The Prediction We Forgot

The WayneWho Staff must offer its apologies for missing a new year's prediction of an event that has been looming on the horizon since the early 80's. Talk of the Osceola County Convention Center has made it to the top of the junk pile once again, and the usual cast of characters along with some new faces are ready to take a stab at it. We know that our usual readers are thinking, "No way WayneWho, we just voted to approve a property tax cut to reign in wasteful government spending. You are losing it this time." We only wish you were correct in your thoughts.

In today's Orlando Sentinel (which is not considered to be an un-news source), the article headlined "Tourism tax cash going up for bid," made its appearance like the fabled Brigadoon. It seems the County Manager is trying to commit $50 million to $100 million for a 500 room hotel with high-end convention space. The county is willing to make this commitment even though Osceola Heritage Park has not able to turn a profit, and other convention venues such as the Orange County Convention center continue to lose millions of dollars every year. Of course this effort has taken center stage because of the calls to do something with the $12 million in tourist taxes that have been collected under the false promise of building a convention center that was shelved in 2005. The tourist tax money is now burning a hole in the pocket of government and they are feeling the urge to spend.

The mismanagement by the County Manager and the County Commission to push this agenda in a time when the local economy is already on the ropes is so apparent that even some of the members of the tax-hungry Chamber of Commerce are questioning the expense. Duane Winjum, chairman of the Osceola Resort Area Council, the tourism arm of the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce was quoted as saying that "The idea of building a free-standing convention center as a business model is nearly dead."

Of course none of the Osceola County staff will question the Commission or the County Manager for fear of losing their positions. It is apparent by the firing of the Fire Chief that any "philosophical differences" will be dealt with harshly.

It will be interesting to watch how the campaign contributions flow with a project of this size on the verge of being built. It appears that our community will once again be left to pay the bill...

Election Results - Two WW writers chime in...

You're In, And Then You're Out

Tuesday's election results are in, and we're sure that this year's Kissimmee candidates are already planning what they're going to do with that extra 2-3 hours they don't have to spend getting 20 voter signature cards completed.

Seriously, though, we thought that the Kissimmee "election reform" slate would be voted straight up or down. So it is telling to us that 4 of the 5 initiatives were passed, but local voters clearly said no to the idea of eliminating term limits for city elected officials.

So, commissioners, your time in office continues to be limited. Use it well.

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Grab your towel and DON'T PANIC!

The polls touting the demise of the property tax amendment were wrong and now local governments must face the reality of what it means to serve the people. The property tax amendment passed with overwhelming support and should be a clear indicator to local officials of what their next step should be. To this we add, grab your towel and don't panic!

For many of our readers this statement will not make sense just like the idea of lowering taxes did not make sense to so many, so let's take a moment to explain the title.

"A towel ... is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. ... You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V ... wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it around your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. ... Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with." — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

The idea is that our local officials, much like intergalactic travelers, must now find a way to deal the with the situation at hand without panicking. We know that much whining is about to spill out through the local media and that the public will be blamed for not understanding the depth of their ignorance in all things governmental, but the votes are in. Cut the taxes. Stop wasting time talking about what the state has done to you.

The WayneWho staff would like to offer one simple suggestion to help our local officials get through this "taxing" situation. We suggest that on the covers of your budgets you inscribe the phrase "DON'T PANIC" in large bold friendly letters just like the best-selling intergalactic travel guide The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler's mind.

Oh, yes... The idea is that if you know where your towel is and you DON'T PANIC, you will make the right decisions and help those you were elected to represent.

Top Ten Reasons You Know Its Primary Election Day In Florida

10) Giuliani's get out the vote strategy consists of coupons to Chuck E. Cheese.

9) There is not one game of bridge going on in the entire state.

8) Access Osceola showing a re-run of "Debate Bloopers and Electoral Practical Jokes."

7) Voters promised a plate of fudge if they vote against the property tax amendment -- people like fudge.

6) Fox and CNN declare winner before the polls open.

5) Ballots marked and tallied before the election to ensure accuracy.

4) The new computerized voting machines finally arrived from Fisher-Price.

3) Political rallies all start with a half-hour presentation on the advantages of timeshare ownership.

2) Campaign signs help to hide the "For Sale" and "Foreclosure" signs.

1) Everybody waiting for Shamu's Presidential Pick.

The Mayors Write

A letter from Mayors Jim Swan of Kissimmee and Donna Hart of St. Cloud appeared in the Thursday News-Gazette. The topic was, of course, what "may" happen if Amendment 1 (The Property Tax Amendment) passes.

The letter is chocked full of "may," "could," and "might" predications that may or may not be accurate. What is missing for their letter is any statement of what elected officials plan to do if the amendment passes. We have seen estimates of what the amendment, minus the unquantified impact of portability, would cost each municipality. Why can't our elected officials tell us, in black and white, what budget items they plan to reduce to accommodate that cut, if it comes? Then the voters can make an apples-to-apples comparison of whether the benefits to them outweigh the specific costs. "May," "could," and "might" belong in the world of weather forecasting, not budget management.

