Struck A Nerve

It seems that the WayneWho staff struck a nerve when we said that raising taxes to beautify East U.S. 192 was a bad idea and should not be done under the false promises of economic development through amateur sports venues. While we have said our piece about the original reporting of the recommendations sought by the Osceola County Commission by its appointed committee, it seems that we need to comment on the defense strategy that is now in full swing by the chairman of the committee, Bob Whidden. It seems that the East 192 Enhancement Committee is now trying to explain and defend recommendations that make little sense at all. Mr. Whidden's defensive tone in an Orlando Sentinel article, and in a letter to the editor of the Osceola News-Gazette about a plan that is only supposed to be 'tentative' seemed kind of strange, so we figured we would do a little digging.

If you do a quick search on the old Google you will find that Mr. Whidden, of R.J. Whidden and Associations, appears quite a bit. Hits on articles about the 'do-over' city of Destiny, the county killing Development of Regional Impact (D.R.I.) known as Green Isle, and any of a number of other urban sprawl developments that have left our county in shambles, all appear with just a few mouse clicks. Each development that has enjoyed the consultive power of Mr. Whidden and his associates has been sold to our community as needed, an enhancement, or something that needed vision to understand. What we have been left with is a whole lot of nothing, especially jobs, which is exactly what the East 192 'Beauti-staycation' plan will be - nothing. We do not feel that Mr. Whidden deserves all the blame for the state of our community, but he was definitely one of the architects of what we are trying to clean up today.

Mr. Whidden is now trying to deny our original reports that the committee was focusing on items such as 'pretty light polls and whimsical landscaping even though in the original article he was noted as saying "A lack of landscaping and maintenance from some businesses has also resulted in blight." In other words, East 192 has a case of the uglies and the 192 Enhancement Committee wants to charge all of us to give the area an extreme makeover.

For those of us who actually drive 192 every day, the area between St. Cloud and Kissimmee looks a whole lot better than 192 between John Young and the Sam's Club before 535. The nice open areas of green space and grazing land dotted with community draws like the Osceola County Flea Market are not exactly what we would call blight. Yeah, it might not be Disney Village, but it's home. Maybe Mr. Whidden and County Commissioner Quinones believe that our home gives a negative impression of our community to the tourists who happen to stray to far off the map, but for most of us, we like it. We all wish that the people who drive on the road with us could speed up and at least obey the speed limit signs, or that the road would actually be widened, but that is just us dreaming.

As far as the argument about all of the closed businesses, we did a quick count from between Hoagland and 535 to compare to the area between Kissimmee and St. Cloud and we found that their are vastly more empty businesses in the area that has already gone through a 'Beauti-vacation' than in the area that has been, according to Mr. Whidden, totally neglected by the county. If the East 192 Enhancement Committee wants us to pay to make our area look as bad as the West 192, they are just plain crazy.

Mr. Whidden also tried to give more explanations on how his committee planned to have the residents of this community pay for his plan to clean up what he calls the 'Junk Drawer' of Osceola County. We are glad to see that he backed-up the information that we had about the county looking at a special taxing district to help pay for the project, but he also noted some other areas where local taxpayers would have to chip in. The committee had suggested, but was not going to be limited to, impact fee relief, target industry incentives, grants all of which are nothing more than government's attempt at subsidizing businesses by taking more money from taxpayers. Great Plan.

Please don't get us wrong. It would be nice to improve the appearance of the area, but the county and the taxpayers can not afford it. Looking at ways to spend more money while were are still in the process of firing people to balance our budget shows that there is a huge disconnect between the realities of our surroundings and the fantasy world that some want to live in. It is time we get real.

How about this. Just leave 192 alone. Why can we not just have a government that does its job instead of raising taxes to do things it ought not to be doing. Police, Fire and 'quality' roads are all we are asking for. Government could easily reduce our taxes if it put its focus on these areas. If it takes being neglected to keep a little green space and some of our money in our own pockets, we vote for being neglected. As far as being a 'Junk Drawer' of the community, we find that very insulting and we wish Mr. Whidden and his committee had a little bit more pride in our community.

Puppet Envy

Thank you to all of those who commented and sent us e-mails about our latest Kissimmee Puppet Commission Theatre episode. We had a lot of fun putting it together and we are glad so many of you enjoyed it. While we know not all of our readers are into that kind of silliness, it fits our personalities just fine.

