Good Morning Florida Keys

In the interest of fair play, here is the Key West Citizen’s report on yesterday’s county commission meeting.

No power on No Name — for now

BY TIM O’HARA The Citizen

The County Commission on Tuesday voted against bringing commercial power to No Name Key for now, but didn’t rule out doing so in the future.

The actual vote was about building permits, which the county must grant the rural island’s residents for them to hook up to power poles installed by Keys Energy Services last year.

Commissioners Heather Carruthers, Sylvia Murphy and Danny Kolhage voted against granting the permits, and Mayor George Neugent and Commissioner David Rice voted in favor of doing so. The result of the 3-2 vote means no power for now.

Commissioners discussed, but did not vote on, whether to spend an additional $105,000 on outside counsel to fight the power at the state level. The Public Service Commission (PSC) is scheduled to consider the question on public utilities June 18 at the earliest, according to County Attorney Bob Shillinger. The decision on the money will happen at the March 20 meeting.

The commission agreed to pay an additional $43,000 to a consulting firm it already hired for more than $1 million.

The PSC is to hear the issue after Monroe County Circuit Court Judge David Audlin dismissed two lawsuits on it. He and the 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled that the PSC has jurisdiction.

No Name Key now relies on the sun and generators for power, but has a long history of residents asking for commercial power and opponents arguing against it.

Despite saying the issue falls under the PSC’s purview, the 3rd District Court of Appeal’s recent ruling did make a statement that could help the commercial power contingent: It wrote that the PSC’s authority, granted by the state of Florida, would be “eviscerated” if it were “subject to local governmental regulations.”

Shillinger acknowledged to The Citizen on Tuesday that the ruling could be interpreted as saying the county has been pre-empted from legislating in the matter.

But he also pointed out that the court said it was not ruling on the “merits of the case,” leaving that for the PSC.

If it were decided electricity could be brought to No Name, permits to connect the homes to the grid could be issued as early as April, county Growth Management Director Christine Hurley said.

Commissioners voted to pay the private planning firm Keith and Schnars an additional $43,000 — on top of a $1 million contract — to research whether the county can change its land-use rules to allow power on No Name and other Coastal Barrier Resource Act zones. The federal government discourages development in those zones by not granting such properties federal flood insurance.

The firm is already being paid more than $1 million to review and make recommendations on tweaking the land-use rules.

Neugent argued the issue is getting too expensive for the county, saying it was not “our fight.”

He asked Shillinger how much the county has already spent on the issue, and the attorney said it was about $30,000 over the past year. But Neugent said he wants the costs going back further.

Shillinger is to report back Friday after a conference call between attorneys and the PSC.

The comp plan and land development regulations have different wording. The comp plan states that public utilities on No Name are “discouraged,” and the land development regulations state that utilities are “prohibited.”

The land development regulations also expand the prohibition to areas just outside Coastal Barrier Resource Act zones, stipulating that power lines and other utility infrastructure cannot be taken to, through or across those zones.

According to state law, the comp plan takes precedence over land development regulations when the two conflict.

Opponents of power argue the two do not conflict, as the comp plan is intentionally vague and land development regulations are meant to be more specific and further the intent of the comp plan.

“We are about to contemplate a major policy change,” Commissioner Danny Kolhage said. “In order to do that, we need data and analysis … . Without the information, we are not going to be able to defend it (the change) … . This issue is bigger than No Name Key. This is a countywide issue.”

The county’s land development regulations also prohibit central sewer systems in a neighborhood off Card Sound Road in Key Largo.

There are also concerns the land development regulations could affect a project to run sewer lines across the Snake Creek Bridge in Islamorada, because some land-use maps put the bridge within a Coastal Barrier Resource Act zone.

City of Islamorada and Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District officials attended Tuesday’s meeting.

Who is “we”? What millions of dollars of infrastructure did “we” just put in out there? That’s the first I ever heard of that, and I don’t imagine I’m alone. It looks to me, absent something I cannot imagine happening, that No Name Key homeowners will end up getting public utilities. However, as Danny Kohlage said at yesterday’s meeting, what is in play is a lot bigger than No Name Key, and it has to be done right, so it doesn’t cause a lot of problems down the road.

An older man from Key West drove up to the meeting yesterday, unsolicited apparently, by anyone, and gave the entire gathering a history lesson on No Name Key, the likes of which I’d never heard, and his view that the island should remain off the grid and become a model for off the grid living, which could be studied by any and all. I went over and introduced myself, and he said he knew who I was, he had seen me speak on television at public meetings. He said he usually watched public meetings on TV.

After yesterday’s commission meeting is up on the county website, anyone can watch it and hear what this very intersting elder had to say, and watch the rest of the meeting, too.

quacks and goofballs – Florida Keys school system and voters

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

There is a homeless ain’t hopeless, but it’s pretty darn close – Key West and beyond post today at goodmorningfloridakeys.com. Meanwhile …

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School Board member Robin Smith-Martin

Yesterday’s guest editorial in The Key West Citizen:

No doubt this paper’s readers continue to ask themselves if the School District will ever get its act together. Acevedos, too-tall HOB, unsuitable soils, change orders, furlough days, bullies, CPAs (or not), fraudulent fraud hotlines, alien computer hackers — the unforced errors seem to maintain a steady pace. But then look at the city of Key West, the county, the Aqueduct Authority, city of Marathon, village of Islamorada — let’s not even talk about Tallahassee or Washington. Everywhere youlook, our public institutions are having difficulty meeting the expectations of the electorate. Is it all as bad as it seems, and getting worse? Maybe.

But I’d also argue that the rapid advance of technology has enabled our electorate to comment and criticize at a fiery pace that is blindsiding our slow-moving bureaucracies. Rather than adapting to meet these changing expectations, many government agencies are sticking their heads in the sand, hoping to sit out this evolutionary phase of our democratic process. This approach is a mistake, and only provides fuel for the no-government-is-good-government mindset.

Good government is responsive and requires prudent allocation of resources that have high probability of creating public value in the most efficient manner — much easier said than done. Sophisticated resource allocation is precluded by goal-setting, capacity and gap analysis, project management, regular measurement and review, accountability and clear communications. In short, you gotta have a plan before your spend your money. And, you better have a great plan before you spend taxpayers’ money.

So the School District needs a plan. Fortunately, that planning process begins next month with a series of town hall meetings to garner public input to determine priorities and solicit much needed public participation in the planning process. You can imagine the varied list of school priorities, depending on the stakeholders questioned: lower property taxes, employee raises, more for charter schools, less for charter schools, renewed focus on baseball, more money for art programs, improved school lunches, solar panels on the roofs. The list is long, and we will never please everyone. A successful plan requires real compromise. But there are three areas that are requisite to pull this School District out of the ditch and away from the negative headlines: an administrative performance structure, modern accounting software and a professional information officer.

An administrative performance management and accountability system will level the playing field. It won’t matter where you’re from, who you know, or how long you’ve been employed. The superintendent, department heads, and principals will have clear annual goals to achieve. These goals will be doable; we want our people to succeed. These goals will be transparent and placed on the Internet for all to see. If the annual goals are not achieved, corrective action will be taken. If goals are not achieved two years in a row, someone else gets a shot at the job. No more us versus them. No more reactive management. Now we have a plan.

The district’s accounting software runs on a monochrome command prompt interface. The software was developed back in the days of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” It takes over a week to run a report to determine how much money we have in the bank. We need to boldly enter the 21st century, and purchase a new accounting package. We should account for every penny by 2 p.m. each day.

The general public really has no idea how our schools are doing. For the most part, Monroe County schools are excellent. We have terrific teachers and staff who are working very hard despite several years of real earnings decreases, and our students are excelling. Ranked eighth out of 67 counties in Florida, we are sending graduates to Duke, Brown, the Naval Academy and NYU, and we have the most successful Take Stock in Children Program in all of Florida. Can we do even better? Yes, and we will.

But most of the stories making the papers reflect administrative gaffes, or Internet-driven conspiracies by the usual quacks and goofs. We are oneof the largest organizations in Monroe County, yet one of the very few that doesn’t have a public information officer. Even the Mosquito Control board has a public information person — and that’s a good thing. Our teachers and staff are often the last to know when changes are occurring. The School District needs a professional to manage its internal and external communications. We need to communicate our intentions, and we need to communicate our challenges. Silence is not a productive option.

Finally, property owners have too long borne the burden of financing our schools; 2013 will likely see the School District go to referendum to raise the sales tax by a halfcent to shift a portion of the financial burden from property owners to tourists, from whom the majority of sales tax is derived. This tax change will benefit both our students as well as our property owners. Just don’t count my vote until we have real plan in place.

Robin Smith-Martin represents

District 1 on the Monroe

County School Board.

Larry Murray copied me with his response to Robin’s editorial, which Larry sent to the School Board and Superintendent of Schools Mark Porter:

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:03:45 -0800
From: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com
Subject: Sales Tax Increase?
To: captecoed@aol.com; robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com; ron.martinsb@keysschools.com; John.Dick@KeysSchools.com; andy@fishandy.com
CC: mark.porter@keysschools.com

Gentlemen:

I gather from Robin Smith-Martin’s op-ed piece in today’s Citizen that you plan a referendum on increasing the sales tax in Monroe County from 7.5% to 8%. I thought it an interesting venue to learn of your plans. When do you intend to roll out your campaign for such a sales tax increase?

It will be interesting to see how the voters respond to such an increase, particularly we of the “usual quacks and goofs”, those who have the temerity to question actions by the School District. I should think that the Board would want as much community support as possible for such an initiative. However, to launch such while gratuitously offending some people strikes me as an odd way to rally the electorate.

Mr. Smith-Martin seems to be on a campaign to offend as many people as he can, including fellow members of the Board. At least this time, Mr. Smith-Martin omitted the “f-bombs” that he has used in other criticisms of those who do not agree with him.

Larry Murray

Dr. Larry Murray

Fiscal Watchdog and Citizen Advocate

I replied to Larry, with copy to All -

Hard for this quack goofball to imagine how a school tax increase of any kind will not thoroughly P O the public, but perhaps the property owners will get behind it, if they get a property tax decrease.

Personally, this quack and goofball thinks the public he knows, present company excluded, would be delighted to see some f and related words thrown around by school board members and school administration honchos, to show us they really are human, they really are upset, and they really do see the gravity of the situation, in spades. But then, that might thoroughly P O the church-folks, unless they thought their churches might somehow get some of the sales tax increase.

Ed Davidson, Andy Griffiths and this quack and goofball agreed at candidate forums last year, that teacher morale was the biggest problem in the School District. This quack and goofball told those candidate forum audiences that the only way to fix the low teacher morale problem was a school tax increase. This quack and goofball was the only school board candidate last year, out of nine candidates, including you, Larry, who clamored for a school tax increase last year, not this year, not next year.

As this quack and goofball recalls, Larry, you and your fellow Audit & Finance Committee member Stuart Kessler, and our esteemed School Board member Robin Smith-Martin, clamored for voters to reject the extension of the .5 mil tax for school operations, so they could get a school tax decrease. After that referendum pass by a heavy margin early last year, and that wampum was safely tucked away again in the School District coin purse, this quack and goofball started clamoring for another tax increase, because you, Larry, and Stuart Kessler and the School District en masse, and the teachers union had 100 percent convinced this quack goofball the School District could not make ends meet and also fix the low teacher morale problem without a school tax increase.

This quack and goofball agrees with our esteemed School Board member Robin Smith-Martin, that the School District’s accounting software needed upgrading several year ago. But this quack and goofball wonders why the esteemed Robin-Smith Martin forgot to mention 500 Ed Options online make up courses being used at Key West High School last year, and the widely known fact that Keys high school graduates do not tend to go off to the esteemed places of high learning named by the esteemed Robin Smith-Martin, but instead tend to go off to less esteemed places of higher learning, and many of them are put into remedial courses, even when they attend community colleges, including Florida Keys Community College.

The esteemed Robin Smith-Martin also conveniently left out the high drop out rate in Keys schools, from K-12, and the high attrition rate Keys high school graduates demonstrate in places of higher learning. The esteemed Robin Smith-Martin also conveniently left out, when he targeted this quack and goofball, the blogger, that he had emailed this quack goofball that he and this quack goofball ought to get together and discuss the “calculus” of trade school/vocational ed in Keys schools, which is sorely lacking, even though the School District’s twin vision is to have high school graduates college and/or career ready.

If this quack goofball had to wager a heap of wampum, the bet would be that only twenty percent of Keys high school graduates should go off to places of higher learning, and the rest of them should be career ready and going to work after they graduate. This quack goofball wagers the same heap or wampum, that if the School District ignored the FCAT and other standardized higher learning places-geared tests, and focused on teaching students life and career skills, the taxpayers would be delighted to pass a new school tax. This quack goofball also wrote plenty about that last year, and said plenty about it at candidate forums, too.

I bet if the School Board had hired the truly esteemed Dr. Ed Shine last year, to be the new Superintendent, the not really all that esteemed Robin Smith-Martin would be a lot happier with how things are going in the School District, as would most other Keys people. Dr. Shine told the School Board during his in the bright sunshine vetting at Marathon High School, which I attended, that they needed to generate more revenues (tax increase) to solve the low teacher morale and fiscal problems they kept saying he would magically have to solve if they hired him. The only Superintendent candidate who told them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and whose superintendent credentials/experience dwarfed the other candidates’ credentials/experiences was not hired. Looked pretty darn quack goofball to me.

Q GB

Later, Larry sent this:

I have submitted this to the Citizen for publication. I gather that you were not especially enamored by Smith-Martin’s observations about quacks and goofs.

To: “Editor@keysnews.com” <Editor@keysnews.com>
Cc: Tom Tuell <ttuell@keysnews.com>; Terry Schmida <tschmida@keysnews.com>; Terry Schmida2 <keysscribe@aol.com>
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 4:08 PM
Subject: Profanity From The Heart

Editor:

Robin Smith-Martin appears to be on a campaign to offend as many people as possible while simultaneously preparing the public for a School Board sponsored referendum to increase the sales tax. Odd behavior I should think.

Mr. Smith-Martin’s latest slur appears in a guest editorial in your paper. In it, he referrs condescendingly to critics of School Board and District behavior as the “usual quacks and goofs.” As the person most responsible for the revelation that the District Hotline had been corrupted, I assume that he includes me in that category. Fortunately, I am not alone and wear his criticism as a badge of honor.

In the last month, Mr. Smith-Martin has gratuitously offended many. His thoughtless and callous remarks about the tragic suicide of a student led to a public apology, his third such apology since being elected two years ago. How many other Board members have had to make public apologies after engaging their mouths before their brains?

Mr. Smith-Martin then launched a two installment attack on a local blogger with whom he disagreed. That diatribe was liberally laced with
“F-bombs” which I doubt you would print. He then apologized to the blogger and his readers, noting that his profanity “came from the heart”!

Were that not enough, at the last Board meeting, Mr. Smith-Martin went out of his way to insult two fellow Board members. He lambasted John Dick and Ed Davidson “for making this stuff up in your own brains”, characterizing their pursuit of an issue as “a waste of time.” “This is all speculation but this is what’s going to be on the front page of the newspaper.”

When a teacher wrote Mr. Smith-Martin and the Board about her concerns that the District might be spying on faculty via their computers, he turned on her with a vengeance. He directed her to “leave the political acrimony” to her husband as he touted his own self-sacrifice. He then accused her of “pressuring Board members to make speculative and conspiratorial comments.”

I believe that Mr. Smith-Martin is clearly out of control and needs to be reined in. I recommend that the School Board censure Mr. Smith-Martin for “conduct unbecoming to a member of the Monroe County School Board.”

Larry Murray

To which I replied:

Hi again, Larry -

Actually, Robin did an excellent job of conveniently overlooking what I saw and published when he ran for the School Board, and he continued to demonstrate thereafter: he is a quack and a goofball. Unfortunately, I came to share the same view of Andy Griffiths and John Dick. When Ed Davidson was elected last fall, to replace Duncan Matthewson, I hoped Ed would not join that fraternity, but he flat out did join it after Matthew Gilleran killed himself and Ed tucked and ran as fast and as well as his confederates and Mark Porter. As did Ron Martin join that fraternity, after he stood silent in the wake of Matthew’s suicide. The wicked karma that wagon circling created for the school system rendered Robin Smith-Martin’s personality gaffes down to a molecule compared to the Sun.

I don’t know what has you so wound up about Robin cussing me in an email from him just to me. It would have been okay, if he had used his personal email account, instead of his school board member email account? That email from Robin, which I reproduced in the blackboard jungle voodoo in Key West mostly post, was the first thing ever from a school official, which made me burst out laughing, and on a day when I needed to burst out laughing. If Robin had had the good sense to leave it lay there, which was complimenting me for the rising tide – standing in front of bulldozers and other aggressive ways of actively saving the environment – Florida Keys and beyond post, wherein I explained how the Keys would be far better off environmentally, if all human beings were erased from the premises, instead of then going after me for everything else I ever did, his email would have been a work of art. It was morphed into a work of art anyway, but not one Robin cared for, I don’t imagine.

For me, Robin represents a quack and goofball electorate, who put Robin on the School Board in the first place. I would lay into that electorate, also, if I wrote a letter to the editor about Robin. However, that is a molecule compared to a sun the entire School District inversely is not. I said and wrote over and over last year that the School District is terminally dysfunctionally insane, and I meant it. There is nothing that can be done about a terminally dysfunctionally insane system but leave it and start a new system. I wrote and said over and over again last year that the only hope, not a guarantee, but a hope, was for each school to vote itself to be a charter school, and in that way liberate itself from Trumbo Point, which is the twisted tree from which all the poison apples for the teachers and students fall, if you disregard the electorate. That still is my prescription.

Sloan

I really do hope the School District will get itself a “public information officer”. Euphemism for spin doctor, white-washer, misinformation specialist, whore.

So much more fodder for my ravings that would provide.

