It’s no secret.

Local politicians are famous for blowing smoke up our collective ass – sugar-coating the myriad issues that continue to hamper substantive progress – and ignoring, even obstructing, common sense solutions to entrenched problems.

We’ve come to accept it.  Like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus – it’s a grand tradition here on the Fun Coast.

Yesterday, Volusia County officials resurrected the formal “State of the County” address – an annual soiree once again held at the all-but-shuttered Ocean Center – where anyone who is anyone gathers for a “free lunch” – and sits quietly while our county chairman spins wacky fantasy yarns about how good we have it.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it.  I had to wash my hair.

During the administration of former Chairman Jason Davis, the practice of holding a grandiose function was halted in favor of a more subdued event in the council chambers.

It was perhaps the only bright idea Mr. Davis ever had.

But not Ed Kelley.  If you’re going to bring attention to your missteps and blemishes – go big or go home.

After all, why bother to stand for high office if you can’t engage in periodic ostentatious displays of political fallacy and tax-funded celebrations of your own self-importance?

Initially, we were told that the party was being financed by some of the biggest recipients of the county’s largesse – Brown & Brown, ICI Homes, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (which has become a legal dependent of the citizens of Volusia County) to name a few.

In addition, 16 municipalities – that’s right, your city and mine – ponied-up $250 each to help pay for Ed’s big day – yet, county officials looked us in the eye, with a straight face, and yammered that absolutely no tax dollars were wasted in the production of this flamboyantly stupid insult to our collective intelligence.

Now, do you think city officials went in their own pocket for the $250?  Me neither.

I realize it’s a relatively small amount.  Just don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining.

In my view, it’s bad public policy for Volusia officials to accept what amounts to an open gratuity from businesses which will invariably receive county contracts, “economic development” funds, half-price on public land sales, infrastructure improvements, tax incentives and just good old timey cash payouts from public coffers.

Is Brown & Brown getting out of the government insurance business – or the campaign finance game?

Has ERAU finally decided to stand on its own two-feet, build an endowment, and stop begging money from Volusia County and every tin-pot politician who owes Mori Hossieni a political favor?  (Trust me.  That list is long and distinguished.)

If not, it smacks of something more than a civic donation.

Yes, I’m almost sure I remember some pesky provision of any and every public ethics code ever conceived that says – when public entities accept funds from private organizations – it undermines the legitimacy of government.

But since when has anyone confused Volusia County with legitimate government, eh?

In his goofy sales pitch to the assembled members of the Ruling Class, Chairman Kelley crowed:

“This room is full of excitement.  Positive excitement.”  (Lest it be confused with outright panic.)

“With the energy that’s in here, all of you just better hold on and watch because we are becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Central Florida corridor.”

 It’s official.  Ed Kelley is delusional.

Look, it’s one thing to whip the Chamber of Commerce crowd into a frenzy of optimism with a free lunch and a flashy video – the rest of us, out here in the trenches, aren’t so easily convinced.

We’re “holding on” alright.  Barely.

Just don’t expect us to accept rehashed horseshit as the latest, greatest, accomplishment of County government.

During the 2016 “State of the County” good-time lecture, former Chairman Jason Davis puffed out his chest and squawked:

“As the County Council waited at the airport for the first JetBlue plane to land, I was struck by the excitement and energy in the room. Almost 500 people took time from their busy day to celebrate this milestone, waving signs and greeting each arriving passenger with cheers.  At that moment, I thought, “Now this is what ‘turning the corner’ looks like!”

 Yep – after putting up $2.3 million in public incentives, including $400,000 in advertising, revenue guarantees, and demands that local businesses purchase tickets from the airline – we got daily service to New York City.

So that’s what “turning the corner” looks like?

Hey, Ed – word to the wise – when you’re hosting a ‘Dog and Pony show’ it’s best to bring in some fresh livestock.

Sadly, at yesterday’s celebration, Chairman Kelley once again trotted out that exhausted, swaybacked old nag that is the JetBlue experience.

According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal:

“Highlights the county shared include:  The arrival of daily JetBlue flights at the Daytona Beach International Airport.”

My ass.

Let’s agree on one thing – an “accomplishment” can only be counted in the “Look what we did with your money!” column for three (3) years. Then, it is no longer an “accomplishment” – it’s a dry turd.

In Volusia County, at that point a perceived “achievement” has usually transitioned to a cautionary tale any way.

In addition, Ed took credit for cash infusions to the “Micaplex” research facility, the opening of Tanger Outlet (yawn – frontage road outlet malls are so “last year”), “efforts during and after Hurricane Matthew” (?), and FDOT’s construction of the Orange Avenue bridge.

Hell, the only thing Big Ed didn’t take credit for was the Trader Joe’s distribution center, Mr. Ford’s horseless carriage and the advent of penicillin.

