What constitutes a win

We want to congratulate Performance Door and Hardware Inc. on their recent announcement that they were expanding their facility in Kissimmee and making it their corporate headquarters. Any company involved in the construction business who has the ability to expand right now is doing something right in our book.

At the same time, the press release on this expansion, seemingly issued by the county economic development department, notes that the expansion will bring 10 jobs to the area, and the company is expanding their building space by 8,000 square feet.

Frankly, economic development department, we need to see deals of this scale at least once a month. Every two weeks would be better. Once a month brings 120 jobs a year to the area. Every two weeks brings 260 a year. That’s about the job gain of that ‘big win,’ the Lowe’s distribution center, that still remains on the economic development department’s reference list, even after Lowe’s has experienced the rollercoaster of construction demand.

Obviously, if it takes years to close a big win, the numbers say more contacts must be made to increase the frequency of those deals. But the same is true if a big win has gone from 250 employees to 10 employees.

Squeezed out

Seemingly a lifetime ago, the City of Kissimmee hired Renaissance, a consulting group from Orlando, to develop a vision or strategy for 192/Vine St. through the city. The city commission adopted the final vision report, oh, about two years ago. One of the major sections of the vision was an educational district on the east side of the city, anchored by Valencia Community College and mixed use properties to serve students there.

Well, either no one told Osceola County, or the county commission wasn’t impressed by the plan or its progress. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the county commission has appointed a nine-person advisory committee to embark on two years of meetings to study ways to improve a 5-mile stretch of 192 from Michigan Avenue to the St. Cloud canal. Says the Sentinel “The goal is to create a plan to improve the area that includes Valencia Community College, Osceola Heritage Park and an interchange for Florida’s Turnpike.”

We suspect that one of the highly possible outcomes of this advisory committee might be to adopt another district similar to the 192 BeautiVacation corridor, perhaps leveraging the same support system and staff.

The City of Kissimmee needs to get the 192/Vine project into gear. If the city’s stretch of road is to be bookended on both sides by road districts with improved amenities, while the city’s stretch continues to look like 1960’s public works projects, we can only imagine what the additional negative impact on that area will be.

Or, perhaps the city should embrace the idea of regionalism and join this group, increasing the project focus from the end of the current BeautiVacation project all the way out to the turnpike.

Here Come The Hippies

This Wednesday the highly anticipated and controversial plans for the eco-sustainable city of Destiny will be unveiled at a luncheon at the Gaylord Palms. While the sales pitch on the Destiny web site does not promise "free-love", it does rekindle many socialist thoughts and ideas born on the hippie communes of the 60's. "One Planet, One Destiny", "More than a promise, It's a commitment to change the world", and "Living in Destiny can even cure your Lumbago" are just some of the promises that the developers of the project hope will not only get the project past the current residents of Osceola County, but start the "Green-Guilt" trek of hundreds of thousands of people they hope to bring into an area that is already suffering from the forgotten sales-pitches of the past. We hope the Osceola County Commissioners and the residents of our community will not blindly fall for the promises of a developers magic elixir.

The first thing to know about the Destiny Hippie Attraction is that much of the science they are relying on to justify an "eco-sustainable" commune is not proven. The science and studies behind such concepts as ethanol production have already been deemed as short term. Ethanol is only bridge fuel additive to help transition American away from fossil fuels. This means that the long term business model of ethanol production is not "sustainable". This past year we have also seen the toll that food and non-food crops used as fuel can have on the world's economy, so there are many leading scientists that are already calling for an end to the production of food and non-food crops destined for gas tanks. This leads the WayneWho staff to wonder if even the first promise of an energy producing community will ever even be a reality at the Destiny Commune? Part of their website also talks about the community being energy independent. Does that mean that KUA, Progress Energy, and/or Florida Light and Power will not have them on their grid to supply electric to the commune? We know that many of the old 60's communes did not use electricity, but many of the residents on them did not even bath. Are these the types of neighbors we can expect?

The big problem we see with this project is that they are holding the Osceola County residents hostage with the promise of jobs that may or may not ever come. Our residents are being forced to swallow 250,000 more residents in hopes that one of us may have a shot at getting an imaginary job for imaginary companies that do not exist. The real trick is that the residents of Osceola County will never really have a shot at any of the jobs on the Destiny Commune if the true visions of the experiment are realized. To be "eco-sustainable", the socialist dream of every person has their place must be attained. Jobs that are created in Destiny, by the projects own definition, will be for those who live there. Hence the self-contained sustainable vision.

