Board of County Commissioners on the Web

The WayneWho Research Institute video archivist was pleased to learn that the Osceola County Board of County Commissioners meetings are now available for viewing on the County's website. No longer are those meetings constrained to Bright House cable and the geographic borders of the Osceola County cable service.

We offer congratulations to those who made it possible and suggest that this is an area where there is potential for intergovernmental sharing...perhaps you could share your "secret sauce" with the cities and School Board so that their meetings are no longer restricted to digital cable subscribers.

Misdirection

School uniforms has popped-up as a popular issue once again in our community and the WayneWho investigative team is on the case. This has been an ongoing discussion in our school system for some time, but only seems to show up as an important issue when our school system runs into a wall of bad media coverage, and the result is always the same. The other bad press goes away and the debate on school uniforms becomes the headline for a couple of months until the debate finally just stops and nothing changes. This is what many in the political arena call "changing the subject" or the "art of misdirection."

Just as in a magic trick, the art of misdirection is the ability of the magician to change the focus of the audience to any point other than the one the magician needs to perform a trick or slight of hand maneuver. The debate over school uniforms is a great example of the art of misdirection. Recalled beef still in freezers that originally did not exist, problem audits, mystery enrollment numbers, out-of-control spending, fire safety issues in the school buildings that house our children, inability to meet the basic government requirements put forward by our federal government, rising school violence and now the media, and possibly the public, drops all of the real issues for one of uniform fashion. A perfect example of how people always love a good magic trick because we love to be fooled.

The discussion on school uniforms and the press coverage it has received is almost sad because of the lack of research on anyone's part as to the validity of the claims. There is almost no data that supports that school uniforms improve students, or more importantly the school systems, where they are used. As a matter of fact, a paper from The Journal of Education Research (Volume 92, Number 1, Sept./Oct. 1998, pp. 53-62) by David L. Brunsma from the University of Alabama and Kerry A. Rockquemore of Notre Dame showed that uniforms did not lead to an improvement in attendance, behavior, drug use, or academic achievement. The study also showed that contrary to current discussions, the authors (of the study) found a negative effect of uniforms on student academic achievement. They also pointed out that uniform policies may only slightly help by indirectly affecting school environments and student outcomes by providing a visible and public symbol of commitment to school improvement and reform. Simply stated, there might be some small short term gains in the public's perception of how the schools are doing but that there would be no real improvements in the quality of education. In other words, misdirection made things seem better that what they really were.

We would point out to our readers that this is an election year and that the art of misdirection will be in full swing. School uniforms, central parks, budget cuts, and other terms will be thrown out to keep people from talking about the real issues that face our community. Now is the time to stop being fooled by simple parlor tricks performed by those with no idea on how to fix the problems at hand and make the decision that will improve our community for generations to come.

John Young Parkway

With the recent announcement of Florida DOT funding of a long-awaited widening of John Young Parkway at Osceola Parkway and a flyover bridge for that intersection, there will now be two major John Young road projects coming in the next few years. The other, of course, is the planned widening of John Young from Vine Street south to Pleasant Hill.

As an aside, who was the rocket scientist who said "hey, let's choke John Young down by a lane just as we approach Osceola Parkway, and then open the lane back up on the other side again"? It's called planning, people.

What this will ultimately mean to us is better flowing traffic along JYP, but we also need to plan for some pain along the way. How many of us still aren't driving along Orange Blossom Trail north of Osceola Parkway because the construction there of the past few years changed our driving habits?

As these plans come together, it's important that the business community, government, and the contractors selected work together to minimize disruptions along the way. We're watching the progress of Martin Luther King Parkway Phase II to see just how aggressive road construction can be with short timeframes and incentives built into the contract.

Year of the "Do-Over"

Mirroring the potential national election "do-over" for Democratic endorsement votes in Florida and Michigan, it seems that 2008 will be the "Year of the 'Do-Over'" in Osceola County, after 2007, the "Year of the Lawsuit."

Some examples:
After years of planning work, and a previous decision by our elected officials not to make a purchase, the Toho Preserve land is rumored to be on the market, and the clamoring begins to have the county purchase it, at a greatly increased rate, to create maybe a park, maybe a park + government center, maybe something else.

The School Board, faced with a threatened lawsuit, puts single-member districts on the ballot. The voters, for any number of reasons, decide that single-member districts are the way to go. Voices in the community then try to ask for a modification to what was on the ballot and selected by the voters, which is a combination of single-member and at-large seats.

The County Commission decides against staff recommendations to purchase a retail storefront adjacent to the courthouse complex to provide a small number of additional parking spaces. In the weeks that follow, the Commission then decides to lease the space (for the favorite governmental use of former commercial buildings..."storage space"), and then invests additional dollars in upgrading...a) a building they are leasing, b) for "storage space," c) that in the future may be torn down.

