Good Morning Florida Keys

(Mongo)

Note my letter to the editor in today’s Key West Citizen. Maybe it will help stop people from coming up to me and saying they are sorry I dropped out of the mayor’s race. People who read Mandy Bolen’s article saying I had conceded I had little chance of winning, and had thrown all my support to Craig Cates. I told someone last night, a member of the Citizen Editorial Board actually, that I felt like going to the Citizen and wiping its Editor, Tom Tuell, all over his office. The Board member was pretty upset himself with what had been written about me. As for Mandy, she really ought to give serious consideration to confining her reporting to baby showers, weddings, picnics and the like.  
 
Today’s post features email correspondence initiated by a former co-worker of Mike Mongo after she read yesterday’s ”We Can Do Better” post.
 

Hi Sloan,

Your email was forwarded to me from Helen Harrison who is on your email list. She knows I have interest in the subject of “Mike Mongo” who’s real name is Mongo Nichol.

I worked with him for 4 months at Wodu Media and know a lot of background information. In fact, it makes me sick to my stomach every time I hear about him running for mayor or see a sign also.

He does get paid by Wodu Media, it’s just not on the record. He just asks Peter for “a couple thousand” whenever he needs it.

While I was working for them they talked about Mike becoming mayor in order to advance the standing of Peter Downie in terms of his businesses (Cool Key West and Wodu Media). I even saw a picture Mike had drawn with “Mongo for Mayor” written and a line drawn connecting that to the words “Cool Key West” (http://coolkeywest.com/). The anticipated revenue to run Cool Key West was to come from advertisements on the site. Peter Downie has been unsuccessful in getting people to advertise, so perhaps Mike’s idea is to make Cool Key West the “homepage” for Key West WiFi in order to lure in advertisers.

Mike has tricked a lot of people in Key West into thinking he is a good person. I can tell you for sure that he is not.

I have so much to say about this subject I could write a book. My husband and I started making a blog against him and then decided that it was not worth our time. But every time I hear anything about him running for Mayor I get so angry that I feel I have to do something.

Please contact me if you want to know any more information.

Thanks,

L

Hi, L. Thanks for writing.
 
Anything else you wish to write to “fill in some of the blanks” – please do. I probably will use what you wrote today, tomorrow. And anything else you add to it. I would like to use your name, but suppress your email address. Would that be okay?
 
I have known Mike since early 2003, and wrote before today about dealings I’d had with him, which I explained in one canddiate forum, and said he is the most self-centered person I have ever known, and is incapable of self-examination. That’s the forum where I told the audience, if they didn’t vote for me, then vote for Craig Cates, and not for the other two (Mike and Morgan). I had jumped on Morgan in that forum, too.
 
I am hearing today that Morgan or his camp put Mike up to run, figuring Morgan would lose no votes to Mike, but he would take votes away from Craig and me, which probably is happening. Do you see any glimmer of truth in this rumor? Or do you feel Mike is operating on his own/fronting for Peter Downie?
 
Sloan

Hi Sloan,

I would rather not have my name used, maybe you could say a past coworker or something. And if you do mention these points in an email I would like to be able to read it before it gets sent out if possible.

I never got the idea that anyone put Mike up to running so I’m not sure about that one. I figure he’s just doing it for Peter and to boost his own ego.

Here are some more interesting points about Mike:

-Just before I stopped working with Wodu, he signed some documents that gave him a stake in the business.
-He is very irresponsible. There were many bounced checks and work that was paid for by clients but never finished.
-He created lots of emotional drama and had screaming fits.
-He told me to ignore a Key West nonprofit group that helps children after Wodu had promised them help with their website.
-His job at Wodu was to sell people the most expensive websites he could. The price was not based on the work that had to be done but on how much he thought the client could afford to pay.
-He never got anything accomplished and was much more about talk than action.

I don’t know if any of this information will help. Let me know if you have questions about anything & good luck.

Thanks,

L

NOTE: Because we are in early voting, with election day just days away, I’m going ahead and publishing L’s sentiments, verbatim, honoring her request to keep her name out of it. It always puzzles me when people get riled up and write to me about something they perceive to be seriously wrong, but then don’t want to be identified or get involved. 

Whatever, it appears that I didn’t just dream up that Mono and Peter want to capitali$e on Mongo’s campaign for mayor, and ca$h in even more if he get$ elected. Why am I not surprised? And it appears that I’m not the only person in Key West who has had extensive personal dealings with Mongo and who knows he is a sociopath. My condolences to the people he has duped.

Meanwhile, Mongo was required by state election laws to disclose his sources of income (not the amount), when he filed to run for office. He didn’t show in what he filed with the City Clerk any income from any of Peter Downie’s businesses. Mongo also was required to disclose any money given to him by Peter, which ended up going toward Mongo’s campaign. And Mongo was required by federal law to report his income from Peter, even if paid under the table. I think maybe Peter is required under federal law to report what he pays Mongo, or at least show it as a business expense.

I heard some other stuff yesterday about some things Mongo has boasted about himself at candidate forums and elsewhere, which apparently were a bit embellished. As soon as I have a report from the person who knows about it, I’ll share it with you. Meanwhile, keep ever in mind that Mongo’s campaign slogan is WE CAN DO BETTER. Maybe he needs to start with him doing better, before he attempts to lead others down his primrose path.

I’m headed up to Big Pine Key this morning, to be a guest on US 1 (104.1) Radio’s Biz Baz, 9-11 a.m. Ought to be interesting and, hopefully, amusing. Writing about Mongo is anything but amusing.

Sloan Bashinsky, citizen, and because I’m running for mayor, a campaign advertisement approved and paid for by me

One of my provocateurs told me this morning, “There are 500 Mongo for Mayor signs all in Key West, isn’t that wonderful?” As yet unknown to me, he was referring to Mike’s letter to the editor in today’s Key West Citizen, telling the public all the things it had left out about him in its recent ”Mayor wannabes” article. I know how Mike felt. The Citizen did the same thing to me in that article, and even made it look like I had thrown in the towel and thrown all of my support to Craig Cates. But the Citizen article is not what I want to talk about today. What I want to talk about today is Mike and his campaign slogan, ”We can do better.” For I know we can do better.
 
During an interview on radiofreekeywest.com yesterday morning, one of the crew said on the air that a city commission candidate (unnamed) had told him that the election on October 6 would end in a run-off between Craig Cates and Mike Mongo. I said hearing that made me sick to my stomach. Next thing, out of the blue I thought, then said, “Mike ran for mayor to draw attention to his computer and online business interests.” Businness interests he kept talking about at candidate forums, which would create jobs for high school graduates, bring in new businesses, etc. And, I suspect, put $$ in Mike’s piggy bank.
 
Heading back to my flat on my trusty big red steed (one-speed rehab conch cruiser) after the interview, I chanced to be hailed on Simonton Street by Craig Cates, who was tacking a “Cates for Mayor” sign on a building front with some other campaign signs already on it. When I told Craig what had come to me out of the blue about Mike Mongo, he said some time ago several people had told him the reason Mike was running for mayor was to bring attention to his business interests. When said I didn’t think it was a coincidence that I had just run into and heard that from him, only just a little while after realizing it myself, Craig smiled, said he didn’t think it was a coincidence either.
 
After a bit, I went by the City Clerk’s office and asked to see Mike’s campaign file. I found the business interests and sources of income sheet, and saw for business interests, three companies: Computers Are My Life, WODU Media, and Peter Downie, LLC. As sources of income, I saw three other companies: Danger Corp., Eden House, Key West Montessori School. I found that a bit of a surprise, because after hearing Mike speak so highly of himself and these companies at candidate forums, I would have thought he and the companies were knocking them dead. Maybe they are, but they aren’t paying him anything for it, not according to his business interests and income statement for his campaign on file in the City Clerk’s office.
 
I think Danger Corp. is a charter boat company working out of Key West. I know what the other two income-producers are.
 