Oh, and to the specific statement "It's important to remember that as the population grows, the demand for service also grows, and we cannot afford to deny citizens these essential services." Mayors, let us remind you that as the population grows, the tax base grows. Not just property taxes, but sales taxes, gas taxes, and so on. Have you heard of economies of scale?

Since the Mayors believe that their word is gospel when it comes to issues of all things governmental and that their letter to the editor should end all debate about whether people deserve a property tax cut, we thought we would also point out an editorial piece in Thursday's Orlando Sentinel that simply states that "Florida's cities aren't telling the truth about proposed property-tax cut." The editorial goes on to explain that "It's bad enough they trotted out firefighters and cops and threatened to fire them if voters approve the Amendment 1 property-tax cut, " followed by the charge that "Now it has gotten even sleazier. The Florida League of Cities is lying about Amendment 1's impact on longtime homeowners." Those are pretty harsh charges coming from the Orlando Sentinel, but facts are facts. The sad part is that most voters will be forced to make their choice based of half-truths instead of honest and hard facts.

Vote wisely.

Cruisin'

We're sure that there was some higher concept in mind when the city came up with the "Cruisin' Through the City of Kissimmee" theme for the 2008 School of Government. But our first thought was: Please slow down on your way through, and perhaps you could patronize one of the remaining local businesses.

Prediction #4

As many of our loyal readers know, the WayneWho Un-News source has become an excellent prognosticator of governmental directions. At the beginning of 2008 we made several predictions of what this new year would hold and so far, we are doing fairly well.

Our fourth prediction for the new year was that the homeless, or the "shelter challenged" as we prefer to call them, would become a major issue again and that the Homeless Bathing Station (fountain) being built in the City of Kissimmee would take center stage. As of yesterday, we came one step closer to having our prediction fulfilled.

A draft report by the Regional Commission on Homelessness has been presented to the Seminole County Commission with the ambitious goal of ending the plight of the perpetually-out-of-doors within ten years. Their plan calls for 24 hour drop-in shelters in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties and includes one in the city of Orlando. These shelters, also know as "Taxpayer Subsidized Hotels" not only offer shelter and cable TV, but job and financial counseling as well.

The commission acknowledged that the cost for all of these new programs would be 'significant' but that the amount of money was 'doable'. The commission then went on to explain their model for financing the new programs would be based on as much tax payer money as they could get along with the revenues from multiple community homeless bathing shelters that would be built in the community. The commission explained that most people mistake homeless bathing stations as pretty fountains which causes them to throw small amounts of money into them. The commission further noted that a local blogger (That's Us) suggested a system of coinfishing to defray the cost to the taxpayers. They acknowledged that this would only offset the larger cost of the programs to the taxpayers, but that if it was needed, local communities could adopt some type of Fountain Viewing Fee. This fee would be 'revenue neutral' to the local governments because it is well known that they spend anything they take in.

The WayneWho Staff supports these measures and we are glad to see that Kissimmee is the leader in matters related to the undwelled.

It's Your Fault!

In today's edition of St. Cloud in the News, there is another great 'As I see it' post from County Commissioner Bill Lane in which he scolds the public for not understanding why they should vote against the Property Tax Amendment. His contention is that County Government has already cut taxes and that this issue is just too complicated for the general public to understand.

As his lecture goes on, he works to explain that taxes are like a three legged stool. One of the legs has to do with the property appraiser, and the rest we will not explain because of the stupidity of the argument. This article was about about as good as Commissioner Lane's 'As I see it' article on economic development where he explained that building more houses is what is needed to boost the economy. At least in that article he did not blame the general public for the failing economy in Osceola County, he just suggested we let the developers have their way with us.

Here is a quick news flash Commissioner Lane, the county has not cut our taxes. What has been cut has been made up for by increases in fees(taxes). The county's own budget shows us the simple fact that revenue is up, and it is the taxpayers who are paying for it. Even if the overall budget was less, that would not change the wasteful spending habits in the county. Just ask yourself how many of the almost new Ford Rangers are needed behind Road and Bridge building? Are they only needed when they just sit there parked? Looks like there are 15-20 of them that could probably be sold for a decent penny or two and at least give the taxpayers the impression the County Government has our best interests in mind. We had already covered the issue of a how much the new top-heavy government structure is costing the taxpayers, and others have covered the $7 million in missing funds at the CVB, so we believe that a true pattern of mismanagement is starting to form.

This whole issue is actually very simple. If proper growth management policies would have been followed, Osceola County could have protected itself, in some part, from the issues we now face. To blame the public now for what really comes down to the mismanagement of government over the past 20 years, seems to be an awkward election year move.

Let us explain it to you like this Commissioner Lane, government is like a three legged stool. One of those legs is trust and the other legs really don't matter if this first one is in question.

Shell game

We just can't make the numbers work, but we're starting to guess that no one else can, either.