While the WayneWho staff has enjoyed discussing many of the good times we had in the 60's, we realize that the vision of those days are not ones that need to be revisited with taxpayers money. Just like the song says, "the sign said long-haired freaky people need not apply."

Twilight of Kissimmee Government?

“Also speaking during the forum were the remaining candidates for Kissimmee Commission seat 1...Due to time constraints, none of the last three candidates were asked any questions.” (Osceola News-Gazette, 9/20/08)

Leading up to the August city election, the news media could hardly be bothered to provide any coverage of the city candidates. This lethargy spilled right over to the 10% of registered voters, or about 5% of the city population, that could be bothered to go out and vote. Now, with one runoff election remaining, it appears that even the political junkies that would typically attend an event like the League of Women Voters forum can’t be bothered to care about asking questions of city political candidates. Instead, they tend to focus on issues like Destiny, a plot of land where no one currently lives, and at least according to some opinions, no one will live even after it is built out with new housing units.

And with all of this voter apathy, we are still amazed when the city commission spends all of their time on issues like lengthening severance packages (to ward off “commission zombies”), seeking empty awards (how’s that economic development marketing campaign going, commissioners?), and continuing to hope that some day the county will turn over the underutilized Beaumont complex for mixed-use development (oh, by the way, how’s the plan for the underutilized Hansel plant/city storage center coming?)

We surmise that the voter apathy over city issues is because the city commission’s focus and actions are no longer relevant to most of the residents of the city. While the campaign to combine various city and county departments or services appears to continue to have a hard time getting out of the starting gate, we think that, right now, if someone were to propose to combine city and county government, they might be surprised by the amount of support they might receive.

Already Gone

If there is anyone in Osceola County left who actually reads the Orlando Sentinel for more than just it's job listings, they might have come to notice that the coverage on Osceola County has almost ceased to exist. This has become more apparent over the past several months as the Orlando Sentinel has not only limited its coverage of Osceola County issues, but has also adopted the Osceola News-Gazette's business model of re-printing press releases from government agencies without fact-checking them first. While we think this is at least a more honorable model than the tabloid journalism that some "newspapers" like St. Cloud in the News have resorted to, it still may be the reason that their readership has plunged so badly.

Regardless of the reasons for the drop in readership, the WayneWho staff agrees that if the Orlando Sentinel is not going to cover Osceola County issues, then they should go ahead with plans to sell the 804 Emmett Street location. Our hope would be that a new owner would be able to use such a prime location in a way that would help to generate traffic into the downtown area. Another idea would be to make some of the whispers from around the county building come true and turn the Orlando Sentinel property into a parking garage instead of tearing down businesses that actually contribute to our community. If the county can force one of our favorite haunts like Susan's Courtside to move then why not pick a new target like the Orlando Sentinel, who claims to be a community partner, and leave the small businesses of our community alone. The Sentinel has better road frontage and putting a tall parking garage there might even add to the skyline that is now being created in the area.

While we will hate to see the Orlando Sentinel leave our area, we realize that just like the song says, they are probably "Already Gone" and have been for some time. As the economy gets tougher and small news areas like Osceola County lose their sales and advertising potential some things are just going to have to change. The Sentinel may have to follow the same path as publications such as El Nuevo Dia who has pulled out of the Central Florida area. The WayneWho staff misses the days of the Sentinel's honest and more complete coverage of Osceola County news, but we understand that it is time we say good-bye.

Untouchables

Commissioner Jerry Gemskie has wasted no time, now that he has won his second (and final, due to term limits) term as a city commissioner. His move to double the city manager’s severance pay shows that he intends to spend the term making sure it is as difficult as possible for any future commission to take any actions that run counter to Commissioner Gemskie’s All American vision of Kissimmee.

It was not for any market pressure or competitive reason that Commissioner Gemskie proposed the contract change. As he stated at the meeting, and was quoted in the Osceola News-Gazette, he did it to prevent a “rogue” future commission majority from taking any action against City Manager Mark Durbin by making it more expensive to do so. We surmise that in Jerry’s world, “rogue” refers to anyone who does not subscribe to his policies or beliefs.