Computers Are My Life, according to what I googled, is a computer repair company Mike runs or has something to do with. WODU Media and Peter Downie, LLC, are to do with Peter Downie and Web design and advertising. On WODO’s website, it says, Peter Downie redesigned Key West, next the world. Darn, I can’t seem to see what part of Key West Peter redesigned. It looks the same to me, pretty near, as it looked when I arrived here in late 2000. Maybe they are talking about something in cyberspace? Or maybe just in space? Like, well, being from the Pleiades, I have to stay alert to that possibility.
 
And being a citizen and candidate for Mayor, I have to stay alert to what just might be shell games, scams, wool-over-the-eyes routines, which might not be seen by the ordinary just naturally trusting citizens of Key West.
 
Now, am I saying Mike isn’t involved in the businesses he talked about at candidate forums? No, I am not saying that. Online, I see his name and/or photo associated with those companies. He works with/for them, but I see nothing to show he is is being paid any money by them, which brings me back around to Mike’s secret reason to run for mayor is to get the word out about about his computer/online business interests, so he can start making money out of them.
 
I can’t help but wonder if Mike intends that one of these businesses will help the city create a city-wide Wi-Fi he kept talking about at candidate forums, which he said would cost $200,000 to set up, including the equipment, and $10,000 a year, or was it a month?, to operate. The start up money, as I recall him saying, would come from government stimulus money. The maintenance costs would come from local businesses buying adds on the city Wi-Fi companion website. Mike said at a candidate forum that city officials need to stop doing business favors for their friends.
 
Only the day before, people in Key West, including me, received recorded phone messages from a George Murphy, calling on behalf of Mike Mongo, extolling his prowess as a business man. On our cell phones we received those calls. How did they get our cell phone numbers? And why didn’t we get called by a person, instead of a machine? Didn’t they want us to be able to ask George questions about Mike?
 
Someone called me this morning, to say he belongs to GLEE and Last Stand, and attends their meetings. He’s never seen Mike Mongo there, but in his letter to the editor today, Mike claims commitment to GLEE and Last Stand. This caller was not a happy camper.
 
I have no campaign signs anywhere in Key West that I know of. I hate campaign signs, consider them litter, pollution. And what do they tell about a candidate? Nothing. However, it may be that online and on the Web, I have Key West and the Keys covered pretty well, with goodmorningkeywest.com and goodmorningfloridakeys.com, non-commercial websites I use to promote Key West and the Keys when I’m running for office and when I’m not running. Some people have told me that I have redesigned politics in Key West and have a viable vision for  its future. If you elect me mayor, I will redesign Key West, to make it better, sustainable – economically, spiritually, and otherwise.
 
Sloan Bashinsky, campaign advertisement approved and paid for by me

 Yesterday afternoon’s candidate forum at Bethel A.M.E. Church in Bahama Village was attended by Bahama Village residents, all but one of African descent. The rest of the audience were the church’s pastor, Sinclair Forbes, journalists, the candidates, and three people connected with the candidates’ campaigns.
 
The candidates who came were District 6 city commission aspirant Jim Marquardt and mayor candidates Craig Cates, Mike Mongo and myself. Jim told me earlier in the day that he had received a phone call from someone connected to the camp of his opponent, City Commissioner Clayton Lopez, saying Clayton wasn’t coming because he had not received an invitation. I have the email inviting Clayton and Jim, and the mayor candidates. Clayton’s email address is the first email address in the header. Pastor Forbes said yesterday that Clayton and Mayor Morgan McPherson were down the way at the park putting on a hotdog cookout for their campaigns. Pastor Forbes said he was not pleased that Clayton and Morgan had not replied to the invitations, at least to say they could not attend the forum. He made it clear they would know he was not pleased.When time to introduce myself came, I said that I had a website, goodmorningkeywest.com, and on the home page, in the menu, was a file, “Sloan’s Campaign Platform.” In that file, it says Bahama Village is the heart and soul of Key West. I said I would explain why I felt that way, and I might weep as I told it.
 
Interrupted much choking up and nearly bursting into tears, I told of the black woman who came to my home while I was being born in a Birmingham hospital, looking for work. The daughter of an American slave, for 25 years Sister Charlotte Washington was my mother. Instead of reading the Bible and preaching to me, she taught me about Jesus in the way she lived. At her singing in a black church in nearby Bessemer, when I was in law school, the minister told us that Sister Washington had been a behind the scenes leader of the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham, going into black churches in the area, telling her people to be tolerant with their white brothers and sisters, who, I said last night, had gone crazy. I said I did things back in those days that I was not proud of, but Charlotte Washington was so deep inside of me that she won out. The holiest woman I ever knew, I said.
 
When time came for questions from the audience, a woman told a very long story about coming to Key West, and her troubles being a single mother and being a black woman in the heart of a black community with many troubles with its youth. I wondered if she would ever get around to asking her question, and only with Pastor Forbes’ help did she ask it: If we were elected, what would we do to help the black youths who got into trouble escape criminal prosecution and be put into an educational program that would give them a chance to make something of their lives? Work educational programs, not school programs.
 
When I my turn to speak came, I said I was friends with State Attorney Dennis Ward, and I had tried very hard last year to get him elected, even as I was running for the county commission. I said I felt Dennis would be inclined to help kids charged with crimes move in a different direction, unless it was violent crimes, such as what happened to Tom Milone. Pastor Forbes tried to play down Tom’s attack by four black youths, because he had pretty recovered from the attack. Pastor Forbes said he didn’t like Tom calling the boys “thugs.” He said he was working to try to help one of the boys. When I said, after a good bit of back and forth, that I would feel the same way about what happened to Tom, if the four had been white boys, that seemed to put an end to the back and forth.
 
Maybe also influencing was my telling of when, just after Wilma, I waded into a race riot involving about 20 black high school students who had jumped the owners of Coffee Plantation at their business on Whitehead Street. Somehow I had been able to talk the kids down and off the property, after I came upon the situation. Had I not come along, someone might have been seriously injured, or even killed. Some kids would have spent a long time in prison. It was God’s doing that I was there, I said, but when I later tried to talk with black Bahama Village elders about it, I basically was told to shove it.
 
I asked the audience, where were those kids parents and the black community? Why did they not get involved afterward, to try to see to it that nothing like that ever happened again? Where were the four black youths’ parents and the black community after Tom Milone was assaulted? I said the black community cannot take the postion that this is racial discrimination by whites against blacks.
 
I switched gears, to education. I said Bahama Conch Community Land Trust is teaching Bahama black youths building trade skills. I said many kids are not suited to go to college, either because they are not interested or they don’t have the aptitude. They should go to trade school instead.
 
The woman who had started the discussion said she was involved in the high school. It had trade school courses. I said I was not aware of this, because all I ever read or heard about the high school was its mainstream curriculum and getting kids ready to go to college. However, if the high school did have a good trade school program, the kids’ parents and community and churches and teachers need to evaluate the kids to determine which ones are suited to go to college and which are not.
 
I said our schools are geared toward college prep, and what our schools should be geared toward is preparing children to be able to work at something they are good at. I told the story of my wife who flunked out of high school, because she could not do the math or spell, and finally she attended a trade school, the Birmingham School of Fine Arts, where she excelled because she was a natural-born artist. It was her gift, it was what she was supposed to do for work.
 
After the forum, a younger woman approached me, disturbed that I was taking a throw-back view of education. Well dressed, educated, obviously, she seemed not to have understood me, or I had not explained myself well enough. I said that many children go to college because it is their parents will or desire for them to do so. Their parents didn’t have that experience, or their parents want them to do become what they themselves wanted to become. This is very bad for children, I said, to have their parents live through them vicariously. Better, I said, for parents to learn what their children are inclined toward, every child has a gift, and encourage that child, gently, toward developing that gift, whatever it is, short of becoming a criminal.
 