Of course, we're talking about the budget numbers in the News-Gazette article over Kissimmee's 'potential loss' if Amendment 1 passes.

The article states that for the 2007-08 fiscal year, "the city lost a total of about $3.7 million in ad valorem revenue, or money generated through property taxes." To make up for that loss, the city implemented a fire rescue fee, which will generate about $3 million in revenue.

To this, we interject, remember the quote "revenue neutral?" Well, OK, we're within about $700,000. Remember, commissioners, you didn't have to roll back taxes 30-some percent...the state only asked for a 9% rollback.

The next paragraph states "However, even with the additional funds generated by the fire rescue fee, the general fund will have $3,194,253 less than it had last year."

Why?

Are we deficit spending? Are we writing bigger checks than our property tax revenue can cash?

Then on, to read about how the city increased the stormwater fee this year, almost doubling the residential fee. The article states that by raising the fee, it will generate almost $1.8 million for the stormwater utility fund, noting that about $1 million was transferred from the general fund last year to make up for shortfalls in the stormwater utility fund.

OK, so instead of being $1 million short under the old fee, with the new fee they're making up that $1 million, plus an additional $800,000, which go directly into the stormwater utility fund. Plus, the city doesn't have to transfer the $1 million from the general fund to make up the shortfall.

So, by our math, the general fund should be $300,000 ahead, all other things being equal.

1. A $3.7 million loss in revenue was offset by a $3 million fire fee (-$3.7 million + $3 million = -$700,000).
2. A $1 million transfer from the general fund was negated by $1.8 million in new stormwater fees (-$700,000 + $1 million = +$300,000).
3. And $3,194,253 apparently went flying out the door somewhere that was unrelated to either the tax cut, fire fee, or stormwater fee.

We'll make a deal with the city commissioners. We'll stop analyzing their math if they'll stop protesting on how badly the potential tax cut is going to hurt them. After all, last year's tax cut was "revenue neutral," and we fully expect that they will get out an even bigger set of shells for this one.

All of this, even though the projected impact to the city of Amendment 1 is $820,059 vs. the $3 million dollar impact of last year's tax plan (remember, though, it was "revenue neutral.")

Oh, and remember...fountain money can't hire staff.

Local Wisdom

At the Kissimmee City Commission meeting two weeks ago, the commission spent an entire meeting talking about what a bad idea the possible tax cuts were. These are the tax cuts associated with Amendment 1 that may be approved by the voters on January 29th. The commissioners argued that the tax cuts were going to hurt the "Quality of Life" of the residents of the City of Kissimmee. Their basic argument was that a tax cut would hurt an already struggling local economy.

The Kissimmee City Commissioners are not the only politicians that believe this to be true. City and county governments have been jumping on the "tax cuts are bad" bandwagon at lighting speed. Police and fire unions have followed suit declaring the cities and counties were going to cut their budgets. Basically, all governmental hell has broken loose and the local governments want you to take notice of how bad things will be if the tax cuts in Amendment 1 get passed.

Some of these arguments were starting to make sense until today. The entire country has been in an economic downturn for some time, bordering on a recession, and nothing has seemed to be able to stop the drop. The best minds have been working on plans to help make the economy rebound, and we have waited in anticipation to find out what the best economic brains would come up with. In the end, the economic brains of our country embraced about $145 billion worth of tax relief (tax cuts) to give the economy a "shot in the arm." President Bush said that such a "growth package" also needed to include tax incentives for business investment and quick tax relief for individuals.

Wow.

So now as we go into the ballot box on January 29th, we have to determine whether we believe that local politicians know more about economics than actual economic professionals. We know that Mayor Swan believes his position is more important than the Governor, but is it more important than the President of the United States who is calling for this tax cut stimulus package? Maybe Mayor Swan and the City Manager can answer that question on their little episode of Kissimmee FYI that is intended to educate the voters. Please, educate us.

20 Years

Remember 1987?

• Iran-Contra
  
• Dow Jones Industrial Average above 2,000 for the first time (1/8/87)
  
• Unabomber detonates bombs in Salt Lake City
  
• Chrysler acquires American Motors Corporation
  
• Jim Bakker resigns after admitting an affair with Jessica Hahn
  
• Ronald Reagan challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall
  
• Baby Jessica is rescued from a well in Texas
  
• NASA announces the names of 4 companies awarded contracts to help build the space station
  

Seems like a lifetime ago, right?

How many sports stadiums have outlived their usefulness in less than 20 years?

City of Kissimmee officials stated to WFTV that it might be 20 years until the Vine St. corridor is booming again.

Of course, they were saying that it was a 20 year project 2 years ago during the public information hearings on the corridor, so it might really be 22 years.

In the meantime, the corridor now has a reputation for prostitution, crime, and people begging TV crews for money.

Maybe we should put some of those NASA rocket scientists, who might be looking for work following the sunset of the shuttle program, to work on this problem. It seems like they've built a space station faster, and even that was behind schedule.