In my view, the only pure public triumph on the list was the county’s $3.5 million underwriting of Halifax Urban Ministries to operate the Hope Place shelter for homeless teens and families.

And let’s face it, even that feat was more a testament to the persistence and clout of Mrs. Forough Hossieni than it was to the political and moral strength of our elected officials.

I could sit here at Barker’s View HQ and rehash a laundry list of why our elected and appointed officials in Volusia County should hide their heads in shame – rather than participate in extravagant merrymaking – but I’m trying to keep my morning Gray Goose Bloody Mary down.

From Votran to homelessness to beach access to Jim Dinneen’s cockamamie cycle of bloopers, fuck-ups and political pratfalls – gaffs that have left our elected officials looking like out-of-touch hayseeds with a cognitive disorder – I’m afraid there is very little we can take pride in here on the Fun Coast.

I hope that our “new” County Council will use this embarrassing period in our history to their (and our) advantage, change tack, and work collectively to find real solutions to the serious economic and social problems facing our communities.

In my view, the process of progress begins with launching Little Jimmy Dinneen like a Saturn 5.

With luck – and hard work – at next year’s over-the-top rendezvous of politicians and hangers-on, perhaps Mr. Kelley can list some real achievements – true progress in areas of homelessness, blight, dilapidation, and authentic economic development.

Now that the party’s over – let’s get to work.

Way back in January, Barker’s View formally welcomed Daytona Beach Shores to the not so exclusive club of municipalities who have had their lunch money stolen by their elected and appointed representatives in Volusia County government.

Since 2013, county officials have spent a whopping $12.1 million of our money on seven beachside properties for “off-beach” parking.  During the spending spree, two oceanfront lots were purchased in Daytona Beach Shores for $2.95 million and $1.4 million respectively.

Unfortunately, officials in the Shores were banking on using their limited supply of beachfront property for additional vertical growth to support the communities tax base.

It appeared that a showdown was looming.

And rightly so.

As I’ve said, the quaint notion of municipalities controlling their own destiny through self-governance might work elsewhere, but not in Volusia County.

Don’t like it?  Tough shit.

Apparently, rather than fight the leviathan in court, tiny Daytona Beach Shores thought they could “negotiate” what amounts to an appeasement agreement with county officials.

According to a revealing article in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Oops!  Agenda item to remove beach driving a mistake,” reporter Dustin Wyatt wrote:

“The city sought a compromise. They essentially told the county: Fine, build your parking lots, but do 12 things for us in the future. One stated the county couldn’t buy any more oceanfront land for parking. Another put a limit on building heights. Another took away beach driving.”

 Damn.  I guess they haven’t learned that you can’t “negotiate” with a bully.

Did Shores officials really seek to remove beach driving in exchange for a half-portion of expected metered parking revenues?

Could it be that the city’s elected officials sold out their residents, and the rest of us, for a slice of the pie?

Or were Shores officials simply acquiescing to a slick move by county staff (read: Jim Dinneen) to remove beach driving as part of a mutually beneficial “joint planning agreement” – a backdoor way for the Shores to limit further county aggression, mollify a few condo owners and give the county the traffic-free beach they’ve wanted for a decade?

Trust me.  We will never know exactly what happened.

It seems the city abruptly abandoned the plan in February by unanimous vote of the council.

In a January memorandum to Jim Dinneen, Shores city manager Michael Booker wrote, “In my judgment, that (parking facilities) is just not a prudent way to spend far too scarce public tax dollars when our citizens need enhanced government services and the construction of beneficial public infrastructure.”

Magically, Booker’s email – and the attached joint agreement removing beach driving – showed up on the Volusia County Council agenda for Thursday, April 20^th.

Just as mysteriously, the document was taken down last Friday – and Little Jimmy is working overtime to obfuscate, and pin blame on Clay Ervin, Volusia County’s unfortunate director of growth and resource management – who, we’re told, just feels terrible about his colossal fuck up.

Sorry.  I’m not buying it.

Interestingly, when reached for comment by the News-Journal, Daytona Beach Shores Mayor Harry Jennings refused to answer questions about the joint agreement – or explain the city’s stance on beach driving.

This steaming turd wrapped as larval public policy stinks, kids.  Bad.

When local elected officials refuse to answer legitimate questions from the working press – especially regarding the highly contentious issue of beach driving – they are no longer representing the people who gave their trust, and sacred vote, to elevate them to high office:

They are cowards protecting their own ass – and political interests.

If Mayor Jennings needed more time to prepare a cogent public comment then he should have said so.

Add to that the conflicting public statements of Shores council members and you get the peculiar feeling that everyone involved got caught with their pants around their ankles, even members of the illustrious Volusia County Council had that slack-jawed look of awkward bafflement – again.