Now, the “Fire Mark Durbin” message was such a loser in the 2006 election that it hardly came up in the 2008 election. But apparently Jerry’s keen sense of what is going on in the community has told him that just around the corner are “rogues” or perhaps “commission ninjas” waiting to pounce and throw Mark Durbin from the 5th floor observation deck.

We also note that the commission can only do simple math, doling out severance packages in 90-day increments. Perhaps they need to get back out to the real world, where corporations tend to give out severance packages based on the amount of time the individual was employed by the corporation. Even a package that contained 2 weeks of base, plus a week of severance for each year of service, would have totaled 22 weeks this year for Mr. Durbin, 4 weeks (1 month) less than the half-year package they just approved. But hey, it’s only funny money that they never intend for any “rogues” to spend, right Commissioners?

Vote them out when?

A recent “Ticked Off” column in the Orlando Sentinel contained a rather lengthy complaint from the wife of a retired Kissimmee firefighter. Without reprinting the entire entry, the writer was upset that her retired spouse did not receive an annual cost-of-living increase in his pension, while singling out the city manager for receiving annual raises. She went on to note that she was in the mood to vote out all of the elected officials who allowed this to happen.

While we sympathize with the position, especially in these trying economic times, we have to wonder: Has anyone told this person that the time to vote out those elected officials has passed? After all, the two incumbents running in this year’s city election were re-elected last week. The other two potential incumbents won’t be up for re-election for two years. The only city seat that this person will be able to cast a ballot on at any time in the near future is the runoff for Seat 1, in which there is no incumbent in the election.

Based on the dismal turnout for the recent city election, we wonder how many citizens are out there who are going to be rather disappointed when they show up at the polls on election day in November, only to find out that less than 10% of the city’s voters, and less than 5% of the city’s population, have already made the decision for them.

Survey Says!

The 2008 Access Osceola viewer survey is making the rounds as the City of Kissimmee tries to make a determination on whether or not the broadcast wing of city government should continue or be cut. Like so many other cable stations, Access Osceola is feeling the affects of the bad economy on its advertisers and has been forced to cut back on its slate of shows.

Some examples of the cuts are evident in a new season of episodes that have remained unchanged for years. The long running 'gov-com' currently known as the City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting is being scaled back due to budget cuts and will now be called "Three Men and a Mayor." The basic plot of the show will stay the same, but many of the familiar faces will no longer be on the show. Comedy will ensue as Commissioner Gemskie and Commissioner Irizarry fight to be noticed over the zany antics of Mayor Swan while the city manager tries to keep control. Another show that has made the cut is "School Board Members Can Dance?" with only a couple of new celebrity judges. School Board Member Jay Wheeler will continue for another season as the impatient and feisty dance instructor whose nasty comments make the show a must-see event.

We would like to make sure all of our readers take a moment to visit the City of Kissimmee website to take the Access Osceola viewer survey for themselves. The 'gov-com' you save may be your favorite, so make sure you vote.

Labor Day

While many of us will be out trying to enjoy barbecues and some time with family this Labor Day weekend, please take a moment to stop and remember what this day represents. Labor Day is not only a day celebrating how laborers overcame bad working conditions and low pay, but it is also a day to remember the accomplishments and achievements workers provide to companies. On September 5, 1882 the first Labor Day parade was held in New York City where twenty thousand workers marched in a parade up Broadway. In 1894, Congress voted Labor Day a federal holiday.

On this Labor Day the WayneWho staff would like you to think of a few famous quotes that are still relevant today:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron." -- Dwight Eisenhower 1953 speech

"No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level–I mean the wages of decent living." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool." -- Abraham Lincoln

Be safe and enjoy your weekend!

Comeuppance

The WayneWho staff would like to thank the Osceola News-Gazette for finally showing that it does have a pulse and the ability to write an editorial piece that speaks truth to the typical style of "Ax The Tax" politics that have been practiced in this county for too long. Mr. Chalifoux's last mailer which was produced by Guetzloe’s taxivist Ax the Tax Political Club which attacked the people who did what we teach are children to do, follow the law, was ridiculous. We are glad to see that the Gazette decided to call out candidates practicing these kinds of politics and we hope that this is a trend that will continue. It is easy to spread untruthful information with political mailers if no one is going to push back and say, the stuff in your mailer is just not true.