Sloan Bashinsky

After posting that very early this morning, I went back to bed and to sleep. On waking, I found a gem in The Key West Citizen, for the School District’s spin doctors to field, and sent it, with this email, to the quacks and goofballs running your terminally dysfunctionally insane school district:

sloan bashinsky (keysmyhome@hotmail.com)

6:35 AM

To: Larry Murray, Capt. Ed Davidson, robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com, ron.martinsb@keysschools.com, John Dick, Andy Griffiths Cc: Mark Porter

Gentlemen,
Below is today’s article in The Key West Citizen on the recent state external audit.
Maybe if you had listened to Larry Murray and the Audit & Finance Committee, it would have turned out differently.
Good luck, getting a sales tax increase next this year, or even next year, as per Robin’s guest editorial yesterday.
I knew and wrote and said many times that the reserve fund balance was intentionally being understated, and that the only way to fix that was for the Board of Education to take over the school district and install its own school board and superintendent.
Sloan

Audit reveals school district bond default

BY TERRY SCHMIDA Citizen Staff

tschmida@keysnews.com

The School District was in technical default of its $36 million construction bond for 267 days last year, according to the preliminary audit of fiscal year 2012, released Wednesday by the Florida Auditor General.

The finding was among 13 made by the AG in its annual audit, to which Superintendent of Schools Mark Porter must respond within 30 day of publication. An additional five findings involved state audits of the district’s use of federal dollars. Six of the 18 total findings have been festering for at least three years.

“This is simply stunning,” said District 3 Board member Ed Davidson, who has been a consistent critic of district financial dealings since before his election victory last fall. “We were in default for nine months on a $36 million dollar bond. This was concealed from the School Board. Nobody in the district has the authority to keep something like this from the board. They had a legal, moral, ethical and fiduciary responsibility to inform the board, and instead, all parties involved concealed this.”

In addition to the bond matter, the AG identified one finding it deemed a “significant deficiency.”

Finding No. 1 in the audit report states that, “Financial reporting procedures could be improved to ensure that transactions and note disclosures are properly reported.”

The audit also found that the district had lowballed its financial obligations, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, another serious issue that Davidson intends to bring up at today’s board meeting.

“The actual financial problems are much worse than the summary findings indicate,” Davidson continued. “I have said repeatedly that in business, once you owe somebody money, it goes on your books as a contingent liability. But the school district is allowed not to show the $1,901,332 deficit in Workman’s Compensation reserves, mentioned in finding No. 6, or the deficit of roughly $1 million in our health insurance reserves, in finding No. 2. And then there’s the $652,360 in misspent federal awards that we could be required to refund. We’re broke and we need to fess up. You can’t fix the problem until you admit how bad it really is.”

District 5 board member John Dick was equally outraged at the report.

“I think we’ve been getting poor audits for far too long,” Dick said. “It calls for some reaction from the School District. While this one doesn’t have quite as many findings as some of the others, It’s still unacceptable. I think that when we got last year’s report I was quoted as saying that heads should roll, however I’m just a board member, so there’s only so much I can do. We really need to have some wholesale changes.”

School Board Chairman Andy Griffiths was of two minds regarding the report.

“My macro opinion says only one significant finding, and 10 findings where the recommendation starts out with ‘enhance their procedures,’ Griffiths said. “We have the procedures and policies in place. However, they need to be enhanced. Having said that, nothing I say can counter this report. No one can say it’s a good audit. We can debate some of these issues, but we have a long way to go before we can claim to have world-class financial reporting.”

On Monday evening, Superintendent Porter called the number of findings in the report “disappointing,” but pointed out progress had been made in some areas.

“If you look at it in a historical context, you will see some evidence of improvement in our fiscal management over time,” Porter said. “This year we have zero material weaknesses, which is a harsher category of finding than significant deficiency. Historically, there was a time when the district had several, back in a time we’re all trying to forget. I see improvement, but honestly, I also see room for improvement.”

Pressed about finding No. 4, dealing with the bond payment, Porter stated that the district had received an incorrect invoice from the issuing bank, for which a letter of apology was later sent to the district.

“It was a contributing factor, but I wouldn’t want to use it as an excuse,” he said. “Since then, we have implemented corrective action in the form of a more proactive procedure to determine not only what we are billed, but what we actually owe.”

At today’s board meeting, Porter said, he’ll be discussing some of the issues raised by the report, before allowing the Audit and Finance Committee to review the report. Then, the findings will be discussed at the March 11 board meeting. At that point, a response to the AG will be prepared.

“I want us to respect the role of the Audit and Finance Committee in all of this,” Porter said. “That’s why we’re going forward in this sequence.”

Calamity Jane visits No Name Key

dumb as a rock, crazy like a fox – Little Torture Key, Florida Keys and Key West features

Monday, February 25th, 2013

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Both my Outlook Express MSN email accounts, and my seldom used Yahoo email account, would not let me copy and past a new, shortened email hit list into emails. As a result, no one on that new hit list received the daily bombing runs for the past few days, since Hotmail upgraded me to Outlook Express. I told a few people about it, and they said they would pass the word that people could simply open my websites and see the daily bombing run, which comes up first.

I readily confess, in matters mechanical, computer, I am dumb as a rock. Finally, however, I may have figured out before dawn today how to use the email contacts in my new Outlook Express email accounts. How I figured it out was I noticed an x beside the email addresses, which allowed me to delete them. So, I deleted all email addresses which had not responded to my previous inquiries re whether they wished to continue to receive the daily bombing runs, and a few personal contacts I needed to save in any event.

I say I may have figured it out. This is post will be a test run when I send it to the remaining hit list. Maybe a few of them will reply to let me know they received it and the test worked. Maybe, if they feel other people might wish to read what I publish, which is different from what other blogs and the newspapers publish, they will forward this post to those people.

All anyone has to do, to see the latest bombing run, is go to/click on www.goodmorningfloridakeys.com . The latest bombing run will come up. Older bombing runs can be see by scrolling down. If there is another bombing run the same day, say at www.goodmorningkeywest.com, or at www.goodmorningbirmingham.com. the links to those bombing runs are provided at the beginning of the post at www.goodmorningfloridakeys.com, and vice versa at the other two sites.

For example, there were three bombing runs yesterday, at these links:

Pearl Harbor lookout naval battles continue in Key West

Yes, the early humans were genetically altered by ancient astronauts, but don’t get sidetracked by that lore

Today’s bombing run begins with an email from Deb Curlee, a member of Last Stand, re yesterday’s Calamity Jane visits No Name Key bombing run, re something maybe on the agenda for tomorrow’s special County Commission meeting on No Name Key, Marathon Government Center, starting at 9 a.m.

Excellent post Sloan.

See you Tuesday. I am thinking about asking about the “notebook/binder” at the meeting. The other issue is the two radio interviews with George and with Danny where they both referred to “three commissioners” being in favor of allowing electricity to NNK. We know the 3 “gang of three” memories are George, David , and Danny.

Deb

Apparently, County Commissioner/Mayor David Rice and/or his Aide have put together a Coastal Barrier Resources presentation, which Deb and others have seen, which was delivered to all the county commissioners and to Christine Hurley, Director of Growth Management. Deb told me yesterday that the presentation is designed to persuade the county commissioners to vote to let No Name Key go on to the electric grid. Deb said she wondered if the real author of the presentation is Brad Vickrey, mentioned at the end of yesterday’s Calamity Jane visits No Name Key post as having bought a home on No Name Key, to give him standing to lobby for public utlities be brought out there, so he could use his wife’s family’s political clout to bring more development out there.

I told Deb that David Rice giving the binder, or having it delivered, to the other county commissioners was not a violation of the Sunshine Law, but if the other county commissioners responded to it outside of a county commission meeting, that would be a violation. I said even one-way communication from a county commissioner to other county commissioners is not advised, though. I said if Rice should disclose at the commission meeting who all had input into the presentation, and failure by Rice to provide that information would be unethical, at the very least, and perhaps more than unethical. I said, however, I didn’t think there was anyway to force Rice to disclose at the commission meeting, who all had input into the presentation. I said that information could be gotten through a Public Records Request.

As for David Rice and Commissioners Neugent and Kohlage each being on US 1, and each saying there were three votes for putting No Name Key on the electricity grid, I told Deb they could not know that for sure, unless they had spoken with each other, which would be a violation of the Sunshine Law. However, the way those three have spoken about No Name Key in previous commission meetings, it is clear they will vote to let No Name Key go on the electricity grid. How they will go about doing it, though, is not yet clear. It looks to me the County’s Comprehensive Plan needs to be changed, but the way Rice, Neugent and Kolhlage have been talking, maybe they will just bull ahead and ignore the Comp Plan.

Tomorrow’s county commission meeting should shed some light on all of that, but perhaps not as much light as needs to be shed. I wager the meeting will be interesting, in any event. I will be there, all ears, and perhaps some lip.

Stay tuned.

Key West Mayor Craig Cates

Meanwhile, back to Key Weird and Mayor Cates, Nashville J responded to parts of yesterday’s Pearl Harbor lookout naval battles continue in Key West post:

Sloan:

EXACTLY !

We repeatedly have used this space to criticize the city’s lack of progress in developing this park. Unfortunately, it now appears the city’s inaction can be expressed by the old idiom, “If you snooze, you lose.”

DUMB AS A BOX OF ROCKS !

“It’s not losing us because it’s not costing us,”said Mayor Craig Cates, who helped lead the vote to deny. “It’s been sitting there vacant; that one building has gone into disrepair. That falls back on the funky look of Key West. Not everything is perfect and modern — it’s historic and people enjoy coming.”

So, the new restaurant would have paid $300,000 a year to the city, the old building paid the city $7,000 a month when it was rented. Appears to me Cates doesn’t have an inkling as to what the hell he is talking about! (It takes 17 “inklings” to make a Clue). It’s costing the taxpayers between $100,000 and $300,000 a year in lost income dumbass.

I replied:

Cates knows exactly what is going on, he is protecting the Westin’s restaurant (wealthy Walsh family) and the restaurant of Key West Conch Fred Salinero’s family. What is astounding is the gobblygook that came out of Cates’ mouth about it, and, apparently, he believed people would swallow the gobblygook, and, apparently, he was right.

This comment in The Citizen Blog summed it up:

Battle of the two Walshes. Which side are you on?

Submitted on Sun, 02/24/2013 – 8:41am by Chi Chi

The battleof the two walshes. In this corner the walsh that manages his restaurants, mops the floors and flips burgers when neccessary. The Walsh who’s kids are in our schools and hires our friends to work in his businesses. And in that corner we have the Billionaire Walshes who fly into town in their LEER jet to confirm the hiring of foreign nationals who are hotracked in the old Banana Bay. The Walshes who own the largest estate on sunset key and refuse to donate a childrens park equipment. Who’s your daddy Craig, Clayton, Terri, Jimmy, Billy?

Also down Key West way today, in The Key West Citizen:

City, SHAL settle claim

Ex-caseworker agrees to $10K

BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff

The city of Key West and the nonprofit it chose to run the island’s homeless shelter will pay $10,000 to settle a worker’s compensation claim filed in December.

Todd Lovejoy signed off on the settlement after a mediation conference Feb. 7 over his claim against the city and the Southernmost Homeless Assistance League (SHAL), which hired him as a caseworker last year.

Assistant City Attorney Ron Ramsingh confirmed that the worker’s comp case has been settled, with the city paying $5,000 and SHAL paying the rest.

Lovejoy, 47, fell Oct. 12 while working on the recreational vehicle that SHAL sends out to serve homeless men and women, a project called Mobile Outreach that the city helps fund.

The injury required hand surgery and left one pinkie finger permanently damaged, Lovejoy said.

The case was closed Feb. 15 by the state Division of Administrative Hearings.

The $10,000 check ends a case that included an allegation that Wendy Coles, former executive director of SHAL, advised Lovejoy to lie about the injury to help the nonprofit avoid trouble.

SHAL had let its worker’s compensation insurance lapse between Sept. 30 and Oct. 24, according to the state’s compliance database, a fact that Lovejoy said the nonprofit feared would cause problems.

“‘The board wants you to go to a different doctor and tell them you fell at home and put it through your own insurance,’” Lovejoy recalled Coles saying during a meeting. “I advised you that was insurance fraud.”

Coles, who retired Jan. 31, never responded to the allegation, and the nonprofit has changed dramatically regarding its leaders and mission statement since last fall.

SHAL’s board, which has a new chairman, hired a new executive director at a far lower salary than Coles’ $52,000 a year.

Lovejoy will net $8,000 after attorney costs and other fees, according to the settlement agreement.

The article does not report that only a few weeks ago, on nomination from Mayor Cates, Wendy Coles was honored for her service to Key West’s homeless people, and Wendy Coles Day was declared to honor Wendy for that service. News of the workmen’s comp earthquake arrived before the award ceremony, and Mayor Cates went ahead with it anyway.

Mayor Cates told me last year that his police were not out hunting down and harassing and arresting and jailing homeless people his police found sleeping outside at night, even when the city’s homeless shelter was full. I said he should not insult himself, it was widely known his police were doing just that. He said, well, only when homeless people were sleeping where they were not supposed to be sleeping. I asked him to tell me, then, where it was okay for homeless people to sleep at night, when the shelter was full? So I could get that word out. No reply.

I have come to see that there is a Mayor Cates who does not tell the truth, and it does not faze him.

Sloan Bashinsky

keysmyhome@hotmail.com

Calamity Jane visits No Name Key

Sunday, February 24th, 2013

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First, some housekeeping.

Despite my dogged efforts, I am unable to use a new email contacts list to send daily bombing runs to people by email. MSN/Hotmail’s “upgraded” Outlook Express doesn’t allow importation of the new contacts list, and I had no better luck with a Yahoo email account. So, I seem where I wanted to be all along, which is leaving it for people to spread the word about my websites, if they feel other people might wish to check out those sites. The most recent daily ravings come up right away at each site: goodmorningfloridakeys.com, goodmorningkeywest.com, goodmorningbirmingham.com
If there is more than one post on any given day, each post says that at the top and provides a link to the other post(s). Today there are three different posts, and you should be able to reach them buy clicking on these links at any time:
Calamity Jane visits No Name Key
Pearl Harbor lookout naval battles continue in Key West
Yes, the early humans were genetically altered by ancient astronauts, but don’t get sidetracked by that lore

I told the angels all along, it was my job to publish what they ran through my soul and body day and night, making me miserable in the process; and it was their job to spread it around, if they wanted it spread around. I’ve done everything I can to spread it around, and it didn’t end up amounting to much. That tells me, either it wasn’t worth being spread around, or the angels continued their longstanding practice of holding to a trickle how much of what they gave me to write ended up being seen by other people.

=============================

Meanwhile, my thoughts on what follows are in italics …

=============================

In The Key West Citizen today,

Island divided: power v. no power

May be light at the end of the tunnel, as county holds special meeting

Tuesday BY TIMOTHY O’HARA

Citizen Staff

tohara@keysnews.com

Both opponents and proponents of bringing commercial power to No Name Key have fought an unwavering battle for decades. The strife has played out in courtrooms, community forums and local government meetings. It has fractured the small community of 43 homes so much that residents have likened it to the Hatfields and McCoys. The neighborhood dispute is not just a local issue. It’s garnered national attention, and was featured in both The New York Times and the Washington Post. Each side will argue its case again regarding bringing commercial electricity to the rural island Tuesday at a special meeting scheduled by the Monroe County Commission.

Settling without power

While the first people to settle on No Name Key date back to the 1870s, the requests to bring power there started in 1969, when Bob and Ruth Eaken purchased a home there. They were told by then-City Electric (now Keys Energy Services) that commercial power would be brought there after more homes were built, family members have said. Herb and Lois Craig moved there in 1978 and also requested commercial power. They were also told that power would eventually come along with more homes, according to records kept by the No Name Key Property Owners Association. In 1984, the Eakens again, along with neighbor Wayne Carr, requested power, but were turned down, told that there still were not enough homes there to warrant bringing in power lines and other infrastructure, according to the Property Owners Association. The battle over bringing power to the small island began to heat up and divide the community in the 1990s, when a rift grew between some who wanted to make No Name Key a true solar community and those who thought they were patiently, or not so patiently, waiting to be connected to the grid, according to government records and published newspaper reports. The differing views on power would put families such as the Eakens at odds with their new neighbors — Alicia and the late Mick Putney — who built a state-of-the art solar home on No Name Key and moved there in 1992. The Putneys championed the local solar energy cause and were among the founders of No Name Key’s “Solar Community.” At the same time, No Name Key resident Aldona Sizcek and others were working in the other direction, still trying to get City Electric and the county to bring power to the island. Sizcek had a warranty deed that included easements “for purpose of ingress and egress and for utility lines and for water pipelines,” records show, and in December 1994, she contacted City Electric in hopes of starting the electrification process. Cost estimates for line extension were prepared, as the county began considering it. But in August 1996, the County Commission sent a letter of “non-support” to City Electric, effectively shutting down the project, according to published accounts and public records. City Electric abandoned all efforts to supply No Name Key with electricity.

Looking powerless

The news for those wanting power got worse in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as they lost in court and the county put even more restrictions on bringing power to No Name Key. In 1996, the county adopted a comprehensive land use plan that said utilities were “discouraged” on what is known as federal Coastal Barrier Resource Zones, which are on No Name Key and in other areas of the Florida Keys. Development in such coastal barrier zones is severely limited as property owners in the designated zones can’t obtain federal flood insurance, needed to get a mortgage. In 2001, the county took it one step further and adopted a land development regulation that “prohibited” utilities in No Name Key. The latter would become one of the most controversial aspects of the electrification battle. While the County Commission ultimately approved the adoption of the rule, the legislation first went before the county’s Planning Commission. Alicia Putney had just been appointed to the Planning Commission. It was her very first meeting when that panel considered and then approved — unanimously — the then-proposed land development rule prohibiting utilities. The measure then went to the County Commission for approval.

