And all of this happened while either Hunt's secretary had
temporarily lost the paperwork (according to Calamaras) or while the paperwork
was sitting on Hunt's desk, ignored and unrecognized as a legal document
(according to Hunt).
Yo, guys: if you are going to use a cover story, it
really, really helps out a lot in the credibility department if you would all agree in advance to use the same
one. When you start dishing out different and conflicting cover stories, it
begins to look like you are hiding something. Not that you would ever do that,
I'm just sayin'...
Anderson to council: "This is a serious legal
matter"
At the January 14 council meeting, Anderson spelled out
the nature of the investigation, which included an allegation by the FAA that
the city had wrongfully diverted airport revenue, a major no-no (mp3
audio -- 2:01, 1MB).
Anderson went on to explain the ramifications of the
current conflict with the FAA and how it has now escalated into an extremely
serious legal matter. Anderson stated that the conflict has caused the Federal
government to withhold airport funding in 2000, 2001 and 2002 for airport
improvements (the lost funding is estimated to be in the millions of dollars and
there is no chance of ever recouping those losses). Anderson said that
continuing the conflict would cause future denials of funding in 2003. He also complained
loud and clear that the notice of investigation should have been sent to his
office immediately as soon as the papers were initially received, and finished
by strongly suggesting council adopt a three-pronged response to the notice (mp3 audio
-- 2:46, 1.3MBs).
Councilwoman Virginia Warren expressed her
uncomfortable feelings about discussing anything about the matter in the
public's eye, and she wanted a
'shade' meeting immediately. Florida law allows for closed 'shade' meetings
outside of Sunshine Law requirements in certain circumstances, including to
confer with an attorney over pending legal matters. Warren wanted a shade meeting and she wanted
one pronto (mp3 audio - 2:45,
1.3MBs).
Councilman Burt Brown brought up the lobbyists in
Washington. The city has twice paid a lobby firm the sum of $5,000 in an effort
to get some congressional sympathy on behalf of the city and the VGA. Why the
city was footing the bill for lobbyists on behalf of the VGA is another
extremely curious matter entirely, but the really odd thing is the small amount spent:
$5,000 in 2001 and another $5,000 in 2002.
$5,000 in Georgetown buys a
couple of rounds of
watered-down drinks and a couple of beer chasers. You might have enough left
over for a small tip. It is certainly not enough to financially motivate any
lobbyist to actually achieve any desired results. That money would have been
better spent if it had been placed in the city's July 4th fireworks fund -- at
least then we could have actually seen the money go up in smoke.
At any rate, Anderson stated he felt that
the Washington lobbying was an exercise in futility at this point and that even considering
continuation of that route totally misses the point (mp3
audio, 1:36, 0.7MBs).
Where did Hunt stand on all of this? As far back as
possible, and he was trying to backpedal even further as Vice-Mayor Rick Tacy
tried to find out why Hunt had kept the city attorney out of the loop until it
was nearly too late (mp3 audio,
0:57, 0.5MBs).
Newly elected council member John Moore offered up a
surprisingly strong voice of reason. In response to an open question to council
from Anderson, Moore stated his agreement with Anderson that this is a
serious legal matter that has gone on for too long. He urged Anderson to get the
case in front of an administrative trial judge as soon as possible for a final
resolution (mp3 audio, 0:49,
0.5MBs).
Jeff Boone apparently felt that Moore's suggestion was
anything but a good idea. During audience participation, Boone accused the FAA
of not following their own rules and suggested that in cases like this, the
lawyers are often the problem. Boone stated that his law firm has been on top of
the case all along and urged council to continue to negotiate outside of a
courtroom with the FAA. It is Boone's stated hope that a favorable settlement
will occur without ever having to get the case before a judge.
The
city has since had their shade meeting and has authorized Anderson to take
the lead in the matter. Anderson has, in turn, retained an attorney in the
Washington law firm of Foley and Lardner to act on the city's behalf.
Anderson would not discuss any planned legal tactics
that are in the works for dealing with the FAA investigation. Refusal to divulge
such information is absolutely correct on Anderson's part in order to protect
attorney/client privilege.
