Welcome to Spring 2017!

As usual, in Volusia County, everything is coming up roses!

This morning I read an interesting piece in the Daytona Beach News-Journal heralding the return of the haughty “State of the County Address” – a useless non-event, specifically tailored to assuage the out-of-control egos of our elected and appointed officials in Deland – while they blow hot smoke up our collective ass about how well we are all doing.

The price tag?

Don’t worry about it.

(But it’s more than the per capita income here on the Fun Coast.)    

The $20,000 to $30,000 cost of a really nice lunch is being covered by the municipalities and some of the very companies who routinely benefit from Volusia County’s “economic development” largess.

We’re told the only expense for county taxpayers is the loss of productivity by staff – who have apparently been working since January to put the arm on the cities for $250 each – you know, communities that have suffered the daily abuse and bullying of county government for the past decade – and, of course, corporate sponsors with familiar names.

According to the News-Journal, to-date, the county has received over $22,000 in funding for this magnificent Celebration of our Greatness from ICI Homes, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida Hospital, Halifax Health System, Daytona International Automall, and “more.”

Question:  How is it that some of the very entities who have the abject gall to stand in front of the County Council crying like Ma and Pa Joad to wheedle millions of our tax dollars, half-price land deals, and other corporate welfare can, in turn, squander thousands of dollars for nonsensical, zero-return bullshit like this?

I think they call it, “poor optics.”

It’s like running into someone who owes you a bunch of money enjoying a nice bottle of Beckstoffer Cabernet with their Filetto al Barolo e Porcini at The Cellar.

Totally uncool.

Four years ago, former County Chair Jason Davis – in perhaps the only constructive decision of his tenure – reigned-in this silly event, which had been puffed into an ostentatious display during the Bruno administration, and moved the ‘address’ to the council chambers where it belongs.

If it belongs.

“You went from something that had about 500 people to something that had about 50 people,” said County Manager Jim Dinneen.

Did anybody miss it?

Just askin’.

Well, if nothing else, it gives our county staff a chance to open up and air-out the Ocean Center – which hasn’t drawn a crowd since the big reptile breeders banquet we were all so giddy about.

According to our exalted County Chair Ed Kelley, “I felt like (this event at the Ocean Center) was always well-received by the public,” adding that he hopes for a similar reception this time.

“I hope (the public) is able to see what the county has accomplished throughout the year and see the direction this county wants to go in.”   

I’ll bet you do, Ed.

The fact is, “The Public” could care less.

In a past life, I was routinely forced to attend this annual event and found it populated by stuffed-shirt politicos, appointed officials, bored staff members, ‘economic development’ types, and every resort town grifter with access to a public nipple, all schmoozing it up with a bunch of preening elected officials.   (Those in the know, tell me I’m wrong?)

What I didn’t see was Mr. & Mrs. John Q. Public – or anyone else who had an actual life outside of local politics.

Look, regular readers of this forum know that I’m not a glass-half-full kind of guy – especially when it comes to the machinations of Volusia County government.

But do we really need to resurrect this over-the-top soiree just to hear Ed Kelley tell us how great it is that we used $2.3-million tax dollars – including pledges from Daytona Beach businesses to buy tickets – to payoff JetBlue?

Besides, wasn’t that deal inked in 2015?

How many county chairmen get to take credit for that pearl in the sow’s ear?

Maybe our Chairman can explain the county’s complete inability to work with the cities to find a compassionate solution to chronic homelessness?

Now that’s something I’d like to hear.

Oh, well – I suppose there is one positive to these awkward – though grandiose – gala’s celebrating the magnificence and self-importance of those we elect to do the public’s business:

It serves to remind us why we will hold-up our collective middle-finger to the powers that be the next time they whine the blues and tell us scary stories about the need for a half-cent tax increase for transportation infrastructure – or anything else.

After all, any government organization that can demand, then piss-away, some $30,000 dollars for a self-congratulatory luncheon can damn well afford just about anything they find important.

Note to Chairman Kelley:  The benefits of a lavish State of the County address are lost on us uncultivated rubes who gaze in amazement at the cringe-worthy state of affairs in Deland – where our Sheriff has rightfully and openly exposed our County Manager as a “lying sack of shit” on the front page of the newspaper – and we keep rehashing corporate welfare projects and an increasingly artificial economy as “progress.”

Frankly, given our current imbroglios – it really is poor optics – either pure arrogance, or utter denial.

Neither of which instill confidence in our elected leadership during these difficult, and embarrassing, times.

 

As a voyeur of Volusia County government, I often remark that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The people – elected and appointed – come and go, but the system never changes.

I also believe that most of those who stand for elective office are inherently good people.

Let’s face it, anyone who willingly puts themselves through the meatgrinder that passes for politics in 2016 must truly have a sincere desire to serve.

The problem begins once the victory parties and pageantry of the oath of office ceremony are complete, and our newly minted elected officials finally take a seat on the dais of power.

It is then that the system reminds them of their true place and purpose – they work for the machine, not the other way around – and quaint notions like good governance and protecting the interests of their constituents are soon forgotten.

Those who fight against the system – idealists who strive valiantly to bring substantive change and insinuate the “will of the people” into the churning mechanism – are quickly chewed-up, marginalized and tossed aside.

Elected officials who fight the organism of government always end up looking like one of those tormented Russian bears riding a stationary bicycle – peddling feverishly, sweating and working hard, but never making headway – while the veteran politicians and fixers beat and humiliate them into submission.

It is the reason those lofty campaign promises we hear every election cycle are so much hot air.

The system takes – it does not give – unless you are one of those precious few in that high, rarefied air who can pay to play in the big leagues.

And the price of a ticket to ride costs more than your house.

Once you grasp this unsettling truth, watching the sausage get made can be, well, almost fun.

Take for instance the remarkable ability of our elected officials to take swift, decisive action on issues that most of us consider important – like the expenditure of millions of our hard-earned tax dollars on dubious land purchases and corporate giveaways – while relatively inconsequential items are dissected, debated, and analyzed ad nauseum.

Some say it’s a camouflage maneuver – drone on about the small stuff until even the most ardent political gadfly is hypnotized – and then move important legislation at the speed of heat.

Others believe it’s how County Manager Jim Dinneen sculpts public policy through the careful control of information – crafting the outcome of votes by telling our elected officials only what he wants them to hear.

Truth be told, it’s probably a combination of both.

Another thing that always gives me a chuckle is how our council members shape-shift into pseudo-experts regardless of the question at hand.

For instance, during a recent discussion on the big-ticket item of expanding the number of chickens a resident can keep in unincorporated areas, suddenly everyone becomes Abraham Lincoln – raised on a working farm in a rustic log cabin, trading fresh eggs for essentials and reading by the faint glow of a coal oil lamp.

Funny stuff, really.

Yet when it comes to preserving Volusia County’s most important economic engine – our beach – regardless of how silly the issue at hand (feeding birds, for instance) the only apparent solution is adding signage to a shoreline that has so many placards, traffic control signs, and rows of ugly wooden poles that it no longer bears any semblance to a seashore.

How about just saying, “There are somethings we cannot control – we’ve brought attention to the issue, now let’s move on.” 

No, the prevailing sentiment of government at all levels is we must legislate away our every trivial annoyance.

