinneen – our petty pipsqueak of an appointed county manager – cut deep into Councilwoman Post, resurrecting her controversial dismissal from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office in 2010, following an internal affairs investigation that found she lied under oath.

Extraordinarily, Mr. Dinneen said to the News-Journal, “I think you all forget the circumstances of why she doesn’t work here anymore.”

What Dinneen failed to mention was that Ms. Post filed a wrongful termination lawsuit and received a $44,000 financial settlement from Volusia County.

Look, as a citizen and taxpayer, I have the right to criticize the acts and omissions of my elected officials – but as an appointed government executive and recipient of public funds, Mr. Dinneen does not.

According to our sacrosanct county charter – Dinneen works for Ms. Post, and six other duly elected officials who are politically accountable to their constituents every four years.

This clear violation of our council/manager form – and the professional ethics one expects of an appointed official who wields incredible power – simply cannot stand.  That level of political insulation, flagrant disregard for the checks-and-balances of power and lack of even basic accountability to higher authority is the foundation of a dictatorship, not a representative democracy.

Again, this cannot stand.

In my view, regardless of whether they agree with her or not – Ms. Post’s fellow elected officials have a moral duty to rally to her defense and immediately terminate Mr. Dinneen’s out-of-control destruction of the professional reputations of whistleblowers – and the gross character assassination of a sitting elected official.

It’s dangerous – and has no place in a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

If Ms. Post’s fellow elected officials fail to acknowledge and rectify this horrific abuse in the most expedient means possible, then nothing prevents him from doing the same damn thing to any one of them should they find cause to question his motives – or his seemingly omnipotent authority.

 

 

 

 

Hi, kids!

We’re a day early!

Sorry to spring it on you – but like the song says – everybody needs a little time away, and I’m travelling to the beautiful North Carolina Piedmont this morning – with a whoop-whoop stop on River Street in Savannah, Georgia – just to recharge the batteries.

Thanks for understanding!

What a week it’s been here on Florida’s Fun Coast, huh?

Before we get this hayride underway, I thought we might lighten things up with a round of the Halifax areas favorite pastime – a little game I like to call “What the Hell?”

 As always, I would like to cordially invite our friends at the Daytona Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Lodging and Hospitality Association of Volusia County and all our loyal fans over at the Regional Chamber of Commerce to play along!

Come on!  It’ll be Wide.  Open.  Fun!

 The rules are simple – study the photograph below and take a wild-ass guess if the scene depicted is:

A. Soviet-era panelki in some Eastern Bloc shithole?

B. The last days of a gang-encrusted mid-rise in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project?

C. The first thing visitors to the World’s Most Famous Beach see when they hit the sand from the ISB beach ramp?

(Que the Jeopardy theme. . .)

Times up!

If you picked the hocked-out shell of another former resort hotel turned mold farm on Volusia’s premiere stretch of traffic-free beach, give yourself a Gold Star!

Wait?

Where is the “Happy days are here again, again!” prosperity they promised us would follow if we simply acquiesced to the desires of the “Rich & Powerful” and gave up our century-old heritage of beach driving?

For just $20.00 per day, you too can enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of a once grand strand of sand fronted by a long-suffering, down-at-the-heels beach community that’s slowly succumbed to the triple-whammy of blight, bureaucratic negligence and lack of strategic vision by those we have elected and appointed to represent our interests.

A shabby place where a select few wealthy insiders lavish hundreds of thousands of dollars on the political campaigns of more-of-the-same candidates who repay them with millions in public economic development funds and incentives while visitors – the one’s we spend millions to attract – are subjected to nightmares like this in our core tourist area.

If the Lodging and Hospitality Association want to know why they can no longer attract customers on Memorial Day weekend – trust me – it had nothing to do with the weather, or the “weak line-up” at the Country 500 hootenanny.

Listen up:  THE PRODUCT IS BECOMING REFRIED SHIT.

Despite what we are told by Evelyn Fine and the other marketing maharishis who are paid handsomely to tell our redundant marketing folks what they want to hear – the place is going to seed right in front of our eyes. 

 Look, I wasn’t a member of the Beachside Redevelopment Braintrust – but instead of throwing one red cent away on more surveys and out-of-state marketing companies to lure people to this deteriorating stoolstack – just maybe our tourism officials should pull their collective heads out of their keisters and take a walkabout – you know, see the place as others see us.

Won’t cost a dime.

Then – after they’ve pissed themselves from sheer guilt – perhaps our resident “experts” will realize that the core problem is that “the product” is being irreparably damaged – the “draw” is fading – and if they continue down this path of throwing Chanel No. 5 on a hog while trying to convince themselves “It ain’t as Barker the Bitcher makes it out to be, is it?” then there won’t be much left to market in a few short years.

In my view, all the round-a-bouts, pretty pavers and happy talk in the world won’t stop the inevitable – only a coordinated strategic plan which encourages entrepreneurial investment without giving away the unique amenities that make us a “destination” can do that.

But what do I know?  

Enjoy your day at the beach, kids!  (Pull forward and pay at the kiosk, please.)

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

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole:          Volusia County Manager Jim Dinneen

During a long career in municipal government, I learned a few things about crisis management.

In every pursuit, “things” happen, some we bring on ourselves, others are unexpected – be it a single incident that causes widespread outrage or a series of blunders that cumulatively build – its how an organization’s leadership team respond in the early hours of the crisis that either builds public confidence or results in utter chaos.

Sound crisis management begins with establishing strong service-based values and a commitment to transparency before trouble breaks.  It’s the organizational culture that ultimately allows a company or public entity to weather a calamity and protect their reputation.

In my experience, the role of a government administrator or department head is much like a circus performer who juggles chainsaws in the center ring – all eyes are on you, and mistakes can have spectacular results.

For the past few weeks, the headlines have been filled with a series of issues in Volusia County government – from the eleventh-hour removal of the much ballyhooed half-cent sales tax referendum, revelations of internal dysfunction by Sheriff Mike Chitwood, the debacle at the Medical Examiner’s Office, the near total collapse of our ambulance service and now reports of unresolved sexual harassment issues in the Beach Safety Department – suffice it to say, it hasn’t been a good month for County Manager Jim Dinneen.

Regardless of the circumstances, once an organization under fire gets behind the curve – or attempts to deflect blame with counter-accusations and denials – suspicion builds, and the public begins to rightfully question the veracity of its leadership.

Nothing builds more ill will, or negative press, than a lack of transparency and honesty.

Of course, most important, it pays to ensure that your company or government organization is reasonably well-managed in the first place – and that essential services are being provided in the most effective and efficient means possible.

That’s called oversight.

Any good manager understands that despite your best efforts, sometimes you just have to take it on the chin, accept responsibility, take ownership of your mistakes and work hard to correct the underlying problems while supporting your subordinates and constituents.

A good leader should also know when to take his or her leave.

People respect that.

The aftermath of these myriad issues in Volusia County is a horrific example of executive ineptitude and incompetence run wild – a gross exposure of the failures of leadership and organizational misfocus that has haunted the Dinneen administration and cost our county government the respect and trust of its constituents.

Then, our elected officials – the very people charged with providing politically accountable oversight of the all-powerful County Manager – immediately go on the defensive in some bizarre lycanthropic transformation, ripping the throat out of anyone who dares blow the whistle on the abject negligence that continues to jeopardize essential services.

In a clearly orchestrated campaign to discredit Sheriff Chitwood, Dr. Sara Zydowicz – and anyone else who questions the motivations of an administration that has clearly come off the rails – our besieged ‘powers that be’ trot out a few washed-up political hacks who expend clouds of hot air defending the omnipotent Volusia County Charter – always protecting the status quo that consolidates absolute power in the hands of an unelected manager with no oversight or accountability – and ensures all the right last names have unobstructed access to the public trough.

Meanwhile, they fail to recognize that those of us who pay the bills are getting damn sick and tired of being lied to, and treated like an afterthought, by those we elect and appoint to represent our interests.

As I said earlier this week, I’m often asked why I “hate” Jim Dinneen – a natural assumption based upon my frequent screeds taking him to task for the seemingly endless parade of management catastrophes that dominate the news these days.

The fact is, I don’t hate Mr. Dinneen – I’ve never met the man.

