Elections, right-wingnut stuff

Around my house, we're pleased that Rob Sanders is going to be sitting on the bench in Volusia County. It was a close election — in the end, he won by only 52 votes.

That should serve as a wake-up call for a lot of people — primaries are important.

We're pleased about Andy Kelly keeping his seat on the Volusia County Council — even though some powers in his own Democratic Party weren't supporting him. We need people like Andy, though, who will vote against bad development.

In DeBary, expect a free-for-all this fall. The Koval-Long race promises to be the most interesting, but you never know.

Here's something really funny going around in an e-mail:

If you have not heard the Glenn Beck programs on Fox News you have
missed the most honest, factual documentation of the criminal
corruption of what is happening in Washington, and I would
encourage everyone to see as many of his programs as you possibly
can.

Honest? Factual? Glenn Beck?

HA-HA-HA-HA Snort, paw-swat!

Dang it, go vote!

My person reported that when she went to the polls this morning, there were only four people there to vote — including her.

Now, that's pretty disgusting. Snort, hiss! Don't you know we've got developers' tools to contend with? You wanna leave to the old polls who just follow the money? Look what's happening with Team Volusia. West Volusia politicos are rolling over. Think they smell the money?

An indifferent electorate means business as usual.

I read where even a chicken went to the polls. That makes voting sound pretty appetizing to me!

GO VOTE!


Note: sorry for the lag in posting. First, my person went out of town, leaving me home alone (never mind there was enough food, water and kitty litter to sustain an army of cats). Nobody was there to type for me, or pet me. Three hisses.

The home computer is still on the fritz, too. Makes things challenging.

Here's to the women, 90 years later

I'm just a cat, so I don't get to vote. I noted with interest though, that it's the 90th anniversary of the 19th amendment, the one that gave women the right to vote. Ratification was complete on Aug. 18, 1920.
In the November 1920 election, women voted for the first time. Warren G. Harding was running against James M. Cox.
The amendment ensures "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."
It's kinda hard for the young kittens coming along to appreciate what their foremothers went through. In the course of human history, it wasn't that long ago that women had no rights — not to vote, not even to own their property.
A piece of paper stating women had the right to vote did not mean women were treated equally, of course. That was the first step on a long road that is now being realized.
We have a woman, Alex Sink, running for governor. Think of her what you will, but we've come far enough that she's not that "lady" candidate. The rhetoric is over her resume and what she will or won't do if elected — not over her status as female.
That's a major shift that's come in the past few years.
It all started with the suffrage movement of some brave women in the mid-late 1800s.
Here's to you, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Anthony and those who came earlier or later. Here's to you, President Woodrow Wilson, for pushing the amendment. It came, after all, just after the war to secure democracy – World War I.
My typist, Patti, said, "And here's to you, Great-Aunt Carrie!"
Carrie was a suffragist and the first woman in her little town to wear trousers back then, when it was considered uppity.
Now, all you women, read up on the candidates and the issues, and go vote.

P.S. - Sorry for the hiatus in posting. My typist went out of town and left me home.

Guest editorial - Amendment 4

The anti-Amendment 4 forces are spreading their money and effort to defeat the amendment. So I guess I can run this guest commentary in favor of it.

After all, if developers hadn't been so greedy and local governments so ready to roll over for 'em, Amendment 4 would not be on the ballot.

Here's the guest piece:

Yankeetown Proves Amendment 4 Works for Citizens

BY ED CANDELA

If people could rely on elected officials to actually represent their constituents instead of special interests, there would be no need for Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment 4.

Our local version of Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment 4, in the Levy County community of Yankeetown, has been a success, and I want to caution readers not to buy the scare tactics now being used to try to trick people to vote against Amendment 4. You should definitely vote yes on Amendment 4 on the statewide ballot Nov. 2. You will be glad you did.

Here’s why: Several years ago, our quiet fishing community was targeted for massive development. Yankeetown officials conducted secret meetings with real estate speculators. One of the officials had a secret land sale contract with the developers. Their proposal was so massive it would have destroyed our beautiful Gulf Coast community’s character.