But the real draw during last Thursday’s county council meeting was the unresolved blood feud between Sheriff Mike Chitwood and County Manager Jim Dinneen.

Despite the council’s painful, time consuming jokes during the great “bird feeding/chicken coop” debates, the Clash of the Titans loomed large.

Unfortunately, it became increasingly clear that the wagons have been circled.

Our elected officials made it perfectly clear that Jim Dinneen is isn’t going anywhere – and Mike Chitwood doesn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of holding a constitutional office in Volusia County.

You see, when serious issues periodically come forth that have critical implications for all of us – such as protecting our heritage of beach driving, or deciding potential improvements to the county charter – invariably our County Attorney’s Office finds a way to eliminate the will and participation of the people.

On Thursday, county attorney Dan Eckert set the stage to ensure Sheriff Chitwood’s call for a charter amendment never sees the light of day when he spit, sputtered, hemmed and yammered his way through what (I think) was his opinion on the ability of the electorate to effect change.

For the life of me, I can’t figure Dan out.

Either our county attorney suffers from a convenient neurological speech impediment that prevents him from communicating in coherent sentences – or he has mastered the strategic ability to muddy any issue at hand with his cockamamie gibberish.

If I understand Mr. Eckert’s legal interpretation – only the state legislature can bring substantive changes to the Volusia County charter – and We, The People, who are governed by it are quite simply bent over and paralyzed.

We’ll see.

At the end of the day, our intrepid County Chair Ed Kelley came up with the bright idea of asking Sheriff Chitwood to call him whenever he felt Little Jimmy was being mean and not playing pretty – you know, the always effective “I’ll run tell daddy” defense – to salve over their public death match.

I don’t make this shit up, folks.

Another interesting thing happened this week.

During their goofy off-the-agenda comments segment – where, apparently, most of the real work gets done – the council once again conveniently re-wrote history.

Even though it was patently clear to every man, woman and child that our elected officials were caught humiliatingly flat-footed – absolutely out-of-the-loop – on the nearly $1-million-dollar purchase of private land on Main Street in Daytona Beach – now, they would have us believe that nothing was amiss and everyone acted completely appropriately.

They dismissed our criticism out-of-hand.

According to the Very Reverend Fred “BMW” Lowry’s astute comments in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, “We can’t possibly know everything about everything,” Lowry said, adding that he “trusts staff.”

 I felt even more comforted when Councilman “Sleepy” Pat Patterson assured us, “I know that our attorneys did everything right,” Patterson said of the land purchase. “And to be criticized constantly for doing something right just frosts me a little bit.  Somehow people think we are doing something evil, and I’m tired of hearing that.”

 I’ll bet you are, Pat. . .

Nothing to see here, folks.  Little Jimmy has explained everything away quite nicely – and we’re getting sick and tired of your cruel criticism of the high and mighty – so shut the fuck up and take our word for it.

In other news, Heather Post continued her education when she learned the ramifications of asking for too much information.

Councilwoman Post had the temerity to ask if she might be given a heads-up whenever important or controversial issues come up that she might be asked about.

You would have thought staff had been directed to perform an advanced neurosurgical procedure while wearing wool mittens in total darkness.

Unbelievable.

Word to the wise, Ms. Post – the system says you will be told all you need to know, when you need to know it.

Just accept the Pablum fed by Mr. Dinneen and his staff – and try not to act surprised when you get ambushed for your abject ignorance on the important issues of the day.

Know that none of your fellow elected officials are given any substantive information either – so just sit back in your posh swivel chair and bask in the bliss of pure ignorance.

Just ask “Sleepy” Pat – he’s a past-master of the art.

It has been interesting watching Chairman Kelley, and neophyte Council members Billie Wheeler and Heather Post, receive their indoctrination in the uncomfortable realities of an oligarchical system that works in the interest of a few – and abhors the input of the governed.

Just another tragic sign of our times.

 

Wow.  Really.  While we have guests over. . .?

The Clash of the Titans in Deland just hit a rolling boil – and both the tone and tenor of the discourse is dropping fast.  (Where’s my popcorn?)

The Great Chitwood/Dinneen Blood Feud of 2017 continues to spill out onto the street like a good old timey bar brawl.

Unfortunately, it comes at a time when we have a hundred thousand bikers and college students in town for their respective annual Bacchanalia – all potential customers of a “brand-immersive lifestyle” in Jimmy Buffett’s tequila-fueled faux utopia in the wetlands just west of I-95.

Well, except the college kids.

They need actual jobs to payback those soul crushing student loans, and, well, all we can offer is part-time positions folding shirts at a retail outlet – or warehouse work at a place where our demographic will support the loading dock, but not the upscale grocery it supplies.

Nothing like having friends over, then trotting out your dirty laundry and parading it around the living room.

While blowing a kazoo, crashing a cymbal and beating on a Tom-Tom.

Ah, well.  Shit happens, even in the best of families.

When I opened this morning’s Daytona Beach News-Journal and skimmed reporter Dustin Wyatt’s excellent piece, STANDOFF – Volusia County power struggle between Chitwood and Dinneen escalates, I thought for a minute there I was reading a Barker’s View blog post.

Chitwood called Dinnen a “lying sack of shit.” “I don’t want to be in the same room with that liar,” Chitwood added. Replied Dinneen: “Is he afraid of me? If he has something to say about me, he can say it to my goddamn face.”

 And things went south from there.

A politically astute friend of mine remarked that perhaps it’s time for one of those WWE Steel Cage matches – you know, a “two men enter, one man leaves” Battle Royale – to solve the issue once and for all.

I think he may be onto something.

Our County Council Chairman Ed Kelley – who throughout this mess has demonstrated the leadership skills of a wilted Lilly – proclaimed, “They need to build bridges and just get over it.”

Memo to Chairman Kelley:  The “bridges” these guys built back when this riff first became public now look like spans over the Rhine after World War II – a mass of flaming, mangled wreckage.

Now it’s up to you – as our elected Chair – to provide some frigging guidance and control (look it up in your ICCMA elected official’s handbook).

In my view, Ed can start by getting a handle on the likes of Councilman “Sleepy” Pat Patterson – who openly lied to his constituents in Sunday’s News-Journal when he pompously tut-tutted that exempting Volusia County from pending legislation to return constitutional sovereignty to the sheriff was a “done deal.”

According to Patterson, our high-priced lobbying firm in Tallahassee had already met with the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Frank Artiles, and that “he agreed to” remove Volusia from the mix.

Bullshit.

According to Sen. Artiles, “At this moment, the language does not exclude Volusia County” he said.  “(The bill) currently creates uniformity among the 67 counties in Florida.  We are willing to work with anybody and hear everyone’s opinion to make this bill better.”

 Wow, Pat.  That’s not what you told us last week?

 Talk about a lying sack of shit.

You see, Sleepy Pat is a retread politician (with an unfortunate sleep/wake cycle) who likes to use ambush-style, cheapjack tactics like – rather than advertise the people’s business on the public agenda – he strategically brings up actionable items during his goofy comments, then – as if by magic – he receives an immediate unanimous vote of the full council without so much as consulting Sheriff Chitwood, reading the text of the bill, or (cough, cough) communicating about the issue beforehand.

Pat Patterson now has all the credibility of a feral hog caught in a cage trap – it was easy getting in, grabbing some headlines and trashing Sheriff Chitwood like the sycophantic toad that he is –  but not so easy to extricate himself once the senator who actually wrote the bill called him out publicly.