I asked if she had seen the movie, “The Soloist.” She said she had. A gifted musician, that’s all he could do, ended up homeless, and schizophrenic. Yet that was his gift, music, and he was allowed to embrace it in his own way, after his white mainstream benefactor, who discovered him on the street, finally accepted that he was going to have to take the gifted musician as he was, instead of trying to bend his ward to what he thought he should be.
 
I asked the woman if she had seen the movie, “Dead Poets Society?” She said she had not. I said it was about a boy who wanted to be an actor, but his father wanted him to be a doctor and tried to force it, and the boy killed himself.
 
I said often my daughters had asked me what they should study and become, and I always told them their hearts would lead them. One of them, after much non-school experience after college, went to medical school and is now an eye doctor and surgeon. I knew from the time she was little that she wanted to be a doctor, but I never leaned on her about it. I encouraged her to find her own way, and eventually she got there.
 
I said her older sister is a wife and mother, and is involved in community work. They both went to the same Ivy League women’s college. When some years after graduating, the one who is a wife and mother received a questionnaire from her alma mater, inquiring into her work experience, which info was being gathered from all alumni to be used in a marketing brochure the college was putting together, there was no blank to fill in for what my daughter did. She wrote them back, saying they would never receive another penny from her.
 
I said it is very hard on children to fail in school, and keep failing. My wife who became and artist was all beat up in her soul, because she was a dunce in high school studies. When she finally was allowed to go to an artist school, she blossomed. It was her gift, what she was supposed to do. We need to nudge children toward what they can do well, what God made them to do, not what we want them to do, often for us. In that regard, check out the editorial cartoon in today’s Key West Citizen.
 
My oldest daughter’s mother pushed her really hard to do what she herself had not done, I told the woman last night. I said we need to ask God to help us see what children’s gifts are, and then we need to gently nudge children into developing those gifts. Then I told her of the time I had tried to get my daughters interested in white water canoeing, which I loved, and one day they told me they didn’t want to be my son, and I felt so bad that I had tried to do that to them. Never again did I try to force them to be what I wanted them to be.
 
In this moment, I wonder what my oldest daughter might have done if her mother had left her alone? My guess, she would have become a professional dancer, for she was truly gifted in dance. But her mother didn’t feel dance was a good enough career for her daughters, even though she herself had been a gifted dancer in her teens, and a gifted piano player. Her father had made her quit, because he thought it was too important to her. He sent her to college, instead. She was really smart, but she wasn’t motivated. She wasn’t motivated because she wasn’t doing what her soul wanted her to do.
 
Am I upset that my oldest daughter became a wife and mother? Not in the least. However, I was upset that her mother played God with her. In case someone reading this wonders if I’m more proud of my daughter the doctor and surgeon, than my daughter the wife and mother, the answer is what are you thinking? They are my daughters. I love them both the same.
 
Well, I wonder if this sort of outlook is what Key West people want in a mayor? I wonder if they would rather have a mayor who doesn’t make them uncomfortable, who doesn’t challenge them? After they grew up and had their own families, my daughters didn’t seem to care for my challenging them about stuff they didn’t want to be challenged about, nor did their mother. I’m speaking now of challenges to the soul. The kind of challenges God heaps on me ongoing.
 
Challenges, such as reading in Many Bolen’s report on candidates in Key West Citizen day before yesterday, that I have conceded that I don’t have a chance of winning the mayor’s race, and have endorsed Craig Cates. I’d bet the conch farm that none of my opponents feel that I conceded. I bet nobody who attended any candidate forum, except Mandy Bolen, feels I conceded. Mandy was not at Bethel A.M.E. Church yesterday, to my knowledge, the first candidate forum ever put on by the black community in Key West. Mandy knew about it, she’s on my email list, gets everything I post. When I make a mistake involving her, she lets me know and I correct it.
  
Sloan Bashinsky, campaign advertisement approved and paid for by me

Yesterday, I looked over Dennis Reeves Cooper Mayor McPherson Instrumental in Fixing Vote at College, starting at the bottom of the front page of this week’s Key West The Newspaper.The crux of the allegation is that Morgan called Dennis to say he had not called Governor Crist about appointing his sister, Antoinette McPherson Martin, to the Board of Florida Keys Community College. Morgan did not tell Dennis, according to earlier reporting by Key West Citizen journalist Mandy Bolen, that he had gotten his friend, Rodney Bareto, Chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who has chaired Crist campaign committees, and who accompanied Crist during his recent trip to the Keys to meet with the County School Board, to approach the Governor in Antoinette’s behalf. Bareto then sent Crist a one-sentence email recommending Martin, the only recommendation she received. Among those passed over, Dennis wrote, was Key West resident Ann Reynolds, an Alabama university president for five years and a chancellor overseeing community colleges in New York for seven years, who had been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen. Antoinette McPherson Martin’s credentials are, she’s a local psychologist.

Alas, instead of just concentrating on the bubba fix he had sniffed out, Dennis starts off his indictment by saying how wowed he is by the college’s young and beautiful president, and all the great things (I also believe) she did to turn around the college, and how she was railroaded into early retirement by a few disgruntled lower-level college staff, over the strong objection of experienced faculty. A railroad, Dennis suggests, the college’s Board was able to pull off with Antoinette McPherson Martin on Board, but impliedly not with Ann Reynolds there. In mingling his love for beautiful young women with his obvious disregard of serious evidence that the now early-retired beautiful young college president had a not so young and beautiful side to her management style, in ignoring that the beautiful young college president is said to have had a similar exit from the college where she had worked previously, in assuming he knew how Ann Reynolds would vote, if she had been on the Board, Dennis royally screwed up what should have been a very important piece of revelatory journalism: Mayor Morgan McPherson meddled where he didn’t belong, to get his sister on the college’s Board; and then he misled Dennis about it.

On the bright side was the excellent Editorial in yesterday’s (Saturday) Key West Citizen, explaining that the Citizen no longer will endorse candidates for office, and why. Past endorsements were not by unanimous vote. Past endorsements were often subjective (best guesses). Past endorsements left the Citizen in an awkward position, if the endorsed candidate was elected and then didn’t turn out so swell. Past endorsements opened the Citizen to charges of unfair reporting about unendorsed candidates. And so on. The no-endorsement policy frees the Editorial Board and the Citizen to be more objective in its treatment of candidates for office, before they are elected, and afterward, and it allows the voters to make their own decisions based on what they know about the candidates. I told a member of the Editorial Board yesterday that I would have had no problem with the Citizen continuing its endorsement policy, if the backroom discussion and infighting and vote count was reported, so the readers could see what had really happened in arriving at endorsements. Who participated, who said what, and all that transparency stuff the Citizen wants elected officials to provide.

In taking the no-endorsement route, the Citizen joins Hometown! PAC, which made the same no-endorsement decision earlier this year, after endorsing candidates since its exception. Not endorsing candidates has freed Hometown! to be more objective before and after elections. It has taken the taking of sides out of it. It has, as the Citizen Editorial said, left it up to the voters to take sides, based on what they know about candidates, much of which is the result of what is reported in our newspapers and what comes out at candidate forums. Any citizen who only went to Hometown! PAC’s two Calls to Candidates and three candidate forums, without even attending several other informative candidate forums sponsored by respected organizations, would have gotten a far better read on each candidate than what has been presented in our newspapers. If you don’t believe me, read the lead front-page article on the mayor wannabes, in this morning’s Key West Citizen, and compare that brush overview to what you learned in any candidate forum you have attended, if you attended one. Alas, only a small percentage of the electorate attends candidate forums, which leaves our newspapers with a great deal of influence over how voters perceive candidates. If you think newspaper reporting on candidates is unbiased and fair, you perhaps ought to take a refresher course in reality. And if you think Mayor McPherson, who is a minister, will always tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help him God, you have been hoodwinked by what he calls The Father of Lies.

3 p.m. today, Sunday, brings a candidate forum at Bethel A.M.E. Church in Bahama Village, 223 Truman Avenue. District 6 candidates, Clayton Lopez and Jim Marquardt, and the mayor candidates have been invited to participate. The public is invited.