Otherwise, we might have housing options and jobs available for kids born in 2010 when they graduate from high school.

And Your Out!

This week Osceola County announced that County Manager Mike Freilinger asked Fire Chief Frank Montes de Oca Jr. to resign because of "philosophical differences". It seems that Freilinger and the Fire Chief had a difference of opinion on how the department should be run.

On the surface that seems like a fine explanation, but with the way our county operates, you have to take a look at the big picture. Last year, shortly after Freilinger was hired and in response to the state working to cut property taxes, several Osceola County employees were fired. At about the same time, county departments began to be shifted around on an organizational chart like marbles on a playground. What we find interesting is that the county government has increased its overall payroll by adding in more and more managers to oversee shifting departments. County government is now a top heavy organization that is costing the taxpayers more than it was before the shifts began.

This leads us to a couple of questions. How many levels of management are required to handle the day to day operations of the county, and how many fire chiefs does it take to put out a fire in Osceola County?

While we do not want to enter the debate on whether or not the Fire Chief needed to be shown the door, we have to wonder if the problem stated was accurate. The firing came as a surprise to many directly involved with the department, so it seems that the difference of management excuse was something relatively new, or that past issues had not made it to the light of day.

Regardless of the reasons for the termination, we believe that more people need to take a look at the down line management system that is being pushed by the county commission. Osceola County government looks more like an Amway multi-level marketing system everyday, and we, the taxpayers, are paying for it.

A League of Their Own

This past Sunday's Osceola News Gazette contained an editorial piece discussing a recently formed grassroots organization called Poinciana Vision. The intent of the group is to help make a difference and find ways to improve the Poinciana area that politicians have long ago forgotten.

The group is being lead by Ivan Maldonado, a minister for Change Ministries, Inc. and is building steam with a growing number of residents getting involved. It seems that with all of the problems in the Poinciana area that is loosely governed between Osceola County Government, Polk County Government and the development firm Avatar that created the community, residents have decided to take matters into their own hands and make their community better by their own efforts.

The WayneWho staff was not surprised that residents would take on an effort like this and work to make improvements in their own community. With no municipal government to get in the way of progress, it is amazing what can be accomplished. With no one there to tell you that "things cannot be done", it is amazing what things can be done. Leadership, it seems, is not always given in a ballot box.

When changes and improvements are sought by any group, it is amazing how quickly the nay-sayers will come out to beat back true quality of life seekers. The Gazette could not take a pass on an opportunity to undermine the desire for the Poinciana Vision members to succeed. In the editorial they wrote, "Perhaps, though, Maldonado and his group are out of their league in their thinking they can make a difference..." and "Maybe they are just reaching too high to make any notable accomplishments."

We found this message by the Gazette to be very sad and a solid indicator of the paper's desire for the status-quo. We find it very distressing that in the paper's coverage of a story on a group that has been created to find ways to get the things done that government has failed to do, they decided to take a swipe at the group of volunteers. Instead of celebrating the American values of self-government, the Gazette's message is one of discouragement.

The WayneWho staff would like to salute Ivan Maldonado and all of the volunteers that have become involved with Poinciana Vision. We are glad to see the flames of American Spirit still burn in the hearts of some. You are not out of your league, you are in a league of your own.

And remember, there's no crying in baseball!

We're Number Three

This Sunday, the Orlando Sentinel printed a table of per capita property tax growth for 5 counties and 16 municipalities in Central Florida.

Kissimmee had the third highest per capita property tax growth (16.51%) between 2001 and 2006 of those governments listed. We lost out to Debary (21.27%) and a tie between Belle Isle and Windemere (17.14% each).

According to the table, in 2001, property taxes in Kissimmee were $141.34 per resident. By 2006 those taxes had grown to $303.50 per resident.

In comparison, those "big spenders", Orlando and Orange County, had annual growth rates of 7.24% and 7.25% respectively. Locally, St. Cloud came in at 12.92% and Osceola County was 10.10%.

So, commissioners, the clueless commoners would like to know... did we over-accelerate our government spending? Are our service costs out of whack? Did the lack of business growth/economic diversity hurt us? Or will it be some convoluted explanation like "if we had spent more money on government services back in the early 2000s, the growth rate wouldn't have been so high in the later years?"

Comment Corner

Comment to "High-tech economic development coming to a county near you..." - January 7th

Annonymous said - "To anonymous who doesn't like anyone that's running for the County seats:Why don't you run if you think you can do any better!You know how to complain, but do you have anything positive to add?I wonder if you even tkaje yourself to the voting booth?"

Our Response - We feel this was best responded to by the person we believe this was directed to. Please read:

Annonymous said - "That is a stupid comment. Some of us contribute to our communities in other ways. The sad part is most of us have to work harder to fix the mistakes of the politicians.

And I always "tkaje" myself to the voting booth. I am just tired on voting for pretend republicans!"

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Comment to "Clueless? (...or When Mayors Attack)" - January 9th

Annonymous said - "Hmmmm... Someone who know that the book Jerry is holding is a Budget Summary and not the full budget? That might narrow the field on the "Who is WayneWho?" pool we have going on!

