Good Morning Key West

Segments of email dialoge with someone who appears to have appointed himself as Danny Coll’s campaign manager; or maybe Danny appointed him, but it’s just not yet official. His part in italics. Danny and inbumbent County Commissioner George Neugent are squared off in the Republican primary for the District 2 County Commission seat. The winner faces me, non-affiliated, in the general election.

It is Danny’s position that land use decisions are best made bv the voters of Monroe County rather than bureaucrats in Tallahassee. Why, for instance, should the DCA decide, rather than Monroe County voters, whether Wisteria Island should be developed? I bet that voter was unaware of Danny’s strong support for Amendment Four which gives the voters the final say over changes to the land use plan. Where does Neugent stand on Wisteria Island? Do you know?

Sloan, I certainly do not mean to compare you to Danny on a personal basis. What counts is the candidate’s stands on issues. Can you cite an issue on which you agree with Mr. Neugent’s position and differ with Danny’s (other than the DCA)?

It is not clear to me whether Danny’s enclosure is illegal or not. As I understand it from the Carter case it depends on when the enclosure was constructed and the county has the burden of proving that. I am sure you know that the enclosure was there when Danny purchased the house in 1994. I suppose there is a way to determine when the previous owner (or the owner before him) constructed the enclosure. You also know that an attorney from the State Ethics board states there is no conflict of interest if an issue affects a large group of people rather than a small group including the commissioner voting on the issue. IMO it is not even the appearence of impropriety if the government agency in charge of enforcing an ethics rule has passed favorably on an ethics issue. Neugent’s attendance at the Ocean Reef dinner would be a different story if Dennis Ward had rendered an opinion stating there was no problem with any commissioner accepting a $250 dinner from Ocean Reef. If you are concerned about ethics in government, as I believe you are, I do not see how you can support Neugent when he went to that dinner over the express warning from Mr. Ward. IMO ethics trumps most other issues. Neugent’s attendance at that dinner is sufficient ground for a voter to reject his candidacy. You cannot tell me that Neugent would not be even subconsciously influenced by an organization giving him a dinner costing others $250. It is the same reason why pharamaceutical companies can no longer give free pens to physicians (a pen worth at most $10.00!). Now I am convinced that Danny would follow the advice of Mr. Ward (or anyone else holding his position) even if he thought the State’s Attorney was wrong on an issue. The elected officials of Monroe County should accept the counsel of the person chosen by the voters to occupy the high office of State’s Attorney, don’t you think?

Tim

Where have you been, Tim? Monroe County is an outlaw county. It has been declared an area of critical concern because of its utter disrespect for the environment and its utter whoring out to development. Because this county did not enforce its own code, we have a huge downstairs enclosure armageddon on our hands, which threatens to tear the social and spiritual fabric of the Keys community to shreds.

Yeah, in a perfect world, there would be no need for the Department of Community Affairs. But we don’t live in a perfect world, and since this is indeed an outlaw county, we are darn lucky to have DCA making us behave.

DCA, which saved the County from the Gang of Three county commission two years ago, by slam-dunking the rigged and greased Safe Harbor development on Stock Island, disguised as a save a working waterfront deal, but actually an upscale transient residential development called a hotel.

DCA, which just last week fired a preemptive shot over the County’s bow about Wisteria Island, which is yet another developer shell game that county staff bought pretty much hook line and sinker – surprise!

Looks to me, DCA is a tad fed up with this county’s behavior. Looks to me, DCA is ready to start taking preemptive action, instead of waiting, as it has in the past, for this county to shit in its pants again.

Hooray for DCA, which Danny Coll wants to replace with responsible county commissioners, he being one.

Well, George Neugent doesn’t want to replace DCA with himself or other county commissioners. Nor, as far as I know, do any of the other four county commissioners, nor any other county commission candidate, including myself. It will be a tragedy, if DCA is dismantled by Tallahassee. A tragedy for the Florida Keys, and I am left astounded that you, Tim, who live here and ought to know better, are backing a candidate who sees no need for DCA. Astounded. Astounded to the point that I am inclined to say you are an idiot.

I don’t know where George stands on Amendment 4. I have backed it all the way since 2006, when I first heard of it and of Florida Hometown Democracy and its mother, Attorney Lesley Blackner, who put just about all of her own liquid assets and time and effort into bringing Amendment 4 to fruition, against horrible odds and very nasty opposition. I have written many times about Lesley and Hometown Democracy and Amendment 4, and I expect in the coming weeks, moving toward the November 2 election, I will write again and again about the crying need for Amendment 4.

