Welcome to Wherever You Are

We recently learned of the CVB’s new marketing campaign, “Kissimmee: The Heart of Florida.” As usual, we have questions and thoughts.

First, the easy stuff. It appears that the whole discussion of turning the tourism marketing over to a third party, leaving the CVB to focus on convention marketing has, in the words of our governor, “dropped like a rock.” Also, we’re somewhat amused by the decision to focus almost all of the marketing spending on web promotion, here in the Central Florida county with arguably the lowest level of high-tech employment. Hopefully the folks who are looking for Osceola County tourism information are web-savvy. Discuss among yourselves.

No, our main discussion today is about the brand. As far as tourism goes in Osceola County, Kissimmee is the brand. After all, it’s the Kissimmee Convention & Visitors Bureau. The website is www.floridakiss.com. The slogan is “Kissimmee: The Heart of Florida.”

But as the locals know, tourism has long since fled the City of Kissimmee. There are some hotels along 192 struggling to make it, but we’re not sure they’re catering to the tourist trade anyway. The only real remaining tourist destinations within the city boundaries are Lake Toho and Medieval Times. Everyone knows that the “power” in Osceola County tourism is West 192...the BeautiVacation district...where the money is going for any number of convention center projects.

So we have a tourism district using the brand of a dilapidated municipal business district while we have a county government that is turning their development attention to flashy projects on the other side of the county. How did we get here?

We’ll leave the “how” answer to the folks who like to tell stories about how they used to ride horses down the streets in downtown Kissimmee. The real question here is what do we do now. Tourism, like it or not, is Osceola County’s lifeblood. Tourism brings tax dollars. Tourism brings service level employment, which is our bread and butter. Tourism drives new construction, both for tourist related buildings and for housing for those service workers. And in Osceola County, Kissimmee is the tourism brand.

So, City of Kissimmee and West 192 area, we say, get together. Annex it. Annex the hell out of it. West 192 gets the brand they are already dependent on. Kissimmee gets tax dollars, a larger base to spread their operations across, and some amount of expertise in rebuilding and maintaining commercial corridors. Osceola County can go on to focusing on developing new communities on the east side of the county.

Know what else has a catchy ring to it? “Celebrate every day in Celebration.”

Funding Follies

It is Monday morning and the City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting agenda has finally been put online for the public to see. We know it is troublesome when city business gets in the way of holiday shopping and party planning, but it is important that the agenda gets posted early enough for the public to react to agenda items if needed. From what we have seen so far from the newly seated commissioners, it looks like the public is going to have a busy couple of years reacting to what government is trying to do.

As we had mentioned in previous articles, the city's portion of funding for the Small Business Development Center is up for discussion at Tuesday night's meeting. We believe that the commission should demand answers be given to business relevant questions and that a better system of accountability should be established to verify the program is having a lasting success. The WayneWho staff has heard that a couple of the commissioners are already planning to vote against the approval of these funds because they do not believe that it is government's responsibility to get involved with the business community. Funny how that has become a convenient argument now that the development community has no more use for our area and small businesses cannot afford the same level of campaign contributions they once did. We would argue that this type of business educational resource is exactly what is needed and provides the smartest way to help create solid businesses and honest economic development in our community. With more and more people losing their jobs and the pool of available jobs drying up, more people will make the decision to start their own business as a means to continue to survive. This would not be the best time to cut off an educational resource that may not only help them get started, but help our community by creating employment for others along the way. Demand answers. Demand Results. Fund accordingly.

Another request for funding to help pay for a bus to help transport the elderly and disabled is also on the agenda for Tuesday night. While we feel this is not the best transportation system to fund, given the lack of other transportation options, this is a must fund situation until commissioners with some basic understanding of public transportation get elected to office. Since local governments have forced Lynx to cut routes because of funding cuts, other transportation options will be needed. While we believe it is vital to fund this request, we are very discouraged that only one group of our community is being considered. There are many Osceola County high school students who relied on Lynx transportation so they could stay late after school for educational or extracurricular activities who have been left stranded. While it is not government's role to provide this transportation, we find it odd that some get transported while others do not.

We would also suggest that some accountability be requested of the Council for this new project. The Council has a tendency to expand its role despite funding constraints. Their "whole family" approach of helping the seniors of our community has made the agency much larger than it needs to be. While we understand that there are large groups of people in our community from all walks of life who need help, the Council needs to stick to its primary role of helping seniors to assure that funding goes where it has been allotted. While this may be a heart-wrenching task, it must be demanded.

Opposed To New Business

The City of Kissimmee's own self proclaimed Graffiti Czar has set his sights on eliminating a new blight in the City of Kissimmee since realizing he is powerless when it comes to getting graffiti removed from the new CRA mobile home community built in the downtown. His new mission seems to be stopping the creation of new businesses in the City of Kissimmee. “I think the timing right now is horrific for anybody to start a business. I’m opposed to this. This is how I feel,” stated Commissioner Gemskie according to the Osceola News-Gazette. Opposed to new business? The WayneWho staff thinks that is a very strong statement for someone whose name is being thrown about as a possible County Commission candidate in a few years. We are not sure what type of community Commissioner Gemskie would like to preside over if he were able to win a County seat, but we are sure what a community with no new jobs would look like, and it is not a pretty site.

The WayneWho staff hopes that at next week's meeting, Mayor Swan, Commissioner Gemskie, and Gemskie's new found buddy Commissioner Irizarry would explain their concepts of what economic development is because the ideas they have attempted to implement so far have failed and don't make much sense. While Commissioner Irizarry cried the loudest when taxpayer money was to be used for the successive years of All-America City awards pageant try-outs because money was going to be tight and spending money on an award made little sense, he was one of the first to proudly herald the benefits of 'Economic Development' when the award was finally won. The first year that the public began paying attention to this nonsensical pageant was the year that a group spent $80,000 in tax money to try to buy the All-America City title and failed. You may remember watching the video presentation on our tax funded TV station Access Osceola that showed Community Vision representatives, as well as representatives from the County's Economic Development Club, City of Kissimmee, Osceola County, the Chamber of Commerce, the HOME Project, and others who enjoyed a fun filled vacation at the taxpayers expense to Anaheim California in the name of Economic Development. For weeks the battle raged and commissioners told the community that we would stand a better chance of attracting new businesses into the area if we could 'win' the All-America City Award. Well, we won the award this past year and now our big plan from the commission is to oppose anyone opening a new business? How American is that? And besides, where is all the economic development we were promised? Was the All-America City pageant just a way to justify travel expenses or were we really trying to get businesses to open in our community?

Besides the obvious point of "Nobody really cares what Commissioner Gemskie says because he has little insight or knowledge when it comes to business," we would like to point out a little looked at principal of a free market. Risk is essential to the proper operation of a free market because risk helps to determine profit or loss and risk is what helps to create opportunity. If we were to listen to the commission's advice, we would stop businesses from opening that could benefit from this bad market. This commission does not even want to give the American Entrepreneurial Spirit a chance to study and discuss their opportunities with seasoned Small Business Administration Officials because it is more important to spend $30,000 on 'Sculpture Walks', downtown drinking parties, and a dwindling farmers market than it is to help create opportunities for the future business leaders of our community. There is no risk on spending $30,000 on events that have no true failure point, but it is another to spend $30,000 where judgment may come into play.

On a side note to this article; whoever is pulling the string on Mr. Horner, tell him to stay home on Tuesday night. Let the professionals speak instead of him. Economic Development is not about how good your 'Dog and Pony' show is, but instead it is about how smart your team of people is advising the business community. The Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce, like its Kissimmee Main Street counterpart has failed in this mission, but that does not mean that a good program, that these groups are not responsible for running, should be scuttled because of them. We would also suggest that the person who is going to represent this program be someone who does understand the difficulties governments are having with limited revenues to spend on parties and such. This would help put them on the same playground as our local elected officials. One last thing to the presenter, remember that the magic word is 'multimodal'. The commissioners just love that word.