We were a little disturbed to find out that we were no longer the only 'Kissimmee Centric' puppet show in town. We stumbled across an Orlando Sentinel article today that is about a fight that is going on between City of Kissimmee Commissioner Carlos Irizarry and a gossip style television show in Puerto Rico. The show is accusing Commissioner Irizarry of marital infidelity because of some pictures that Commissioner Irizarry had on his own FaceBook page. The pictures showed him hugging a woman that was not his wife. The WayneWho staff had to laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing because why would Commissioner Irizarry post photos that would get him in trouble on his own website? Not really very plausible. Second, don't most politicians hug on people to try to win votes? This is just kinda-sorta how the game is played in American politics. We think the story is nothing more than a bunch of hype.

What really struck us as odd, and almost sad to the WayneWho staff, was about the main host "La Comay" of the show Super Xclusivo, who is a life size puppet. The 'puppet' and host Héctor Travieso spread rumors about Puerto Rican celebrities and elected officials. What made us a little upset was the fact that in videos of the show posted online, Commissioner Irizarry can be heard calling into the show and arguing with this 'puppet'. After seeing them argue back and forth, we just could not bear to watch it anymore because of the deep sense of betrayal. Commissioner Irizzary has never called, e-mailed, or openly yelled at our WayneWho puppets, and yet runs right out and starts having a little tryst with some TV 'puppet'. We guess that we should have known that Commissioner Irizarry couldn't be with just one puppet. And besides, politicians will do anything to get on TV.

Don't worry about us. We will be fine. Another gallon of Chunky Monkey and we will probably feel a lot better. Besides, that other 'puppet' is not that pretty anyway.

You can find the videos and the article here: Video & Story Link

Kissimmee Puppet Commission Theatre - K-Team

Click here to view the newest puppet video! We were finally able to make the switch to HD so for all of our fans who have been asking for the return of our Puppet Commissioner friends, here you go. We hope you enjoy.

The Need For Questions

The WayneWho Staff believes that we should apologize to the Osceola News-Gazette reporter, Jessica Solis. Ms. Solis wrote the article that our un-news site was critical of last week. We were critical of the subject matter contained in the article which was headlined as "Osceola County study: East U.S. 192 lacks identity, purpose," and towards the end of our article we were critical of the Osceola News-Gazette and how their information was presented. It was not our intention to be too hard any individual for the content of the Osceola News-Gazette's article. In hind site, using the term 'reporter' to describe a collective group in our un-news article was probably a mistake. We are sorry and we hope that you are not reprimanded for defending your reporting ability.

If you did not get a chance to read Ms. Solis's rebuttal, let us share it with you:

"The News-Gazette could reprimand me for doing this, so let me preface by stating that I’m only representing myself and not the newspaper. I also don’t represent the county, or position myself as an expert on Osceola government.

I was told about this blog entry from someone in the community, and although I normally stay out of these forums, I think this time I have to speak up since it seems like my actual duty as a reporter is being criticized/mocked. I might not be a reporter 'worth the weight of the pen,' but I do my research. Firstly, I apologize that my article on the east U.S. 192 review led you to the conclusion that the study was a definite plan for the county. Twice in my article I wrote the plan was tentative, so as to not mislead readers that this was something in the works.

Secondly, I don’t 'drop down' articles on paper. If I did that, I wouldn’t be a reporter. I attend these meetings where I take notes, and then I request comments from locals, officials, etc... Then, I take all of those notes and try to turn them into an article. You might not like my writing, but everything is attributed and researched. I can’t write an article about what I think of the review– it’s unethical to do that in journalism.

The things you see in the paper with my name attached to it are never my opinions; they are the thoughts and statements of others, and I attribute it as such. I come in to let the community know what their leaders are doing or planning, and what’s on their minds as well.

In regards to 'spitting facts,' I also don’t do that. Everything is sourced and fact-checked. Nothing is ever called a fact, and I can only debunk sources if they have given me a piece of information that can be called true or untrue without attribution. But opinions are allowed– as long as they’re not mine. This blog entry took a lot of what-ifs and used them to criticize my reporting. Regarding this specific article, I never meant to write an investigate article, since there are no concrete details for it. Regarding my reporting, I’d like to believe I ask the questions when needed.

My name and my contact information are attached to every single article I put together for the paper. People– residents and government officials alike– can recognize me, approach me and give me their opinions any time they want (and they do!).

I love when readers and locals call to either give me more information or ask me why something was or wasn’t in the newspaper. It's the feedback from the community that helps keep me on my toes. My name is Jessica Solis. Feel free to reach me at 321-402-0429 if you have any questions, comments or concerns. Thank you, and my apologies for the extra long post.