Only a small-minded bigot hates someone they don’t know or understand; however, I intensely dislike his cheapjack means to an end and manipulation of our system of governance and public funds to meet the private profit motives of political insiders.

I understand Mr. Dinneen’s methods all too well.

In our representative democracy, the only thing standing in the way of a city or county manager transmogrifying into a tyrannical despot is the elected body – policymakers charged with the direct oversight of an extremely powerful individual.

Unfortunately, the bought-and-paid-for chattel that passes for elected representatives on the dais of power in DeLand have compromised themselves by coming down on the wrong side of a crisis of enormous proportions – and in doing so, have painted themselves into a very narrow corner.

For instance, no rational person with two brain synapses still firing believes that the “independent” audit of the ME function, as orchestrated by Mr. Dinneen, is going to produce any credible findings to support Dr. Zydowicz’ scathing allegations to the state regulatory commission which oversees medical examiners in Florida.

We know that because earlier this week, our doddering fool of a County Chair, Ed Kelley, announced in the Daytona Beach News-Journal his eerily clairvoyant premonition that the outside assessment of the medical examiner’s office will exonerate Volusia County, further discredit Dr. Z, and serve as a terrifying example of how whistleblowers are dealt no quarter in Volusia County government.

Then, on Wednesday the News-Journal ran a startling revelation that the Volusia County Beach Safety Department failed to properly investigate a credible allegation of gross sexual misconduct – a male employee who sent an explicit photograph of his genitals to a female coworker – citing the fact the victim didn’t want an inquiry.

Say what?  I don’t make this shit up, folks.

The accusations also include the use of disgusting homophobic slurs and obvious bias in the workplace by the same offender – claims that we’re told are now under investigation by beach safety officials.

Is it just me, or did Volusia County have at least a moral obligation to ensure that other employees were adequately protected from similar conduct by this employee – and that their constituents, you know, us poor saps who pay the bills – were protected from potential liability?

I mean, let’s face it, Volusia County Beach Safety doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to sexual harassment, exploitation and discrimination.

In fact, it’s abominable.

And you don’t have to be a highly compensated beach management administrator to know there should have been a higher standard of scrutiny, supervision and management oversight in the aftermath of the previous scandals.

The protection and morale of their officers and staff should be paramount.

But it isn’t.

My God. 

I’m fond of the adage that most people can forgive what they can see themselves doing.  How long would a person last in your business or workplace who sent a picture of his junk to a married female coworker?

I’m asking.  Because we didn’t tolerate that shit where I worked.

Now, I can’t wait to see how long it takes the three stooges – the always arrogant Councilwoman Deb Denys, “Sleepy” Pat Patterson and Old Ed Kelley – to find a way to smear and marginalize the victims of these gross violations of county human resource policies and the tenets of basic human dignity – all while protecting Mr. Dinneen’s backside.

I’ve said it repeatedly – a good leader knows when its time to take his or her leave – and even a bad leader should see the handwriting on the wall.

I have it on good authority – from at least two independent sources – that our beleaguered County Manager’s days at the helm of this foundering ship of fools we call Volusia County government are coming to a close.

While I’m not sure what form his departure will take – or even if what I’m hearing is true – I think we can all agree that the fat lady has sung herself hoarse.

Frankly, the problems are getting too big, and too numerous, to ignore.

How much longer are the long-suffering taxpayers of Volusia County going to be subjected to this shitstorm?

Only our elected officials on the Volusia County Council can answer that question.

Angel:             Holly Hill City Manager Joe Forte

If you need your hope and confidence in government restored – know that there are true professionals serving in positions of great responsibility in countless communities throughout our state and nation – none better that Holly Hill City Manager Joe Forte.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Joe as a dear friend and esteemed colleague for over twenty-years now.

Last week, the Volusia League of Cities had the good sense to honor Mr. Forte as their “Executive of the Year” – a fitting tribute to a man who embodies the attributes of a true servant-leader –  always putting the needs of those he serves at the forefront of everything he does.

Joe Forte began his extraordinary career in the City of Holly Hill in 1990 as a Driver/Engineer in the Fire Department before being appointed Fire Chief in 1995.  Mid-career, he was appointed Acting City Manager, and later City Manager, a position he held until 2007 when he became Deputy County Manager in Seminole County, Florida.

Like most law enforcement officers, during my professional life I was, as Joseph Conrad once said, “difficult to lead, but easy to inspire.”  Joe Forte inspired me – and I would follow him anywhere.

That is the highest compliment I can pay – and it is well-deserved.

In the best decision ever made by sitting political body, in September 2014, the Holly Hill City Commission rehired Mr. Forte as City Manager.

My only regret in a 31-year career in public service is that I retired too soon, never having had the opportunity to serve under this outstanding leader again.

The apt citation accompanying this prestigious award said, “Joe provides solutions and cost-savings on a daily basis to the elected officials and the citizens.  He is always looking for what is best for the citizens of Holly Hill and its employees.”

“Today, the city is now in the best financial state it has ever been in.  This is directly attributed to many policies he set forward.”

 Joe Forte leads from the heart.

Smart, quick-witted and determined, he is the embodiment of personal integrity, and he demonstrates the best qualities of his important profession is everything he does.

I am incredibly proud of Joe’s outstanding accomplishment – and the citizens of Holly Hill are fortunate to have him leading their beautiful community into a very bright future.

Angel:             Giuseppe’s Steel City Pizza, 3658 Nova Road, Port Orange, Florida

Last week, the officers and staff of the Daytona Beach Police Department – under the extraordinary leadership of Chief Craig Capri – had the solemn duty of laying one of their own to rest.

And they did it with incredible grace, dignity and respect in the highest traditions of the police service.

Officer Thomas Coulter, a young recruit who realized his dream of becoming a law enforcement officer, died after falling ill during a training exercise at DBPD headquarters.

Following his funeral with full honors, members of the agency contacted Giuseppe’s Pizza and ordered food for approximately 40 members of the Coulter family.

After placing the order, the agency received a call advising that the owner of Giuseppe’s would be donating the full order as a token of his appreciation and condolences.

It is my honor to confer this well-deserved Angel Status on the owners and staff of Giuseppe’s Steel City Pizza for their outstanding contribution to the family of a fallen officer – and their respect for law enforcement officers everywhere.

This act of kindness is the essence of community spirit, and I hope the next time your family is in the mood for pizza – you’ll consider Giuseppe’s!

Quote of the Week:

 “An organization the size of county government — with more than 3,400 employees — shouldn’t operate on a good-ol’-boy backroom basis.  All complaints — even those that come from someone other than the reported victim — should be addressed swiftly, formally and independently, with an eye toward curbing behavior and ensuring a safe workplace for everyone.”

–The Daytona Beach News-Journal editorial, “Don’t stall on harassment,” May 29, 2018

The News-Journal is right.

Volusia County lacks a clear process for addressing serious complaints of employee misconduct.

In my view, the result of this maladministration of even basic personnel protocols fosters a culture of dysfunction that will ultimately lead to deteriorating morale, employee distrust of a system that inherently promotes the perception of a double-standard – and potential liability to taxpayers.

In an organization of over 3,000 employees who provide vital services to our communities, this cavalier dismissal of serious complaints of official misconduct is counter to the values and culture citizens expect in their government (seriously, this kind of conduct wouldn’t be acceptable in a New Orleans whorehouse).

It’s time Volusia County government receives that enema Sheriff Chitwood keeps telling us about.

A political high colonic to give a top-to-bottom purge of these creeps who accept public funds and benefits to provide effective service delivery – yet abdicate their sworn responsibilities in virtually every functional area.

Go ahead – try and point to one department in Volusia County government that’s hitting on all cylinders?

In fact, the only function that works first-time, every-time – with the reliability of a Swiss watch – is the transfer of public funds to political insiders in the form of tens-of-millions in “economic incentives,” tax abatement’s and infrastructure improvements.

Terrible.

And Another Thing!

 In the past, I’ve been hypercritical County Councilwoman Heather Post.

She deserved every bit of it. . .

After all, our elected officials have sat on their collective thumbs while everything from our emergency medical services to county-owned real estate crumbles into a void of negligence and ineptitude.