If that was Alicia’s first meeting, what was on the agenda that day was the product of considerable work by Planning Commission staff, most likely with input from the County Commission and the Florida Department of Community Affairs and, I imagine, US Fish & Wildlife and Florida Fish & Wildlife. To blame Alica for what was on the agenda at her first meeting, as if she was its sole creator, is ludicrous.

Members of the No Name Key Property Owners Association have accused her using her position on the board to get the legislation passed. They maintain she sent several letters to the county and City Electric arguing against commercial power on No Name Key and was a party to lawsuits involving the issue.

Whatever Alicia sent, or didn’t send, to City Electric, whatever City Electric ended up deciding, was done by its Board of Directors, with input from its staff and CEO. City Electric was a wholly-owned Key West utility company, the forerunner of Keys Energy Services, allegedly an independent utlility company with an elected board of directors, although they all have to live in Key West to run for that board. There is no way Alicia controlled City Electric, just as there is now way she controlled Keys Energy Service, whose elected Board of Directors, against their own lawyer’s advice, I was at the meeting, voted to extend power to No Name Key, even though the issue was still tied up in litigation.

Putney told The Citizen that she did ask the then-Planning Commission attorney if she needed to recuse herself from the vote, and he said no, because the set of land-use rules was “legislative” and she did not have a “financial interest” in the matter.

This is as dumb a thing as I can imagine. There is no way Alicia, living on No Name Key, opposing public utilities being run out there, did not have a conflict of interest. Regardless of what Alicia was told by County legal counsel, or by whomever, she should not have participated in anything before the Planning Commission regarding No Name Key. I bet today Alicia wishes she had recused herself from No Name Key agenda items, even though it apparently was a done deal, no matter if she voted or not, as the other four planning commissioners apparently voted for legislation against extending utilities to No Name Key, and the County Commission and the Florida Department of Community Affairs approved it. There is no way Alica controlled the County Commission or the Department of Community Affairs, either.

Putney denied any role in crafting the legislation, arguing that it was proposed by county planning staff and first went before the county’s Development Review Committee a month before she was named to the Planning Commission. “People have long misinterpreted my role in this matter,” Putney said. In 2003, Judge Richard Payne ruled against a group called Taxpayers for the Electrification of No Name Key Inc., which sued the county to bring commercial power to No Name Key.

Game-changer

The likelihood of commercial power being brought to No Name Key seemed dim until 2010, when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issued a letter essentially giving the green light to bringing it there. The agency oversees the National Key Deer Refuge on No Name Key and Big Pine Key and is responsible for protecting all the endangered species on the two islands.

Yes, that indeed was a game-changer. And, that it was a game-changer indicated the power U.S. Fish & Wildlife had wielded earlier, in No Name Key not having public utilities. One has to wonder who got to USF&W? It doesn’t look to me like it was Alicia Putney. It looks to me like it was people who wanted No Name Key put on the grid. Or, somebody they knew, who had political influence.

The federal agency sent Keys Energy Services a letter on Oct. 15, 2010, stating that power lines and their installation were “not likely to adversely affect Key deer, Lower Keys marsh rabbits, silver rice rats and other protected species,” if the project followed some basic protocols designed to protect the animals. “It was a major game-changer,” said County Commissioner Danny Kolhage, who is among several commissioners asking for a review, and possibly amendments, to county land development policies regarding utilities on No Name Key. Proponents of power also uncovered a 1951 County Commission resolution that supported power being brought to the island. The resolution grants utility companies the right to “construct and maintain an electrical system on and over any of the (county’s) public streets, roads or bridges.”

That Resolution, and No Name Key, now will be argued by anyone living in remote areas in the Keys, to get public utilities.

Despite the Fish & Wildlife letter and the 1951 resolution, the county still refused to approve the electrification of No Name Key.

Litigation begins

In March 2011, the county filed a “friendly” lawsuit against Keys Energy Services seeking a “declaratory statement” on the issue. The utility had tentively agreed with the county to allow a local judge to rule on the question.

Not entirely. This lawsuit was filed in response to litigation threats from No Name Key property owners who wanted public utilities brought out to the island. I told the County Commission, at a Commission meeting, not to file the declaratory judgment action, for which every taxpayer in the county would pay. I told the Commission to leave it up to the No Name Key property owners to bring suit, on their dime, and if that happened, to then ask the Court for declaratory relief; meaning, tell the court the County didn’t know what was right, and for the Court to decide it. Later, Keys Energy’s Board voted to bring its own declaratory judgment action, if the County Commission did not bring one of its own. There was no reason for the County Commission to do anything but wait, and then, if sued, ask the Court for declaratory relief.

However, Circuit Court Judge David Audlin ruled that the power issue should go before the state Public Service Commission (PSC), which regulates utilities. But before the PSC could even consider the issue — which it still has not — Keys Energy Services entered into a contract with the No Name Key Property Owners Association to provide the infrastructure for commercial power. In summer 2012, Keys Energy Services completed erecting power poles and other power equipment on the rural island, which led the county to file another lawsuit — not so friendly — charging Keys Energy Services with trespass, as some of the lines run over county conservation land. Audlin ruled on the second lawsuit last week, again saying the PSC had jurisdiction. The commission has yet to set a hearing date on the matter. Several members of the No Name Key Property Owners Association have since filed their own lawsuit, because the county will not grant them the building permits needed to connect their homes to the power lines. They are also asking for $10 million in damages. County Commissioner David Rice has encouraged the County Commission to vote on issuing the building permits, noting the discrepancy between the county’s comprehensive land-use plan (discouraging utilities) and its land development regulations (prohibiting them) on No Name Key. Florida Statute 163.3194 states that when the comp plan and land development regulations are in conflict, the county must abide by the comp plan, Rice said. Rice, Kolhage and County Mayor George Neugent argued that the county has “discouraged” bringing power there for several decades, thereby fulfilling its duty in that regard.

Wrong, George. As long as the Comp Plan says discourage, you have to discourage. If you don’t like the Comp Plan, get it changed.

Supporters of power are closer then ever in their quest for commercial power. They may be even closer after this week’s special County Commission meeting in Marathon. The commission will meet to discuss the issue at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Marathon Government Center.

tohara@keysnews.com

I continue to be amazed by the utter lack of mention in local newspaper coverage of this situation, that all property owners living on No Name Key bought homes out there knowing the island was totally off the grid, and all but four property owners bought out there knowing the obstacles to bringing the island on to the grid.

I also continue to be amazed by the utter lack of mention in local newspaper coverage of this situation, that anyone who has lived very long in the Keys, who pays attention to what goes on here, knows that putting No Name Key on the grid will open the door to lobbying for more development out there, as well as elsewhere in the Keys, where development does not occur because there are as yet no public utilities

Probably not by chance, Brad and Beth Vickrey (Beth is the sister of Monroe County/Florida Keys Sheriff Rick Ramsay and the daughter of Marathon City Councilman Dick Ramsay) were not interviewed for this article. There is no way Brad Vickrey, a California real estate man, bought a home off the grid, unless he intended to use that home to give him standing to get public utilities brought to No Name Key, so he could try to develop more of it. Brad would have been an idiot to have bought out there for any other reason, and my dealings with Brad left me convinced he is not an idiot.

It has been my impression all along that Brad and Beth Vickrey, and people they know, are the developers behind the drive to put No Name Key onto the grid. And it has been my impression all along that they have David Rice and George Neugent in their fold. On David, his son, Mike, is #3 in the Sheriff Office, under Beth’s brother, Rick Ramsay. For years, Mike was #3 under Rick, who was #2 in the Sheriff Office. As Undersheriff, Rick pretty much ran the Sheriff Office, according to what I heard him say at several candidate forums last year. I also saw Rick show up at Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority meetings, in uniform, when extending public water out to No Name Key was on the agenda. And also I saw Rick and Beth’s father, Dick, show up at those meetings. There is no doubt in my mind this really is about further development on No Name Key down the road, even though I don’t believe that is the intent of most people living there, who want the island brought onto the grid.

For readers who do not know, I ran for the County Commission three times, the first time in 2006, against George Neugent. I ran for a Key West county commission seat in 2008, after the angels moved me back down there in 2007. I ran against George again in 2010, after the angels moved me back to Little Torture Key. I went to alot of candidate forums with both George and David. I attended quite a few county commission meetings. I attended Keys Energy Services and Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority meetings. I am not a new kid on the block when it comes to George and David, and to No Name Key.

Sloan Bashinsky

keysmyhome@hotmail.com

down the rabbit hole, Florida Keys and Key West, mostly

Saturday, February 23rd, 2013

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Re more signees for my new email hit list:

From an old Alabama amigo yesterday, who pretty much runs the old line Southern Baptist Church my parents and grandparents attended, when I was a boy, meaning, I attended it too:

Sloan, it looks like you’ve found you mission – Gadfly and blogger. Keep me on your list.

Phil

I wrote back:

Hi, Phil – appearances maybe deceiving, but it might be a good cover. Hope all well with you and your family. Sloan

From a former employee of my father’s company, in Birmingham:

Hey Bash, I am doing good.. How are you? I see you are still fighting a cause in KW.. haha….You will never believe it, but you remember Ray W? He said he was the first person you rode with on a route in Montgomery…Years ago…..Well, we have been going together for over a year and plan on getting married. He lives in Prattville and I here in Moody.. We need to sell a house..Why don’t you come back and buy one of ours??? haha..Herman Faulk gave him my phone # and the rest is history…..

Ray had a 2 by pass heart surgery 2 weeks ago today but is doing fairly well, considering. Herman goes today for a stress test but seems to holding his own.. I still hear from some of my pals at Flake, but I believe I got out at the right time.. I do miss my friends with what is left, and the customers but I am stress free and doing well after 44 years at Flake… Years ago, I could not tell you this for Golden Flake was # 1 for such a long time… I read your emails and enjoy hearing from you. Take care and let me hear from you soon…Freeda

P.S. We went to every Alabama football game last year, except the Championship Game.. ROLL TIDE

I wrote back:

Hi, Freeda – happy for you and Ray, had heard all about it from Herman, who was terribly concerned, or he pretended so, for the state of your soul, out of wedlock and all. Poor Herman, he’s on so many different pills, I started calling him the bionic man. Give Ray my best regards, too. Bash

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Down here in The Asteroid Belt, more from the No Name Key warlock Howard Thurston, who seems to have made attacking Alicia Putney his reason for being. This below was in reference to my having asked Alicia to respond to his most recent email attacking her, which email I had answered and published in the The ballad of Howard Thurston, a No Name Key habitant no one I ask seems to have ever heard of post at goodmorningfloridakeys.com.

Howard Thurston likeness

Sloan:

Even if she [Alicia] did respond she’d surely lie but it sure is curious that she never does address the facts you asked her about…then again, why should she, those are the facts. The truth. She is who she is and did what she did and has been exposed. She’s hated on No Name by all but, my guess, two or three and for good reason. Thank you.

I replied:

And you are who you are – that you won’t come forward and show yourself says more and ill about you than any and every thing you leveled at Alicia.

I went to Coco’s Kitchen for lunch today and got to talking at the counter with two women down for a couple of months, who were looking at buying a home down here. They live on Martha’s Vineyard. After I told them a little about the fracas out on No Name Key, one of them asked, “Why did those people buy a home out there, if they wanted public utilities?” I said, that is the question they never answer.

The woman said they had something similar happen in the subdivision where they live on Martha’s Vineyard, which only has dirt roads going back to since the subdivision got started. People moved into the subdivision and started clamoring for paved roads, and making life difficult for the people already living there, and lines were drawn, and eventually the paved road advocates gave up and moved somewhere else.

I thought of you, and told the woman that the angels had arranged for me to be at Coco’s today to hear that story, so I could pass it along to a warlock living on No Name Key, who is beating up on Alicia. I also told the woman that Alica messed up by being on the county planning commission and not recusing herself each time No Name Key stuff came before that body.

I did not receive a reply from Alicia, nor from the other NNK resident, two whom I sent my last post you inspired, which included your email to me and my replies between your paragraphs. If you didn’t see all of that post, I added more to it after I sent it to you and you replied, here’s the link: The ballad of Howard Thurston, a No Name Key habitant no one I ask seems to have ever heard of

Sloan

I wager I am hated by the same No Name Key people, who hate Alicia; however, based on the number of people I run into, who live on No Name Key, who love Alicia, Howard once again has invented facts that simply do not exist. For all I know, after that last post I put up, to which Alicia did not respond, I am hated by everyone who lives on No Name Key. The line of work I am in is not and never has been a popularity contest.

Also on No Name Key, this article in The Key West Citizen today, my thoughts in italics.

Second power lawsuit sent to PSC

Judge: Public Service Commission should decide on electricity for No Name Key

BY TIMOTHY O’HARA Citizen Staff tohara@keysnews.com

A Monroe County judge has dismissed a second lawsuit about bringing commercial power to No Name Key, ruling again that the case should be heard by the state Public Service Commission (PSC), not the local courts.

Circuit Court Judge David Audlin, who ruled Thursday, is open to ruling later on some issues in the case if the PSC does not rule on them.

“The court finds that the issues in this case are sufficiently related to the regulation and planning of electrical generation and transmission lines, that the issues should first be addressed and determined by the PSC,” Audlin said. “It would serve no purpose to speculate as to what matters the PSC will address and what matters, if any, will be left for this court’s determination.”

Monroe County filed a lawsuit last year against Keys Energy Services, charging the public utility with trespassing because it ran power lines over county-owned conservation lands on No Name Key.

Let’s see. The County warned Keys Energy Services not to run its lines over County land. Keys Energy ignored the County’s warnings and ran its lines over County land. That looks like criminal trespass to me. Looks to me like the County could have told the Sheriff to arrest Keys Keys Energy employees who ran the lines, and Keys Energy officials who gave the order to run the lines. Arrest and put them in jail, and put it on the State Attorney to prosecute them for criminal trespass, which would not have cost the County a penny.

And, if the Sheriff had balked, the County Commission could have told the Sheriff, well, it was balking at funding the Sheriff’s budget. Wouldn’t that have been a lovely kettle of fish, if the County had gone at it that way, instead of giving Judge Audlin, long known to favor No Name Key being on the grid, another bite at that same apple.

The lawsuit is part of an ongoing legal battle involving residents of No Name Key, Keys Energy Services and the county. Last year, Audlin ruled in a separate lawsuit between the county and Keys Energy Services that the PSC should hear the issue, not the local circuit court.

Keys Energy Services has agreed to bring commercial power to No Name Key and erected power lines and other needed infrastructure there last summer.

The county’s comprehensive land use plan “discourages” utilities on No Name and its land development regulations “prohibit” utilities there.

The county has fought bringing power to the island and refused to grant building permits to several homeowners to connect their homes to the power lines. Several home-owners have filed yet another, separate lawsuit requesting the building permits.

Several? One would think it would be all but two or three, if Howard Thurston is to be believed.

The County Commission will hold a public meeting Tuesday in Marathon to discuss the lawsuits and whether to start the process of changing its land development regulations to allow utilities on No Name Key or other areas in the Keys where commercial power is prohibited.

PSC spokeswoman Cindy Muir said Wednesday that “further discussion with the parties on the best way to proceed will resume after the special County Commission meeting,” scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Marathon Government Center.

tohara@keysnews.com

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For the benefit of the pro-grid folks on No Name Key, who keep beating the Keys Energy Services “Growing greener every day” drum, a Keynother article today showing just how truly green electricity generated on the mainland and sent down to the Florida Keys really ain’t.

FPL pitches new reactors to Upper Keys

By KEVIN WADLOW

kwadlow@keynoter.com

Posted – Wednesday, February 20, 2013 10:15 AM EST

Plans for new nuclear reactors at Florida Power and Light’s Turkey Point plant will be laid out for local water managers Feb. 27 in Tavernier.

FPL’s senior director for Miami project development will speak with Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority board members at the FKAA’s regular meeting, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Florida Keys Electric Cooperative complex at mile marker 91.6.

FPL proposes to cool two additional nuclear reactors at Turkey Point with treated wastewater from Miami-Dade County.

In case the 90 million gallons of cooling water needed daily is not available from Miami-Dade’s wastewater system, FPL seeks to draw a similar amount from a saltwater lens beneath Biscayne Bay for up to 60 days a year.

Environmentalists, national park managers and the FKAA have raised questions about whether drawing saltwater from below Biscayne Bay could harm the Biscayne Aquifer, the source of most fresh water for South Florida, including the Keys.

FPL managers say the backup “collector wells are specifically designed, and confirmed by extensive modeling, to have no adverse environmental impact.”

“The real issue for us is whether this could affect saltwater intrusion into the Biscayne Aquifer rather than causing a drawdown of the aquifer itself,” said FKAA Executive Director Kirk Zuelch.

In a similar vein, Miami-Dade water managers are questioning an Everglades restoration project that might “divert too much water from a well field that supplies Miami-Dade County with much of its drinking water,” the Miami Herald reported Sunday.

The Everglades plan seeks to divert fresh water from flood-control canals into the historic River of Grass flow. However, a proposed underground “seepage barrier” along Tamiami Trail could lower flow into Miami-Dade’s well field, computer models show.

“We have very serious concerns at this point,” a Miami-Dade resources manager told the Herald.

Zuelch said he will ask the FKAA’s engineering staff to examine the project’s effect on the Keys well field at Florida City. Miami-Dade’s main well field is several miles northeast of Florida City, he noted.

==============================

On the blackboard jungle front yesterday, this from Nashville J, responding to an article in The Key West Citizen provided in yesterday’s post:

Sloan:

“The information I’ve received indicated that this situation was dealt with properly,” Porter said. “I’ve not heard anything about the intercom system, but we certainly tried to use the communications means available to us to inform the parents. What happened is that a student was in possession of a look-alike weapon. It was never brandished or meant to be used. There was no imminent threat. A modified form of lockdown was used. In a more serious situation, the response would have been different.”

The police response wasn’t well-coordinated with the school, Porter conceded.

