Backstage at the charrette ("My butt is about shot")
Council and city administrators used email as Instant Messaging during the charrette to avoid speaking within earshot of the public, sometimes to make fun of public speakers and once to try to shut out the public
-- John Patten, 04/28/07
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com
Got a comment? Make it here.
BUNK!
While citizens and developers were participating in the Airport "charrette" on Wednesday, April 25, City Manager Marty Black and council communicated silently to each other on numerous occasions by using the city's email service as a sort-of ersatz instant messaging service. The process was totally invisible to the public and the presenters while the day long meeting dragged on.
And drag on it did: towards the end, Councilman Rick Tacy complained to City Clerk Lori Stelzer: "My butt is about shot."
Tacy repeatedly used the system to secretly heckle public speakers with smart aleck comments. "Bunk," he wrote during one citizen speech, "Yeah, PEATA [sic] would just love that," during another, which included a misspelled reference to PETA. By the end of the day, Tacy was so cranky that he used the email to show his disapproval of another councilman's tendency to drone on and on.
The scariest post of all comes from Tacy when, at the very beginning of the public speaking portion, the councilman looks for a way to close down the meeting and send the public packing. In a message of advice to the mayor, Tacy wrote how he thought the meeting should be ended: "No applause or cat calls. 3rd time it happens meeting will be closed. Act civil or we close meeting period."
Meanwhile, Black used the system to guide council along on his own personal vision. Reading Black's messages, he appears to be consistently guiding council towards the Amalthea / Marriott project.
During presentations from other groups, Black again and again raises what he considers to be disturbing and unanswered questions, questions for which Black should have already known the answers. At one point, Black appears to be scripting Councilman John Simmonds on what negative questions to ask of the Sky Harbor group, as Simmonds appears to be struggling with assimilating the information at hand.
Amalthea enters from stage right
Then comes Amalthea and Black suddenly shifts gears -- his messages sound like they are coming straight out of Amalthea's own PR department.
Bear in mind -- Black has stated that he had several meetings on Amalthea with Ed Taylor in the months leading up to the announcement of the charrette process. According to Black, Taylor was acting as an advance man for the Amalthea / Marriott group. It's safe to say that Amalthea has had home court advantage all along, a disturbing thought considering that Amalthea's principal, Aris Mardirossian, has pled no contest to campaign financing violations in the town that Black mentions, Gaithersburg, this according to a Washington Post article of May 1, 1987.
More on Mardirossian and his interesting history of campaign influences can be found here.
The most recent article of interest is from 2006 when it was revealed that Mardirossian was responsible for giving over $48 thousand in county election campaign contributions over a four-year period in the county of Montgomery, Maryland.
This is great -- let's do it a lot
Below is a chart of who wrote what to who and when during Wednesday's charrette.
No spelling corrections were made to the text below. Typos such as the ones that appear below are fairly typical of instant messaging conversations.
| 9:36 | Black to all | Sky Harbor - It would be good to understand the level of decision making for the 'partners' represented today. The only financial information/capability information provided is for Brad Stephens and he is apparently not here as part of the team presentation. |
| 9:40 | Simmonds to all | Sky Harbor - It would also be good to know what they are : Corp. Limited Partnership or what. Also how long have hy een in existence. what is the relationship between all these whith experience and Sky Harbor |
| 9:49 | Black to all | Sky Harbor - it's your chance to ask questions - they are listed as an LLC. |
| 9:51 | Simmonds to Black | Sky Harbor - This ability to communicate during presentations is great. Love it ! Let's do it a lot |
| 10:03 | Black to Hammett | Watch time |
| 10:29 | Black to Simmonds | just keep in mind that these are public records... |
| 10:33 | Simmonds to Black | Thanks! I will |
| 11:40 | IT Dept. to all | We are experiencing a slow-down in the GroupWise program due to the program reorganizing files. We started it yesterday and it is still running due to the volume of email it has to sort. Please be patient! This will slow the network down a little until it is done. |
| 12:46 | Black to all | Legacy group - We have been unable to confirm their corporate registration in Florida as Venice Legacy Sky Marina & Resort LLC - please ask if they have established a Florida corporation as they just described or if this is a concept at this point with no state filing? If they say they have filed, need to ask under what corporate name. thanks! |
| 1:02 | Simmonds to all | Legacy group - If no one else does i WILL. Also are the subordinate lLLCs new or just under thheir consideration. What happens if one of the subordinates bails? |
| 1:19 | Black to all | Legacy group - if possible, ask them to identify who are their principals and participation levels/responsibilities. who is providing the financing and who is managing? |
| 1:21 | Tacy to Black | Did he just say one the thieves from Atlantic gulf A.K.A. GENERARAL DEVOPLEMENT? |
| 1:28 | Black to all | see USA today article excerpt about Dream Harbor experience in Merritt Island Public slips slip away from some boaters
By Matt Reed, USA TODAY
...Fight over public access
In March, Dvorak and hundreds of other local boaters staged a rally on a Merritt Island canal to support public marinas and boat ramps. The marina owner, Naples-based developer Dream Harbors LLC, saw its $4.7 million purchase jeopardized and threatened to sue.
