Alachua Voter Guide

At any public event, candidates come out to be seen. Go to any watermelon festival, county fair, football game, and you will see a campaign sign and people wearing T-shirts touting a candidate. I have done these things myself. I have even seen hand-held signs printed with a candidate’s name in churches that had no air conditioning!

In this video, some of Lauren Poe’s people seemed to have crossed a line, at least with one dude. To him, it seemed disrespectful to the memory of Martin Luther King to tote around signs for a political candidate. The young man who defended himself held his ground, citing his first amendment rights, and pointing out that there were other signs present. He may have been singled out, but it was only because they were the most obvious offenders.

It’s all a judgment call, people! Even if he’s right to hold that sign, I know at least one voter who will not be voting for Poe!

Today I heard Debbie Martinez making the exact same statement on 99.5 FM during Talk of the Town (noon to 1pm weekdays).

To be fair, every candidate in the at-large race except one, former commissioner Lauren Poe, is against the biomass plant. This is what happens when the city tries to hustle this plan past the people they are supposed to represent.

It is not too late to get involved in the Biomass fight. Check out this letter former Mayor Tom Bussing wrote for recent publication in the Sun…

Commissioner Mastrodicasa’s essay in the Sun demonstrates that
she is keeping herself completely out of touch on the BioMess Scandal.

She just doesn’t get it.   She still thinks everyone is in love with this
impending disaster.

We sure hope she’s wrong.  Now is the time to step up and let her know.
[email: mastrodij@cityofgainesville.org ].

Mastrodicasa, like all of the other city commissioners, disregards the
massive pollution that will impact vulnerable populations, and that the
diesel fume from 100,000 truck trips is bad for people.

So critical discussion must center on other troubling aspects of the project.

Fair enough.  Let’s get right to the facts.

First, the usual tired claim that 35 meetings have “aired out” this project
is simply a lie.

In truth, those meetings were a lead-in for the Commissioners’ first choice,
a giant new coal plant that we did not need.

At the last minute, they instead decided to give us a BioMess that we do
not need.  It went downhill from there.

• Against overwhelming public opposition , the Commissioners voted for
  the BioMess.
• A motion to have a Back-Out Clause was passed by the Commission, then
  ignored and deleted in back-room negotiations.
• The Contract for BioMess was secretly extended from 20 years to 30 years,
  with a few billion more dollars of Ratepayer money handed over to the Project.
• The Contract was made largely secret to prevent public inspection of the terms.
• The City gave away many millions of dollars of pollution credits, for free, to the
  private project – so they could more easily get their air pollution permits.

These are the Legal Facts:

• The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) punted on the financial aspects,
  (referring the issue back to Mastrodicasa and the other City Commissioners. )
• Citizen Interveners at the PSC were not allowed to address the financial shenanigans.
• Same in the Site Certification Hearings.

When Mastrodicasa speaks of blanket approvals from all of these proceedings, she
ignores the fact that the Authorities (bureaucratically) declined to look into the finances.

Now citizen litigants have pried the cover off of the Secret Contract.

We have new information to share with the public, information that the Commissioners
wouldn’t share.

We are starting to expose the financial facts, for the first time.

We are bringing this HOME to the City Commission
(as the Florida PSC suggested ).

You can help.

• Come to the Forum at 3 pm this Sunday, Oct. 9,
  at the Grace Presbyterian Church, 3146 NW 13th St.
• Attend the Utilities Committee meeting on Monday,
  Oct. 10, 4 pm at GRU’s Headquarters on 4th Ave SW.

Let your voice be heard.

Excerpts from Gainesville City Commission meeting show Craig Lowe admitting that the commissioners didn’t think they needed an opt-out as a safety net.

Get your sign NOW!

Yard signs are now available for those who wish to visibly express opposition to the biomass plant.

The signs say “BIOMASS? NO THANKS!” (see attached photo) and they are free (we are accepting donations toward printing). Reserve yours now by calling 352-213-9000 or emailing StopGREC@gmail.com. If you know of any high traffic locations where signs can be placed with the owner’s permission, let us know and we will deliver the signs.
Regards,

Gainesville Citizens CARE, Inc. / Stop GREC Campaign

Sign wavers during early voting

During every election season you drive through intersections and see people holding signs for local candidates. Why do they do this? Does it do any good? Does it do any harm?

From my own experience as both a candidate and a volunteer for other candidates, I know the reason. It’s because apathy about local politics seems to have no cure, and we are desperate.

