Math Battle

To start off, the WayneWho staff would like let those who lost their jobs with the county last week know that our thoughts are with you. Our thoughts are also with the many others who were recently downsized, restructured, or let go because of the bad economy. And finally those in the small to medium business community who have recently closed their doors and ended what at one time was their life long dream, we are thinking of you as well. History will tell the stories of the 'difficult' economic times we faced during these years, but they will never do justice to how hard it has really been on so many. No story writer is that good.

Today at the Osceola County Commission Meeting that will be held conveniently at 1:30 in the afternoon, we will find out if Osceola County Government will continue to write the story of what happens when you add one bad policy on top of another. They have a chance to show the community that they can use their collective brainpower to do something more than lightly toast some bread. While the WayneWho staff does not fault this sitting commission, except for Commissioner Smith who has been incompetently sitting on Mt. High for far too long, we do blame their reactionary style of mismanagement for the current situation. Lay-offs, terminations, and downsizing were always going to happen, but the situation could have been handled much better. Past commissions allowed the government to continue to grow without envisioning a day when revenues would drop and what would be done when that day arrived. Now we see the reverse reaction of reducing government to meet revenues without a plan on how the basic services government has been charged with are going to be accomplished. While some from Mt. High are quick to point about how they are in command of the situation, we would point to the incompetence of allowing WFTV to broadcast the crying faces of employees in the process of being terminated. On what could be considered a pretty bad day for those employees getting the "its the taxpayers fault we're letting you go" speech, our county does not have the tact to keep the individuals' emotional reactions from being aired on local TV? Actions like these do not fill us with much confidence in today's Fire Fee discussion.

The rest of the story...

A Fire Advisory Board has been meeting for some time, at the direction of the county commission, trying to find a way to fund a $23.9 million budget that was approved by the county commission. From what we have been able to put together, the budget was set by staff, approved by the commission, and then given to an Advisory Board to figure out how to pay for it. The idea was to adjust the county's Fire Fees to pay for the services. The board worked with a professional consultant to develop the best possible way to accurately and fairly spread the large increase around to help keep the cost to individual residents as low as possible. Through the analyzing of fire call and response data, the board developed a billing calculation that is going to more fairly charge those entities that generate calls for service. It was easily shown that residential calls only make up about 47% of the calls for services leaving commercial and industrial calls making up the rest. Of course the development community does not want to pay increased fees, so they argued that the math was wrong. Several in the development community went back through the numbers with the Advisory Board and the consultant only to find out the the math was correct. 1+1 still equaled 2 and non-residential fire fee assessment rates needed to be raised considerably to generate the $23.9 million dollar budget that the County Commission had established to maintain the current level of service.

It's a simple story, but one that may not have a simple ending.

The Commission has already sent this issue back to the advisory board once because they were not happy with the outcome. They just cannot believe that 1+1 could equal 2. Today they will hear the issue for the second time and we doubt they will be more more happy because the numbers are still showing that the development and large commercial structure community are going to end up paying double the fees they have currently been paying. Changing the math will mean that fire services will be cut, putting the community at risk. It is one thing to cut library staff, but it is a whole other issue to cut the capability of public safety.

While the WayneWho staff does believe that there should be a serious debate on this issue today, because the increased fees on industrial and large commercial properties will directly affect economic development efforts, in the end the Fire Assessment Fee needs to be approved as recommended. The data accurately supports the adjustments in collections and the budget has already been approved. Trying to make 1+1=3 doesn't make much sense.

Not to say we told you so, but...

The WayneWho staff received alot of nasty e-mails some time back when we said that the MyRegion.org and Metro Plan Orlando groups were failures and that Osceola County governments should stop giving money to them. Soon after our comments the 'PR' machines of each group ratcheted up their positive spin that local media organizations were more than happy to reprint with out question. Times have changed and questions are finally being raised. The quasi-governmental agencies are now being looked at as failures, or, at least, past their expiration dates.

In an article in the Orlando Sentinel today the question of success or failure for 'MyRegion' is answered in a simple way. After spending $4.8 million dollars and wasting governments time in regionalistic playtime, the organization has failed to create concrete plans or significantly influence the direction of growth in Central Florida in any positive way. In fact, many critics would say that the developer friendly positions taken by the organization can be directly tied to half-baked plans that have left half built developments with little or no transportation access. Governments who shifted gears to growth based financing of government operations are now finding themselves panicking on how to downsize before the bills come due. $4.8 million to fail seems like an awful waste of taxpayers money.

