There's a warm wind blowing

...and it's not coming from the tropics. On the issue of the Kissimmee Fire Rescue Special Assessment, it appears that the discussion activity has hit a fever pitch this week. We've seen flyers downtown, read newspaper articles,and had many of word of mouth conversations. One theme we've heard several times is that people have discovered that "revenue neutral" and "costs the same" are not interchangeable phrases.

We read a quote this morning that appears to be misquoted or misguided. The quote suggested that the fire assessment might be a good thing because it allows city residents to see the cost of individual city services and decide if they felt those services were important. We're talking fire rescue services here, which are a core and necessary function of government. If someone finds the cost of this fee too high, what are their options? Were fees to be used to allow citizens to select services, we'd suggest that the city start with services that are not lifesaving in nature. Perhaps the city could start small, for instance, allowing residents to decide that they would like to opt for a single trash collection day per week, rather than two, if they wanted to reduce costs.

We've heard plenty of predictions as to how packed the commission chamber will be when this issue is discussed next Tuesday, September 25th. Perhaps if the city is looking for some quick money, they'll consider making the cablecast of the live meeting a pay-per-view event.

Kid Nation Lessons

What did we learn this week on Kid Nation?

• The game organizers feel that the town must have 4 different districts, each with its own member on the Town Council, to be successful.
  
  
• The town members respect the actions of the individual, not the title. Thus, those who had a title conferred upon them do not immediately gain respect, and those who put forth effort for the common good become impromptu leaders without titles.
  
  
• Individual teams only work for the common good when there is a common benefit.
  
  
• Infastructure (Port-A-Potties) is more important than idle entertainment venues (television set or a fountain in our case).
  

Next week, perhaps we will learn how to campaign, kid style, when it becomes possible to change out the members of the Town Council. Rumor has it that we will learn how to properly establish a method of taxation.

Top Ten ways you know it is election day in St. Cloud

10) Walmart running an ignore-the-vote special on beef jerky.

9) CNN has already declared Dennis Kucinich the winner.

8) Armando Ramirez has already filed a lawsuit contesting the election.

7) Elections office has "Gone Fishing" sign on the door.

6) Cows mysteriously appear painted Red, White, and Blue.

5) Developers being required to carry drool cups.

4) The telemarketers can finally get a call through.

3) Run on apple fritters at Dunkin Donuts.

2) Just three words: bomb sniffing gators.

1) Experienced candidates having trouble maintaining an election.

Osceola Puppet Commission Theatre - In the doghouse

This week's t-shirt graphic

All that you have to do to download this week's t-shirt (or desktop) graphic is click on it once to have it open up to full size, and then right click on it to open up the box where you can click 'Save Picture As' and then save it to a file location of your choice. We really hope to see these around town! Speaking of the dancers, don't forget that they will be having a Board Workshop For Community Input On Issue Of Single-Member Districts: September 26 at 5:00 PM -- Osceola County School for the Arts Auditorium. No matter what side of the aisle you are on, make sure to go and give your input.

Sunday Funny - Things that make you go hmm...

1. Why......can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance?

2. Why......are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink?

3. Why......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front?

4. Why......do people order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet Coke?

5. Why......do banks leave both doors to the vault open and then chain the pens to the counters?

6. Why......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage?

7. Why......do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place?

8. Why......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight?

9. Why......do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

10. We use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'?

Chinese economic development

We recently read that there is some amount of competition between cities in China who are trying to attract technology companies like Intel. While international companies have long located facilities in well-known Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai, rising labor costs and congestion are causing those companies to look at so-called second-tier cities.

While the Chinese central government plans their economic incentives, these second-tier cities compete against each other to attract technology employers, having historically been the location of high polluting manufacturing facilities. What are the ways that these cities distinguish themselves? Local educational facilities, to turn out the knowledge workers the information technology industry needs. Expansion and upgrades to transportation infrastructure, to overcome the congestion problems common to the larger cities. Upgrades to the electrical grid to avoid brownouts. Investments in public art, the environment, and other services that would be attractive to the foreign, English-speaking company representatives who would be coming in to set up facilities.

As the mayor of Dalian, China was quoted: "We have to keep moving forward. China has so many cities." Yes, Mr. Mayor, Florida has many cities as well.

No Soup For You

The WayneWho team finally had a chance to sit down to a roaring heck of a good time by watching the St. Cloud Candidates debate for Council Seat 2. We have heard from several sources that the Debate that was put on by the Landlords Association was full of action and brought the skills of each candidate as a speaker to the front. This was not the case with the St. Cloud debate. However, we all agreed that the questions thrown at all of the candidates were very difficult. It was just the format that was stale and offered no opportunity for rebuttals. We were glad to see difficult questions, because we believe that true differences between the candidates can be seen. The only tough question that was not asked during the evening was "Which school board member threatened you Mr. Griffin?" There were also no questions asked about campaign contributions, which we believe will be made apparent as the mailers start to arrive in mail boxes of St. Cloud voters. All in all, the WayneWho team agreed that the overall questions were tough and fair.

Throughout the night the candidates tried their sets of one-liners to strike a chord with the home audience, and one had us laughing for hours. Candidate Wade Davis, an ex-councilman who lost his last election bid, made a comment about annexation and growth of the City of St. Cloud. Even though Mr. Davis was one of the early architects of much of the annexation policies, which he now admits was a mistake, he now says that the size of St. Cloud is fine, unless it needs to grow some more. He then compared St. Cloud to a cup of Grandma's Soup. We all love Grandma's Soup so much that the only thing that could make it better is a bigger bowl and more soup. While we would tend to agree that we love Grandma's soup, we would disagree with the one-liner. The argument comes down to greed and gluttony which are the growth policies that have prevailed all through Osceola County. More is not always better, and in this case more is also unaffordable. It is one thing to say smart growth, it is another thing to practice it strictly. Smart growth is not a set of rules to be broken. It is a set of rules to protect the interests of the citizens. We hope that if you are elected Mr. Davis, that you will reconsider your growth policies of the past.

St. Cloud Voters - Vote on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007.

No refund for you

In April, the Minnesota Supreme Court found that the red-light cameras operated by the City of Minneapolis were illegal, as they fined vehicle owners rather than vehicle operators, in violation of state law.

In response to the ruling, Minneapolis dismissed any pending cases against red-light runners. But for those who already paid the fine (estimated at up to 20,000 tickets), the city has offered to expunge their record, but does not plan to return the $142 fine amount, saying the refund was a matter for the courts.

Here in Central Florida, many cities have been holding their breath (and policy) on red-light cameras, waiting for a court resolution or a clear state statute. If this type of policy holds, will the floodgates open, as the cameras would virtually pay for themselves, even if the criminal charges don't stick?

September 11, 2001

We all remember the day. We all remember what we were doing when the first, and then second, commercial airliner hit the World Trade Center buildings. We remember the symbol of American military power, the Pentagon, with a gash that cut deep into our own hearts. We remember feeling of loss and uncertainty when the airliner crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. We remember the fear of being in a country under attack, and that uneasy feeling in the pit of all of our stomachs that told us, we could be next. We remember the horror of watching the towers disappear from the landscape of American life. We all remember the day.

Today is September 11, 2007. A day we remember the victims of a terrorist act that not only took members of our American family, but affected our American family on the most basic levels. Today is September 11th.

Today the politicians and the pundits will relive and remember for us the darkest hours of that fateful day. They will talk about keeping us safe, wars, terrorists, sleeper cells and what they will do to protect us in the future. They will tell us we are safe, but not that safe. They will tell us that this tragedy has defined the time that has followed and has brought us to where we are today. They will remember the day for us.

