Alachua Voter Guide

Although Gainesville Mayoral candidates  Craig Lowe and Monica Leadon Cooper disagree about biomass, they have this in common: they are the candidates of scarcity!

When Craig Lowe decided to give up the cheapest fuel source for biomass, he sentenced our city to a future of higher utility bills, more people moving out of Gainesville, more businesses struggling, fewer jobs, and less tax revenue. As utility bills climb higher, we will lose more homeowners, have more foreclosures, and more blight. It will be the beginning of the end. And if you think UF will save us from this, they are already looking at budget cuts and high tuition that will eventually cause students to go elsewhere…even online for an education.

Monica Cooper does not promise us anything better. She wants us to forget coal AND biomass and to limp along on solar energy and conservation and belt-tightening. Solar currently costs more than coal generated power and can only be had during the day. And it better be a sunny day. This will also lead to higher costs, fewer jobs, less tax revenue, and fewer reasons for anyone to stick around here.

I am Don Marsh, and I am the only candidate in this race that knows we need more generating capacity so we can have cheaper, more plentiful electricity, so that businesses will want to move here, and existing businesses can stay in business. Coal, although it will not last forever, is the only sensible fuel source until new technologies mature and become cheap enough to compete and produce power for the rest of the 21st century.

Remember: scarcity will cause prices to rise, and opportunities to shrink. Deciding to stop using coal is a decision to suffer lack. It is the error of politicians to distort the free market and create shortages with unnecessary, ideologically driven regulations. When Barack Obama said that he would bankrupt the coal industry, he set in motion false shortages as investments ran away from coal production. Then Florida stopped all coal plants and this lead to higher prices still. THIS MUST BE REVERSED. But first we must save the coal plant we have!

In the meantime, I will stop hiding Gainesville’s city taxes on your utility bill and cut the budget down to core services like police, fire, roads, and other basic infrastructure. I will get rid of the tiered pricing that punishes families. And I will stop the feed-in tariff that subsidizes solar panels on the homes of people who can afford them, while you are doing without!

Vote for me March 16 for sensible solutions and honest, transparent government.

Nathaniel Sperling for Gainesville City Commission

On March 16^th, the voters of the City of Gainesville will be able to send a glaring message to our local elected officials: we are sick and tired of the irresponsibility that seems to pass for governance these days. Right now, the City of Gainesville is current over $7 Million in the red with no end in sight.

Instead of cutting costs where possible (oh, Mayor Hanrahan has claimed that the city has tried cut all the fat off this year’s budget, but I will show where that is just flat out wrong), the city is just finding nifty little ways of getting our money into their empty coffers. For example, did you know that, since GRU is owned by the City of Gainesville, our utility company has become a giant cash cow to the tune of $34 Million (plus another $9 Million in collected utility taxes) in this year alone? Have your utility rates gone up in the past few months? If so, blame the City Commission and its continued mismanagement of the budget. Is this responsible governance? Oh, we have a shortage of funds…I know, we’ll just spend more and leave the citizenry to foot the bill? It certainly is not realistic…only in government can one legally seize other people’s money to make up for poor spending decisions.

Now, where is all this money going? How about $600k per year for Ironwood Golf Course (another $450K is being spent this year to renovate it…thus, over $1 Million this year is going to pay for a golf course). Approximately $900K per year is being spent so that city employees have access to three fully-equipped and staffed private fitness centers (these centers are only for city employees and their families, the general public who is footing the bill is not welcome) and Proclub services. Then there is half a million dollars being spent per year on a City Communications office. If this office is so indispensable, why did our City Commission function just fine for decades without it? Right here I have mentioned easy ways to eliminate over half the current deficit. I have not even touched on the Mom’s Kitchen boondoggle or the Biomass issue (high startup costs plus potentially high cost of “dead stuff” equals a hefty bill for the taxpayer to foot).

How about all that money that the city is going to waste on a one-stop homeless shelter? Instead of working with local charities (i.e. St. Francis House) and making use of existing social organizations, the city is going to spend a lot of money to put this one-stop center out in the middle of nowhere (how much is it then going to cost to get the homeless out there?) and likely continue to squelch private sector attempts to help alleviate the problem. How much do you think the lawsuits are going to end up costing when something goes terribly and tragically wrong at this one-stop center–what usually happens when you put single mothers and young children in a poorly supervised area with potentially dangerous derelicts?