And nobody on the dais of power seemed to give a tinker’s damn.

However, I have recently seen a distinct change in Ms. Post’s enthusiasm and approach to representing the good folks here in District 4 with competence and transparency.

If you haven’t yet, I encourage everyone to visit Ms. Post’s social media page on Facebook and watch her most recent shocking video reports – one on the mounting controversy at the medical examiner’s office – the other providing details on how critical information is doled out sparingly like dollops of rotten porridge to a hungry waif, rather than willingly pushed to sitting public officials with a true need-to-know by the Dinneen administration.

Clearly, it’s a control technique – and Ms. Post appears to have finally come to that sobering realization after months of being beaten into submission and forced into a self-imposed silence by her “colleagues” who long ago learned to get along and go along.

Good work, Councilwoman Post – I admire your efforts!

That’s all for me, folks!

Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi, kids!  Yosemite Sam here!

The roughest, toughest, rootinest, tootinest, poot-pootinest, blogger whatever packed a pencil!

I opine on those lily-livered, bow-legged varmints who inhabit the halls of power – the idgit galoots who we elect and appoint to positions of high power – them flea-bitten scalawags who invariably serve the special interests of rich and powerful insiders – then forget all about us sufferin’ suckers who pay those rascally bills!

This week, I got a kick out of Daytona Beach News-Journal editorialist Scott Kent’s admonition to Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood that his frequent harsh criticisms of County Manager Jim Dinneen are “unprofessional and unbecoming of an elected official.”

“Chitwood should leave that Yosemite Sam stuff to the bloggers.”

 I don’t know.  Why should I have all the fun?

I’m kidding.

The fact is – I can only pontificate on the news-of-the-day – the dribs and drabs of information that slowly seep out of county government in canned press releases, carefully orchestrated soundbites or from what passes for public communication from our elected officials.

Besides, I like Sheriff Chitwood’s brash, no-holds-barred style.

He calls it like he sees it – and his pointed criticism of an entrenched system originates from the first fresh set of eyes to see the internal machinations of a decade-old administration that seems more focused on managing the county council than the administrative and operational aspects of a large, bloated and unwieldy bureaucracy.

I’m often asked why I “hate” Jim Dinneen – a natural assumption based upon my frequent screeds taking him to task for the disaster du jour – the seemingly endless gaffes, mistakes, howlers and good Old Fashioned, five-alarm fuck-ups that dominate the news these days.

The fact is, I don’t hate Mr. Dinneen – I’ve never met the man.

Only a small-minded bigot hates someone they don’t know or understand; however, I intensely dislike his cheapjack means to an end and manipulation of our system of governance to meet the private profit motives of political insiders.

Trust me, I understand Mr. Dinneen’s methods all too well.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating at this pivotal moment in our county’s history:

During a period of my long career in municipal government I served, for a time, as acting city manager.  Once, while dealing with a crisis, I placed a telephone call to Mr. Dinneen to request assistance from the County’s Road & Bridge Department.

It wasn’t a big deal – I needed to borrow some specialty barricades until we could purchase our own – and Volusia County had a warehouse full of them right down the street from my office.

Mr. Dinneen refused to speak to me.

I don’t know why – but he wouldn’t take my call.

I tried twice, then took the hint.

Perhaps its my law enforcement background – where we help one another regardless of jurisdiction, provide mutual aid and operational support to ensure the mission is accomplished – realizing the importance of cooperation in this mosaic of sixteen municipalities where crime and emergencies don’t recognize jurisdictional borders – but Dinneen’s refusal to assist really rubbed me wrong.

And it told me a lot about the man, his management style and his relationship with the municipalities.

Someone recently opined on social media that the primary role of a city/county manager is to serve as a scapegoat for the elected officials.

I disagree.

It’s an incredibly important role in the life of a community – and when things go bad – real damage can result.

During my career, I saw – and have been an active part of – some manically dysfunctional administrations.  I’m talking historic incompetence, palace intrigue, Machiavellian subterfuge, personal vendettas, unethical conduct and rabid small town political infighting – a real hell-broth of fear and dysfunction.

All of it brought by the incompetence and ineptitude of a few appointed managers.

In a Council/Manager form of government, the manager is given extraordinary powers over every aspect of government services.  For instance, the executive has complete autonomy to hire and fire employees, set internal policies, personally direct the operations of all departments, agencies and services of the government and administrate all financial processes and budget recommendations.

We, The People, elect the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker to serve on a council or commission – similar to a corporate board of directors – who appoint a manager with ostensibly strong managerial and organizational skills to run the day-to-day operations of the government, make policy determinations, approve budget allocations and serve the legislative function.

Most do a fine job – and some do an exceptional job – serving multiple masters while bringing economic and civic progress to their communities.

The system also insulates career civil servants – the professionals who provide government services to the community – from the often politically motivated nature of elected officials who are normally prohibited by charter from directing or interfering with operations.

That’s important.

Perhaps the one aspect of the system that gives the manager ultimate power is the fact that he or she personally controls the flow of information to the members of the elected body.

That can be dangerous.

Florida’s open government laws specifically prohibit two or more elected officials from discussing matters coming before the collective body in private.  As a result, the only conduit they have to the “real story” – the nuts and bolts of the issues – is through individual meetings with the manager.

While elected officials do have some leeway to conduct independent fact-finding – some charters, and transparent managers, allow commissioners to speak with department heads – but most rely solely on what they are told by the manager.

As a result, many times the legislative process dissolves into little more than a rubber-stamp of the manager’s prerogative.

In our representative democracy, the only thing standing in the way of a government executive transmogrifying into a tyrannical despot is the elected body – politically accountable policymakers charged with the direct oversight of an extremely powerful individual.

It’s a tough gig – on both sides – and requires a balance of power that is influenced by many factors.

In Volusia County, a big factor is the enormous sums of cash which are infused into local political campaigns by those special interests seeking continued access to the public trough.

Look, I poke fun at them a lot – but the fact is, local and county elected officials have a tough job serving as the face of our government.

The motivations and drive to hold oneself out for public office are as varied as the people who participate in the process – a desire for community service, civic involvement, a need to change the status quo, the real ability to make a positive impact, patriotism – and the less noble reasons of power, prestige, personal and professional benefit and outsized ego.

They are our insurance agent, realtor, dentist and clergy, farmer, school teachers and retirees, business owners and attorneys – folks from all walks of life, experience and backgrounds.

They take the late-night phone calls about trash collection, patiently listen to citizen complaints, explain the labyrinth of government processes, set budgets, hear zoning disputes, sit on boards and committees, listen to mind-numbing presentations, raise funds and awareness, endure relentless lobbying and persuasion from “power brokers” and competing interests, field personal insults and inquiries, and attend myriad ribbon cuttings, chamber events and rubber chicken civic functions.

All while being beaten up for their every misstep by wise-asses like me.

In most cases, they serve in the public interest – but a few succumb to the temptation of power and become everything they hated when their political journey began.

Others are simply weak-minded or unprepared for the reality of politics – and are quickly taken into the maw of the “system” – a machine that feeds greedily on tax dollars and rejects creativity or individual thought in favor of homogenized conformity and allegiance to the shadowy, behind-the-scenes shot-callers who use the public purse for personal enrichment.

As a result, many who stand for public office quickly realize it is simply easier to go along, and get along.

I have it on good authority – from at least two independent sources – that our beleaguered County Manager’s days at the helm of Volusia County government are coming to a close.

While I’m not sure what form his departure will take – or even if what I am hearing is correct – I think we can all agree that the time has come for Mr. Dinneen to go.

From District 4 County Councilwoman Heather Post’s videotaped disclosures on social media describing the ugly internal issues, lack of transparency and pathological information control measures currently in place – to Sheriff Chitwood’s scathing critique of Mr. Dinneen’s micromanagement and untruthfulness – the problems are getting too big, and too numerous, to ignore.

Even the Daytona Beach News-Journal is calling for change.

I encourage our elected officials on the dais of power in DeLand to muster the personal and political courage to show Jim Dinneen the door – sooner rather than later.

It is time to restore honesty and transparency in a government that has come off the rails – and lost the trust and confidence of those it exists to serve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an undeniable crisis in Volusia County government.