And just so you know, the Mayor treats everyone like that. He acts nicer at the MetroPlan meetings, but when he is back in Kissimmee he puts on the bear show."

Our Response - Hmmmm... Someone who knows how the Mayor acts at the Metro Plan meetings? That might narrow the field on who our annonymous commenter is. Oh, by the way, how much is the pool up to???

In Through the Out(sourcing) Door

One of this week's business briefs in the Orlando Sentinel contained an item of a potential plan by County Manager Mike Freilinger to "privatize" (outsource) the leisure-travel portion of the Convention & Visitors Bureau. Since it was a "brief," we're almost sure that some information was glossed over or lost in translation, but we're left scratching our heads.

According to the article, "Some elected officials and industry experts have suggested a private corporation, led by hotels and other tourism representatives, could make better use of tourist-tax dollars to attract families and other leisure travelers to Osceola." It goes on to say that "[Freilinger] said the visitors bureau could then focus on filling the county-owned facilities with conventions and sports events."

OK. We understand that the CVB has been in turmoil for years now. However, if you're looking for efficiency and accountability, is creating a new "private corporation" to oversee the spending of tourist-tax dollars the right way to go? We would have thought that instead, if outsourcing was on the table, the county would put the operation of the tourism bureau functions out to RFP, hopefully attracting bids from companies with experience in this type of marketing, who would bring operating efficiencies and a contract with clear performance standards to the table. The "privatecorporation" brings forth concepts of the creation of a new executive job
(and payroll) for someone who is a friend of the county, and the words "steep learning curve" during the next two years of discussions on how the new corporation has performed its duties.

Then there's the second part. After the county outsources the bulk of the current duties of the CVB, they are going to redirect the CVB to market "county-owned facilities?" Do we really need a full CVB staff to market Osceola Heritage Park? And why, if you were considering outsourcing such a large part of the tourism marketing, would you keep that small little nugget of marketing "county-owned facilities?"

We look forward to the full, in-depth report on this plan in the upcoming weeks. Maybe in the meantime we can come up with a better slogan than "Orlando: Built for families. Made for memories."

Last one on Vine St. turn off the lights

If you read the business section of the Monday Orlando Sentinel, you may have seen a little tidbit that the Wilder Companies, developers of The Loop and Loop West, plan a third retail project in that area. We offer them great congratulations, as they have obviously found that their product and its location are in great demand.

We hope the plans for the Vine St. redevelopment are progressing just as quickly.

Wouldn't it be funny if in a couple of years there is an article about the Wilder Companies, fresh off their completion of The Loop-de-Loop project, announcing a new mixed use redevelopment of vacant and underused properties along the Vine St. corridor in Kissimmee? Work will reportedly begin as soon as negotiations are complete to relocate a school district property located in the middle of the vacant corridor.

Clueless?

(or... When Mayors Attack!)

You, the voters, are clueless. If you are thinking about voting for the Property Tax Amendment (Amendment #1) on January 29, you are clueless. You were smart enough to vote into office the elected officials who are now calling you clueless, but none-the-less, you are clueless.

At last night's City of Kissimmee Commission meeting, Mayor Swan angrily argued against comments made by Commissioner Irizarry in a discussion about the possibility of the Property Tax Cut passing. "If anybody is foolish enough to think that $850,000 dollars reduced from our budget is not going to affect city services, then they, sir, are clueless," Mayor Swan spoke against Commissioner Irizarry's contention that many voters may be for this amendment, and that if the City was going to take Access Osceola air time to "educate" the public on how bad this amendment is, then they might also want to publish information from those who are in favor of it. It sounded to us like Commissioner Irizarry was advocating for a debate between local and state officials such as Florida State Representative Attkisson who has been pushing the amendment. We are not sure why, in the United States of America, open debate and alternate points of view would be dubbed clueless, but we would have to disagree.

The problem the voters of Florida face right now is a lack of real and honest information. This is a difficult issue to vote on because as voters we know that neither the state or local governments can be trusted. Issue after issue and headline after headline have shown us that neither group is capable of defending our tax dollars in a heroic way. From bad investments with a slush fund at the state level to round-about fountains on our city streets, both sides have failed in earning the public trust. Now that the day of voting draws near, instead of anyone working to provide honest information to the voters, all we see are union scare tactics and angry mayors.

Mayor Swan is correct in saying that "city services" will be cut if the city loses $850,000 dollars from its general fund. The problem with the argument is what does city government believe is a "service" and are they really services that government should be involved with? Instead of deciding on budgets based on department goal sheets, maybe we should be deciding budgets on department need-to-function sheets. The citizens of this state are faced with this same decision in their daily lives, and we believe government should face the same decisions as well. And to Commissioner Van Meter who believes that the public just needs to understand how hard it is to run a city with a limited budget, try understanding how hard it is to scrape money together to feed a young family living and working in the economic climate of your city.