According to Chairman Ed Kelley and Councilwoman Deb Denys, the county council was taken completely by surprise – conveniently unaware of the agreement with Daytona Beach Shores until they saw it online – just like the rest of us unsophisticated bumpkins standing outside the circle.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time our elected officials have been left lumping about like a disorganized pack of out-of-touch dullards by the mini-moves and cheap, behind-the-scenes hustles of Little Jimmy Dinneen.

Once again – confusion rules the day.

Ladies and gentlemen, this isn’t leadership – this is a freaking mess.

Look, even if we take Mr. Dinneen’s word for it (I don’t, but let’s go to Fantasy World for a moment) and accept his empty assurances that the corpse of a squashed joint planning agreement with Daytona Beach Shores inexplicably appeared on the county council’s public agenda by accident – this latest ham-handed blunder underscores the depth of dysfunction, mismanagement and lack of effective internal and external communication in county government.

Frankly, responsibility for this ongoing – almost weekly – shit-train of bloopers and gaffes can now be laid squarely on the shoulders of our elected officials.

Why?  Because they continue to tolerate it.

Clearly, Ed Kelley, our doddering fool of a county chair, has demonstrated – time and again – that he lacks the political clout and strength of character to take the reins, show some leadership, and work to right this ship of fools.

It’s like watching Captain Queeg lose it on the bridge of the USS Caine – week in and week out.

Just ugly.  And the difficult questions continue to mount.

According to Deb Denys, “We are not removing any more cars from the beach, and to see that as a request was shocking.  Why was the council put in this position?”

Why?  Because your County Manager is working off a completely different script, Deb.  That’s why.

Stop acting like an ignorant waif – its unbecoming an official of your high position.

Everyone knows that Jim Dinneen enjoys the protection of the uber-wealthy power brokers who rely on him to ramrod their personal agendas and ensure the money flows in all the right directions.

That’s fine – we’ve come to accept that level of perversion here on the Fun Coast – and everyone knows where J. Hyatt Brown and his confederates fall on the issue of beach driving.

They want the tradition eliminated – now – by the most efficient means possible.

Money rules, and the resident’s quaint notion of enjoying our beach, or even having substantive input on its future, has been trumped by the insiders view of “economic development incentives.”

Our beach will soon be privatized and sold as an amenity for the privileged few.

The taxpayer?  Well, you can feed the meter and walk.

We get it.

However, every time our elected officials are openly caught flat-footed – seemingly thunderstruck by the latest machinations of Jim Dinneen – our collective confidence in county government is scoured away.

On Thursday, the “new” Volusia County Council will demonstrate just where their loyalties lie when they vote to amend the 2015 ordinance which set specific performance standards for the beleaguered Desert Inn, Westin, Hard Rock, etc. project.

Those we elected to represent our interests will turn their backs on us, and renege on a firm promise that beach driving would remain on the beach behind the Desert Inn if these exact metrics were not met by May 7, 2017.

When you combine this open chicanery with the behind-the-scenes plotting – perfectly exposed by the publishing of the Shores agreement, the purchase of over $12 million in off-beach parking, and the pending Desert Inn debacle – it becomes crystal clear that our heritage of beach driving is doomed.

At the very least, these staggering blunders prove that Jim Dinneen is either preternaturally dumb – or he has been horribly corrupted by an out-of-control plutocratic system where the wants of wealthy political insiders always outweigh the basic needs and desires of the governed.

Regardless, we deserve better.

Jim Dinneen must go.

Photo Credit:  Daytona Beach News-Journal

You know what I always say?

If you can’t do it for $847 million, you can’t do it.

Anyone who needs a remedial class in the inefficient inner-workings of Volusia County government – in all its multiple forms and functions – need look no further than our long-suffering school district.

According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, the Volusia County School Board recently heard some scary stories from district officials regarding the back-log of infrastructure projects, some of which have been languishing on the ‘ol “to-do” list for over a decade.

Really?

In 2001, and again in 2014, the district pushed for and received a voter approved half-cent sales tax to fund specific infrastructure projects and new school construction.

According to the News-Journal, “The next round of the tax, which began in January, is expected to bring in more than $480 million over 15-years and will help improve technology, build new schools, improve sports facilities and more.”    

That’s the cherry on top of a current annual operating budget of some $847 million dollars.

Now, we learn that district officials have bonded some $40 million this year – and anticipate taking loans over $100 million next year – essentially borrowing money, with interest, to meet “critical capital projects.”

These bonds come at a time when the half-penny sales tax is expected to generate some $40 million annually, well more than the school districts initial expectations.

What gives?

It looks to me like the Volusia County School Board is taking cues from the Daytona Beach Main Street CRA – load yourself up with so much paralytic debt that any additional revenue simply covers principal and interest payments on the sins of the past.

It takes the thought and finesse out of it, I guess.

