Vacation Catch-up

The WayneWho staff decided we would take a cue from the Kissimmee City Commission and take a week off because there was nothing really "critical" going on in the community, and it was great. Some great fishing around Horseshoe Bend on the beautiful Lake of the Ozarks is a great way to reset the normality meter and bring our local issues back into focus. Or so we thought.

On our return we discovered that in our time off, we had been innondated with e-mails on what we thought of the debates that had recently been held for the City of Kissimmee, and Osceola County District 3 races. It seems that our input was being sought on an issue that we are not very well versed on, candidates. As our long time readers know, we focus on government policy, process, and the elected officials who week in and week out provide endless amounts of entertainment as they attempt to make decisions on policies and processes they only understand when given the "back-up" that explains how they should vote. We do not normally address candidates unless their policy views or comprimised pasts deserve some type of discussion. We also believe that as an "un-news" source, it would be absurd to offer endorsements, even if we could offer more reasoned thoughts than our local media counterparts. But we thought we would try to get a copy of the debates of Access Osceola and give it a try.

We watched the debates and we only have a couple of thoughts. Our first thought is that we are all doomed. The level of knowledge of the majority of candidates, including incumbants, is almost non-existant. Not that the questions asked by our local media really tested that knowledge, but most of the candidates stumbled on tough questions like "Would you consider organizational changes in city government?" and on the county side "How will your Democratic values effect your judgement on the commission?" Glad our media friends put some thought into their questions. Maybe someone should ask a question like "Do you understand what purgury means Mr. Ferentinos?" or "Do you actually plan on passing an ordinance that states 'We have gotta do something' Mr. Miranda? While we understand it is difficult for someone who has not served in an elected seat to formulate policy, some of those running have been doing so for so long that they should be considered incumbants themselves.

To be fair we would have to say that there were a few moments that stood out to us as great moments, like John Bykowski's call for a citizens review panel for the city budget, Jeane Van Meter's call for log in sheets to track special interest groups and lobbiest who frequent commissioners offices at the county, and Tony Ferentinos' declaration that the county budget has no accountablility (which the rest of the candidates in one way or another agreed with), these moments were exceptions to the rule. These moments at least gave us hope that this year's elections would give us candidates that might start to understand the basics of their job titles. But then comments like "It takes three votes to get anything done" from Jeanne Van Meter reminds us what happens once a candidate gets elected.

We will save any knods and/or winner declerations to our other blogging coutner parts. We will stick with our own brand of un-news and poltical satire.