Failed Vision

A couple of weeks ago the non-profit organization 'Community Vision' gave its annual 'Community Report Card' update to the Kissimmee City Commission. Gone from the report were the typical practiced gleefull cheerleading routines pointing out taxpayer subsidized projects that had held our community together with band-aids for far too long. Gone was the cheery disposition from the organization's Executive Director who's cheeriness during the All-America City debacle was the first indication that the Award meant more for non-profits than it did the community at large. Gone from the report was any sense of direction in which the community should turn to make things better. The vision for the community, it would seem, is not looking all that good.

As the director finished her briefing, we waited to hear ideas from our City Commissioners and heard nothing. Reports from the County Commission meeting indicate that same scenario repeated itself in their chambers. No ideas, no vision. Many would think that with an all star cast of who's who sitting on the Community Vision Board of Directors that a solid vision for our community vision on how to move forward would be only a simple phone call away, but still no vision. The WayneWho staff was not all that shocked by the fact that the idea well had run dry since, when you look at the cast of characters on the Community Vision board, you notice the same recycled cast of characters from almost every other board in the community. You also notice the same politicians and special interest personalities that seem to come together like white-on-rice. Considering every agency in Osceola County seems to be on the brink of financial ruin, it seems that instead of relying on the same group of people who have helped create the problems in our community, the groups would start to branch out and bring in some new blood. Of course that would take vision, and as we stated earlier, there seems to be no vision left in our community.

So where will the community go from here? Who will lead us to better days ahead? Well the City Commission spent most of it's meeting last night arguing how the titles of vice mayor and mayor pro-tem should be decided, so obviously they are not going to be a big help. The county commission is still wrapped up in making sure the favors for campaign supporters are finalized before the bottom falls out of the budget and another round of layoffs begins. The school board is... let's just say they are not really holding it together that well and should not be relied on for much of anything except for a good dance-off now and again. Many of the individuals these organizations have come to count on to serve on boards have begun to abandon their posts like rats from a sinking ship. This was proven at the same Kissimmee Commission meeting as commissioners argued over who would be stuck on the Community Vision board. It seems no one wants to get sucked into any organization that might look like a tax money blackhole. So the question remains, where do we go and who will get us there?

We would say that the answer is more simple than most would think. There is only one group of people who can force governments to be accountable for their actions and responsible with the money we entrust in them. There is only one group that can, by the power of voice and vote, force government to follow the strict vision of the people it is meant to govern. The answer is you. You have the power to not only layout the vision for your community, but you have the power to make sure it gets implemented. Remember that it is you that makes government work and not the other way around. It is not the vision of campaign mailers and billboards that will build a better community, it is the ideas from members of our community that will.

It might sound simple, but in the absence of any false vision created by government officials and non-profit tax-subsidized organizations, it is the vision that we should explore and trust first. You have been selected to serve.

Multimodal

Tonight the Kissimmee City Commission will have a second and final hearing on the adoption of ordinance changes to adopt a Multimodal Transportation District. This basically means that the commission is adopting language that shows they are 'kinda-sort-of' interested in improving transportation options in the City. This is a good first step considering that most of those who are now singing of the praises of this 'Get Out of Transportation Jail Free Card', are the very individuals who let public transportation grind to a halt for many in the community who rely on it every day. Don't worry though, years of damage to our public transportation system due to funding cuts so round-about fountains could be added will be wiped away with the adoption of any ordinance with the word 'Multimodal' in it.

One thing that shocked the WayneWho staff in reading this proposed ordinance was that it would amend the Bicycle/Pedestrian plan. We were shocked because from what we can tell from trying to get around town on foot these days, the current plan resembles a scene from 'Death Race 2000' starring David Carradine where 'Hit and Run driving is no longer a felony, it's a national sport!' While we have heard the election year rhetoric of creating a 'Walkable Community,' we have yet to hear any reports of any of our elected officials walking around town to see if we really have one. For those of us who do walk, we know that every time you try to navigate any of the ill-conceived sidewalks or crosswalks it feels more like someone has applied a point system to vehicles trying to hit you whether you were in a crosswalk or not. If 'Multimodal' means jump or dive out of harms way, then this plan is the one the community has been dealing with for years.

In the end, this shiny new ordinance is not really about the community as much as it is about the city scoring more grant money to build light rail stations that no one can get to while neglecting the transportation needs we already have. The ordinance does much more than this when you dig into it though. This ordinance also becomes the blueprint on how new development in the city will be squashed under the more mounds of red tape. Now new projects will have to jump through even more hoops to get approved which is always great when trying to jump start an economy.

Just Remember - Fountains are worth 200 points and points are doubled if it is a round-about fountain.

Keeping The Faith

An article in the Orlando Sentinel today notes the arrests of 34 suspects in the McLaren Circle neighborhood of Kissimmee. The arrests come at the end of a nine-month undercover investigation of violence and drug dealing. In the arrests, guns and bullet proof vests were also seized. All the WayneWho staff can say is "Great Job!"

Sometimes we have to all remember that while the day to day whimpering and finger pointing between politicians and money hungry special interest groups can make the whole area seem on the verge of completely imploding, the hard working people of Osceola County keep everything going. In this case it is the hard working law enforcement officers who do their jobs with pride and honor. While some politicians will pat themselves on the back for their wisdom in all things pertaining to law enforcement because they once spent a night at a Holiday Inn Express, we shouldn't lose focus on those who really do the work. They, after all, are what makes this community work.

Ostrich Economics

Like most local governments, the City of Kissimmee's unfolding strategy for dealing with current Central Florida economic crisis is to stick their collective heads in the sand and hope it goes away. While staff and elected officials alike will suggest they have met the crisis head on by making 'necessary' cuts to trim general fund spending, the WayneWho staff, and all of those e-mailing us, would argue that governments have all made hatchet wielding cuts with no planning on how to provide the services government should be providing instead of popularity based programs. In essence, governments have jammed money in the faces of the programs they think will get them re-elected, and then stuck their head in the sand to block out the foul cries from the public and the small business community.

The lack of any honest understanding of business economics became more than apparent at this week's City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting. What many would call the most blatant proof of this was the denial of $30,000 to the Small Business Development Center which is housed at the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce. While we agree with the questioning that commissioners engaged in with Chamber President Mike Horner on accountability and the program's level of success, we have to disagree with the overall concepts brought fourth in the denial of the program. If the City Commission, Osceola County Commission, staff at both entities, and the useless Economic Development 'rah... rah...' group, had any idea of how to put a plan together on how to actually begin building an economy in Osceola County, the blunders that the City Commission has made during this budget cycle may not have happened. We also feel that all levels of government are to blame.

We will begin our examples of idiocy by pointing out the most basic of blunders. The City Commission denies a request for funding $30,000 to the Small Business Development Center which is backed by the Small Business Administration of the United States Federal Government and by the University of Central Florida. The commissioners made this decision based on all of the 'hard' decisions that they have had to make during this budget year and they need to hold on to as much money in their 'General Fund' as possible. While we applaud this idea, we have to argue on its execution. The commissioners turned down a Federally backed SBA program of it's $30,000 and gave the $30,000 instead to the Kissimmee Main Street Club that specializes in alcohol related drinking events, for the generic task of Business Recruitment and Retention. If any of our readers have driven downtown, or anywhere in Kissimmee, we believe they would have noticed that it is apparent the retention part is not working. While we believe that the people involved with the Main Street Club are honest good-hearted fun loving people, we would have to question their business experience and the faith, and dollars, put in them during these dark economic times. The Main Street Club has had a hard time expanding and growing the Kissimmee Farmers Marketing with backing and advertising help from the City of Kissimmee, and we should believe that they are better equipped to smartly spend $30,000 as opposed to the SBA? It doesn't make sense to us either.