The September 11th that we remember is a day where America and the courage of Americans shined like the brightest star in the night sky. It is a day where Americans ran INTO burning buildings to save anyone that they could. It was a day that Americans worked together, cried together, and promised each other that this would never happen again. It was a day where politicians and pundits watched as Americans did what we do best, we did our jobs. September 11th is not the day that we remember America in its darkest hour. We remember September 11th as America and Americans in their finest hour in the darkest of times.

We remember.

Local utilities in the news

First, a shout out to Embarq, who is in the process of framing out a new facade for their building in downtown Kissimmee. That side of the downtown strip is cleaning up nicely...thanks for participating.

The Orlando Sentinel had a story on electric utility growth today. KUA is predicting a 3.8 percent average annual growth in their transmission network over the next five years. OUC said their annual growth is around 2 percent, except in the St. Cloud area, where it's approaching 6 percent. Electrical utilities are in the business of selling power, and they don't want to end up short (can you say 'California rolling blackouts'?), so we think their modeling is going to be pretty good. Hopefully other entities that are concerned with growth are taking note of those numbers. The numbers of what causes electrical demand are interesting as well...a hospital can consume the power of 5,100 homes, so it wouldn't take too many large corporate environments to continue to drive demand, even if housing slows down in the short term.

Oh, and we didn't downsize the puppets. They're just enjoying an off-peak vacation week.

Sunday Funny - Top 10 Possible Campaign Promises for the St. Cloud Election

#10 - Put a fountain project on the agenda so it can be voted down to show Kissimmee how things get done.

#9 - Go to a city wide Citizens' Identification System to allow St. Cloud residents first dibs on pavilion space at the lakefront.

#8 - Determine if Stevens Plantation has been kept empty so the next Survivor show can be filmed there. Survivor Stevens.

#7 - Increase pork barrel spending on actual BBQ pork products.

#6 - Fight to annex only areas with proper mudding locations.

#5 Turn the "Preserve Project" into the worlds largest Dairy Queen as soon as possible.

#4 - Finally set a timetable for the lakefront reconstruction. (Until we realize we missed something else.)

#3 - Put up warning posters in men's public restrooms warning of the possible presence of Senator Larry Craig.

#2 - Appoint a committee to find out why St. Cloud has not been the focus of a WayneWho Puppet Video yet.

#1 - Fight to bring long term security and stability to the School Board.

And a child shall lead us

In mid-September, CBS will broadcast "Kid Nation," a reality show where 40 kids between 8 and 15 will be placed in a small New Mexico "ghost town" without supervision. They will then have to create a government and functioning economy.

Depending on how awful the editing is, this could have some interesting outcomes. Will the 15 year olds, being almost twice the age of the 8 year olds, be better business people? Will the sure-to-be-typecast kid with a parent, grandparent, and great-grandparent who have been the mayor of a town be the best choice to govern "Kid Nation"? Will the average kid line up to follow the kid who loudly broadcasts that he has all of the answers, even if it is later shown that he doesn't? Will the kids who have had some civics or government classes, or participated in volunteer organizations, be more well-rounded members of the town than those who haven't?

Tune in, or set the TiVo, and lets see if we can see some parallels between the kids and ourselves.

Ethically Challenged?

We were going over our earlier post today at WayneWho headquarters and realized that the letter that was sent to us from Tom Long titled "Spread The Word" possibly contained some very damaging information. In his letter he states that one of the candidates for the St. Cloud Council race was not only offered $15,000 in campaign contributions from a School Board Member, but was also threatened by that same School Board Member when he would not take the money to secure a positive vote on the Preserve housing project.

Does any one else feel the slime level rising in the room?

We started asking some questions and we have yet to find any reports or ongoing investigations into this issue from either the State's Attorney or FDLE which means that no complaint has been filed. Did this episode really happen? Did someone try to threaten a candidate and why hasn't that candidate brought these ethically challenged individuals to light? Is this standard campaign spin to look like a victim in the people's eyes, or is this a major ethical violation commited by the school board member and/or omitted by the candidate by not formally reporting the violation? We have to question the lack of true action in this murky political arena here in Osceola County. WayneWho would like to know the truth and we hope someone will investigate the charges.

Letters to WayneWho

Typically people write to us through the comments section of our blog. However we received the following two letters through our email and felt like we should share them. As a side note, we also received an email that we won the UK Lottery and wanted to let you know that if that pans out, we may not be long for this area!

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"Spread the Word"

Greetings All

Last night, Sept. 6, there was a St. Cloud city council candidates debate. Most of the citizens concern was on the preserve. Four of five spoke openly against this boondoggle.

One citizen asked each candidate if Mr. Wolf had approached them and offered to fund their campaign. Four of five refused the money. Mr. Davis's response did not satisfy the audience. It was full of political rhetoric and when pressed by the audience, he finally admitted that he had taken Mr. Wolf's money.

In fact one candidate volunteered that a school board member offered $15,000 for his campaign in exchange for supporting the rezoning issue for the preserve. When the candidate refused, the school board member threatened him.

Mr. Davis repeated the same worn half truths and fabrications previously presented by Jonathan Wolf (developer) and Tom Greer (school board member). So the only candidate for the workfarce housing fiasco is also the only one taking Mr. Wolf's money. That would be Wade Davis.

So now we have a clear choice. Mr. Davis wants your vote, not your opinion. He says he wants to serve the people, but will not vote for what the people so clearly demand. He says no one can buy his vote, but in this case, that is surely what happened.

Tom Long

**** Important -Retraction of Letter - Please Read ****

Wayne

It appears my recollection of last nights debate was wrong. Therefore I humbly retract my statement. The truth is, Wade Davis said he did not receive campaign money from Jonathan Wolf. While the other four candidates stated they rejected monies from Mr. Wolf and school boards members, Mr. Davis was the only candidate that really struggled with an answer. Members of the audience that contacted me today felt that Mr. Davis's answer was evasive at best.

Tom Long

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"LEADERSHIP… or Lack Of!!!!"

To the Editor:

Can we all agree that our schools currently:
-are in disarray!
-too many failing grades!
-obvious safety issues!
-have no corrective plans!
-lack School Board leadership!

Case in point! The School Board recently evaluated the job performance of Mr. Muse. He was given a score of 3.3; which is exemplarity, but please note, simultaneously, the recent FCAT scores plummeted, drastically!

Just this past week, the School Board gave Mr. Muse a plan as well as a deadline to succeed. In my opinion it will not! There is no leadership on this inept Board. This plan should have been implemented years ago, not now! Its timing clearly indicates this desperate behavior. Minus leadership, what can anyone expect?

The School Board was elected to protect and serve our children. But have they done so? The degrading FCAT scores are a terrible example of their lack of leadership. Have they forgotten their responsibilities to our children? Are they only consumed with the politics of future office?

There is virtually no communication with St. Cloud City, City of Kissimmee and the County Commission! This alone points out their lack of leadership! Why have they taken such an aggressive approach with all these governmental authorities? Is there a hidden agenda? Is this logical?

The School Board's actions are never well timed! They delay requesting final approval to open schools until the very last minute. The same applies to initiate inter-local agreements. I suggest Messer's Wheeler, Greer, McKay Stone and Chalifous admit their costly short comings! This put the County Commissioner's between a rock and a hard place.

Case in point! At an annual expense of approximately $264,000 ($22,000 per month) they entered into a Lease to use the old Sports Authority Building... But a year passed before they requested permission from the City of Kissimmee to open a school at that location. How fiscally sound was that? Is that how taxpayer's funds are wasted?

Where is the communication here, I suggest that Messer's; Wheeler, Greer, McKay Stone and Chalifous, finally admit to their errors here.

Messer's Wheeler, Greer, McKay, Stone and Chalifous should take responsibility for this ship {School Board}, not hide behind Mr. Muse. Messer's Wheeler, Greer, McKay, Stone and Chalifous are the captains, not anyone else.