Sloan Bashinsky, mayor candidate, campaign advertisement, approved and paid for by me.

Email correspondence with Lydia Estenoz and Mayor Morgan McPherson about yesterday’s Not Through Rose-Colored Glasses, Key West post:
 
Hi Sloan,

Thank you.  That was most informative; I was not aware of the $1 a year lease for daycare, and moving the school district to Marathon is an idea that may just have some merit.

Since the City Hall building is a “sick building”, it is urgent that employees be relocated regardless of when and where and at what cost the new City Hall will be built.  Did the commission discuss portable offices off-site?  Katrina Cottages also come to mind since they have some very beautiful green business buildings and school building-sized Cottages that can be easily constructed and disassembled.

Coral Shores High School moved to portables for about 2 years when they rebuilt their campus about 10 years ago.  How much of the $18 million is going to come from grant and federal stimulus dollars?

Lydia Estenoz

Hi, Lydia.
 
I have heard of no plans for temporary office space for city employees. It may have been discussed, but I didn’t hear of it. Looks to me that once the black mold was known to be there (after Wilma), or at least when some of the staff started having problems because of it, temporary quarters should have been secured right away, instead of letting it linger all this time.
 
I didn’t say it in today’s post, maybe I should have, but why didn’t Morgan, Clayton and the other commissioners launch an emergency action to deal with City Hall after Wilma waded ashore? Homeowners and commercial business owners were dealing with black mold, ripping out sheetrock and plaster, and drying out their properties and replacing what had been torn out. Clayton lived in a FEMA trailer. Yet it seems all City Hall did was let it slide.
 
I like the way Morgan has tried to steer the city toward not repeating Duck Tours, but I feel he may be trying too hard to make Ed Swift happy (Morgan’s brother, Ben, is Ed’s Comptroller, and his mother works for Ed, doesn’t she?) Also, I sense the City is trying to use the new tour applicant as a chance to solve some of the city’s economic woes, instead of giving the applicant a chance to get started and grow into a more “lucrative” arrangement for the city.
 
I doubt more than a handful of people were aware of the $1 lease for the day care center operated by Clayton’s wife, before I spoke to Steve Pibramsky about it one afternoon at his office, then explained it that night at the Hometown! PAC District 3 forum at the VFW in Bahama Village. You could have heard a pin drop in that packed room, after I stopped talking.
 
Today I received a ping about the $1 a year lease the Yacht Club has with the city. I was told by a Yacht Club member that the lease originally was for sea bottom, useless almost. As time passed, the Yacht Club developed the area, built the docks, brought in the landfill, etc., at its expense. Even so, developers have done that with wetlands and they didn’t get off with just paying $1, did they?
 
My sense is a very large majority of the Keys public now are fed up with what looks to them like special treatment a select few receive with assistance from our local governments or relatives thereof. I have to ask what was Clayton thinking? Did he really not wonder if his wife’s lease with the School Board might raise eyebrows, if news of it ever got out?
 
Well, I could rumble for quite a while longer, and maybe all the rumbling would make me fall off this chair. Thanks for writing. Hope life goes reasonably well for you in these interesting times. Heck, I didn’t even mention all the commotion the college’s been going through. And you were right in the middle of it, and a big part of why it came to a head.
 
Sloan

RE: Not Through Rosed-Colored Glasses, Key West?

From:	Morgan McPherson (mayor@keywestcity.com)
Sent:	Fri 9/25/09 11:15 AM
To:	keysmyhome (keysmyhome@hotmail.com)

Terry Johnston is the one that  talked about a $1 lease and Bill Verge was the one that chastised about roll back… 

RE: Not Through Rosed-Colored Glasses, Key West?

From:	sloan bashinsky (keysmyhome@hotmail.com)
Sent:	Fri 9/25/09 5:11 PM
To:	morgan mcpherson (mayor@keywestcity.com)

You mentioned people who tell the Body to cut costs, then ask for a $1 lease. Teri may have mentioned a $1 lease, too. I got there a little after it started and missed some of what was said. Teri told the audience it wasn’t on top of the facts/history. You  also explained how hard you all had worked with the budget, and how hard it is to make many people happy, which is true. Verge went after a whole bunch of what he viewed as public misperceptions, and left me with the misperception that a portion of the sales tax was specially earmarked for the new city hall, the money for it already raised. That’s why I went to David, to see if I’d heard correctly, which I had not. I feel the Body is moving too quickly on committing to building a new city hall, but it’s not my call.

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As far as I know, the welfare of city staff working in City Hall has been at the bottom of our city commissioners and mayor’s list of things to do.

Sloan Bashinsky, mayor candidate, campaign advertisement approved and paid for by me

 Last night’s city commission meeting brought yet another firestorm of public protest over the annual budget I still say the commissioners and mayor have sweated blood to bring in. They sweated even more blood last night, when they voted unanimously (Commissioner Rossi absent) to dip into reserves to go to roll back, instead of increasing taxes, is how I understood it.I was astounded to hear two people say they had only just learned of the new city hall being built, after the old one is razed, total estimated cost: $18,000,000. I was astounded because this has been an ongoing issue for quite a while now; it’s been in the newspapers plenty. I said to the audience during my citizen comments that people who are only just finding out about the new city hall haven’t been paying attention.I added that I live 100 feet from the present city hall, and never once had it occurred to me to object to it being torn down and the new one being built in the same spot. This was in direct contrast to two citizens. One said he lived across the street and the other said her business was across the street, and the razing and new construction would adversely affect them.

Then I said that I understood the old city hall iss infested with black mold, an extreme health hazard, and if by some fluke I became mayor, I sure wouldn’t want to work in that building, and I couldn’t imagine the mayor or any of the commissioner wanted to work there, either.

I concluded, saying, in this very down economy I was very concerned about spending $18,000,000 for a new city hall, and I hoped something else could be found for city offices at this time.

In reply to a fresh movement to use unused School Board property for city offices, Mayor Morgan McPherson said the School Board had already shot down two previous attempts by the city to do just that. He then chastised people who demanded a tax roll back, yet came to before the body seeking favors. He mentioned a $1 a year lease, which I took to be aimed at one of the supplicants in the audience. I found that ironic, as Commissioner Clayton Lopez’s wife has a $1 a year lease with the School Board, for a day care center.

Commission Verge said the new city hall is already paid for out of a portion of the city sales tax, and building a new city hall will not affect the budget or what services are kept and what are dispensed with. Confused, I went over to one of the city managers and quietly asked if this portion of the sales tax had been specially earmarked for the new city hall? No, there were many things that were to be covered by the sales tax, not just the new city hall. In other words, I said, the sales tax does not have to be spent on a new city hall? That’s correct, I was told.

Commissioner Pais then made it clear that the sales tax could be spent on anything the city needed and that he opposed a new city hall in this tough economic time. He said he favored tearing down the old city hall, however, as did everyone on the dais. However, I was left with the impression that the other commissioners and the mayor favored proceeding with a new city hall, because, some of them said, in this down economy contractors are hurting, the best deal for the city can be struck, and the contractors not having much else to be doing will put all of their effort into getting the new city hall built on time, at or under budget.

Several commissioners and the mayor reminded the citizens present and watching on television (Channel 77, I think) that this entire process had been vetted many times, and they were in a no-win situation. To keep services many citizens feel are essential, taxes have to be raised. To go hold the line, to satisfy citizens who oppose tax increase, what many people feel are essential services need to be cut. This is what led, finally, it seemed, to the decision to dip into reserves, to satisfy both sides. A decision reluctantly made by every commissioner and the mayor.

Unresolved, it seemed last night, is where the city employees at the old city hall and the other building across the parking lot, also to be razed and replaced, and the fire fighters at the fire station attached to the old city hall, also to be razed and replaced, are going to work during the interim. These people and their equipment will have to be put somewhere, and who’s to say they cannot be housed there for a good while, to save the city money during this very severe economic crunch? Whose to say, as Commissioner Pais asked last night, the School Board doesn’t have the solution?