What we really found interesting about the dialog on this issue between the commissioners the other night was their lack of the basic understanding of what our local government's role is. As much as the senior citizens of our community need our help, they are not the future of this community. While the senior population may continue to grow, the benefits to our community because of the growth are non-existent. While we would never suggest that we should not find ways to help senior citizens or suggest they are not wanted in our community, we would argue that dumping all or our funding into programs for seniors does not create a path for economic recovery in our area. While we understand that the 'Senior Vote' is what gets commissioners elected, they are not the group that is going to develop new industries that increase our tax base and provide jobs.

We would also have to laugh at the thoughts the commissioners shared about wanting to create more jobs by helping small businesses because they are the backbone of our community. They made these comments after just creating an ordinance to charge one segment of businesses in our community a new 'Database Tax'. They also created new red-tape for the Security Industry to navigate through. Creating more jobs and helping small business takes more than election cycle rhetoric. A plan to help actually needs to be developed to make it happen and cutting the funding to the Small Business Development Center is not a good start in this plan. Demand accountability, demand data, demand that a better plan be developed, but don't stab the small business community in the back again. Hiding behind empty wording that is spoken week after week is just another way of sticking ones head in the sand.

This announcement brought to you by the color green

Well, it’s that time of year again...it seems like every week another bag of telephone books is deposited by your front door.

What to do with the old ones? For years, it seems that the people who run the recycling programs and recycling bins have posted big warnings about how whole paper recycling loads will be rejected if phone books are found inside. So huge amounts of paper end up in the trash can, and then the landfill.

A WayneWho staffer was watching a home improvement show over the weekend, and they went to a factory that makes that blown-in cellulose insulation. The staffer was amazed when the plant manager said that their two preferred sources for paper fiber (the main content of cellulose insulation) were newspapers and PHONE BOOKS, and that they didn’t like office paper as much because the fibers were shorter and dustier.

So we went out in search to see if recycling opinions have changed. Nope. According to the Osceola County web site, phone books are still prohibited from the recycling bins. Next stop was the “Recycle Your Phone Books” link on Yellowpages.com. According to their site, the closest dropoff site for phone book recycling is the City of Orlando. Not encouraging.

Just for fun, we dropped a “bag o’ phone books” fresh off the curb onto the WayneWho office postal scale, and it came in at 7.4 pounds. Maybe one of the mathematicians among us wants to figure out how many tons of phone books are being hauled to the landfill (and remember, folks, a large part of your trash pickup fee is the tonnage taken to the landfill).

Local recycling folks, we have laid down the challenge. Maybe you want to talk to the cellulose insulation people before next year’s annual binge of phone books. We bet they’ll pay you to collect old phone books for them.

As a footnote, we read in the Monday business section of the Sentinel that Waste Management Inc. had recently presented Keep Winter Park Beautiful with a $10,000 check to be used for a number of projects, including a phone book recycling initiative. Huh. Waste Management. If only there were someone in our community who had a connection to that company. As long as we’re here, how is that grant-funded study of curbside recycling pickup going, commissioners?

Second Read

The WayneWho staff was surprised to see the return of the 'Security Tax' ordinance return so quickly for a second reading which would be the final reading before the Alarm System Ordinance became a revenue generator. What really surprised us was the complete change in the ordinance from the first reading to the second, and we wondered how it could even be legal to make such drastic changes to an ordinance and not have to bring it back for a first reading so the public and businesses involved could be given time to voice their opinions. Of course our commission has a long standing tradition of finding ways to cut the public out of the process, so our surprise was a muted response.

We were happy to see that the new direction of the ordinance was to eliminate any yearly charges to individual homeowners and businesses for owning a security system, but they would still have to register the system by permit every year. Seems very reasonable.

Where the real change in the ordinance appears is in the fact that now the commission wants to charge alarm companies a yearly registration fee of $100.00 and provide the city with an updated list of the systems they operate. If they do not provide the information on an annual basis there will be a fine on the company. Our problem is not that this is up for discussion, it is that there will be no time for the companies to have any say before this is passed. They will believe that some sort of ordinance that resembles what was passed in the first reading is what will be voted on for the second reading. This will not be true in this case. Of course this gives the Kissimmee/Osceola Chamber of commerce time to duck on the issue by saying 'We didn't know about it.' even though they have again chosen to be silent on another business related decision. Of course they are probably keeping their mouth shut on this issue because they are trying to hold on to their funding for the seldom used Small Business Development Center. The funding for this 'Chamber' program is also up for discussion tonight. We would hope that the Chamber would stand up for the businesses it takes money from every year, but that would not be the norm.

So what we are left with is a system of failures leading to an ordinance that will end up costing more money than leaving the current system in place. It will cost more money in trying to track down who provides alarm and/or monitoring services in the city. It will cost more in taking data from multiple sources and then trying to bring that into a single program that can bring it all together. It will cost more money in IT time and hardware because of course what the city already has will not be enough to do the job. All of this while doing very little to curb the number of false alarm calls to the Police Department.

While we believe that the merits of the ordinance should be debated, the problem is there will be no debate. From the first reading to the second, there is a completely different ordinance. Local impacted companies have probably not been contacted, and what is supposed to be the voice for local businesses will stay silent. We believe the new ordinance deserves a second reading.

Big Kids and Big Toys

You couldn’t help but notice that, in the local print media over the last week, the Kissimmee Police Department has been announcing their acquisition of two 3-wheel traffic enforcement vehicles (motor-tricycles?). Complete with pictures!

We’ve seen some of these vehicles cruising down the 192 strip. For those on our staff who aren’t motorcyclists, we thought, “gee, that might be a nice high-mileage adult vehicle/toy, if we had the money.” Kind of like a Honda Gold Wing.

But in a time when the City Commission and city management squeal at every opportunity about how budgets are being cut and there are no funds available for anything, we wonder about the purchase of what are admittedly not standard police patrol vehicles.

We were surprised to learn that the purchase price of these vehicles hovers at the $16,000 range, before emergency equipment and markings (according to the papers). This seems to put these bikes within a couple thousand dollars of a fleet-purchased Ford Crown Victoria (again, before emergency equipment and markings). But, we assume that these bikes will not be any officer’s primary mode of transport, rather, available for shared use for special events and those special traffic details.

Certainly they seem safer than a two-wheel motorcycle, and from the pictures, have lots more opportunities for more blinky lights. But the accompanying articles note that the police department will continue to operate their Harley-Davidson patrol motorcycles as well. And we wonder whether these three-wheel things will have the ability to move in traffic the way motorcycles do, which is one of the supposed strengths of police motorcycles.

So, the police department is buying special equipment that costs almost as much as a patrol car, but won’t be used as much. Probably safer than a motorcycle, but not replacing motorcycles. In these trying financial times, we would have loved to have seen the last line of the press release read:

“The manufacturer, in exchange for KPD’s feedback on how these vehicles perform as police vehicles, is leasing them to the police department for $1 per year.”

or:

“Officers assigned to these vehicles will use them as their primary patrol vehicle, in an effort to increase visibility and reduce fuel costs. When those officers need a standard squad car, they will use an older shared car from the city fleet.”