I know Mr. Muse will not succeed in accomplishing the points and plans laid out to him. When this happens, a buyout of his contract will be at the expense of all taxpayers! This would not happen, if the School Board ran a Fortune 500 company! Lack of leadership would vote the board out for misfeasance!

My prediction will come to light next year. And when it does I urge everyone to vote the rascals out! Elect a new board, responsible only for our children's best interests, not their personal ones.

I pray the School Board understands their inherent roles and start the healing process now, instead of later! Prove me wrong! I will be delighted to tell the world, "I'm sorry."

J. C. Oliver
Kissimmee, FL

“Government Works”

The phrase “Government Works” is an oxymoron if ever there was a phrase that deserved the title. There are times when it may seem like government is working, but rest assured, this is only a set of random patterns falling together that seem to the untrained eye like controlled decision making in action. For this we offer two discussions.

First we have the City Commission meeting from the past week where again they discussed the installation of an expensive fountain in a roundabout on a barely traveled road at the taxpayer’s expense. Government finally worked in this situation. After the commission approved the project at an earlier meeting, two commissioners, Irizarry and Gemskie, fought the continuing of the project in the current form. The other three commissioners favored spending taxpayer’s money in order to create an eye catching center piece on the roundabout. If we heard Commissioner Van Meter correctly, she stated that the aesthetics were worth any amount of money. Martha Stewart would be proud. Commissioners Irizarry and Gemskie eventually lost the debate, but that is actually where we see Government at its best. There was debate on an issue that impacted residents. This has not happened on the City Commission in a very long time, and we welcome the return of debate and hope that it is here to stay. Taxpayers may not always win, but at least our voices are heard. The three commissioners who favored the fountain will have to see how they are judged by the electorate in their upcoming elections.

Our second discussion on the phrase “Government Works” finds itself in a “Letter to the Editor” in the Gazette today. A Kissimmee citizen has written a letter defending Mr. Shipley, we assume because Mr. Shipley’s own defense rebuttal letter failed so horribly against the rebuttal letter written by Tony Ferentinos. In his letter, the citizen exclaims that Mr. Ferentinos does not know how “Government Works” and then defends Mr. Shipley’s honor by listing his long list of accomplishments. You can see the humor in this statement yourself. “How Government Works” is a completely relative statement because it depends on where you are on the great circle of government processes. If you are a taxpayer, you know that government is working to take your money and give you limited services in return, and then ask for your praise on those limited crumbling services. If you are in government, then government is working to expand its operations and help keep you employed. If you are an elected official then government is working to allow you to spill your vision of what the community should look like at someone else’s expense. Yes, Government Works.

Voting with their feet

Well, another one gone. While driving around the city today we noticed that the Chevy's Tex Mex restaurant in front of Target on Vine St. has removed all of their signage and was empty. Sad to see that they couldn't survive with the traffic draw of Target and Home Depot right behind them. Guess we'll have to watch and see if they turn up along Osceola Parkway.

- Public Service Announcement -

A reminder for our St. Cloud readers: Tomorrow (Thursday 9/6) is the debate between candidates for the St. Cloud special election. The debate will be held at the KUA offices on Carroll Street, starting at 6:30 PM.

With a Whimper

Buried in the small news over the weekend was the announcement that the Kissimmee Charter Review Committee had completed their review of the city charter without any major change recommendations, other than grammar/language items.

We'd like to thank those who participated in the committee, even though we called you out early in the process for primarily being 'insiders.' The process had to be tedious, even if no major changes were recommended. It will be interesting to see if the commission goes forward without any further recommendations of their own.

Reviewing this process in hindsight, we have to ask: Did the charter review meet the expectations of those who proposed it? It certainly seemed like a hot topic during the last election, when most candidates said that they supported having a charter review committee. Then the city commission decided to place five election changes before the public on the January ballot, arguing that they needed time to 'educate the public' on these proposed changes...there were even discussions about holding community events about these changes. Now the charter review committee has completed their work.

Were those who called for charter review simply hoping to get out of submitting 20 signature cards in the next election?

Kissimmee Puppet Commission Theatre - Outtakes

Sunday Funny - Lab Results

An old man goes to see the doctor and gets some tests. When the results come in, the doctor calls the old man in and says, “You'd better sit down. It's pretty bad.”

The old man, naturally, gets all nervous and asks, “What is it, Doc? Don't hold back -- just give it to me straight.” “Well,” says the doctor, “you have cancer and you have Alzheimers.”

The man replies, “Wow. Well, at least I don't have cancer.”

The DUH Factor...

The Osceola News Gazette reported in Thursdays edition that Bill Furth, an economist, believed that for Osceola County to stay economically healthy over the long-term, we needed to diversify from tourism based jobs and promote industrial growth. "Tourism is good," Furth said, "but too much of anything isn't good. Diversification is something this area has to do."

Duh...

We know that local officials and the economic development department have had a tough time understanding the statement above that pretty much every high school kid working to move out of the area already understands, Osceola county sucks for jobs. If you want to make good money you need to get an education and then move out of the area. Of course the bedroom community theory of Osceola county has been touted for years as the most sensible plan, but time has proven this theory worth as much as a United Cities Dollar - worthless.

The Chamber of Commerce did offer that their county has worked hard to develop an economic plan and improve its low wages during the past several years.... Yes.. Stop laughing... they just admitted that they developed a plan to get us where we are... Stop laughing...

Duh...

News & notes

High wage jobs
We've seen a couple of articles coming out of the economic summit of a couple weeks ago. The consultant/speaker suggested a county-established industrial park to bring higher-wage jobs into Osceola County. The associated statistics tell us that 800 high-wage jobs were created in Osceola County from 2001-2005, but the consultant says that the industrial park could support 10,000 high wage jobs. Here begins the numbers game...if we attracted 800 high-wage jobs in a 5-year period (160/year), how do we rev up the economic development machine so that we can attract, say, 1000 high-wage jobs per year to gain 10,000 high-wage jobs over a 10-year period?

Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission
The Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission (hope someone comes up with a easier acronym quickly) met for the first time yesterday. Osceola County's representative is Osceola County Commission Vice Chairman Bill Lane. Orange County has assumed the leadership of the commission, with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer serving as chairman and Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty serving as vice chairman. Next big step? The CSX Transportation board still has to approve the sale of the tracks to Florida DOT, scheduled for a CSX board meeting in mid-September.

Seen about town
We're wondering about the display truck seen around town, as recently as today, with Commissioner Ken Smith's campaign ad on it. Is the local advertising market that bad, that they haven't had a new customer sign up for the truck, or did Commissioner Smith's campaign pay for a really long advertising contract?

Pimp My Roundabout

The rumors are in from this week's commission workshop (not aired on Access Osceola) and it appears that a discussion of the proposed building of a Vegas style dancing water fountain in the great MLK roundabout will be on the agenda next week. It seems that the Access Osceola team is working in the background on this project. Rumors are circulating that Access Osceola has requested the fountain in an attempt to improve the dropping ratings on their government cable channel.

The first season of shows is rumored to include a series that will be titled "This Olde Roundabout" which will start off with details of roundabout treatments in other areas of the globe. The show will wind down with installation video of Kissimmee's very own roundabout fountain treatment. To get more mileage out of the roundabout fountain, (rumored to cost somewhere over $200,000 - or $1.2 Million United Cities Dollars at today's exchange rate) Access Osceola has developed a second show titled "Pimp My Roundabout" where average everyday roundabouts of the poor are made over by celebrity roundabout designers. We also hear background noises that a third possible Access Osceola show titled "Roundabouts of the Rich and Famous" may also be in the works. One Access Osceola intern was heard to say "with ratings like ours, even a show on fountains in a roundabout will bring them up. Heck our viewers watch the commission meetings, so I think that a show about a water fountain would be a real nail biter for them."