September 21, 2009 2:57 PM"

After a lot of discussion, the WayneWho staff believes that this rebuttal explores a fundamental difference that we have with the the Osceola News-Gazette as far as what 'journalism' is. While we in no way see ourselves as journalists, reporters or even ready-to-be-canceled sitcom writers, we rely on journalists very heavily in our real world personas. We need journalists to ask the questions that we cannot because we would be ignored as regular citizens. While not every story requires probing questions, we believe that when it comes to quality of life issues for residents there should be no free pass given to decision makers. We appreciate that Ms. Solis agrees with our assessment that no investigation was done for this story, but that was not what our article was about. All we asked the Osceola News-Gazette to do was ask some questions to properly vet the article. It appears that this did not happen and the article was based solely on notes from a presentation. We would hope that as thinking individuals their staff would understand why we would misinterpret this as the Osceola News-Gazette being in lockstep with local administrations.

When the basic pattern for a media organization is to go to meetings, take notes, request comments and then "try to" formulate articles based on only this level of limited informational contact, the WayneWho staff now understands why we are left scratching our heads after reading most of the content presented in the Osceola News-Gazette. We have been left confused because it was always our belief that 'journalism' was not only a craft of conveying important information, but that it was also a craft of the pursuit of the details behind that information. The WayneWho staff believes that asking questions and passively requesting comments are not the same thing. We were under the belief that it took asking questions to not only get to the truth, but to also properly convey the information being presented. We did not know that asking questions based on common sense thoughts was unethical and not allowed in journalism. This explains a lot about the world we live in now. Maybe if a journalist would have asked questions like "Where is the yellowcake?" or "Why haven't we found weapons of mass destruction?" our world would look a little different and more of our country's young men and women would still be here enjoying life with their families. Maybe if a journalist well versed in the financial world would have asked "Just exactly what is a subprime mortgage derivative?" more families would still be in their homes. Please don't think that we are saying that journalists who do not ask questions are to blame for all of our country's problems, but what we are saying is that "Freedom of the Press" is not just a slick slogan to be wasted on a bumper sticker. It means that our founders understood that the media played an important role in keeping our country free by keeping government on its toes. Hence the word "Press" as in "Press for information." While some may look at these comments as lofty ideals that do not apply to local media, we would argue that they are even more important for the local media. But that is just the view of an un-news source. Maybe AMATEUR sports will be the savior of our community? What if? Who knows?

We guess all the WayneWho staff can hope for is that the questions we presented in our article find their way into the notes when this Beauti-Staycation plan goes from tentative to 'up for a vote.' We can hope that when there are more concrete plans besides those recommendations from the 192 Enhancement Committee study, it will finally be time to ask questions so we can see what is on the minds of our local leaders. Until then we will continue to comment on all of
the what-ifs presented by our local officials and the local media in our un-news sort of way.

Thank you for your letter and thanks for reading. We welcome all comments, critiques and questions from all of those 'someones' in the community.

Bring Us A Shrubbery

Osceola County's budget process has not been completed and already the county commissioners are looking at ways to spend more money. After letting go hundreds of employees to fill budget shortfalls and to subsidized commercial and agricultural property owners so they would not have to pay their fair share of a newly approved fire fee, a new design project has caught the eye of Osceola County officials. It seems that because of the urging of tax hungry special interest group, the county is considering spending millions of dollars on making 'East' 192 pretty. Hold on to your special taxing district socks because this one is going to be good.

This past week, Osceola County officials got a look at a design plan aimed at giving an expensive face lift to the eastern portion of U.S. Highway 192. The idea of a face lift comes from a study presented to the County Commission by the 'East 192 Enhancement Committee' who no one who lives in the area has actually heard of. The main problem this group would point to is that East 192 has "a lack of identity and purpose."

Yep. A lack of purpose.

First, the WayneWho staff would like to let the mystical 'East 192 Enhancement Committee,' whomever you are, know that East 192 has a very critical purpose that we find offensive that you have overlooked. East 192 is how most Osceola County residents go to work. We know this is a strange concept for some, but many of us actually don't live off of the taxpayers and we have to drive to work every day. Of course most of us are not driving to work here in Osceola County like we used to, but East 192 is still the start, and/or end of our journey. The road is filled with commuters and small business service vehicles that are holding this community together and are not interested in bizarre light poles and odd looking mile markers. While we understand that special interest groups think that only tourists should have access to our roads, we would just like to remind them that not only do residents exists, but we are the ones who get stuck paying for all of these types of face lift projects.