Go back to sleep, Pat.  We liked you a lot better when you were pitching out of your chair like a narcoleptic bear on Ambien.  Don’t worry, Little Jimmy will bring you up-to-speed on what you need to know – when you need to know it.

While we’re on the topic – that little $1-million-dollar land purchase deep inside the city limits of Daytona Beach didn’t help the County Council’s credibility much either.

Unfortunately, (for us) our elected officials are literally paralyzed with fear and completely neutered when it comes to holding Jim Dinneen to any reasonable level of accountability.

Little Jimmy is protected by the uber-wealthy insiders – the power brokers who artificially inject hundreds of thousands of dollars into local elections and now control virtually every aspect of county government.

And you can bet your pippy Mr. Dinneen isn’t going anywhere.

Neither is Sheriff Chitwood.

As a duly elected official, the Sheriff has the political insulation of the people who voted for him – and make no mistake, Mike Chitwood is extremely popular with residents of Volusia County.

As I’ve said before, Sheriff Chitwood is passionate about what he does – and he has demonstrated incredible ethical and physical courage during his impressive public service.

Conversely, Jim Dinneen has proven – time-and-again – that he is a cheap bagman, beholden to the special interests and two-bit grifters who gorge at the public trough and have no plan to stop anytime soon.

In my view, this dispute will ultimately result in Dinneen giving Chitwood a wide berth – the freedom to administer his department without the petty micromanagement he’s known for – and Chitwood will eventually be brought to heel by a system that neither wants or needs progressive input – or any substantive change that might result in improvement to service delivery and fiscal efficiency.

At the end of the day, it’s not about We, The People.

And it’s damn sure not about improving public safety in Volusia County.

It’s about protecting the mechanism that permits the right people access to the bloated coffers of a government that has been sold to the highest bidder.

 

There are a lot of things about government that don’t quite make sense.

That’s why most rational people just ignore it.

Trying to figure out the moves and motivations of the Volusia County Council is like buying a factory reject jigsaw puzzle – you’re just setting yourself up for frustration.

I’ve often equated Volusia to a Shadow Government, where nothing is truly as it seems.

A dark, mysterious place where power was taken from the people long ago and consolidated in the hands of a supreme being – the county manager.

For instance, the Office of Sheriff – a person We, The People elect every four-years to serve as our county’s chief law enforcement officer.  A constitutionally established office with the power to enforce state law and county ordinances, who acts as the Executive Officer of the court system, serving process and enforcing orders.

At least that’s what most people think they voted for.

Although the constitution requires that each county elect a sheriff, it also allows counties with a home rule charter approved by the electorate to eliminate, transfer, or substantially alter the duties of the office.

When the Volusia County charter was established by special law in 1970, the Office of Sheriff was abolished – along with the other traditional constitutional offices of tax collector, property appraiser, supervisor of elections and clerk of the circuit court – and their power and duties were transferred to new charter offices.

The duties of sheriff were transferred to, and divided between, the department of public safety and the department of corrections.

Our duly elected sheriff is essentially a de facto elected department head – technically classified as the Director of the Department of Public Safety under the direct control of the County Manager.

The State of Florida is considering legislation which would allow voters to return constitutional sovereignty and traditional authority to the Office of Sheriff in charter counties.

Guess what?

Our county manager, Little Jimmy Dinneen, wants no part of it – and he’s willing to lie to you, me and our elected officials – and spend our hard-earned tax dollars – to retain his Napoleonic power over his Kingdom in Deland.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Earlier this month, during a meeting of the Volusia County Council, Jim Dinneen and his bootlicking toady, county attorney Dan Eckert – in an open display of premeditated treachery – orchestrated a vote to allow Dinneen and his staff to work with the county’s highly-paid lobbying firm to exclude Volusia County from the pending legislation on the dubious grounds of protecting home rule and “the right of the people to vote.”

That’s rich.

Considering Mr. Eckert spent most of last year suing his constituents with their own tax dollars specifically to prevent their right to vote.

Interestingly, the backroom work to exclude Volusia County from the sheriff’s legislation began in Tallahassee a week before the County Council even considered it.

Our elected officials acted without consulting – or even notifying – Sheriff Chitwood, soliciting his input, or announcing their intentions on the public agenda.

Still think your county council wants or needs your involvement in your government?

So much for those haughty campaign promises, huh?

Without undertaking any independent review of the proposed legislation – Ed Kelley, that doddering fool we elected to the important role of Chairman – and the other stuffed suits on the dais – voted unanimously to support Dinneen’s Machiavellian horseshit.

Unfortunately, we would later learn that this wasn’t the only bald-assed sleight-of-hand perpetrated by the County Manager during that fateful meeting.

This was the same session during which Jim Dinneen purposefully concealed vital information regarding the nearly $1-million-dollar purchase of a parcel of land fronting Main Street in the City of Daytona Beach from our elected officials.

In turn, our county council – the very people we elected to represent our interests – once again voted blindly, like the good little rubber stamps they are – before being excruciatingly exposed as pitiful victims of their own astonishing lack of preparation, political intuition or basic intelligence.

Last Friday, Sheriff Mike Chitwood did what those bought-and-paid-for cowards on the council dais couldn’t when he publicly called for Jim Dinneen to be fired.

In an incredibly pointed interview on local talk radio, Chitwood described Mr. Dinneen as a “disingenuous human being,” a “megalomaniac” and courageously warned us that it is time to give the county manager and county attorney’s offices an “enema.”

According to reporter Dustin Wyatt’s excellent overview in Sunday’s Daytona Beach News-Journal, Chitwood noted, “He (Dinneen) lies and misleads the council,” referencing the land deal situation: “How do you know he’s lying? His lips are moving.”

Truer words were never spoken.

The response from several members of the council was predictable – and exemplified how quickly the power brokers can circle-the-wagons when their cash cow is threatened.

Take Councilman “Sleepy” Pat Patterson’s mean-spirited admonition to a fellow elected official:

“If he’s unhappy with the way things are going,” Patterson said of Chitwood, “maybe he should resign.”

Asked why he didn’t so much as talk to Sheriff Chitwood before the recent council discussion, Patterson said: “It’s not all about Chitwood.

Apparently, it’s not about you and me either – you know, the people who overwhelmingly voted Mike Chitwood into office?

In my view, this building blood feud best exemplifies the depth to which our county government has been compromised by big money special interests who now control every aspect of the current administration.

Sheriff Chitwood is right – as our duly elected sheriff his constitutionally created office should be free of the bondage and dictatorship of a screw-job appointed official who is wholly controlled and protected by the shadow figures who manipulate government through massive campaign contributions and outsized personal influence.

Our home rule charter has many important benefits – but make no mistake, it is tailor made to permit powerful external forces to sway the system.

Why do you think the same faces appear on the Charter Review Commission time, and time, and time again?

Somewhere along the line, Jim Dinneen forgot the one irrefutable fact of public service:  His power to administrate our county government is derived from the will and trust of the people – not a select few uber-wealthy puppet masters with a profit motive.

Perhaps more disturbing is the fact that Sheriff Chitwood – a man of proven integrity with the first set of fresh eyes we’ve had in years – is sounding the Klaxon on Little Jimmy’s micromanagement, strategic deception and unadulterated dishonesty – while our elected officials ignore the dire warnings and publicly chastise the messenger.