This week we got a remarkable glimpse at how our elected and appointed officials in the halls of power in DeLand react when that dysfunction is revealed – and it exposed the fact that self-preservation and political insulation are institutional instincts in an organizational culture that puts protection of the “system” over the needs of constituents every time.

Look, no person or group is perfect.

So long as the faults and frailties of human beings are part of a process – there will always be the possibility of legitimate error.

But there is a difference between an honest mistake and negligence in the often-difficult work of providing essential government services.  In my experience, the people who pay for those services will often forgive things they can see themselves doing.

What they will never accept is abdication of responsibility and deflection of accountability by public officials who are paid handsomely to exhibit those important attributes of leadership.

When the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported on the abrupt resignation of Dr. Sara Zydowicz – the District 7 Medical Examiner who had been in office for just one-month before she resigned and penned a scathing critique of the substandard facilities and inadequate staffing she endured to the state regulatory committee which oversees this important service to the citizens of Florida – the Dinneen administration immediately began circling the wagons.

Within hours of the revelation, a virulent siege mindset spread like wildfire through the halls of the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Building.  That happens in an organization that has had any creativity, elasticity or independent thought micromanaged out of it by an all-powerful autocrat.

Initially, Deputy County Manager George Recktenwald was selected to become the point man for a burgeoning scandal which sent shock-waves through a community.

In a weird performance that I have described as the most embarrassing digitally recorded interview of a sitting public official ever recorded – Mr. Recktenwald came off like a prototypical bureaucrat trying valiantly to save his own ass while protecting those above his paygrade who are ultimately responsible for the debacle.

This ugly custom will become known in government circles as being “Recktenwalded” – the practice of a senior manager being shoved between a rock and a hard place – sacrificed on the altar of public opinion – while County Manager Jim Dinneen sequestered himself behind closed doors with a coterie of like-types, all getting their sordid stories together while figuring a means to marginalize the messenger.

It happens so frequently these days that one can almost anticipate the process.

First, the news of yet another colossal gaffe is met by vehement denials by our elected officials on the Volusia County Council – lumps who have once again been caught red-faced – totally blindsided by the County Manager’s disaster du jour – followed closely by counter-accusations from county mouthpieces and middle-management.

Then, with the stench of lies heavy on the breeze – Mr. Dinneen conjures blatant falsehoods and uses political sleight-of-hand in a crass and cowardly attempt to discredit the whistleblower and sidestep personal culpability.

This charade is reprehensible – and must be utterly embarrassing for politically vulnerable council members – yet, they permit the same vignette to play out time-and-again.

It’s also getting tiresome.

Now, with the undeniable facts of the deplorable conditions at the Medical Examiner’s Office laid bare – those who were elected to represent our interests once again show their true colors, deny any direct knowledge of the issues leading to the crisis and seem to have a clairvoyant premonition of the findings of an “independent” outside auditor who was hand-selected by Mr. Dinneen.

How stupid do these hapless assholes think we are? 

In the most bald-faced scam since, oh, last week, our doddering fool of a County Chair, Ed Kelley, and the patently compromised Jim Dinneen, would have us believe that a cursory review by Pasco County medical examiner, John Thogmartin – which apparently consisted of a walk-through of the morgue last Friday – will refute Dr. Z’s allegations and result in a glowing review of the county’s forensic services.

“I don’t think it’s dangerous or that it’s mismanaged,” said Dinneen, adding that he’d never heard any complaints from the doctor. “I want the third-party person to see realistically where we are and if there’s anything we are lacking, I will make sure it gets done.”

Of course, Kelley agreed with his boss – looking for all the world like a panting little lapdog desperately protecting his master.

“It won’t be anywhere close to what she wrote,” Kelley predicted. “Let’s just wait and see what the inspection says.”

How in the hell do these two buffoons know in advance what the result of Dr. Thogmartin’s audit will produce?

Unless. . .

Screw it.

Every thinking person knows that the fox simply cannot select and oversee an inspection of the henhouse – not if there is to be a modicum of credibility in the process – and God knows we could really use some transparency right now.

To add insult to injury, the third stooge – our own elected Rip Van Winkle, “Sleepy” Pat Patterson – took the opportunity to marginalize Dr. Zydowicz (the only soul in this sordid mess who had the personal and professional ethics to report this abject negligence to outside authority) saying that her complaint “damaged the county’s image.”

Note to Sleepy Pat:  What remains of the “county’s image” couldn’t be marred more deeply with a 10-pound shit-hammer.

Inexplicably, Sleepy went on to exclaim in the newspaper, “I haven’t heard a single word or complaint about this until this story,” said Patterson, referring to a News-Journal report about the letter last week. “This whole thing boggles my mind because I haven’t heard any complaints. I think Dr. Z has tarnished us because of the way she handled this.” He also called The News-Journal’s story about the letter “bull—-.”

I’ll tell you what’s bullshit – sitting public officials vainly attempting to convince We, The People – the long-suffering taxpayers of Volusia County – that they didn’t know as early as 2015 when the ME lost professional accreditation that there were serious problems at the morgue, or 2017, when News-Journal reporter Dustin Wyatt wrote an eye-opening exposé which described the odor of decomposition wafting down an interior corridor, among other “challenges.”

Besides, “boggling” Sleepy Pat’s mind isn’t that difficult. . .

These lying sacks of shit should be ashamed of themselves – besmirching the reputation of a dedicated professional with the best interests of her constituents and subordinates at heart – as they work overtime to save their own sorry asses.

Reprehensible.

These craven assholes disgust me – and every truth-seeking resident of Volusia County who are sick and tired of being openly lied to by this bought-and-paid-for rabble.

In the News-Journal’s spot-on editorial, “No excuses on ME office,” the newspaper opined:

“Over the past three years, has nobody complained to a council member about the facility, and no one followed through? Chair Ed Kelley told Wyatt, “It was explained to me that (the morgue) wasn’t that bad.” He acknowledges that he did not request a tour of the facility to confirm that.”

“Perhaps the council has been putting too much faith in official sources.”

Perhaps?

Gentle readers, when elected officials lose faith and confidence in their chief executive to administrate the essential services of our government – they are duty-bound to protect their constituents from further ineptitude and embarrassment.

That’s how the system – our venerated “home rule charter” form of government – is supposed to work.

No more excuses, cover-ups and tail-wagging-the-dog.

Jim Dinneen has once again been publicly exposed as an overpaid foul ball who deftly manages the County Council – but fails miserably in his sworn duties to effectively and efficiently oversee the important administrative and operational aspects of Volusia County government.

It is time for our elected representatives to act decisively – to once and for all demonstrate strong leadership – and jettison this weak link for the good of the herd.

It is past time for Little Jimmy to make his exit.

 

 

 

 

Hi, kids!

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

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole:              Former DeBary City Manager Dan Parrott

During the long, hot summer of 2016, I wrote a series of opinion essays on the political maelstrom that wracked the City of DeBary.

People still ask me why I expended so much stomach acid on the small west Volusia town, and I explain that if you care about good government in your community – you should care about good governance everywhere.

I live in God’s Country – Ormond Beach – but what happened in DeBary really bothered me.

The genesis was a progression of articles in the Daytona Beach News-Journal – penned by the intrepid investigative journalist Dina Voyles-Pulver – in my view, one of the best reporters in the business today – regarding the City of DeBary’s surreptitious attempt to slip a mixed-use development into the environmentally sensitive Gemini Springs Annex.

Her work on what I later termed the “Debacle in DeBary” is worthy of a Pulitzer.

At the time, I wrote, “With the skillful stroke of her pen, Dina exposed a fetid snake pit of public corruption, political treachery, incompetence, and parasitic malfeasance that reached all the way to the helm of one of our state’s most powerful regulatory agencies.”

 It’s true.

At the time, DeBary hired Bio-Tech Consulting, an environmental consultancy owned by our old friend Long John Miklos, the powerful chairman of the St. Johns Water Management District, which both owned the land and controlled the permitting process required for the proposed transit-oriented development.

Interestingly, Miklos and DeBary City Attorney Kurt Ardaman were listed as officers in a corporation registered with the state called Medjool Investments.

That’s right – the city attorney and the shapeshifting chairman/lobbyist John Miklos – were in business together!