As the vote draws closer, we cannot tell you how to vote on this issue. We have to agree with Commissioner Gemskie that it does not make sense to vote for a piece of bad legislation. At the same time all of us know that if we do not force local governments to control spending, they will not. Worse yet, they may take the defeat of the property tax amendment as a mandate to spend. As far as the challenge that Commissioner Gemskie has thrown out about showing him in the budget where the waste is, we do that on this blog on a weekly basis. We would also like to remind him that what he is holding is a budget summary and not the full budget detail, where "waste" would be found.

We do not know how this vote is going to go, but we know for sure that a grumpy mayor lashing out at those who do not fall into step is not proof of the consensus builder that we were promised.

Government Mileage

The WayneWho NMU (Neighborhood Monitoring Unit) was out this morning researching future blog entries when we spied a two door subcompact car bearing the school district's logo in the next lane. The conversation topics of government waste, that we were having at the time, turned to silence as the NMU realized that there is always hope that a governmental body will make the right decisions.

We have no idea how many of these economical cars the school district has in their fleet, but we wanted to offer our accolades for their apparent realization that not every government fleet vehicle has to be a full-size sedan, pickup, or SUV. Some elected officials will scream that there is no waste in government spending as we watch the 4-wheel drive gas-guzzling single occupant vehicles roam the neighborhoods, while others it seems, have figured out how to stretch a tax dollar. We feel the school district has made the right decision because, not only are they saving gas, but the cost of acquisition was probably cheaper as well.

High-tech economic development coming to a county near you...

...just not the one you're in.

The WayneWho corporate research specialist recently stumbled across Business Facilities magazine, which had "Florida Business Report" across the top of the cover. Intrigued, we read the article titled "Biomedical Momentum in Florida's High Tech Corridor."

We learned that the Florida High Tech Corridor is a 23-county region in Central Florida, overseen by the Florida High Tech Corridor Council (FHTCC). So we went out to their website, http://www.floridahightech.com/, to see how Osceola County was participating in this effort to attract high-paying professional jobs. We clicked on Council Members...nope, no one there looks like they're from Osceola. Corridor Partners...don't see much there either. Corridor Counties...oh, thank goodness, we show up on the map. But if you click on Osceola, the server returns a "the page cannot be found" error.

So back to the article. Next we learn that Lake Nona is going to be the crown jewel of biomedical research in the Orlando area, and they have an organization called bioOrlando, which appears to both be trying to drive that development and is also the umbrella name for the "biomedical hub" or "medical city." So off to http://www.bioorlando.com/ we go.

We learn that bioOrlando is a council or subsidiary of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission. We click on the Membership link and don't really get a conclusive list of anything. Entering "Osceola" into the search field just sends you back to the site's home page.

At this point, we're starting to remember Scott Maxwell's note in his column about the 25 most powerful people in the Orlando metro area and how there was no one from Osceola (or some of the other local counties) on the list.

Finally, we read a sidebar in the article, with no source noted. According to the sidebar, Florida's targeted industries are: Life sciences, information technology, aviation/aerospace, homeland security/defense, financial/professional services, and manufacturing.

How many of those target industries have shown up as "wins" in Osceola County. For that matter, how many companies do we have in the area that are involved in those industries? Um, but wait, we have...oh no, they downsized.

For the candidates who are running in this fall's election, especially those at the county level who are talking about how we are going to leverage Lake Nona to benefit Osceola County, we look forward to hearing from you on how you plan to do that. Maybe the groups above can help you out.

Comment Corner

Comment to "2007 In Review" - December 31, 2007

Anonymous said - "Glad to see you guys are back! The commissioners were starting to get think they were in the clear again, so we are glad to see you are back to keep them honest. You blogging has been the funniest stuff I have read all year! Keep up the good work!"

Response: Thank you. We appreciate the words of encouragement. We are not sure if the commissioners really understand or appreciate our un-news articles, but the WayneWho staff enjoys writing them and we plan to continue for some time. That is unless we all move to California, at which time we would stop commenting on an area that we no longer live in.


Comment to "Channel 199 Doesn't Have a Catchy Ring" - January 2, 2008

Anonymous said - "I will not miss them when them move, because I can not stand watching that junk now!"

Response: We understand the sentiment, but we actually hope that more residents will start to watch the meetings. It is when we stop paying attention to what government is doing that it gets out of control. As citizens, we have to take a more active role than just voting someone into office every couple of years. We need to make sure they are able to handle the responsibilities of the job they have been given.


Comment to "Osceola County Sets New Guinness Book World Record" - January 4, 2008

Anonymous said - "This article is not about the blabberings of Wayne Evans. This articles is about the continued mismanagement of our county. Shutting down businesses in downtown Kissimmee for parking or paving over the Beaumont property for juror parking is just stupid. It are decisions like these that have left Osceola county in the mess that it is in. WayneWho is correct that you cannot talk "Economic Development" but not practice it. If you are going to build an economy, then you have to make decisions that are going to help. Parking lots and special schools on prime economic property are not the answer."