We spend a lot of money on sending out mail, and people don’t like it. They say, “it doesn’t really tell me anything,” or “it’s too wordy”. We do phone banking and people hang up on you, both with and without swearing. We go knocking on doors, and people are annoyed that you are trying to reach them at home. If you have enough money for television, people complain about all the money in politics.

But it’s not all negative. Some people contact you after getting your mail or door hanger and ask for a sign in their yard. Some people tell the caller that their entire family will be voting for you. And some people wave back, and give you a thumbs-up as they drive by. These are the people who give us hope and keep us trying to reach the others. And in the case of Gainesville city elections, that means the other 85% or more registered voters who do not bother to vote year after year after year. Last year, over 60,000 registered voters in this University town did not bother to vote for their Mayor or his opponent. We are trying to reach THEM.

by Chris Smiley Candidate for School Board District 5

After the business coalition forum was over I was disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to bring up the issue of school uniforms especially after I witnessed the passion against new taxes from commission candidates and guests.  The school board recently mandated a uniform policy for all k-12 schools.  This policy is far worse than a tax though because not only is it putting an undue financial burden on families, it restricts freedom of speech and expression.

The policy was founded on misconceptions and false premises. The research (including studies from the Journal of Educational Research and a 4 year tracking study by the Miami-Dade school district) shows that uniforms do not lessen dress code violations, nor do they have a positive affect on attendance, behavior, performance, or substance use.  The main ‘issue’ as claimed by board members really comes down to enforcement of dress code standards already in place.

Some people say that uniforms aren’t that bad but for a public policy to be enacted that takes away rights, there has to be an overwhelming good to justify it.  In the case of uniforms there is none.  In fact there is no rational reason to have uniforms (and a million reasons against them but I’ll keep this post short).

In tough economic times parents will now have to buy a new wardrobe for their kids.  (Don’t believe the farce that uniforms save money, no student wears uniforms outside of school.  That means that the cost of uniforms is in addition to whatever regular clothes they buy.)

I couldn’t believe that the new policy was passed or that it was even brought up when there are pressing fundamental issues with education that actually affect performance in schools. (see my website)

There has been significant opposition to uniforms.  All 7 high school principals wrote a letter to the board urging them to not pass the policy and to let them continue to enforce the dress code already in place.  There have been a couple of protests already and a number of groups have been formed; legal action is anticipated.  Whether you have children or not we all need to fight injustice and I urge all of you to email the board, to join one of the groups via facebook, or to connect with parents and dissenters (you can email me at chris.smiley@gmx.com).

Elected or not I will continue to work to reverse this policy.

My website- Fleducationreform.com

Letter from principals-  http://notopolos.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/copy-of-the-letter-sent-to-school-board-from-alachua-county-school-principals/

On Friday morning at 9 AM in the Alachua County Courthouse, plaintiffs Mason Alley and Phil Courson prepared to make their case that there was voter fraud perpetrated by enough individuals to have effected the outcome of the April 13th run-off election. Also present were defendants Pam Carpenter, the Supervisor of Elections, Craig Lowe, the Mayor-elect, and yours truly, Don Marsh, the other candidate for Mayor. In addition, there were the attorneys for Lowe and Carpenter, and Ray Washingt0n, an attorney who was appearing on behalf of himself and his wife, Elizabeth Washington. In keeping with the spirit of Gainsville elections, the hearing was sparsely attended by the public.

Circuit Judge Victor Hulslander started things off by asking if the plaintiffs were being represented by counsel. Mason Alley responded that they were represented by Sarah Rumpf, and that she would be participating telephonically, since she was in Orlando at the time.  The judge allowed Ray Washington to participate as a voter with an interest in the election. This turned out to be a big deal, since we scarcely heard from Lowe’s attorney, Cherie Fine, and Carpenter’s attorney, Daniel Nee. Indeed, it seems that Ray Washington was here to do all the heavy lifting, as he did all the questioning. But this only got started after a brief recess from 9:40 until 10:00 while Rumpf got up to speed with her clients in a private call.

This hearing did not focus on evidence, so much as procedure. The original complaint filed by Courson and Alley was flawed in many ways since they are not attorneys. They had copied and pasted from a similar filing and included me as a defendant. One of the first tasks was removing me as a defendant since I hadn’t actually done anything. Washington spent the bulk of his time challenging the plaintiffs for taking so long to get a challenge underway while Lowe is expected to be sworn in only six days from now. The disembodied voice of Alley’s attorney would periodically object to questioning on various grounds, like Alley was not qualified to offer a legal opinion.  Each of her objections were sustained, and this took a lot of steam out of Washington’s charge.