WayneWho salutes the effort to turn every dollar spent (not United Cities Dollars we hope) into at least a dollar. We can't wait for the first season to kick off!

Could this happen?

The recent flood of news about privatizing roads and other traditional public facilities, driven in part by a backlash against lack of highway funding highlighted by the Minneapolis bridge collapse, got us thinking recently.

Osceola Parkway is already a toll road (at least west of Dyer). Arguably, it's an underused resource that has not performed to the level expected when it was built. What would happen if Osceola County signed a 99-year lease with a private investment firm to maintain and operate Osceola Parkway? Much the same deal as has been done with other toll roads, like the Chicago Skyway. Revenues from the lease deal could then be used for other badly-needed infrastructure projects within the county.

Of course, the private operator would undoubtedly want to make moves to increase traffic use along the road. This may include tweaking the toll schedule, perhaps with different pricing for peak and off-peak periods. But we also note that the parkway has a fair amount of right-of-way, and it intersects with the commuter rail line, with a commuter rail stop already planned for Osceola Parkway. Could a private operator implement an east-west mass transit system in conjunction with the north/south commuter rail? Perhaps a combination of bus rapid transit and light rail running from BVL all the way west to the attractions?

Food for thought.

Ghost buildings

You know them. We've all seen them on our drives through town. They're the commercial buildings that time and their owners have forgotten. Maybe they have a real estate sign posted, maybe they're just wearing the former signage of a long-gone tenant. There is no mistaking that they are vacant.

Years ago, Kissimmee started work on minimum maintenance ordinances for commercial and residential properties. Even though the push at the time was for a commercial minimum maintenance ordinance, the residential ordinance came first. There was much hand-wringing and concern at the time that the city would issue violations for a paint chip missing from a house, and outrage that the city would dare to regulate the number of cars that could be parked on the front lawn of a residence. Many of the areas of concern were toned down or eliminated from the final ordinance, and its passage came and went.

Yet there is still no commercial minimum maintenance ordinance. Unfortunately, the buildings that would most be impacted by this type of ordinance are not buildings with short-term problems. They are well-known in the community, having sat in their current state for years.

Property rights are a huge issue, and far be it from us to tell someone how to use their land and buildings. Until their non-use of the buildings starts to negatively impact their neighbors and the community at large. Want to hold a vacant shell of a building for years as some kind of tax strategy? Great, but you at least have to keep the exterior of the building clean and presentable, because your neighbor is actually trying to run a profit-seeking business next door, and your dilapidated building is scaring away their customers.

Straight Talk with Payne Evans - Big Deal

The Chairmen have left the building

This week, both Osceola County Commission Chairman Ken Shipley and Osceola School Board Chairman Tom Chalifoux announced that they would not seek reelection in 2008.

Both men indicated that they looked forward to having the time to pursue other parts of their lives, and that they were making way for new voices on their respective boards.

We wish both of them well and thank them for their service to the community. We hope that the next 14 months will give them the time to move forward on issues that need to be resolved for the benefit of the community, but which would present a challenge for those seeking re-election.

We watch with great interest to see whom in our community will step forward to run for these offices, and more importantly, what their position on and knowledge of the issues will be.

Osceola Idol

We were watching a Gabriel Iglesias comedy special the other day, where he does a bit on voting. "Americans love to vote" he says, "We don't vote for Presidents. We vote for American Idol." He goes on to speculate what would happen if we held a presidential election by letting the candidates go on TV for an hour, and halfway through the show, put up the 800 number to call to vote.

Which got us to thinking. How might life be different if we could get just 50% of our local eligible voters to turn out for an election? Would the current power base(s) shift with that amount of general citizen turnout? Does anyone care about flyers, lawnsigns, ads and debates anymore? Or should we just have a reality show shootout for elected officials? When we consider election changes in the coming months, we think that the focus should be on getting the maximum number of local voters to cast ballots for the final election.

To see a video clip of Gabrial Iglesias' bit, go here:
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/?lnk=v&ml_video=90721
There's a Bill Clinton punchline at the end of the bit that's pretty funny, no matter which side of the aisle you're on.

To the Kissimmee City Commission:

If you weren't at the Chamber's economic development lunch yesterday, by now you've read the coverage in today's Orlando Sentinel. The consultant/speaker they brought in highlighted two things: First, the majority of jobs created in Osceola County in the last 5 years were lower-paying service-industry jobs, which dragged Osceola's average wage to among the lowest in Central Florida. No one should have been surprised there.

Second, the consultant says that in order to attract high-wage employers, the county should consider buying and developing a 500-750 acre industrial/headquarters park. He suggests that publicly owned "job centers" are becoming more popular as private developers don't want to go through years of land-use approvals (sounds familiar, right?)

Well, according to the Sentinel, the "room was buzzing" about the industrial park, and Economic Development Director Maria Grulich was quoted as saying "I want it."

Kissimmee Commissioners: Your 192/Vine corridor consultant suggested much this same use on the airport side of Vine over a year ago. Interestingly, the only site within the city mentioned as possible for this park in the article was "the area around the Kissimmee Gateway Airport."

We hope that the conversation has already started, but if not, we need you to do this for us today. Start calling the county commissioners and the economic development department with this simple message: "City of Kissimmee here...we're in." Tell them to not even bother looking other places...we have developable land around the airport, utilities in place, a commercial strip that is badly in need of repurposing and redevelopment, and, by the way, it's anchored to the airport, which is already an economic development hot spot. Because we all know, that left to a passive search pattern, a greenfield development site out in the middle of the county somewhere will be selected, and if that happens, we're going to pretty much be out of ideas for things to do with Vine Street.

Say it again: "City of Kissimmee here...we're in."

All-America Advertising

Where does the All-America City logo appear for an All-America City winner? We recently found the attached ad (click on the picture to the left to see it full size), featuring Publix Super Markets, from Polk County. The ad ran in Business Facilities: The Location Advisor, a trade magazine targeted at corporate facility managers tasked with the responsibility of finding new locations for their companies.

Some quick statistics: the magazine claims that 81% of their subscribers will expand or relocate their business in the next 3 years. The magazine claims 43,000 decision-making subscribers, with 51.6% of their subscribers representing manufacturing companies.

We wanted to point out the commitment required as our local officials consider another run at All-America City. "Win it and they will come" is not enough. As we wandered out to the ad rate page for Business Facilities, we found out the following: A one-page black and white ad in that magazine costs $8,150. Adding color to that ad (4-color process) adds $2,150 to the ad. Thus, we believe the ad costs approximately $10,300 excluding any discounts they may have gotten. If we commit to competing for All-America City, will we commit to publicizing a win correctly?

Better Neighbors Through Technology

We recently read a Wall Street Journal about new technology inventions to keep people from disturbing each other. One inventor had come up with an electrically-charged coat to keep "gropers" at bay while riding the subway in New York. Another had designed a device which emitted an ultrasonic shriek designed to quiet the neighbor's dog when he starts barking (he disguised it as a birdhouse for good measure). Our "invention with the most potential" was a FM transmitter and iPod combination used to silence noisy radios during taxi and bus rides...the inventor had a track of recorded silence on his iPod, and used the FM transmitter, designed to allow your iPod to play through your car stereo, to inflict a silence track on cabbies playing their radio too loud. We look forward to the next level of this invention, using white noise generators to drown out boom cars and loud mufflers as they pass by your house or business.

They used to say "good fences make good neighbors." Technology may make those fences a lot smaller.

Kissimmee Puppet Commission Theatre - The Fountain

Applying for a Job at the CIA

A few months ago, there was an opening with the CIA for an assassin. These highly classified positions are hard to fill, and there's a lot of testing and background checks involved before you can even be considered for the position. After sending some applicants through the background checks, training and testing, they narrowed the possible choices down to two men and a woman, but only one position was available.