Why is it no one in county government can live within their means? 

We’re told by school officials that – because the district must snack on sales tax funds monthly – rather than receiving one lump sum to gorge on – it lacks the “up-front” cash to move forward with even routine maintenance projects, like repairing and replacing heating, ventilation and air-conditioning units.

Bizarre.

You know, I’m not an expert in education administration and finance – hell, the toughest three years of my life was the 8^th grade – but I have a goofy opinion on everything (obviously) and that includes the manner and means by which our school district specifically – and county government generally – manages its voracious appetite for tax dollars.

Barker’s View HQ is located a stone’s throw from the now razed and renovated Ormond Beach Middle School – so close that when the wind is right, the peace and dignity of my early afternoon cocktail hour(s) is interrupted by the squeals and screams emanating from the PE field.

During the renovation, I got a first-hand view of just how our school district spends huge money on construction projects – thousands of square feet of individual bricks over reinforced cinderblock – two stories – with supporting infrastructure, furnishings, parking and athletic amenities.

Oddly, the school is built like a brick shithouse (literally), yet it isn’t listed as an evacuation shelter?

In my view, district administrators might consider multi-use options and co-located neighborhood amenities when spending millions of public funds building and renovating these gigantic facilities.

Just a thought.

The other bee in my Easter bonnet is that, occasionally, every light in the building burns all night long – lighting up the campus like some glowing Taj Mahal – on others, only a few interior security lights can be seen.

(Yes.  I realize I sound like your father.) 

Look, I don’t want to nit-pick – but if this happens at every school and county-owned building in Volusia County – that adds up.

Besides, it’s poor optics when you’re beseeching taxpayers like a tattered roadside bindlestiff to pony up good money after bad to cover the cost of building, heating, cooling, furnishing and lighting these massive single-use monuments to government inefficiency.

For years, we’ve heard how Volusia gets screwed to the wall by a convoluted state funding formula – a wacky scheme based on the price of goods and average salaries.

It’s a difficult situation that our state representatives never seem to have the political influence to make right.

In a very informative January 2016 article by Dustin Wyatt, writing for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, entitled: “Push to narrow Volusia school funding gap faces uphill slog,” we learned:

“The formula was introduced in 1973, but it was a 2004 amendment adding a wage index as a way of equalizing school funding around the state that really hurt Volusia. The change was based on a University of Florida study and recognition that more than 80 percent of the typical school district budget is spent on employees’ salaries and benefits. The economists who did the study included wage comparisons, saying people “willingly work for less” in low-cost areas with “amenities” such as beaches and cultural activities.”

 “The model has helped some counties, like Broward, gain up to $425 million in funding since its inception, while Volusia County has been the biggest loser — $120 million in the hole. Flagler County has lost $27 million.”

So that’s why we willingly scrounge for dirt-level take-home pay here on the Fun Coast?

The cultural activities. . .

Damn.  Who knew?

I just thought it was because we long-ago became a place of “haves-and-have-nots” – a down-at-the-heels beach community with a rapidly disappearing middle-class.

A beleaguered tribe of service workers trapped in an artificial economy where the winners and losers are hand-selected by uber-wealthy political insiders, you know, the five or six people in Volusia County who pass the same nickel around?

One would think that our school officials would find a way to cut the fat at the top of the organization – pay our teachers a competitive wage – and use the hundreds-of-millions in public funds and sales tax revenues earmarked for education to full effect – in the classroom, where it matters.

Regardless of how much money we inject into the process, and despite all the standardization and testing, we are still graduating a large percentage of children without basic life skills – or the ability to think critically or communicate effectively.

They are victims of a terribly ineffective – and inefficient – system.

If money is truly the issue, then let’s ask the difficult questions – right size the organization and determine our actual needs – but something tells me it’s not as simple as that.

At the very least, let’s turn our highly-paid Tallahassee lobbyist loose on the formulaic funding conundrum.

Trust me, there are very few things a fist-full of hundreds can’t take care of in those hallowed halls of our state capitol.

I don’t have the answers.

If I did, I would be up to my ears in the public trough myself.

But I think the solution starts by properly managing the resources at hand – before begging for more.

Following a contentious election season, I always wonder what happened to those independent, creative thinkers who made so many wonderful promises during their campaigns?

Remember them?

Those brash and bold candidates who separated themselves from the pack with their imaginative solutions to the problems and issues of the day?

In our system of local governance, representatives are elected to high office by their fellow citizens to exercise legitimate authority and provide effective leadership in furtherance of the community’s collective needs.

In my view, quality local government is marked by oversight, accountability, an individual – and institutional – respect for the rules, efficient stewardship of resources and effective collaboration with the governed.

It ensures that political and economic goals are based on consensus – which requires that all available information and views be heard and weighed equally during the decision-making process.