Alarmist Reaction

Today's edition of the Osceola News Gazette continues the sales pitch to the residents of the City of Kissimmee on why they should get down on one knee and thank city government for the opportunity to pay them even more money. To shake your dollars from your already shrinking wallet they are now using alarmist tactics to scare the public into giving up their hard earned cash more readily. As in their editorial, we will use the same analogy of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf".

First we will take a quick look at the numbers that were presented in their editorial on this "crisis" of false alarm calls from automatic alarm systems. The periodical notes that the Kissimmee Police Department responded to almost 4,000 automated calls of which only around 1,000 were real emergencies. Which means, in essence, less than 3,000 calls in a 12 month period were false alarms. Since the Osceola News Gazette is using nice round numbers, when you divide these numbers down to come up with daily number of false alarms, you are looking at 9 non-emergency false alarms per day give or take a few calls for math accuracy. While the WayneWho staff agrees with KPD, the City Commission, and their mouth piece, the Gazette that these amounts of false alarms are unacceptable, we do not believe that creating a 'Security Tax' will fix the problem, and will probably create other problems instead.

First, where did this idea of creating a tax to force the collection of data come from? It came from the company that has been hired to collect false alarm fees for alarms that have had too many false alarms. This ideas was presented and accepted with no real discussion. There has been no obvious attempt by city government to handle this issue in any other way. It is easier to sit back and scream in a panic demanding the citizens charge card be swiped again. Wolf... Wolf...

As one of our commenters posted yesterday, "Aren't the police on duty anyway?" We feel that this is a very valid question that of course no one seems to want to address in their list of scary numbers. Are we to believe that officers are not responding to calls to real emergencies because of false alarms? Has staffing at the police and fire departments dropped to a level where this is a problem? We know that standing by a building with a blazing alarm for twenty-minutes sucks, but is this creating problems in emergency response times? Will this new 'Security Tax' aid in a reduction in crime? Maybe the Police Chief should present that information instead of looking upset at the podium because the public might want this issue debated.

Another point about the new 'Security Tax' or fee as some want to call it, is that we listened to all the arguments about the new Fire Fee being what we needed to finally fund our Fire Department without being tied to the ebb and flow of government income. But here we are again, asking for another fee to fix another problem that was either overlooked or ignored. Wolf... Wolf...

The scary part is that elected officials are supposed to help provide a vision for our community that represents the will of the people, and they do not. Today's elected officials represent a vision of our community that campaign contributors want to see and a vision of how big and strong government should be. The WayneWho staff would not be so opposed to this new fee if other avenues, which would require some vision, would have been tried first. Maybe someone can come up with other ideas that will achieve the same goal of reducing the number of false alarms. The Mayor stated that was really our goal and not revenue collection, so maybe we should give it a try.

Why not set up a space on the cities website that allows security alarm owners to register and maintain contact information at no charge. The city could even print out registration forms with links to the website registration system that could be given out to the security alarm companies doing business in this county. The city could also use 'Access Osceola' and all the groups the city pays to be a member of to get the word out there that we are doing a 'No False Call' registration drive to promote safer communities and a better working relationship with KPD. This could even be opened up as an opportunity for neighborhood watch groups to help register their neighbors and let them become part of the solution. Maybe working from the point of community pride, instead of the idea that 'We have to tax you morons so we can handle all of this for you!' would work out better than expected. If not, then institute the tax, but at least government would not have bitten at the first fluffy thing it thought was a sheep to feed its belly. Wolf.. Wolf..

Know Nuthin'

Many people believe that the stupidity of government knows no bounds. The WayneWho staff believes that government is not inherently stupid, but that a sense of moronic ignorance overtakes elected officials once they take office because of a constant tug-of-war between the different mentalities of the public and private sectors. Of course at last weeks City of Kissimmee Commission meeting, our beliefs were stretched thin as the Commission attempted to debate a new 'Security Tax' ordinance that seems to do more to discourage citizens and businesses from protecting life and property than it does to promote it. What we found most interesting about the meeting was the commission and the staff's complete ignorance on the particulars of this ordinance when a citizen/business owner began asking questions.

Before we continue on with the questions that were asked we would like to point out one simple fact. The Dallas based company that has already been hired by the commission, which it seems they were unaware of, made these recommendations to improve their ability to collect fines imposed by the current ordinance. A 'salesperson' from the company then devised a plan that would increase the amount they could bill, and city staff fell right in line, quickly creating an ordinance that would charge all owners of security systems excessive fees whether or not they had ever had a false alarm call. The staff and the commission were excited about this new revenue stream because their cut would go straight to their general fund for use on pet projects like round-about fountains, government subsidized farmers markets, and kick-backs to non-profit organizations that may or not may be in the public interest. We are unaware, at this time, of how much money the city will make as the 'Security Tax' collection agency sells the personal data it collects to telemarketers or whomever might have an interest in such information because the original ordinance was written so badly, and the ordinance that has passed its first reading was left so full of holes, that it is just not clear. Originally we would have assumed the commission or staff would have had a slight grip on the ordinance they were attempting to pass, but as we continued to watch we were proven wrong.

A single citizen was allowed to speak on the issues surrounding this ordinance which, the commission realized right away, was a mistake. To the citizens questions, the commission responded with dumbfounded "ahh... we aren't really sure", "we don't have answers to that", and the occasionally gurgling noises that at least let the viewing audience know they were somewhat conscious, but unfortunately their Commander, Christopher Pike retorts left little clarity in the minds of anyone watching in the audience. To be fair to the citizen, we would note that the questions that were asked were very simple and were not as difficult as some on the commission would lead you to believe. Questions like, "Would the fees have to be paid if my alarm system does not automatically call the police?", "If a fee has to be charged, why is there a difference between commercial and residential security systems?," and "Commissioner Otero, being a staunch Ronald Reagan Republican, how is it you can be for more government and higher taxes especially on businesses in an economy that is this bad?" Beep once for yes, twice for no.

Of course after the commission discussed all of the problems with the ordinance and ignored the citizens questions, the motion was made to pass the first reading of the ordinance so it could be completely modified before the second, and final, reading. This even though a motion had already been made to postpone the first reading of the ordinance until it could be fixed. So much for procedure.

Beep... Beep...

Befuddle By Choice

A recent Orlando Sentinel article pointed out an obvious problem local governments have with operating in the sunshine. They don't believe in, or practice it.

Many years ago, in a effort to make government more transparent to citizens, the state of Florida enacted laws that governed open meetings, communications, and documents that commissioners and staff use to base their decisions on. Basically these laws state that any of this information is open to the public.

Well, at least in theory of law it is open to the public.Recent undercover operations told a truth that many of us in the anonymous community have known for a long time. Open public records only applies to what government wants you to see. Everything else stays hidden no matter how many times it is requested. Osceola County Governments have had a bad history of making sure public documents are actually made public. The real question that should be asked is if government officials are honestly this incompetent, or is there a pattern of knowingly breaking the law. Osceola County has run into several issues because of attempts to block documents from the prying publics eyes, but maybe as the newspaper suggests, these attempts at hiding the truth are because of simply stupidity and nothing else.

After watching commission meetings for this many years, the WayneWho staff can give no guidance on this topic. Stupidity is in the eye of the beholder.

Let The Taxing Begin

As new commissioners are seated, the intrusions and the fees to pay for those intrusions, can now begin. This Tuesday night, the Kissimmee City Commission will decide on an ordinance amending the false alarm system ordinance, which at first glance sounds simple enough until citizens actually dig into the ordinance. After reading the ordinance, citizens would quickly realize that besides adding a yearly fire alarm tax on top of a fire fee that the commission is already charging, that it also has a provision that anyone owning a fire alarm must register yearly with the Kissimmee Police Department. Besides the pure revenue motive, you might ask why would someone who has never broken a law or had a single false alarm with their system have to register every year with the KPD? The answer, according to this weeks 'agenda' is simple. "Our new company that assists us in collecting false alarm fines is recommending we update our City Code section on police and fire alarms in order to make it easier to collect false alarm fines. In addition, we would like to update our false alarm fees to encourage property owners to do a better job of managing false alarms."