Alley’s most compelling response to the questions of timing was his testimony of how he was denied the voter history data he needed until after the deadline to file a suit contesting the election. He had been forced to use data from the March general election to see if there were irregularities there, so he could only hypothesize about the April data. Since then he has had a group of volunteers reviewing the voter history data he needed two weeks earlier than Pam Carpenter could give it to him. This is a very serious impediment to any investigation, and this is built into the system, whether it is intentional or not.

Pam Carpenter was questioned by the judge about voter data, and she said that this data was publicly available. She further explained that there was a difference between voter registration data, which is constantly in flux, and voter history data. Voter history data is each voter’s record of when and where they voted, but not how they voted. This was the data Alley needed, but could not get for 15 days. Someone (I don’t remember who) wanted to know if her office could not have found voter irregularities. She said that her office was, “not an investigative office, but an administrative office.” This leaves it up to plaintiffs to take the initiative of investigating.

Ray Washington questioned Alley about what he was trying to prove. Alley responded that anecdotal evidence about people coming from Tampa to vote lead him to want to examine the actual voter data to see if this was true. His initial investigation found that it was. When Washington asked for names, Alley said he was not prepared to give them up at this time. It was after this that Judge Hulslander adjourned the court. This hearing will likely turn to the evidence on Tuesday, when the next hearing is scheduled at 3:30 PM.

At some of my events and interviews I have said that it is important for the city to cultivate a working relationship with the churches because they are the city’s natural allies in confronting homelessness and other societal ills. I recently said that, as Mayor, I would go to the churches to tell them that they are welcome and that their participation is needed to make Gainesville a better place. Although I have not yet been challenged on this, I will anticipate and answer two potential questions in this space.

1. Will churches respond to such a call? First, I want to tell you that this is not a setup. I have not held any meetings with pastors to formulate how they would respond to my election. My presumption upon their good works potential comes from my own three decades of ministry work as a volunteer. There are many people in the church who are motivated to feed, clothe and shelter the homeless, visit the sick and incarcerated, and mentor the fatherless. Some of that is already getting done at the expense of those who do the work. It is hard to say how much worse things would be if they weren’t. But I know they could do a lot more if it were not for the ambivalence of both church and civic leaders. The evolving ethos of “church-state separation” has created a hostile environment for people of faith who are told that their faith is not welcome. My opponent, City Commissioner Craig Lowe, has been quoted as saying, “ Our community cannot afford to discard any talent or intellect due to discrimination.” Yet, we discard the talent and intellect of a vast number of Gainesville residents. This must be actively challenged.
2. Is it appropriate to do so? It is unjust to tell people, “You cannot participate as fully as anyone else in civic life and discourse because of the beliefs you hold.” A part of the American experience throughout history has been the need to demand the rights that you possess only on paper. It took almost 200 years for African Americans to begin to possess the promises of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, and it did not happen because they waited patiently to be called on. It had to be demanded. Likewise, the men and women in our churches, who have become timid under the disapproving glare of the Statists who have come to power, must make their demand to be included. It will be much easier for them, however. All they have to do is vote on March 16. Then they have to follow through by living up to the things they believe in.

Do not confuse my call to action with a desire to Christianize the local government. I am just trying to desegregate it. Anyone should be able to take his faith, whether you are Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan or Atheist, with him into the service of his community. It’s also a good opportunity for us all to interact and learn from one another instead of isolating and writing each other off.

As I wrote in these pages on December 2nd, getting action on Koppers “will require a very organized citizenry (from the adjacent neighbors right up to a city-wide effort, given the potential harm to our entire community).”

The good news is that is exactly what is happening. Neighbors across the city (with leadership from neighbors most closely located to the Koppers site) are banding together to spread the word about Koppers–and to demand action from all involved. All the time involved in the organizing is volunteer but definitely skilled.

And so far, in a relatively short time, it has been effective.

If you would like to have a citizen presentation on Koppers at YOUR neighborhood association, your fellow citizens at Gainesville United Neighbors will come to you! Please contact me at conexos@gmail.com or 335-8874 for more information. I will happily connect you with the valiant neighbors who are putting this issue on the front burner.

I hope the first thing you will do then is thank them.

Randy Wells, Candidate for City Commission District 4