The day came for the final test to see which peson would get the extremely secretive job. The CIA men administering the test took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun. "We must know that you will follow our instructions whatever the circumstances," they explained. "Inside this room, you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Take this gun and kill her." The man looked horrified and said, "You can't be serious! I could never shoot my wife!" "Well," said the CIA man, "you're definitely not the right man for this job then."

So they brought the second man to the same door and handed him a gun. "We must know that you will follow instructions no matter what the circumstances," they explained to the second man. "Inside you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Take this gun and kill her." The second man looked a bit shocked, but nevertheless took the gun and went in the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes; then the door opened. The man came out of the room with tears in his eyes. "I tried to shoot her; I just couldn't pull the trigger and shoot my wife. I guess I'm not the right man for the job."

"No," the CIA man replied, "You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."

Now they only had the woman left to test. They led her to the same door to the same room and handed her the same gun. "We must be sure that you will follow instructions no matter what the circumstances; this is your final test. Inside you will find your husband sitting in a chair. Take this gun and kill him." The woman took the gun and opened the door. Before the door even closed all the way, the CIA men heard the gun start firing, one shot after another for 13 shots. Then all hell broke loose in the room. They heard screaming, rashing, and banging on the walls. This went on for several minutes; then all went quiet.

The door opened slowly, and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow and said, "You guys didn't tell me the gun was loaded with blanks. I had to beat the son of a bitch to death with the chair!"

Babysitting Priority

Kissimmee City Commissioner Carlos Irizarry is being quoted in the Gazette today saying "We don’t have to be certified. We don’t need a babysitter that comes in every day or every month just to check. We don’t need to spend additional dollars to have something that we can do without." This comment was given in reference to an environmental certification for the new fire station that is to be built, and the debate on whether the certification is worth the $16,500 price tag or not. This comment takes on even more meaning if you look at it in relationship to several other City Commission decisions.

First we will start with the comment, "We don’t need to spend additional dollars to have something that we can do without." Lets look at a few budget items that we could probably do without - All America City Part 1 and 2, Birthday Celebrations, Round-About Fountains, Cow-less Logo redesigns, $33,000 for personnel at the H.O.M.E. project, money paid to a consultant to address employee pay and benefits that did not include all of the departments of the city, and... well you get the point. Our question is how can you spend tax dollars on all of these things, and then not take a serious look at actually doing something smart with tax money?

As far as the next the comment, "We don’t need a babysitter..." We believe that this comment really begs for a solid debate. We know the commission feels all grown up, and thinks it doesn't need supervision, but trust us, you do. If you are all real good though, we might take you McDonald's Playland to celebrate how hard you are trying. And besides, the county commission boys enjoy the extra babysitting money.

Another great quote in the same article came from our grand Mayor - "I’m just not comfortable with all the repercussions long-term..." Repercussions on building a green building??? We did a quick google search and we could not find any negative impacts because of building "green" structures. We can see repercussions if you were putting in a landfill or a nuclear power plant, but building a green building?? We think you are stretching it on this one.

Who are your advisors?

We were reading through the Kissimmee commission agenda for next week, and noted that the commission is taking up some proposed advisory board rules changes. Many of the advisory boards will allow non-residents who are stakeholders in the city to hold some of the board positions. Stakeholders are defined as non-city residents who own real property or a business within the city. Interestingly, two boards (Board of Adjustment and Parks & Recreation Advisory Board) are proposed to allow two board members to be non-city residents who are not stakeholders within the city. We're scratching our heads over this one...if you don't live in the city, and you don't own property within the city, and you don't own a business within the city, why would you want to be on a city advisory board? Perhaps the stakeholders description should be amended to add "employed by an employer located within the city limits"? Or is the commission really looking to attract advisors who really have no ties to the city?

Internet Utilities

On Wednesday, the Orlando Sentinel wrote about people working out of their local Internet-enabled coffee shop, and the Wall Street Journal wrote about a partnership between DirecTV, an Internet provider, and an electric utility in Texas. Let's tie these together with a local focus, shall we?

In the Sentinel article, mobile professionals (mainly salespeople and small business owners) take up residence in a corner booth at their local Panera, Starbucks, or other coffee shop with wireless Internet. In most cases, this saves the worker either a commute to their office, or office rent. The coffee shop gets to sell their products to the worker and the people they are meeting with, and may charge them for the Internet usage.

Meanwhile, DirecTV announced a deal where they are going to sell high-speed Internet to their customers, initially in Texas. The Internet service will be provided a partner company, and will be delivered over power lines..for which the partner will pay rent to the local electrical utility.

So we reflected on the current public wireless Internet trials around here. The dirty not-so-secret of public wireless is that it doesn't always penetrate building walls very well, as was proven during St. Cloud's initial rollout. And we have yet to see masses of people walking down the sidewalks working on their laptops. And while it may be "free" to the user, someone, somewhere is paying for it through taxes or utility fees, prompting a remark we read that said 'if cities are giving away Internet for free as a necessary service, shouldn't water also be free?'

Here's the tie-in. Businesses use free or pay-per-use Internet as a marketing tool to attract customers. But the business doesn't get the Internet service for free...they pay for it. Perhaps local providers should be focused on using their existing distribution mechanisms to deliver Internet service (and generate revenue from doing so), and then let the business-customer relationship determine how that bill is paid.

And for the government (police/fire/utility) wireless network? If the cost-benefit analysis says that it works out to be more advantageous than paying a monthly bill to a wireless provider, we say go for it. But if you're offering services for free, we'd like to select the one we want.

Comment Commentary

Today's column is kinda-sorta like Comment Corner, except we're not going to insert comments and then reply to them. Think of this as kind of an insight into the head of WayneWho.

Last Thursday, we posted discussing possible annexation within the city. As many of you know, the comments on our site are moderated...that is, someone on the WayneWho staff has to review them and hit the approve button before they appear on the site. Well, several staff members were huddled around the monitor when we looked at the comments list and saw the first six comments that appear under that entry. There was a thread of several comments about the CRA and condos on the lakefront. Now, we haven't seen any officials on the record confirming or dispelling the allegations, but what was interesting to us was that several people had taken the time to write in, independently, before the first mention of the rumor hit our site. It didn't start with us, but it definitely started somewhere. There have been some follow-up comments to this rumor, and, like you, we're looking forward to getting it finally resolved.

Then on Saturday, we posted about a local organization whose members were trying to pay their KUA bills with some private-issue currency. The more we read about that situation, the stranger it becomes. We were pleased to receive a reply comment from Chris Gent of KUA time-stamped less than 2 hours after our post...on a Saturday evening, no less!

Also this week, in response to the puppet theatre, one of the local activists posted a comment that started with "Very good. You are correct" which is a 180-degree perspective change from when we first showed up on this site. After we got up after falling out of our chair, we thought that perhaps everyone should take a trip to out west to gain some perspective. We haven't decided what will happen if we start getting support from other ax-tivists or those who get their guts from a radio microphone.

We've said it before, but you, our audience, really impress us. Without you, we're just some people typing on a keyboard. And the next puppet video is already in the can, so stay tuned, and keep those comments coming.

Speak and Be Scolded

We must say that it took a couple of days for the WayneWho crew to wrap their heads around the letter presented by County Commissioner Shipley in the Osceola News-Gazette on August 11th in response to an earlier letter by Tony Ferentinos. Our initial thoughts of the response held tight through several days of discussions.

We are not shocked by Mr. Shipley's claim that he needs the assistance of a lawyer to trudge through the issues that Mr. Ferentinos addresses in his letter. We wish that his council would have elaborated on the inaccurate content instead of turning the response into a childish school yard name calling session. We reviewed Mr. Ferentinos letter and could not find where he attacked Mr. Shipley personally. Do the barbs fly at the "position" of chairman, yes. But there is no personal attack that rates the berating given by Mr. Shipley.