Even as the city just might be about to face, if it doesn’t raze the current city hall and relocate those employees, lawsuits filed by city employees over black mold infections they contracted by having to work in the old city hall. Meaning, it looks to me that the city needs to get to cracking with razing the old city hall and moving those employees to safe working quarters, wherever they may be found. That’s the first step, no matter what else is decided or done.

Also lurking is the $8,000,000, Mayor McPherson reminded us last night, the city shelled out earlier this year to settle the Duck Tours case. $8,000,000 that all but wiped out the city’s reserves and put the city in the very position that was lamented throughout the meeting last night. Based on my conversation with Attorney Mick Barnes a couple of days ago, as he walked to City Hall with his client, the city is on the verge of being sued over pretty much the same thing that got the city sued by Mick on behalf of Duck Tours. Mick told me he has tried very hard save the city money, and he has tried very hard to retire from the practice of law, but the city keeps acting as if it doesn’t want to save money or for him to retire.

The city needs to reach an accord with Mick’s client and allow him to go into competition against his former father-in-law, Ed Swift, who, in partnership with the city, brought on the Duck Tours case by running that company out of business to preserve Swift’s monopoly on the tour business in Key West. If the city thinks none of that history will be introduced into evidence in a new case alleging a very similar anti-trust violation against the city, the city had darn well better think again. The city already established a pattern of practice in the Duck Tours case. It’s up to the city to break the pattern, if it doesn’t want the pattern used against it in a second anti-trust case.

Morgan won his first run for mayor, in 2005, by bringing a little rubber duck to candidate forums. He was the lone vote on the dais against the $8,000,000 settlement with Duck Tours. The new tour company owner told me that Morgan has tried get the city to allow his company to go into business, including issuing the new company a temporary operating permit, until the final details can be ironed out. All to avoid a Duck Tours repeat.

Even so, based on what I’ve heard and read in the newspapers, it looks to me that the city, including Morgan, is trying to impose on the new company much the same “franchise” agreement the city has with Ed Swift’s company. Ed’s is an established company. To require a new company to pony up what an established company pays the city, especially an established company this city has already illegally protected from a prior competitor, just doesn’t pass the smell test for this former practicing lawyer, and I seriously doubt it will pass the smell test for a trial court and jury, or an appellate court.

I truly hope the city takes this free legal advice to heart, and allows the new company to go into business. Its trolleys are already ordered and on the way; its costs are already running. It will file suit, if the city keeps stalling. It will file suit. And this time I doubt Ed Swift’s company will be named as a defendant. This time, the city will be quacking all by its lonesome. And it won’t be the cute little rubber duck kind of quacking. It will be the quacking of a duck running for its life from the wolf.

Sloan Bashinsky, citizen, and because I’m running for mayor, a campaign advertisement approved and paid for by me

P.S. I heard yesterday afternoon from “Deep Throat” that, despite the warm and comfy spin Key West Citizen recently put on the $1 a year lease Commissioner Lopez’s wife has with the School Board, there appears to be serious citizen unhappiness over it, which could determine the outcome of Clayton’s bid to be reelected in his race against Jim Marquardt. I told “Deep Throat” that a public official is supposed to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, and Clayton should have told his wife not to apply to the School Board for the $1 a year lease, and he should have told the School Board not to give it to her, if she did apply.

Yet another School Board matter is talk of moving the School Board’s headquarters to Marathon Manor, next to the Marathon High School. I was told Marathon Manor was a nursing home former School Superintendent Randy Acevedo talked the old School Board into buying for affordable teacher housing and as an investment. It turned into a white elephant and is run down and shabby-looking. If this does come to pass, it might very well free up School Board property in Key West for the city to use as offices. However, redoing Marathon Manor would take a while, and how much longer can the city risk keeping its employees in a building that was called “terminally ill” by city commissioners last night? A building infested with black mold.

Two days ago, I went to ComCast’s studio on Kennedy drive to be interviewed by journalist Sean Kinney for the Keynoter. Sean had said he was interviewing all candidates for the city election. On that day, city commission Tom Lavender went before me, and mayor candidate Mike Mongo was to follow me. Three eight-minute segments.
 
Tom was there when I arrived and we talked a while in the studio. When it was time for his interview, I was sent out into the waiting room, where a fellow who worked, I supposed, for ComCast sat. He asked, “What planet did you say you are from?” I said, “The Pleiades.” As he got up to leave, he said, well, at least he’d heard of that planet. I had been looking for a “sign” about how to kick off the interview, and that seemed to be it.
 
When Sean started the interview, after finishing up with Tom, I reported what had happened out in the waiting room, and added that, actually, the Pleiades are a star system, seven suns, around which are planets, on some of which Pleiadeans live. I said the first people on this world had been Pleiadeans, brought here from “The Seven Sisters,” as the Pleiades often are called.
 
Sean seemed to take this all in good humor, even as, I supposed, he wondered what in the dickens this had to do with me running for mayor? As if I myself knew what in the dickens it had with me running for mayor; I was simply following the lead provided by the Spirit, as I saw it.
 
So I turned to Sean, said, “Now is when you are supposed to ask if I’m joking?”
 
He looked at me, asked, “Are you joking?”
 
I said, “What do you think?”
 
He said he didn’t know.
 
I said in the Pleiades everyone goes around naked, and Adam and Eve, who were Pleiadeans that had been planted on this world, went around naked until they got mixed up with religion. I pronounced Pleiadeans, Plee-A-de-ans, with emphasis on the long A.
 
I think maybe I also said this all might have something to do with my promoting Key West having a nude beach, and topless beaches, and generally being the most wacked-out, crazy, eccentric, wonderful place on the planet; and the city should promote itself that way, and people and extraterrestrials would come from far and wide to check it out. Economic stimulus also might have been mentioned.
 
I ran out of time — time flies when you’re having fun. Sean seemed to be having fun, too. As did the producer, Lucy. She said Mike Mongo had not showed up. Sean asked if I wanted to go another eight minutes? I said, “Sure!”
 
The second segment was slightly more earthy than the first eight minutes. Slightly more. And about as much fun. Sean and Lucy seemed to enjoy it, too, and after it was over Lucy said the production staff also had a good time. There was some suggestion that candidate interviews usually tended to be on the dry side.
 
I said it looked to me that it was arranged, in the stars, for me to take two eight-minute slots. Lucy and Sean didn’t seem to think that perspective was nuts. This was when I learned of her teaching ballroom and salsa dancing at Paradise Fitness on North Roosevelt which I said I would add to my social calendar, which has been a tad skimpy for quite a while. Call (305) 296-6348, to reach Lucy.
 
When I told some of this tale from the Twilight Zone yesterday morning during a spontaneous interview by radiofreekeywest.com, the Rev. Doug Mellen, a strong believer in the supernatural and the super unusual, asked if the Seven Sisters represented my seven wives? Dumbstruck, I could only confess that his question was cosmic, a revelation, and why hadn’t I already thought of that?
 
A young woman watched most of the show and afterwards she struck up a conversation. Her accent was foreign, and when I asked what was her country?, she said she was from Israel. Somehow we wended around to my seven wives, and I said each of them had opened me up in a new way. When she asked if I had married them for that reason?, I said no, it had just turned out that way, and it was only after I had been with all seven of them that I realized what they each had done for me.
 
I had wanted to tell some or all of that at the Girls Night Out candidate forum last night, to which I went dressed a bit “different.” But there really wasn’t time or opportunity. However, I was able to toss in some good licks for the womenfolk side of the Creation, starting off by explaining the green and white “Clothing Optional Beyond this Point” sign I was wearing over my lower plumbing.
 
I said I had run into Queen Sylvia of Key Largo, also known as County Commissioner Sylvia Murphy, about 2 p.m. at Jack Flats a few hours before. Sylvia said she’d been carrying something around in her car to give to me. “Your fig leaf,” she said, when we got to her car and she gave it to me.
 