As Mayor Hanrahan wastes our money on a golf course, she condemns our police and fire fighters for wanting to be treated fairly and the city manager wants to lay off a few dozen police officers. That seems like a fair trade: an unprofitable golf course but a more dangerous and crime-ridden city. Perhaps the only group to benefit from this cut in police officers will be the less responsible members of our college student community who will now be able to party and drink and play loud music because you can bet ‘party patrol’ units will take a hit in these foolish across-the-board cuts the city manager is proposing–sort of like doing brain surgery with a meat cleaver.

At the same time as we waste money, we scare businesses away with draconian regulations and an air of unfriendliness. Now, we have an even weaker tax base and serious underemployment problems. Unless you work for UF or Shands, it is very difficult to find a good paying job with benefits. Our city’s unfriendliness to business hurts our working families and professionals by denying them access to good job opportunities and forces small businesses out of business.

The City Commission shows a great disconnect to the people of Gainesville. It is time we change this. The irresponsibility of our local government seems downright criminal: endangering the welfare of young children by exposing them to dangerous elements of society in a poorly conceived one-stop center, endangering our residents with unnecessary cuts to public safety services, failing to address the Koppers Superfund site and putting the surrounding neighborhoods and the aquifer at extreme risk, even increasing congestion by narrowing major thoroughfares (it will be infuriatingly interesting to see if the number of accidents and road rage incidents increase as the number of lanes on Main Street and University Avenue decrease).

There are those who say that we need people experienced in the working of local government to serve as our new District 4 City Commissioner and Mayor, but I say we need individuals with common sense and a firm grasp of reality. Political experience just means they know how to play the game and we see where that has gotten us: HUGE deficits, underemployment, a severe environmental catastrophe in the making and burdensome regulations and fee.

The reality is that:

1) We need to stop wasting money on boondoggles (i.e. Ironwood Golf course, Mom’s Kitchen, etc.)

2) We need to strengthen our business community and promote greater job development through intelligent deregulation and ending the air of unfriendliness toward business that permeates our local government. The jobs and the businesses are there: look at the town of Alachua, they are doing quite well because their city government shows some common sense.

3) We need to live within our means and stop just increasing taxes and fees (i.e. through siphoning money from GRU)

4) We need to keep our city safe and functional by responsibly allocating our funds (i.e. for police and fire protection)

This is what needs to be done to make our city prosperous and safe. The City Commission needs to stop buying into the failed dogma of New Urbanism and instead listen to the concerns of the people: we want good jobs, we want government to stop wasting money and then hitting us with the bill, we want the government to show the same managerial responsibility that any head of a household or business owner must show in order to survive.

On March 16th, the voters of this city can send a message that even our City Commissioners (who seem to consistently have their head in a land of fantasy) will hear: WE ARE SICK AND TIRED OF IRRESPONSIBILITY AND UNREALISTIC GOVERNANCE AND WE WILL BE HEARD!

Call and e-mail your candidates and ask the tough questions and demand a straight answer. No circumspection, obfuscation or pontification allowed. I can be reached by phone at 352-214-3170 and my e-mail address is nathanielsperling@yahoo.com. Other candidates’ contact information can be found at the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections website.

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There are three ways to cast your ballot in the City of Gainesville elections:

1) Regular voting will occur on March 16th. You can find your polling place on the Supervisor of Elections webiste.

2) Early voting: March 8th-13th at the Alachua County Administration Building (12 SE 1st Street, Gainesville, FL). Hours of operation are 9 AM to 5 PM each day.

3) Absentee voting: Contact the Supervisor of Elections at 352-374-5252 to learn more and request an absentee ballot.

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If you want responsibility and a sense of reality back on your City Commission, if you want a person who will truly listen to your concerns and approach city government with an air of common sense, then please consider voting for me, Nathaniel Sperling, for Gainesville City Commission (District 4).

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Political advertisement paid for and approved by Nathaniel Sperling for Gainesviille City Commission District 4.

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

I am excerpting the questions and answers that took place between Commissioner Poe and I just yesterday. I will withhold my comments at this time.

1. Is there some legal barrier to a local governmental body that keeps them from shutting it down?

Answer: In essence yes, there is a legal barrier.  That barrier has to do with body of evidence necessary to declare the site a “public nuisance” and have it shut down.  In order to do this, we must have evidence that the current operations of the facility cause a public nuisance.  Such evidence might include codes violations from noise, or air, water or soil pollution caused from current operations.  We have asked for all citations, complaints or findings of evidence from the county health of environmental departments that would give us an opportunity to proceed in a court of law.  We have been provided with almost nothing that would help us make this case.  You may be able to help with this via your blog.  Encourage residents to call in noise violations and report all complaints to the proper authority.