Apparently, Mr. Ardaman conveniently forgot to mention this fact to his clients – the citizens and elected officials of DeBary – and that began a very tumultuous period in Tiny Town.

It was ugly.  Really.

Born of an archetypal crisis of leadership – and abject greed – this fiasco exemplified the depth to which some elected and appointed officials will stoop to serve their own self-interests.

DeBary’s disgraced former city manager, Dan Parrott – in my view, a congenitally crooked douchebag whose brand of ham-fisted revenge politics and open misogyny ultimately cost two good women their careers and the duly elected mayor his seat on the council – is ultimately responsible for this civic disaster.

He also cost the good citizens of DeBary a ton of money.

Don’t get me wrong – there’s enough blame to go around in DeBary City Hall.

Anyone who cares can read all about it in the Barker’s View archives.  In my view, the posts serve as a cruel primer on the ultimate consequences of avarice and political hubris run amok.

One filthy segment of the saga ended this week when the taxpayers of DeBary (through their insurance premiums) paid for the sins of Dan Parrott by compensating former Assistant City Manager Kassandra Blissett some $250,000 to settle a federal gender discrimination suit.

In my view, that wasn’t nearly enough.

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Kassandra since her first job in municipal government.

In my experience, she is a consummate professional – bright, articulate, with a style and sense of humor that endeared her to staff, elected officials and the citizens she served.

Unfortunately, when Parrott took the helm of DeBary government, Ms. Blissett’s career trajectory arced like a lawn dart.

According to her March 2015 complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, female staff members were “subjected to ongoing, pervasive and offensive remarks and discriminatory actions on account of her gender” by Mr. Parrott.

An amended complaint alleged Parrott called Blissett and then city clerk, Stacey Tebo, “bitches,” and sullied Kassandra’s reputation by referring to her as “the county whore.” 

It is also alleged that he refused to properly investigate a complaint of harassment and discrimination filed by another female employee.

In addition, the complaint accused Parrott of making other despicable comments in the workplace, opining that “women don’t think clearly because they are too emotional” and that there was “too much estrogen” on staff.

What a scumbag.

As a result, Ms. Blissett was unable to find a suitable position locally, and now serves a government in Maryland.

Of course, neither Parrott, nor the City of DeBary, admitted wrongdoing in the settlement.

A similar federal lawsuit filed by Ms. Tebo has yet to be settled.

Ultimately, Dan Parrott fled City Hall with a sack full of severance cash like the diseased rat he is – but not before he and the City Attorney cobbled together some dubious “charter violations” against the community’s chief critic, and duly elected mayor, Clint Johnson.

The charges essentially involved a series of goofy tweets and opinionated social media posts Mayor Johnson made voicing his frustration with an increasingly out-of-control municipal government.

Once everything was in place, a Kangaroo Court was convened and the will of the people – the sacred vote of DeBary residents – was arbitrarily overturned by the city’s four remaining thin-skinned, mean-spirited elected officials in the most blatant act of political vengeance ever witnessed in the history of local governance.

They were embarrassed.  They didn’t like him.  So, they took Mayor Johnson out with extreme prejudice.

A circuit court judge later sided with DeBary officials on just one of the eight accusations used to oust a sitting elected official.  To his credit – Mayor Johnson chose to move on with his life and spare his former constituents further expense and turmoil.

Ultimately, most of the officials who were responsible for this screwy turmoil left public office, criminal investigations were concluded without charges and things seemed to quiet, or at least move out of public view, something those who wandered off into the festering quagmire of the Gemini Springs Annex deal consider some weird victory.

Whatever.

But when I read an article that harkens back to that bizarre time and place, I can’t help but feel that the true victims of this classic example of all that’s wrong with small town politics – the long-suffering citizens of DeBary – have been left holding the bag.

Angel:             Former Volusia Medical Examiner Dr. Sara Zydowicz

 Oh, we got trouble, right here in River City!

 That’s with a capital “T”! – That rhymes with “Triple P”! – and that stands for “Piss Poor Performance!” 

 My apologies to Meredith Willson – Broadway musicals are not my strength – but a recent piece in our newspaper of record exposing disastrous problems in the Volusia County Medical Examiner’s Office is indicative of much larger troubles in County Manager Jim Dinneen’s administration.

In a recent article by the Daytona Beach News-Journal’s Dustin Wyatt entitled, “Medical Examiner: Volusia facility ‘potentially dangerous’” we learned the true reason why Dr. Sara Zydowicz recently fled Volusia County like a scalded dog after just one-month on the job:

She could no longer jeopardize her professional reputation – or physical safety – working in a critically understaffed and substandard shithole that no longer serves the needs of the citizens of Volusia County.

Citing a litany of serious discrepancies, to include overcrowding, a backlog of incomplete autopsy reports, and an office that has been physically and financially neglected “to the point that daily work is at times not possible and the risk of critical error is uncomfortably high,” Dr. Z did the only thing a licensed professional could and resigned.      

To her credit, she also had the personal fortitude and professional ethics to report these deplorable conditions to the state regulatory commission that oversees medical examiners and their critical work in service to the citizens of Florida.

I respect Dr. Z’s courage.

Given the sensitive and essential nature of the service, these allegations are more than just another government gaffe.  In my view, this level of arrant negligence and gross malfeasance by Mr. Dinneen and his administration should be a crime.

Look, everyone knew that there were serious problems at the medical examiner’s office – in fact, our ‘powers that be’ have been promising a new $13-million facility for years – assuaging growing concerns with the repeated refrain, “It’s on the five-year plan.”

So, how can Mr. Dinneen now sit back with that arrogant look on his face and deflect responsibility with the mendacious explanation he didn’t receive “one complaint, not one formal complaint” regarding problems at the morgue?

My God. 

For the record, Mr. Dinneen knew the severity of the situation when the office lost its professional accreditation in 2015 due to numerous violations of accepted standards and what on-site assessors described as a “way substandard facility.”

Then, just last summer, the News-Journal printed a scathing article entitled, “Volusia medical examiner’s office struggles to keep up with the dead,” wherein reporter Dustin Wyatt described the odor of decomposing bodies wafting down an interior corridor, among other “challenges.”

Despite these glaring warnings – in August 2017 – the Volusia County Council voted without discussion to continue providing forensic services to Seminole County, with the full-knowledge the office was incapable of keeping up with Volusia’s burgeoning demand.

Interestingly, at that time, Dinneen was well-aware of the issues, because he told the newspaper that when the new facility is built, “we need to size it for the flow based on both counties.”

Now do you see why Sheriff Chitwood called the County Manager a “lying sack of shit”?

In perhaps the most uncomfortable recorded interview ever captured on digital video, Deputy County Manager George Recktenwald looked like an odd-toed ungulate trapped on an ice sheet – peevishly hemming, hawing, slipping and slopping his way through a botched damage control monolog which was later cruelly posted on the News-Journal’s webpage.

Sadly, as in most calamitous scandals in Volusia County government, Mr. Recktenwald became the latest staff casualty – his credibility sacrificed by his cowardly boss as he became the face of this latest/greatest debacle – all while Dinneen apparently cowers under his expensive desk in the fetal position, refusing to answer questions until he can get his stories straight.

Trust me, George Recktenwald’s ability to swallow his dignity whole will become legendary in local government circles – handed down through generations of bureaucrats like some ancient Babylonian cautionary tale.

In my view, what Mr. Recktenwald did is reprehensible, and he should be ashamed for trying to defend Mr. Dinneen’s outrageous negligence while marginalizing Dr. Zydowicz for blowing the whistle on the deplorable conditions she and others were forced to endure.

That’s unconscionable.

By any metric, Mr. Dinneen deserted his ethical and fiduciary responsibility to properly fund and maintain this essential government service – then he bald-faced lied about it.

If this important work cannot be conducted due to inadequate staffing, equipment and facilities – things clearly under Mr. Dinneen’s control – it can deny victims of homicide the justice they deserve – and complicate all-important manner and cause of death determinations in post-mortem examinations.

Unfortunately, the causative factors in county government go much deeper.

How many times must we open our morning newspaper to the headline “Council members surprised” before someone, anyone, on the dais of power gets off their ass and acts to stop this embarrassment?