It will require prior local voter approval for changes to local comprehensive plans throughout the State of Florida.

If Amendment 4 had gotten passed in 2006, instead of being derailed by underhanded and, the Florida Supreme Court eventually determined, improper, if not actually illegal, shenanigans of its developer, lobbyist and elected officials opposition, Wisteria Island’s Comprehensive Plan change would have had to be approved first by the voters of this county. And perhaps also by the voters of Key West, which has its own Comprehensive Plan. Most likely, the Wisteria development application would not have come to be. Mostly likely, the threat of Amendment 4 coming into being has hastened the Wisteria developers to press forward with this current application, to get their deal “grandfathered” before Amendment 4 is passed. If it is passed. Meanwhile, DCA is standing in the way of the Wisteria development.

DCA oversees more than Comprehensive Plan changes. If it passes, Amendment 4 will not replace DCA. It will not put the voters into DCA’s shoes. Should Danny defeat George Neugent in the Republican primary, I will beat Danny up with his opposition to DCA. And I will beat him up with it leading into the Republican primary. At candidate forums I will tell the audience not to vote for Danny, because he opposes DCA. You have no idea yet, Tim, what it’s like to attend a candidate forum where I am speaking as a candidate. You have no idea, but I suppose you are going to find out. As is Danny.

I have not talked with George about where he stands on Wisteria Island, but I will be very suprised to see him okay transmitting the Wisteria applicaton to DCA. George is looking at the DCA letter. He is looking at opening a can of nasty worms that look like moray eels. He is looking at a precedent being set for granting special exceptions to future development applications traveling on a Wisteria Island precedent, with a subtext of taking lawsuits if the subsequent applications are not approved. He is looking at the City of Key West, where he has many friends, being up in arms over this deal, which they thought they had killed off three years ago. He is looking at a blatant attempt to end run the will and the referendum right of the people of Key West to approve any property acquistion or annexation by that city. And he is looking at a deal, the benefits of which for the County are miniscule compared to the benefits for the developers.

If the benefits of the Wisteria development to the County and to the City of Key West were as great as the benefits to the developers, it would be harder for George not to go along with it. But that is not the case here. Last Stand has come out in opposition to the Wisteria development because there is no net benefit to the taxpayer, to the people of the Keys. There is only benefit to the developers. If they get what they want, none of the problems they keep parading before county staff will be resolved. The problems will just move somewhere else nearby.

Wisteria is nothing but a developers’ bailout. An investment made many years ago by ancestors of some of the current owner developers. Investments are bets, wagers. Like buyng common stock in a publicly traded company, you take a risk. If the stock goes up in value, you are happy. If the stock goes down in value, you are unhappy. It’s the same with buying real estate, instead of common stock. Buying real estate gives you no more rights than you have when you bought it. But the Wisteria developers are acting as if they are entitled to more rights than they had when the island was purchased.

If George Neugent approves Wisteria, I will beat him up over it. And I will beat up voters who say they opposed the Wisteria development, but who support George. I will make them out to be hypocrites, liars, no better than developers who act as if they are entitled by right to have whatever they want to have in the Keys.

I am going to tear George up over his opposition to County Commissioner Kim Wiggington and State Attorney Dennis Ward’s efforts to bring real transparency and real ethics to our County Commission. Already, I have torn George up about that, and other commissioners as well. Not only will I tear George up, I will tear up people who backed Kim and Dennis’ efforts, but are supporting George. I will call them hypocrites and liars, no better than elected officials who want to be their own ethics commission.

I hope George spares me that. I hope he turns 180 degrees and makes Kim and Dennis his own personal Jesus when the lobbyist ordinance next comes before the County Commission. I hope George makes Kim and Dennis his own personal Jesus the next time the gift prohibition for county employees, including county commissioners, next comes before the County Commission.

I am astounded to hear that you do not know if Danny’s downstairs enclosure is legal or not. How could you not know, if he is your candidate? How could you not have asked him, knowing how big a deal illegal downstairs enclosures are in this county? If his home was constructed 1975, or rather, if his downstairs enclosure was construted after 1975, it was constructed in violation of the county code, and thus, by that definition, is illegal.