I then told the ladies the very sad tale of County Mayor George Neugent.
 
The very said tale was that, at a county commission meeting in Key West earlier this year, George had compared nude beaches to prostitution. When he attended Hometown!’s event later that same day, he witnessed Aphrodite‘s burst into the event, where she yanked off her tank top and shouted, “Nude beaches for Key West!”
 
Afterward, as George pedaled a rented bicycle back to the hotel where he was staying, someone opened a car door in his path and he fell off the bike and broke his left arm. I paused the tale, looked around at the ladies last night, said, “The Goddess had spoken.” My sixty second introduction up, I stopped.
 
Later, it occurred to me that I had forgotten to tell the ladies that Sylvia had said at the same county commission meeting that she was in favor of a nude beach, as long as she didn’t have to do get naked on it! Something about her not being a spring chicken any more. Like I had said, the Goddess had spoken, and poor old George just wasn’t listening.
 
After I said last night that I’d quit trying to figure women out after having seven wives, Mike Mongo, who is gay, told them that he had embraced his inner feminine. So I offered him the dress I had brought with me. The dress I had already offered to several other candidates, and to the radiofreekeywest.com crew, who also had declined. Maybe they wuz concerned about being abducted by Pleiadeans. They wuzn’t concerned about me taking it off because I wuz wearing something else that maybe you’ll get to see another day .
 
I had purchased the dress last year at Sally Ann (the Salvation Army), to wear to the Girls Night Out candidate event at the Rum Barrel later the same day. The only man there, I figured they had to let me in because I was running for the county commission and was wearing a dress and was there at the invitation of Sandy Downs, whose campaign for sheriff I was strongly promoting.
 
When asked by the ladies last night for my sentiments on women being elected officials?, I said we have three women on the County Commission and Teri Johnston on the City Commission. I said that about two and a half months ago, I had tried to talk Teri into running for mayor this time; I had offered to throw all of my support to her and to give her money for her campaign, but, alas, she had declined. “Who’d want to be a dart board?” I asked, describing what being mayor of Key West is like. I ended, saying, “Teri is a leveling influence on the City Commission.” I encouraged women to run for office.
 
What do I know? Maybe the Goddess made Mike Mongo space out his interview, so I could have his time to finish out what I had started for Aphrodite, during my first eight minutes at ComCast. Maybe this email I found waiting for me when I went online this morning also wuz her doing:

Sloan,

 
I have seen your t-shirts, but have not seen any campaign signs which leads me to believe you do not have any. If you do, I would like to post one on my fence –I live in a prominent house on a prominent corner–1029 Fleming Street. Hell, you could just have Aphrodite rub paint on her body, lay down on a piece of canvas, and sign your name next to it. I believe it is way passed time for Key West to have a mayor who is educated, intelligent, and more creative than what we have unfortunately been given these past few years. You are more educated, intelligent, and creative than your three opponents combined! You have my address, stop by if you would like.
 
Alex
 
This is the third invitation I’ve had to hang a sign in a prominent place. Alas, Aphrodite right now is on the mainnland and I don’t have any campaign signs, because I don’t think they are very pretty and I don’t like to kill trees. However, maybe it’s time to get some body paint and white sheets or towels, and some Pleiadean women to roll around on them .
 
Meanwhile, anyone for pizza? 
 
Sloan for mayor, campaign advertisement approved and paid for by Sloan Bashinsky

Email correspondence with School Board member Steve Pibramsky, regarding yesterday’s My Goodness!!! Key West post, followed by email correspondence with David LyBrand, a member of the Board of Bahama Conch Community Land Trust, also about yesterday’s  post.
 

I understand why you wrote what you did this morning and I would like to try to clear up the confusion.  First of all, I respect you for the fact that you are willing to say what is on your mind, put it in writing and sign your name to it.  As for the KW Citizen article, you have dealt enough with the press to know that articles get written and the sentiment of the article is not exactly as you may have wanted it portrayed but I believe in freedom of the press so I have never told a reporter what to write nor chastised a reporter for writing something I didn’t always agree with.

I stand by what I told you about this situation with the lease.  When I first was elected to the School Board this lease was presented to us and approved on the consent agenda.  After the meeting I was informed that the director of the day care was Clayton Lopez’s wife.  The documents I reviewed for the lease did not list her name as Lopez.  I apologize for not remembering her name but the point is I was never told of the relationship.  I have never spoken to Clayton or his wife about the lease or about how it came about in the first place.  As I told you I did ask Randy Acevedo why he didn’t disclose to us that a Key West City Commissioner’s wife as part of the organization getting this sweet heart lease deal and Randy became very defensive and asked me why I was picking on 3 year olds.

It is well chronicled that Randy and I had an up and down working relationship.  Too many times information came to my attention after the fact. Things were constantly being slipped by the Board.  I was heavily criticized for micro managing the district administration but given the circumstance, I would not have changed one thing I did as a School Board member.  I objected to the fact that there was not full disclose and that the school district was not run in a transparent manner.  I stole a phrase from our friend Todd German, “Lawful but Awful”  and that applied so many times in my dealings with Randy.

I have no proof that the lease was any type of political deal or that there was anything wrong with granting this organization the lease.  What I objected to was that we were not told of the relationships with all the players involved.  I have told you before one of my personal rules for being an elected official is “Keep you friends and family off the payroll”   In my opinion Randy routinely violated this rule.

Sloan,

As I said, it is my personal rule, not a School Board rule ( though he violated a lot of those as well) and not a State Statue but I think it is the honest and honorable way to act as an elected official.  I know people will say this is a small town and having the school district do business with people who you are close to is unavoidable.  However, in my opinion if there is no better alternative than using someone who an elected official has a relationship with, and that vendor has been properly vetted, the elected official was the responsibility to make sure everyone knows what is going on and to frankly go over board with full disclosure just so no one thinks there was anything improper taking place.

Again Sloan, I have no proof that anything improper happened with this lease.  I still think it does not look right, it does not smell right but it would also be irresponsible of me to make an unfounded accusation in a newspaper against either an organization or another elected official.   If I created some confusion or appear to have back peddled I apologize because that is not my intention.

Lastly, I did appreciate being given your campaign T-shirt.  As I told you, I wore it this weekend.  I do support your candidacy.  I believe your candidacy brings an important element to the election.  Regarding the nude beach, I think you have done was leaders need to do, articulate a vision, enroll people in the vision and then execute a plan to make your vision a reality.  You are becoming a much better political candidate and if you are not carful, you just might get elected to office so day.  I hope this explanation help and I am more than happy to answer an questions that you, the press or anyone has about this issue.

PS-If the worst thing that is said about me this week is that someone thinks I am a pussy, it wasn’t such a bad week given the last few months.  See you soon

Well, hell’s bells, Steve. First, it wasn’t Mandy Bolen but John Guerra who wrote the Citizen article I howled about today. Maybe I need new reading glasses. Second, John has been doing the writing on school system/board stuff, and I have felt he has done a good job in a truly heated environment. What you wrote in reply to my howl, about the lease with Clayton’s wife, is in complete accord with what you told me last week at your office, which I summarized that night at the District 6 candidate forum at the VFW in Bahama Village. You were there, heard my remarks and did not say I had misspoken when you and I talked after the forum had ended. You go much farther in your reply to the howl, into your role on the School Board and your dealings with Randy and your impressions. Doesn’t look like a pussy wrote it to me — au contraire. I’m still scratching my head over what John Guerra wrote. I’ll be really surprised if I don’t get clearance tonight to publish this email exchange tomorrow. Sloan

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Sloan, I hope you’ll publish this clarification…..I wouldn’t call our encounter last night a “cross-examination” it lasted all of 30 seconds.  I saw you talking to Jim Marquardt, he pointed you to me and you asked me a question.  I made no effort to obscure anything, you were just looking for a quick sound-bite answer rather than an explanation.  That’s your perogative, but don’t use that as an excuse to accuse me of not being “above board”.