At the time, residents packed town council meetings trying to protect our way of life. But the council was listening to the real estate speculators —— not to us. In 2007, voters overwhelmingly passed a charter amendment and took back commonsense control. Today in Yankeetown, when politicians propose major land-use changes to the comprehensive land use plan, voters get the final say to approve or veto the plan. Yankeetown shows what Hometown Democracy Amendment 4 would help accomplish on a statewide scale if Floridians pass it Nov. 2.

Our process hasn’t been contentious – all proposed changes have been approved by voters since the charter amendment passed. One speculator did file lawsuits to try to intimidate us, but the courts threw them out.

It’s up to us to protect our communities, especially with a New York Times analysis finding Florida as the No. 1 state for public corruption. Officials from Levy and Dixie counties recently were convicted of taking bribes from a “developer” who really was an undercover FBI agent.

Yankeetown voters can now vote to protect our community – regardless of who is running our local government at the time.

Under Amendment 4, local city or county commissions will study, conduct public hearings, and vote on proposed changes to the local comprehensive land-use plan just like they do now. Here’s the new Amendment 4 step: Voters will veto or approve their decision on the next regularly scheduled election day. No special elections are required.

Before Yankeetown’s version of Amendment 4 passed, residents felt helpless. Now we’re empowered. Our community is too important to leave in the hands of politicians and lobbyists.

Who knows who will be in office in the future? It’s really all about trust. Whom do you trust more, you and your fellow Floridians or special-interest- loving politicians, lobbyists and real estate speculators?

I urge everyone to vote yes to Amendment 4 onNov. 2. You can learnmore at www.floridahometown democracy. com. You will be glad you took a stand. We sure are in Yankeetown!

Ed Candela is a former Yankeetown City Council member. Online video: tinyurl.com/ 27vv2nz

More vetting — vets make cats nervous

Hope all you hep cats out there in West Volusia are having a great weekend!
***

There must be a new college of veterinary medicine in West Volusia. We seem to have a glut of people wandering around asking "vetting" questions.

Old cats don't like being poked and prodded by vets. I'm glad I'm not running for office!

Here's the latest:

Lake Helen Police Chief Keith Chester sent out a long list of vetting questions, in the same spirit as the Tea Party Patriot's massive missive.

Chester sent the questions from his personal e-mail, not his city e-mail. There's a little fine line in there somewhere – where does the heft (no pun intended) of the police chief leave off and the private citizen begin?

It's a free country. So anybody can ask anybody questions.

Chester sent his list of question to a select clientele:

County Council candidates Eddie Colosimo, Margie Patchett, Joyce Cusack, Mary Martin, Andy Kelly, Dwight Lewis, Alison Curtiss, Joie Alexander and Ellen Darden.

I dunno why some candidates in the same race got the questionnaire and others didn't. Maybe Chester has already examined them.

Coming from someone who's a police chief, I find a handful of these are quite interesting questions (the spelling is his, not mine). Is he worried about being absorbed into the Sheriff's Office and losing the Lake Helen Police Department?

Do you feel the Sheriff’s Department is to costly? If so what changes would you make?

Do you feel the Department of Fire Services is to costly? If so what changes would you make?

What are your feelings about EVAC and our current emergency medical care and transport system?

Would you work towards County wide consolidation of emergency fire and medical services?
(Reason for or against?)

Would you support and work toward County wide consolidation of police services?
(Reason for or against?)

Here's the full text of Chester's e-mail:

I am currently up in the air on who I wish to support and vote for this year. There are many issues that I am concerned about that I would like to seek your views on. Please help me by providing clear and concise answers. Your answers will be shared with friends, family, and others. Sorry if this appears to be rude, but please do not give the normal “I will have to wait until I am elected to look into that” answer. I feel if you are running for an office that you should already know the ins and outs of the position that you are running for and you should already know what is going on. My friends, Family, and I are looking for real answers and real leadership. These are very scary times and to simply elected someone from sound bites or because they are likable would not be prudent.

What are your feelings on beach driving?