So the premise of this new invasion of privacy is simple, you have to pay so we can afford the company who is going to track anyone who owns an alarm system. What the WayneWho staff really finds interesting is how the commission has turned this issue around and made it the alarm owners' fault for this ordinance having to be passed because 'property owners need to do a better job of managing their alarm systems.' From what we can tell there is not even a provision as to whether or not only the alarms that can dial 911 will be taxed and tracked by government officials. It seems that anyone owning a legal piece of equipment purchased to help keep life and property safe must pay even if the reason a security system was purchased was because crime prevention in the city of Kissimmee had failed. There is no backup information on the agenda as to what kind of outlaw a citizen would become if they did not register their alarm system, but from the direction this commission is already taking, it would have something to do with a fine of some sort. Since the new security alarm tax will cost $25.00 for residents and $50.00 for commercial properties yearly, we recommend that you disable the alarms and purchase a weapon. Since concealed weapons permits are good for seven years, it is actually cheaper over the long hall to return to the wild days of Kissimmee's past where gunslingers ruled the area. Sure you have to register your information and be kept on file with the state just like the city wants to do, but that is for owning an actual gun and not just a piece of electronics.

Feeding the Troll

In the latest comedic rambling e-fluff sent from dance enthusiast and School Board Member Jay Wheeler, we found some interesting advice. As the WayneWho staff dug through the narcissistic musings and name dropping paragraphs that only help to solidify the premise that our county will continue to slip and stumble over the next several years as the new gang of insiders take office, we caught a paragraph that makes reference to one of the biggest problems facing local elected officials today, anonymous blogs.

Mr. Wheeler's weekly journal notes, "Here is some advice for newly elected officials. In this day of instant messaging, text messages, email, blogs, etc. Do not respond to or take anything seriously that is anonymous. Typically anonymous sources are malcontents, and/or wimps without the guts to stand up and be counted for what they think or say. To pay attention to them is like feeding a troll, both are fruitless. On the other hand anything you may get that clearly identifies the source/person deserves your attention. Consider this about anonymous sources, blogs, etc. People who have nothing to hide, don't hide anything. They also set a bad example, After all we all want our children to learn to stand up for what they think is right."

We whole-heartedly agree that local blogs and un-news sources such as WayneWho should be ignored by local elected officials and the staff that have had their lips surgically implanted to their posteriors. No good ideas ever came from a group of malcontents who decided that seeking the spotlight is not the answer to the problems our county faces. Arguing over who is going to be Mayor-Pro Tem or Vice Mayor, so we can drop that little tid-bit when dinning with people we want to impress, will not fix the state of our community. Million dollar giveaways to charities, that we are told are important, even though the public refuses to keep them afloat through donations so our legacies can be applauded just seems to miss the point of what government was intended to do. We would agree that malcontents have no place in these types of discussion. It is always amazing to us that those in government quickly forget the purpose of government.

We find Mr. Wheelers comments on ignoring malcontents amusing because without anonymous malcontents, the path this country was set on over 234 years ago on December 16, 1773 would not exist and elected positions like School Board Member probably would not either. As some might remember from their history books, the Boston Tea Party is seen as an act by a group of malcontents who were upset at the British Government for its taxation policies and the unfair favoritism it showed the East India Trading Company, that helped lead to the American Revolution and to Independence for our country. By many measures this act by a group of anonymous malcontents, commonly called American Colonists who feared the fierce reprisals of not only the East India Trading Company, but the British Government as well, is one of the most iconic moments in our nation's history. While there were those in those days who let their names be known like John Hancock and John Adams, there were many others who resisted unfair British rule who remained anonymous. A group known as the 'The Sons of Liberty' was a secret organization of American Patriots which originated in the Thirteen Colonies. While many of the insiders who received good treatment from British authorities, like the elected officials and the development community of today, referred to the group as 'seditious rebels' and referred to them as 'Sons of Violence,' history shows us the truth of who the patriots really were.

While the WayneWho staff in no way believes that our un-news articles in anyway rises to the level of the efforts or patriotism of 'The Sons of Liberty,' we do understand the importance of the discussion of ideas instead of the ramrodding of policies for special interests only. While elected officials are supposed to be the voice of the people, most of the time they are not. Campaign contributions talk, and the needs of the people take a back row seat to government subsidized housing projects, do-over cities, and pet-project charities. Only a politician could be proud of the carnage in our local housing market that local government helped to create which has hurt so many.

To end this article we will again help to alert local elected officials who don't read "those damn blogs anyway," that they should continue to ignore the malcontents and/or whimps and should never communicate with them. As for the rest of your comments Mr. Wheeler, we will let the public decided as to what you meant by "Feeding the Troll."

Bottom Line

We would like to congratulate the Osceola News Gazette for actually reading the 'sunny-vision' brochure presented to the Osceola County Commission on the two proposed convention center projects. The WayneWho staff was delighted that the Gazette's editorial staff was able to gather the conveniently presented information and present it in that 'wag-your-finger at the public' pompous style of 'reporting' that they have developed over time. We are glad to see that in a time of falling readership that the Gazette has decided to stick to its guns on educating a public on what the periodical believes is important with its editorial piece this past Saturday called "1,000 new jobs? Great!" No doubt this will be another award winning piece.

If the editorial staff at the Gazette had any credibility in what they call journalism, they would have taken time during their kiss-butt editorial to discuss some of the realities of the current state of conventions on a national stage. Maybe they could have even combined their editorial brains to do some research into what the numbers, that they cut-and-paste from the commission friendly brochure, actually mean to the local tourism related businesses in the area. Maybe the editorial staff could have directed a reporter or two into talking to some of the local tourism based businesses to find out what real people actually think. Of course, this is too much to ask from a real news source.

The first question that should have been asked is what will the impact be of 1094 new rooms added to the Osceola County inventory on the current hotels and vacation home companies operating here? Adding a stand alone convention center with no rooms would help local hotels revive the occupancy rates that our local CVB has helped to shrink with its mismanagement and bad marketing over the past several years. As one local small hotelier remarked, 'My hotel will never see any of that convention business. Conventioners will stay on property as much as possible.' Another thought behind the increased inventory is that when the rooms are not filled with convention attendees, then companies like the Gaylord will turn up the sales efforts in the vacation market. Smart business on their part, but what will that do to the local hotel market? Many will say that this is just business and that survival of the fittest is the name of the game. The question then becomes are tax dollar subsidized businesses really more fit that those who are not receiving the same amount of money?

On this same note of the business model that is actually being ignored by the Commission and their parroting organization, the Gazette, is what is the actual state of the Convention Business? One quick article our un-news staff found in real news articles in convention trade publications reads, "Cracks are beginning to show in the multi-billion dollar Las Vegas convention industry... Trade show and convention attendance tumbled 22.3 percent in August and year-to-date attendance for 2008 is down 3.4 percent..." In that same article we found that "The situation in Reno is direr. In late September, the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority laid off 16 people. Officials there attributed the job cuts to a downturn in tourism and convention business." Other articles by industry insiders paint an even more dire picture of the industry. They report that once conventions are downsized they rarely are regrown to the size they once were. Unlike the Gazette's editorial staff that only views commission projects to spend taxpayer money through rose-colored glasses, the WayneWho staff likes to look at the reality of situations, like this, on the ground. It is this shrinking convention market, that we feel is one of the main reasons to build the projects in question. Companies putting on conventions that have shrunk year after year are looking for smaller and more affordable venues and this is where Osceola County could position itself. For our community to take advantage of this trend, the CVB would need to be overhauled by firing many of its incompetent staff and hiring people who actually understand market and business planning. The entire board would also need to be replaced with people who are more interested in Osceola County's future than how they can best serve themselves. The re-appointment of Jim Murphy to the board shows us the county is still headed in the wrong direction when it comes to tourism, and make us question the whole process behind the development of the convention center projects.