During this process, our individual representatives can bring their unique perspectives and innovative ideas to the table – concepts that are often developed by experiential learning – like, serving on various boards, interacting with experts and constituents, volunteering their time and talents to organizations and working to find solutions, seeing what works – and what doesn’t.

In fact, getting outside the opaque bubble of government administration buildings is truly the only way for an elected official to gain an educated understanding of difficult situations.

Trust me.  It’s easy to tell the difference between the politician who got down in the dirt and experienced the nuts-and-bolts of an issue from those who merely took the city/county manager’s word for it.

Unfortunately, in Volusia County, the “do as I say, not as I do” hypocrisy of the system molds and confines our elected officials into a homogenized clique – and there is no place for individuality or creative thinking.

A prime example of this is the on-going reeducation of freshman District 4 Councilwoman Heather Post.

It’s like watching the victim of a Khmer Rouge indoctrination camp, where individuality, creativity and independence are quickly eradicated with undiluted hostility.

Slowly, but surely, newly elected officials are beaten until they submit and become instruments of the elite – lockstep followers of the regime – lest they be publicly humiliated by senior members of the council who have no use for fresh eyes.

For Ms. Post, her programming began when she had the impudence to attend meetings and discussions with Daytona Beach officials and others working hard to find a compassionate solution to chronic homelessness in the Halifax area.

Apparently, Ms. Post was so eager to assist that she was – either voluntarily, or involuntarily – appointed to the First Step Shelter’s board of directors – an eclectic group which includes elected and appointed government officials, business leaders and private citizens.

In my view, it was refreshing to see a sitting county official become so personally involved with this entrenched local problem – a humanitarian crisis that has hampered legitimate economic development and contributed to the widespread blight and dilapidation for decades.

But in Volusia County government, no good deed goes unpunished.

When the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported on Post’s involvement with the issue, during an open county council meeting, Chairman Ed Kelley joined Council members Deb Denys, Billie Wheeler and “Sleepy” Pat Patterson in taking Post to the woodshed where they publicly flogged her like a recalcitrant child.

“If people think you’re (serving on a board) as a county council member, that’s bad policy,” Kelley said. “(Post) doesn’t understand politics.”

 I guess not.

Unfortunately, Ms. Post lacked the courage of her convictions and began to unravel like a cheap ball of yarn when called on the carpet by her cowardly “colleagues.”

Then, in an unusual turn of events, on March 27, Ms. Post, Councilwoman Joyce Cusack and the hapless Billie Wheeler told a crowd of 1,500 at the FAITH Action Assembly that they would vote in favor of Volusia County appropriating $4-million for a homeless shelter – which included funds for both construction and operating costs.

The “operating costs” aspect was the shocker, as that has always been the bugaboo for the county council.

In fact, during the April 6^th County Council meeting, The Very Reverend Fred Lowry virtually radiated pastoral care and concern for those less fortunate when he turned the lash on Cusack, Post and Wheeler for speaking out-of-school at the FAITH assembly.

“I was flabbergasted that some are going to allocate funds for operating costs, which is totally contrary to the position this county has taken up to this point,” Lowry said. “I thought we were crystal on that.”

It got uglier when Rev. Lowry told a bizarre story to a News-Journal reporter that the promises of support were causing cities – specifically Deltona – to reconsider their financial commitment to the homeless solution.

Unfortunately, the Right Reverend’s statement was exposed as complete and utter bullshit.

In a weird double-step, Fast Freddy suddenly succumbed to convenient amnesia when questioned about who, exactly, he was referring to.

You know what flabbergasts me?  Elected officials who make shit up when the truth would serve them – and us – better.

It’s high time our county council comes to the collective realization that they have lost all credibility on the important issue of homelessness – and their resolute obstructionism and pandering to the mean-spirited policies of county manager Jim Dinneen have doomed them to the backseat.

Then, in another obstinate act of individuality, Ms. Post took a quick trip to Tallahassee – spending less than $1,000 to educate herself on pending legislation effecting Volusia County.

According to the News-Journal, “The three-day jaunt cost the county $766.02, which included two nights at the Governors Inn, gas mileage and six meals, records show.”

Once again, Ms. Post was set upon by her fellow elected officials and openly chastised from the dais by Ed Kelley and Deb Denys for not coming before the full council – hat in hand – and asking permission from the elected body and Jim Dinneen if she could travel on county business.

Pretty please? 

It was also reported that Post isn’t the only one who’s been traveling on the public dime.

It seems Councilwoman Denys recently traveled to Washington D.C. with Daytona Beach International Airport Director Rick Karl to attend the annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation conference – an excursion which cost taxpayers a collective $5,192.83 in airfare, hotel and 14 meals.

The publicly funded junket was billed as an opportunity for county officials to meet with aerospace industry giants to attract prospects to the research park at Embry-Riddle.