What County policies would you change pertaining to the operations of the beaches by the County?

What are your feelings about purchasing additional land along the beach for beach parking?

What are your feelings about the Beach Department?

What changes would you make in the Beach Department, if any?

What are your views pertaining to the Ocean Center and how it is being funded?

What would you do different to make the Ocean Center more profitable?

What are your feelings about the Air Port? What would you do different pertaining to the Air Port?

What would you do to help clean up Daytona’s beach side and to help bring tourism back?

Would you support bringing Spring Break back as it once was years ago? If yes, why? If not, why?

Would you strongly support Bike Week? If yes, why? If not, why?

Do you feel the Sheriff’s Department is to costly? If so what changes would you make?

Do you feel the Department of Fire Services is to costly? If so what changes would you make?

What are your feelings about EVAC and our current emergency medical care and transport system?

Would you work towards County wide consolidation of emergency fire and medical services?
(Reason for or against?)

Would you support and work toward County wide consolidation of police services?
(Reason for or against?)

Do you feel there are positions in County Government that are overpaid? If so what positions and what will you do to fix the problem?

Do you feel there are positions in County Government that are under paid? If so what positions and what will you do to fix the problem?

Do you wish to contract some County services out? If so what services? If so will you lay current employees off?

What if any positions would you cut within County Government?

Would you continue to allow for County employees to utilize County owned vehicles while not on duty and would you continue to allow them to take their vehicles home?

Are you aware of how much the County is paying for County employees issued cellular phones? Would you change the policies pertaining to cellular phones in any way?

What are your feelings on the current County employee retirement system?

Do you feel that the policies utilized to hire and promote County employees have been implemented fairly? If not, why not?

What if any cuts and changes would you make in the County’s library system?

Are you for or against the Lite Rail project?

What are your feelings pertaining to the ECHO program, should it be ended?

If you do not feel the ECHO program should be ended please answer the following questions.

Do you support ECHO funding being given to private groups? (If so, what groups?)

Do you support ECHO funding being given to other governmental groups? (If so, for what?)

What past ECHO projects would you have not allowed to have been funded?

If elected, what future types of ECHO projects will you vote against (If Any)?

Do you feel the citizens of Volusia County are well represented by the current ECHO board?

Do you feel the County should be spending County funds on trails projects at this time?

Do you feel the current County ecotourism plan is a good one?

What are your feelings pertaining to the Forever program, should it be ended?

Do you feel the County should have a Department of Community Assistance? If not, why not? If so what portions of the department should stay and what portions should go? Please be detailed.

The County’s Department of Children and Families, under the Department of Community Assistance, uses local tax dollars to fund many community programs.

Do you feel tax dollars should be given to private groups? If not, why not? If so, what types of groups and programs?

Do you feel partnerships should be created between the County’s Department of Children and Families and municipal governments? If not, why not? If so, what types of programs?

Volusia County has given millions of dollars through various County programs to Arts Organizations, Museums, and other similar organizations and groups. What groups and organizations, if any, do you feel should and should not have gotten County funds?

How do you feel about Votran?

What are your feelings about the Health Department?

What are your feelings about the Department of Emergency Management?

What if any cuts and changes would you make, if elected, in the County’s library system?

If elected, what will you do to insure our County’s roads are well maintained?

Do you feel the County has enough parks?

Would you add more parks and if so how would you fund them?

How do you feel the County Council and the School Board can work together to provide better services and cost savings for the citizens of Volusia County?

If elected, what would you do to help stimulate our local economy?

If elected, what would you do to help create jobs?

Do you feel the County is doing enough for children and families in this County? What would you do different?

What are your feelings about the County’s current mental health services? What would you do different? How do you feel they should be funded?

What are your feelings about the County’s Department of Corrections? Is there anything that you would do different?

Do you feel we have issues with illegal drug use in Volusia County? What would you do different, if anything, to help solve the problem if you feel that we have a problem?

The current County Government is touting that they have made major budget cuts. Do you feel the cuts have been deep enough? What would you do different?