It is not only these type of tactics, but this type of governing that we believe just got its comeuppance during this primary season. Not only were long time incumbents shown the door, but so were candidates that spent more time attacking false issues than honestly answering questions from the community. Many of the underdog candidates that have run time and time and time again were shut down by the electorate because of the the lack of substance in their campaigns. Empty promises on what plans and ideas candidates are calling for no longer have a place in our community. If you are promising to bring jobs to our community, explain how you are going to do it. If you are committed to public safety and law enforcement, explain what you mean? Does that mean more funding or less time spent hassling the unions? The residents of Osceola County have clearly stated that they want honest answers from those seeking to serve and we are glad to finally hear it.

We hope that during the next couple of months that the candidates who have now made it through the first stage of the democratic process take the time to explain their ideas for our community. Showing contrasts in ideas with opponents is acceptable, but candidates need to develop their own campaigns before they begin the inevitable attacks. The residents are hungry for ideas from their government on what will help them. Give them the answers you believe will help, or face a knock-out punch at the ballot box on November the 4th.

Congratulations

The WayneWho staff would like to congratulate all of the winners during last night's elections. Watching the returns come in was exciting and filled with surprises. We would have done very poorly at attempting to pick any winners or in trying to make any type of endorsements. To both the winners and those who did not win last night we congratulate you on jumping in to the democratic process that makes our country great.

From the news last night, and this morning it seems the elections office ran into problems again. We hope that these problems can get ironed out long before a general election that, by all appearances, is going to have a huge turn-out.

Crackers Strikes Back

Before we begin our normal article, we would like to remind everyone of the City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting that will be held today at 3:00pm. This meeting is because last week's meeting was canceled because of Tropical Storm Fay. It is also where the commission is going to set the rate for the Fire Fee for the upcoming year. We find it sad that elected officials would reschedule a meeting as important as this during a time where the average citizen cannot speak to the issue. We hope that some people can make it out to this meeting, because after the last meeting where they passed an item that was not on the agenda, we believe that our government needs to be held by a tighter reign.

And now our normal article: Crackers Strikes Back

Like our local political scene has not seen enough mischief with phantom phone calls, stolen websites, and campaign mailers with questionable statements, "Crackers the City Crime Fighting Chicken" has returned to save the day for the County voters in District 3. We have just received copies of a mailer that has been sent out from Steve (Crackers) Burke who now lives in the great state of Montana attempting to help Commission Candidate Tony Ferentinos. In the letter adorned with the taxivist logo for the fringe group known as Ax the Tax and calling himself the "Honorable Steve Burke", he lays out an attack on Wendell McKinnon and Jeanne Van Meter. The letter from Crackers, who claims he is still the "Ax the Tax Osceola Campaign Chairman," even though he lives in Montana, lays out that both Mr. McKinnon and Mrs. Van Meter are pro-tax, pro-government, pro-bureaucratic officials. While we cannot argue with the latter of the statements, if Crackers would have checked the record he would have noticed that both candidates have actually cut taxes during their times in office. They have failed on being able to spend collected tax money in the appropriate areas (homeless bathing fountains, All America City trips, etc.), but both have voted to cut taxes. We suggest that Mr. Burke and our blogger friend from across the great divide focus a little harder on trying to put the band back together and start a blog chronicling their zany adventures.

In other political news, it seems that one City of Kissimmee Mayoral candidate, Jorge Miranda, is looking to sue over the use of the "All America City" logo on the mailer of Mayoral Candidate Jim Swan. What is funny is that it may not matter if the use of the logo follows election laws, but because the logo is copyrighted by the National Civic League who charges anyone who wants to display the logo a hefty fee (even winners), the city may find itself in trouble with the law in a completely new way. Right now multiple candidates are using the logo and we have not been able to determine by their campaign reports if they have paid the NCL for its use. We hope that they do not expect the city taxpayers to pay for its use, and we have to wonder if the claims that Jerry Gemskie and Jim Swan are making about "honesty and integrity" could be challenged if they illegally used this logo. It would also really hurt the "experience" claims they are making if they tried to claim that they used the logo by accident.