We propose that 2009 will be the "Year of the Arm-Wrestle."

Bought and Paid For: Political Sell Outs in Osceola County

Part Two: Fred Hawkins Jr. and The Omni Waste Connection

Today we continue our series of "Bought and Paid For:
Political Sell Outs in Osceola County.” where we examine one candidate's connections, Fred Hawkins, Jr., to see if he is truly the agent for change in Osceola County as his followers would have us believe, or if he is a continuation of the policies and practices of the current administration. Past is prologue, so we should do a little research.

In 1999 Tim Salopek, a lead man for Omni Waste, was virtually run out of DeSoto County when about 200 angry residents mobbed a planning board meeting in opposition to his proposed 300-acre landfill near Fort Ogden. What would Mr. Salopek's next target be? You guessed it, Osceola County.

Holopaw, Osceola County. Salopek homesteaded in St. Cloud and had an office in Punta Gorda (we’ll get back to this later) and thought it would be great if Osceola County residents would swallow a 200-acre landfill. Residents of Holopaw and St. Cloud expressed concerns and fears that the landfill would clog the streets with traffic, disturb wildlife and pollute the waterways that lead to the St. Johns River. What did the county do? They denied the landfill! We’re not joking. The county actually listened to the people and backed them. To say the least, the people’s decision did not sit well with Omni and Salopek, so they sued them. No surprise here, the county settled after promises from Omni of only hauling garbage from Osceola and bordering counties. Some financial perks were also added for the county, as well as a little handout to the good folks of Holopaw. The landfill was in and Omni was granted the permit that allowed them to raise the landfill 187 feet above sea level.

While all of this was going on, Salopek became “concerned” with his community. He joined director’s boards for Edison College, the Chamber of Commerce, the YMCA and wait for it: the Education Foundation. Salopek was also developing close ties with members of the County Commission and a particular up-and-coming pupil, Fred Hawkins -who ironically was the chairman of the Planning Board . Omni soon sold the landfill to a Canadian company, Waste Services, Inc. whom employed Mr. Hawkins as the Manager of Government Affairs. After the dump was opened the request was made to raise the landfill’s height to 330 feet (only 15 feet shorter than Brighton Hill–the highest point in Florida) as well as accept regional garbage. In the words of Mr. Hawkins, “That permission was granted with no fuss.” There should probably be no surprise that the County Commission had completely reversed its previous position on protecting the community, but it was shocking to the neighbors of the landfill.

So how do residents of Holopaw feel? Mr. Gary Pickett said “Some of us look at it as selling our soul.” How about the initial concerns and fears from the people? What about the traffic? One resident said a truck ran her off the road last year and said the same thing happened to one of her friends. “They’re crazy down there. Half of them don’t even know how to drive a truck.” What about garbage collection? Well, now that there is a new owner, they can accept regional garbage from everywhere! What about pollution? While being within state and federal guidelines for accepting hazardous waste, rainwater flows through 5.5 million cubic yards of waste before hitting a plastic bottom. The bottom is sloped so the water flows toward collection ponds where it then is hauled to a waste-water plant. Kenneth Cargill, chief engineer for Omni, says that with the two layers of liner, “you’re basically 100 percent sure that nothing gets through." Lee Martin, from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, says “Anything has the potential to leak." What does Fred Hawkins say? Mr. Hawkins said that for every acre of dump, one shot glass full of polluted water makes its way through the liner. Not exactly 100 percent huh? So much for listening to the people. Where’s the change? Oh but wait, there’s more.

Stay tuned for Part Three of our series of “Bought and Paid For: Political Sell Outs in Osceola County.”

Click here to read "Bought and Paid For: Political Sell Outs in Osceola County." - Part 1

MySpace Denied

Sources inside the Kissimmee City Commission have revealed a rapidly developing drama concerning a couple of commissioners and their MySpace accounts. It seems that the entire IT department was deployed to help Commissioner Gemskie create a MySpace page for important governmental purposes. After six (6) days of intensive MySpace instruction, it seems that the goal was finally achieved.

At exactly 4:57pm Thursday afternoon, Commissioner Gemskie’s MySpace page was launched.

At exactly 5:13pm Thursday afternoon, sources indicate that Commissioner Gemskie received his first friend request from Kissimmee City Commissioner Irizarry, which was promptly rejected by Commissioner Gemskie at 5:14 pm.