What we find interesting is that the County Commission actually believes that a few botox injections of residents hard earned tax money will give the face lift that will erase years of bad economic policy. As County Commission Chairman John Quiñones said, "Those vacant buildings, lack of landscaping and blight could give visitors a negative perception of the county." We assume that this means that if we give the Knights that say 'Tax' a shrubbery, that everything will be just fine. Of course once we brought them the demanded shrubbery they would just tell us they were now known as the Knights that say 'Special Benefit District' and we would now have to bring them gold bars along with another shrubbery which was just a little taller than the first. It would be nice if we could actually have commissioners that focused on residents instead of dumping all of our money into exterior design projects to improve what 'visitors' might think about us.

As far as all of the made up terminology about 'hub districts' and creating 'avenue lanes' (which we assume was supposed to be 'venue lanes' because 'avenue lanes' just sounds stupid), enough already. Why don't we just tell the taxpayers what these terms really mean. With the price tag of the ugly west 192 BeautiVacation Project topping $29 million, the 'East' 192 terminology should be reflected more accurately as 'special interest welfare districts' and 'wallet lightening lanes.' At least that would be honest.

To close this article we just like to say we would love to see the Osceola News-Gazette step up to the plate and actually do some research or at least ask questions before they blindly print articles like this. Here is a simple one that any reporter worth the weight of their pen would have asked; "Do you think that the county is heading in the right direction by putting all of their hopes in becoming a major market for amature sports when every attempt so far has not only met with failure, but cost the taxpayers millions of dollars?" Or if a reporter actually paid attention to other forms of national news, they might be able to ask a question like; "Since every major athletic venue has witnessed extreme drops in attendance and revenue during the downturn of this economy and many amature leagues have had to declare bankruptcy, do you feel that it is wise to ask the taxpayers to subsidize yet another special interest group?" We would just like to remind the writers at the Osceola News-Gazette that the articles they drop down on paper are about issues that affect real citizens in Osceola County. While the Osceola News-Gazette may believe it is their job to spit 'facts' down on paper, we have to ask the writers how they know if the 'facts' are even facts? When they put an opinion in their paper like "...giving certain portions of the highway a more defined role that would be able to attract business..." and treat it like it is the truth, they do not do justice to their trade or to the residents of this community. It is not like we are asking them to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring, we are just asking for them to ask some questions. Maybe if publication would actually start asking some questions on issues like this, the WayneWho staff would make sure to bring over some nice shrubbery to decorate their office.

Final Budget

At tomorrow night's City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting, the budget and the millage levy will be approved for the final time. From what we can tell, it will pass because there are few ideas on what to do to reduce the budget any further and raising taxes is so much easier. Don't get use wrong, the WayneWho staff thinks that this budget should be passed on Tuesday night because it is a good budget based on the framework the City Manager allowed the commission to discuss it. Basically our issue is that the budgets are falsley decided upon based on a set of presentations that do not connect with each other and do not address the overall effect of all of the tax/fee increases added together. We do not agree with the piecemeal approach of local governments in approving tax and fee increases to end up meeting budgets that are also viewed and discussed in a piecemeal fashion. Our reason is that when the pieces are finally put together, there is little room for discussion on what budget item should be cut because each little piece seemingly affects some other part of the budget. This leaves commissioners, and the general public, confused about what suggestions to make to reduce the overall budget. And while the Mayor likes to treat residents like they are stupid when they ask for a full accounting of the budget by saying it can be found online, this is not 100% true. While this years proposed budget for the City of Kissimmee is one of the best we have seen for specifics, it is far from a complete breakdown. In the City Manager's department alone there is over $76,000 of expenses attributed to the mysterious category of 'Other.' Oh wait, we were actually wrong on that. If you flip a few more pages you will find that there is another 'Other' expense for $500,000 for the City Manager's Department under the title of 'General Government'. That means we now have $576,000 in total unknown 'Other' budgeted expenses. Add that to the $290,000 for special events and social service funding and we are getting close to cutting $1,000,000 which could easily translate into either less of an increase in taxes and fees or maybe no increase at all. Our suggestion to those who might want to stand up at the podium to be treated like they are stupid by our Mayor, tell him and the other commissioners to cut all funding in every department to the mystical 'Other' categories. Cutting all the funding to 'Other' categories is the only way to be sure we get them all since they are hidden amongst all the pages of the budget.