The legal fees for the Washington attorney alone will
well exceed the amounts paid by the city to date for lobbyists. Since the VGA,
and not the city, is the prime beneficiary of all of this legal maneuvering, one
would hope that the VGA, and not the city, will be picking up the legal tab for
this mess.
One would hope, anyway. It ain't gonna happen, but one
could still hope.
Other fires burn unattended: the police talk of picketing city hall
While no one has yet made a formal announcement, inside sources have informed
Venice Florida! dot com that the negotiations between the city and the union
reps at the police department have all but fallen apart. The city is offering a
3% raise, the union maintains that that isn't nearly enough and that the
department can't recruit properly with starting pay so low. The city is digging
their heels in and so are the cops. Rumors that cops are prepared to picket
city hall are not yet confirmed, but nobody's denying them either.
My opinion, and an informed one at that: the police
officers in this town have long been given the shaft by city hall and it's about
time the city paid back its debt. It is the right, moral and honorable thing to
do. If the cops do picket, I'll be more than happy to join their ranks and carry
a sign, and I encourage every citizen with a conscience to do the same.
While I'm thinking about it, let the cops take over and
maintain their own computer systems. There is absolutely no justifiable reason
that an uncertified civilian (one who was under non-investigation for illegally
funneling city funds into his own company's coffers) in city hall should
have desktop access to every computer within the police department. The current
technology policies that the city has stupidly imposed have been a total
disaster, they are a security nightmare, and are yet another cause for the low
morale at the police department.
Furious George goes gun shopping?
Speaking of rumors, this one's a gem. It's an odd rumor that's been floating around
the city for a couple of weeks now, and it's about our beloved, good-natured,
wacky city manager and his proclivity for firearms. The rumor goes like this: George Hunt
is getting a new gun, a cute little semi-automatic Glock, and it is being paid
for with city funds from the police budget.
While our sources for the rumor are
credible, denials came fast and furious.
I asked Police Chief Jim Hanks about
it, Hanks categorically denied that anything of the kind was in the works, and
I've never known Hanks to tell a fib. Hunt likewise rebuffed the rumor, telling
a local newspaper reporter that the story was absolutely untrue.
Now that's what is called an unsubstantiated rumor. I
get a lot of unsubstantiated rumors, some of them turn out to be true and some
of them turn out to be false. This rumor, it turns out, falls in between those
two, landing in the jar labeled "Permanently Unverifiable."
So why would I even mention this one?
Because of
the seeming outrageousness of the rumor itself. A rumor like that in any other
city would be laughable and nobody would bother checking on it. Venice of late,
however, has given new meaning to the Hunter Thompson phrase 'fear and
loathing.' After all, Hunt has been known to carry a gun on the job and he publicly whined about not
having his gun on him after being called a liar by Taxpayer League president
Herb Levine. The aforementioned Glock is a small, easily concealed
firearm, not readily noticeable when concealed properly within business attire.
Every time I see Hunt, I nervously give him a once
over, looking for any unnatural bulges while consciously noting my surroundings
in case I should need some quick cover and a hasty retreat. I can state with
absolute certainty I'm not the only person in town who has this admittedly paranoiac
trait.
For all that, the rumor, when first heard, wasn't all
that unbelievable. It was definitely worth inquiring about.
And that is pretty damned sad.
Yet more flames that won't go out: city facing the potential of a multi-million dollar
civil rights lawsuit
In an effort to stifle long-time government critic (and self professed not-nice
guy) Herb Levine, the city thought maybe a trip to the hoosegow last September
might bring him around to seeing the city's point of view.
Didn't work out that way. The State Attorney's Office
kicked the case, stating Levine had broken no law and that the arrest, which
had taken place at a city council meeting, was groundless.
At a Venice Taxpayer's League meeting a couple of weeks
back, Levine announced that he had waited until the new year to see if anyone
from the city would issue an apology, formal or informal. Since that didn't
happen, he contacted an attorney who has agreed to look into the case. Levine
further stated that the attorney (Levine won't cough up the name) has been in
contact with the ACLU over the First Amendment ramifications of the case and the
possibility of a Federal civil rights case.