Unfortunately, Ms. Denys permission slip from the council apparently got lost in the shuffle.

My ass.

To my knowledge, Ms. Denys doesn’t work for Embry-Riddle – at least not directly anyway.

So why in the hell are you and I paying for her lobbying efforts on their behalf?

Perhaps the worst example of this weird double-standard hypocrisy by our county council came during Jim Dinneen’s terribly staged “grand reveal” that Summit Hospitality Group was changing the flag of the languishing Desert Inn/Westin project to a Hard Rock – and requesting a nearly eight-month extension of the hard completion date.

In the ensuing orgy of adulation, fawning and cooing over the Hard Rock unveiling – Chairman Kelley, Deb Denys and the others openly and ebulliently voiced their overwhelming support – with Little Jimmy assuring the assembled council members that, based upon all he has seen, he will be wholeheartedly recommending the name change and extension request.

As if by magic, the alternative legislation changing the original ordinance, which provided a hard deadline for completion – along with other specific performance metrics – will be placed on the very next council agenda.

All this incredible support – before anyone has heard the first shred of testimony, statement of need, or even a valid reason for changing from a promised “4-star” Westin to a Hard Rock honky-tonk.

That’s mighty quick work for an elected body not known for its efficiency.

Unless the right people ask for expediency.

Isn’t this talking-out-of-school exactly what The Very Reverend Fred Lowry ripped Ms. Post a new asshole over?

Is there a double-standard or “unwritten protocol” for showing overweening support for every private development that will remove driving from our beach, while withholding encouragement for funding a homeless solution in the public interest?

You bet your sweet bippy there is. . .

Whenever my wife finishes reading the latest installment of Barker’s View, she looks up at me and says:

“Your name is shit in this town.”

And she’s right.

But the more I read of Eileen Zaffiro-Kean’s excellent exposé in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Tarnished Jewel – Daytona’s Troubled Beachside,” I realize that I’m in very distinguished company.

Yep.  I suspect there will be more than a few once proud and powerful people in the Halifax area whose family name will be mud for the next hundred years after this histoire tragique plays out in the paper.

The public unmasking of local greed, mismanagement, and ineptitude – you know, the dirty underbelly of things – can have that effect.

When pondering the myriad problems of Daytona’s dilapidated beachside, it is important to remember that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And that, my friends, is the Curse of the Fun Coast.

For over 400-years, every pirate in the world has plundered and pillaged Florida – first at the business end of a cold steel Cutlass – and in modern times, at the sharp point of a speculative developers pen.

Trust me.  Daytona Beach has seen its share of greedy bandits, treacherous rogues and thieving scalawags.  Our boardrooms, government daises and bankruptcy courts are literally bunged with them.

I think a large part of the problem is our communal inability to remember the sins of the past or learn from history and avoid repeating the same terrible mistakes.

This weird form of convenient amnesia is most prevalent in our Ruling Class – the elected and appointed officials that we elevate to high public office, always with the naive expectation that they will protect our collective interests.

Then, We, The People, stand slack-jawed, watching in utter horror as our representatives ignore their lofty promises and grab for the same red-hot stove, over-and-over-and-over again.

Doing the same thing, time-and-again, hoping against hope for a different outcome.

Look, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer – obviously – but this strategic forgetfulness tells me that perhaps the problem goes deeper than ineffectual politicians and ‘darn-the-luck’ justifications from overpaid redevelopment flunkies.

I just can’t shake the feeling that something more ominous is at play.

In late 2014, the News-Journal ran a piece on the destruction of a building at the northwest corner of North Atlantic Avenue and Oakridge Boulevard.

The newspaper reported that crews were demolishing the former corporate offices of the once exalted, now-defunct Bray & Gillespie, Inc. – which for a time did business as Ocean Waters Development – and owned and operated numerous beachfront hotels in the Halifax area.

Why?

To make room for the just completed parking garage for the new Daytona Beach Hotel & Condominium, a massive beachfront convention center now under construction by Protogroup (don’t call them Russians), Inc.

You could cut the irony with a knife.

In typical fashion, our powers-that-be are hailing yet another Knight in Shining Armor with a grand panacea project which they hope will be the nostrum that finally saves us bumpkins from ourselves.

For several years, Bray & Gillespie were the undisputed “Big Dogs” on the strip – flying high and exuding success like sweat from a fat tourist’s brow.

With holdings representing almost a mile of oceanfront, the company was perhaps the largest real estate development and management firm in the region.

Principals Chuck Bray and Joe Gillespie, former investment bankers who moved to the Halifax area from Atlanta in 1998, were, at the time, near the top of the uber-wealthy donor class that regularly injected vast sums of money into local political campaigns.