Sources indicate that this is where the trouble began. Mr. Gemskie had basically set up his MySpace profile with the express purpose of rejecting Mr. Irizarry’s friend request because he knew that Mr. Irizarry would make said request. Mr. Irizarry did not take the rejection well.

When Commissioner Irizarry was asked about the MySpace friend rejection at a news conference that he called, he flatly denied the accusations. “I have had no MySpace relationship with that commissioner, Commissioner Gemskie. I recall no such rejection. My MySpace was established so the voters could have easier access to one of our communities most popular elected officials,” responded Commissioner Irizarry. “It is how I communicate with my Simi Valley consultant about issues facing our community.”

Commissioner Gemskie could not be reached for comment by press time and continually rejected MySpace friend requests from the staff at WayneWho.

Bought and Paid For: Political Sell-Outs in Osceola County

Here at WayneWho headquarters we applaud the Osceola-News Gazette for exposing the special interest garbage that is polluting our Board of County Commissioners and stopping the “As Bill Lane Sees It” ballyhoo. We also applaud St. Cloud in the News for fairly permitting equal time for all of the candidates in District 5 to share their opinions and viewpoints no matter how limited they are in hard facts or evidence. However, we believe that we have to not only expose the special interest garbage polluting the board but the garbage special interests polluting the process.

Today we start our series on “Bought and Paid For: Political Sell-Outs in Osceola County.” The local media has already identified two known offenders on our “sell outs” list: Paul Owen and Bill Lane. But let’s not overlook the others who beat their chest swearing they are not like those; when -in reality- they are potentially worse.

Political sell-outs are bureaucrats turned elected officials who are connected to special interest groups that have bought and paid for their votes. In short, they sell out and do the bidding of special interests at the expense of the American people. They tend to serve on some non-profit boards that are given a heart-warming name to invoke some fuzzy feelings that cloud the judgment of the voting public. Their principles are not established and long-standing. They are bought and easily swayed with their eyes on the prize of the next election cycle.

Part One
We have seen the momentous impact that the Barack Obama campaign is having with the rhetorical slogan of “Change.” Whereas, we do believe Mr. Obama is definitely a change from the current federal administration, we are very aware of a county commission candidate who has “paid his dues” and received the nod from the current establishment but claims that he is different.

Fred Hawkins, Jr. (candidate for District 5) is running on the platform of “change” -how politically convenient. When candidates run at us screaming “change,” we can’t help but ask, “How different are they?”

Mr. Hawkins claims that he is “no stranger to hard work and perseverance and look(s) forward to using (his) years of experience in management and business to assist our county in changing how we "do business." So now the question that needs to be asked is, "How exactly does Mr. Hawkins do business"?

We know that Mr. Hawkins is an “owner” in Omni Waste Management, and in fact holds the position of “Manager for Governmental Affairs” for Waste Services Inc. We know that he sits on the Education Foundation with none other than Commissioner Ken Smith and rubber stamps everything he stands for. We know that he likes to golf with Commissioner Ken Shipley and frequently brags about said recreational activities as well as rubber stamping everything he stands for. How different can his views be from the current administration? Surely they’re not recreating together to bridge their differences.

However, despite his poor choices in personal company, we want to know what have these companies Omni Waste Inc. and Waste Services, Inc. done for the hard-working taxpaying residents? Have these companies been good corporate citizens in not only Osceola County, but in the other counties they have moved into? Can we tell more about Mr. Hawkins' philosophies based on the actions of the companies he is involved with? What has Mr. Hawkins’ experience on the Planning and Zoning Board done for the residents and what do all these things have in common? Has Mr. Hawkins been transparent with the voters?

The answers to these questions and more in Part Two of our series on “Bought and Paid For: Political Sell Outs in Osceola County.”

Brain Drain

If you were to believe Osceola County Public Schools, which after the bewildered bovine blunder of the past couple of days we doubt that you do, free markets and competition are bad. A proposal to bring a privately funded International Baccalaureate program to Celebration High School was ignored by the Osceola County School District. Outgoing superintendent Blaine Muse showed little interest in supporting programs dedicated to higher educational achievement even if the program was not going to cost the school district any money.

In an Orlando Sentinel article, the reason given for turning down the offer by school officials was that they believe 'Magnet' programs were designed to bring high-performing students into low-performing schools. Their argument is that Celebration High School which has been a consistent 'C' school is not low-performing. The WayneWho staff would have to agree that when you set the bar that low, high performance is easy to achieve.

The next argument offered by school officials went something like this; "They also said they want to protect the district's only IB program, which is at Gateway, and avoid 'brain drain' from neighboring Poinciana and Liberty High." (Pause for a second to wrap your thoughts around that level of stupidity, we know it is painful, but this is what we are dealing with as a community.) It seems that the simple idea of finding and creating opportunities for students to excel has been lost in the bureaucratic empire know as the Osceola County Public Schools. Even County Commissioner Paul Owen, who was puzzled by the rejection, agreeded that competition in the educational system would make it better.