Response: We agree with all that was stated and rest assured that we will never mimic or try to explain the blabberings of out-of-state bloggers.


Comments to "Birthday Bestseller" - January 4, 2008

Chris Gent said - "I wanted to correct some misinformation that was contained in today's blog post.

Yes, the Kissimmee Utility Authority board of directors in 2006 approved the sponsorship of the City of Kissimmee's historical book. The City's 125th birthday is a major milestone for our community, and KUA is proud to support the formal documentation of our City's colorful past.

The total cost of the sponsorship is $55,400. As the sponsor, KUA will be reimbursed 100 percent of its cost through the sales of the book. A total of 1,528 books will need to be sold for KUA to receive full reimbursement.

As the sponsor, KUA receives a full page acknowledgement in the opening of the book...

...The City of Kissimmee is handling all marketing and sales of the book as part of its 125th birthday celebration.

As books are sold, a monthly check will be sent from the City to KUA. Based on similar historical books produced by other communities around the country, the repayment time frame is expected to be anywhere from 3 months to 18 months after delivery."

Response: Thank you for the information you have provided. As usual, your professionalism and willingness to communicate with the public is appreciated. The real issue is not whether $80,000 or $55,400 was spent by KUA for this "advertising" spot. The autonomy that you have from the city allows for a greater latitude on how and where you market your services. What plagues us is, what was the final price tag paid by the City for the books? If KUA's sponsorship covered part of the expense, then who paid for the balance? The real issue in most taxpayers minds is, will this book speed up my commute through the City of Kissimmee? Or, an issue that is even more important right now..., will this book help feed the seniors of our community that need help right now?

The point is that KUA has been a sponsor of Government, Chamber, and other events and projects for years. Going into 2008 with the financial landsape the way it appears to be, are these the organizations that need the money the most? Maybe the KUA Board needs to re-address its funding priorities for the coming year.

Birthday Bestseller

The City of Kissimmee's public information office has launched the sales effort for its "Limited Edition Commemorative Hard-Cover" book in hopes of turning it into a best seller long before it hits the stands in March. The books arrival date is to coincide with the City's 125th Birthday Celebration. The hope is that if the books do not sell before the birthday, that the excitement and sense of community brought on by the birthday celebration will create a rush of sales during the days surrounding the actual celebration. With the cost of the book, and the looming budget crisis, this might become more important than ever.

The commemorative book will be selling for $29.95 plus tax, or $32.05. That is a really good deal when you figure that the average minimum wage earner in the City of Kissimmee will only have to work 5 hours to pay for their copy of the book. Of course you might have to give up a tank of gas for the week and use public transportation to get you no where near where you work, but the book is worth it. The best part is, that you are paying for a book that you have already paid for.

Huh?, you say... Ask yourself one simple question: Where did the money come from to get the books published? Many people would think that a best seller like "Kissimmee - 125 Years of Its People and Progress" would receive some type of cash advance from a publisher because its mass appeal rivals other best sellers such as "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," but this is not the case. For a book like this to get produced, money would have to be spent for the creation and then the production. As we have asked around, we have learned that this amount was somewhere around $100,000 to get the first copies of the book. Who paid that amount?

Our sources tell us that KUA has paid for some, if not all, of the upfront costs of the Birthday Book. As we went back through notes from commission meetings of the past we did find that KUA had agreed to this so the public information office could get the project moving. Our information indicates that $80,000 was the number discussed but some sources tell us the number was higher. Basically, KUA made the initial investment in the book production, and as the book sells KUA will receive the proceeds to cover the loan. This means the city needs to sell 2,671 books to repay KUA. Other sources have told us that KUA has advertising in the book which may mean some of the rate payer money they loaned the City to buy the books might not need to be paid back. Is KUA a governmental AMSCOT giving pay day loans to agencies in need?

Happy Birthday Kissimmee!

Osceola County Sets New Guinness Book World Record

Monitors from the Guinness Book of World Records were on hand Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 as Osceola County Government broke a long standing record. Osceola County will now be offically recognized as the fastest government agency on record to break its own New Year's Resolution.

The County Commission had put together a special New Years Resolution workshop (a.k.a. Strategic Planning Workshop) in December to decide on what the best resolutions for the new year would be. One of those resolutions was to create a "robust and diverse economy." The announcement that this was one of the top resolutions was heralded by many to be a positive turning point in Osceola County history.

By January 3rd, however, this resolution had already been broken. In an article in the Orlando Sentinel it was announced that the county had intentions of using the Beaumont property in Downtown Kissimmee as parking for jurors serving there time. David Peach, the county real-estate director, noted that jurors would park in the lot, and be bussed (a taxpayer expense) between the remote parking lot and the courthouse. The Beaumont property is a large empty area in the middle of the City of Kissimmee that has the potential to be a strong economic hub for either the financial or bio-medical sectors. This has been a hope for many in the community for the past several years, but it seems that satellite parking is more important for the county.