In the future, if the county or state health department or environmental protection departments are able to show that the current operations are causing a nuisance we will move forward with shutting them down with all deliberate speed.  I have attached a memo from the city attorney describing some of what I have just relayed to you.

2.  Is there a statute of limitations for when that could be done?

Answer: Not really. Since the evidence must be related to current operations, the case would have to be tied to what is happening now, not what happened in the past.  Past activities and the resulting pollution are covered by the Superfund law and governed by the EPA.  This law was severely weekend under the previous administration, but has been injected with a renewed purpose under the current president.  I am hopeful that this will move the process along much more effectively.

3. Who has oversight of the problem?

The main person in charge of this process is Scott Miller of the Atlanta branch of the EPA.  His contact information is (404) 562-9120, miller.scott@epa.gov.

4.  Who is monitoring the spread of the pollution?

There are several entities involved.  GRU has been primarily responsible for monitoring the migration of the pollutants through groundwater system, mainly keeping an eye on migration towards our well field.  The Department of Health is investigating the surface soil migration and is continuing to determine the ultimate spread of contaminants.  The Water Management District issues their storm water permit and has asked Koppers to provide additional information to their most recent application before reissuing their permit.  I believe that the site has a grossly inadequate storm water infrastructure in place and it is my hope that the water management district shares this view.

Randy Wells, Candidate for City Commission District 4

I am THE candidate for neighborhood revitalization, with 20 years experience working to make great city neighborhoods–6 years here in Gainesville & 14+ years prior to that in Washington DC. Here in Gainesville, I have zeroed in on the special issues that make city neighborhoods great places to raise a family–the parks, schools, local business, events & activities–in part because we are raising our own kids here, but mostly because a great neighborhood for kids is a great neighborhood for everyone. I will bring that vision, passion & focus to the city commission. Please join me, and share your own ideas, time & talent to help make Gainesville an even better place to live!

Join Team Randy now, or contact me with your question or suggestion. — Randy

Randy Wells, Candidate for City Commission District 4
telephone: 335-8874 home / 328-2997 cell
e-mail: conexos@gmail.com
Facebook: Randy Wells for City Commission District 4

Nathaniel Sperling, Candidate for Gainesville City Commission (District 4)

A hearty hello to all who peruse this website! Before introducing myself, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Don Marsh, the owner of Alachua Voter Guide, for allowing my fellow candidates and myself to post on his blog.

My name is Nathaniel Sperling and I am a candidate for Gainesville City Commission (District 4). I am a recent graduate of the University of Florida (BA in History) and, before that, Santa Fe College (when I attended, it was still Santa Fe Community College) and am currently discerning a calling to the Catholic Priesthood. I have lived in Gainesville virtually my entire life and, for me, this was a nice city to grow up in. When I was younger, my paternal grandparents moved here and, several years later, my father’s brother and sister-in-law moved up here with their two children. For my grandparents, may they rest in peace, they sought closeness with their family and a nice place to retire, while my aunt and uncle were looking for a nice place to raise young children. This city has been good to us, providing a wholesome and nice place to live for my family, and as a, electorate-willing, city commissioner, I would like to help make Gainesville a city we can all call a wonderful home.

Today, we live in troubling economic times. As a city commissioner, I would work hard to get people back to work at good pay and full hours and also to help those who have suffered the most in these hard times. In terms of addressing these two important issues, it is not so much about what our local government needs to do, but what it needs to stop doing. Instead of capriciously standing in the way of our business community and charitable organizations, we must cooperate with local businesses and charities to make Gainesville a more prosperous and compassionate city. It is shameful that a pregnant woman or a young child would be turned away hungry from St. Francis House because they happened to be unlucky number 131 under an arbitrary special-use permit that limits St. Francis House to serving 130 meals.

Our city government must be more fiscally responsible and generally more responsive to the needs and concerns of the community. In terms of the first issue, local families and individuals, myself definitely included, are having to tighten their belts in response to harsh economic times. Why should our local government be any different? We must go through the budget carefully and determine what this city really needs versus what it may want–in better economic times, we can seek to address these ‘wants’. Many would argue that it is this lack of fiscal responsibility that has led to a recent hike in property taxes at a time when people have less money to spend and homes are much harder to sell. It is shameful enough when a family must choose between putting food on the table and getting proper medical care, but it seems downright criminal to then tack on fears of losing their home or business on top of everything else.