Regardless of all of this, our suggestion for the City is to approve the budget and the millage as stated. Then, next week, start working on the budget for next year. Drop all your estimates on revenue by at least 10% because next year will be worse for government than this year was. Also, expect that gasoline prices will rise by at least 5% which will effect other costs of goods. Take these basics into account and start over. This time don't just look at the presentations, look at each department, each person, and every dollar to determine if we are still operating in the best way for our citizens. Verify that it still makes sense to have government doing the jobs that private companies could be doing. Justify everything and give the public a true detailed report of every dime. We feel that next year will not only be worse, but that governments who raised taxes this year will not be able to do it again. Raising taxes and fees will not fix everything.

Good on Camera

From what the WayneWho staff has been able to gather, the Fire Fee meeting this past Tuesday was a shining example of the incompetence of our elected officials. When the cameras were on and they wanted to look good, the Osceola County Commissioners gave rousing speeches about their commitment to public safety and raising the level of service provided to our community. When the cameras and many who crowded the room in support of Station 52 left, the support of public safety faded like a cheap shirt. Commissioner Fred Hawkins, who was screaming the loudest to save the fire station in his district, along with Commissioner Ken Smith voted against the fire department and supported cutting the departments funding further, after patting themselves on the back for voting to keep Station 52 open. While the question of "How can you keep the station open if you are not going to fund it?" is obvious to most of our readers, it was not that obvious to the commission on Tuesday night.

What has become obvious from what we have heard about the meeting on Tuesday night is that the County Manager is doing the best job that he can despite the ignorance of the commission. While some in the community bash the County Manager day after day, we believe that you have to look at the overall decisions to measure his performance. The commissioners have continually pushed to reduce budgets by cutting staff, and the County Manager has done it. The commission wanted the departments to be reorganized to be more efficient and the County Manager made it happen. And finally, the commission wanted to turn the proposed fire fee rates into chance to convert our local democracy into socialism by spreading out the average residents tax money to help subsidize special interest groups. Although the County Manager fought to not provide more government welfare to the land owners who complained they did not want to pay their fair share of this communities fire services, he eventually gave in and took 4.1 million dollars from the residents and paid the bills for the poor landowners and commercial entities. Pure Socialism.

What we find even more disturbing is that the evening really turned into an attempt to cut more employees and more of our services to spare a few land owners the 'burden' of paying their fair share. At one point Commissioner Ken Smith even attacked the local police and sheriff's departments by trying to take away a facility where they keep their weapons training skills intact. It was during this discussion that we believe one of the most important nuggets of knowledge of the evening was unearthed. Commissioner Ken Smith, who has been in office for 13 years, had to have the bond process explained to him. The whole system of how a municipality borrows money seemed too elusive for the experienced politician. Lucky for all of us that his ranting on litter earlier in the meeting made up for his lack of budgetary knowledge during such a crucial time.

The WayneWho staff has watched the attacks on the current County Manager for some time. While some of them are deserved, we feel that he has done a good job of pulling the county back from the brink of bankruptcy despite the efforts of the commissioners to continue deficit spending. For all of those who are looking to point fingers at someone for all of the ills of the county, we suggest you point them at your locally elected representatives. While it may make some Internet bloggers feel better to cry about the County Manager's salary and the clothes he wears, none of it makes any difference when the commissioners are the ones driving the train and making decisions on how to give welfare to their campaign contributors. For us, we were glad the County Manager defended us as residents and was looking out for our interests.

Decisions, Decisions

The WayneWho staff suggests that we dub this week Budget Week for Osceola County Government. Even though most budget numbers have already been approved, the decisions on how to fund, or cut-back, to achieve the budget will be made this week. While we are critical of the decisions the Osceola County Commissioners have made so far, we do have to acknowledge that they are facing an almost impossible task of creating a properly funded and functioning government because of years of mismanagement and poor decision making. Fixing the problems created by past commissions would be nothing less than a miracle.

We do not expect miracles today, we are just hoping for common sense.

The county is under-the-gun to get a budget figured out and passed with funding in place. The problem is that the county is going to have to raise more fees and taxes, than they already have, to even come close to funding a scaled back selection of government services. The problem for the taxpayers is that staff and government are not usually good at prioritizing services in order of importance to average residents. At the meeting today, we will find out if our newest set of elected officials are up to the task.