Tragic.

It’s how things are done in the Kingdom of the Strawman – a place where an appointed manager with no political accountability can publicly humiliate the people’s elected officials, openly obfuscate the facts, and completely alienate the democratic concept of public input and fair debate.

In my view, a partial repeal of the county charter to exempt the high office of sheriff from the tyrannical control of a foul ball like Jim Dinneen is both warranted and necessary.

And, despite the bleating and quibbling of our horribly compromised County Attorney, it is infinitely possible.

In the meantime, our elected officials can take the first important step to restore public trust by terminating Mr. Dinneen’s reign of abject incompetence and deceit.

We’ve had enough.

Only when this Little Caesar with a God complex has been removed from power can we begin the difficult process of rebuilding reputational confidence in those we have elected to represent our interests – and bring back fundamental trust in our terribly wounded system of governance.

 

 

 

 

What do you call the federal indictment of a former State Representative on charges of wire fraud related to campaign finance violations?

A good start.

It’s also a tragically sad ending for an important local role model.

On Thursday, former State Representative – and Daytona Beach City Commissioner – Dwayne Taylor, was indicted on nine counts of wire fraud by federal prosecutors in Florida’s Middle District following allegations that he claimed thousands of dollars in campaign expenditures to conceal ATM withdrawals and checks written to himself in violation of state campaign law – and United States Code.

If convicted, Taylor faces a maximum penalty of 20-years in federal prison on each count.

Per the grand jury indictment, in an abominably dumb move, Taylor saw fit to appoint himself as his own campaign treasurer – a dubious practice permitted by current campaign finance law – during his 2012 and 2014 runs.

Apparently, he made the illegal withdrawals, totaling approximately $2,800, in nine transactions between June 2012 and August 2016.

Federal prosecutors claim that Taylor fraudulently reported the embezzled funds as petty cash.

In addition, the indictment seeks a monetary judgement of some $62,834 in campaign funds, “representing the amount of proceeds obtained as a result of the offense charged in Counts one through nine.”

Clearly, this would exceed the $100 per week permitted for office supplies, transportation, and other petty essentials directly related to a candidate’s campaign activities.

In 2008, voters elected Taylor as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, initially representing the 27^th District.  In 2012, following redistricting, he was reelected to the Florida House representing the 26^th District.

Then, in 2015, Mr. Taylor announced his intention to run for the Volusia County Chair before changing tack and launching a campaign for Florida’s Sixth Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives – the post now held by Rep. Ron DeSantis.

A cursory check of Mr. Taylor’s campaign contribution reports finds all the right local players represented.  Typical of Volusia County politics, each of our uber-wealthy High Panjandrums of Political Power contributed to Taylor’s various campaigns – if just to hedge their bets.

Was Dwayne Taylor a stand-out politician?  Hardly.

But he was a true Daytona Beach success story – and that is a rarity – something that comes around about as often as the Comet Kohouteck.

Taylor grew up in humble beginnings in the tough Daytona Village Section 8 project, which, prior to a recent renovation, was a deteriorating collection of dreadfully challenged block apartments in the crime infested area between Keech Street and Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard.

He was living proof to thousands of kids that anything is possible.

Dwayne Taylor embodied the promise that with hard work, and a dedication to education, you can go from the bottom of Daytona Beach to the halls of power in Tallahassee and beyond.

In 1996, I had the distinct honor of graduating from the Federal Bureau of Investigations National Academy at Quantico, Virginia.  Alumni of that distinguished program have adopted a quote by President John F. Kennedy which guides our professional ethics – and our personal commitment to the highest ideals of public service:

“For those to whom much is given, much is required.”

Our elected and appointed officials could learn something from that valuable aphorism.

For over thirty years I made my living in local government service.

From the earliest days, my superiors drilled into me the importance of preserving the public trust – the foundation upon which government derives its moral authority and legitimacy.

Now retired Chief John P. Finn told me the day I was hired, “I won’t abide a thief or a liar – and of the two – I’d rather have the thief.” 

He demanded complete honesty from the law enforcement officers under his command – in all aspects of our service, on-duty and off – and it was doom for anyone who quibbled the facts, bore false witness or spoke an untruth.

After don’t touch a hot stove, it was the best life-lesson I ever had.

Truth, or consequences.

Perhaps it was my chief’s strong commitment to professional integrity – or my parents early influence – but whenever I faced an ethical dilemma during my career, I got a weird feeling in my core alerting me that the choice I faced was illegal, immoral or unethical.

It never failed.

I might have ignored it on occasion – after all, whisky and bad decisions will be my epitaph – but that sensation of right-and-wrong has never let me down.

I think we all have that internal alarm – call it a conscience, or an ethical sixth sense – but unless you’re a depraved psychopath it’s what keeps most of us on the straight and narrow path of righteousness.

Unfortunately, there are a few elected and appointed to high office who believe the rules no longer apply.

Locally, you need look no further than the Debacle in DeBary to see the damage a mob mentality, fueled by unbridled hubris and revenge politics, can have on a community – or the ethically questionable Volusia County money-shuffle, cloaked as ‘economic development’ incentives, which always seem to benefit top tier campaign donors, or interests and industries close to them.

It’s no better at the federal level where politics has literally become a blood sport.

Perhaps our local officials can learn something from Mr. Taylor’s tragic example.

But I doubt it.

In my view, the time has come for local governments throughout Volusia County to take a long hard look at themselves, and this bastardized system of insider politics that continues to spiral out-of-control.

Look, I’m not talking about an elected official who goes back on a campaign promise – or changes political allegiances in mid-stream – those stories are as old as time.

I am talking about the behind-the-scenes machinations and murky ‘wink-wink’ deals that divert public funds, property and resources to private interests.

Time-and-time-and-time again.

Something tells me that Mr. Taylor isn’t the only local politician who will have trouble sleeping tonight.

The prospect of a cumulative 180-years in federal prison will have that effect.

Unfortunately, the anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that he isn’t the first – or the last – area politician or appointed official who has crossed the line.

I hope the U.S. Attorney’s Office focuses its powerful resources on the ‘Fun Coast’ and restores the public’s trust in our system of governance.

It is time for a reckoning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d like to welcome those of you joining our little program in progress. . .

It’s been quite a week for Barker’s View.

In the past few days, folks have visited the site in droves, thousands of new visitors have come from near and far to read these world-weary views on Volusia County politics.

That’s probably a bad thing for those of us who live, work and play here on the Fun Coast.

Look, I rarely write about all the ‘feel-good’ fun stuff happening in Volusia County.

I’m not an optimist.  I’m a brooding asshole.

It’s just how God made me.  And I am convinced he put me here, in this strange time and place, for a reason.

You want the canned ‘happy-happy!’ from some corporate marketing department touting the benefits of a brand-immersive old folk’s home with a cool “Caribbean Soul” vibe – or piffle on the incredible “synergy” created by a tax-supported, cookie-cutter sporting goods store – you’re in the wrong corner of the interwebz.

If you are reading Barker’s View, that means the wheel as come off the cart at some level of government – and you know that I’ll be sitting here in my boxer shorts, hunched over the keyboard, stirring the pot, goring sacred oxen and kicking the politicos while their down.