In a dubious response to a reporter’s question, the always arrogant County Councilwoman Deb Denys took the opportunity to attack Dr. Z’s difficult decision – and credibility – rather than place blame where it belongs.

“Everyone is aware of the situation,” Denys said, (except Mr. Dinneen?) “including Dr. Z. What’s most surprising is that she circumvented the county and went directly to the state. We never heard complaints from her before this.”

Where else would she go, Ms. Denys?

Should she have brought her concerns to you neutered lapdogs on the Volusia County Council?

That’s laughable.

The last time District 4 Councilwoman Heather Post – a duly elected public representative – dared speak out against Mr. Dinneen, she was brutally humiliated and publicly discredited by her own colleagues during an open meeting.

Then, obviously realizing that her clumsy remark exposed how serious internal problems are covered up as a matter of policy – Ms. Denys attempted to recover with the absurd notion that she would “…support having an outside party come in and look at the morgue’s operations.”    

How stupid does Deb Deny’s think we are? 

And what good does it do to bring in an outside auditor if you’re going to leave the same shit-for-brains in charge of an operation that they allowed to deteriorate to the point of “danger” in the first place?

Besides, the National Association of Medical Examiners already told you all that’s wrong when they pulled your accreditation in 2015!

(Note to Deb Denys: The problem with lying for a living is you have to remember the lies you told previously to keep the chain of deceit intact – it’s like spinning plates – otherwise, assholes like me dredge them up and throw them in your face like a rotten meringue pie.  Every.  Damn.  Time.)

According to the News-Journal’s report, “County Chair Ed Kelley said that he’s not asked for a tour of the office but believes county management would have moved the construction project up on the priority list if they had been made aware that conditions were as dire as Zydowicz described.”

“It’s been on the list for years. Should it have been replaced sooner? Maybe,” he said. “It was explained to me that (the morgue) wasn’t that bad.

Maybe?

Clearly, our doddering fool of a County Chair is physically incapable of independently gathering information and forming an original thought.  He prefers the plausible deniability of buying Mr. Dinneen’s fairytale stories – then feigning ignorance.

When Old Ed and his fellow elected officials invariably get caught red-faced with their knickers around their knees – publicly mortified by the latest debacle – Mr. Kelley shrugs his shoulders, gives us that slack jawed expression, then deadpans in his patented cornpone, “Ahh don’t know nuttin’.” 

These assholes know no shame.

If history repeats, good people like Dr. Z will take their professional services elsewhere – the “system” will circle the wagons around this dry turd of a county manager – and come this fall, our elected dullards on the county council will, like clockwork, give Mr. Dinneen yet another undeserved pay raise.

In the Kingdom of Jim Dinneen – We, The People, are the losers.

Victims of violent, traumatic or unattended death deserve to have their stories told; they deserve to have their remains treated with dignity; their friends and families deserve answers in a timely manner – and our justice system deserves competent forensic services.

As citizens of one of the highest taxed counties in Florida, Volusia residents are worthy of better.

We should not be forced to accept this gross mismanagement and administrative incompetence from a foul ball commanding over $300,000 in public salary and benefits.

The time has come for Mr. Dinneen to go.

Angel:             Bethune-Cookman Athletics

 From the Barker’s View Sports Desk – it was a busy week for B-CU Wildcat Baseball and Softball as they played host to both MEAC tournaments – events which brought 12 collegiate teams and conference staff to town.

Despite a lingering rain, the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s ground crew kept the field in great shape, allowing the baseball tourney to progress as scheduled.

After surviving four straight elimination games – and giving a monumental effort in the title matchup –  unfortunately, our Wildcats were bested in a disappointing 12-9 loss to North Carolina A&T who were crowned MEAC Champions 2018.

In a post-game interview, B-CU head coach Barrett Shaft told the Daytona Beach News-Journal:

  “I told them, life is going to be like that, it’s going to hit you in the face a couple times. What they learned this season about driving through adversity, it’s going to be with them the rest of their lives.”

 “I learned a lot about their character and they’re going to go on to be great men.”

 It’s refreshing to hear a collegiate coach say that.  After all, isn’t that what organized athletics is all about?

Congratulations, Wildcats!  Stay strong!

Asshole:          Former Palm Coast City Manager Richard Kelton

Did anyone else belch bile after reading former Palm Coast City Manager Richard Kelton’s defense of what passes for Volusia County’s charter government in Wednesday’s News-Journal?

Just me?  Okay.

Frankly, I’m tired of being lectured by washed-up political hacks on the merits of a county charter that places extraordinary power in the hands of one little man – completely devoid of outside oversight, transparency or political accountability.

That shit might have worked in the Land of Oz – but it has no place in a representative democracy.

The fact is, our current system bears no resemblance to the noble idea of self-government the citizens had in mind when the charter was adopted in 1968.

The preamble states:

“We the people of Volusia County, State of Florida, in order to create a more responsible and efficient local government, do in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the State of Florida, ordain and establish as our charter and form of government this charter of Volusia County, Florida.”

Tell me one thing remotely responsible or efficient about our current situation?

I’m asking.

Those who support this bastardized oligarchy crow that our duly elected sheriff should learn to live within a demonstrably corrupt system – because that’s what he bargained for when he stood for election.

Look, Mike Chitwood is a good cop – but I’ll bet even he couldn’t have deduced just how bad things were in county government from the outside looking in.

In discussing Sheriff Chitwood’s attempt to remove his office from the bondage of Mr. Dinneen’s shady micromanagement, Mr. Kelton opined:

“The Volusia County Charter has been reviewed five times by appointed Charter Review Commissions. The first review was in 1975-76, with additional reviews every 10 years since. Amendments proposed by the review commission go directly to the ballot without any action by the County Council. Although the issue has been raised during each charter review, no commission has seen any reason to place an amendment regarding the elected department head status on the ballot. The system works, and works well; don’t break it.”

Bullshit.

What he fails to mention is that the charter is not reviewed by citizens who are forced to live with the fallout – but by politically appointed insiders, former politicians and development attorneys with marching orders and uber-wealthy power brokers – some of whom directly benefit from massive government incentives – who do their level-best to protect the status quo.

I understand Mr. Kelton’s instinct to defend a fellow manager under siege.

After all, Kelton has been a member of the Florida City and County Management Association for nearly a half-century – an organization that has dissolved into little more than a paid fraternity which always seems to protect its weakest link – regardless of the damage it does to the profession.

Look, I get it.  But please stop blowing smoke up the ass of long-suffering Volusia County residents who have experienced for themselves the downside of a home rule charter form that has clearly gone off the rails.

In my view, given our current circumstances, we desperately need an independent Constitutional Sheriff in Volusia County.

Mr. Kelton, our “system” isn’t just broken – it looks like it was struck by a locomotive hauling wet manure.

A real stinking mess.

I encourage everyone to vote “YES” on Amendment 10.

Quote of the Week:

“The other Community Voice by County Manager Jim Dinneen, with comments regarding the medical examiner quitting, were a perfect example from our government and the powers that be. He stated that during her tenure there were positive comments and no complaints. She worked in that position for one month!”

–Bill Inklebarger, Port Orange, writing in the Daytona Beach News-Journal’s Letters to the Editor, “Volusia is due for change,” May 23, 2018.

Kudos to Mr. Inklebarger and others who have demonstrated the courage to shine a light on the blatant falsehoods and ineptitude of County Manager Jim Dinneen.

Based upon what we now know about Dr. Zydowicz’ abrupt departure – clearly her one-month tenure at the helm of what remains of our Medical Examiner’s Office wasn’t all “positive comments and no complaints” as Mr. Dinneen would have us believe.

Look, anyone with a base IQ score above that of a piss-ant or Ed Kelley (sorry piss-ants. . .) can see what’s happening here, right?

The categorical imperative of government service is that an executive official must never lie to his or her constituents – especially in a crude attempt to dodge individual accountability – because it destroys the public’s sacred trust in this important institution.

In fact, a main tenet of the Code of Ethics for government professionals requires that a manager:

“Demonstrate by word and action the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in all public, professional, and personal relationships in order that the member may merit the trust and respect of the elected and appointed officials, employees, and the public.”