A few comments of my own after the actual quotes:

“I’ve not heard anything about the intercom system” : So, we have a lock down situation that could not be communicated throughout the school due to the intercom system not working BUT the School Superintendent knows nothing about it! Why did it not work? How long has it not been working? Was it working yesterday? Is it working today?

“we certainly TRIED to use the communications mean available to us to inform the parents“ : AND it failed miserably if it was three hours before some parents were given a robocall. What is gonna be done about that?

What happened is that a student was in possession of a look-alike weapon. It was never brandished or meant to be used. There was no imminent threat. A modified form of lockdown was used. In a more serious situation, the response would have been different.” : Uh, so, how did the School Superintendent and Principal know that the weapon was not real when the school was put on MODIFIED lockdown????? A parent called the police and they did not know whether the weapon was real or not. What would have been different in a more serious situation (when they did not know or it was not mentioned that they knew the gun was not a real gun).

“The police response wasn’t well-coordinated with the school, Porter conceded.” So, if it had been a real gun and someone pulled it out and started shooting – the police response would not have been well coordinated. The school would have been on modified lockdown. So, what the hell is Porter and the Principal gonna do about that?

I have given Mr. Porter and the Principal a grade of F . I will give the KW police an F. You can not allow the response to not “well-coordinated” in todays world. After Sandy Hook! Maybe it is time they get their head out of their ass and start taking things seriously. What have they done about the young boy who was bullied and then went home and killed himself?? Has anything changed concerning the bullying policy or reporting? Did they learn anything from that incident? Will they learn anything from this incident? Do they do lockdown drills at every school like they do fire drills?

I replied:

Well, now J, I was sort of figuring you would dig into that fine response by HOB Principal Mike Henrizqez and the Key West PD, and Superintendent Mark Porter’s comforting words. As for your question: Did they learn anything from that incident? In today’s post, as you noticed, is a photo of a youngish women standing upside down with her head stuck in a rabbit hole, and a photo of a man with his head stuck deep up in where the sun does’t shine. Those two photos are your official answer. Sloan

=========================

Also on the blackboard jungle sitcom, this forward yesterday from Larry Murray:

“The more things change….” Thought you would enjoy the following.

From: Lawrence Murray <citizenlarry007@yahoo.com> To: Andy Griffiths2 <andy@fishandy.com>; Mark Porter <mark.porter@keysschools.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2013 12:29 PM Subject: Improved Agenda

Gentlemen:

Pursuant to my concerns raised about the last School Board agenda, I see that there are improvements in the agenda for your upcoming meeting. At least, there is a distinction between when the workshop ends and the meeting begins, though the problem of having combined workshops and meetings continues unabated. I do find it interesting that the workshop begins “Time Approximate 3:00 PM” whereas the regular meeting is time specific, 5:00 PM. Does that mean that the workshop must end promptly no later than 4:59 PM? Had I arranged the schedule, the workshop would have been time specific and the meeting would have been time approximate, but what do I know?

I note that 60 minutes is dedicated during the workshop to HOB construction, but that there are no documents, e.g. Change Orders, associated with the discussion. Does that mean that there will be a generic bull session?

I also note that again there is no report from the Audit and Finance Committee. I think that that omission tells you a lot about your priorities and your level of interest in the Audit and Finance Committee.

Finally, I note the impending demise of the Waste, Fraud and Abuse Hotline. A sad day. I guess the message here is that when the District cannot do something right, it does not try again. It simply quits trying.

Larry Murray

Hell’s bells, Larry, you and I both know the District never intended to the the Fraud Hotline right, and you and I both know the District never intended to do the Audit & Finance Committee right, either. And that ain’t all they didn’t ever intend to do right.

Larry was one of the orginal volunteer appointees on the Audit & Finance Committee.

Keynoter journalist Sean Kinney sent this to Larry, me, and other people yesterday. This is only the initial summary of a longer, more detailed document.

PHONE: 850-488-5534 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 850-488-5534 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting

AUDITOR GENERAL

STATE OF FLORIDA

FAX: 850-488-6975

G74 Claude Pepper Building

DAVID W. MARTIN, CPA

AUDITOR GENERAL

111 West Madison Street

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1450

February 20, 2013

Mr. Mark T. Porter,

Superintendent

Monroe County District School Board

241 Trumbo Road

Key West, FL 33040

Dear Superintendent: Enclosed is a list of preliminary and tentative audit findings and recommendations which may be included in a report to be prepared on our financial, Federal, and operational audit of the: Monroe County District School Board For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2012 Pursuant to Section 11.45(4)(d), Florida Statutes, you are required to submit to me within thirty (30) days after receipt of this list a written statement of explanation concerning all of the findings, including therein your actual or proposed corrective actions. If within the 30-day period you have questions or desire further discussion on any of the proposed findings and recommendations, please contact this Office.

Your written statement of explanation should be submitted electronically in source format (e.g., Word or WordPerfect) and include your digitized signature. For quality reproduction purposes, if you are not submitting your response in source format, please convert your response to PDF and not scan to PDF. If technical issues make an electronic response not possible, then a hard copy (paper) response will continue to be acceptable.

Please e-mail this Office at flaudgen_audrpt@aud.state.fl.us to indicate receipt of the preliminary and tentative audit findings. Absent such receipt, delivery of the enclosed list of findings is presumed, by law, to be made when it is delivered to your office.

Sincerely,

David W. Martin

DWM/cdt

Enclosures

cc: School Board Members

MONROE COUNTY DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD PRELIMINARY AND TENTATIVE AUDIT FINDINGS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCY

Finding No. 1: Financial reporting procedures could be improved to ensure that transactions and note disclosures are properly reported.

ADDITIONAL MATTERS

Finding No. 2: The District’s General Fund financial condition may be further reduced by payments of questioned costs and additional Board premium contributions for the District’s health and workers’ compensation self-insurance programs, resulting in significantly less resources for emergencies and unforeseen situations.

Finding No. 3: District procedures did not always ensure that minutes for meetings were appropriately maintained and timely approved, contrary to the Sunshine Law.

Finding No. 4: The District’s required annual debt payment of $2,117,647, due on December 1, 2011, was made on August 24, 2012, or 267 days late.

Finding No. 5: The District reported $4,963,000 of unrestricted resources as restricted fund balance in a capital projects fund; however, the amounts had no externally imposed constraints on use and District records did not evidence the specific intended use of the funds.

Finding No. 6: The District’s Workers’ Compensation/General Liability Internal Service Fund unrestricted net asset balance declined $920,054 to a deficit balance of $1,901,332 at June 30, 2012.

Finding No. 7: The District needed to strengthen its controls to ensure the accurate reporting of instructional contact hours for adult general education classes to the Florida Department of Education.

Finding No. 8: A formal action plan needs to be established to adequately fund the property self-insurance program for wind damage.

Finding No. 9: Payroll processing procedures could be enhanced to ensure that employee work time is appropriately documented and approved, accurately recorded, and not in conflict with other employment.

Finding No. 10: The financial audit of a Board-approved direct-support organization (DSO) was not performed in accordance with

Government Auditing Standards, contrary to Rules of the Auditor General. Although District personnel did not consider the organization to be a DSO, the Board had not rescinded its approval of the organization as a DSO, and the District provided the organization personal services, use of District facilities, and property at no cost, which is permissible only if the organization is a DSO.

Finding No. 11: The District needed to enhance controls over after school day care and adult education program fees.

Finding No. 12: Vehicle logs were not always complete, accurate, and reviewed and approved of record by supervisory personnel.

Finding No. 13: Controls over the review and approval of construction contract change orders could be improved.

FEDERAL AWARDS FINDINGS

Federal Awards Finding No. 1:

The District used School Improvement grant funds for expenditures incurred outside the period of availability, resulting in $36,793.40 of questioned costs.

Federal Awards Finding No. 2:

The District did not properly allocate Title I schoolwide program resources to schools in rank order, on the basis of the total number of children from low income families in each school, resulting in $18,475.34 of questioned costs.

Federal Awards Finding No. 3:

Required documentation to support personnel charges were not always maintained, resulting in $14,382.37 of questioned costs to the Race-to-the-Top Program. MONROE COUNTY DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD PRELIMINARY AND TENTATIVE AUDIT FINDINGS

Federal Awards Finding No. 4:

Control deficiencies were noted over payroll time records and employee work schedules for some District employees paid from Twenty-First Century Program funds, resulting in $1,296 of questioned costs.

Federal Awards Finding No. 5:

The District’s Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards excluded the Disaster Grants – Public Assistance (Presidentially Declared Disasters) Program, a major Federal program, with expenditures of $359,056.

I asked Larry to weigh in on that, and he sent this:

Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:42:27 -0800 From: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com Subject: Auditor General’s Report To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com

Sloan:

I have had an opportunity of the first reading of the Auditor General’s Report which I just received today. At first glance, several things stand out:

1. The most glaring issue is the continuation of problems over the years. The Auditor General highlights thirteen “findings” or problem areas. Five of them have been reported now three years running, including the “Significant Deficiency” of insufficient “Financial Reporting”. A sixth, while not reported last year, was reported two years ago. As Yogi Berra would say, “It’s deja vu all over again.” Or, as I might say, “SS/DD”.

I am especially disappointed in the number of repeat findings when you consider that the Board, after last year’s Auditor General’s Report, instructed the Director of Finance and Performance, Ken Gentile, to correct all of the previously cited problems before June 30, 2012.

Obviously, this was not done. I fault the Board for its failure to hold the Director of Finance and Performance accountable for what they instructed him to do. But, then again, neither the Board nor the superintendent ever hold anyone accountable. The Board’s behavior is reminiscent of how it handled the Waste, Fraud and Abuse Hotline. After initial interest, they failed to follow up and allowed it to languish much as they did with the corrective actions to last year’s AG Report.

2. I found Finding No. 3: Board Minutes especially interesting and amusing. The staff member responsible for maintaining the minutes is handsomely paid over $50,000 a year and only had two responsibilities: assist at the Board meetings and then do the minutes. Apparently, timely presentation of the minutes was more than could be handled. Of course, the Board did not care any more about this issue than they did about their instructions to the Director of Finance and Performance to correct last year’s problems.

3. Perhaps most alarming are the AG’s comments about the “fund balance” or “Reserve Fund”. Those comments appear in Finding No. 2: Financial Condition and Finding No. 6: Net Asset Deficit-Worker’s Compensation/General Liability Internal Service Fund.

The District began the year with a deficit balance of $981,278 that increased to $1,901,332, or nearly $1 million! That unfunded liability has a decided impact in the “Reserve Fund”. The District contends that it has a fund balance of $4,145,064 as of June 30, 2012 or 5.5 percent of General Fund revenues.

If you factor in the unfunded liabilities, “the District’s General Fund… may be further reduced to below 3 percent….” (emphasis added) It looks to me like the District is again playing games when it comes to the size and health of the “Reserve Fund”, at least that’s what the AG believes. This gamesmanship has been going on for as long as I can remember. The Monroe County School District “Reserve Fund” is very much a moving target.

The AG’s Recommendation clearly directs that the Board and Superintendent “take the necessary actions to ensure that an adequate fund balance continues to be maintained in the General Fund.” The AG notes that “A similar finding was noted in our report No. 2012-170.”

An aside on the subject of workmen’s compensation. I was doubly surprised to see that there was an increase and a marked increase at that of the costs. When the custodial function was contracted out, one of the observations made was that workmen’s compensation expenses would go down because the custodial staff was responsible for the lion’s share of claims. That decline did not occur. I would be interested to learn just why workmen’s compensation claims have jumped so dramatically, especially since the custodians are no longer District employees.

4. The only “Significant Deficiency” is Finding No.1: Financial Reporting. If you cut to the chase, the AG is chastising the District for its inability to properly report its finances. In that regard, I am reminded of an exchange earlier in the week with “Poor” Superintendent Mark Porter about some financial documents he provided to me in a Public Records Request. I told him that one record in particular was virtually incomprehensible. His response was as if to say “Sorry about that, but that’s how we keep our records.”

That the AG would be disturbed and insist that the “District should improve its financial reporting procedures…” comes as no surprise to anyone who has ever looked at the District’s financial reports. It seems that a highly paid CFO could not correct the problem and an equally highly paid Director of Finance and Performance has not done any better. Perhaps we should call back the more humbly paid Kathy Reitzel to run the District’s financial operations as these problems did not exist under her stewardship.

5. As you know, the plug is being pulled on the Hotline at Tuesday’s Board meeting. The explanation given is that the Hotline has lost all credibility because of mismanagement. Interestingly, the basics of one finding, Finding No. 9: Payroll Processing-Time Records, was reported to the Hotline. So, it was not a complete failure had anyone paid attention.

6. On a personal note, I was particularly gratified to read Finding No. 13: Construction Contract-Change Orders. The subject of Change Orders at Horace O’Bryant School is, to put it mildly, a hot issue and, hopefully, will be discussed at Tuesday’s Board meeting as part of the 60 minutes devoted to the HOB construction project.

It was very nice of the AG to cite Florida Statute and Board Policy with regard to Change Orders so that “Poor” Superintendent Mark Porter will now know how to properly process Change Orders, something he apparently did not know before. It’s gratifying to read the auditors helping the lawyers when it comes to the law.

I am sure that I will have additional comments after I have had an opportunity to seriously dig into the AG Report.

Larry

I told Larry on the phone last night, that they continue to intentionally overstate the reserve fund balance.

No doubt, there will be a plethora of opportunities; the School District is genetically engineered to screw up at every opportunity.

Meanwhile, in another section of the genetics lab …

from a Jupiter Beach amiga, who has taken quite a few cruises, calling on Key West several times. She had written to me the other day about taking a short trip to Key Largo, with her daughter, and wanting to see what is beneath the ocean, since she has seen what’s on top of it. I wrote back that she should take in John Pennekamp state park and a snorkel/dive boat.

Sloan, do u get back to Key West several times a week, as you are still very close to the incredible range of problems down there.

In regard to our discussion on the stupidity of Key West digging a deep water channel for bigger ships, there was an article in the difficulty of getting 3200 passengers and 1000 crew off a ship safely if it isn’t sinking. Title: Too big to bail. I avoid the bigger ships. Like the size where passengers number about 2200. They are also widening the Panama Canal which could prove to be a problem as the Canal Is very dependent on rainfall to the North during the rainy season. I went through the Panama Canal on a cruise. One of the ships passing us in the other direction ended up on the English coast–went aground and people were grabbing everything including tractors– and the ship owners didn’t realize that the people would grab everything in a day. They arrived a day later and ship picked clean!

I also avoid the air buses. I think planes and ships can get to big in terms of efficiency and organization. Once I returned to Miami when two other ships arrived at 8 am also so they were trying to process 10,000 people through Customs at the same time. It too hours. I always have a roll on small luggage, so was able to get off my ship quickly and exited early.

As ever, Ginger

I wrote back:

I get down to KW maybe every 10 days, I keep up by reading the local newspapers and through what other people tell or send to me, and sometimes by attending City Commission meetings.

Look at what I wrote about crusise ships today, it’s gonna take a whole hell of a lot more than a wing and a prayer and a bottle of rum to fix what all ails Key West at www.goodmorningkeywest.com. Includes comprehensive article on same issue in Charleston.

Personally, I don’t see me getting on a cruise ship.

You might like hanging out around John Pennekamp a lot better, there are some pretty good restaurants on Key Largo, my favorite is The Fish House. If you like honky tonk biker dives, there is Alabama Jack’s at the tall bridge over Card Sound, take that in on Sunday afternoon if possible, which is when it is most juking.

There is a lot more to do and see below Seven Mile Bridge. But if you are only going to be in the Keys 2-3 days, that won’t work well.

Sloan

keysmyhome@hotmail.com

it’s gonna take a whole hell of a lot more than a wing and a prayer and a bottle of rum to fix what all ails Key West

Friday, February 22nd, 2013

From my oldest first Bashinsky cousin yesterday:

Bash- Thought you might relate to this. Leo

In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.”

—Denise Levertov

============================

For me, writing is prayer.

For me, living is prayer.

I am always in prayer, although I don’t imagine church people like Leo’s born-again evangelical alcoholic younger brother would agree.

============================

Nashville J replied to Key West City Commission denying an application for a new restaurant on Mallory pier, as reported in yesterday’s dragons ain’t always bad, and elephants usually are visible, exept in Key West post.

Sloan:

They are dumber than a box of rocks!

Walsh denied new eatery Meets the code for what can be built there – Walsh awarded the bid – and they vote against ! You are exactly CORRECT that is absolutely another DUCKS!

As Forrest said: STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES!

I replied:

I wuz expecting no less from you :-)

J replied:

Well, if nothing else, I am predictable! :-)

I replied:

So is Key West. You’d think a city that prides itself for fostering diversity would rise above predictable, alas.

==============================

School District Chief Operating Officer Michael Kinneer sent this cruise ship praise report, which has some not entirely favorable mention of Key West, I provided the cartoon from a long past issue of The Key West Citizen:

http://nyti.ms/XL50Uv

NYTimes: Not in My Port, Charleston’s Cruise Ship Opponents Say A genteel coastal city in South Carolina has been roiled by a raucous debate over whether the economic benefits of cruise ships outweigh the disruptions they bring.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — In this Southern coastal city that runs on history and hospitality, a raucous civic debate belies a genteel veneer.

Enlarge This Image

Barton Silverman/The New York Times

The Celebrity Mercury cruise ship loomed over the port in Sitka, Alaska, in 2008. Alaska’s waters host 36 cruise ships each year.

Enlarge This Image

Stephen Morton for The New York Times

A protest poster of a cruise ship smokestack was hung on a fence in Charleston’s historic district.

Readers’ Comments

Is the environmental impact of cruise ships worth the economic benefit for port cities?

Read All Comments (241) »

Like several communities that hug the nation’s coastline, Charleston is struggling to balance the economic benefits of cruise ships against their cultural and environmental impact.

Last week’s debacle aboard Carnival Cruise Lines’ Triumph, in which an engine fire stranded 4,200 people in the Gulf of Mexico for five days, has done little to deter those civic leaders who believe that building a new $35 million cruise terminal will be a great boon for this port city.