Since no factual counter argument was given by Mr. Shipley in his tantrum, we are only left to focus on "his" vision of our community. It is a vision where Osceola County has no economy, jobs, or respectable quality of life. The plan to export jobs from our community will lead to residents being forced into paying ever growing property taxes to keep up with infrastructure and governmental needs. By outsourcing our economy and our jobs the burden clearly falls on the residents to pay the tab. Are there ways to make commuter rail a winning solution for Osceola County? Yes, but we have not heard any ideas on this from our local officials. The only vision that has been preached is of getting business professionals to and from their jobs in the Orlando area. Correct us if we are wrong Mr. Shipley, but that has been the only vision shown in the countless meetings that we have attended on this subject. At the end of the debate on this issue is that when it comes to investing the people's hard earned tax dollars, you need to have more than a vision, you need to have a well thought out plan on how this will help our community. Since Mr. Shipley did not discuss this plan in his response, we are to assume that there is no plan, but only vague generalities on how this will benefit Osceola County residents.

The idea that you have to be some type of "insider" to the current administrations to be an effective leader is ridiculous. There are many levels of community involvement that can easily prepare a person for "Public Service." The problem is that for too long those sitting in the positions of power have only given the nod to successors who serve on the same boards, join the same clubs, and make careers of keeping each other elected. We the people, can be a hard concept to grasp, and generally goes against the vision that career politicians have for us.

Finally, we were appauled by Commissioner Shipley's display of what we considered a complete lack of class.

Kissimmee Puppet Commission Theatre - Cow Consultant

Sunday Funny - Making a Fortune

A young man asked an old rich man how he made his money.

The old guy fingered his expensive wool vest and said, "Well, son, it was 1932. The depth of the Great Depression. I was down to my last nickel."

"I invested that nickel in an apple. I spent the entire day polishing the apple and, at the end of the day, I sold the apple for ten cents."

"The next morning, I invested those ten cents in two apples. I spent the entire day polishing them and sold them at 5:00 pm for 20 cents. I continued this system for a month, by the end of which I'd accumulated a fortune of $9.80."

"Then my wife's father died and left us two million dollars."

Economic times

WFTV reported yesterday on a local organization that has taken to issuing their own currency (sorry, we couldn't find a link on WFTV's website). The story came to light when about a dozen KUA customers tried to pay their utility bills with this organization's currency and/or checks (this was a little unclear, but the video showed currency that looks like it was made with a black & white laser printer). And then they interviewed the leader of this organization, who appeared outraged that KUA wouldn't take this currency and threatened to sue the federal government.

We have to ask, do people really think that they can just show up at a business with what at best is a private promissory note, and expect the business to take that as payment? How many businesses around here accept currency issued by foreign governments, much less a private organization? The whole thing sounds like a scam to us, but we're not sure who the scam is targeted at...the people who are exchanging real money for this currency, or the companies they are trying to pay with it.

Unfortunately, the Orlando Sentinel reported this morning that the Lowe's distribution center in Poinciana laid off 205 employees on Friday, or almost 20% of their workforce. The Lowe's center has been held up as a model of economic development in the county, and it appears that even with the layoffs, Lowe's will exceed the employment goal numbers they promised the county in order to receive economic development incentives. Still, 205 people newly out of work and looking for jobs is a big number. Our best wishes to them that they will find work quickly. And
we wonder if we haven't just seen the beginning of the local ripple effect from the housing industry downturn...first it was those companies directly involved in construction, now it is the companies that supply them.

Are we too smart for our own good?

Red-light running continues to be a problem across the country. Over time, we think that drivers have learned that intersections have a built-in buffer of a few seconds between when one signal turns red, and the other turns green. This learned behavior makes some drivers feel that the risk of running a red light is diminished, although we know that this is often not the case.

So we were interested to read recently about a Israel-based company that is working on a so-called smart traffic light. This light uses sensors and a computer to determine when a driver isn't going to stop at a red light, and delays the green light for the other direction until the red light violator clears the intersection. Obviously, this is technology that has the potential to save lives. But we wonder, will the same drivers who play the risks with red lights today simply learn that a future signal controller will protect them when they charge into an intersection against a red light?

We look forward to "generation 2.0" of this technology, which might be able to determine that one car is waiting at the intersection from one direction, but 40 cars are approaching from the other direction, and set the lights appropriately.

Oh, and the researchers report that the same technology might be able to report drivers who commit traffic violations. But we have that technology today, we just need the laws to support its use.

Swiss Cheese

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Osceola County is ready to negotiate with Kissimmee for the city to annex various county enclaves that are totally surrounded by the city. After seeing a map a few years ago that looked like swiss cheese, with little dots of Osceola County within the city borders, we say the time for this project has certainly come.

Let's get it done quickly, folks. As Martha Stewart would say, "it's a good thing." And we offer congratulations to both governments for moving forward to clean this up.

Landing the big fish

BusinessWeek recently ran a piece titled "The High Cost of Wooing Google"about Lenoir N.C., a small manufacturing town that offered $211.7 million inincentives to lure a Google data center with 210 jobs.

One of the "aha" moments we had while reading the article was the statement that it was the local power utility, Duke Energy Co., who hosted the introductory meeting between the city's representatives and Google's site selection consultants. Why the power utility? They wanted to sell the power to the Google data center. Sounds like a good motivator.

Much like the comments to this blog, some of the more interesting things come up in the responses, in this case, letters to the magazine after the article ran. Some took issue with the BusinessWeek report, saying that the article made it look like the city gave in to every Google demand. But we found this excerpt from one letter very telling:

..."Communities seeking jobs should instead invest in more skillful marketing of what they offer business and in building value to make their product more marketable. In business, price cutting is a desperate last resort after marketing has failed. In government economic development agencies, it is the dominant strategy. Why didn't Lenoir proactively go after multiple companies instead of waiting to be found by Google and giving them the overwhelming advantage in negotiating a deal?"

The shiny ball of short-term solutions

We all know that there are some big issues facing our community. Big issues usually require long-term thinking, and big solutions. Oftentimes, as happens in our own lives, a shortcut appears that, at first blush, allows the perception of a "fix" to the problem, while delaying the bigger long-term solution. We say to our government officials - fight the urge to adopt what we are calling "the shiny ball of short-term solutions." Here are some examples:

Issue: The Vine/192 corridor. Problems include road capacity, overall aesthetics, and the main issue, that the retail and tourist businesses that used to populate the corridor have moved out to be closer to their customers.

Real fix: Some property owners have already been working with the city and consultants for years now on zoning changes that would allow them to create new uses for their property. The vision for the corridor calls for higher density, taller buildings, and a mix of residential, professional, and retail space, along with moving local traffic off of Vine St.

Shiny ball short-term solution: Since you can't rebuild part of the city overnight, some commissioners seem inclined to allow just about anything into the corridor if it will fill an empty building "now." So they look at changing the zoning of a retail building for a school project right in the middle of the portion of the corridor that the consultants have called the most attractive area of the corridor for redevelopment. We still wonder what the response will be if a new tenant is found for the old Publix, Hooters, or (the list goes on) and requests a zoning change.

Issue: Not a lot of new businesses coming into Kissimmee. Retail is moving up to the Osceola Parkway area, where only some of the retail space is within city limits. Businesses in that area tend to associate with South Orlando or Hunter's Creek, rather than Kissimmee.

Real fix: In addition to getting the zoning right for businesses along the 192 corridor, someone needs to market the city to potential businesses. The city pays into the Osceola County Economic Development Department as a partner, but we ask, when was the last time that one of the big Economic Development "wins" located within the city? Perhaps the time has come for the city to retain either economic development staff or a professional services firm to represent the city to prospective businesses. Or, we could turn to KUA, a major economic development player. Most importantly, we have to define the strengths of the city to narrow our focus on the types of businesses we should be proactively marketing to.