Automated calls from an organization calling itself "Citizens for Osceola Values" have been attacking County Commission candidate Fred Hawkins on behalf of sitting Commissioner Bill Lane. The calls basically refer to Mr. Hawkins as a liar which we have not been able to prove or disprove at this time. We believe these calls were made in response to a piece that Mr. Hawkins Campaign sent out that stretched the truth on votes that Mr. Lane had made. While we find it sad that both of these candidates have reduced their campaigns to a school yard name calling session, we knew that eventually it would happen. The best part about the the auto-calls being generated by the Lane Campaign was the response from the campaign manager for Mr. Hawkins. In her e-mail she defends her candidate and claims that she would not have worked for Mr. Hawkins as a paid campaign manager if he broke any of a list of certain conditions. The third condition on her list was "3. He would never tell me an untruth or distorted version of any issues or question." which must be a small problem because of the mailer that the Hawkins Campaign sent out distorting a vote made by Mr. Lane. We guess that when you are on the payroll it is easier to overlook some levels of distortion.

We know there is more silliness going on than we were able to cover in this article, but we just don't have the space to do it. We would remind everyone that tomorrow, Tuesday, August 26th is primary election day, so GET OUT AND VOTE! Just beware of people dressed up in chicken suits.

Hiding Behind Faith

Christians fear God. Most will deny that they don't and many religious leaders will answer any question about fearing God with a resounding, no. Those who would answer 'no' would claim that according to the New Covenant we do not need to fear God, and that only the Old Covenant taught the fear of God. This is clearly an unbiblical argument because the New Covenant scriptures attest to the biblical fact that the New Covenant complements and enlightens the old and does not deny or contend with it.

To understand this discussion we must first define the word "fear" according to scriptures, because the Bible defines the word fear in two diverse ways. God speaks of fear both as something which is sinful, and as something which is an evidence of godliness and wisdom. There is Godly fear which comes from true belief, and then there is the fear which comes from unbelief. Hebrews 11:31 "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God!" Many Christians do not understand that a Godly fear is actually good. The most righteous and Godly prophets trembled at the presence of the Lord. Because they understood the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Glorious Sovereign God whom they were standing before. Thus how could they not fear?

Why is any of this important you might ask? Especially coming from Osceola County's Most Trusted Name in Un-News? We asked the same question when some politicians began injecting religion into the local political discussion. Mailers on prayer at meetings and debate questions centered on the same topic are in many respects designed to illicit fear. Fear in the answer, and fear for asking the question. While most residents in this community rely on a Higher Power everyday, we must ask ourselves from where or who this Power speaks from or through? Do elected, or trying to get elected, officials speak the Word? If this is the case then what does it say when a elected official lies, cheats, or steals?

Very few people in this community would argue against some form of prayer at public meetings given by those who have made this their calling, but having elected officials demand a right to a calling not answered is questionable. In other words, seeking spiritual guidance from an elected official is like seeking spiritual guidance from a blog. It is probably a mistake. A mailer or a blog post is not evidence of godliness and wisdom. While we do not question the self interpreted faith of candidates, we also believe that our own faith, and not fear, should guide us in the ballot box.

Politics In The Barn

Due to the "Politics In The Barn" event being rescheduled from the past Tuesday until today because of Tropical Storm Fay, rumor has it that there may be some format and/or attraction changes made to the event to make sure people come out to pay their money to vote in the straw poll. While many candidates are busy trying fill the room by giving tickets away to "supporters" who will hopefully cast a BBQ smeared vote in their direction, the organizers of the event are taking no chances when in comes to turn out.

We have heard from someone who once met someone who might be helping to organize the event that a new headline guest has been added to the roster to ensure high turn out. Considering the event already promises "Lots of Fun" (whatever that means), BBQ, and live musical entertainment from Kenyon Lockery who we believe is most well noted for his spoon playing abilities (we could be wrong on this), even the WayneWho staff was surprised by the news that the hottest (even if frozen) celebrity in the south was going to show up tonight. Yes, you guessed it, Bigfoot is scheduled to make an appearance at tonights event. "Arrgh gharaargh," Bigfoot shouted at reporters as the CVB rushed him off for a fun filled time at Disney before his performance tonight.

"The taxpayers of this county would be upset if we did not show Mr. Foot a good time while he was here. We don't need to keep looking like some little hick-town now do we," responded one of the last remaining staff members from the CVB. "Mr. Foot is a well respected celebrity and we are glad to see he made it through his scuffle with the folks in Georgia. We are all sad to hear about the fighting over there and Mr. Foot is a recognized icon for peace after what he has been through."