Someone’s got to do it.

Besides, my hypocrisy knows no bounds – and I’ve got the time.

It’s a goofy opinion blog.  Don’t like it?  Don’t read it.

I think most regular readers of this forum are smart enough to figure out that if you want an erudite, scholarly examination of the local issues by professional journalists and political analysts, you read the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Orlando Sentinel, or any of the mainstream media serving the Central Florida market.

Regardless of the outlet, it tends to all be riffs on the same theme.  A delicate tightrope act over the dangerous chasm between the truth and the almighty advertising dollar.

But, if you have a hankering for an alternative point-of-view – a itch for the rambling thoughts of a bearded weirdo who watches the mind-numbing machinations of government, filters the intrigues through a gin-soaked mind, and puts his twisted opinions down with a heavy-measure of hyperbole, sarcasm, and cynical embroidery – I’m your guy.

Pull up a chair, pour yourself three-fingers of good bourbon (it’s in the cabinet, above the bar), light-up a Marlboro and make yourself at home.

Consider this your “safe space.”

A profane, often irreverent salon where we can sit together and take an unvarnished look at the inner-workings of local government with a jaundiced eye – and perhaps expose the whores, pimps, book-lickers, fixers and rich political insiders that grease the wheels and work the system to their advantage in the boardrooms, council chambers and back alleys of Volusia County.

What brought all our new readers to the site?

Well, earlier this week we learned that Volusia County Manager Jim Dinneen, a sneaky bastard with a penchant for making sure our hard-earned tax dollars make it into the right people’s hands – pulled a fast one on our elected officials.

While you and I – and, it appears, the bulk of the Volusia County Council – were being lulled into a catatonic state by the incessant hype of what passes for ‘progress’ in the Halifax area – Little Jimmy was working up a nearly $1-million-dollar purchase of some paved-over land fronting Main Street in the heart of Daytona Beach’s “Entertainment Zone” redevelopment area.

To make a very strange story short, it appears Mr. Dinneen strategically failed to let the City of Daytona Beach in his plan – or tell his bosses on the county council the full truth – including the fact that municipal zoning regulations prohibit a parking lot on the land, which is exactly the excuse Dinneen used to ramrod the purchase in the first place.

In the aftermath, our elected officials, especially our new Chairman Ed Kelley, and Councilwoman Billie Wheeler, both former city officials who ran on platforms touting their ability to mend fences with Volusia County’s 16 municipalities – constituencies that have been kicked around like a cur dog by Dinneen and his staff – were left looking for all the world like a gaggle of out-of-touch dupes.

Because they are.

Look, I’m not smart enough to figure out the A-B-C’s of this highly suspicious land deal – partly because guys like Jim Dinneen make sure you never quite connect A to C.  He’s bright enough to know that exposing the identities of the shadow players isn’t good for his long-term viability as a first-class fixer.

And make no mistake, Little Jimmy stands firmly at the nexus of public funds and private interests – a cheap bagman with the situational ethics of a broke-back snake who loathes everything you and I hold dear.

In my view, Jim Dinneen is like the kid in school who gets good grades but nobody ever sees him study.  A guy with no particular skills – other than a weird knack for getting elected officials to follow him down mysterious paths – and the impudence to collect his stratospheric salary and benefits package with a straight face.

In most public or private organizations, you only embarrass your bosses on the front page of the local newspaper once – then, your sorry ass is taken to the woodshed where you receive the Bastinado treatment by your humiliated victims before being tossed into the street to face your deepest fears, and enemies, alone.

But not in Volusia County.

This is like a Shadow Government where nothing is as it seems.

Except, our eyes are beginning to adjust to the darkness.

Little Jimmy is smart enough to know the importance of protecting his interests, and those of his handlers, from the petty whims and quirks of the elected officials – those scarecrows in cheap suits who sit on the dais and fritter away under the almost quaint notion that they are in control of something important.

Self-important dimwits, too stupid to understand that they don’t know what they don’t know – while Jim Dinneen consolidates power through the careful control of information.

When things go sideways – like they most certainly did last week – Mr. Dinneen cloaks himself in the political muscle of the real power brokers.  The uber-wealthy insiders who directly benefit from the dangerous combination of Dinneen’s preternatural lack of professional integrity and his direct access to the public checkbook.

That’s Little Jimmy’s “safe space.”

Any elected official in Volusia County worth his or her salt knows that you cross the wrong people in this town at your own risk.

After all, they didn’t shovel hundreds of thousands of dollars into a local election without knowing the exact return on investment – and Jimmy is their little man behind the curtain who keeps the money flowing.

So, don’t expect Ed Kelley – or any of the others we elected to represent our interests – to hold Mr. Dinneen accountable for his sins in this dubious land deal – or anything else.

Our once proud politicians are scared shitless.  And they should be.

They know which side their political bread is buttered on – and so does Jim Dinneen.

 

Photo Credit:  The West Volusia Beacon

You know, I often say that I look like an elephant and I have a memory like one.

Well, I specifically remember that the cornerstone of Council Chairman Ed Kelley’s campaign platform was a recurring pledge to restore the county’s fractured and festering relationships with the cities.

In fact, ol’ Ed sounded like a broken record – incessantly touting his 15-years of municipal service as the reason he was the best man to mend fences and salve over years of abuse and hard feelings.

During the long, hot summer that was the 2016 campaign season, Chairman Kelley was asked by the Daytona Beach News-Journal to describe the “biggest issue facing the county and what you will do to solve it?”

Ed’s response: “We must work to mend the real disconnect between the county and our cities. Without that, the majority of our citizens and businesses can’t move forward. I will be able to provide the necessary leadership to accomplish this and will make sure all of our concerns and ideas are heard.”

Bullshit.

Now, the evidence suggests Ed was so full of hot air he could have levitated – just another cheap bait-and-switch artist telling us all what we wanted to hear.

Interestingly, in his rambling mea culpa after telling weary constituents that the tony Tanger Outlets needs more luxury car parking spaces – not public transportation, the Right Reverend Fred Lowry told us, “I campaigned on trying to bring the east side and west side together.”  

Really?

Perhaps worse, while running for office, freshman Councilwoman Billie Wheeler droned on, ad nauseum, touting her ability to “build relationships” with Volusia County’s 16 municipalities through her experience as past president of that do-nothing fraternity known as the Volusia League of Cities.

Yet, We, The People, bought into these ugly lies – hook, line and sinker.

Now, the truth has been exposed – and it’s business as usual when it comes to Volusia County government taking the cities lunch money.

In an outstanding piece by News-Journal reporter Dustin Wyatt entitled, “Daytona questions Volusia’s Main Street land deal,” this morning we learned some rather chilling facts about how the more things change in Deland – the more they stay the same.

Last week, the Volusia County Council voted 6-1 to spend nearly $1-million dollars of our hard-earned tax money to purchase a parcel near Main Street in Daytona Beach, ostensibly for extra parking lots for the Ocean Center and Main Street special events – something Dinneen yammered would generate some $50,000 in annual revenue.

Little Jimmy explained with a straight face that the incredibly expensive land deal was more of an “opportunity” than a “need” (after pulling his twisted Edgar Bergen routine and talking out of his ass to explain how we are pitifully broke when it comes to funding public transportation needs.)

Strange.