But for people like Jay Williams, a homeowner in the historic district who writes a blog for Charleston Communities for Cruise Control, a preservationist group, the nightmare on the Triumph is one more piece of evidence in the case against a fast-growing form of travel. “Cruise ships are sardine cans packed with passengers and crew, susceptible to horrific accidents that instantly can put thousands at risk for their lives,” he wrote after the episode.

Cruising has never been more popular or affordable, with its mix of easy travel, exotic locales and onboard amenities that include cooking schools and simulated surfing. In 2012, cruise ships carried 20 million passengers, the majority of them from the United States. With 14 new cruise ships entering the water in 2014, the number of passengers is expected to increase by as much as 8 percent.

But on the shores of the nation’s most charming cities and towns, the relationship is complicated.

In Key West, Fla., voters will decide this fall whether to spend $3 million toward widening a channel that leads to the city’s ports, where 350 cruise ships arrive each year. A deeper channel would allow a new, larger class of cruise ships to dock. Business owners and residents worry that the dredging would hurt fragile coral reefs and overwhelm the town.

In Alaska on Tuesday, state lawmakers rolled back tough wastewater standards mandated by voters in 2006. The bill, backed by Gov. Sean Parnell, will allow the 36 cruise ships that travel Alaska’s waters each year to discharge wastewater with less treatment than it currently receives.

Michelle Ridgway, a marine ecologist who serves on the state science panel for cruise ships, watched as Alaska cruise ship traffic grew to about a million people a year and changed her hometown, Ketchikan. “The pulp mill closed and the place turned into Disneyland,” she said.

Charleston’s cruise ship debate seems small by comparison, but it is deeply felt.

The Fantasy — at 23 years old, the oldest ship in the Carnival fleet — has been based in Charleston since 2010. It slides into port once or twice a week. Some 2,000 passengers, most of whom have driven in from nearby states, walk through an aging terminal, climb aboard and sail off to the Bahamas or the Caribbean for a few days or a week. Other cruise ships sometimes stop to visit the city, too.

The South Carolina Ports Authority wants to build a new ship terminal that port officials say will handle only one ship at a time, but the frequency of ships could increase.

Those dedicated to preserving a section of town whose buildings date to the 1700s worry that a new terminal will bring a damaging concentration of tourist traffic and larger cruise vessels.

“I can’t believe they are doing this to Charleston,” said Carolyn Dietrich, who lives just a few blocks from the terminal. “I can hear the announcements from my house,” she said. “And that black smoke. It just tumbles out of that smokestack. You should see the dust in my car.”

Port officials point out that cruise ships are a tiny slice of the city’s shipping traffic. More than 1,700 vessels use the port every year, and only 85 of those are cruise ships. And cruise traffic, they say, is worth $37 million a year to the region.

But this city takes its preservation seriously. The specter of more cruise ships has spawned three state and federal lawsuits and has placed the city’s historic district on the World Monuments Fund’s list of most endangered cultural sites.

The intensity of opposition has the usually composed mayor, Joseph P. Riley Jr., baffled and angry. “This thing is hard to understand because it’s not logical,” he said. “This is not a theme park. One of the authentic parts of Charleston is that we are an international port.”

He points out that the city will get a new waterfront park, and that it has an agreement with the port that caps the number of ships a year at 104.

People wary of cruise ship traffic want the limit to be legally binding. They also want the ships to plug into electrical power on shore, a newer technology only some ships have. (Shore power exists at some Alaska and California ports and is in the process of being adapted at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook.)

But mostly, they want the port to consider two other spots along the waterfront, which the mayor and port officials say are unworkable.

Not that cruise ship passengers worry too much about the impact their vacations have on local communities. Battles over local or federal legislation, like the Clean Cruise Ship Act, which died in Congress in 2010, are not as interesting as which name-brand chef is going to open a restaurant on board.

“Our audience doesn’t really respond to the municipal-level battles or the environmental stuff,” said Dan Askin, senior editor at cruisecritic.com, a consumer Web site dedicated to cruise ships.

The cruise ship industry has less comprehensive oversight than the airline industry, which is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration. Ships fly under foreign flags and their parent companies are incorporated overseas, leaving regulation to a patchwork of federal, state and, rarely, local laws.

That puts more responsibility on local communities that host cruise ships, said Marcie Keever, oceans and vessels program director at Friends of the Earth, an environmental group. “They need to not just listen to the cruise ship industry or assume regulations are in place,” she said. “They need to talk to other cities that have gone through this.”

A cautionary tale might be found in Mobile, Ala., where Carnival Cruise Lines hauled the lifeless Triumph last week. Mobile would gladly take any cruise ship traffic at all. The port and the city romanced Carnival Cruise Lines for years. In 2004, after the city borrowed $20 million to build a terminal, Carnival finally agreed to the relationship and based a ship there.

In 2007, Carnival named Mobile its port of the year. Things were going so well that in 2009, Mobile spent $2.6 million on a new gangway. Two years later, Carnival left.

The location just wasn’t popular enough, it said, and rising fuel costs made Mobile a less efficient port than New Orleans.

“It’s a mobile fleet so they can move to a place that is giving them the best deal,” Mr. Askin said. “That’s good for the companies, but bad things start to happen to cities when ships bail out.”

===================================

Real nice folks, the cruise ship industry. No wonder Key West welcomed them with open arms … and open legs … birds of a feather …

When someone asked me yesterday, what I would say about cruise ships if I was running for Mayor of Key West?, I said I would say I want to stop all cruise ships from calling on Key West, and I want to get all of the conch trains and trolleys and ducks off the streets of Key West.

When I mentioned the photo just above, and said it represents the channel dredging going on already with “small” cruise ships, which would be far more channel gouging with the super monster cruise ships, and I was trying to figure out how to get the above photo enlarged and turned into a billboard, the someone said fish change the bottom, too.

This someone already had asked if I might move back down to Key West and run for mayor again, because it didn’t seem like anyone else would run against Mayor Craig Cates, and I had said I sure hoped not, but I would be really surprised if the angels didn’t make me do it again. Maybe after the someone told me fish change the bottom, too, I should have told him that he would make a great mayor, he ought to run against Mayor Cates, birds of a feather.

Who would want to try to fix what the current and previous mayors and city commissioners broke? Who would want to be the warden of a jail mental ward? Not me.

==============================

As for the schools wing of the State Mental, I am not going to comment on this article today in The Key West Citizen, because it seems to cover the event pretty well. However, I have an observation from reading the article, which I share below it.

School locked down in gun scare

It looked real enough.

But the Airsoft .45-caliber handgun replica two Horace O’Bryant Middle School students brought to school Wednesday turned out to be just that — a pellet-shooting copy of an actual weapon.

The two pupils, who remain nameless due to their status as juveniles, were detained pending charges after a fellow schoolmate called her parents to say she saw them handling a gun. The parents called Key West police shortly before 9 a.m., and a lockdown was instituted at the Leon Street school.

Police soon recovered the pellet gun, and classes at the school returned to normal. No one was harmed, but coming just two short months after the horrific Newtown, Conn., school shooting, some parents were naturally rattled by the scare, and about the safety issues raised as a result.

“It scared the hell out of me,” said Kim Goggans, who has a daughter in sixth grade at HOB. “Their intercom system was broken, so they had to alert the teachers to the lockdown by email. Plus, the lockdown was just locking the kids in the classrooms they were already in. That’s not safe at all.”

Goggans said she didn’t even find out about the gun until noon, when she received an automated robocall from the school.

“How come the paper knew about this before the parents?” she asked. “It took them three hours to let us know. This happened during the first period. By the time I got there to ask my daughter if she was OK, she had already had lunch.”

School Principal Mike Henriquez didn’t return a phone call from The Citizen requesting comment, but Superintendent Mark Porter on Wednesday defended both the handling of the incident and safety procedures at HOB and other district schools.

The police response wasn’t well-coordinated with the school, Porter conceded.

During a sit-down meeting with Henriquez on Wednesday, Goggans said she offered to personally help check students’ backpacks for dangerous weapons, like the Airsoft, and asked him why the school didn’t have metal detecting machines or wands.

“We get checked going into Disneyland,” she said. “But not going into school? That’s crazy. The world has changed. And the school rules need to keep up with it. He tried to blame it on the parents, but that’s ridiculous. Those guns are dangerous and they need to be kept out of our schools.”

Porter, for his part, pointed out that pellet guns such as the one confiscated are made of plastic, and wouldn’t have been detected by such machines.

“It’s a bit much to ask each child to go through a metal detector each time they enter or leave every school,” Porter added. “Also, most of these kids have large backpacks these days. It would be very difficult to search each one every time. If there’s anything else we could do differently to improve this process, we’re certainly willing to look it, but at this point, I think the situation was resolved quite effectively.”

Porter also asserted that he felt parents needed to be more aware of the potential of pellet guns such as the Airsoft to incite panic and cause injury.

“I’ve held one of these guns, and they’re even weighted to feel like the real thing,” he said.

“The only difference is that they have a fluorescent orange tip. But if one is being pulled out of someone’s pocket, that’s the last part people are going to see.

“Parents can’t be naive about these guns. They’re not toys.”

tschmida@keysnews.com

After reading that article, do you really think there is anything Mark Porter, Mike Henriquez, or any other school principal, or any school teachers, or any school guards in Keys schools, or any school board member, including former top gun Navy combat carrier pilot Ed Davidson, can do to stop Keys students from coming to school with several real loaded pistols in their backpacks and opening fire? If you think there is a way to stop that in Keys schools, here you are. You pick.

Well, time for some comic relief, also well reported today in The Key West Citizen. This article below reveals what really is important in Key West, and that an illegal bar can be made a legal bar with a wink and a nod, just as easily as a legal application from an owner of several successful Key West restaurants to build a nice restaurant on Mallory Pier can be denied with a wink and a nod.

bar can stay bar

Also, doughnut shop can serve beer, wine

BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff

gfilosa@keysnews.com

As a unanimous vote came down in their favor, a crowd at Old City Hall erupted in cheers Wednesday night.

People hugged. Grown men exhaled relief. Women smiled.

The Key West contingent filed out in joyful style, as if they saw a dear friend escape a prison sentence after a dramatic trial.

In a way that’s what happened Wednesday night, as the people who run Shots and Giggles, 201 Ann St. — just steps from Old City Hall, 510 Greene St. — were granted permission to operate as a bar, though they’ve been serving drinks since November 2011.

The City Commission must still approve the zoning decision to render it law.

But after spending almost 1¬½ hours on the item Wednesday night, the city’s appointed Planning Board recommended in a 5-0 vote that the business venture meets the criteria as a “conditional” use in the historic district.

At the same meeting, the Planning Board granted a special exception to Glazed Donuts, 420 Eaton St., enabling the artisan doughnut shop to sell beer and wine along with its homemade desserts in a district where alcohol sales are restricted due to the proximity of a church.

But Shots and Giggles was the marquee agenda item, drawing more than 70 people to the hall.

The vote came after almost an hour of public comment and discussion, as a dozen Key Westers rose to pay tribute to Shots and Giggles as a safe haven for locals.

It’s a place where folks know your name, one man told the Planning Board.

“You know, that song from ‘Cheers’?” he asked the board.

People got it.

“Working men and women of this town use that facility as a corner pub, a hometown bar,” said Michael Pollock.

Joe Weatherby credited bar manager Hannia Rivera with “cleaning up” that corner of Key West, which was an unlighted vacant spot before Shots and Giggles.

“She’s the kind of person who is good for business in this town,” Weatherby said.

City planners sided with the applicant, Owen Trepanier, who represented property owner Peter Brawn.

Whether the modestly sized bar, which sits beside Brawn’s larger Tattoos and Scars bar, was operating illegally is a matter of interpretation of Key West zoning law.

A Code Compliance officer, however, cited Shots and Giggles on Jan. 17 for violating zoning by operating as a bar without the proper approval.

The citation was sent to B & B Enterprises, in care of local businessman Bill LaRose.

Complaints from neighbors drew Shots and Giggles into the zoning scrutiny, after some fundraising parties featured loud music and people drinking outside on the building’s porch.

LaRose, who orchestrates a lot of those events, took all the blame Wednesday night for the noise nuisances.

“I made a mistake,” said LaRose, after ticking off the needy causes the parties have helped, including bicycles for poor kids. “I listened to some people I shouldn’t have. It’s crystal-clear now. I’m crystal-clear on what we can and cannot do.”

Several residents praised manager Rivera, who LaRose hired to create the side business.

“I think Greene Street is finally a street we can be proud of and I hope you allow me to continue to run a business there,” said Rivera, a 16-year Key Wester. “This has been a lifelong dream.”

Huge applause followed Rivera, and then a host of patrons who pleaded with the Planning Board members to keep the place open.

“Please let it stay,” said Susan Frakes, who runs a ladies boutique on Greene Street and enjoys after-work camaraderie at Shots and Giggles.

=============================

I ask again, who would want to try to fix what the current and previous mayors and city commissioners broke? Who would want to be the warden of a jail mental ward? Not me. I’d just as soon stay on Little Torture Key, being abused by angels and my half feral rat cat, who thinks she’s a

Living in Key West and/or attending writing seminars there has about as much chance of turning you into a writer as going to church has of turning you into a Christ disciple, the same chance as standing in your carport has of turning you into an automobile.

Sloan Bashinsky

Become a fan on FaceBook Visit

dragons ain’t always bad, and elephants usually are visible, except in Key West

Thursday, February 21st, 2013

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wanna be pirate at former city hall, Key West, circa November 2007, if I had to guess

==================================

There is a new post – unexpected past life regressions induced by old Birmingham childhood acquaintance – at goodmorningbirmingham.com, which some people might find interesting. It started out pretty ordinary, and then …

==================================

Another reply to my inquiry re who wished to remain on my email blast hit list:

Hey Sloan, not sure how sane I am but I put on a good show. Don’t expect God would ever let me off the list. She is funny that way. Todd German

I wrote back:

Yeah, she is funny that way, but have a heart and don’t tell the new pope, it might put him in cardiac arrest cemetery before he got much poping done.

===================================

My bulk email hit list has shrunk to maybe 1/10th of what it was. I kinda figured there were a lot fewer readers out there than the bulk hit list indicated. Maybe a few more readers will wander in. Meanwhile, here’s a real tale of woe, translated, SNAFU by the Navy it seems. Why use drones when H-bombs are so much more convincing?

Dr. Stragelove

Battle in the Bay Newsletter Vol 5 Issue 4

From:	Battle in the Bay Dragon Boat Festival (lunarchik@earthlink.net)
Sent:	Tue 2/19/13 12:35 PM
To:	keysmyhome@hotmail.com

Battle In The Bay Dragon Boat Festival

May 10, 2014

IN THIS ISSUE

NASKW response

BTB waves white flag

QUICK LINKS

Twitter

Battle In The Bay Web Site

BE A SPORT

FORWARD this newsletter to your teammates, friends and competition.

NASKW

Response to

“Dragon boats torpedoed

by U.S. Navy”

Karen,

Please allow me to correct your press release. The Navy did not shoot down the approval of your event from the City. NAS Key West has never denied your event and as recently as December, was working with the City to coordinate the races. The only caveat to the approval from the Navy to the City was that event planners be aware that operational requirements in the harbor could take precedence over any special event like the races. For example, if a ship or diving unit had to come in on short notice.

NAS Key West has notified the City that the harbor will be closed to non-federal and non-government boat traffic Feb. 25. However, NAS Key West and the City will continue to work together for special events in the harbor, such as the various boat races. My suggestion is that you revisit your dialogue with the City regarding the dragon boat races.

To answer your “why” about our closing of the harbor, it is to protect DoD and federal surface and subsurface operations. Non-federal vessel use of the harbor, especially on a frequent basis, may restrict those operations. So, we will work with the City for special events in the harbor, but all other non-federal use is restricted.

For future reference, please call or email me for any questions you have regarding the Navy, especially before you send a press release or go on the air. I would very much like to make sure that you have all of the correct information before you are interviewed.

Thanks,

Trice Denny

Public Affairs Officer

Naval Air Station

Key West

Volume 5 Issue 4

February 2013

DOWN BUT NOT OUT

Due to circumstances beyond our control, Battle In The Bay Dragon Boat Festival has been cancelled for the 2013 race season. Capsized by a perfect storm of circumstances, race organizers felt it was best to postpone the races and work with the City of Marathon to bring the boats back for the only tropical beach launch in the continental USA on May 10, 2014.

Battle In The Bay waves a white flag

From the event director

I am and will always remain grateful to the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Marathon and Jimmy Schmidt for the support provided and the patience practiced as we stormed the beautiful Sombrero Beach that is unparalleled in beauty and amenities for spectators, racers and vendors. The hardest part of deciding to move to Key West was giving up that relationship.

Upon receiving the approval from the City of Key West to stage the races at Truman Waterfront, a press release was sent on 6 February announcing that the Paddle Hard, Play Hard Key West event was official. Below is the press release that I sent on 13 February

based on the information that was available to me at the time.

Karen Bowers

Event Director

Un-ringing a bell isn’t easy.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 13 February 2013

Battle In The Bay Dragon Boat Festival torpedoed by Navy

(Little Torch Key, FL)Two days after receiving approval from the City of Key West to hold the 5th Annual Battle In The Bay Dragon Boat Festival at Truman Waterfront, the United States Navy shot it down.