The claim that the Commission and Gazette keep trying to bring up are all of the jobs that are going to be created by building these projects. Don't get us wrong, even one job created in our community right now is a good thing, but we still have to make sure that taxpayer money being spent to create the jobs makes sense. The problem is that the numbers presented in the Gazette's editorial are just hype and offer no long term sustainability. First they want us to believe that "Construction alone would generate 3,100 jobs and a $116 million payroll over the 36-month construction period." This is great, but let's actually breakdown the reality of these jobs. The 3,100 jobs are not permanent jobs, they are temporary jobs during the life of the projects. Most of the jobs will only be involved with one part of the construction phase at a time further cutting the actually sustainability of the jobs being 'created.' After the construction is complete we also have to remember that these 3,100 estimated jobs will no longer exist on the construction side. The other claim on jobs is that the projects will create an 'estimated' 1,000 new long term jobs to service the facilities and business operations of the projects. What they are not telling the community is that most of the jobs are part-time services jobs that are dependent on the number of conventions booked. If there are no conventions booked, nobody is working. Another article we found states "In April 2008, company officials at GES Exposition Services, a leading convention and trade show contractor, announced plans to reduce its Las Vegas work force. At the time they didn't say how many jobs they would cut from the company's roster of 750 Las Vegas employees but told investors during a conference call the savings would amount to $1 million to $10 million in savings that would show up on the bottom line..." Maybe the Osceola News Gazette can write an editorial telling the cut work force that everything is just fine and peachy to get them through the Holiday months.

While the bottom line for business is profit, the bottom line for taxpayers is honesty. While the WayneWho staff understands that editorial columns are opinion pieces based on the objectivity of the writer, we do expect some thought to be given to issues such as this. Hiding facts and figures is something that should be saved for politicians and should not be part of the everyday (or at least twice a week) operations of a news source. We look forward to the better days of editorials ahead and maybe some answers to some of these questions.

No Money Down

Politics is not about honesty even though government is supposed to be. This past week we watched as the "Convention Centers for No One" was moved forward by the Osceola County Commission as if their soothsayer wisdom was unquestionable. Of course after Osceola County finding itself as the worst hit area in the country during this housing crisis, investigations into 'quasi-governmental' agencies for both improper acquisition and expenditures of taxpayers money, and savior bowling alleys that just can't seem to get off the ground in the middle of an economic downturn, the WayneWho staff believes that the 'ah-shucks' bumbling government official routine is wearing thin and more questions should be asked. The problem is, who will ask the questions?

The Osceola News Gazette has seemed to slip back into its pre-election mantra of investigative press release-ism by which they work as quickly as possible to fill up any non-advertising space with anything that comes via fax or email. By returning to its roots as the local government mouth piece, its dwindling readership will miss out on relevant discussions of the issues that could drastically impact the future of their surrounding community. Projects like the Destiny housing development, government subsidized housing, and now convention centers will all be approved with flimsy evidence such as, “I think it’s going to be a tremendous benefit to the community, now and in the future,” from Commissioner Paul Owen. Mysterious analysis reports commissioned by those who stand the most to gain are always brought forward to calm the public by stating such things as "the combined projects would generate $470 million in direct and indirect revenue over the next 30 years, including a 134-percent return on investment for the county." and "The study by Real Estate Research Consultants predicted a direct impact of 1,000 new jobs and a $34 million annual payroll produced by the projects." Oh really? And should we expect that monkeys will fly out of our butt because some 'consultant' says it is estimated that it might happen? We guess the News Gazette would report it as fact without ever asking a question if it appeared as a press release. When has the county seen any return on any such 'investment'?

The problem that we have is that there is never any long-term thinking with any of the local Osceola County governments. They always go for the temporary quick fix using tax dollars as their own personal crystal ball. Just because a project can be built, does not mean it should be built and rationalizing a project because taxpayers will not have to directly contribute to it is the exact thinking that put us where we are today. Sure the county might be able to fund the construction of the projects, but who is going to pay for running them? The idea that regular every-day hardworking taxpaying residents of our community will never have to pay for anything in these facilities is ludicrous. Recent history has shown that the taxpayers are nothing more that bailout engines for failed private-public gambles and even more recently backstops for businesses that can afford the campaign contributions to the right candidates. And all of this while telling the taxpayers that everything is going great and "This won't cost you a dime".

Many of our readers will assume that the WayneWho staff is against the convention center project(s). We are not. The voters approved the money for a single convention center project so it should be built. Our concern is with the lack of honesty and transparency as these project(s) slip through the process. We believe that the after the financial meltdown we have all witnessed and been affected by, phrases like "no money down" do not mean what they used to.

Changes come

The 2008 elections are complete, and we now have a clear vision of those who will be leading our community for the coming years. One of our staff researchers recently made their own step toward responsible spending by canceling their digital cable service, including the city government channel. So until the city starts making their meetings available by streaming internet video, we will be consulting our crystal ball on the recent future of the Kissimmee City Commission...

The recent Eck-Otero runoff, and their statements of vision for the city, make us flash back to the August election and the promises made by the other winning candidates, Mayor Jim Swan and Commissioner Jerry Gemskie. We honestly don’t remember Mayor Swan promising anything more than more of the same, so we’re looking forward to more stories about hard decisions made while on the County Commission, more blame towards Tallahassee for any funding issues the city faces, and the occasional shutdown of a citizen who wishes to speak at a public forum. As to Commissioner Gemskie, we suspect that his large issues of being All-American City and assuring that City Manager Mark Durbin is protected from ‘rogue’ future commissioners have come and gone. We expect more discussion about big future projects that may happen, like Lakefront Park development, and more folksy slogans about graffiti enforcement.

Commissioner Art Otero campaigned heavily on his business knowledge and how making Kissimmee Airport into Kissimmee International Airport will revitalize the city. We concur that the airport is a unique advantage for the city, but we think that Commissioner Otero is barking up the wrong tree by trying to make it an international airport. As a businessman, he should understand the folly of trying to create from scratch a service that is already offered by three competing local airports (Orlando, Orlando Executive, and Sanford), all airports that currently have excess capacity for passenger travel. Commissioner, our advantage for our airport lies in areas like aircraft manufacturing and aircraft maintenance, freight, flight schools, and other uses that compete at passenger airports for space and landing rights. Those businesses create high-wage jobs, and those are niche businesses that are not competitive to passenger travel, which is already more than adequately represented in our area. In any case, while you spend the next few years chatting with Senator Martinez’s office, we hope you have some other rabbits in your hat for revitalizing our city’s business community.

We also look forward to the four male members of the commission squabbling over who will be the alpha male of the group. Look for there to be a battle on the dais in the coming weeks for the ceremonial “vice mayor” and “mayor pro tem” titles. We predict that within six months, two or more of the male commissioners will engage in a shoving or slapping match which will need to be broken up by the KPD security detail. Perhaps it will become a bench-clearing brawl, with all of the male commissioners taking sides while Commissioner Grieb, who had been standing by waiting to give a staff report on downtown Kissimmee historical preservation, dials 911 on her cell phone. If we’re really lucky, Telemundo will be there to record the entire event so that it can be posted on YouTube.