The commission meeting set for today is critical for our community and will provide the best opportunity for residents to see who controls their government. Do the land barons, ranchers, and development community still control politics in Osceola County because of their ability to give large campaign contributions, or do residents actually have a say in what happens considering they are the ones footing the bill for government enterprises. One issue on the table today is whether or not to close fire stations. Voting to increase the Osceola County Fire Services fee will only cost the average home owner $5.00 extra. While the land controlling elites who have enjoyed the free-ride in Osceola County for decades are set to pay more, their increase will only be to pay for their fair-share of usage. The, already approved, Fire Department budget and the new methodology for collecting the Fire Services fee should stand and be approved. If anything should be adjusted, it should be the amount of money from the General Fund that should be used to supplement the Fire Department's budget to decrease how much the fire fee needs to collect.

We agree with the critics who have e-mailed us about the continuing wasteful spending in the county budget. More money could be saved and diverted into the general fund with the idea it is only spent on public safety services. Our problem is that we do not believe our commission should be involved in a game of chicken with public safety. If they are not sure where to cut to find the funding to properly fund our Fire Department, then pass the Fire Fee study as is and secure the safety of the public. This is government's most basic job and flinching now only puts people, including our public safety employees, at risk.

If commissioners are not sure what to cut, just ask. Special pay for watching health class video tapes is an example of mis-spent money that was brought before the commission that barely got a nod of recognition. We would also recommend that the entire Economic Development Department along with all of its extravagant government salaries should be cut. The experiment of throwing money into the black hole of economic development has not worked. Secret code names and tons of tax money have produced no honest results in the way of job creation. In the opinion of the WayneWho staff, scorched buildings littering the county because we did not have the resources to protect the structures would do much more to hurt economic development than getting rid of the Economic Development Department. Why would a company invest in building here if the risk of the investment burning down was elevated beyond that of other communities? Maybe that is a question we should ask the Economic Development Director at the meeting today. We bet we would get an interesting and animated answer.

Math Battle

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

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

The rest of the story...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One Night In Bangkok

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

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

Hiring Again?

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

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

Politics of Division

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

96 Days

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

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

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

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

Local Governments are Victims?

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

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

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

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

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

Logo Truth

So now we finally have the truth about why Kissimmee City Commissioner Art Otero proposed the addition of "In God We Trust" on the city's logo. According to an interview done by the Orlando Sentinel:

"Commissioner Art Otero, who proposed the addition, said he was prompted to suggest the change because he doesn't agree with the direction the country is going under the Obama administration, which he referred to as 'socialist.' He said his initiative was not based on faith but on patriotism."

"This nation has been moving toward more liberal postures such as homosexuality, gay marriage, abortion and the legalization of marijuana," Otero said. "I'm against that way of thinking. Those are not the values upon which this nation was founded. I think we need to fight for the values we're losing."

So the expense is justified to stick one to President Obama. Nothing says patriotism more than not supporting your Commander in Chief during a time of war. Classy, very classy.

As far as Commissioner Otero's argument about President Obama's push towards "socialism," we have just one question. Will Commissioner Otero give up his government provided, taxpayer funded health care? This must be the socialist direction Commissioner Otero is talking about since all the other "socialist" cries from mis-informed republican "leaders" have faded away. Most of the banks have repaid the TARP funds and GM just went through the quickest bankruptcy proceedings in history of the country. What other claims could Commissioner Otero be trying to falsely tie to our President? President Obama has specifically said he against the legalization of marijuana and he has said he is against gay marriage? Sounds like Commissioner Otero and President Barrack Hussein Obama have alot in common. That only leaves the issue of government provided health care as a 'socialist' issue, unless the scary "liberal" demons chanting in Commissioner Otero's head have given him other insights that we are just not aware of. We also have to wonder that if direction of the country is really the motivator behind the logo change, does that mean that Commissioner Otero liked the direction the country was headed in a year ago? This would at least explain Commissioner Otero's infantile concepts of the responsibilities of local government. Spending $200,000 of taxpayers money to let people know how you 'feel' about a few issues during an economic crisis is not a very conservative approach to government. It is wasteful.

Fix our roads, provide us good public safety, and spend your own money to let the world know about your feelings instead of raising our taxes to do it.