Yet to see anything official from either the United States Navy or the City of Key West, word was passed from the City Manager’s office to the event organizers that all water activity in the boat basin shall cease, commencing February 25th. The message was clear that the dragon boat race was not to be, due to the timing that landed square in the middle of a critical point in the planning process. As it stands, refunds are being made to vendors and teams that have paid their registration fees, the official hotels and other sponsors are being notified and contracts are being rescinded. Many questions remain, especially “why”. Is this a matter of national security or just another stand off between the Navy and the City of Key West? There are other questions too. What about the Superboat races? What about cruise ships on the outer mole pier? Does the Ingham have to find a new home? Does NOAA need to move their vessels to another port? The relocation to Key West for the dragon boat race that has been growing in popularity and participation since it’s re-emergence onto the Florida Keys event schedules by staging at Sombrero Beach in Marathon, received an initial wounding when the Tourist Development Council DAC lll that serves the Middle Keys area reduced the funding that the organizers have been utilizing to grow the event to put “heads in beds”, coupled with a contingency on the contract for national television coverage specifically mentioning “Marathon”. This, despite the fact that Battle In The Bay is included in a PBS documentary about Save Our Sisters breast cancer survivor dragon boat team produced by WLRN in Miami, that has been distributed nationwide, beginning in September 2012 and remaining available until 2015. In their application for grant money, documentation provided by TRAC Media Services showed over 90 stations airing Conquering the Dragon – Breast Cancer Survivors Race for Life in markets on the east and west coast, in the Midwest, below and above the Mason Dixon line and as far as Alaska. The problem? Perhaps it is the voiceover that says “…racing for the first time at Battle In The Bay in the Florida Keys”. Not to be discouraged, the organizing committee for Battle In The Bay determined that the best way to keep dragon boat racing in the Keys was to move to a broader market provided by Key West. The TDC DAC I that backs events in Key West had money left over from their first round of requests so another grant application was drafted and subsequently did not receive enough points to be considered for financial support. Yet the staff that is clearly passionate about the sport they represent, continued on their own. Event Director Karen Bowers stated with a laugh, “I am so stubborn and unwilling to let go that it took the United States Navy to make me surrender”. But there is a glimmer of hope for the event. City officials in Marathon want to hear the drums beat and see the dragon boats back splashing off their shores in 2014. Unfortunately for Bowers, she is relocating to Mesa, Arizona to help out her recently widowed mother and plans on being a part of the Arizona Dragon Boat Association as a paddler, not a planner.

#####

Also down Key Weird way, excerpts from an article in The Key West Citizen, my thoughts in italics:

Walsh denied new eatery

Mallory Square plan is deemed too big

BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff gfilosa@keysnews.com

The City Commission Wednesday night denied businessman Joe Walsh’s request to build a two-story, 156-seat restaurant at Mallory Square, killing the project with a 5-2 vote over worries that it would tower over the waterfront tourist spot.

“We need to look at the overall picture: what’s best for the area, the citizens of Key West, the public and our future with tourism,” said Mayor Craig Cates, before the vote.

While city planners and the volunteer Planning Board said otherwise, commissioners were troubled over added parking, traffic and whether the restaurant’s proposed 2,344 square feet of eating and drinking space met the code requirements.

Only City Commissioners Mark Rossi and Tony Yaniz voted for Walsh’s plan.

“At this late date, to tell this guy it’s too big, to me, seems patently unfair,” said Yaniz.

I have not kept up with this situation, but if this redevelopment had come before the City Commission before, that’s when those objections should have been made.

City Commissioner Teri Johnston led the motion to deny.

Walsh, whose restaurants in Key West include Caroline’s, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Mangoes and Fogarty’s, said he would most likely rework the plan and return to Old City Hall.

Until then there are no hard feelings, he said.

“The City Commission has a job to do,” Walsh said after the meeting. “They did their job.”

Cates said he was most concerned over an illustration, brought by attorney Robert Cintron — a longtime opponent of the project — that purportedly showed what the finished project would look.

Cintron also is a long time friend of Key West Conch Fred Salinero, of whom you will read shortly.

“Our whole goal for years now is to have an open area walkway down by the waterfront,” said Cates.

To take a defunct 30-seat pizza parlor and turn it into a “full-blown restaurant” violates the city’s zoning regulations, said Cintron, who argued that Walsh’s place simply would clash with Key West law.

“This is a massive expansion and there is no way you can say it any differently,” Cintron said.

“You have to be a little bit more careful when you’re deciding heady decisions like this.”

I wonder if Cintron made this argument at earlier commission meetings, and at City Planning Board meetings, and when the City Commission awarded Walsh the bid in 2010?

The code allows for 156 seats and 2,344 square feet of dining and always has, said City Planner Don Craig, and that means Walsh isn’t legally required to create new parking spaces.

For years, Key West has kept that rule as an incentive to business owners making a go of it on Duval Street.

Walsh said FEMA guidelines make it nearly impossible to build a one-story building at Mallory Square, and that the 156 seats would be allowed. He said the prior restaurant there had only 30-odd seats because the city charges more than $500 per seat as an “impact fee.”

Walsh’s proposal to demolish the existing abandoned building and replace it with a new restaurant began in 2010 when the commission awarded him the bid.

Well, I rather imagine at that time, the City Commission had a pretty fair picture of what Walsh was going to do there, what general size and height of restaurant he was going to build. The Commission awarded him the bid. Where were their concerns then?

Having fended off a lawsuit by the Westin Key West Resort, Walsh appeared Wednesday night to ask the city to grant a “major development plan” needed to break ground.

The Westin objected to the new eatery going up next-door, tying it up in court until December, when an appellate court upheld Circuit Court Judge David Audlin’s ruling that Walsh’s place wouldn’t violate any coastal control regulations or sit too close to the water.

Westin Resort is right next door, over a short bridge. It has its own upscale restaurant, which serves inside and outside on its pier when weather permits. Westin is owned by the Walsh family, no relation to Joe Walsh. Westin’s pier is one of the three piers along that waterfront where cruise ships dock and disembark passengers. Another pier is Mallory Square, another is the Outer Mole, on the other side of Westin. When cruise ships are docked at Mallory Pier, there is no sunset to watch at the popular “sunset celebration”, which features local street vendors selling a variety of goods, including food, street performers, musicians tarot and psychic readers.

One of the city’s other tenants at Mallory Square made an emotional plea Wednesday night, offended at the idea of his own landlord paving the way for a new restaurant significantly larger than the last business that operated out of the property.

“It’s going to destroy us and I want you to think of that,” said Fred Salinero, a partner in El Meson de Pepe’s that has succeeded as the square’s sole restaurant for 16 years, and pays the city $372,000 each year in rent alone.

“We’ve got to sell a hell of a lot of rice and beans to make that money,” said Salinero. “Now you’re talking about putting another restaurant there? [Walsh] has got Red Fish, Blue Fish we’re competing with.”

Salinero and Cintron go back a long ways. Cintron practices law with Hugh Morgan, and until he was disbarred, Jim Hendrick practiced in that law firm. I ate lots of Friday lunches with them at various eateries in Key West, including Salinero’s on Mallory Square. Wouldn’t surprise me, if Cintron and Salerino consulted Hendrick about this “case”. Wouldn’t surprise me, if Salerino didn’t pay both Cintron and Hendrick for their advice, and for Cintron’s appearance at the commission meeting last night. Maybe not in money, but in a favor owed.

Yaniz objected to competition among businesses factoring into the panel’s decision.

“We’re talking about creating an antitrust situation,” said Yaniz.

Yaniz is dead on the money, this is a deja vue Duck Tours case, wherein the City Commission drove Duck Tours out of business to protect Historic Tours of America/Ed Swift’s conch trains and trolleys from business competition, which eventually led to the city paying out about $8,000,000 to Duck Tours, plus the city’s own legal fees and staff time.

At that point, Cates asked City Attorney Shawn Smith for an opinion.

Wise move by the mayor.

“Your job is to focus on land use regulation,” Smith immediately replied. “I would avoid any discussion with respect to favoring one business over another.”

If we don’t talk about the elephant, then it ain’t there. Well, Shawn, they already talked about the elephant, it’s in plain view in the public record for any judge and jury to read later, if Walsh ends up suing the city. Westin on one side, Salerino on another side, not wanting Walsh competing with them. City Planner Craig saying the city’s ordinance and rules allow the restaurant. The bid to Walsh was let to Walsh in 2010, knowing he would seriously expand the seating from what the pizza parlor had. What do you think a jury would do with that, Shawn, and with your recorded legal advice to Mayor Cates? Obviously you are thinking anti-trust, Shawn, and that is why you told them to stop talking about business competition. A first semester law student would be thinking anti-trust. Of course this is about siding with the Westin and Salerino; all the rest is hocus pocus. This is not about quality of life, or pretty, given the city does not object to, but warmly welcomes skyscraper cruise ships at Mallory Pier.

Mallory Pier quality of life sun block

New fees for HARC

Without comment, the commission approved the Planning Department’s request to begin charging fees on applications made to the Historic Architectural Review Commission, and raising some current fees on other project applications.

City staff isn’t fairly compensated for the growing workload that HARC approvals require, said Craig. The fee schedule hasn’t changed since 2008.

Fees for construction work taking place in the city’s historic district will be $25 for an inspection, $50 for a minor improvement such as changing a window or fencing, and $100 to build a new house.

The number of HARC applications processed by the city has jumped by 37 percent over the past three years, according to an in-house review.

The new fees could generate $50,000 in this fiscal year alone, and $100,000 in a complete fiscal year, according to Craig.

Reasonable administrative fees are okay, but I imagine that is sort of how the Tree Commission started out, and now it’s a full-blown city RICO operation, gouging private property owners at every opportunity. Knowing the way the city operates, it won’t suprise me to see HARC become another city RICO operation.

Sloan Bashinsky

The ballad of Howard Thurston, a No Name Key habitant no one I ask seems to have ever heard of

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

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See new multi-tasking in the Florida Keys and beyond, might be similar to multiple personality disorder post today at www.goodmorningkeywest.com, which you may like a little better than what follows below, but then, maybe you prefer reading about black witches weaving their spells around No Name Key.

This post is a sequel to the No Name Key part of yesterday’s mission impossible – the Florida Keys, aka The State Mengel, er, Mental post. This post is l-o-n-g. And rough.

Alicia Putney (photo) and another person on No Name Key resident received yesterday a copy of this post today, and I asked them to respond in the body of Thurston’s email below, in italics, as I had responded, and send their responses to me for publication, or forever hold their peace with me about No Name Key.

I was No Name Key and Big Pine Key’s angel-assigned shaman protector 11 years before I even knew Alicia Putney existed. 5 years before the angels moved me to the Keys, I was protecting those keys in the spirit realms, before I knew anything anything about their peculiar politics or the county government. I will protect those two keys, and any other key, for so long as the angels tell me to do it, as the angels tell me to do it, regardless of how Alicia Putney, Howard Thurston, or any one else feels about it.

Bridge from Big Pine Key over to No Name Key in the distance

No Name Key, especially, symbolizes something far bigger than Howard Thurston seems able to grasp.

No Name Key is Mother Nature’s core proxy in the Florida Keys.

That is where the angels drew a line in the sand, in the middle of the hump on the bridge, in early January 1995, as I stood facing the Atlantic Ocean, holding onto the bridge railing for dear life, surrounded by pelicans (the Christ bird) sitting on the bridge railing and soaring and swooping and diving in the air, bawling my heart and guts out, and hearing, “Because you love this place so much, you will be used to try to protect it.”

From Boulder, Colorado, I was sent to that bridge to hear that, and to receive this poem.

Behold, the pelican!

slow, clumsy, ugly afoot,

but in the air

a great fisher indeed!

And in times of want

plucks out its own breast meat

to feed its young.

Then, and now, the pelican was spirit code for The Christ Bird.

I went back to Boulder wondering when and how that all would play out?

So, here we are Howard Thurston; here we are, County Commissioner George Neugent, in whose voting district No Name Key lies, who scolded me in a nap dream yesterday afternoon for not publishing this bombing run yesterday morning; here we are, Alicia Putney. Read my replies between Howard Thurston’s allegations in his email. Read his ballad and my refrains in the bright sunshine.

========================

my imagined likeness of so-called Howard Thurston

From:	Howard Thurston (hthurston2013@gmail.com)
Sent:	Sun 2/17/13 1:35 PM
To:	sloan bashinsky (keysmyhome@hotmail.com)

Thank you for your thoughtful response and time.

Part of me wonders if writing a response wastes your time and mine and part wants to offer insight that is always, it seems, missed or, at the very lest, diluted as it does not serve your own perspective and passions nor those of the few on that island that don’t want commercial power. In the hopes you are the fair, honest, man I think you are I will offer a few comments in response;

You supercilious, arrogant, stupid son of a bitch, I have told you, and you have read in my many published writings, where I am coming from, and that the angels who run me will not let me be anything but fair and honest.

1) Math 101

Let me start with the ‘math’ that you say someone sent you in an email recently related to supposedly who is for or against commercial power on No Name. Not that it matters, the law is on the side of power being installed and permissible but the numbers you mention are simply not correct. Using incorrect data, along with loud lies, threats, fiction and such are all the ploys of Ms. Putney. The fact is that if you took a vote today you’d find between 30 and 35 homeowners eagerly voting FOR power. Who paid for what, when or how matters not since it was paid for in full and did not cost the power company or its other customer’s a dime.

The vote was taken when the No Name Key homeowners ponied up their own money for Keys Energy Services to run power out to No Name Key against KEYS own lawyer’s advice. That’s when we all knew who really wanted the island on the grid. Howard, Thurston, Did you pay money to KEYS for power to be run out to No Name Key? Is Howard Thurston in their records?

Now, if you took a similar poll of No Namer’s against commercial power you’d have, liberally, 7 to 13 folks taking that position. How many of those that would actually, publicly, take that position is another question as some who are often counted in Ms. Putney’s group are simply trying to avoid Ms. Putney’s wrath in the form of a knock on their door and ‘chewing out’ should they mention that even they too might ‘connect’ so as to net solar meter. Thus a few that she counts stay silent.

Have you, Howard Thurston, stood in a Keys Energy Services public meeting, in a Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority public meeting, in a County Commission meeting, and identified yourself as Howard Thurston, and stated where you lived, which is required of all citizen speakers at such meetings, and stated your position on electricity and water being run out to No Name Key? Howard Thurston, there is no record of you having done that, is there? What’s wrong, Howard, are you afraid?

It might also help you to consider that two homes that she counts within ‘her’ total can’t be counted for either side as their homes are currently for sale; one left the island over a year ago and now owns an empty home there and the other is in ill health and actively has his home for sale. Both homes, by the way, are listed by Coco’s owner Rose Dell, someone friendly with Ms. Putney (and you) beyond serving her food at her restaurant.

Lots of people are friendly with Alica, she has a strong admiration in the Keys among people who feel the Keys already are way over-developed, which I don’t imagine can be said of you, Howard Thurston, who I am not even yet convinced are a real person. I suppose for me to be convinced you are a real person will take you looking me up and showing me your driver’s license and your US pass port and a certified copy of your original birth certificate, which Homeland Security requires these days for the issuance of new and even replacement driver’s licenses.

Another thing that is ‘interesting about Ms. Putney’s math is how she counted the number of homes here on No Name. About 10 years ago, before the current pro-fair treatment group started their efforts, I remember reading a newspaper quote where Ms. Putney commented about how small No Name was, how it had just 22 homes. At that time she would represent that at least a dozen homes were on ‘her’ side, thus about 1/2 of the total number of homes. The problem with having read those quotes is that there were not just 22 homes. There were, and are, 43. I can assure you that there has not, thankfully, been a ‘construction boom’ in the last decade here and thus the suggestion that, back then, there were only 22 homes is yet another lie. At the very least it might be wise to suggest Ms. Putney might want to take some remedial math as her abilities in that important area are sorely lacking.

I cannot speak for what you say Alica was quoted in a newspaper as saying before I even knew she existed.

And lastly, speaking of math and number and such, ask yourself why so few actual homeowner’s on No Name show up to speak against power and why most of those speaking in public, say at a BOCC meeting, don’t even live on No Name. Kinda strange, don’t you think Sloan? There are not many, in total, but those who do come and speak against the No Namers are from places such as Key West, Big Pine, Key Largo and so forth. Why? Because there simply are not that many actual No Name residents against power since the vast majority here support having commercial power here.

You damn well know why, Howard Thurston. Most of them are terrified of Brad Vickrey and his wife Beth, and Beth’s brother Rick Ramsay, who now is Sheriff of Monroe County, but then was the Undersheriff, and of his deputies, and of Beth’s father, Dick Ramsay, who sits on the Marathon City Council, and of his and that family’s political allies. They have every reason to be afraid, because they have been harassed by deputies. Have you been harassed by deputies, Howard Thurston, because of you position on No Name Key? Is that why you don’t show up at public meetings and state your name is Howard Thurston, and you live at such and such address on No Name Key, or wherever?

2) Battery Operated Homes

As to your comments about batteries, or more to the point the fact that you just happened to run into Ms. Putney and that she was available to educate you about batteries, the entire conversation is patently ridiculous and absurd. Those are not solar powered homes, they are all, every single one of them, battery operated homes. My gosh, who lives like that unless they have no choice (or, as is the case on No Name, their choice was stolen by their government)?

Gosh, don’t you tell me tell me a little further along, Howard Thurston, that all the homes on No Name Key are solar powered homes? That the entire island is a solar powered community? Meanwhile, tell me who stole Brad and Beth Vickrey’s choice after they bought a home on No Name Key in 2006, wasn’t it, knowing the island was off the grid, knowing public utilities were prohibited out there under Monroe County’s Land Development Regulations enacted to carry out the County’s Comprehensive Plan? If you live on No Name Key, Howard Thurston, when did you buy a home out there? I am looking a list of homes on No Name Key, who owns them, when purchased. I don’t see your name on the list.