Bigfoot is well know in political circles for his "Preservation through Building" position and his book "Green means eating live fish out of a stream you dummies." The WayneWho staff just hopes the residents of St. Cloud understand the importance of such a visitor. We must say that we are just a little jealous.

Hide the DRI

Just in case you missed it, the fourth Development of Regional Impact (DRI) has been approved leaving only two more housing projects to go. With our local infrastructure (roads, schools, public safety services) already stretched thin because of bad planning and government's ability to burn through tax money like a drunken sailor on shore leave stranding us with no way to pay for improving it, we had to ask ourselves how something like this could happen. With all of the supposed extra checks that should happen when a DRI is approved how could anyone look at the damage a project like Tohoqua is going to do and still approve it? The answer lies within the shadow boards, councils, and agencies that have been created for government officials to hide behind so they can assure their constituents that they are powerless to do anything to stop growth.

When you look at a project like Tohoqua, a 1,200-acre development on the east shore of Lake Tohopekaliga that will probably have 3,220 homes and 150,000 square feet of strip mall space and is the fourth of six mega-developments to gain approval, you have to watch its path along the approval process very closely to see how governments are able to approve these projects without the public's knowledge or input. To do this we need to look at one of those shadow "Councils" known as the "East Central Florida Regional Planning Council." It sounded official to the WayneWho Staff until we took a look at the minutes where the Tohoqua project was approved and realized that the same players that have created such a problem for us locally were involved in this "Regional Planning Council" as well. The ECFRPC members included elected officials from across the region, staff members from cities and counties from across the area, Tri-County league of city members, and paid staff members from the ECFRPC itself. You will also notice many of development and investment firms such as Neptune Investments, RJ Whidden Associates, and others whose names are normally associated with candidate financial contribution forms on our local level, but who have now found a way to get projects approved without public oversite.

The process is simple. Create a bunch of boards that sound official. Let the development community come in to give the empty sales pitch. Gain the shadow boards approval. Local governments throw their hands in the air and say we can do nothing to stop this because the board with the fancy name has already approved it. Money gets put into the campaign coffers of those who followed their marching orders. Done deal. Pretty simple right?

For all of those promises we hear from incumbent candidates and candidates that are in the pockets of special interests about how they are going to control growth, these shadow boards are their way out of the dog house. They can make promises about controlling growth fully knowing that they have the shadow boards to hide behind. County Commissioner John Quinones was the representative from Osceola County that seconded the motion for approval of the Tohoqua DRI after only a brief discussion that sounded more like a drum circle chant of how great the developers in Osceola County are and how much they do for the public. Since the number of developers and investors in the room rivaled the number of duly (if not wrongly) elected officials in the room, the rubber stamp of approval slammed down once again. Did Commissioner Quinones ever once stand up and say, "Mr. Chairman, the people of the great county of Osceola do not want this development approved because it will choke the life from our community?" Nope. Nothing. Only the word "Second."

And that is how a DRI is born.

False Destiny

We have been getting in some reports from last week's Kissimmee Chamber of Commerce Hob Nob and we are almost sorry that we decided not to part with our $20.00 for the side show after all. As campaign supporters filled the room and voted for their own candidates in the straw poll, people milled about trying to get one of the dainty portions of food that they were promised. While many will focus on the candidates in the room for the evening, we have heard about a surprise exhibitor that was in attendance. The representatives from the housing project know as Destiny have finally come out from under their rock to start making their pitch to the public. We know they have already made their pitch to their selected candidates because of the campaign contributions we continue to see funnel into some candidates pockets, but we were shocked to hear they showed up to greet the public. After the e-mails we have received, we now know why.

It is often said that you cannot polish a turd. It is also said that you know how bad a used car is by the excellence of the used car salesman it takes to sell it. The housing project known as Destiny is no different. We were very surprised to find out that Randy Johnson was there as the organ grinder's monkey doing his little dance in hopes the visitors to the hob knob would be mystified by his cute performance. Randy Johnson is after all an ex-State Representative who was the former chairman of the Growth Management Committee and co-author of the Growth Management Act of 2005 which is sited again and again as the reason local communities are held hostage by developers. The Growth Management Act of 2005 was written as a "how-to" document for developers on how to build anything, anywhere, and at anytime. Thus, the continued build out on housing as the rest of the country wisely pulls back because of the housing and credit crisis. In this area of course we hear our politicians say, growth is going to come anyway, and I am really not interested in protecting your property values, because that would be in conflict with what our developer friends want. Hence, horrible growth legislation from people who are now the Chief Operating Officers (Organ Grinder's Monkey) to projects like Destiny.