The school district spokesperson Dana Schafer responded in an e-mail that "Enrollment in our district is not sufficient . . . to fiscally support two programs," which means that enrollment is down so far that they cannot afford to financially support a program that is actually going to be funded by some one else. This statement is also the first confirmation that we have been able to find that enrollment is down and that the district is out of money.

In a complete contradiction to spokesperson Schafer, school board member Jay Wheeler said he understood the complexities of managing a fast-growing school district... but that he thought the decision to reject the program was "incredibly foolish" and detrimental to good students. This begs the question, is enrollment down, or is it up? Or is it the fact that while student enrollment is down, staff at the school district continues to grow? The WayneWho staff is just glad to see a school board member acknowledge that district staff makes "incredibly foolish" decisions that are detrimental to good students. This also explains the missing cases of tainted beef.

The question posed by the WayneWho staff is that if we are going to work to build a better economy as candidate after candidate trumpets, don't we actually have to create an educational system that attracts corporations into our community? The background stories of each missed opportunity for economic development center around the lack of high educational standards in our community. Companies like the area, but then turn tail and run when they take a look at our schools. Ask the St. Cloud Chamber President what an under performing dirty looking school will do to sour a relationship with an economic partner. If we are going to improve our economic crisis, then some control must be exercised over the lackluster performance of our school board and the staff members that answer to them. We cannot afford any more "incredibly foolish" and "detrimental" decisions.

Where's the beef?

Today we finally read in the Orlando Sentinel that some packages of beef from the latest recall were found in a freezer at couple of Osceola County Schools. This after we were told that Osceola County Schools do not get their beef from the same company that was involved with the recall. The press release on not having any tainted beef must have been sent out before any inventories were actually investigated, which is probably what led to the confusion. From the article we know that two schools are involved, but of course the school board will not say which schools had the recalled beef that was found, or if all the schools had the recalled beef and it just happened to get used up at the other schools.

This is just the latest misstep from the Osceola County School System in just the past few weeks. Channel 9 exposed serious fire-safety risks that have been on the books for many years. Many of the schools were found not to meet the minimum requirements of federal "No Child Left Behind" law. Now recalled beef shows up quite some time after the initial recall. We did not even mention the on going battle of voter mandated districts that now the school board is trying to water down to ensure the the "right people" stay in control of the great empire of construction contracts. Should we venture a guess at what is next?

The one issue that the WayneWho staff has been after are the enrollment numbers for this year. Most other counties have published their numbers and they have all been down. They have been down to the point of districts being forced to move students and teachers around so they can downsize their services to handle the budget crisis created from low enrollment numbers. Basically the schools make money from the state for every student, this year there are not as many students, so the schools are brining in less money. But what are the numbers for Osceola County?

This is an important issue because if enrollment is down, the number of teachers we need would also be dropping. This means that we would not need teacher welfare housing and the number of schools that we would need to build would be less. We also wonder how much money is coming in from impact fees charged for new homes? The City of Kissimmee numbers last week showed a very serious drop in impact fee revenue so we can assume that it is worse through out the county. Of course it is hard to know any of this if the school board is not going to release its numbers. We guess releasing these numbers is more difficult that figuring out if you have recalled beef in your freezer, so we will not be surprised if the numbers are released well after the the school year ends. Until then we will just ask the question of the ages, "Where's the Beef?"

Reform Needed?

The WayneWho staff whole-heartedly agrees with an editorial published by the Osceola News Gazette this past Thursday on campaign finance reform. The campaign finance rules that are in place right now allow special interests to either hand-pick candidates or control issues by insuring a free-flow of money into campaign accounts. Their article pointed out two incumbent candidates that we have discussed in this blog many times. Paul "TicketGate" Owen and Bill "My Bid Wins" Lane have proven to be experienced at channeling financial support from developers with their eye on Osceola County. We are glad to see the News Gazette cover this topic fairly because many have called for free and democratic elections in Osceola County for several years.

While campaign finance reform is critical, we firmly believe that this does not address the whole problem. Some type of ethics reform package needs to be brought forward to ensure true transparency in our local government. Slapping a few of your developer, construction, engineering, paving, and marketing buddies together on a board that rubber stamps every idea that helps developers win over the backs of residents is not "listening" to the people. The "Community Vision" survey clearly showed the distrust residents have in elected officials to help fix the problems that elected officials created. The number of people looking to leave this community because of the uncontrolled growth was staggering. Ethics reform might be the only bridge that leads us back to trusting our elected officials.