In my view, this latest exposure brings to light the pressing need for fundamental change in our administrative and political leadership in Volusia County.  This debacle is wholly unacceptable – and the solution is now firmly in the hands of the people’s elected representatives.

Their duty to protect us from this ineptitude and restore confidence can no longer be denied.

And Another Thing!

Earlier this week, Sons of the Beach – Florida’s premiere beach advocacy – put Volusia County officials on notice that when it comes to conservation rules and environmental regulations, they apply to everyone.

Even the “Rich & Powerful.”

At issue was the recent “invitation only” soiree held by Summit Hospitality to say “thank you” to local politicians who gave away our century-old heritage of beach driving so the Hard Rock Hotel could market a semi-private beach.

During the party, our ‘movers and shakers’ stood around sipping cocktails, slapping backs and looking on as a pyrotechnic contractor set up, and later detonated, a spectacular array of professional-grade fireworks directly on the beach – in the conservation zone – on the first evening of the 2018 sea turtle nesting season. . .

A member of the SOB’s incredible legal team, attorney Dennis Bayer, recently let County Manager Jim Dinneen know there is some shit we won’t eat:

“The complaint focuses on recent activities by the developers of Hard Rock Café.  I believe that you and members of the County Council are actually witnesses to one of the violations.  Attached is a copy of the permit issued by Volusia County for a special event to the Hard Rock Hotel.  The permit specifically states that all events and parking must take place outside of the Conservation Zone.  This point is emphasized in several portions of the permit as “protection of the beach ecosystem is a priority of Volusia County…”.  In direct contradiction to the express terms of the permit, the Applicant was allowed to drive and park vehicles in the CZ, and, perhaps more significantly, launch an extensive array of fireworks from well within the CZ. Please see the attached photographs.”

In addition, Mr. Bayer’s complaint incorporates the phalanx of horrific poisoned poles which were driven into the sand as a blockade to beach driving along 410’ of the strand behind the Hard Luck.

Preliminary testing on samples taken from the pressure treated wood pilings show they contain “high levels” of Chromated Copper Arsenate – an extremely hazardous substance which has been banned by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for use in public recreation areas due to exposure concerns.

(Shouldn’t someone at Beach Management have known that before they fouled a public beach with chromium, copper and arsenic?  Whatever. . .)

The SOB’s are asking that Volusia County immediately remove these poisoned posts and replace them with a safe alternative.

Thank you for your vigilance – Sons of the Beach!

We need you now, more than ever!

That’s all for me, folks!

Have a great weekend!

It’s rare that I put out two blog posts on the same day – but I’m mad as hell – and you should be too.

Now, the evidence in undeniable.

For months, I’ve railed about the ugly fact that County Manager Jim Dinneen has utterly failed in his duty to maintain public assets, ensure essential services and provide sound and ethical stewardship of our hard-earned tax dollars.

The anecdotal and physical evidence of my claims are too long to mention – but if you need a quick reminder, I encourage you to take a drive by the dilapidated county-owned shopping center at Cardinal Avenue and A-1-A in the heart of Ormond Beach’s tourist district.

It’s a godforsaken heap – an off-the-tax-roll blight incubator – sitting smack-dab at the nexus of a residential neighborhood and a once scenic roadway traveled by thousands of visitors – who we spent handsomely to attract to our area.

The deplorable condition of public buildings and assets that have been allowed to become mold food on Dinneen’s watch are legendary – just ask anyone who owns adjacent property (or the City of DeLand, who put up with that noxious dump known as the “Old Jail” for years until they were able to find a workable solution to demolish it and make way for actual progress in the best downtown in America.)

Ignoring preventive maintenance and allowing brick-and-mortar buildings to decline and melt into irreparable condition so he can ask for money to build a Taj Mahal replacement facility has been Mr. Dinneen’s modus operandi for over a decade.

In my view, a crumbling abandoned jail – or an overgrown dumping ground for beach signage –  is one thing, but when one of the most highly compensated county executives in the state knowingly permits a sensitive and essential public service like the Medical Examiner’s Office to wither on the budgetary vine – ignoring requested improvements, crucial equipment and staffing requests to the point the office loses its professional accreditation – and ultimately deteriorates to the point county employees are at physical risk – borders on official misconduct.

In my view, if that’s not criminal malfeasance – it damned well should be.

In a recent article by the Daytona Beach News-Journal’s Dustin Wyatt entitled, “Medical Examiner: Volusia facility ‘potentially dangerous’” we learned the true reason why Dr. Sara Zydowicz fled Volusia County like a scalded dog after just one-month on the job:

She could no longer jeopardize her professional reputation – or physical safety – working in a critically understaffed and substandard shithole that no longer serves the needs of the citizens of Volusia County. 

 Rather than sweep this fetid mess under the rug, to her credit, Dr. Z had the personal fortitude and professional ethics to report these deplorable conditions to the state regulatory commission that oversees medical examiners and their critical work in service to the citizens of Florida.

According to the News-Journal, “Since Volusia County is one of only a few charter counties in the state — the rest have medical examiners that are appointed by the governor, not hired by a county manager — the county has to formally request aid from the state to right the ship.”

Now do you understand why our duly elected Sheriff Mike Chitwood wants out from under the charter-imposed yoke of this incompetent little shitbird?

Inexplicably, Mr. Dinneen didn’t bother to solicit input from Sheriff Chitwood, the chief law enforcement officer in Volusia County – or the State Attorney’s Office – when he hired Dr. Z, something the chairman of the medical examiners commission described as “unheard of.”

Sadly, Deputy County Manager George Recktenwald was forced to become the unfortunate face this latest/greatest debacle – valiantly attempting to lean into the building shitstorm and take it square on the chin for his cowardly boss, who to this writing refused to even return a News-Journal reporters telephone call.

Frankly, George Recktenwald should be given a medal – then he should be fired for not having the guts to stand up, speak truth to power, and publicly expose this craven little bastard for the incompetent hack he truly is.

During his tenure, Jim Dinneen has facilitated the wholesale giveaway of tens-of-millions of dollars in public funds couched as “economic development incentives,” orchestrated the discounted sale of public land to private interests, pissed away our heritage of beach access to appease the overweening greed of speculative developers, concocted patent falsehoods about the pressing need for new, astronomically priced courthouses, public works facilities and other county buildings – even as those he is currently responsible for maintaining literally rot into the ground.

If this staggering bureaucratic ineptitude and gross mismanagement doesn’t send a chill up your spine, let me tell you something that will:

When made aware of this incredibly serious situation by the News-Journal, at least one of our elected dullards on the Volusia County Council – who all are now personally and politically responsible for what happens next – had the temerity to question why Dr. Zydowicz went outside county government to report this emergency to the proper state regulatory agency.

You read that right.

According to the News-Journal, when questioned about this startling revelation, County Councilwoman Deb Denys said, “Everyone is aware of the situation, including Dr. Z. What’s most surprising is that she circumvented the county and went directly to the state. We never heard complaints for (sic) her before this.”

Deb Denys is a damnable liar.

Hell, anyone who pays even marginal attention has heard the horror stories for years – that’s why the ‘powers that be’ have been promising a new “$13-million” replacement facility for years.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is why Deb Denys has absolutely no business serving as an elective official on the Dais of Power in DeLand – and showcases that the complete abdication of any reasonable accountability has become an institutionalized protocol in the executive suites of the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Building.

To prove my long-held belief that our doddering fool of a County Chairman, Ed Kelley, only understands what Mr. Dinneen feeds to him with a rubber spoon, Old Ed responded to the news like the perennially uninformed dunce he is, “It was explained to me that (the office) wasn’t that bad.”

Who explained it to you, Ed?  And why did you ask the question in the first place?

And how in all that’s holy would a dipshit like you know what constitutes “that bad” in a forensic science environment?

Trust me – Ed Kelley can’t pour piss out of a boot with the instructions on the heel – let alone determine the competency and protocols required of a very active medical examiners office.

That tells me something must have piqued Old Ed’s blunted interest – caused him to ask Little Jimmy, “So, how’s everything over at the morgue?” – I mean, that’s not exactly a question that forms out of light chit-chat over a taxpayer-funded lunch at the Roundtable of Elected Officials meeting, right?