From out For Bid - To Out To Lunch

During last night's commission meeting, the Kissimmee City Commission decided to, once again, run from a simple and good decision for taxpayers, and instead create an opportunity to expand the size and cost of government. The decision was based on discussion item 8B - "Solid Waste Franchise Agreement" and whether or not city government should open up the bidding process to allow other private companies an opportunity to bid on a contract that Waste Management has enjoyed for many years. As we noted in our article from yesterday, the decision should be simple. Open the contract up for bidding so a selection committee could decided what the best option for the taxpayers of our community. Even the opposite of that, which would be to keep the contract with Waste Management would have been an acceptable choice based on staff's accounts of the quality level of service the company has provided to the city. Of course leave it to our city commission to stick a square peg in a round hole.

The decision that was made was to extend the contract with Waste Management for 1 year and, in that time, have staff research how government can take over the and replace the private component of solid waste collection. Basically, our commissioners just decided to increase the size of government and increase the price tag it takes to run it. All of this while at the same time deciding government should force out private competition. This decision will allow government to take over private business interests even though the testimony from staff clearly showed that quality and cost were not issues. The commission just took a simple decision and turned it into a lose-lose situation for the residents and businesses of our city.

So what is next on this issue? Simply put, residents are going to hear alot of imaginary service, cost, and valuation arguments based on fictitious information from other municipalities. This is how government hides itself in its protective bubble and internally justifies bad decisions. Staff will put together a power pointless presentation and answer 'we don't know' to any real questions that get asked. The community will be told that the takeover will cost one price, but then in the next budget cycle the numbers will jump much higher. Then, as we have experienced so many times in the past, fees will be raised or created to cover the hidden costs of the expansion of government. Then when the public decides to fight back to stop the increase in fees, government will threaten to cut other services to shut them up. Just watch the upcoming discussion on Fire Fee increases if you don't believe us.

The point of this article is simple. Limited government that can live within its budget can not continue to conquer and expand itself. There is a huge difference between going out to bid to test the markets and expanding government into a socialist state. As our leaders head into budget workshops to decide how to make necessary cuts to survive the upcoming year, does it make any sense to be planning to add more expenses? Maybe in the "government is that answer to everything" bubble, it does. The WayneWho staff just doesn't fit in that bubble.

Out For Bid

First we would like to start off by saying we appreciate the Osceola News Gazette's article this past Saturday that represented some of the critisims being voiced by those who were affected by the flooding rains (4 inches) that overwhelmed the City of Kissimmee's storm water system. We hope that questions about the failure of the system over such a large area continue to be asked and that city government can divert some energy away from designing logos and put it into fixing failing infrastructure. If nothing else, maybe someone should ask where all of our "Stormwater Fee" money has been going if it has not been going into updating and upgrading our stormwater infrastructure? Where did the money go?

As far as today's article, we will keep it short. On tonight's City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting Agenda, or script as we like to call it, there is an interesting item up for discussion. Item 8B is a discussion on the "Solid Waste Franchise Agreement" which is currently held by Waste Management who employs our Mayor, Jim Swan. The agenda item is intended to give the staff direction on whether or not to open open the door for bids on the agreement to other companies, or if they should keep the contract locked with Waste Management.

The WayneWho staff believes this as a very simple choice. Open the bidding process to make sure that the taxpayers are getting the best deal possible. This does not indicate that Waste Managment has problems, or is a problem, but in times such as times such as these wise decisions are made based on research. By openning up the bidding process, a level of transparancy can be created as well as a sense of fiscal responsibility. Maybe if researching better deals were done more often, taxes and fees would not have to be raised year after year. Do the right thing and put it out for bid.

(Sidenote: The WayneWho staff refuses to comment on the personal relationships of out-of-state bloggers and problems they may, or may not, be having with their local electorally challenged counterparts. While we have received many e-mails on this subject, we feel it is not our place to get involved with the personal issues and/or the relationships of others. We just don't feel that any of these topics belong in our realm of un-news. We just hope that those involved can kiss and make-up before feelings really get hurt.)

The Mess

The WayneWho staff has had a busy week trying to help some friends clean up after the flooding that happened earlier this week. The whole area is pretty much a big mess and will probably be that way for some time. While the floodwaters have gone, the damage to the heart of Kissimmee will take some time to repair.

While we have caught a few of the news briefs about 'unprecedented rains', 'more rain than the system was designed to handle', and about how 'some blocked storm drains' contributed to the mess, our favorite comment has to come from our City Manager. In the face of this mess, he simply states that 'Everyone should have renters' insurance and flood coverage...' Sure, just like the fairy tale that growth was going to pay for itself, reality is far different from the out of touch point of view of this administration. Maybe residents could afford rental insurance if they were not spending so much money on gas to drive to other counties for work or if they were able to use their fire fee money to pay for it, but these are discussions for another time. The point of this article is focus and linking renter's insurance to clogged storm drains is not a focused argument.