The real question that is being raised by the editorial in the News Gazette is, do the voters care about ethics and campaign contributions? Do the voters care enough to vote for "honesty" over "experience" or do they really not care? The News Gazette itself endorsed both Paul Owen and Bill Lane during their campaigns, so we have to ask ourselves why question them now? They were taking the same money during the last election, it just came from different sources as your editorial indicated, so why now? We are glad to see you bring this issue to light, but if your own editorial staff was so easily able to ignore this in the past, will the voters do anything about it now?

Again we applaud the editorial on campaign finance reform by the Osceola News Gazette and we hope they continue to fairly investigate the depth of influence peddling in our community. We just hope the voters enjoy the same "fairness" epiphany and use the information to make their voting decisions accordingly.

Where do we send the thank-you note?

For those who haven't noticed, there is a direct-to-DVD production going on at the Kissimmee lakefront park on Lake Toho. We hear that often after a first movie is produced, a location gets "on the map" and other production work may follow in the future.

We're wondering who gets the thank-you note for connecting the production company and the Lake Toho location. Was it the Metro Orlando Film & Entertainment Commission? The Osceola County Economic Development Department? The CVB? Disney? Universal?

Whoever brought the deal together, kudos (even if the movie's subject matter isn't everyones cup of tea). Hopefully we can do it again in the future. And if it's not too much to ask, when there is press about the movie, could you remind those involved to talk about Lake Toho being in Kissimmee, not "South Orlando?"

Tax 'Em 'Til They Leave

Our friends at the Wall street Journal recently editorialized on data they received from a United Van Lines study, which correlated US population migration patterns against states with an income tax.

They noted that the eight states (including Florida) without an income tax were stealing population from states with income taxes. Of course, they called out the penalty that new arrivals to Florida pay in property taxes relative to those who have been here for a period of time.

What was telling for us, though, was their concluding paragraph:

"Our friends on the left say Americans are willing to pay more taxes to get better government services, but their migration patterns reveal the opposite. Governors would be wise to heed these interstate migration trends as they try to cope with what may be one of the worst years in recent memory for state finances. The people who tend to be the most mobile in American society are the educated and motivated - in other words, the taxpaying class. Tax them too much, and you'll soon find they aren't there to tax at all."

If the desirable, educated and motivated members of society are willing to move cross-country for a tax break, who says they wouldn't be even more willing to move a couple of towns (or counties) over?

Taxing Options

One of the greatest mistakes any government can make is the decision that it knows how to handle the money of the people under that government better than the people do. This is one of many false principles of government that creates an undo burden on those who financially support it and it is this principle that finds itself being tested today.

With the overwhelming vote to restrict government spending, there can be no clearer signal to elected officials that all spending must be reviewed and cut to only the most basic of governmental functions. Police and Fire Protection, Transportation, and basic government operations are what the voters have told governments they need to focus their spending on. Social service funding was not on the short list of priorities of the voters who voted for this tax relief, so now it is time to make the necessary cuts.

At last week's meeting, Mayor Swan had started an excellent list of social programs that needed to stop being funding and we applaud his efforts in being able to make the difficult choices. We hope that he does not have a change of heart at the meeting scheduled for this evening.

On tonight's agenda, Item F is a request for the Commission to give direction on potential budget cuts and we feel that this item cannot be danced around any longer. Three programs were on the agenda last week which were the School of Government, the Annual Board Appreciation Dinner, and the Funding for Social Services. The WayneWho staff believes that making these cuts is a good first step in controlling spending and listening to the will of the voters. We know these are tough decisions and we believe that all of these programs show the true commitment our government has to its community, but these are tough times that require tough measures.

We hope that at tonight's meeting other cuts are made and that the list given by our Mayor is looked at closely. Membership dues to the Chamber of Commerce, Metro Plan Orlando, and the rest are not wise expenditures. Tax money given to Main Street and programs like "Flee to Be Free" are not what voters have asked you to fund using their money. These organizations and the social service programs like the Council on Aging need to make the transition to private funding and transition away from government welfare. The Children's Advocacy Center had a fantastic program this weekend that raised a good deal of money. These programs will survive, and they will go on. The great people of Osceola County, the City of Kissimmee, and the City of St. Cloud will make sure of that. Private funding will create a better opportunity for these organizations to serve those who need it most and draw a better awareness to the crisis our community finds itself in today. Free markets have to be trusted if this democracy is going to be strong.

