Un-round up the usual suspects
Venice Taxpayers League prez Herb Levine was back in the Envision Venice process as a facilitator last night. Ironically, it was the last meeting that would require facilitators.

Envision Venice is a city run series of forums designed to gather citizen input on the future of Venice. The program is sponsored by the city's Planning Department and is aimed at gathering data for the city's Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan is a mandatory written study that is required by state law.

At the meetings, citizens are broken up into groups to discuss issues of local importance. A facilitator for each group is assigned, who then leads the discussion and records answers to survey questions in a methodical fashion.

Earlier this month, Levine had received a letter from Planning Department head Tom Slaughter that knocked Levine out of the program as a facilitator. The given reason for the 'firing' was that citizens had complained that Levine deliberately did not record views that opposed his own on citizen survey sheets. The letter went on to refer to Levine's actions as 'improprieties."

Levine called it horse manure. Actually, he had a lot worse to say about the letter initially, but he finally settled on horse manure.

So did the three people who the city had cited as the complainants when interviewed by phone yesterday.

The first complainant, local architect Jeff Matthews, was a facilitator at a different table on the evening in question, April 6. Matthews claimed that he overheard part of a comment from Levine's table and he later recounted it in casual conversation, not knowing that his words would ever be used as the basis for a complaint against Levine. Matthews claimed he had overheard Venice resident Sid Shrauger say something about information not being recorded properly.

Shrauger was listed by the city as the second complainant. Shrauger claims he didn't complain either and denied saying anything bad about Levine. When called yesterday, Shrauger stated that city planner Kathy Ebaugh had called him up saying that she had heard some negative things about the table that Levine was seated at. Shrauger stated that he told Ebaugh that the meeting had a rushed feel to it and that not everything went according to plan but that Levine wasn't at fault. Shrauger validated Levine's earlier statements that someone from Envision Venice had repeatedly told participants to hurry up and that Levine was told not to record answers to one of the questions.

Shrauger stated his feelings on the matter in a letter to the Gondo, which was published on April 29.

The third listed complainant, Ermina Hahn, also stated she had never complained: "If they are saying that I complained, then I am being maligned." Hahn sated that the meeting on April 6 was rushed and confusing but that Levine muddled through it as best as possible: "I didn't think it [Levine's performance] was a problem."

Hahn was astounded and angry to learn that she had been listed as a complainant, and stated that she wanted to see any paperwork that had her name on it. Venice Florida! dot com declined on giving her copies and instead referred her to the city clerk's office.

Levine states that the city has verbally apologized and that a formal letter of apology is forthcoming: "If they don't apologize in writing and negate this letter that accused me of improprieties, I'll just turn it over to my lawyer and let him handle it. Have you ever looked up the definition of the word 'impropriety?' It's not a nice word."

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.