Regardless, the majority of the council – with Deb Deny’s as the lone nay – gobbled-up Little Jimmy’s blatant disregard for the truth like the good little drones they are and voted to buy the land for well above the average of two private appraisals (expensive market studies which you and I paid for – and they ignored).

The whole deal was weird from the start.

There was no pressing need – or even desire – to purchase the vacant lot, certainly not at the exorbitant price of $970,000.  It just kind of popped up and – Wham, Bam – we were pissing cash money.

(What happened to the “No more Spending – Go to Zero” plan we were all led to believe would be the panacea for reducing taxes and staunching the arterial bleed of public funds?) 

Why in the world would we want a stagnant parking lot fronting the potentially prime real estate of Main Street once the area is brought back from the dead?

Now, we know the rest of the story.

It appears in the hasty run-up to the purchase, Volusia County conveniently neglected one thing – the courtesy of letting the City of Daytona Beach in on their plan.

Although you wouldn’t know it, it appears Daytona Beach actually had a plan for putting a hotel – or some other tax-generating commerce – on the site as part of the long-neglected orphan known as the “Entertainment Zone (E-Zone) planning tool.”

According to the News-Journal, Daytona Beach City Manager Jim Chisholm was unaware of the county’s plan until the very morning of the council’s vote to approve the land purchase.

Yep.  (Whatever.)

To hear Chisholm tell it, Little Jimmy didn’t let the cat out of the bag until the very last minute.

Although Mr. Chisholm didn’t see a problem with the plan at first blush – he apparently had a cup of coffee, came to his senses, and called Dinneen back around 10:00am that morning to report that parking lots aren’t allowed on the Main Street frontage.

Say wha?

You mean, our elected officials just voted to spend nearly $1-million for a frigging parking lot, only to find out you can’t put a parking lot there?

Unfortunately, by the time Chisholm got his shit together and called Little Jimmy back – the deal was done.

Or was it?

In his own inimitable way, Dinneen reported, “There was no reason to think there was an issue.  It’s only after we did that that (Chisholm) has come forward.  He later added, “There’s no obligation to call (Chisholm) at all.”

But even after learning that Daytona Beach was rightly questioning the county’s plan, Dinneen didn’t say peep to the County Council – just sat on his ass while our elected officials took a vote that would ultimately make them look like the detached, out-of-the-loop jackasses they truly are.

Seems Jimmy was waiting for “more information.”  No big deal.

My ass.

Now, it appears the only one who doesn’t have a problem with Jim Dinneen’s failure to communicate is Sleepy Pat Patterson, who remarked in his most mean-spirited way, “It makes you wonder what’s going on in the background with the city.” He huffed.  “They should have come to us.”

What abject arrogance.

Sounds like the burglar blaming the victim.

No, Sleepy, you really should have reached out to them.

In his best attempt to recover from the fact he was caught flat-footed, Chairman Kelley “Ah, Shucked” his way through Dinneen’s surprise party with a confidence inspiring, “I assumed the county would have done its due diligence and talked to the city.”

 Really?  You assumed? 

 So much for the whole “leadership-thing” we were promised.

Thanks for nothing.

And Billie Wheeler claims she was “led to believe” that the city was on-board.

Wake up, Billie.  This isn’t some goofy League of Cities coffee klatch.  Not everyone in county government is your friend – or has the best interests of your constituents at heart.

That’s what we pay you for, remember?

As far as I’m concerned, Ed, Fred and Billie can stick their empty campaign promises to rebuild relationships where the sun don’t shine.  We’ve heard it all before.

These aren’t leaders – they’re clueless chumps.  Hapless rubes of Jim Dinneen and his pack of entrenched insiders.

With all due respect – pull your collective heads out of your ass.

I still haven’t figured out which “friend” is standing in the shadows of this colossally expensive deal with Friend’s Bank of New Smyrna Beach – but you can bet your ass it’s someone we’re familiar with.

In my experience, nothing happens by accident when $1 million dollars is on the table.

Look, Ed Kelley, Fred Lowry, and Billie Wheeler – and the others –  know full-well that this isn’t the first time the county has faced withering criticism for buying-up prime real estate and taking it off the tax rolls of struggling municipalities, just because they can.

When does this bumbling Circus of the Absurd end?

Now, our elected officials – the people in which we have placed our sacred trust – have been left hanging, painfully exposed like a troop of jabbering, out-of-touch fools by the calculated maneuvers of the County Manager and his staff of co-conspirators.

If the County Council doesn’t fire Jim Dinneen now, they can never use the “We had our thumb in our ass and didn’t know any better” excuse again.

My God.  Is this the best we can do?

 

 

Just when you think things on Volusia County beaches can’t get worse. . .

Enter a few self-absorbed residents of the Condo Canyons of Daytona Beach Shores – the Halifax areas own “Heaven’s Waiting Room” – where even folks who sleep and rise in beachfront luxury can find something to bitch about.

I’ve lived in the Halifax area for over 50-years now, and some of my fondest memories are of going to the beach with my grandfather and a day-old loaf of bread.

We would toss small pieces to seagulls and little shorebirds, then laugh and marvel at their aerobatics as they dodged and darted, snatching the crumbs in flight.  I always tried to give my allotment to the timid ones who waited patently out of the fray – only to have some aggressive bastard swoop in and grab it from him.

It was fun.

If you’ve never taken a child to the beach and fed the seagulls, I suggest you do it soon.

While you still can.

As a friend of mine recently pointed out, most bad public policy begins with a “condo owner’s complaint.”

In this case, a few beach-goers who enjoy passing the time feeding birds have found themselves crossways with some condominium owners in Daytona Beach Shores.

According to the condo dwellers, this quaint activity results in the birds swarming their pool deck, perching on railings, wading in the pool – and, like birds are wont to do – shitting anywhere, and on anything, they damn well feel like.  (Kind of like birds do whether someone feeds them or not.)

And the denizens of Condo Valley want it stopped.  Now.

To take their point to the nth, the offended homeowners have enlisted a “national consortium of bird scientists” to help make their case.

According to an article in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, some ninny from something called the American Ornithologist Council, claims that feeding bread scraps to shorebirds is harmful to their health – turning our feathered friends into “junk food addicts” – and depriving them of nutrients, etc.

Look, I’m no Washington-based ornithologist – but do you have any idea the kind of things these birds stuff themselves on at the Volusia County landfill?

Whoa.

Once you’ve seen what they can do to a dirty disposable diaper, you might find that a few Merita Butter Bread heels might be the least of their problems. . .

In typical fashion, our freshman County Councilwoman, Billie Wheeler – a resident of Daytona Beach Shores – has immediately knee-jerked in favor of new signs, laws and regulations.

I mean, if a handful of bored retirees in some high-rise condominium are bothered by birds-being-birds on their veranda – then the only reasonable solution is to ban every man, woman and child who lives or vacations here from bringing a bag of bread and feeding birds on all 47-miles of Volusia County beaches.

Of course, Ms. Wheeler claims she isn’t referring to a child or a family who drop the occasional chip or crumb.  Hell, that would be “unreasonable.”

My condolences to any beach police officer who must sort that one out:

“I saw the Wonder Bread bag, sir.  It was in plain view – don’t make me get a search warrant.”