I have spoken and written many times about EXACTLY what happened with regard to the City’s duplicate payment to the BCCLT.  My discussion has been published in the Citizen, the KeyNoter and Solares Hill.  I’ve spoken on the air to Bill Becker and to Don Riggs.  NEVER have I misstated the facts of the case.  I’m sorry that you weren’t able to catch any of them.  Had you asked me or Bob Kelly or Cecil Bane or Glenwood Lopez at any time, we’d have given you (or anyone else) the facts of the matter.  Please avoid making unfair comments about the openness of the BCCLT.  We have nothing to hide.

The facts are:

– In 2001 the BCCLT was reimbursed by the City for several projects.

– In 2008 the new BCCLT deputy director researched and compiled a list of about a half-million dollars worth of reimbursements that the City owed the BCCLT.  Unfortunately one project (involving 2 properties) from the 2001 reimbursements got onto his list due to incomplete research by the director.

– The list was presented to the BCCLT’s auditor, a prominent local CPA, to double-check.  He declared the list valid.

– The list was presented to the city for reimbursement

– For whatever reason, the city did not check the list themselves, they just paid it.

Was that a double billing? Definitely.  We have never denied that.  But the double-PAYMENT only happened because of failures by all parties involved.  We at the BCCLT accept responsibility for the double payment, but just ask that those who are so quick to see foul play please look at the full picture of how we got to where we are today.

I was involved in some construction myself recently, and one of my suppliers accidentally billed me for the same window on two different invoices.  I take time to verify the expenses I’m billed for and caught the error.  I didn’t make any claims that he was trying to commit fraud, or call in the press about an incompetent business.  Accidents happen.  That’s why we have auditors.  We straightened it out and continued to do business.  Is this REALLY so different?

By the way, you keep insisting that the BCCLT must pay back the $102K right away.  There’s more to that story.  There are other offsetting reimbursements due that need to be reconciled before we settle up.  That will happen after the audit that is currently underway completes.

David Lybrand, BCCLT

Hi, David. Thanks for writing.
 
I have no problem publishing what you wrote to me, but I don’t know if my Editorial Board will go along with it. I’ll be told in my sleep tonight. I never took the double billing/payment it to be intentional, but an oversight.
 
I had read of Norma Jean {BCCLT’s Director] trying to blame the city for not catching the double billing, which apparently was pretty complex and probably not easy to catch unless it was being looked for. I had heard Clayton loudly say at the District 6 candidate forum (VFW Bahama Village) that it was a double billing by BCCLT, and I wasn’t sure if it was, or was just the city’s mistake. I was tired of being confused and of the he said, she said, and simply wanted a plain answer, yes or no.
 
Your initial attempt to explain, instead of saying yes it was a double billing, or no, it was simply a double payment by the city, didn’t sit well with me. Just as it doesn’t sit well with me when a simple question is asked of a candidate at a candidate forum, and the candidate dances all around the question, instead of actually answering it.
 
Throughout, I have said the $102,000 needs to be repaid or offset against other moneys owed BCCLT by the city, before there is any further discussion about the Truman Waterfront property BCCLT wishes to develop, as per its plan and the city referendum approving it. I hope the recent audit, which Jim Marquardt told me he had been told came back clean for BCCLT, will clear the air so we can move forward, starting with resolving the $102,000.
 
Another concern I have is the toxic waste at Truman Waterfront. Jim Marquardt showed me a document at the District 1 candidate forum (Tropic Cinema) last night, indicating a problem at, or maybe next to, the soccer field, which Clayton adamantly said at the District 6 candidate forum last (VFW location) last week isn’t so. I do not believe anything should be done about any of the Truman Waterfront property, any of it, until it is completely assayed, including the harbor bottom, for toxic wastes, and any toxic wastes found either removed to a safe place (if such exists), or capped in a safe way.
 
I am not yet clear if this is something the Navy will undertake to resolve. I have written a couple of times, and explained it at a City Commission meeting, of EPA’s Brownfield program connected to the Superfund. Money is available there to clean it all up, with the city getting paid well to be the liaison for it. For me, the toxic waste should all have been dealt to begin with, right after the city got the Truman Waterfront land from the Navy. But it wasn’t done that way, and now it’s still an issue. 
 
Sloan

Campaign advertisement, approved and paid for by Sloan Bashinsky, mayor candidate

What a bummer, to wake up and read Mandy Bolen’s article in today’s Key West Citizen about the $1-a-year lease the School Board gave to City Commissoner Clayton Lopez’s wife, Pam Lopez. Apparently, from the article, Mandy’s main School Board source was my own School Board source, Steve Pibramsky. Apparently, there are two Steve Pibramsky’s, because he told me a very different story about the lease than is reported in Mandy’s article. He also told someone else a very different story, too. It was that person who alerted me to what Steve had told him, and that is what caused me to go to Steve’s office to talk with him about it.
 
Steve told me the lease was not in Pam Lopez’s name, but was in the last name she goes by (I don’t remember what that is, but I had heard separately some time ago that she goes by a different last name than Lopez), and that was why Steve said he did not recognize the lease had anything to do with a city commissioner when it came up on a consent agenda at a School Board meeting. The lease was put on the consent agenda for renewal by then Superintendent of Schools, Randy Acevedo, Steve told me, and when he later learned it was Clayton’s wife and challenged the lease, Randy asked him if he had something against 3-year olds? Steve told me the Board should have been told it was a commissioner’s wife, when the lease came up on the consent agenda. He said the lease went into effect shortly after Clayton was elected to the City Commission. Steve said School Board member John Dick wasn’t happy about  the lease, either.

All not so, according to Mandy’s article: everything is peachy with Steve and John and the rest of the School Board on this $1-a-year lease of School Board land to a private day care center. Well, it sure as hell wasn’t peachy with Steve when he told my friend about it. Why did Steve tell him, my friend asked me this morning, if it was peachy? Why did Steve tell me what he told me, if Steve felt the lease was peachy? And why didn’t Steve tell me last night at Hometown! PAC’s candidate forum what he had told Mandy, when I told him that I’d given his name to a Keynoter journalist to interview him? I gave Steve a campaign T-shirt some time back, because he was singing praises to my name and encouraging my campaign for mayor. I wonder which Steve I will meet next time I see him? And why did my friend tell me to keep his name out of this, if he was really concerned about the lease? There seem to be an awful lot of pussies posing as men in this town. An awful lot.
 
I learned at the forum last night, after cross-examining a Bahama Conch Community Land Trust director, that indeed BCCLT had double-billed the city for a batch of invoces that resulted in the $102,000 overpayment. The director clearly did not want to tell me this. I felt I had to get to the bottom of it, because I wasn’t clear that the city had been double-billed, or if the city had merely paid the same invoces twice, then was trying to lay it all on BCCLT. I had spoken with Jim Marquardt, former President of BCCLT about this, and he said he didn’t know if it was a double-billing, or if it was a double payment. He was with me last night when I quizzed the BCCLT board member, and it looked to me that Jim and I learned what really happened at the same time. It also looked to me that BCCLT may not have been entirely above board about what really happened. In all events, I remain of the view that BCCLT should repay the $102,000, or offset it with other monies owed it by the city, before any further discussion occurs with BCCLT about the Truman Waterfront land it wants to develop, as per the voter referendum in 2007.
 
My remarks at the forum last night were light-hearted, for the most part, except for my saying a couple of times that the No. 1 issue I’m hearing for Key West is the economy, which sucks. Mandy left out of her report all of my economic stimulus package, but the nude beach, which she said I said would bring thousands of people to Key West. What I said was a nude beach would bring 200,000 new people a year to Key West. And I wanted all beaches to be topless. And we needed to start advertising Key West for the funky, wacko, wonderful place it is, and that would bring people here from everywhere, even extraterrestrials would come here. That brought the house down. As did my saying we should offer homeless people jobs as litter cops, and have them dress sort of like pirates and go around uttering pirate threats to litter bugs, waiving pistols or swords at them, asking to pick up the beer can or whatever they dropped, and if they didn’t, given them a damn ticket. That was the end of the forum. Somewhere in between, I suggested, to help the arts, that we should make Duval Street a walking mall from 12 noon on, and allow street performers, musicians and artists, and visual artists to use it and not charge them a fee, which brought a nice round of applause, too.
 