Regardless of what John November, Phil Shannon, or the Florida Ethics Commission say, if Danny is elected, every time downstairs enclosures comes before him as a county commissioner, he is going to have a conflict of interest. He is going to have a personal stake, a very big personal stake, in how the Commission votes on that item. Were I someone who owned a home with an illegal downstairs enclosure, I very much would want Danny on the County Commission. It would astound me to see any person who owns a home with an illegal downstairs enclsoure not vote for Danny in the Republican primary, and in the general election, if he beats George in the primary.

Oddly, if I were elected. I would file a quo warronto lawsuit on behalf of the County and all of its citizens, against FEMA and the County, in federal court, asking the Court to take over our downstairs enclosure problem entirely, taking FEMA and the County out of the decision making altogether. Danny has written that he does not favor litigation. John November and Phil Shannon (Citizens Not Serfs) have made it plain they do not favor litigation. George has made it plain he does not favor litigation. I say screw FEMA, sue the bastards.

Where Danny and I mainly differ is in ethics. Personal ethics. So far, Danny has struck me as devious, selfish, out for himself. So far, everything I have see come out of him in writing looked to be spawned solely by his running for the county commission. I never heard of Danny before he announced his candidacy late last year, wasn’t it? I never saw him at a government meeting. I never saw him send a concerned citizen letter to the editor, trying to help Keys people, as opposed to helping Danny. Maybe he did that, but I don’t remember it.

I do that ongoing, whether I’m running for office or not. I would do it if I was not running this year. I would rather do it that way, than to run, because I feel more comfortable speaking out when I do not have a secondary agenda. A conflict of interest, so to speak — being a candidate.

I told several people at Mad Dawg’s last night, on Cudjoe Key, a wonderful open mike evening, my first time there, every Thursday night, that I always come in last with nobody even close to second place. This time, I’m going to try to come in so last that I don’t even get a single vote. My campaign sign and slogan is the finger. If I get one vote, I will demand a recount. I refuse any votes. I don’t want any votes. I just want to speak and write to the issues, and running for the District 2 seat gives me the public platform to do it more broadly than just writing to my blogs and bulk email list.

Make no mistake. I don’t want the job. I never wanted the job. I never wanted to run for office. Alas, I am not the boss of me. God is the boss of me. And when God says, “Jump,” I ask, “How high?” If you, or anyone, has a problem with my candidacy, file your complaint with God. I’m just the messenger.

As for Danny, when he and I met in his office on Big Pine Key several months ago, at his request, the first thing I asked him was where was he going to get the 60 hours a week required of a county commissioner and still run his NAPA business? His fiance, Tammy, was there with us. Danny said Tammy would run his NAPA business if he became a county commissioner. He said he was used to working long hours, 100 hours a week, and he would be able to attend to both jobs.

Lots of assumptions there. Lots of predictions of the future.

George Neugent has been married a long time. He doesn’t have a private business to run. He devotes all of his business time to being a county commissioner. No way can Danny match George on that. No way. And no way can Danny’s learning curve catch up with George’s. Nor with mine, which is more than a tad behind George’s, but I’m cheating. The boss of me tells me what I need to know, when I don’t know it. As far as I know, I’m the only candidate who has to put up with that.

Sloan

In a separate email, Tim said he does not know where Danny stands on extension of utilites to No Name Key. How could Tim not know where Danny stands on such a hot issue in Danny’s very own back yard? Mabye the answer is, Danny has not told us where he stands. Maybe Danny is worried about losing votes if he tells us where he stands. Or maybe Danny told us where he stands and Tim and I never heard about. Everybody on No Name Key knows where I stand. Everybody who reads the Coconut Telegraph page of bigpinekey.com knows where I stand. I flat oppose the extension of public utilities to No Name Key.

Moreover, I flat oppose any new development anywhere in the Keys. The Keys already are way over-developed, and there is not a person who lives here, not even a devleoper, who can look in a mirror and honestly argue othewise. Mother Nature’s rights supercede people’s rights. I’ve been saying that since I ran against George Nuegent in 2006. I have never heard anyone else running for office in the Keys say that. I bet the majority of enviornmentalists in the Keys will vote for George Neugent, if he and I square off in the general electon. But the majority is not good enough. All olf them should vote for George. I don’t want their votes, because I want a perfect record this time: no votes, zero, zip, nada.

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