Befuddle By Choice

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

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

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

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

Let The Taxing Begin

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

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

Feeding the Troll

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bottom Line

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

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

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

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

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

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

No Money Down

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

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

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

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

Changes come

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Osceola Votes

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

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

Gut-Check Weekend

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

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

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

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