The second surprise on the Destiny project is the new sales pitch they are using to confuse our local politicos into going along with it. Now billed as "America's First Eco-Sustainable City", the Destiny marketing people are pulling out all the stops on finding ways to use "Green-Guilt" to make you think their project is good for the environment. With a slick brochure printed on recycled paper, the Pugliese Company would lead you to believe that they are going to help the environment by digging it up and plopping a bunch of homes down on it. We won't even go into the discussion on the number of cars added to the roads, pollution created by those cars, or the pollution created to provided power to a housing project of this magnitude. Looks like our destiny is one of congested roads, smog and no drinkable water.

What we find sad about all of this is the sales pitch being used to sell us this project that current residents of Osceola County are going to get stuck paying for. If the Destiny Project is so great, tell us how it is going to improve the quality of life of those of us who already live here. Tell us how this is going to be good for our community over just being good for Commissioners like Bill Lane who has racked in the campaign contributions from the Destiny group. Tell us how lowering our property values is somehow going to be a benefit to us. If nothing else, the WayneWho staff would request that you keep the monkey dancing so we are distracted from the reality of the destiny you have in store for us.

Graffiti Gemskie

An interesting campaign mailer arrived in our mailbox just a little while back from our good friend, to coin a line from Jay Wheeler, Jerry Gemskie. Besides gloating over the 2008 All America City award that has only seemed to fill incumbent candidates with pride, is his claim that he is the anti-graffiti commissioner. We did not know that we had a Graffiti Czar in the city, but with the way meetings are run and secret agenda items, anything is possible. The WayneWho staff decided it would be fun to take a quick drive around the area just to see if we have less graffiti now than we did before the creation of the Graffiti Czar position.

Nope.

There is more graffiti now that we can remember at any time in our city's past. Based on conversations with some of our friends over at the Kissimmee Police Department, much of the new graffiti is related to actual gangs and is not the harmless prank graffiti that we have had before. It would appear that our anti-graffiti commissioner, Graffiti Czar as we like to call him, is losing the war on graffiti.

One place that we found graffiti was on the new mobile home park the CRA built in downtown Kissimmee. The trailer housing project which was touted as a great redevelopment success, based on the sign they put in front of the trailers, has already been tagged (for us older folks, that means that the sign on Patrick Street has graffiti all over it). With multiple requests already made to remove the sign or at least clean up the graffiti, the Graffiti Czar has remained powerless to do anything about it and nothing has been done.

We have to wonder if this campaign claim is false, what other claims on Mr. Gemskie's mailer are false? How about the promise to be a full time commissioner, which is not a requirement for being a commissioner to start with. How can you be a full time commissioner when so much time is spent traveling abroad going to conferences that do very little to improve services to the public? Maybe if Mr. Gemskie spent more time in town, he would notice the graffiti problem that we have to deal with. Hail to the Czar.

Adiós El Nuevo Dia Orlando

Although the on line version of El Nuevo Dia Orlando is still live, many reports indicate that the Spanish daily is in the process of closing it's doors. Quoting consistent losses over the past several years of operation, the owners have decided to end the Orlando based operation which will affect about 50 employees. The WayneWho staff is sad to see another voice silenced, especially during such a critical election year.

El Nuevo Dia was a great publication that portrayed local news honestly to the Hispanic community. Unlike TV personalities such as Danny Ramos and some of the radio personalities who like to sensationalize stories to remain relevant, El Nuevo Dia stuck to good old-fashioned reporting. Many of their stories over the years were important stories that other mainstream media outlets ignored or refused to cover. They also had a great talent pool of writers who could keep a story feeling local instead of giving even the most localized issue a nationalized view. They stuck to just good reporting.

We were sad to read of the paper's impending closure in the Orlando Sentinel whose article seemed to be almost joyful as they hoped to regain some of the lost market share. Our fear is that as all of our local papers struggle to stay afloat, the news that our community needs to function could cease to exist. Newspapers scared to rock the boat on hot button issues for fear of advertising revenue retribution could easily table important stories. Facts on popular issues and on popular politicians could easily find themselves on the cutting room floor if they might be offensive to the target markets that advertisers are interested in reaching. We just hope that in the new paperless digital age, news will still just be news.