The focus tonight is on the City of Kissimmee which always seems to find itself in the leading role of tough issues. We know that St. Cloud just made several cuts to social service programs, but as of now has not made the deeper cuts that are required. Of course, our county government continues forward like it has blinders on. Their idea is to cut police and fire protection to put more money towards helping developers succeed under the green light known as the comprehensive plan. We hope that the commissioners will soon see the light and make the cuts that are needed.

If the right decisions are made by our government, we believe the right decisions will be made by our community to addresses the challenges that will be created. We are confident that our community will come together to tackle these issues.

The first offer is usually the wrong one

We have only started to see the discussion of potential consolidation of fire services, and already we feel that the local governments may have jumped the gun.

First, we wonder why the fire departments were selected first for consolidation discussion. The three local governments just recently were unable to come to an agreement over consolidating emergency dispatch services, so it seems that attempting to consolidate another emergency service so quickly would have given them pause.

Perhaps this is a play from the League of Cities playbook, as a follow-up to their anti-Amendment 1 lobbying, suggesting that police and fire would be the first things to be cut if Amendment 1 passed. Well, sure enough, one week after Amendment 1 passed, the fire department consolidation showed up on the City Commission agenda. We suspect that the League of Cities knows that if their members announced that they were downsizing street sweeping or lawn mowing operations, there would be a deafening silence from the general public.

Since fire and police services are typically staffed according to a ratio of population, we wonder where the major budget gains will come from, other than potentially consolidating administrative staffs. That is, if any consolidation continues to offer the same response times that the current departments offer.

Finally, if consolidation is to be considered, we question the process of looking at only one option, an Osceola County-wide service. We think it behooves the two cities (Kissimmee and St. Cloud) to look at a joint urban department, while the county would continue to operate their more rural department. Perhaps Kissimmee would also look at what Orange County has to offer.

As we said above, we're not convinced that there are any real budget gains to be had by consolidating public safety services, but we sometimes suspect that when one party comes calling asking to discuss consolidating services, they may have greater needs than what they have to offer.

Revisionist Planning

It seems that the current economic downturn, coupled with the recent voter approval of Amendment 1, is causing some in our community to attempt to revise the county's growth and planning strategy. We wonder if the discussion tends more towards an opportunity, or a bailout for overambitious development plans.

A couple of weeks ago, the Osceola News-Gazette suggested that Osceola County find a way to purchase the land currently planned as the "Toho Preserve" DRI (Development of Regional Impact) by DR Horton. Then in an "As I See It" column, Kevin Schoolfield, the past chairman of the S.A.V.E. Political Action Committee, suggested that we should call our commissioners and ask them to use the funds generated by the S.A.V.E. Tax to purchase this land for conservation purposes.

First we have to ask ourselves, are we using S.A.V.E. dollars to preserve land or bail out DR Horton, who claimed a first quarter loss of $128.8 million and whose revenue has been cut in half? The News-Gazette suggests that the property the county considered buying five years ago for $25 million should now be considered for $38 million during an economic and housing downturn. DR Horton and the Osceola County commission were all too eager to dump 3,615 residential units, 100,000 square feet of office space, and 350,000 of commercial strip mall space into our community before the downturn and many elected officials trumpeted this as a victory under the promise of "Smart Growth." Remember the political promises of making growth pay for itself?

We hope that Mr. Schoolfield, those who have fought to protect our lands, and even our old buddies at the News-Gazette do not take this post in an anti-preservation light. We agree with you that preserving green space in Osceola County is critical to our community's future. We just find it difficult to justify using taxpayers money to bail-out developers and to correct the horrible growth policies that have been practiced by our elected officials.

We also suggest that before making any of these purchases we do what the county commission has failed to do for far too long, create a realistic pro-community plan of what our community is going to look like in the future, and determine how we are going to control growth instead of letting growth control us.

Since our county and cities have become so growth dependent that they can barely fund basic operations unless homes continue to be built (because of the nature of our impact fee revenues), what do we do to fund a better quality of life for those who live here now? We are not sure that buying one piece of land will fix the problems that were allowed to get out of hand.

Just because a developer or property owner now feels pressure to sell a piece of property at a premium does not mean that local government should be a willing buyer.

Kirkwood, Missouri

We pause for a moment for those who were killed or injured in the shooting Thursday evening at a City Council meeting in Kirkwood, Missouri.

As we understand the early news, two police officers and three city employees gave their lives, while the city's mayor and a newspaper reporter were wounded. All while simply in a public place, conducting a scheduled city meeting, when a man entered who apparently felt that his grievances with his local government were so serious that they were worth taking lives.

There are many words, most unprintable, for this act. We only hope that such inexplicable events will not keep people of good intentions from participating in their communities and local governments, and that government meetings will remain open and accessible to the entire community.

May the victims and their families find peace.