In November, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush approved a settlement: 20 of Whitley Bay's 120 slips must be rented to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. The developer will pay $50,000 toward construction of a public "mooring field" where visiting boaters can anchor at buoys and will help provide water-taxi service to downtown Cocoa's shops and restaurants. |
| 1:28 | Black to Tacy | >>Did he just say one the thieves from Atlantic gulf A.K.A. GENERARAL DEVOPLEMENT? I believe so -see my last email on Dream Harbor.... |
| 1:57 | Black to all | Amalthea - Their land planner is Glatting Jackson - one of the leading tradtional/new urbanist design firms in Florida. see their website at http://www.glatting.com/ I've also attached an article on their apparent funding partner from INC magazine: After a contract fell through with 7-Eleven, a Maryland businessman started his own chain of convenience stores.
"I don't get mad," Aris Mardirossian says. "I get competitive." So The Southland Corp. can attest.
Back in 1984 Southland considered setting up one of its 7-Eleven convenience stores in a building Mardirossian owned in Gaithersburg, Md. Terms were negotiated, and the Armenian immigrant signed the papers and shook hands. But the deal fell through. Mardirossian's version is that the higher-ups at Southland's Dallas headquarters decided they wanted more favorable terms. A Southland spokesperson says Mardirossian misunderstood the company's procedures.
In any event, Mardirossian -- who had already evicted the previous tenants -- was upset. But he had an idea. "I said, 'If that site was good for them, it's gotta be good for me.' I decided I was going into the convenience-store business, and I'd do it better than 7-Eleven." A month later the first 6-Twelve Convenient Mart opened at that location. "I was making very easy money."
Soon Mardirossian opened a second 6-Twelve, this one across the street from a 7-Eleven. "That store took off like a bonfire." After he opened his third store, across from yet another 7-Eleven, he says, Southland sued for trademark infringement. "The spirit of competition totally poured out of me." Retaining the Chicago law firm that had helped MCI take on AT&T, Mardirossian fought back on antitrust grounds -- and won.
Today 14 6-Twelves do business in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Connecticut, with 15 more under construction and plans for future expansion. All but 3 are franchise operations. Mardirossian looks for locations, he says, that are "as close as possible to a 7-Eleven or whatever the local chain is." Typically, the 6-Twelve is larger than its competitor, with an on-premise bakery and deli, and without the magazine racks and video games that draw teenagers.
The formula has worked well for Mardirossian, a 38-year-old engineer and restaurateur. He has recently built a stone mansion in the rolling Maryland horse country northwest of Washington. On the gate is a bronze plaque that reads: "Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven."
-- Jill Andresky Fraser |
| 2:01 | Black to all | CURRENT PROPOSAL - Amalthea - Here's some more from the Gaithersburg Maryland city site on Aris Maradosian and a project they were reviewing/working on in 2005:
http://www.gaithersburgmd.gov/poi/default.asp?POI_ID=309&TOC=307;309;&id=2268 |
| 2:02 | Black to all | Amalthea - we should understand what the relationship between Marriott and Amalthea is and what commitment do they propose for the management... |
| 2:22 | Tacy to Pam Johnson, city hall's PR | Interview subject?
[Tacy is apparently asking Johnson to interview one of the members of the Amalthea group on her public access cable TV show, Venice Views - Ed.] |
| 2:47 | IT Dept. to all | The system is back up. Thank you for your patience. |
| 3:20 | Tacy to Hammett | OPEN TO PUBLIC - No applause or cat calls. 3rd time it happens meeting will be closed. Act civil or we close meeting period. |
| 4:12 | Black to all | Sue Lang petition - she still has the name for Caspersen Beach wrong.... [in response to a public speaker, probably Lang] |
| 4:13 | Tacy to Black | Sue Lang petition - What does have. |
| 5:19 | Tacy to city clerk Lori Stelzer | HOW MANY MORE MY BUTT IS ABOUT SHOT |
| 5:21 | Stelzer to Tacy | 8 |
| 5:21 | Hammett to himself | [Hammett sends a copy of the above 2:01 Amalthea "CURRENT PROPOSAL" message to his own personal Comcast email account] |
| 5:24 | Tacy to Black | YEAH PEATA WOULD JUST LOVE THAT
[in response to a public speaker] |
| 5:28 | Tacy to Black | Remember the Best Western, we we're causing the area to lose waterfront hotels and killing the tourist industry.
[in response to a public speaker] |
| 5:29 | Black to Tacy | Yes |
| 5:32 | Tacy to Black | BUNK
[in response to a public speaker] |
| 5:34 | Tacy to Hammett | OH LISTEN JON
[most likely in response to one of John Simmonds' droning rants, but possibly aimed at John Moore] |