Political Hob Nob

Tonight the Kissimmee Osceola Chamber of Commerce has its "Osceola Hob Nob" scheduled at 5:30pm in the Kissimmee Civic Center. This is a chance for the average citizens to feel like big time lobbyists by funneling their hard earned money to a special interest group. The $20.00 entrance fee for "access" to the candidates and the top business leaders tied to those candidates would be better spent, in our opinion, in your gas tank. The chamber has all of the money it needs.

The big finish to the night is the straw poll in which you have to pay your entrance fee to vote. Sounds like a DRI housing vote at the county chambers, but who are we to judge. While the evening promises to be a shining example of the separation of real voters from the inner circle of those who work to rake our county over to their benefit, we recommend you skip the cheerleading session and spend your money elsewhere. That is unless you just really enjoy the keystone cop nature of how our local politicos act. Hey, there might be some fireworks between Commissioner Gemskie and Commissioner Irizarry or County Commissioner Bill Lane and Candidate Fred Hawkins, the guy who promised Bill he would not run against him. On second thought, your $20.00 might be well spent.

Secret Agenda

The WayneWho staff had decided early in the week that the Kissimmee City Commission Meeting for August 12, 2008 (last night) wasn't going to be worth having our Access Osceola source record it for our viewing pleasure. We had looked at the agenda early in the week and saw that there were no items, as usual, under the Public Hearings sections. We have written articles before about the current commission's adjustment of Public Hearing topics to the Discussion Items category so they can lock out public input if they feel like the issue might not go their way, but even the Discussion Item section only contained board appointments the commissioners can not seem to fill. So we figured it was going to be boring with only a slight hope of Commissioner Gemskie and Commissioner Irizarry getting into one of their cat fights for some excitement, and did not put much effort into following up with the meeting. Luckily our meeting source had their recorder set to copy the meetings every Tuesday night, and they dropped off the copy early this morning. We decided to go ahead and watch it just in case, and we were shocked with our findings.

If you look at a copy of the Agenda (the set of directions the commissioners follow) you will notice that under the section called "Public Hearings - First and Second Readings" there are no items to be discussed. During the meeting however, the second and final reading of the changing of an ordinance to remove the automatic fee increase section of the transportation impact fees was not only heard but approved without questions. We double checked our agenda and sure enough, the second and final reading was not on our sheet. So we went and got a new copy this morning and sure enough, no items under "Public Hearings - First and Second Readings," so there would be no way as a resident of this city you would know that this was your last chance to speak on this issue. We assume that the people who attended last night's meeting got a copy of the secret agenda so we will do our best to get our hands on one of them to compare the agendas meant for the public against the secret agendas meant for those who attend the meetings. We might need to inquire that if the item that was approved was not properly advertised to the public, was the motion legal or does the commission need a do over on this one. We would hope that they would at least give the public one more shot before they blindly approve another ordinance.

The funny part is that this ordinance change should be approved. There should never be a automatic fee or tax increase used to levy citizens. There should always be discussion on fee changes even if the governing body does not understand what they are doing. In this case, the ordinance change should be approved, but the reason the City Manager gave the commission about not increasing the Transportation Impact fees because the developers have had a hard year is completely wrong. What about all that "Growth should pay for itself" talk? The transportation needs of our community have not changed, so this commission plans to shift the burden away from the people who have created the transportation nightmare onto the backs of our hard working residents? This does not even make sense. At the previous week's meeting, the City Manager said that this would help get the development going on the Vine Street area, which the plans that it shows right now are for more residential units. This means we are going to have more residents and not enough money to pay for the roads we need to move them around. The roads will still be needed, so guess who is going to pay for it? The residents who have already paid their fair share.

From all outward appearances this looks like those running for office making sure that the campaign donations stay flowing. The problem with that theory is that this assumes that the commissioners actually understand the depths of their decisions. We would at least hope that instead of trying to set the shortest meeting records, they would actually start taking their jobs more serious and start explaining their intentions to the public the way they are supposed to. Just remember, intent of the commission on decisions has come back to help explain why a set of commissioners has made a decision one way or another. Your discussions on an item are important for future commissions and the public you are supposed to represent. Secret agendas and gold medals for quick meetings should not be your legacy.