The upshot? It's nasty. Within days of the State
Attorney's Office dropping the charges, the arresting officer, former
police chief Joe Slapp, announced his 'retirement,' officially due to high blood pressure.
Hunt and the rest of the local
power boys are reportedly nervous as hell waiting for Levine's next move.
That move could be major. Levine won't talk about any
pending legal plans, but attorneys I've spoken with casually have tossed out
figures in the millions as a realistic settlement.
And that's assuming that it's just Levine that files
suit. When Levine was arrested, he was acting in the capacity of representing
the Venice Taxpayer's League -- he had formally introduced himself at the
meeting as an officer of the League. One legal eagle I've spoken with has
pointed out an interesting possible scenario: both Levine and the Taxpayer's
League filing separate lawsuits.
Then there is a former city employee who was publicly
fired and humiliated at a city council meeting in mid-year who has purportedly
contacted an attorney.
Top that off with this writer (myself), who has twice
been accused on camera by Hunt of attempting to commit extortion on Assistant City
Manager Marty Black. Hunt made the allegations in an attempt to discredit myself
and Venice Florida! dot com after the publication of the series of PuterGate
articles that exposed both fraud in the city's computer department and Hunt
and Joe Slapp's attempts at covering it all up. Hunt has so far refused to file
a criminal complaint in the matter, even though I publicly urged him to do so at
a city council meeting a few months back.
To Hunt's credit, the tactic was largely successful in
what it was intended to do: no law enforcement agency yet has taken the computer
department fraud case to the State Attorney's Office for review.
Extortion. Gee, that's a felony, last time I checked.
Extortion of a public officer is, if I am not mistaken, a Federal offense.
Sic 'em, Herb!!!!
Four months after a postal employee is shot by a
known assailant, no
arrests have been made
Back around September of 2002, an odd story started to surface and then died
quietly before the newspapers could pick up on it. Seems
that a postal letter carrier was driving his delivery van along a normally quiet
city street just a few blocks from the police department when he found himself being shot at.
A local teenager with a loaded B.B. pistol decided to
use the letter carrier's moving van for target practice and fired off at least two
rounds. The first round reportedly entered the vehicle through a side window and
bounced off the windshield right in front to the driver's face. The second shot
hit the driver, lacerating his hand, and then ricocheted around the inside of
the vehicle.
The driver did the rational thing: punched the
accelerator in pure panic and got the hell out of there. It wasn't until later that he
discovered that he was cut and that he had been fired on with a B.B. gun.
A police report was filed, but then the police turned
it over to the Postal
Inspector's Office, as Federal jurisdiction in the case supercedes that of the
local police. To date, the Postal Inspector's Office has done nothing but ignore
the case. The juvenile
shooter, whose identity is known, is still at large, never having been charged
in the case. His gun was reportedly
confiscated by police.
Our sources indicate that the police are anything but
happy about the way that the Postal Inspector's Office has handled the case.
The postal worker (whose name is being withheld by
Venice Florida! dot com) is currently still assigned to the same neighborhood
and refuses to discuss the matter fearing reprisal at the workplace.
Bear in mind, this all took place
at the same time that law enforcement in Maryland was looking for the roadside
snipers, which may have been a contributing factor in the motive for the
shooting. Coincidentally, it was at the same time that Public Safety
Director Joe Slapp was investing all of his energies and that of the police
department into the ill-fated Herb
Levine investigation, so it's easy to see how it slipped off of his radar. After
all, public safety is a subjective thing and priorities have to be set.
I'm with George Hunt on this one. Every civil servant
in this town should be issued a firearm, from the mayor to the trash collectors.
Wait, here's a better idea. George -- hire the kid, loan him your gun and point
him in the direction of Herb Levine. It's not much dumber than some of the other
city policies of late, and if the kid actually does the job right, you can
always say you left the gun on your desk for a couple of weeks and forgot about
it.