The company’s top echelon rubbed elbows with our local ‘movers and shakers’ and counted themselves among Volusia’s exclusive coterie of influential political insiders – the “rich and powerful” to quote the News-Journal’s fitting descriptor.

Many speculate that these contributions and connections resulted in liberal zoning designations and other economic incentives which often allowed Bray & Gillespie to ‘flip’ beachfront properties at huge profits without ever breaking ground.

Then, one dark morning in the fall of 2008, Bray & Gillespie filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. District Court at Jacksonville.

The action involved numerous local properties and $415-million in debt.

It also signaled the death knell for a lot of local jobs.

Some speculated that Bray & Gillespie’s insolvency was the result of hurricane damage and expensive fights with insurance carriers, the foundering Florida real estate market, and other internal and external financial pressures.

Still others believed that unchecked hubris and open greed played a role as well.

In a prescient editorial on the news reports of the day, an anonymous contributor wrote:

“About time!  These people had taken too much advantage of the low morals and predisposition for corruption of Daytona Beach public officials. A great business strategy, but it hurt Daytona’s future. The raping of Daytona Beach by a handful of tycoons with the very willing help a group of corrupt officials has just gone on for too long.”

Hummmm.

Whether you put credence in the ravings of a nameless victim or not, given what we know now, it sure has an interesting ring to it, eh?

Add to that the curious case of California “businessman” and journeyman grifter, Bill Geary, who from the 1980’s invested in various Boardwalk properties, the Daytona Beach Pier and ultimately the Ocean Walk development.

In keeping with tradition, those who should have known better bought into Geary’s polished line of bullshit without performing the due diligence one expects from ostensibly bright redevelopment officials, or savvy investors.

Had Geary’s victims – and that includes you and I – bothered to look, they would have found all the tell-tale signs of an old timey confidence artist.

The late Daytona Beach businessman and long-time resident, Paul Politis, was quoted in a September 2014 News-Journal article, “There was a sales pitch from Geary, and locals bought into it without checking his financials and credibility,” said Politis.

“They just handed him the keys to the redevelopment area.”

Ultimately, Geary plead guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection with federal charges that he looted nearly $900,000 from an investors fund for Ocean Walk Shoppes, then used the money for his personal benefit, according to court records.

I think it’s important to remember this historical perspective when reading the News-Journal’s informative revelations on our troubled beachside.

Something tells me these aren’t the only examples of the ugly, behind-the-scenes machinations that continue to hamper progress on the beachside and elsewhere.

As I’ve said, this very dark story stinks like overripe Limburger.

But when is someone – anyone – with the authority to act going to do something about it?

In my view, it’s high time that those responsible for the gross negligence and mismanagement of these dubious and fruitless renewal efforts – including the incomprehensible ‘buy high, sell low’ strategies employed by both the city and county – be held personally accountable for violating their fiduciary responsibility to the public they serve.

And while we’re at it, perhaps we could give a second-effort at finding the $16.7 million that no one in a position of responsibility can adequately account for.  How bow dah?

I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of watching highly compensated “revitalization experts,” like Daytona Beach Redevelopment Director Reed Berger and others – people who accept public funds to serve in the public interest – tap dancing on the front page of the newspaper and giving cockamamie explanations for the inexplicable.

I normally begin these screeds with a droll story, or some plagiarized fable to illustrate a point.

It adds a bit of levity and helps the reader better digest the serious issues of the day.

But sometimes you find a topic – such as chronic homelessness, or the wholesale misuse of public funds – that are far too serious for cheeky anecdotes.

Like many of you, I am enjoying the Daytona Beach News-Journal’s illuminating series, “Tarnished Jewel – Daytona’s Troubled Beachside.”

In fact, I read Sunday’s initial installment several times.

I had to.

Try as I might, I simply couldn’t grasp the enormity and byzantine nature of the problem – it was like entering a huge maze, going around-and-around, but never finding the cheese.

Don’t get me wrong, Eileen Zaffiro-Kean has done honest work.

The quality of her research and impeccable writing style have brought depth and life to one of the tragic local stories of our time.  In fact, I can’t wait to read the remainder of what I am sure will be a very enlightening series on the wasteland that is Daytona beachside – our core “tourist area” and most important economic engine.

I don’t know about you, but just trying to follow the money was migraine-inducing.

What we know is that over the past three-decades, some $120-million in public funds (I say “some” because the exact amount is apparently in doubt) have been injected into various areas extending from Oak Ridge Boulevard south to East International Speedway Boulevard.

Primarily east of A-1-A.

With that as a rough starting point, Ms. Zaffiro-Kean takes us on a wild ride through the mean streets of the “Main Street Community Redevelopment Area” – a place that has come to epitomize the historical lack of vision, poor leadership and ineffective representation of a cavalcade of local elected and appointed officials.