Shiny ball short term solution: The commission has been rumored to be talking about a city logo redesign for almost a year now, and it has now come up in the press. We don't know what a logo redesign will do to attract business to the city, but they seem to think that it will. We think that scarce tax dollars could be better spent somewhere else than on new letterhead and decals for city vehicles.

These are just a few of our thoughts, folks. Feel free to contribute your own.

Straight Talk with Payne Evans - Light Rail 2

Sunday Funny - Rats

A tourist walks into a shop in Tampa. Looking around at the items, he notices a very life like life-sized bronze statue of a rat. It has no price tag, but is so striking he decides he must have it. He takes it to the owner: "How much for the bronze rat?" "$12 for the rat, $100 for the story," says the owner. The tourist gives the man $12. "I'll just take the rat, you can keep the story."

As he walks down the street carrying his bronze rat, he notices that a few real rats have crawled out of the alleys and sewers and begun following him down the street. This is disconcerting, and he begins walking faster. But within a couple of blocks, the herd of rats behind him has grown to hundreds, and they begin squealing. He begins to trot toward the Bay, looking around to see that the rats now number in the MILLIONS, and are squealing and coming toward him faster and faster.

Concerned, even scared, he runs to the edge of the Bay, and throws the bronze rat as far out into the water as he can. Amazingly, the millions of rats all jump into the Bay after it, and are all drowned. The man walks back to the shop. "Ah ha," says the owner, "you have come back for the story?" "No," says the man, "I came back to see if you have a bronze Politician."

Saturday Forgiveness

Due to our staff having to attend a mandatory company retreat, where our team building activities consisted of learning to do the YMCA dance together, we were not able to post an entry on Saturday. Apparently the iPhone does not have all of the functionality of a standard desktop. Who knew?

Anyway, we do hope that you can find it in your hearts to forgive us and know that we will be back on track Monday morning with newest installment of the Puppet Videos.

Budget paralysis

We're frustrated, as it seems are you, about the local government tempo. It seems that that 7% (Osceola County) or 9% (Kissimmee) tax rollback has caused complete paralysis on local government being able to move forward with, well, much of anything. Never mind that in a lot of cases, the cuts were almost immediately reversed with the now-infamous "revenue neutral" service fees.

We've listed many of the tax- and budget-related things that struck us as odd in the last few weeks. Unfortunately, we were put off our morning cereal this morning when we were reading the Orlando Sentinel's coverage of how other communities along the new commuter rail line already have at least conceptual plans for developing new communities, or new community features, near their rail stations. What was the big Osceola County news of the day? Now two Kissimmee commissioners want to spend (supposedly precious) budget dollars on reworking the city logo. Progress?

Here's the core of the problem for us: the national business press are now suggesting that Florida's economy will be recession-like until 2009. Most of this local pain was just inflicted by the reaction to the initial property tax change. We are facing the second part of the property tax change in early 2008, plus if the economy is recession-like, sales tax revenues will be impacted, as will fees for self-funding departments, like development and impact fees. What will our local leaders do if those revenue sources are reduced as well, and how will that reaction compare to the rest of Central Florida? Lest we forget, there will be a 2008 election, possibly before the revenue pattern reverses itself.

Logo Re-design

The chatter about Kissimmee potentially redesigning their logo has reached a new higher pitch. According to those who propose the redesign, the city logo is a marketing tool and needs updating.

We say this: the likelihood that a business would choose Kissimmee based on the city logo is more slight than the likelihood that they are looking for "All-America City Finalist" on the city's marketing materials.

When, do you suppose, does a new business moving into Kissimmee first see any materials with the city logo on them?

If the City Commission has $40,000 in available money that they want to invest in beneficial marketing of the city, we suggest that that money be allocated towards economic development, not letterhead.

Change requires trust

We recently saw this quote: "People want progress, but they don't like change."

Change may or may not be progress. Long-time county residents recall wide-open spaces and ranching as a way of local life. Others remember when the 192 corridor was a fresh new tourist attraction, with hotels, amusement concessions, and even the Xanadu house. Orange County remembers when Osceola was merely housing for their service workers. And many remember when Central Florida was an affordable housing area, just a few years ago.

Unfortunately, we can't go back to earlier times. So, as a community we hope that we don't have just change, but progress...positive change. To have progress, we must often trust in our community leaders to make decisions that are best for the community as a whole.

Property tax reform. Fire fee. Gas tax. $250,000/year or $2.1 million for a school in an old store. Business relocation properties purchased without appropriate zoning. Hurricane housing grants for struggling nonprofit projects. Workforce housing that several quasi-governmental organizations want, but no one seems to own. $85,000 (or $109,000?) for a civic award competition. Intergovernmental lawsuits. Charter review appointments. Consultants. Funding lost due to improper documentation.

As Billy Joel sang, we didn't start the fire.

Change is going to come. Who do you trust to make sure that it is actually progress?

By Request - "Taxes" T-shirt Artwork

Cooler heads prevailed...no gas tax (yet)

At Monday's County Commission meeting, cooler (or perhaps reelection-minded) heads prevailed, and no nickel gas tax hike was passed. At the WayneWho Institute, we had been running a side pool, expecting that a one to two cent tax would have been imposed as a compromise measure. Kudos to County Auditor Kathy Wall for telling the board that there are "plenty of methods available to the board" to fund the commuter rail project. Since a funding method was not decided during the vote, we will need to keep our eyes open during the budget process.

A cautionary glance at the County Manager, who proposed the five cent per gallon tax to fund commuter rail and other transit projects. Was the five cent figure an inflated number so that one to two cents would have been more palatable to the commissioners? Or did the manager float the trial balloon so that the commissioners could watch the prevailing political winds?

Note that Volusia County approved their participation today, and (like most of the other participants) seems to know where their funds are coming from, including the use of economic development funds.

Now that commuter rail has been approved, the real work has to begin. There will be three stations in Osceola County: along Osceola Parkway, in downtown Kissimmee, and in Poinciana. While FDOT and the rail folks will have a great deal of input into the configuration of the stations, it's important that the work begins now on access to the stations, parking, and getting bus routes in place so that Lynx buses link up with the train (yep, Kissimmee, that means that you better add that intermodal station to your project plate, and something about a parking deck at the Civic Center?).

We think the publicity for the economic development that rail is supposed to drive should start now as well. Get those signs up, folks..."future commuter rail station." And get the markings on the maps, and get the word out on the Chamber website and the Economic Development Department website.

We're building it, we better make our best effort to make it a success.

Straight Talk with Payne Evans

Sunday Funny - Difference Between Republicans and Democrats

A Republican and a Democrat were walking down the street when they came to a homeless person. The Republican gave the homeless person his business card and told him to come to his business for a job. He then took twenty dollars out of his pocket and gave it to the homeless person.

The Democrat was very impressed, and when they came to another homeless person, he decided to help. He walked over to the homeless person and gave him directions to the welfare office. He then reached into the Republican's pocket and gave the homeless person fifty dollars.

Now you understand the difference between Republicans and Democrats.

In Response

Comment on "Where Are We?"

Anonymous said...
Does anyone read the papers? Kissimmee has been working on a plan to revitalize Vine Street and make it a place where people can work, live and shop. Just once I would like you to cover something positive. Even when you think you do, you put a slant on it and turn t into a negative. You can cover both good and bad and still keep you edge or whatever you are trying to do.
July 28, 2007 7:15 AM

Our Response:

First we would like to say that we read the local newspapers when we can get our hands on them. It has been two weeks since any of the WayneWho staff has received a paper in our driveways, so we had to go out in search of our favorite reading material. We are not sure what is going on with our local newspapers, given their recent reductions in staff and the increased amount of advertising space in each issue, but it is obvious that their ability to dig into the story behind the story has been hampered. We believe that news is more than printing press releases or parroting governmental talking points.