Do you feel the County’s Government is to large? If so, where would you cut? If not, why not and what would you add?

Why do you feel you would be best for the job?

What are you going to do different if elected?

Do you feel that you have what it takes to make the changes that are needed? If so, why?

How do you plan on saving the Tax Payers of Volusia County? Do you plan on cutting taxes and if so how?

On another political note, the meow out is that candidates are getting a lot of pressure to attend certain forums – that it will be bad for them if they don't attend.

I see no reason why candidates should have to attend every forum a little group of highly partisan people decide to host. Threats, bullying and insinuations shouldn't be the American way.

DeBary Mayor goes nuts

Sure, he's mad about losing his office space.

But it sounds like that might not be such a bad thing, after all. Mayor Bob Garcia was insinuating himself into day-to-day operations of the city too much.

Running the daily operations of the city is the city manager's job, not the mayor's or any of the City Council members'. That's the way the charter was written, and it was written that way to keep politicos from interfering or using city staff to their own political advantage.

The elected officials set policy. The city manager implements it.

Garcia, however, was trying to sit in on staff meetings. He wanted city staff to evaluate his job performance.

Who, in a small operation, would write anything negative? It would be too easy to figure out who said it.

Then, the mayor could wave around the ratings to show what a good he's been doing.

Now, the mayor wants to take it to the gubernator or the prez of the newnited states?

Oh, please.

Not that he's a bad guy – he's got good intentions. He just needs some reining in and litter-box training.

Hurricane warnings

Don't be lulled into a false sense of security, the NOAA folks said.

The Miami Herald reports today, "There's a 70 percent chance of 14 to 20 named storms, including Alex and Bonnie, eight to 12 hurricanes with four to six becoming major ones. 'We're to the period when you start to see these waves rolling off of Africa. Everything is in place for a really active year,' said Gerry Bell, lead seasonal forecaster for NOAA's Climate Prediction Center."

Oh goody. At my advanced age of 13, I remember the hurricanes of '04, spent cowering beneath the bed as winds threatened to beat in the windows. Then, after Frances, suffering from the heat and bone-penetrating dampness. There was no electricity and thus, no air conditioning, for nine days.

A cat of my heft doesn't do well in those conditions.

I say my mantra: Just because there's a chance of named storms doesn't mean they will be big ones. It doesn't mean they will hit the U.S. coast or us.

Booger snot politics in West Volusia

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Prepare for fireworks in DeBary Wednesday night — Recommendation: liberal servings of catnip just before the meeting

The agenda for the Aug. 4 DeBary City Council meeting is fairly light. That's a good thing, since it looks to be another noisy meeting.

It doesn't seem like tempers have cooled off much — especially Mayor Bob Garcia's — since the last City Council meeting. That's when he, Vice Mayor Norm Erickson, Council Member Jack Lenzen and the others got into it over the Mayor's Round Table Meetings and office space in City Hall.

We fat cats like our comfort, so I wouldn't have squawked over the office space. Too bad that became a bone of contention and source of drama. (Mayor Garcia operating out of his truck. Um hum.)

But c'mon, Mayor. Norm Erickson was right about the meetings. It's better to legally notice them, then no problemo about Sunshine violations.

The problem is, if they're noticed as workshops or special meetings, they're not YOUR meetings any more. They are COUNCIL meetings. As these, on matters of concern to the entire community and City Council, should have been. They weren't a proper subject for a private round-table meeting. Discussion about how the city might handle traffic control and traffic on busy West Highbanks is a matter for the entire council.

And Erickson is right about the charter. The mayor doesn't run the government. In DeBary, the mayor is a City Council member who has a few extra perks and ceremonial duties, such as chairing City Council meetings and signing legal documents for the city as required by ordinance.

Aw well, here's hoping they can bury the hatchet. And not in each other.

Perhaps serve them all a bit o' catnip just before the meeting, to mellow them out. It was way too tense at the last meeting.

The meeting is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday in Council Chambers at DeBary City Hall. The resolution about office space is on the agenda. Public participation is permitted, and I encourage it!

Go argue your point of view.