The WayneWho staff understands that the best efforts of man can, and will, be thwarted by Mother Nature from time to time. This is probably one of those times. Our problem is that it is hard to look a the history of our commission(s) and know that our best efforts were put forward to keep the floods under control. Arguments that have focused on 'All-American City Awards', 'Revitalizing 192', 'Government Run TV Stations', and 'Logo Changes' have taken the focus off of the basic and boring job that is local government. That is the job of providing public safety and infrastructure to the residents who pay taxes for that purpose. While their is no glory in creating a functional drainage system that can handle 5 inches of rain in 1 1/2 hours in a hurricane prone state, it is probably the most relevant. Maybe the money spent on all the frivolous sideshow issues could have been put to better use for our residents. Maybe not. The point is that we do not know and there is a general consensus that government does not know either. Frivolous issue after frivolous issue has taken the place of municipal management. As a community we are left asking, are we getting what we pay for or are we just being entertained?

The WayneWho staff wants to make it clear that we do not blame the city or the commission for the weather. We understand that the weather is controlled by a much Higher Power and that some how this mess is in His plan. Maybe it was meant to show He thinks we need to focus on what is important, and that adding His name to a logo is not one of those things? Or maybe, like the City Manager would suggest, the rains were meant teach the Biblical importance of renter's insurance? These are questions we just can't answer and that we leave to our readers. For us, we are just going to focus on drying out our socks.

Did Staff Lie?

An interesting discrepancy was uncovered at this past week's City of Kissimmee Commission meeting. While we understand that the commission feels that it is important to make small insignificant changes to give the appearance that they are doing something, we feel that wasting time on logo changes to try to help Commissioner Art Otero feel patriotic is not helpful to the citizens of our community. While we do not wish to discuss Commissioner Otero's waning patriotism, we do have to wonder, after yesterday's un-news article, if this is a growing trend with newly elected officials? Regardless of these issues, it was during the discussion of possible changes to the city's logo, which sounded more like the nonsensical singing of Nero as Rome burned, price discrepancies were questioned by Commissioner Cheryl Grieb. The WayneWho staff feels that it was this part of the discussion that begs the most attention and possible investigation.

About a year ago, Commissioner Grieb had suggested that the City of Kissimmee hire a design firm to create a new logo that would help to improve the city's marketing efforts. Much like the City of St. Cloud had done, Commissioner Grieb felt that a new logo would help to redefine our community. Her mistake at the time was in suggesting that the city remove the 'Cow' from the logo. The public reacted negatively and the project found itself without much support. The information that killed the project was a report from city staff that it would take $200,000 to change the logo.

Fast forward to present day and now to change the logo to help a commissioner finally feel patriotic, and the amount of money that it will cost to change the logo is around $745.00. WTF? How can the number drop from $200,000.00 to $745.00? Is the economy that bad or did staff mislead the commission a year ago? The excuse from the City Manager is that the price difference is related to the speed at which the commission at that time wanted to change out the new logo. This is not the full truth by any means. If you listen to the tapes of those meetings, time frame of a new marketing deployment was only lightly touched on. When the Commissioners discussed rolling out the new logo changes more slowly, it was staff that directed the discussion towards a hasty deployment. When the numbers came in at over $200,000 dollars staff never said that there were ways cut the expense, or delay the expenditure over time. Quite simply put, staff misled the city commission.

What we find really disturbing is that staff is once again misleading the commission. It will still cost around $200,000 dollars to change out the logo, it is just that it will broken up over time. The WayneWho staff finds it sad that the commission would allow these types of expenditures instead of finding ways to reduce the costs to citizens and the businesses of this community. Raising fire fees on small businesses to pay for logo changes just seems out of touch when the area is in economic turmoil.

Our last points on this issue would be that if the commission is going to follow this misguided path, wouldn't it actually be more intelligent to do what Commissioner Grieb suggested? That is to hire a professional firm to develop the logo and let the public decide what they like? Why is it our city logo has been hijacked by the commission and staff and is being changed without public input? Is this the logo of the city commission or a logo that represents the City of Kissimmee? Maybe something as drastic as a logo change should be directed by professionals working with the public instead of individuals with absolutely no marketing experience, working behind the scenes. Seems like a simple conclusion to reach for us, but we guess we will have to see if the commission wants to involve the public or not.