Reverse Cronieism

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

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

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

The Flood Gates Are Open

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There They Go Again

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

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

Fair Market Value

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

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

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

On a positive note...

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

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

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

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

Missing The Mark?

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

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

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

If you have to ask?

It is often said that if one has to ask if a love is true then it is not. The same should go for those involved on the board of the Education Foundation who expect the taxpayers to ask for their money back after the Foundation wrongly got their hands on it. Over $80,000 dollars of tourist tax money has been misdirected from the Tourist Development Council and into the operating budget of the of the Education Foundation. This means that more than half of the $80,000 would go to the Foundation staff paychecks and the rest would get divided up for the foundations other needs. We have been lead to believe that this money goes for scholarships or for items that teachers need for their class rooms, but this is not usually the case. The Foundations teach store which looks more like the rummaged through discount bin at Wal-Mart is not proof positive that the needs of our community are being met. From spending staff time on finding ways to run an apartment complex to the outrageous pay received by those at the top of the Foundation's food chain, money management for our children is not the Foundation's best attribute.

Other sites have listed the players who are on the board. The Osceola News-Gazette has listed the names of elected officials and elected official hopefuls who are at the center of this controversy. The WayneWho staff does not feel we need to continue to point the finger of doubt an anyone. We would just like to make the formal request from the residents of Osceola County that we get our money back.

Desperation

Perhaps you’ve had the opportunity to read Jay Wheeler’s “My Word” column in the 10/3/08 Orlando Sentinel.

Without recapping the entire article, Mr. Wheeler takes the Sentinel editorial board to task for objecting to the Destiny development, which is currently all the rage among the local politicians who wish to reset local economic development efforts by focusing on a new development 30 minutes away from Kissimmee.

The crux of the article is that Destiny is good for two reasons:

1. The developers have access to a pile of money and aren’t currently seeking local government funding.
2. All of the building will create jobs. We quote “Destiny will help working families and businesses put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads.”
   

So we read this as the new party line among our Osceola County elected officials. If you have your own project funding, and construction is involved, the store is open. As long as you’re willing to fund the infrastructure build-out, zoning and urban growth boundaries can be bypassed.

Developers, let’s get creative. Are you in the nuclear power or military weapons manufacturing business? Osceola County may be your place...and those industries can actually prove that they’re expanding and have the high-tech, high-dollar jobs we desperately need. How about a casino or the region’s largest adult entertainment complex? Hey, those services are in demand, and those industries have tons of cash as well.

Osceola County...the permitting office is open.

Shiny!

“This is going to give us a clean slate to bring in those high-tech high-wage jobs”

• Maria Toumazos, Osceola County economic development administrator, speaking about Destiny. (Osceola News-Gazette, 9/27/08)
  

In the world of consumer or commercial products, often a new startup announces some new improvement that intends to revolutionize their market. But by the time they bring that revolution to market, their established competitors have improved their own products, sometimes improved their value propositions, and have taken away the advantage that the new startup might have had.

In the world of real estate and land development, it appears that the opposite occurs. Once an area has been built out, it is left to languish in its current state, while all focus turns to new projects. We see it every day when a new strip mall is built. Half of the tenants to the new mall tend to be those from the old strip mall down the street, enticed by the ‘newness.’

And so it appears to be with Destiny. While Kissimmee languishes, St. Cloud returns to its small-town roots, and virtually no one is talking about making Celebration the high-tech corridor of Osceola County anymore, apparently when Destiny is built, Osceola County will finally be able to attract those professional jobs that we are all currently driving to Orange and Brevard county for.

It’s always easy to sell the shiny new thing. It would be much more credible to show that the existing community was already in so much demand that expansion was necessary, not speculative.

Meanwhile, back to our discussion of Vine St./192, we’d like to welcome the News-Gazette’s editorial board (9/27/08) to those voices calling for the City of Kissimmee to do something, and soon, with their Vine/192 concept. “Future bomb crater” surrounded by beautification/BeautiVacation areas isn’t the answer either. We will note that some local businesses are trying even more extreme methods to try to draw in customers...has anyone noticed the bikini-clad models dancing to strobe lights on top of monster trucks in front of the wings place on 192?