Besides being more responsible in financial matters, local government must be more responsive to the populace. Sadly, much of the problem is due to low voter turnout; for instance, in the 2007 District 4 elections, only 9.2% of registered voters actually voted. Regardless of whether I win or lose the election, I really want to see more people get involved in local issues: learn about the candidates, mark your calendars (March 16th, 2010) and go vote (or get an absentee ballot and vote that way). Obviously, I would prefer that people vote for me, but in the end, I think it is important that people just actually vote. I would rather lose the election because a well-informed majority of the electorate has examined the issues and the candidates and decided that one of my opponents would do a better job serving this city than win the election due to majority apathy. The city commission can do its part to promote greater involvement by being open and willing to listen fairly to all viewpoints. My door will always be open. During the campaign and, if granted a victory by the voters, future term as city commissioner, I look forward to getting to know my fellow citizens, to hearing their concerns, issues and desires, and working towards solutions that benefit as many people as possible but are fair to all. Deep down, I think most of us want what is best for the community, although we may have different conceptualizations of the ideal.

For more information on my candidacy, please check out my campaign website (www.nathanielsperling.com) and my Facebook group (Nathaniel Sperling for Gainesville City Commission (District 4)). Also, if you have not gotten a chance to read it, you can find the Gainesville Sun article on my candidacy (special thanks to Megan Rolland for taking the time to meet with and interview me) here: Recent UF grad runs for City Commission.

If you wish to contact me, I can reached by phone at 352-214-3170 (if I do not answer, leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible) or by e-mail at nathanielsperling@yahoo.com (this e-mail is checked multiple times per day). If you wish to mail me anything the old-fashioned way, my address is 405 NW 19th ST, Gainesville, FL 32603. I look forward to hearing from you. As I said, my door is always open (please call first if you wish to meet with me in person though, but I would greatly welcome such personal meetings).

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Randy Wells announces run for City Commission District 4

Hello Alachua Voter Guide Readers! Thank you for the opportunity to discuss my candidacy for City Commission District 4.

What can we as citizens AND as city government do to make our city neighborhoods even better places to live and work? As candidate for city commissioner, I bring 20 years experience working on this very question (more than 6 years here in Gainesville, and nearly 15 years previously in Washington DC). I am a part-time stay-at-home dad, small business owner, and active in my neighborhood & the city. I welcome your ideas, and invite you to join me in making Gainesville an even better place to live & raise a family.

Please visit RandyWells.org to learn more about me, and if you use Facebook Randy Wells for City Commission District 4. And if you missed it, please check out my interview in the Gainesville Sun: “The 42-year-old father of two said that it boils down to listening to the concerns and priorities of neighbors and then figuring out a way to address those issues.”

Thank you! –Randy

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Randy Wells for City Commission District 4

RandyWells.org

Twitter.com/RandyWells

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Randy-Wells-for-City-Commission-District-4/180244078245?ref=ts

conexos@gmail.com

352-335-8874 / 352-328-2997

Former Gainesville City Commissioner Ed Braddy, and former Gainesville Sun cartoonist Jake Fuller host a call in talk show  on Star 99.5 FM. One of their recent programs featured an interview with Doctor Sam Staley of the Reason Foundation about transportation policy and the ideologies behind them. According to Braddy and his guest, our traffic congestion is not an accident.  This interview comes in four parts:

• Part 1 (9:46) Congestion, sustainability, growth & productivity, New Urbanism
• Part 2 (12:23) Land-use & transportation connection, complex travel patterns, federal transit subsidies, auto-mobility & jobs
• Part 3 (14:33) Road diets, solutions & strategies, people preferences, technology advances, ideology of urban form
• Part 4 (11:21) Who serves who?, callers comment

Talk of the Town in on weekday afternoons at 12 o’clock and is an hour long. I highly recommend this program for people who want more analysis of our local government’s actions.

In the short few months that I have been the unopposed candidate for district 3 school board I have incountered countless parents & teachers alike who want systemic change in the alachua county school system. It seems most agree with my original concept that we can resolve the “lions share” of our upcoming budget crisis with a detailed overview and tightening down of spending in our curent programs.  This would leave the actual cuting of programs as a last resort only.

The other big issue I have heard is the issue of uniforms for our students.  This subject has a wide variety of opinions.  It is my belief that we need to enact tighter standards of dress which must be enforceable at the teacher level.

I encourage any interests and ideas to be sent to the email address that I have established to receive all ideas leading to the improvement of the Alachua County School system.

schoolredline@hotmail.com