Where does this leave our community? The WayneWho staff hopes that it leaves all of us with a sense of pending reality. We hope that for all those local elected officials and community leaders out their that still like to say "Osceola County is a growing county," that they will stop using the Magic 8 Ball of quasi-governmental agencies to make decision that affect our community. It is time that our local leaders stop going for High Tea with their Orlando counterparts and spend time eating at Fat Boys and talking to those of us who live in Osceola County and live the reality of what quasi-governmental agency failure means. Maybe if more time was spent focusing on our local financial problems, we would not be in the midst of laying off 300 workers seemingly at random. It is hard to lead from far away when the only information you have is bad. Get on the ground and do your jobs here.

On Monday we will have an article that will raise some questions about a secret battle that is being fought on the proposed budget for County Fire Services. Budgets have been approved and funding sources have been identified, but according to some heated e-mails we have received, the County Commission is looking at ignoring the funding recommendations. We are still working our sources on this un-news story, but it sounds like the proposed fire-fee is set to increase and the development community is not happy about it at all. They do not want to have to pay their fair share and they want the county to either reduce the Fire Services budget (cut Firefighters), or shift the burden to county residents. We just have to wonder if the signal has already been sent that the Commission will protect the developers by the action seen this week of letting go so many Firefighters and the move to close a fire station. We will let you know what we find out on Monday.

One Night In Bangkok

Tonight's City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting should prove to be great entertainment. Tonight we will find out just how "Socialist" our local social service programs are and if City Commissioner Art Otero will vote down funding these programs. The rest of the commission has proven time and time again that they are too squeamish to handle the tough job of cutting programs that are vital to the survival of many in our community, but now the commission has someone sitting with them that believes in smaller government and in keeping tax money in the pockets of citizens where it belongs. We knew that the discussion item of Social Service funding was coming up soon when Commissioner Otero signaled his stance against such socialist programs, but we guess we will have to wait and see if he is ready to let fate decide how those in need in our community make it through next year.

Our bet is that Commissioner Otero's anti-socialist values last like a GI's virginity when given one night in Bangkok. Will Commissioner Otero be able to withstand the temptation of easy campaign contributions for keeping his beliefs of ending government subsidized services in check? He has openly declared that these types of social programs are the reason our country is going down hill, so now is his chance to vote against them. While our current slate of commissioners have cut social service funding by a great deal, we feel they are still spending too much when you factor in our budget shortfalls and they should look to be more conservative. While all of the programs that are currently receiving funding are great, there is a point where it is not government's responsibility to subsidized them. This is especially true when there are already federal and state programs and money in place to deal with these social issues. Cut the funding, its not local governments' job. Stop funding "socialist" programs by redistributing local money and fund things like public safety that are in your realm of responsibility and what the taxpayers of this community pay for.

Hiring Again?

The WayneWho staff is a little confused. Didn't the City of Kissimmee already hire someone for the new position of Economic Development Director? We had heard that the person who was hired to fill this position was getting ready to start? Is it true that all of the wrangling over religious preferences that had hit the national media made the person think twice about signing on with the City of Kissimmee? Maybe Commissioner Otero is correct and a litmus test is just what we need to get the 'right' people hired into the city's ranks. We guess it does not really matter because it gives another local jobseeker a chance for the only job opening at the city.

Job Reference ID: OS22397 at CareerBuilder.com is up and waiting for applications. The position is described as "ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR — CITY OF KISSIMMEE Directs economic development activities & promotes the City's redevelopment initiatives. Major focus on facilitating real estate development within the City's redevelopment areas and airport. Reports to the City Manager or designee. Requires a Bachelor's degree in business, public administration, planning, finance or related field & 6 to 9 yrs of increasingly responsible exp in real estate development, economic development, or a related field; or any equiv combination which provides the req skills, knowledge & abilities. Experience developing mixed use projects is preferred. Bilingual is a plus. Salary $62,572 - $100,643 (DOQ) + benefit package." Wow 6 to 9 years in the real estate and/or economic development fields. Great way to doom the position to failure. Hiring someone who was part of the housing crisis, or part of the pretend world of economic development is a great way to spend $62,572 - $100,643 only to end up with another mouth to feed and no benefits to the public. Oh well, hurry up and get your resumes in because this one will go fast. Don't worry if you don't get hired because Panda Express is hiring restaurant managers and depending on the store, the salary is comparable with out all of the stress. Besides, it won't be long before the 'birther movment', headed locally by Commissioner Otero and Congressman Bill Posey, force local governments into creating a job opening for a 'Citizenship Czar' to make sure Americans from the great state of Hawaii never get elected to office again. This along with the need to hire people to sit on 'Death Panels,' the job forecast is looking better every day. For those of you looking for steady employment opportunities though, our recommendation would still be Panda Express because 'Gourmet Chinese Food' will never go out style.