To read Mandy’s report, you’d think the forum was the most boring thing to happen yesterday. That’s why it’s so important to attend candidate forums and get the first-hand scoop. Alas, last night’s was the last forum, except for tomorrow night’s Girl’s Night Out candidate get together/forum at Kelley’s Caribbean on Whitehead Street. I’m conflicted between wearing a dress or a big campaign T-shirt over tights, with a couple of pair of socks stuffed into the tights. This forum is by invitation, so if you didn’t get one, you won’t be able to attend, at least not if you are a man. Maybe they will let Steve Pibramsky in, though. But then, maybe if I had a business in Key West that could be hurt by people boycotting it, or maybe if I had a wife and child whose welfare already had been threatened over the Acevedo case, maybe I’d be a pussy, too. But since I don’t have any of that to worry about, or about being bumped off myself, as if it would matter to God that I was worried, you won’t have to worry about me being a pussy, if you make me your mayor. You won’t have to worry about that.
 
Sloan for mayor, campaign advertisement approved and paid for by Sloan Bashinsky

First today is an email exchange yesterday with a Key West woman I have known a while. As far as my reply went, it was okay. However, it was made before I had slept on it, and after I slept on it, I had a second reply. As you will see, the first reply is basically still inside the box, at least close to inside it. The second reply, however, is completely outside the box and represents the kind of reply I gave in a prior life all the time to this kind of inquiry. During that time, I myself was put through the same rigorous regimen of introspection that I was given to put others through. Sometimes I still do this with people, usually privately, and it’s still not very well received. Yet it was the foundation of my own spiritual journey, and, as far as I can tell, is the first step for anyone on a spiritual path, even though it is not a step many people seem to want to take. I liken it to Jesus telling people to first take the beam out of their own eye, and then they will see clearly enough to remove the speck from someone else’s eye. Not a big vote-getter, the second reply I made below. At least not a big vote-getter on this world. However, it does seem to be a big vote-getter in Spirit.
 
Sloan Bashinsky, citizen, and because I’m running for mayor, a campaign advertisement approved and paid for by me
 
Hi Sloan!You are as creative and out-side-the-box think of anyone I know – besides myself! Any ideas how the courts and the people of KW can see that Randy is give some kind of equitable sentence? People are really disappointed and PISSED OFF! It’s not vengeful or this conch vs non-conch bull shit. It is about accountability and taking responsibility for ones actions. MORE, it is about young people seeing that you must take responsibility for your actions and that every action has consequences. I am so disappointed I am ready to move away. I am over all this conch bullshit! They want corruption – they can have the stinking island – it ain’t what it used to be and it certainly will never be anything worthwhile as long as the sixtoes are in control!THIS is NOT to be published in your blog – this is a personal conversation between you and I.

SO – have any ideas of what we the public can to or Dennis to see that Randy gets some kind of fair sentence???

Mata Hari

Hi back to you, MH,

When I spoke with Dennis [our State Attorney] shortly after the sentencing, he said he can try and convict, but he cannot set the sentence. If the general public is as fed up as I’m hearing, then they can make it rough on people who betray the public trust, who are not put in prison. Stop having to do with them. Don’t put their friends in office.

I plumb the sweetheart lease Clayton’s wife [Clayton is one of our city commissioners] got from the School Board, after Randy [our former Superintendent of Schools] sponsored it, as pretty awful. I seriously doubt she would have gotten it if she had not been Clayton’s wife, and if Clayton and Morgan [our current mayor] had not been tight, and if Morgan and Randy had not been tight. Yet the local newspapers have yet to even mention it, even as they take up a lot of newsprint talking about what the candidates are spending and their position on a nude beach.

Maybe when [Judge] Mark Jones comes up for reelection in a few years, the voters will remember what he did in Randy Acevedo’s case? Maybe in this election the voters will remember how tight Morgan and Randy are, and how tight Morgan and Clayton are? Maybe they will remember that Morgan ran for the School Board against Andy Griffith, and got beat. Then he sold his home and moved into Key West to run for mayor in 2005. Maybe the voters will remember that Morgan’s parents and his brother Michael are about as religious right as you can get, and view themselves as the Elect.

Sloan
 
Second reply:
 
Wow, am I having a rough night! About like I had the night after Randy Acevedo was given probation by Judge Mark Jones, about which I wrote the next morning. Later that day, a friend wanted to talk to me about Randy getting probation — actually, the friend wanted to complain about it, and I said I wasn’t up to it. He didn’t want to hear that and kept complaining, and I said I didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t like that, said I didn’t have to talk about it, but he kept talking about it. I said I didn’t want to hear about it, either. He got even madder. Then he started blasting me personally. I said I had nearly died the night before, getting ready to write about Randy’s probation, and if he had been me, he would have gone to the hospital. Or he would have died. He got even madder, started screaming at me, about me. We were in a public place and were both leaving when a fellow I didn’t know came by and patted me on the shoulder and said for me not to worry about it; he was reading my daily posts that his wife was receiving from me, and he liked what I was writing and for me to keep it up. I went one way, my enraged friend went the other way. I was not upset, but was bewildered by how he’d behaved, because it was entirely out of character for him. Entirely out of character.
 
When later I described what had happened to another friend, it dawned on me that what might have set my friend off was something horrible he had told me had happened to him a long time ago — a terrible betrayal. His yelling at me actually had been a cry for help, at least from part of him. Another part of him had probably wanted to kill me, because that part of him felt betrayed by me. Although what really was eating him up was the betrayal he had experienced many years before. Or the many betrayals, because there may have been a string of them, and the only way he can be healed of it is to go back into the whole of it. It’s not something I care to do with him, but it may well be, because of how close we have been, that I will be told to at least try to take him there.
 
As I said to begin this post, there was a time in my life when this is the kind of work I did all the time. As time passed, I learned I was supposed to do it gratis, not even suggesting donations. My preparation for the work required that I be taken into my own self, into the many woundings I had received, knowingly or unknowingly, at the hands of others, and also the many woundings I had inflicted, knowingly or unknowingly, on others. This was not a quick process, it went on for years. The deeper into myself I was taken, the deeper into themselves I was able to take other people. The relatively few people who wanted to go in that direction split off from the rest of the people they knew for so long as they kept to the new regimen, which was like eating live coals, to put it bluntly. Because of that, most of them fell away eventually, but I was not allowed to fall away. The live coals were used to burn impurities out of me, even though it felt like it was I who was being burned alive.
 
What has set a lot of people off about Randy Acevedo and his wife, Monique, is they were in positions of public trust, and what they did was betray that trust. The trigger was betrayal. Mata Hari had betrayal triggered in her, which catapulted her to write to me, asking what I thought could be done about Randy getting a fair sentence? In her thoughts, she meant what Randy Acevedo represents, but in her soul, she meant a betrayal from long ago. Or maybe betrayals, for, as with my friend who went off on me, there may be a string of betrayals. As with my friend, there are two ways for her, or anyone who is outraged, to deal with Randy’s light probation sentence: focus on Randy and injustice, or join me turning inward toward the hot coals. Betrayal is not foreign to me, and I suppose I still have some ways to go to have it all burned out of me, including my betrayals of other people, and of myself.
 
Although Mata Hari told me her email was not to be published, a part of her wanted it to be published. The part of her that said “ . . . it is about young people seeing that you must take responsibility for your actions and that every action has consequences.” I was not taught as a child what I have written here today. Had I been taught it in my youth, my life might have turned out a lot differently. I do not see it being taught to children today. Maybe some children will end up reading this post and sharing it with their friends and parents, and even with their school teachers.