Finally, we know that some of the familiar campaign faces are already gearing up for their 2010 “let’s do it again” run for office, and we’d like to point out the campaign strategies that have run their course locally:

Strategy #1: “I’m Hispanic. I’m Republican. Elect me.” Utilized well by Commissioner Irizarry and Commissioner Otero, it failed miserably for J.P. Quinones. Why? Darren Soto is also Hispanic, and is experienced. We predict that 2010 will bring a Hispanic-on-Hispanic commission race (Irizarry vs. ???) and the strategies and results will be interesting.

Strategy #2: “I’m retired. I’m nice. I’ll be a full-time commissioner. Elect me.” It barely worked for Jerry Gemskie this time, and he was an incumbent (and was lucky in only having one opponent). It didn’t work for Gail Eck. Unless the City Commission has completely turned the city around in time for the 2010 election, running on a campaign of “everything is great here, let’s do more of the same” isn’t going to fly.

In the meantime, be safe and look out for yourselves. Enjoy the cheap gas.

Osceola Votes

At many times the lines were long, but Osceola County turned out to vote in record numbers this election season. Most took advantage of early and absentee voting as opposed to voting on election day, but in the end, the residents stood to be counted. Congratulations.

While many doubted that Osceola County would vote for change, they did, and wide sweeping victories. The question now is if those elected will push forward with the changes that were just demanded? As with the rest of the voters, we will anxiously look forward to the days ahead.

Gut-Check Weekend

One of our staff members this morning caught one of the morning news programs where they referred to the weekend before a major election as "Gut-Check Weekend," or that time when many people made their final decision on what candidates they were going to vote for. With the record numbers of early voters we have to also wonder if this past weekend might have been called "Buyer's Remorse" weekend where the vote that they cast ends up not sitting well in their gut. Regardless of the national sentiment, we hope that Osceola County voters who have not voted as of yet, take the time to listen to their gut before Tuesday.

The WayneWho staff has argued the merits of each candidate for every local seat amongst ourselves for several months. One thing we all agree on is that this is the first year in many where we all have real choices to be made for every seat. We feel that there is no seat where there is an obvious choice of who is qualified or not. Every candidate has shown through this year.

The differences between the candidates come down to honest differences on policies and issues that face our local communities. In our un-news style we have written about many of them. Growth, government spending, responsible use of tax dollars, ethics reform, cronyism, and government's role in social issues. They are all topics that we have touched on in one way or another. In every Osceola County race this year, the candidates have shown us in one way or another, their beliefs on these issues. Arguments like "growth must pay for itself", "local contractors should get preferential treatment (which sounds like 'affirmative action')," and "need to do a better job of buying and selling county real estate" all point to a candidate's view of how government should be run and the candidate's belief of their own role in government. These statements can be found littering your mailboxes, your drive to work, your newspaper, and even interrupting your dinner. While the messages might get annoying, remember that these statements are what give you the insight into the beliefs of a candidate and tell you how they are going to govern. These are the beliefs that cause us to do a "Gut-Check" to see if they have the same beliefs as we do. In the end, it is this "Gut-Check" that has helped to continue the greatest experiment ever created, the country we call the United States of America.

Just remember if the "Gut-Check" becomes too painful, seek medical attention because it may be a slight case of food poisoning and the WayneWho staff are not trained medical professionals. Other than that, we hope you enjoy your election day as if it were a national holiday.

Reverse Cronieism

An interesting phenomena has surfaced during this election season. Many candidates, local officials, and local businesses are crying out that "Reverse Cronyism" has taken root in Osceola County. Companies that have benefited from local cronyism are now calling foul because vendors from other areas now seem to enjoy the favor of local governments. "They’re trying to steal our thunder,” noted Billy Newman who owns a contracting firm that has done work in the past for local governments and said that his organization, the Dirt Dobbers, has more than 100 members who are concerned about the trends of reverse cronyism. Mr. Newman's Dirt Dobbers of the 90's came complete with fancy newsletters critical of those in government who sought out value and quality for taxpayers and they helped usher in an era of candidates favorable to their needs. In what some would call political irony, it is these same elected officials that have now found bigger campaign contributions from companies outside of our area in exchanges for a bigger slice of the government contracting pie. "Everyone wants a piece of this pie, because it is a magical pie that never runs out. Taxpayers just keep the pie full all of the time," noted one contracting insider.

The "Reverse Cronyism" effect has become so bad that the President of the Osceola County Chamber has had to step in a create another task force to help local vendors compete for these local contracts. While very few of the staff of WayneWho are fans of Mike "TaxBoy" Horner, we believe his efforts are fair and just. From a taxpayer's perspective, competition ensures not only quality and value, but also helps to remove ethical problems from the mix. For too long residents have questioned the decisions made by local governments on the basis of ethics. While we do not believe that the "Chamber" is the best choice for fairness considering stances on other issues, we do believe that they are on the right path. Maybe besides an educational task force we also need a contracting review board to verify the fair and equal awarding of contracts. This would also help more vendors understand what was considered in the awarding of contracts so they too could make adjustments, not contributions, to win future contracts.

The WayneWho staff would throw one note of caution to our readers. Much of the contracting discussion sounds more like discussion of the era of the "New Deal" where government created infrastructure projects and deficit spending to help during the Great Depression. While this may sound very tempting during these times of crisis, local officials will create more problems if these projects, like new cities, are undertaken only to unsure the survival of longtime business friends. Bankrupting our community is not the solution the taxpayers are asking for.

The Flood Gates Are Open

"Want to build a new city in the pristine and ecologically sensitive areas of Florida? Come on down to Osceola County Florida where we manage growth by letting the floodgates run wide open. Don't worry about the whining of the surrounding communities about the impact your new city is going to have on them because we could care less about what they have to say. Come on down because we can offer you a clean slate to start your new city and tax money we can give you from the surrounding community we refuse to support anymore. Osceola County - Offering a clean slate for the development community."

The WayneWho staff would like to submit this entry to "Floodgates are Open" new city advertising contest being run by the Osceola County Commission and their less than competent Economic Development Department who have decided it would be easier just to start over and build new cities instead of fixing the ones they have already broken. The "Clean Slate" amendment that the Osceola County Commission just passed to our farcical Comprehensive Growth Management Plan that sets the parameters for how developers can force the development of new cities in our county. The "Clean Slate" amendment creates a blueprint on how developers can skirt the law, lock out the public, and give plausible deniability for the County Commission Board serving at the time so the developers can build anything they wish with no regard for the negative impacts for those who live here. And the best part is that this new Amendment puts the taxpayers of this community on the hook for infrastructure costs of these new developments. Our residents will enjoy the additional thrill of paying more in taxes to watch their property values plummet. Sounds like growth paying for itself to us.

A familiar argument for this amendment was stated by outgoing County Commissioner Ken Shipley. Shipley stated, "If we don’t put these policies in place, big propositions like a city, they’ll grow however they’re going to grow,” which is not the whole truth. Under the current comprehensive plan, the commission can tell the builder, "No, we are not going to build here. You can build inside of the urban growth boundary, but not outside of it." If the "Clean Slate" amendment is passed, there will be no part in Osceola County that will be safe from the development community. As a community, we have heard these promises year after year and election after election only to have more and more developments forced down our throats and this amendment will help to continue that trend.

To wrap up an article we had hoped we would never have to write, we would like to include some links so you can start contacting those at the state level who we hope will stop the insanity of this amendment. It is now up to the residents of Osceola County to fight this issue because once again, our Commissioners have sold us out. We would suggest you do your homework and raise your voices to those at the state level. Once again, the public must do the work of those who were duly elected to do so. It is up to all of us to close the flood gates before the damage is done.