———————————————————–

Of the twenty-two NNKPOA members who paid a pro-rata share to KES, only SEVEN live on NNK. Of those seven, FOUR bought after the 1996 highly publicized County Comprehensive Land Use Plan. And, SIX of those seven live in the CBRS area, protected by Congressional law since 1982.Sale DateBut…HomesteadEaken not on tax roll built 1988 NNKBrown 4-1-1989 built 1991 NNKFletcher 6-1-1990 built 1994-1997 NNKNewton 10-1-1988 built 1996-1997 MOVED Edgewater, FLBakke 11-1-1997 NNKLentini 10-15-2001 NNKHochberg 10-24-2003 NNKVickrey 11-1-2006 NNKPichel 4-1-1986 vacant lot 2006 Medley, FLonly vacant lot on recordBone 7-1-1990 Boynton Beach, FLColeman 7-1-1990 built 1991 Coconut Creek, FLMorris 8-1-1989 built 1992 Pompano Beach, FLDruckman-Jeanneret 3-1-1994 SwitzerlandEbner 7-1-1995 Broomfield, COKamm 6-1-1994 built 1996 Oyster Bay, NYAppignani (Louja Realty) 5-21-2004 Boynton Beach, FLMcCurdy (Marginella LLC) 8-18-2005 Fairland, IN4 vacant lots/commercialReynolds 10-4-2005 Pinecrest, FLRaser 3-30-2006 Pottstown, PATurkel 8-2-2007 Pinecrest, FLLicht 12-1-2008 Boca Raton, FLPhillipp 4-1-2010 plus 3 vacant lots

———————————————-

This email below accompanied that list:

——————————————————–

This is the same list that has been around, showing when the members of the NNKPOA bought their homes on NNK.As the list shows, only SEVEN of the 22 live in the Florida Keys and more precisely, on No Name Key.

Six of those seven live in the Federally protected CBRS area.Most importantly of all, only THREE bought before the restrictions were implemented. THREE!There is only ONE who can claim to go back 40 years.The two suing the County for TEN MILLION don’t even live on No Name.

Some of those homes have the largest, most costly, batteries you have likely ever seen and some have antique systems, yes even in several cases using golf cart batteries but anyone who knows solar knows that the modern, intelligent way to leverage solar is by net solar metering. If one’s environmental goal is protecting the place, leading by example and so forth as you suggest then anyone who understands solar would advocate net solar metering as the future (and modern present), not battery operated homes.

——————————————————

Looks to me, Howard Thurston, that you are magically creating facts out of thin air.

By the way, we all know John [Hammerstrom] and his tales of the diminished benefit of net solar metering but we never read about the Morris family on No Name. The Morris’s own another home here in Florida that has been net solar metering for many years and both love the concept/benefit and are most eager to do exactly the same thing here on No Name to their home here. Odd, don’t you think, that no-one contacts that family for their views including their passion to do the same thing on No Name? If you want the truth you can ask the Morris family, they can talk for hours about net solar metering and how much they embrace it and want it for their No Name home.

The Morris family is welcome to write their truth to me, and I will publish it verbatim. They are welcome to go to the newspapers with their truth, and to the County Commission with their truth, but they will never convince me that buying electricity from a power company whose electricity is produced in coal-fired and/or nuclear power plants is the wave of the future.

3) ALL of No Name IS a Solar Community (there is no such thing as ‘The Solar Community of No Name Key’)

As a point of fact, currently, the entire island of No Name Key is a solar community. Every home. Furthermore, the ‘Solar Community of No Name’ or whatever Ms. Putney calls her ‘group’ whenever she speaks in public it is not even an actual, legal, organization. It’s yet another fabricated myth. Curiously, her pretend organization has never had anyone else lead it but she, herself. I’ve heard her call herself its President many times. You know what Sloan, no one else but Alicia Putney has ever been President nor allowed to speak on behalf of that ‘organization’. It is a fake. A fraud. Just like her.

You got me there, Howard Thurston. Since her wonderful husband Mick died a few years ago, Alicia has done 99 percent of the work trying to keep No Name Key off the grid. It makes since to me that Alicia is the CEO and spokesperson for people out there who agree with her, some of whom actually do attend public meetings and speak out, despite the very real threat to their lives and property.

The No Name Key Property Owner’s Association is, as I understand it, is a live, legal, real entity that represents the vast majority of folks on that island. And, just to be clear, every home is solar powered and thus every home is part of No Name’s solar community. To suggest otherwise, as Ms. Putney attempts at every chance she gets, is yet another deception in her scheme.

So, Howard Thurston, the homes on No Name Key are solar powered after all. I never heard Alica say there are homes out there which are not solar powered. I have heard her say solar power is all anyone needs out there, and she puts herself in the lead by not even using a generator to produce electricity. We know she does not use a generator, because if she did, Brad and Beth Vickrey, and others in their camp, like you, Howard Thurston, would have proven it by now. For a fact, I have been at a number of public meetings where No Name Key pro-grid advocates had every chance to say Alicia is using a generator, and they never said it. She tells me she runs her AC, and others run their AC out there. Howard Thurston, are you telling Brad Vickrey that he was so big an idiot that he bought a home on No Name Key, which he knew could not run AC?

4) Development?

As to development, it is my understanding that our County has a ROGO and Tier System in place and that they are robust and that they limit development. The battle cry that commercial power will lead to development is yet another bedtime story, a scare tactic often used by Ms. Putney. For what it’s worth, I’ve never heard any of the No Namers speak about wanting more development on No Name of any type. Not once. In my experience, people who live here love the place due it’s nature and lack of density and do not want more development. They simply want to improve the environment by eliminating the need for generators and, when not here, being able to net solar meter. They would also like to clean up the island’s terrible history (all documented by none less than the EPA) of waste water pollution. Sure these things are also seen by some residents as improving their lives, like most people off No Name enjoy or in the years to come (sewer) will but that does not mean having them will lead to some sort of construction boom nor that anyone here desires more actual development.

With a straight face, Howard Thurston, you tell me that Brad Vickery, in the real estate business in California, purchased a home on No Name Key, which he knew was off the grid, and he knew the Comprehensive Plan didn’t allow utilities out there, and he bought a home out there because he wanted to live off the grid? Because he wanted to take on a crusade having nothing to do with him or with his wife, to get that island on the grid, just to have something to do? Howard, Thurston, do you think anyone but you, Brad and Beth, and their No Name Key and political confederates, believe that is why Brad bought a home on No Name Key in 2006? Actually, Howard Thurston, you damn well know why Brad bought that home. You damn well know he had developing more of that Key in mind, and owning that home gave him “de facto” legal standing to lobby for the key being put on the grid. You know Brad would have been an idiot to buy that home for any other reason. The truth is not entirely in you on that point,either, Howard Thurston.

Speaking of development, I’ve read your postings where you have often repeated the thoughts of the editor/owner of our local fish wrapper, the News Barometer, saying that years ago he saw an add by one No Namer, a commercial real estate broker, offering land on No Name. How about publishing that ad as proof? Does it not strike you as odd that that so called ‘journalist’ (that being a significant stretch) has never, ever, produced evidence of such an ad? Mr. Estes support of the few No Namer’s against commercial power is well known and is manifested by his utter lack of publishing the comments of those in favor of these improvements in addition to one sided writing. He is entitled to his own bias, and you yours, but if you want to pursue the facts then I would suggest he produce them. To date, that’s never been done and suggests it did not happen, especially so when combined with his rather open opposition. By telling that ‘story’ over and again it’s his way to do his part to support Ms. Putney but that does make it true.

You also read, Howard Thurston, that I wrote that Steve Estes told me he did not make a copy of that ad on the website of the California real estate firm where Brad Vickery worked, and that when he, Steve Estes, went back to that website, the ad was no longer on it. I have not seen or heard Steve tell that story over and over. My sense was, when he told me the story, he felt awful that he had not made a copy of the ad when he saw it on that California real estate firm’s website, and he asked me not to tell anyone what he had told me, but, darn, that was huge and it needed to be told, and, I have yet to hear or read where Brad Vickrey or Beth said Steve made it up.

Lastly, if I recall correctly, you were an attorney earlier in your life. As such, you very likely know, or should, that commercial electrical power is, by definition, not considered development. Let’s stop suggesting otherwise to try and scare the public.

Tell a developer that commercial electric power, and commercial water, and commercial sewage collection and treatment are not development they do not need to develop real estate in the Florida Keys. More and more, Howard Thurston, you are starting to remind me of two of my old friends, the braveheart Raven and wily Jim Hendrick.

5) Powering A/C With Batteries?

Please publish the details of the actual, real (not some tall fairy tale) home on No Name that has central air conditioning operating from a solar system. In hopes you are a fair and decent man let me simply say that such a home does not exist. Just because one says something is so, or you hear someone repeat it over and over, does not make it so. For most of us we learned the ‘don’t believe everything you hear’ lesson at an early age ad I am here to tell you that it still applies.

There is no solar system on No Name that can power an air conditioning system capable of cooling your trailer much less a single family home. That is one of the key reasons why nearly every home (including nearly all of those Ms. Putney counts as ‘solar homes’) has a diesel generator. A solar systems can not handle the load when the a/c cycles on and if it could take the initial surge (again, it can’t) it would take just a few minutes before the batteries (remember, these are really battery operated homes) are empty (and to re-charge them would take days).

Don’t take my word for it, knock on enough doors to satisfy yourself. There are no homes on No Name running a/c to cool an entire home by powering it with solar energy. You have never seen one, nor will you, because solar power technology can not power a/c. Period.

Are you betting your life and your soul, Howard Thurston, that solar power technology in some of the homes on No Name Key cannot power a/c. Period? Alicia, it’s time for you, as CEO and spokesperson for your “tribe” on No Name Key, to weigh in, or forever hold your peace on this issue.

Oh, and if I recall what I read, you went without a/c last summer and came to conclude you hated it. Do I recall correctly? You left that part out of your answer but I do seem to recall your no a/c experiment and its conclusion.

Again, Howard Thurston, you twist facts. I didn’t hate it. It was not comfortable, it was more buggy, it was a lot more sweaty, and I’m probably going to do it again this year.

That said, if you or anyone else does not want a/c or some other such thing then please know that I fully support you. Let me say it again, I support you 100%. Do whatever you like and please be most happy. Knowing that you being happy with how you live your life will even make me happy in some small way.

I ain’t convinced anything will make you happy, Howard Thurston, but to see Alicia Putney dead. Well, she did tell me that she told Brad and Beth Vickrey that they would get their way with No Name Key over her dead body, which conversation I relayed during my citizen comments at a county commission meeting in Marathon about six weeks ago.

What I am also, however, saying is while I will not tell you how to live your life I will not tolerate you telling me how to live mine. The argument, long supplied by Ms. Putney, that one does not need air conditioning, a story typically attached to her telling tales about her rusty old generator that she no longer uses, is yet another fraud. And a vulgar one at that. Why should ( and who, my friend, has the audacity to dictate such a thing?) any of us be involved in such basic life decisions as these in the first place. Let her do what she wants, when and how, be happy just as long as she does not get in the way of me doing what deem best for my own home or family. How dare she do that much less do it by telling such complete lies.

I never told you, Howard Thurston, nor anyone on No Name Key, but Alicia Putney, how to live their lives. People told themselves how they would live their lives, when the moved onto No Name Key without any pressure from me, or even knowing me. I told Alicia she needs to live there full time, to have spiritual standing to argue her cause.

If she wants to leave in the summer months for Canada then that’s her business but since you bring it up I will simply say that I don’t blame her. I can’t understand why anyone would want to live in modern South Florida all summer without a/c if they were given a choice. Good for her I say for going north where it’s cool, something nearly all of her small number of ‘solar only’ followers, by the way, do just as soon as the mercury starts to rise. They can cast stones from afar, say that dentist who scurries back to Massachusetts much less Putney and others, at those who live here year round but their argument has no substance since they do not live here in the summer time.

Face it Sloan, it’s easy to live on No Name in January. It’s quite, cool, just lovely. As I write this in mid February it’s paradise. So, you do live on No Name Key. Cue the summer heat and having a/c makes a good bit of sense for most. Unless you leave the place like she does. Her telling people how to live is pathetic but as you yourself have even pointed out she leaving in the midst of the heat while casting stones makes her a two faced hypocrite. And it certainly is yet more evidence of the tactics she uses to try and get what she wants. Resort to twisting facts, telling lies, etc to get her way. Those days have now officially ended and I commend you for calling her out on this very point some time ago.

And I call you out, if Howard Thurston is not your legal name, and for Howard Thurston not attending public meetings re No Name Key and identifying himself and stating his street address and key, and for not telling the same to my readers, whom you are trying to woo over to your not entirely Snow White position.

6) The Newton’s

As to the Newton’s, I suggested you search the County records to see if they had ‘left’ No Name as you seemed to suggest. If you do a search as I suggested then you will find they still own their home. Let’s try the truth for a change rather than publishing more of Ms. Putney’s twisted lies. If you did that then I am sure the conversation with Mr. Newton would have been much nicer. Keeping in mind that you saw him with your own eyes, and can be certain that what I am saying to you is a fact, he still owns and lives in his No Name home, just simply has bought a second home to spend time on occasion with his family up that way (perhaps like Ms. Putney likes to summer in Canada).

I told someone on No Name Key to go peek in the upstairs of the Newton’s home, to see how much furniture was still there, and to take a photo of it. But the Newtons live next door to the Vickrey’s, I was told, and criminal prosecution for trespass, and worse, was likely, I was told. Why don’t you and I go over to the Newton’s home and peek in the windows, and see how much furniture remains there? I ain’t afraid of Brad and Beth, nor of Rick Ramsay and his deputies, nor of Dick Ramsay. You set it up and let me know when to be there, with a digital camera, so I also can show my readers your photo.

Check the facts, please, and consider stopping saying otherwise or using lists or whatever you were given that is pure fiction, a waste of your time, fractures to your credibility and a dis-service to your readers (unless your goal is to produce fictional stories).

7) An Imperfect Government

No Name is a small, quite, place. A place where people live because they like the lack of density and nature. Not to attend every public meeting for fear their rights might be stolen, be on the radio or in the newspapers. Or to have elected officials humiliate them as they seek fair and equal treatment. The people here love life, nature and all of the wonders that are No Name Key. They surely don’t aspire to spend their lives, nor should anyone in this Country need to, watching what their government does at every turn in fear that its out to harm them.

You are starting to sound a wee bit like a John Bircher, Howard Thurston. That’s considerably right of the Tea Party, which is considerably right of the Republican Party, which is a communist outfit by comparison.

Ms. Putney has her own beliefs and biases like we all do and it has long been clear she enjoys the public lime-light, being seen as an expert, having people say and write, just as you said someone did recently, that she works to protect No Name day and night. She is an activist, for sure, and should be commended for her dedication but it’s a commitment based on her own biases and one that uses mis-information, lies and manipulation for her own gain. She’s taken whatever her passions might be far too far. She’s no savior. A savior, as you well know, does his or her good work supported by the truth. Not with manufactured facts, lies and fiction.

From all I have seen and heard, Alica gets no pleasure out of the stand she has taken and the work she does for it, and, to the contrary, she seems to be quite tormented by it all. My bet is, when her roll is called up yonder, she will be warmly received. I am unable to make the same bet on you, Howard Thurston.

The preacher who screams his sermon can only work real miracles when his prophecy is supported by the truth. No matter how many stacks of paper one produces as ‘evidence’, or how loudly one lies, that does not mean one is illustrating or speaking the truth. It is a dangerous thing to believe a zealot without checking the facts first. Those tactics, hers, have been exposed and now the law is showing all of he followers, those who care to be enlightened, that she has misled them about No Name for 20 years.

Howard Thurston, you must not have attended any public meetings where Beth Vikrey invented lots of facts out of thin air, and once even got a lawyer I know very well to invent facts for her at a Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority meeting on No Name Key, and they both seemed proud of it, and, to my disbelief, a majority of the Aqueduct Authority said they believed it. You are right, Howard Thurston, government is corrupt, and government officials are easily bought. I holler that plenty. You are preaching to the choir, John Thurston, and it ain’t just governments that are corrupt; the voters who put the cooks into office are just as corrupt.

You know this government well and have long written about its imperfections. It has many of those and someone who attends so many meetings, is so vocal, can and has easily been seen as both an expert and the voice of a community. No Name is so small and remote that it is easy to overlook it, to wonder who would want live there like that and why. Whether it has been her passion to fight Galleon Bay (and make no mistake that she, herself, has long been at the forefront of that fight, a fight that will soon again be costly to us all as taxpayers, a fight over the land that attaches to her own, is immediately next to her property. Should you investigate the County files on these matters you will see her fingerprints, blood, all over that fight. Same as with her fight to prohibit utilities. One would be stupid to suggest she’s not been the de-facto reason why No Name has its current plight.

As I have written several times in posts, including in the past few days, if I ever get the money to do it, I will built a off the grid home here on Little Torch Key, which will embarrass any solar powered home on No Name Key, and I will not have AC in it. It will be a model home for green living in the subtropics.

Review the truth Sloan and it will set you free. Decades before she showed up on No Name there was no prohibition of the sort that exist now. While she was a Monroe County Planning Commissioner, a role she obtained by way of her activist work, she directly helped author the Ordinance that today seeks to prohibit power on No Name.

She was also, at that exact time, of course, a resident and homeowner on No Name.

She also, again at that same exact time, an intervenor in a lawsuit against allowing power on the island.

And what did she do?

She not only helped directly, intimately, craft the Planning Commission’s Ordinance that seeks to prohibit power (and sewer and other things on No Name) she then voted for it. Now, as a professional, educated man, would you not hope that someone with a conflict of interest such as her home ownership, after all this issue directly impacted her own home, much less but one directly embroiled in litigation over one of the very items in the then proposed law, would recuse themselves from authoring the language, or debating it or, for god’s sake, voting for it?

Any childhood lesson in ethics and honesty would conclude that she should not have been involved in writing that law, a law that impacted her own home and community much less voting on it, all the while at the same time she was involved in litigation seeking to prevent power, one of the very items sought to be ‘prohibited’ by the law she authored. A child would know better but Alicia Putney did not care about ethical public service, or her neighbors, she only cared about stealing her neighbors rights to serve her own dark desires.

Your turn again, Alicia, to weigh in. This time frame is before my ken. You must truly be a witch, to have mesmerized the the county commissioners and county growth management into doing your wicked bidding. I want to know when you are going to offer classes in witchery. I have lots of people in mind, whom I want to do my bidding. I’d like t o use the witchery on the angels, too, to get their feet off my neck, and to give me what I want.