“That’s not my bread, officer.  Aunt Betty brought it for sandwiches, honest – my kid only dropped a chip, he didn’t know any better.  Actually, the bird was the aggressor.”  

“Was the Taser really necessary – the boy’s six?” 

“Shut your mouth, son.  If I wasn’t in uniform, I’d split your skull with the butt of this revolver quicker than you can say ‘police brutality.’  Today it’s white bread, tomorrow a leftover Cheddar Bay biscuit – the next thing you know these poor gulls are hooked, selling themselves for Cheez-it crackers up by the Ocean Deck.  You sick bird-feeding bastards are all alike.”

I agree with my friend, Paul Zimmerman – a long-time beach advocate who has worked tirelessly in the public interest for reasonable and inclusive beach policies.

“I would say no to any more rules on the beach, I don’t know why they would remove feeding — just one more activity in which some residents and taxpayers find enjoyment.”

He’s right you know.

It’s high time our elected representatives understand that we don’t need a new law or regulation every time someone gets uncomfortable.  And we damn sure don’t need another sign anywhere near the beach.

The strand is so polluted with signage the natural beauty of the shoreline no longer exists.

Signs and sandwich boards announcing the rules are the first thing a beach-goer encounters when he or she pays their $10-bucks at the toll kiosk – and it doesn’t get any better once you’re down on the sand.

Is it possible that, for once, our elected and appointed officials could just keep it simple – perhaps ask the bird feeders to move a few hundred yards – and tell the condo owners to lighten up a bit?

Maybe ask them to focus on the Big Picture problems of condo-living, like the ostentatious decoration on their neighbor’s door – or the grandchildren in B-23 who overstay the deed-restricted visitation limit – or those miscreants who insist on leaving their sandy flip-flops in the hallway?

Hey, Billie – just a suggestion: Not every tempest in a teapot requires the full force and might of government coercion and compulsion.

You’re not debating the findings of the DBS Beautification Review Consortium anymore.

Now, your decisions effect all of us.

Can’t we simply suggest that people use their intellectual and moral faculties to find simple resolutions to isolated issues – like birds shitting on a pool deck – before we tell a kid in Ormond-by-the-Sea that he’s going to jail – or receiving a summons – if he tosses some bread to a bird like his grandparents did?

My God.  What is this place becoming?

What are we becoming?

Last summer, I began a series of essays venting my thoughts on the deepening shit-storm that is the City of DeBary.

After all, if you care about good government in your community – you should care about good governance everywhere.  And the mounting weirdness in DeBary really bothered me.

The genesis was a succession of articles in the Daytona Beach News-Journal penned by the intrepid investigative journalist, Dina Voyles-Pulver – in my view, one of the best and brightest reporters in the business today.

Her work in DeBary is worthy of a Pulitzer.

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.

The “Debacle in DeBary” has all the terrible elements of a crisis of leadership – and exemplifies, in microcosm, the depth to which some elected and appointed officials will stoop to serve their own self-interests.

In my view, DeBary’s disgraced former city manager, Dan Parrott – a congenitally crooked douchebag whose ham-fisted brand of revenge politics bought him an on-going criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Office of the State Attorney – is ultimately responsible.

But he didn’t orchestrate it all on his own.

Before his departure, Parrott set in motion a cheap coup d’état – backed by his co-conspirators in City Hall – which ultimately resulted in the ouster of the people’s duly-elected Mayor, Clint Johnson.

It was aggression run amok – a pure example of weaponized political power unleashed.

Mayor Johnson’s removal will long be remembered as the most atrocious disregard for our sacred democratic process ever perpetrated by a local elected body.

To add insult, DeBary’s City Attorney, Kurt Ardaman, (who, I believe, truly can wring blood out of a turnip) has, in my view, used the municipality’s coffers as a slop-trough for every cheapjack, money-grubbing lawyer in the region.

When you factor in the collusions of unscrupulous developers, half-bright ‘economic development’ types, screw worm consultants, and just good old timey bald-assed stupidity, you realize that the City of DeBary is being picked clean by every foul carrion vulture in Central Florida.

After Dan Parrott personally orchestrated his own very lucrative exit, the DeBary City Council began looking for a replacement – a manager skilled in recovering horribly dysfunctional municipal governments from an inverted flat spin – and quickly discovered that no one worth a shit wanted anything to do them.

Even the most desperate “manager in transition” wouldn’t touch DeBary with a ten-foot pole.

Smart people know that you can’t pick up a turd by the clean end.  And we should be suspicious of anyone who tries.

Enter Ronald McLemore.

In retrospect, this should have been clear as glass.

You and I both know that slimy opportunists will always find their way to the scene of the crash, if just to ransack the victims for valuables.

During this disorienting whirlwind, Ron McLemore – the former city manager of Winter Springs, with a resume that includes a six-year stint in Daytona Beach and a cup-of-coffee in Cocoa Beach – mysteriously agreed to wade into this sewer, roll-up his sleeves, and attempt to straighten out the perverse mess that is DeBary government.

There was great hope in Wild West Volusia.  Hell, even I got caught up in a feverish swoon of false optimism.

The silver-maned McLemore said all the right things.

Unfortunately, it now appears he may have lied through his teeth – and compromised himself – and what’s left of the city’s integrity – just to land a temp job.

In the run-up to his appointment as interim city manager, the council held a slapdash interview with McLemore during which he doffed his suit coat and played the role of a wisely old sage, with a touch of cornpone thrown in to close the sale.

It was just what they needed to hear.

You see, drowning people will trust just about anything that looks like a life preserver.

Almost as an afterthought, the subject of a sickening sexual harassment complaint that had been filed against McLemore shortly before his “retirement” from the City of Daytona Beach, was casually broached.

With no more concern than picking a piece of lint from his shirtsleeve, McLemore dismissed the matter out of hand – explaining to the City Council that an “investigation was done by an outside legal firm who specializes in this area, they exonerated me and all the other seven.”

Bullshit.

According to the News-Journal, the very law firm that conducted the internal investigation for the City of Daytona Beach confirmed that the allegations against McLemore were never a part of their inquiry, as he resigned prior to the initiation of the independent review.

A spokesperson for the City of Daytona Beach also confirmed that McLemore was not part of the city’s investigation.

Wow.

It now appears the allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination leveled against Mr. McLemore were never investigated – nor was he exonerated – as he very clearly told the City Council and assembled citizens.

What struck me hard was McLemore’s response to allegations that while employed as a senior executive with the City of Daytona Beach, he ordered a subordinate to perform hours of personal work on his behalf – totally unrelated to official business – while the employee was on-duty and the recipient of public funds.

His excuse, “In return for the hundreds of hours I worked nights and weekends over my six years with the city, due to being understaffed, to keep projects of huge importance to the city moving forward, I think the city could afford me a minuscule number of hours to get things done I didn’t have time to do at home as opposed to taking time off from the job to get them done.”

“When millions of dollars of investment and the well-being of thousands of people are involved, which do you prefer: performance or bureaucracy?”

So, are we to believe the allegations that he used public employees for private work are true, but excusable, due to his uber-important role – but the more sinister sexual pestering and favoritism claims are not?

My ass.

What arrogance.  What unbridled hubris.

You ego-maniacal, chiseling asshole.  Nobody owes you a damn thing.