When asked why the parking was needed, one county official responded that the county was running out of room. Government was getting bigger and bigger, and we needed the parking so government could continue to grow. Government, it seems, does not require a robust and diverse economy to grow. Since government survives on taxes that people have to pay whether they have good jobs or not, government growth is safe for now.

The officials from Guinness certified the resolution breaking record and then hastily left as they had caught wind of a record setting pumpkin.

Channel 199 Doesn't Have a Catchy Ring

On January, 19 2008 Access Osceola will move to Channel 199 on Bright House's digital network. Since this is a digital-only channel, not only is city television programming restricted to customers who obtain cable service from Bright House Networks, you must now have a digital converter box ($1/month rental) to watch Access Osceola.

While there is little that can be done about the move or the converter rent (until, perhaps, the next time the city's cable franchise contract is up for discussion and renewal), we'd suggest that it may be time for the city's television production division to research making their programming available via other means.

Perhaps we could begin with something as simple as making video files of commission meetings available for download from the city's website. That would allow city residents who receive television from other providers, as well as people outside of the Bright House service area (including that confused guy in California who thinks he still lives here), to watch the meetings.

2008 Goals & Predictions

It is the first day of 2008 and while many are enjoying the day off, we decided it was important to hit the blog-waves typing. While some of the things that were accomplished this year in Osceola County could be debated as both good and bad, the WayneWho staff believes we should work hard to move forward and set ambitious goals for the new year.

Goal #1 - Get serious about the commuter train system. Local politicians love to talk about how the commuter train is going to help the areas traffic problems, but why not actually start making decisions that will make this a reality. Start by putting a plan in place that will ensure better east/west connectivity to the central north/south line. Make sure the the stations that are to be built are more than open air vandalism hot spots and resemble some type of real rail station. In other words, get on the ball and get serious. You have committed our money to the project, so make it work.

Goal #2 - Create an economy that works. Relying on the residential construction industry or tourism to be the backbone of Osceola's economy was short sighted at best. The national housing slump and unprecedented foreclosure rates should be some indicator that allowing growth soley for a governmental revenue stream is a wreckless trend. Every effort by every governmental body needs to be made to address how Osceola County is going to add decent to high paying jobs to our portfolio. This does not mean that the local Governments need to go into a hiring frenzy just to say we have had job growth. This means that instead of passing the buck onto other communities for job creation, we find ways to do it here. To our Kissimmee City Commissioners: Building fountains is not economic development and will not attract any jobs to our community.

Goal #3 - Control Growth. Continually over-supplying the housing inventory has all but crippled our community. The warnings on this situation had fallen on deaf ears in the government for the past several years, but now the issues created by uncontrolled growth are evident. While many have said for years that you cannot stop growth, we would say the current market has done that for us. This downturn is the perfect opportunity to stop and redefine how our community will grow so it benefits the residents and not just developers.

Goal #4 - Make public safety a priority. While having a stretched public safety personnel roster is sometimes unavoidable, it should not be th norm. Rising crime rates and more calls for our emergency services are not a blip on the radar. Uncontrolled growth and a slowing economy have added to the stress on our public safety network and should not be ignored. Passing the buck between commissioners, department heads, and unions are not solving the problems. Taxes are not meant to pay for drama, they are paid for results.

Goal #5 - Make Access Osceola win the ratings war. While the WayneWho staff believes that changing the local access channel number is a risky proposition that may cost in the short term ratings war being fought with other news outlets, over the long term it may work out. Bigger is better, and having a bigger (higher) channel number should help to draw in the egocentric viewers. We hope all of the new shows like "Commission Break," "Homeless Guy," and "Late Afternoon with Commissioner Irizarry" make the transfer.

WayneWho 2008 Predictions:

Prediction #1: Lawsuits abound. Taxpayers will see their money wasted by governments who believe the court system is in place to act like a consultant. There will be at least one case this year where one of the local governments (School Board probably) will let the courts decide on your dime.

Prediction #2: Shiny Objects. Local Governments and Quasi-Governmental agencies will win awards that mean absolutely nothing to the residents. There will be lots of handshakes and back slaps as your tax dollars fund competitions and pageants.

Prediction #3: A Fee-for-all. With the looming vote on property tax cuts, someone will float the idea of a Maintenance Fee or some other type of all inclusive fee that allows governments to stop relying on property taxes.

Prediction #4: April Showers. The homeless bathing facility that is being built by the City of Kissimmee will become a hot national model. Outdoor bathing facilities will become the hot new item for municipalities to build. We also predict that the push for outdoor bathing will spur on a return to outdoor plumbing in other areas.

Prediction #5: The MetroPlan Orlando Traffic "Pain Index" Monitoring System will remain at a High Level (high risk of tax increases) for most of the year. Some local chatter has been intercepted that indicates pro-tax factions are working on plans to push the index into the red or Severe Level (just give up, because we are going to raise your taxes), but the MetroPlan social club will resist the temptation this election year.