Politics of Division

Kissimmee City Commissioner Artero Otero has decided to push forward with his agenda to incorporate "In God We Trust" into the city logo as a way to further divide our community. It appears that his goal now is to create a religious and social climate of hate to send a message to President Obama and local democrats that their 'socialist' ways are bad. He wants to do this by taking the expensive logo change initiative directly to the voters so they can not only pay $200,000 to change the logo, but they can also pay an additional $67,000 for a special election to decide on how the city's stationery should look. All of this expense Commissioner Otero justifies under a banner of patriotism where he admits that unless the phrase "In God We Trust" is added to the logo, he will not feel patriotic because of the "socialist" direction of our country. Maybe this is because Commissioner Otero does not know the history of our most recent national motto, "In God We Trust."

The words "In God We Trust" were placed on United States coins largely because of the increased religious sentiment that existed during the Civil War. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase received many appeals from devout persons throughout the country, urging that the United States recognize the Deity on United States coins. From Treasury Department records, it appears that the first such appeal came in a letter dated November 13, 1861 which was written by Rev. M. R. Watkinson, Minister of the Gospel from Ridleyville, Pennsylvania. Secretary Chase instructed the Director of the US Mint James Pollock, who believed that the United States must become an official theocracy, to develop motto for US Coinage. In "God We Trust" was first used on the bronze two-cent piece which was issued from 1864 to 1873. The use of "In God We Trust" has not been with out some lapses. The motto disappeared from the five-cent coin in 1883, and did not reappear until production of the Jefferson nickel began in 1938. Since 1938, all United States coins have had the inscription. Later, the motto was found missing from the new design of the double-eagle gold coin and the eagle gold coin shortly after they appeared in 1907. The motto has been in continuous use on the one-cent coin since 1909, and on the ten-cent coin since 1916. It also has appeared on all gold coins and silver dollar coins, half-dollar coins, and quarter-dollar coins struck since July 1, 1908.

In 1955 Congress passed a bill to have the motto placed on paper currency, and it first appeared on bills two years later. In 1956, Congress passed a resolution declaring "In God We Trust" the national motto. Our Country's original national motto, "E Pluribus Unum" ("out of many, [come] one,") celebrating plurality and diversity, still appears on the Presidential Seal and on some paper currency.

During the height of the cold war in 1965, commonly known as the McCarthy era, public profession of religious beliefs was seen as a litmus test of the ideological war against those who were 'godless' communist and was when the motto "In God We Trust" replaced "E Pluribus Unum." It was during the same time frame that "under God" was added to the secular Pledge of Allegiance and "so help me God" was mandated to end all oaths for federal justices and judges. It is interesting to note that the original Pledge of Allegiance, which was crafted by a Baptist minister, was completely secular and contained no reference to a “God.”

For those of us who consider ourselves good God fearing Christian patriots of the original ideals of the United States of America, we still believe in our original motto of "E Pluribus Unum" which is obviously what Commissioner Otero stands against. His attempt to create an atmosphere in local government that only those who believe in his god deserve the attention of government has moved Commissioner Otero beyond the realm of bad policy and into a realm of separatism. While the WayneWho staff applauds Commissioner Otero convictions in his religious beliefs and defend his religious rights, we have to question if his ability to work for the all the citizens of our community is still possible? Commissioner Otero has made it painfully clear that he will refuse to defend all of his constituents if their social or religious beliefs land in the realm of what he sees as "socialist," so we have to wonder if he should resign from his seat because he can not accomplish his duties?

Like many other great republican leaders, maybe he should resign to continue his fight for his style of government on a much larger scale. Elected officials are not suppose to have the luxury of picking and choosing who the represent based on beliefs, but this is a debate that some would like to have. Our belief is that elected officials are elected to represent all law abiding citizens for whom they were elected to serve. Commissioner Otero has made it clear these are not his intentions and we have to wonder if the job of being a commissioner is just getting in his way?

While we have received many e-mails about recall efforts to remove Commissioner Otero from his seat, we would argue that this is not the right direction for our community. Creating more hateful dialog is not what will heal this community. Right now, both sides of this argument are digging in and are ready to break our community apart. The WayneWho staff believes that rest of the City Commission has done a fantastic job of calming the waters while being respectful to all sides. We believe that they have followed the spirit of founders in respecting the beliefs of everyone. We hope that as Mayor Swan stated last week that this issue is truly behind us. We will pray for that anyway.

