The BS Factor -- Simmonds and Zavodnyik face off #1 Zavodnyik stutters and stumbles, overloads on political styrofoam; Simmonds says all of the city's problems are caused by the folks living in Henry Ranch (Venetian Golf and River Club) -- Simmonds forgets that they are actually city residents and that he supported the annexation; Advantage --> Zavodnyik -- John Patten, 10/19/06 --jpatten@veniceflorida.com
Recorded at City Hall on October 18, 2006 This round goes to Zavodnyik, but almost barely.
Ernest Zavodnyik: Tastes great but a lot of filling Zavodnyik has a lot of questions about growth, good questions at that, but not many answers and these are answers that he should have. Zavodnyik appears to be on the right political track, but he's woefully short on information and is just flat out a terrible public speaker. The strongest political card in his deck, that of his opponent's voting record on annexations and rezonings, is never played.
Later in the evening, after Zavodnyik stated he didn't know very much about the history of the airport, Dan Boone fired off a series of questions about specific runways and the FAA funding problems. Boone's ploy worked -- instead of admitting that he knew little about the situation, Zavodnyik got suckered and tried to stumble his way through an answer. Boone cackled and (I'm not making this up) gleefully rubbed his hands in a killer impersonation of Montgomery Burns, but the damage was done: while Zavodnyik didn't come off as sounding deceptive, when it came to the airport, he sounded clueless.
Of course, Boone never let on that it was his actions, as attorney for the Venice Golf Association, that directly caused the airport funding to be temporarily stopped for a few years due to an investigation by the FAA into the VGA and the city for Diversion of Revenue. This was a golden opportunity for Zavodnyik to have a face-to-face public showdown with Boone, but Zavodnkik dropped the ball. (1:46) BULLSHIT FACTOR: 5 out of a possible 10
John Simmonds blames all of the city's growth woes on Venetian Golf and River Club, then promptly kicks them out of the city John Simmonds on the same topic of growth, and this is just wacky. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't so scary.
Simmonds is smooth, easily a much better speaker than Zavodnyik. That said, his speech on growth is one provable fiction after another. In talking about all of the annexations in North Venice, Simmonds states that all city annexed land along Laurel Road is all farmland (wrong) that won't be built out for 20 years (wrong). Simmonds states the worst offender in North Venice is the "Venetian Golf and Country Club." There is no Venetian Golf and Country Club. There is the Venice Golf and Country Club, but that's to the east of Venice on Center Road.
The Venetian Golf and River Club on Laurel Road, which is clearly what Simmonds is talking about, IS IN THE CITY. It was Henry Ranch, that famed and controversial annexation that took place in 2001. Moreover, Simmonds publicly supported the annexation at the time. Anyway, Simmonds states that the folks there are all county folks, not Venice residents, and that they are the ones that are causing all of the problems for the rest of us. (1:43) BULLSHIT FACTOR: 10 out of a possible 10
John Patten is the editor and publisher of Venice Florida! dot com and had previously worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.