Did she recuse herself? Nope. She voted for it and then with all the passion should could muster and then she lobbied the Commissioners. Hard. She told them what the people in “her” community wanted. She told them that everyone there wanted what she wanted. Why else, should would ask, would anyone move to No Name if not to live off the grid? She lied.

My recollection is, Alicia was told by the Planning Commissions lawyer that she should not recuse herself, but, Alicia, you need to weigh in on that, and on why, if what Howard Thurston says is essentially true, why you did not recuse yourself anyway?

What did the County do? It believed her. So much so that the facts show that the County did not even go about properly advertising the then proposed Ordinance nor did it directly notice homeowners as it was legally required to do. In the event you want to consider the truth, and the facts, just ask the County to show you how (or if) they met their legal notification requirements before they stole the No Namer’s property rights. They can’t because they did not follow the law and when you learn this then ask yourself how you would feel to have such a thing done to you by your government. And your neighbor.

Well, Howard Thurston, you could have sued the bastards! Starting with suing yourself, your moving yourself out to No Name Key? Did you do that? Or are you just a big cry baby?

They did, however, follow ‘one of their own’, the ‘esteemed’, then, Planning Commissioners, who told them her version of what everyone wanted. They listened to and believed her (lies) and for 20 years have perpetuated the heist of property rights she manipulated them into making. Evil and shameful. Just shameful one would use their appointed position, much less manipulate their community, their neighbors, in such a way as she did. Sure you can say that others in the community should have been more involved, should have put a stop to it but in these ‘laid back’ Florida Keys, a place where many of us want to live in peace, enjoy nature, we want to see and trust mankind. As you smartly point out (thank you) that’s proven foolish in how the local educational system takes advantage of the children (and tax payers), or how the homeless are overlooked. Or how one fanatical woman could paint herself the voice of her very small community and be believed when, in fact, she wore the black mask of a bandit to accomplish what she wanted for her own reasons.

Yep, I agree, Alicia is a black witch, there’s no doubt of it. Burn her at the stake! I think I recall they did that to Joan of Arc, too.

In my earlier note I suggested you knock on the door of the Eaken’s. You so often seem to be at Ms. Putney’s home, theirs is just on the other side of the island. The father or son will tell you that they have sought power for 40+ years. Have wanted it very badly. Have been promised it by the power company on several occasions just as soon as a few more homes were built. Had the right, and no deed restriction, from the time they bought their land and built their home. Until Ms. Putney arrived to work her back magic.

I have heard the Eakens tell their story at several public meetings. The Eakens can knock on my door anytime they wish, and write to me anything they wish, and I will publish it, verbatim, like I publish your stuff verbatim, Howard Thurston, when the angels make me publish it. If I had my druthers, I would publish nothing you send me until you have proven to me, face to face, who you are.

The same Ms. Putney who wants to wrap herself in some Last Stand, save the planet, type flag, as if protecting the place. Interesting. No Name, as you might know, has been home to two rock mines, rock pits, quarries, if you will, for decades. They have been here and active the entire time this Ms. Putney has been here.

The Last Stand members I know pretty well seem to have wrapped themselves in Alicia Putney, and they are serious freedom fighters, who have made lots of developers and politicians moan and groan plenty. However, the mines and their timeline are beyond my ken, and again, Alicia, you need to weigh in. However, it was one of those mines, the one near Brad and Beth Vickrey’s home, which Steve Estes told me he saw advertised as having development potential, on the website of the California real estate company for which Brad worked.

Those mines comprise perhaps 50 acres of No Name’s sacred solid. Or once did. Instead of protecting No Name, the County, and surely Alicia Putney, did nothing about those rock mines. Instead they sat back and watched a large part of No Name destroyed by dynamite and deep dredging. Boulders would be excavated and broken into rubble and then hauled off truck by truck, day by day, year after year so the County could have fill for whatever road they were building or other such project. If anyone ever stopped to think about the decimation that was taking place over so many years they likely concluded it no big deal since it ‘only’ came from No Name Key. Those who say they protect No Name, or care, often lie and those two rock mines vividly prove my point. How else would they be allowed to operate, to destroy, if protecting the place was truly this Putney’s goal.

Until last year, for seven days a week, the loud sounds of those tractor trailers, the dredging and crushing equipment and the blasting took place. And with every truck a part of No Name was gone forever. Only last year did another No Namer (Anne Press) fight to keep the mines from re-opening once their permits had expired. For Mrs. Press’s work we are grateful. But what did the revered supposed ‘savior’ and ‘protector’ of No Name Key’s ecology, Ms. Putney, do about those mines? Zip. Not a material thing. Ever.

Alicia? And, Howard Thurston, what did you do about those mines you blame Alicia for doing nothing about?

Those mines have been in operation the entire time she’s lived here but since they are not near her home or heart she did nothing. Legend has it that she works hard but one must ask what is she really working on. If the goal was or remains about truly protecting the island then how could she not attempted to stop to those mines that destroyed so much for so long? The fact is that I can not ever recall her speaking about those mines and god knows she’s spoken publicly about No Name hundreds of time.

Perhaps the destruction never bothered her or perhaps she’s an advocate for it. Perhaps she plans to buy the lakes that have replaced the land that was once there and then open some sort of commercial enterprise or maybe she plans to buy and then sell it for profit. What her plan is I can’t say but even such speculation is how rumor starts and I don’t want to start one now. I just often wonder how one who is credited for being the protector of the deer and island in general did nothing to stop so much of it being lost forever. Not a word. Not a peep. Shame on her.

Dispute those who seek to end the discrimination all you want. Any citizens should feel free to engage in a lawful process to enact change that a majority might want or need, even if, as is the case here, its to repaid damage caused by other people manipulating the process and their community.

Disagree with one’s way of life even but don’t perpetuate her lies and the damage they have done to good, decent, people. You are better than that. Or should be.

Howard

I do what the angels tell me to do, Howard Thurston, and a long time ago now, I stopped worrying what other people thought about me. I worry heaps about what the angels think about me, though. Heaps.

Sloan Bashinsky

I sent the post to Howard, he replied:

Again, thank you for your thoughtful response. And from your response…

“Yep, I agree, Alicia is a black witch, there’s no doubt of it.”

You have never written a more true statement, whether by intention or not. Keep up the fine work.

I replied:

I love it when I am quoted out of context, it’s someting black witches do routinely, Howard.

Here’s what I wrote:

Yep, I agree, Alicia is a black witch, there’s no doubt of it. Burn her at the stake! I think I recall they did that to Joan of Arc, too.

Howard knew for a fact that I had likened Alicia to Joan of Arc, who later was canonized and made a saint by the same church which had determined she was a wtich and had her burned at the stake.

Saints are not perfect. There never has been a perfect saint.

There are a number of Howard Thurstons in the No Name Key pro-grid tribe, I have seen and heard them up close and personal. Only the outer wrappers are different. And Howard indeed is a black witch. I knew that when he first wrote to me, and I wanted to have nothing to do with it, but the angels don’t give a shit what I want to have to do with.

Here’s a more accurate representation of Howard Thurston, whoever he, or she, is …

Posted in Today's FlaKey Drivel | 2 Comments »

reality checks, reporting in the bright sunshine, water for elephants, unexpected past life regression, and other common uncommon occurences in The Asteroid Belt, aka Florida Keys

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

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So, on CNN News last night, reports that the Sandy Hook School shooter had attended Sandy Hook School, where he had suffered severe bullying, and it’s maybe looking like he copycatted and was in competition with a shooter in Norway, who had gone into a state park and killed lots of campers, the gruesome report of which I saw on CNN maybe a year or two ago.

Of no interest to our school system, however, since we don’t have any bullying Keys schools, nor any crazy people or guns.

Replies to the loss of email contacts in one of my email accounts part of yesterday’s mission impossible – the Florida Keys, aka The State Mengel, er, Mental post:

Larry Murray of Big Pine Key:

Keep me on the list!! A day without Sloan is like a day without Sunshine (laws, that is…..) *:)) laughing

Key Largo lawyer:

Thanks for your perceptions, Sloan-

I replied:

Thanks. Down here below Seven Mile Bridge my perceptions often are accused of being hallucinations, or just downright made up stories. Once a lawyer, it’s terminal, I suppose. :-) Sloan

Lower Keys amiga:

Sloan,

I feel for you. At least if you hate Outlook Plus as much as I did. I did not want to be “upgraded,” but they went ahead and did me anyway. What I did figure out is if on the top-right-hand side of your screen there is an “Options” tab, which clicking on that will bring up a drop-down menu. From there, on the left-hand side should be an option to resort back to hotmail. They upgraded me twice and I’ve been able to resort back to hotmail each time. I wasn’t happy with Outlook, funky steps to have to do, ie: could not even sign out without using a drop-down menu, which I had a hell of a time even finding to sign out the first time. Hope it works for you if you wish to use it.

I replied:

I used to have that go back to hotmail option, and used it dozens of times after that email account converted itself over to Outlook Express, but now that option no longer is there, and when I dig into the Options and Help files, it says I can’t to back to Hotmail any more, although I still have that option in my other email account. For that reason, I am letting the contacts in that account know, and will do so again tomorrow, that if they want to keep receiving the daily bombing runs, ravings, etc., all they need to is reply to that email, they don’t need to say anything, just reply, and I will be able to copy their email address and put it in a separate file with other email addresses who have responded. I have received a number of keep me on the list replies, but a lot more no replies so far. Maybe my hit list will shrink considerably.

Waaaaaa!!!

Ciao

I finally did find out where all of my email contacts were in the Outlook Express account, but it’s a serious chore to lump them into a bulk email blast, which I did yesterday to let them all know what had happened, and for them to simply reply to that blast, no words necessary, if they wanted to keep receiving my daily bombing runs. A few replies came back, so far. Now I’m not living totally in the dark about how many of those email contacts were reading the daily ravings.

Am giving serious thought to shifting over to Yahoo. I already have a Yahoo email account, which I don’t use, and, we got plenty of yahoos down here in the Keys.

Michael Shields, of Key West, replied to the Howard Thurston/No Name Key part of yesterday’s mission impossible – the Florida Keys, aka The State Mengel, er, Mental post:

Sloan – RE: NNK – I think Howard Thurston is certainly a nom de plume. In “Gilligan’s Island” (the merry TV show of the 7 castaways on a “three-hour tour” who can never find their way back to…wherever they came from – and for syndication purposes they certainly were in no hurry – Jim Backus plays none other than Thurston Howell III, and I would guess this writer is having sport of some kind.

Keep it moving… Michael Shields

From No Name Key, not Alicia Putney, on Howard Thurston:

Strangely, there are NO Howard Thurston’s listed in all of Florida. A search brings up your reference to him in your post today and then more strangely, this: (Check out the name of the book in the first reference.) “Howard Thurston (1869-1936)”. “Howard Thurston, the master magician who produced living things from nowhere and made them disappear again in thin air, passed through the curtain of death today at his Miami Beach, Florida home.”

^ Steinmeyer, Jim (2004). Hiding the Elephant. Da Capo Press.

=========================

Once upon a time, maybe when I was nine or ten, my mother and I were arguing back and forth about something she said I had done, which I ought not to have done, and I said I didn’t do it. Finally, in exasperation, she said, “I have the memory of a camel; I never forget!” I laughed, said, “Momma, camels go for a long time without water, it’s elephants that never forget.” Case closed. Over the years, she told that story many times. Maybe it was in the stars that I was going to be a lawyer.

Last night, I read the seemingly never-ending ballad (legal brief) of the mythical Howard Thurston, and I labored for quite a while on a reply, which seemed in a dream last night, actually, it’s still last night, thank you angels for the great night’s sleep, to be dispensed, as if the delete button had been pressed. Not entirely trusting the angels, I will keep a copy of all of that disgusting hard night’s work, which essentially boiled down to, if the chicken shit son of a bitch ain’t willing to put his real name on it, or if that is his real name, if he ain’t willing to put his real home address on it, so it can be determined if that really is his real name and his real home address, then I don’t see why he should get to run his jihad against Alicia Putney, Steve Estes, and the Monroe County Government though my websites.

From out of nowhere yesterday, sprang a Facebook past life regression:

Are you the same Sloan Bashinsky that used to live on Briarcliff Rd. and was in a riding group with Beck Wilson, Dick Pharoh, Norman Clay and myself? (Peter Cunningham)

Hi, Peter, long time passing – I used to live on East Briarcliff, and I remember you and all of those guys, but only barely Dick Pharoh, but I do not remember being in a riding group with you and them. Maybe Ageheimers got those brain cells. How are you holding up under gravity and other life adventures? Sloan

Yeah a very long time. As usual gravity is winning but overall doing well. Live in Fairhope, retired and married to Layla Folsom. (Big Jim’s daughter). We travel a good bit and try to stay healthy. Mom and Dad r gone but lived to 93 and 99 respectively. Am I wrong but wasn’t. Your family involved or owned Golden Flake? I am happy u r well and thanks For responding. Later

[Big Jim Folsom, former Governor of Alabama]

Yes, although my father passed away in 2006, a trust he left behind still owns a slight majority interest in Golden Enterprises stock, that is the holding company in which the main subsidiary by large margin is Golden Flake. You sure married into a prominent Alabama family . I sort of always wanted to live in Fairhope, but I heard recently from someone down here in the Florida Keys, who lived many years in Mobile and was up there recently, that Fairhope, Daphene, etc. all grow’d up and crowded now. I’m maybe fuzzy, but you had a younger brother, or was it you, who bought my grandparent’s home at the top of Fairway Drive near Crestline Heights School, my alma mater? I closed the loan and sale on that transaction, in the City Federal Building, as I recall. When I practiced law.

Yeah you probably wouldn’t like it now as it is crowded. I’ve been here since 67 on and off but came back in 79 for good. The Folsom’s are a hoot and have welcomed me as one of their own. Big Jim had nine children – two have passed – and Layla is the second youngest. They are all characters in their own right. Unfortunately Jamelle their mother passed last November, but it was good to meet the ENTIRE family. There are about fifty of them and being called an “Outlaw” I understand is an honor.

I had a younger sister named Susan but she never brough any property on Fairway. It might have been George Cunningham or his little brother. George worked for George Barber- so that might fit. I knew several lawyers of your era in B’ham: Charles Dunn and RG Robison in particular. (Both gone) WE used to hang at Dugan’s in the seventies.

I get back to B’ham every now and then for personal business and can’t say I would live there again either. Also get to Key West, but I think they have pretty well ruined it as well. My lastest hideaway is St. George Island off Appalatchacola. They have kept it fairly pristine. No red lights and One stop sign. Take care! Peter

I love the stretch from Port St. Joe/Cape San Blas and the park out at the end of it, to St. Vincent’s Island, Apalachicola, St. George’s Island, Carabelle, Panacea and beyond, all the way to Steinhatchee, Suwanee, Chiefland, Cedar Key, but especially between Cape San Blass and St. George’s Island. I know right where that stop sign is, or used to be, in Appalach, and I once spent a night in the Gibson Hotel, when it was really old, and I propped a straightback chair up against the doorknob to lock the door while I my then wife and I were sleeping. I wrote a pretty wild novel once, maybe almost half of which is set in Port St. Joe, Cape San Blas and Appalach. Wilder even than Key West, if you use the lunatic standard of measure . Have some Bham friends who took a shine to the St Vincent area. I knew them two lawyers, sorry to hear they left us behind, but hope they are happy where they landed on the other side. You ever eat at the Bluegill on the old causeway, or at Wentzels in Mobile? I showed my ass in both places a few times. And I played a few rounds at Lakewood CC, and showed my ass many times there. And once, in Fairhope, I sat in the bay and watched the sun rise, after drinking tequila and beer all night. Hoped to die all the next day, feared I wouldn’t. Several different lifetimes ago.

Sounds like you are quite the character! -A good thing! I know the stop sign to which you refer. BUT they now have a RED LIGHT just coming into town on the north side on 98. Yuk! The entire area you refer to is great and I know it fairly well but not as intimate as you. The Bluegill has moved next door and is not the same as when the Wallaces owned it. They now have a Wintzell’s in Fairhope, where we hang about once a week. I’ve done the same w/ the Tequila is various places but not anymore. Scotch and beer are my only poisons these days. Also still a bit of wacky Tabacky when available. I did live in Aspen fm 1971 – 1975. Hunter Thompson was running for Sheriff – and won but was disqualified for some legal technicality. Life there there was a hoot. Free love and all the drugs you wanted. Also skiing was the best! I took the liberty of Googleing you and seems you have had quite the life. Proud for you son! I’m not too far behind but too late to catch you. Great getting reacquainted! Peter

I can’t tolerate booze anymore, drink a beer and two hours later I feel awful in my liver and G.I. tract, and I wuz told quite a few times in dreams not to partake. I spent a week in Aspen in Sept 1986, when I was living in Santa Fe. Moved to Boulder the next year, lived there until 1995. By then, had lost interest in skiing. Once in Wintzel’s, the old man himself was shucking at the oyster bar and I told him I bet I could eat ‘em faster than he could shuck ‘em, and he said he’d take that bet, and after 3 dozen and all the beer I could slosh down, I was running outta steam and, besides, I was intending to order a big seafood platter, and I hollered uncle. And I did order a big seafood platter, and I ate it. As I said, one of the past lives. My life’s been a bit too exciting at times to suit me, but it don’t seem like there’s anything I can do about it but grin and bear it. A far reach from when I was a kid living on E. Briarcliff, barely able to wait for the next spring break and the family going back down to the Florida Keys, so he could do more bonefishing on the flats, which was his die and go to heaven for back then, and now I could care less, but sometimes I do hope that it ain’t entirely over that some lady will take a shine to do some bone fishing with me, so to speak, but meanwhile, it’s the monastical life cause chasing after women never was much my style, and I got caught by one of them enough times to wonder if I should even be thinking like that anymore …

keysmyhome@hotmail.com, for now