"No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship." - Thomas Jefferson

96 Days

The Kissimmee City Commission is in the process of having staff work on a permitting process to close a public street 96 days out of the year. The bars and restaurants on the newly renovated Dakin Street are requesting that the city allow them to close the public street in order to hold "events" that might promote shopping. While we applaud the zeal of the businesses on Dakin Street to find ways to increase their profits, the WayneWho staff is not at all sure that doing it in this manner is what is best for our community and the economic redevelopment of downtown Kissimmee.

The great failure of the Church Street drinking corridor in downtown Orlando leads us to believe that creating an alcohol centric fun zone on a public street is probably not the best message Historic Downtown Kissimmee wants to relay to the hardworking families of our community. While we have enjoyed the new restaurants, and the more 'mature' scene that now exists in the downtown, how long will it be before we have beer funnels and puking kids competing over $1.00 drafts. As some of the restaurants and bar owners said when they addressed the commission, "closing the road brings in increased foot traffic which brings more business to their establishments." So does $1.00 drafts and wet t-shirt contests, but we do not believe that is the environment that taxpayers have been paying to create.

The WayneWho staff believes that the commission should not set a precedent by allowing a public road to be closed for 96 days out of the year. If a binge drinking corridor is some in the community are after, let it be part of the 192 Redevelopment on private property where tax dollars and taxpayer liabilities are not on the line. The commission should continue to work with the Dakin Street businesses in their efforts to put on successful monthly events that draw in community members instead of allowing events that may turn visitors off to the whole downtown experience.

As one patron noted to the City Commission, “We usually go there for nice clean fun," which leaves the nagging question of what happens the rest of the time? Now that we finally have a great mature and professional nightlife in downtown once again, it would be sad to ruin it.

Local Governments are Victims?

The WayneWho staff has noticed a theme that continues to pop up once in awhile on other blog sites that we don't particularly agree with. It is a common theme that we hear week after week from our local governments as well. The idea is that local governments are just victims and it is not their fault that things in this community have gotten so bad. Not true. Local governments are directly responsible for how and why things are so bad in our local community and this should not be forgotten. Our local leadership failed us.

While we agree 100% that the blame for our current national economic problems are outside of the scope of our local governments and that because of these issues local governments are finding times much tougher, it does not explain our complete local economic picture. Our local housing crisis was made worse by the actions of our local governments. Adopting the ponzi-scheme mentality of using impact fees to pay for all our our needs, forever, has left us with no money or the infrastructure that was supposed to be built. Developing a taxpayer funded "economic development" program instead of creating the infrastructure sought by so many companies, has left us with few jobs and even less revenue. And of course we have our own developer wannabe politicians to thank for the disastrous affects of the "Build-Baby-Build" mentality that has left us with little to no value in our housing markets. These are areas that our governments screwed up all on their own and can not be explained away because the price of Aspirin has gone up. We are in trouble because of bad local policies.

The trick that seems to be trying to be played is confusing national economic problems with local policies. While we do agree to some extent that the "blame" for our national condition rests with everyone because of reckless consumptive practices, locally the argument does not hold water. The WayneWho staff believes that it is wrong to blame the voters for everything that has, and is, happening. In Osceola County, voters have time and time again voted for people who promised to control growth. The promises have been in the newspapers, on campaign pieces, and told to us directly at debates. Yet we have watched those promises evaporate as the campaign contributions find their way into the pockets of those who made them. While it is easy to act like the public has sat back and done nothing, we have watched, meeting after meeting, where the public cries to stop a development have been listened to with deaf ears. The public's fault? We think not.

When we look at the present day arguments about having to raise taxes and fees to pay for government services, we have to wonder about all the promises that were made to cut-the-fat. It was only when government was faced with an emergency cash shortfall because of years of deficit spending that the promised cuts began. Up until that point government had only gotten bigger and more costly. Did the voters vote for bigger government? No. Season after season the voters responded to candidates that promised to cut-the-fat, but like so many of the campaign promises we vote on, it never happened.

Where does that leave our community? The taxpayers are going to have to pay for the mistakes of local government as well as the problems created by a faltering national economy. We are going to get the double whammy. Once again local governments are going to simply enjoy the easy use of their taxpayer supported debit cards by making some quick withdrawals at their local "Automatic Tax Machines" (ATM's) instead of doing their homework and making the cuts they have been asked to make. Raising taxes is not a difficult decision. Making the necessary cuts is what is difficult and until our local governments can show that they have done that, the issue of raising taxes and fees should be off the table. If not, then the only victims are the residents of our community.