Was it the fact that over 200 autopsy reports are sitting incomplete because of inadequate staffing?

Or the gruesome scene of dead bodies – you know, the loved ones of Volusia County residents – stacking up like cord-wood or languishing in hospitals due to lack of available space?

Perhaps it had something to do with Mr. Dinneen’s administration utterly refusing to provide the medical examiner with requested budget information, respond to funding requests or so much as hire temporary employees during an all-out crisis – like someone to answer the fucking phone?

 My God!  What in the hell is going on over there?

 This is, quite simply, over-the-top – even by Volusia County government standards.

Now, our elected officials on the Volusia County Council are left in the untenable position of actually having to hold Mr. Dinneen personally accountable for his acts and omissions – his abject failure of leadership – and his pathological inability to accept responsibility for anything, all while pocketing hundreds of thousands in salary and benefits.

The political ramifications are clear – the time has come, Mr. Dinneen must go.

Now.

If our elected representatives don’t take swift and decisive action to protect their constituents from this base ineptitude and restore honor and competency to the county managers office – I can assure you the voters will demonstrate to incumbent county council members the concept of political accountability come November.

 

 

 

There is plenty of skepticism to go around these days when talk turns to “progress” in Volusia County.

After all, doubt and uncertainty are the natural precipitate of lies.

When those people and institutions we trust tell us things that are counter to what we actually experience – suspicion results.

Then cynicism takes hold.

In a duplicitous attempt to deflect attention from the very real problems we face here on Florida’s Fun Coast, many of those we have elected and appointed to represent our interests – and more specifically, those officials and organizations with a parasitic reliance on public funds – soft-soap us with misleading, often grandiose tales of “game changing” projects – always painting a rosy picture with dubious statistics and studies which bear no resemblance to ambient conditions.

They craft a narrative to fit the “Big Idea du jour” – regardless of how nonsensical that stratagem may seem to those of us dependent upon Volusia’s struggling artificial economy for our livelihoods.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal – which perilously walks a frayed tightrope across the deep divide between feel-good corporate marketing pap and our ghastly reality – recently presented the enigmatic conundrum, “Tourism Tax Mystery.”

The piece, written by the talented Jim Abbott, asked the simple question, “If Bike Week roared, why were bed taxes down in March?”

By all accounts, Bike Week 2018 drew hundreds of thousands to Volusia County – the best turnout in years by some estimates – yet, the Halifax Area Advertising Authority reported that bed tax collections in Daytona Beach were down some 3.4 percent in March, compared to the same period one year ago.

Interestingly, the report confirmed “…that decline was in sharp contrast to collections that jumped 14 percent for the same period in West Volusia County, and 10 percent in Southeast Volusia, an area that includes New Smyrna Beach.”

The local drop was also counter to regional collections which were up a whopping 9 to 18 percent.

What passes for our “tourism leaders” – folks who are totally dependent upon bed taxes for their very existence – naturally fawn optimistically, claiming that while “average daily rates” were down, occupancy was up by 6 percent in March.

That means motels dropped their prices in an attempt to put heads in beds.

They also rely on some weird voodoo ritual to estimate annual visitor counts – a ‘methodology’ used since the 1970’s (?) that takes actual occupancy data and survey results, then doubles the actual figures to account for “overnight visitors who might be staying with relatives, in privately owned condos or homes or other accommodations.”

Say what?

Whatever.

Most smart business people, in other words, anyone operating an enterprise in the “real world” – understand that, over time, markets change.  And they use hard numbers and trustworthy statistical information to their advantage when anticipating future trends.

Clearly, in east Volusia and beyond, the growing popularity of short-term rentals and other “nontraditional” accommodations offered by “peer-to-peer” sharing sites, such as Airbnb, have reduced bed tax collections.

In fact, officials report that revenues received from these nontraditional sources made up approximately 20 percent of the county’s total collections.

According to resident mystic Evelyn Fine, president of Mid-Florida Marketing & Research – who has been telling county tourism officials what they want to hear for years – short-term rentals often charge lower rates than traditional hotels, which naturally results in less tourism taxes.

Look, I’m no expert, but the market patterns reported by the Daytona Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau and legitimate tourism analysts tells me that visitors to Daytona Beach aren’t interested in luxuriant “Five Star” resort accommodations at $300+ per night.

I mean, you don’t have to have an advanced degree from the Mori Hosseini School of Hospitality Management to cypher that one, right?

So, what do our economic development guru’s and elected officials in Volusia County do?

They aggressively court and “incentivize” speculative developers intent on building extravagant theme hotels and multi-story luxury condominiums ranging to more than $1.4 million (in a market where the median sales price of a condo was around $207,000 last month).

They seem intent on flooding the beachside with upscale accommodations in a market that has proven it can’t support a Bojangles Chicken n’ Biscuits – even if it is counter to every prediction of the hospitality and tourism industry.

How these speculative developers spend their investor’s money is no real concern of mine – but when our local governments buy in to risky countertrends – I take notice.

Especially in a place where good ideas go to die.

Everyone understands the economic consequences when supply exceeds demand.

If the Great Recession taught us anything, it is that when a dominant segment of the economy – like real estate or tourism – crashes and burns, it can have devastating implications for dependent industries as well.

Unfortunately, our ‘powers that be’ never learn from the mistakes of the past.

That’s a perilous combination.

Consider the lukewarm recommendations of the much-heralded Beachside Redevelopment Committee – a last ditch effort which gathered our best and brightest minds, met monthly for over a year, frittered over the causative effects of blight, carefully tiptoed around the political minefield of beach access and management issues, listened intently as economic development blowhards fogged the room with their noxious fumes, took public comment and then carefully considered options.

For a while, this remarkable group seemed like they were getting to the core of the problem(s) – our newspaper of record stimulated public awareness by publishing a grim inventory of abandoned and delipidated properties on A-1-A – and many long-suffering residents pinned our last/best hope on the BRC’s good work to rescue us from this tailspin.

Then, inexplicably, just as they reached the finish line, the committee allowed a mid-level county bureaucrat to cobble together a halfhearted report under their impressive names which said, well, nothing.

Essentially, the committee concluded that the City of Daytona Beach needs to get its act together and enforce its codes and ordinances.

Of course, the final list of “recommendations” had a lot more “governmentese,” sugary fluff to fill the voids and deflect any real accountability – little more than hot air, really.

When our cowardly elected officials on the Volusia County Council (you know, the ones who commissioned this think tank in the first place?) received the committee’s final report, they shuffled their feet nervously and essentially agreed to “support” the City of Daytona Beach – whenever it gets around to cleaning up its own steaming stoolstack. . .

So much for that whole “collective vision thing,” huh?   

At the end of the day, we need to face the fact that government isn’t going to redevelop our beleaguered beachside.

That’s not the role of public agencies – or public funds.

But neither is hamstringing private revitalization efforts with a ‘make-work’ labyrinth of codes, rules and boards – roadblocks that can add months and thousands of dollars to a new business start or property renovation.

Rather than setting a unified vision and establishing a streamlined redevelopment process which strips onerous regulations and cuts red tape – then create a one-stop shop to assist entrepreneurs and developers in taking beachside projects and small business proposals from the planning stage through ribbon-cutting with the least number of bureaucratic barriers – our entrenched power structure ignores the obvious.

My fervent hope was that the redevelopment committee would recommend a multi-disciplinary Office of Beachside Redevelopment (for lack of a more creative title) which would construct a clearly delineated path to success for beachside improvements by creating an efficient, rationalized and simplified process that levels the playing field for everyone – not just the privileged few – and emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurial investment.

A process that doesn’t include the wholesale government giveaway of those public amenities and traditions that make the Daytona Beach Resort Area different from every other coastal destination in Florida.

Despite what we are being told, the revival of core areas of the beachside – and the planned overhaul of the East ISB gateway (which currently looks more like the gates of hell than the entrance to a vacation destination) is still many months, if not years, away as the inflexible administrative and funding process grinds slowly on.

While patience and preparation may be virtues – bureaucratic paralysis and overreach are not.

In my view, government can best spur beachside revitalization by simply creating a clean, safe and inviting environment – setting an aerodynamic approval process – then getting the hell out of the way and let the free market work as intended.