Division of Community Planning - http://www.dca.state.fl.us/fdcp/dcp/index.cfm

Office of the Secretary
Thomas G. Pelham, Secretary
Phone: 850-488-8466

James Miller, Director of Public Affairs
Phone: 850-922-1600
E-Mail: james.miller@dca.state.fl.us

There They Go Again

An editorial in today's Orlando Sentinel once again shows that the periodical believes that anyone who believes in finding ways to conserve cash in these horrible economic times is a moron. Once again the Sentinel is advocating scrapping normal government functions that residents pay taxes for and instead dumping all of our money into finding a way to stop homelessness, or as the WayneWho staff prefers to call them, the undwelled. Their editorial starts out by attacking local communities of hardworking residents by saying "communities are using the economic meltdown as a built-in excuse for cutting back services," and "that's no reason to give up. It's a great reason to try even harder." The Sentinel believes that it is wrong for the members of our local communities to find ways to pay their own bills and stay in their homes, and that we should give away more of our money to faceless charities that have yet to prove they have helped anyone. While the WayneWho staff agrees that if residents have the disposable cash to give to charitable organizations of their choice they should try their best to give, we do not believe that having government give more tax money to these organizations is wise in any way. Taxpayer's money should be spent on public safety, transportation, and other basic government services and not grandiose plans of ending homelessness by organizations that have no clear plan on how to do so. If the plan is to end homelessness, and government wants taxpayer money to do it, then taxpayers should be presented with a plan that has a clear end goal in sight. The taxpayers should also receive monthly updates on the reductions in homelessness with information on how the successes will speed up the end date of the organization. But we all know this is not how these charitable organizations work. These organizations continually find ways to expand their parameters of services and demand more money to serve those new needs. There is never a metric of success, only a metric of why these organizations need more money.

It is probably our mistake in thinking the editorial staff of the of the Orlando Sentinel has any understanding of the real needs of our community. It is easy to sit in a comfortable office and surf the Internet looking for great causes to write about, but it is another to actually go out and talk to the people you are asking to give up their hard earned money and ask them their opinions on the subject. We would have assumed with all of the budget cuts and layoff's at the Orlando Sentinel, the editorial staff would have a better understanding of why it is important to tighten our belts in tough times like these. We would also like to inform the Sentinel of one simple truth, you cannot legislate compassion. As the complaints in your own article show, government is not the answer to the problem. Government is the problem. Task forces, boards, and organizations that are used to funnel tax money have shown a tendency to make problems worse and drain government of the funds it needs to make a community better. All the editorial staff needs to do is read the articles on the mismanagement of tax money between the TDC and the Education Foundation to see the types of patterns that develop and how taxpayer money is wasted. Of course this would require homework on the editorial staff's part and might actually contradict en vogue causes. Actually ending homelessness will never be done by government agencies or by boards that require tax money to survive. Homelessness will only end when we focus on the problem and stop thinking that some one else will fix it.

Fair Market Value

The WayneWho staff caught an interesting Letter to the Editor in Saturday's Osceola News-Gazette. The letter titled "Political Nonsense" which is written by a "professional real estate appraiser for over 40 years" attacking Property Appraiser Candidate Jeff Miller for an ad he ran in the same paper about the valuation of structures at the Garnder Hunting Club which, it seems, the letter writer believes should continue to fly under the radar of the 'Tax Man/Woman' so those of means can continue to enjoy their hobbies. The writer's claim is that the structures in question were valued properly based on Florida statutes which state the property is to be valued at "fair market value." He then essentially claims that since the structures would only have added value for the 14 or so members of the club, it makes no sense to tax the structure. Hmmm...?

First, we find it hard to take any lesson about "fair market value" seriously from a "professional real estate appraiser." Before you try to teach the rest of us on an issue such as this, maybe you should explain the negligent and bloated appraisals that were floating around Osceola county even as the housing crisis was unfolding. In the pre-crisis days, there were those in your profession that would have made sure the value on the structures in question were ten times their true value if a non-insider was interested in making a purchase. In fact there are many in the area that would love to continue the tradition of bloating appraisals on structures even as their current owners' belongings are being thrown into the street. We would say this country has suffered more because the housing nonsense than from this year's local political nonsense.

We think attacking Mr. Miller for pointing out possible flaws in the appraiser's office is wrong. At the same time we think that blaming all of the problems in the Property Appraiser's office on Ms. Scarborough is also wrong. We were actually glad to see a real debate on an important issue forming so we could better judge who would be best in office by some other metric than who is the most popular. We hope that these types of debates on honest issues continue and that candidates discuss the issues instead of dismissing them as nonsense. It is that lack of honest discussion of issues that kept Bob Day in place for way too long.

On a positive note...

We’d like to welcome the two latest pioneers to the 192 corridor in Kissimmee.

Fun Spot Jr. has set up shop inside the Osceola Square Mall. We haven’t had the opportunity to take the grandkids yet, but we understand that there are many inflatable toys to play on, and the advertising balloon we saw outside over the weekend said something about “all you can eat.” So take the kids and check it out!

Cici’s Pizza’s contractors appear to be setting a new speed record for converting the old Latin American Buffet (also near Osceola Square Mall) into their latest pizza buffet location. We drove by after dark over the weekend and said “wow, it’s almost all finished in there.” So welcome as well.

Also, as we were performing our weekend chores and taking our recycling to our closest drop-off point, we noted that there is finally a collection dumpster for corrugated cardboard. Imagine! The most recyclable item in the history of recycling can now be recycled in Osceola County! So do your part to be green, folks. Take that recyclable material to your local drop-off site.

Missing The Mark?

In yesterday's Osceola News-Gazette, Osceola County School Board Member Jay Wheeler decided to weigh in on why he has decided to sell out to the Destiny interests and why the rest of our governments should as well. His letter was in response to an editorial by the Osceola News Gazette that was critical of the Destiny housing project that posed honest questions about the viability and impact of he project. While the WayneWho staff believes that everyone in this community has a right to express their opinion on any issue, falsely claiming superiority on a subject based on a title, especially 'School Board Member', only reinforces the problems that we have seen with developments like this in the past. Title throwing in an attempt shoot down opposition only shows the weakness of the project from the publics’ perspective.

First, Mr. Wheeler ignored the questions raised by the Gazette and others and opted for the standard, "its good for you because I said so" line that has dominated the discussions on growth in the community in the past. The idea that you can watch a quick power-pointless slide show and automatically become an expert in an area of economics that has proved so many wrong across our nation is about as "foolish" as saying I know the Destiny housing project is good for the community because I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. Mr. Wheeler, can you even do the simple the math on the number of jobs that would be required for the Destiny project to not only employ its new residents, but the residents of our community that are struggling to find work? 80,000 jobs? 40,000 new homes with an average of two jobs per home is just a simple guess by those of us who do have the benefit of intelligence based on titles or the whispering of special interest money in our ears. And we have heard several times that the building of homes would supposedly not start for 50 years, so how would the local construction market benefit in the near future? Is the time line a lie, or the sales pitch? We did note that Mr. Wheeler set the bar for success of the community low by comparing it to the "success" of Harmony and Celebration. Taxpayer funded bailouts of poorly constructed water infrastructure, and a magic city filled with empty store fronts are not what most of the community consider success stories.

No mater what argument for or against the project anyone can give, the inescapable fact is that we are living in a time where their are no buyers for the houses in this project. Mr. Wheeler’s argument that we need to allow a development to be built just because it can be built is just false. This county can not afford more vacant homes, even if we have water taxis to move the homeless around.