How dare you – as a highly-paid, trusted government administrator – demean the contributions of the incredibly dedicated public servants who work long hours under difficult and dangerous circumstances – often at great personal sacrifice – without once asking anyone to “afford” them anything!

Shame on you.

Look, you want to get a haircut or run to the drug store, as a salaried employee, that’s between you and the City Manager.  In over three-decades of public service, I would be lying if I told you I never screwed-off at work, bullshitted around the water cooler, or ran a personal errand on-duty.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

But when you misuse your position of power and order subordinate public employees to violate the very rules designed to protect the public from the diversion of public resources for personal convenience or gain – in my view, you have crossed a very clear ethical line.

I believe the time has come for Ronald McLemore to resign his position of trust with the City of DeBary.

In fact, the DeBary city council should take this opportunity to conduct an exorcism at City Hall – purging every foul bird who still has the putrid taint of Dan Parrott – or the Gemini Springs Annex fraud – about them.

It is time.

As for Ron McLemore, for once demonstrate leadership (look it up in your City Manager handbook) and accept responsibility.

You have made a bad situation worse, and, in my opinion, you have lost the moral authority to lead.

The good people of DeBary deserve better.

 

 

Anyone who still believes Volusia County residents aren’t overtaxed and underrepresented need look no further than the County Council’s recent two-faced insult to the Great Lords of Karma.

Trust me.  It’s not good to piss those guys off – the All Seeing Eye, Goddess of Liberty, Justice and Opportunity, Mercy and Compassion, Truth and Wisdom, and the Lord of Peace and Devotion.

According to ancient teaching, “These Cosmic Beings, for eons, have evolved to the point wherein they are perfectly suited and fitted, by their consciousness, to be arbiters of karmic situations, and how these situations shall out-picture in the physical world.”

 Heavy Ju-Ju, baby.

The Karmic Board will turn your sorry ass into a fence post for your sins against the weak and vulnerable – just because they can.  I’ve seen them do it on foggy, moonless nights in places like backatown New Orleans, The Battery in Charleston, and in the moss-strewn alleyways of Cassadaga.

For some reason, the Divine Director has always looked on me with great favor – and protected me from all harm.  He knows that while I am a terribly flawed character – I am pure in spirit – and thirsty for the truth.

How we treat others is how we shall be treated, and I fear some will not be so fortunate when the cosmic beings start tallying the score. . .

Being reincarnated as a filthy ditch pig – or a three-legged sewer rat – is almost too much for some to comprehend.

During yesterday’s transportation workshop, county manager Jim Dinneen and what passes for our elected representatives, proclaimed that there will be no Votran bus service to the new Tanger Outlet in the foreseeable future.

However, they benevolently agreed to expand service to the Walmart on SR-44 in New Smyrna, and to areas along Howland Boulevard in Deltona.

Simply a matter of money, we’re told.

In January, the Daytona Beach News-Journal issued a spot-on editorial pointing out Volusia County’s failure to anticipate public transportation needs in the run-up to the Tanger development – and their inability to adjust routes and services when the oversight was discovered.

I guess it wasn’t an omission at all.

According to the Reverend Fred Lowey, what Tanger needs is more luxury parking spots – not transportation for the Great Unwashed. “I’ve been at Tanger before,” Fred said. “They need to have more BMW parking (instead of) bus service. This is not KMart or Walmart shoppers.”

 Hell no!  This ain’t no squalid five-and-dime!

This is the NEW DAYTONA, and Tanger is for people of high-breeding, culture and wealth – 55-and-over Parrot Heads with unlimited disposable income and a yen for a brand-immersive lifestyle – not two-bit strap hangers who want to disrupt the “Tanger experience” by busing out and putting their greasy little hands on the windows and ogling all the shiny things inside.

Screw those ham-n-eggers.  We piss on the poor – those grimy little cheap bastards in their off-the-rack Walmart trash.  They are not Tanger material.  Right, Fred?

Right.

You see, the problem – as Councilwoman Joyce Cusack pointed out in a moment of lucidity – We, The People, didn’t help build the Walmart, or anything on Howland Boulevard for that matter.

What we did is pump $2.2-million of our hard-earned tax dollars into the Tanger project with the promise of “Jobs.”

Remember that, Freddy?

Now, employees and applicants without personal transportation can’t access those jobs.

I believe it’s called bait-and-switch.  We created the jobs – but you must really want them if you don’t own a car.

Per our newest council member, Heather Post, “We haven’t had any outpouring of requests from people who want the service.”  “At some point, will we need transportation out there? I would assume yes, but right now when we are looking at reevaluating the system and we are looking at our super needs, I don’t see (Tanger) as being at the top of the list.”

 You mean, other than the News-Journal editorials, anger and frustration from employees of Tanger businesses, repeat letters to the editor, etc., etc.?

Your right, Heather.  Nobody came up and kissed the collective ass of the Great and Powerful in Deland and begged for public transportation to an outlet mall hawking overpriced seconds on the I-95 frontage road.

Our bad.

We simply expected it as a common-sense amenity for those seeking the employment opportunities the previous county council promised us would come.

For $2.2 million dollars in infrastructure support.

So, the next time you guys decide to throw millions of dollars of our money away on economic incentives cloaked in the bullshit façade of “jobs creation” – don’t be surprised if your constituents have something to say about it.

 In addition, Little Jimmy and the council approved the $970,000 purchase of property near the Ocean Center (where?  It’s that big shuttered building over on Atlantic Avenue where your kids graduated?  You know, home to the Reptile Breeders banquet and something called “Truck Fever 2017”?  Never heard of it?  I attended a Jimmy Buffett show there once – in the mid-80’s as I recall. . .).

To quote Heather Post, was the land purchase a “super need?”

No.  Not really.

According to Little Jimmy, “It’s more of an opportunity than a need.”

(Which, by the by, is the same shtick I’m going to use the next time the half-cent transportation sales tax is discussed by our nouveau riche Clampett clan in Deland.) 

Where I come from they don’t call that an opportunity – they call it speculating with someone else’s money.

It seems the County Council did what the Daytona Beach City Commission couldn’t – they grossly overpaid for a vacant lot near Main Street.

But why?

According to our own Councilwoman Billie Wheeler: “One of the reasons this is a good idea – it gives us control over what’s going on there.  It could be bought up by someone else and not be advantageous to the city or county.  Parking is always an issue in that area.”

She’s right.  After all, what is a government entity without control?

That property could well have been purchased by some business interest – or an entity that, I dunno, might have wanted to develop some form of commerce or industry while keeping the parcel on the tax rolls.

We wouldn’t want that now, would we?

Apparently, the county is now venturing into a property management gig as well by renting out these massively expensive public parcels during special events – something Little Jimmy told the council will produce as much as $50,000 in annual income.

Mr. Dinneen then provided the elected members with nap mats, cookies, and warm milk; before telling the story of three little pigs who developed residential projects using differing building materials, and a giant who lived at the top of a beanstalk with a goose that laid golden eggs at the first of every fiscal year.

When did it become Volusia County government’s job to set the real estate market in and around the perennially neglected Main Street area using our tax dollars?

Am I missing something?

I suggest to anyone who owns property on the beachside to just hold on – eventually the city or the county will come along and pay you twice what it’s worth.

You know, so folks don’t have to park “up the street and around the corner” when they pack in for the next quilting bee at the Ocean Center.