Rent Free Space

WFTV covered a story during its news program yesterday about a deal Embarq and KUA (the Kissimmee Utility Authority) have worked out. It seems from the report that KUA which is a municipally-owned electric utilities authority has inked a deal with Embarq to provide rent free space, trained sales people, and additional advertising space within the municipally-owned KUA building. The idea is that as you are in the building paying your electric bill or setting up your electric service you will want to set up your high speed Internet service through Embarq. KUA (KUA.NET??) makes money on every service sold.

The WayneWho staff has decided to overlook the fact that ratepayer money from a city-owned utility is being used to compete against local businesses who provide services such as wireless Internet access, high speed Internet access, dial-up Internet access, web hosting, web design and home security services because these are services we would expect to receive from an electric company. Making local companies compete harder against marketing dollars generated by paying their own electric bill makes good economic development sense. That is if the rumors we hear are true.

During the news report last night, a KUA representative made the comment that other complimentary deals like the Embarq deal were in the works. The WayneWho staff was able to uncover information from sources close to the free space rental department. Reports indicate that other space agreements are being worked with Fantastic Sam's Hair Care Solutions, Jiffy Lube, and Victoria's Secret. In a last minute effort to reach out to the local business community, rumor has it that WingHouse might be given some space until they have a chance to rebuild. Unknown KUA sources indicate that they are excited about these partnerships because it will help make paying your electric bill more exciting and during bad economic times getting people to pay their electric bill can be a challenge.

The only issue that seems to be holding up the process is that many of the other companies working towards this agreement do not have local elected officials as representatives. This could make this year's Election season even more exciting as contributions flow into local campaigns.

While the WayneWho staff was very excited about these revelations, we thought that there might be a more practical and community sensitive use for the free space. With the impending cuts to social service programs as indicated by the Kissimmee City Commission, maybe our community would be better served to give the space to local programs so they have a space to solicit private funding. This might not make as much money for KUA, but with the City exploring the idea of a food court in City Hall and now rumors of the County exploring opening a Rent-a-Wheel and an Amscot branch in their administration building, we believe the criteria for full service is going to be met.

As we end this article, we would like to welcome another blogger to our local community. It seems the Osceola County Chamber of Commerce has decided to get in on the action and has created its own 'Election 08' blog. We are glad to see that now that the roots of true economic development have taken hold in our community the Chamber has turned its eye toward politics. Welcome to the neighborhood.

The Osceola News-Gazette Responds

Dear Wayne Who:

Your criticism of the As I See It columns on our editorial page is off the mark. Yes, Bill Lane is running for reelection. Yes, he has had As I See It columns in the News-Gazette. He is a sitting commissioner, you know. However, between now and the election, Mr. Lane will no longer be given the space out of fairness to the other candidates.

You also should know that at the News-Gazette we have not held or failed to publish any comments in the form of a column or letters to the editor from other candidates, as you imply on your Web site. In November, we published a letter from county commission candidate Fred Hawkins supporting the supposed "right" to pray before Osceola County commission meetings, a very conservative position. If you remember, this liberal newspaper editorialized against opening those meetings with prayer. We stand by that editorial.

Also, no candidate – as far as we know – has complained that he or she has received unequal treatment at the hands of the News-Gazette.

As far as headline space, we have published profiles of candidates as they filed for office as time allowed. As the election nears, we will be comparing and contrasting candidates in the various races, including Bill Lane's race.

You should get your facts straight before you make accusations about "bias." Also, you can send us a letter to the editor, if you like. We publish virtually all letters regardless of the political bent unless they involve a personal attack on someone who isn't a public official.

Marvin G. Cortner
Editor
Osceola News-Gazette
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Our Response:

Thank you for your response on behalf of the Osceola News-Gazette Mr. Cortner. The WayneWho staff looks forward to fairness being restored to your publication from this point until the election. We believe that a sense of fairness is important not only for the candidates, but for the general public as well. We appreciate your commitment in this area.

We would also like to thank you for the offer to publish our un-news articles in your publication, but we are quite content with our current readership and at this time we have no plans on being syndicated.

The WayneWho Staff

Fire Service Consolidation

At tonight's City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting, staff is requesting "approval" to allow the staff of the city to enter into discussions with Osceola County and St. Cloud regarding consolidating Fire and EMS operations. Approval by the commission on this issue opens a back door approach to discussion on how the government is going to cut back on the public safety services you are paying for. We have just one question, if downsizing of public safety services was good for the community, why not have open public meetings on the proceedings?

The simple answer to the question? Consolidation is not good for our firefighters, EMS personnel, or our community. This renewed and panicked attempt by the County to ram consolidation through at this time is only because the county has run itself out of money. They need to downsize public safety services while charging the residents more for them. The issue really is that simple.