It also showcases the greed of some prominent business and property owners who still believe throwing more tax dollars and incentives at developers is the answer to the problem – despite the lessons of the past.

Whenever public money is used to further private interests, regardless of the guise, that nexus invariably leads to abuse.

History teaches that when vast sums of money are placed in the hands of Halifax area politicians, a sizable portion will always find its way into the pockets of their cronies and political allies – and the rest will be used for huge “panacea projects” and even bigger debt.

In fact, the bigger the better.

When you have a lot of moving parts, money seems to fall through the cracks like sand through a sieve, and it becomes infinitely more difficult to follow.

In the case of the Main Street CRA, Daytona Beach officials are unable to adequately account for millions of dollars the city borrowed – and according to reports, the bulk of remaining CRA revenues will go to paying off bonds for 20-year old “improvements” related to the Ocean Walk/Hilton “e-zone” and other projects east of A-1-A.

Developments which have done absolutely nothing to improve long-suffering residential and commercial areas to the west.

Rather than learn from the mistakes of the past, city officials appear hell-bent on spending what little funds remain on a convoluted scheme to transform East ISB – taking out yet another multi-million-dollar bond for “property acquisition” (cough-cough, excuse me) and road construction, with the money eventually being reimbursed by the Florida Department of Transportation, yada, yada, yada.

Add the insanity of Daytona Beach officials purchasing residential and commercial properties in the CRA for hundreds of thousands over appraised value – then selling the lots for pennies on the dollar, or grossly mismanaging the assets – and you get the idea that there really is no one minding the switch.

Or is something more sinister at play?

For instance, late last year the city moved to purchase two beachside lots for the exorbitant price of $862,000.  I say “exorbitant” because the assessed value of the parcels was just $125,000.

It’s shit like that I don’t understand?

In my view, Linda Smiley – an extremely bright observer of local government and lifelong resident of the beachside – got it right when she said, “it’s a joke that never worked out.”

 “It sounds good in theory, but to me it’s a legal way for them to steal money and give it to their friends.  The $67.7 million in bond debt was a joke for what we got.  How about cleaning up the roads?”

That’s a bold statement – and an unfortunate truth.

But don’t hold your breath waiting for someone – anyone – to figure out where the money went, or why ostensibly smart people would willingly embarrass and expose themselves by massively overpaying for private real estate using public funds.

Let’s just say what everyone is thinking – something stinks here.  Bad.

As the News-Journal pointed out, “When Glenn Ritchey became mayor a decade ago, one of his first acts was to call for an outside audit of CRA money. When the probe concluded about a year or two later, no scandal emerged. The auditors did point out concerns with some police costs billed to the CRA and the purchase of oceanfront land for more than fair market value. The city was given a tip sheet on how to spend CRA money along with a list of things to correct.”

Nothing to see here, folks.  Move along. . .  We gave them a tip sheet.  Everything’s cool.

In my view, using CRA funds for dedicated police and code enforcement initiatives designed to take back crime-ridden areas is one of the few things the Main Street CRA did right.

With 35-years and $120-million dollars over the transom, it appears our “movers-and-shakers” (who are still wholly controlled by the Old Guard) are simply turning their backs to the east and are now looking west – developing thousands of new homes, investing in up-scale shopping areas, and building associated amenities – while seemingly ignoring the devastation (and potential) of the beachside.

Sometimes it’s easier just to start over from pine scrub, I guess.

What they forget is that our identity – our draw – will always remain “The World’s Most Famous Beach,” and we ignore that reality at our collective peril.

I guess it’s why I get so pissed-off and demoralized whenever I listen to our Chamber of Commerce and “Economic Development” types crow ad nauseum about their highfalutin accomplishments.

It’s all bullshit.  Smoke and mirrors designed to deflect attention from the rotting core of our most important economic engine.

And while Ms. Zaffiro-Kean has done her level best to avoid openly embarrassing the guilty, trust me, there is plenty of blame to go around.

Whenever I criticize former Daytona Beach Mayor Glenn Richey for being as equally ineffective as his predecessors in bringing substantive change to the beachside, I receive angry notes from his supporters telling me what a great guy Glenn is – and how my harsh assessment is unfair, mean-spirited, etc., etc.

Look, I’m sure Mr. Richey is a nice guy – they all are.  And don’t get me wrong, Mayor Richey is not solely to blame – not by a long-shot.

In my view, the list is long and distinguished.

But with the beachside literally crumbling under unrestrained blight, the plague of homelessness and abject dilapidation, the august “Richey Plaza” – an unfortunate self-congratulatory shrine pushed to reality by our out-of-touch local royalty – will, in my view, forever serve as a fitting monument to the lack of strategic vision, mismanagement, and abandonment which remains so visibly, and economically, evident to residents and visitors alike.

How embarrassing.  How utterly tragic.