We share the same positive hope for the Vine Street project as you. But we admit to being a bit pessimistic when the City Commission doesn't seem to be aggressively moving toward the goal, allowing for interim projects like the Sports Authority school project because the new vision of Vine Street hasn't come to fruition yet. We hope that the city will get the zoning changes done for the corridor quickly so those property owners who have been sitting and waiting for the new zoning can move forward with their projects and be the new pioneers for the area. But we also thought that our comments reflected what we have heard in the community...many who live here would love to see the landscaping and wide sidewalks that define the Beautivacation area come East onto Vine St.

Our "sources" for our daily un-news articles are the conversations and background that fill the coffee shops and eateries where our staff members frequent. The perceived negative slant from our satirical stories is flavored from the conversations of the community. When their mood turns positive, we assume ours will as well.

Thankfully we really do not need an edge since we do not have to sell our positions to readers, nor do we have an ax to grind. For now our edge is in allowing debate and offering un-news that may be contrary to what others are publishing.

Build it and they will come?

On Monday, the Osceola County Commission will vote on whether Osceola County will participate in the Central Florida commuter rail project. The largest factor appearing to weigh on this decision at this point is the funding mechanism, which has been restricted to a single option: a gas tax of up to five cents per gallon.
We have had many lively debates at the WayneWho Center for Government Assessment over the value of the commuter rail line to our community. Like the community itself, we have positions that range from total boondoggle to a needed piece of our transportation infrastructure. Some of the comments we've received this week mirror that diverse opinion.

The last-minute funding debate frustrates us. The intent appears to be to force a larger-than-needed gas tax through by using time pressure to prevent analysis on whether the tax amount proposed is the tax amount required.

More frustrating, though, are some of the facts being offered in support of the project. The Chamber of Commerce, which seemlingly had not taken a position on commuter rail until last week, suggests that commuter rail was a major economic driver for Charlotte, North Carolina, after they received a $500 million grant that Central Florida gave up the last time it was offered.

Our problem with that statement is twofold: First, that Charlotte rail line does not become operational until this fall, so we don't yet know it's impact. Second, many of the experts who have worked on these rail projects note that the success of the rail option is directly tied to the development plans around the rail stops. In order to be successful, rail stops must be surrounded by so-called walkable communites, which have a high density of potential riders within walking distance of the rail stop.

The development plan is the part that appears to be missing in this project. It instead appears to depend on a "park and ride" approach, where commuters will exchange a longer highway drive for a shorter drive to a train station parking lot. As far back as July 2006, the Orlando Sentinel noted that Central Florida planners seemed to be taking a "wait and see" approach, rather than proactively planning the stops in areas that held the density, or conversely, planning density around the stop locations.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-railmain1706jul17,0,2499492.story

While that system may have worked when the train was going to be funded using existing sources, the imposition of a new tax is going to create public pressure to show results. Passive "build it and they will come" planning is not acceptable in this scenario, and that is the missing link that may derail this project.

Where are we?

In the Wednesday edition of the Orlando Sentinel appears an article about tourism in Kissimmee. Of course, all of the tourist destinations mentioned are in fact not within the city limits, but in the "Kissimmee area." Our first thought was to write the usual "silly media, not knowing your city boundaries" entry, but then we recalled the story of the university sidewalks. Perhaps you've heard it:

As the story goes, a new university campus was built. The designers didn't know where to put in sidewalks that would be used, so for the first year of classes, there was simply grass everywhere. At the end of the first year, the designers went out and looked at where paths were worn in the grass, and paved sidewalks over those worn paths. The university students, with their feet, indicated where they wanted sidewalks to be.

So it is becoming in Osceola County. We think that some of the old municipal boundaries don't meet today's reality. Perhaps it's time for some of the local government bodies to do a boundary exchange.

The Loop, and the surrounding commercial areas, clearly don't see value in being associated with Kissimmee and Osceola County. From Ashley Furniture, advertising their location as "South Orlando" to the eateries in The Loop with "Welcome to Hunter's Creek" signs in their lobby, their target market is elsewhere. The Kissimmee/Osceola Chamber of Commerce recently started a Hunter's Creek chapter. We haven't done anyone any favors with our political boundaries...The Loop is in Osceola County and Loop West is in Kissimmee. We propose giving the whole area over to Orange County, and perhaps in exchange, Orange County can give us a box of whatever magic allows drivers in Orange County to not have to stop at every controlled intersection along John Young Parkway for a red light, like they have to in Kissimmee/Osceola.

As outlined in the Sentinel, the entire 192 tourist strip from Kissimmee west to I-4 is considered Kissimmee, and marketed as such. We say that the brand has been established, so let the boundaries match the marketing. Kissimmee can become the "cheap and cheerful" tourism spot the Sentinel says it is, with the Kissimmee Gateway Airport, the 192 tourist strip, and boundaries right up to the Disney property. Perhaps then Kissimmee could also leverage the 192 Beautivacation district to update the Vine Street corridor.

Osceola County is going to have their hands full with the six Developments of Regional Impact (DRIs) for the next 20+ years. Let them sign over the "urban core" (existing developed area) to Kissimmee, and focus on reinventing county living with the community-center based designs of the new DRIs.

Is it time that boundary perception meets map reality?

On your marks, get set…

St. Cloud announces that two old names in local politics are back on the scene and ready to run -or walk given the age factor of the contenders- for vacated City Council Seat 2. The unfortunate predicament we find ourselves in is that every election its old news when we see the same roll call of too familiar faces vying for power and control. With an ex-council member announcing he will run(again), we can’t help but ask ourselves “Don’t these guys get it?” Why not add some energy and vitality to the mix?

We feel that the status quo has got us in this mess that we are in today. Both “announcers of their candidacy” are unwavering in their participation and support of taxpayers’ money going into government subsidies and big government. Same faces-new race.

Isn’t it time we let somebody else take hold of the reigns? Let’s hope for the sanctity of what we call home, a fresh face will come along with the ability and determination to end the old regime and bring about much needed change.

At the 11th hour

At WayneWho headquarters yesterday, we debated whether we would be writing any more commuter rail articles for a while, figuring that the county vote would be taken and rail wouldn't be a news issue again for a while. Apparently we have at least another week to talk about commuter rail. Today we talk not about whether the commuter rail project is good, bad, or indifferent, but the management of the funding process.

Last fall and this spring, other communities sometimes objected to the funding mechanism. We recall certain cities in Orange County that threatened to withdraw support because they wanted the county to bear the funding cost, not the cities. Back then, people were saying, "well, it's a little late in the game, but we understand that it's a once-in-a-lifetime negotiation."

Fast forward to the present day. Oddly enough, we aren't hearing anything from the other counties involved about a funding squeeze. Votes are scheduled in all of the counties as to whether they will participate, and whether the project will go forward or die. (And thanks to some Osceola representative on the MetroPlan board, the project only moves forward if all of the counties agree to contribute.) But Osceola County rolls out the last-minute plan to add a five cent per gallon gas tax increase to fund commuter rail and some other transportation projects, and the hand-wringing begins.

Again, we aren't debating whether commuter rail is good or bad today. But interesting discussion questions come forward:

1. When our county leadership was in school, were they the type of students who always waited until the morning the report was due before they did the work?

2. Is the county manager using the gas tax as a negotiating tactic? It seems like one to two cents would take care of rail, but by asking for five, he's hoping for bonus funds and/or easy passage of the amount that is really needed?

3. Will the project go "off the rails" with three other counties still set to vote, now that they can say "well, Osceola is hesitating"?

Stay tuned.