How can the county be strapped for cash you ask? Well technically, they are not. They are strapped in the sense that they do not have the money they need to fund the "special" projects that make them popular with their developer and regional friends. These are the same projects they have been pushing during their time of windfall property tax profits. They have spent all of the extra money they were bringing in, and now that the housing market has all but shut down, they cannot afford the lavish lifestyle they were used to. Add to this the property tax relief that the responsible voters of Florida just approved, and you have a recipe for controlled spending in your local governments, and of course, they don't want any part of that.

Paying for public safety services such as Police, Fire, and EMS should be the first item in the budget for government, not last under a new Expo Center or government subsidized wireless Internet program. Police, Fire and EMS services are the backbone of any community and a major measurement of what residents consider their Quality of Life. Downsizing these services and reducing safety personnel will not improve our community.

You might wonder why "consolidated" public safety is not in the best interest of the citizens when it could reduce cost and eliminate redundant expenses? The question should really be, how can the services cost less when you still need the same amount of people and equipment to protect our community? We would also point out the other failed departments in the county and how commissioners routinely take money from vital departments to fund their own pet projects. The Sheriff's Department is a prime example of the county only funding public safety services enough to keep them afloat. Lack of spending controls at departments such as the TDC are proof enough the county is not up to being trusted with our safety on their own.

As far as the decision faced by the Kissimmee City Commission tonight, we would urge you to dig a little deeper into the reasons the county is pushing this item so hard at this time. Mayor Swan has stated many times how serious he and the rest of the commission are about the health, welfare, and safety of their community and now is the time to prove it. If you decide to enter into talks, take a much more active role in any discussions on this issue before you decide to blindly allow the county to compromise the excellent public safety services your residents have come to expect.

If your plan is to push through with consolidation, then we suggest instead of giving your residents subsidized Internet access, that you subsidized the purchases of garden hoses so we can at least protect ourselves and our property.

"As We See It"

Every so often Mr. Bill Lane (self-proclaimed "representative" of the residents of County District 5) writes a lovely, fluff piece of un-digestible propaganda in either the Osceola News-Gazette or Saint Cloud in the News. We here at WW headquarters can't help but wonder if these "As I See It" articles that are being published during a campaign season while Mr. Lane is a filed candidate for public office pushes the legality of "fair and equal time" that must be given to all candidates by these news sources. We've looked, and no other candidates in District 5 or any District races for that matter have been given any headline space or "As I See It" time in either of the news papers.

Maybe just a lowly letter to the editor here and there but nothing with their own paper space. "There's no media bias," some my say. Well, for now we will beg to differ. But, we can fully understand this from these two media outlets that have consistently taken liberal positions on wasting the tax-payers' money; so it would make perfect sense that these liberal papers would have an obvious slant towards Liberal Lane (as he's called in District 5). He is very experienced at wasting the tax-payers' money.

Well, that?s how we see it anyway.

Groundhog Day

Luckily for Floridians the effects of the pint sized wizard known as Punxsutawney Phil (reportedly a groundhog) are rarely felt in full force. Nonetheless, the WayneWho staff all agreed that we should pay some tribute to this dabbler in the dark arts of weather manipulation, lest we curse this year's great weather.

That being said, we believe that the film," Groundhog Day" (Bill Murray and an unnamed varmint) has much more meaning to our community. In the film "Groundhog Day," meteorologist Phil Connors gets stuck in a mystical time loop in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on Groundhog Day. Phil relives Groundhog Day over and over again. Everyday he wakes up to Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe," on his alarm clock, and from that point everything about the day is exactly the same as it was the "previous day." Although we never know how many repetitions of Groundhog's Day Phil has, it has been guessed by some to be somewhere around 10 years of living the same exact day over and over again.

As we read and watched the local media over this past week, we wondered if we were stuck in some sort of never ending time loop nightmare. A renewed push for an Osceola County Convention Center, Police and Fire Department consolidation, local governments crying about revenue without addressing spending, Kissimmee going wireless, studies on homelessness, problems at the TDC, growth that is coming even when it isn't, developers that must be protected over the rights of homeowners, and the list goes on. Our problem it seems, is that we have not figured out how to break the cycle. In the movie, by improving himself and enhancing his own human understanding, Phil finally figures out what is important in life. After learning this lesson he is finally able to wake up to "February 3rd."

We have to wonder if our community will ever get see February 3rd.

And by the way, the real Punxsutawney Phil has conjured six more weeks of winter. Obviously this is part of the gloom and doom that local officials warned us about if we passed the Property Tax Amendment.