Alachua Voter Guide

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.

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

It’s been a little over a week since the Gainesville City Elections, and I am finally ready to weigh in on the results. I would have done this sooner, but I have been sick for a good part of the time, and I haven’t even felt like writing. In fact, between today’s abysmal weather and the return of my symptoms, this is the first time that opportunity and the right mood have coincided.

A 27% turnout is not a mandate, but it doesn’t have to be. Our elections do not require that we have a quorum to be official. If, on elections day, only 10 people bothered to vote, 6 of them would basically do all the deciding for us.

It is mark of profound apathy that it took so much outside money and outside manpower to rally 15% of the registered voters to come out and defeat Charter Amendment One and the 12% of voters who came out to support it. The conservative Citizens for Good Public Policy must be wondering what they could have done to draw out a few thousand more sympathizers, but there is actually a more important question than this. The questons is, how did we become a community that has no conservative representatives in our city government?

For years my fellow conservatives have told me, “Gainesville is such a liberal town! There is no hope for a conservative candidate here!” Yet, those rascally liberals keep winning so many elections with so many voters being left on the table. We routinely have turnouts in the 10-13% range. Are we really doing the best we can do?  Should  we just give up permanently? Does this enlightened University town only have room for one point of view?

Critiquing our performance

In retrospect, it was probably a mistake to get Charter One on the ballot. It was also a mistake for the city commission to blow off the concerns of the citizens who opposed the gender identity provisions in regard to restrooms, but it was a sustainable mistake. What was underestimated was the amount of resources that would be released to oppose a ballot initiative that would roll back the city’s ambitous civil rights laws to the state’s more modest ones. If Citizens for Good Public Policy had instead gathered a similar effort to support a candidate to defeat Jeanna Mastordicasa, they would have faced much smaller resistance and may have pulled it off.

This also would have required that conservatives do something they never do: think ahead. Their successful effort would have to be followed up by getting a new Mayor and District 4 commissioner after Pegeen Hanrahan and Craig Lowe are removed by term limits. Three new commissioners, with the amenable Sherwin Henry, would have made the majority needed to cherry-pick the changes they wanted to begin with while leaving the rest of the civil rights laws in place.

Of course, all of this falls apart if each opportunity brings a new crop of last minute conservative candidates tumbling out and getting each others’ way. If you are thinking about running for one of these seats, you should adopt the motto of, “If you don’t get in early, get out of the way.” City elections are non-partisan, so there is no party primary to give people a chance to choose which conservative they will have to vote for in the big one. And when you have a lot of candidates, it usually means a runoff. And runoffs go to the liberals who faithfully participate in elections, and everything that leads up to them.

In summary, conservatives need to change their ways, not their values. They need to show up on election days, but they also need to stay engaged year round. And that means that Citizens for Good Public Policy should NOT disband, but expand its mission.

This information is republished from the Supervisor of Elections website:

Gainesville City Election
March 24th, 2009

You must be a City of Gainesville resident to vote in this election. Florida Law requires that you present picture and signature identification in order to vote, or vote a provisional ballot.

Early Voting for the City of Gainesville Election will be available Monday, March 16, 2009 through Saturday, March 21, 2009.

Weekdays
Monday – Friday (9:00 am to 5:00 pm)
March 16, 2009 through March 20, 2009

Weekend
Saturday – (9:00 am to 5:00 pm)
March 21, 2009 (early voting ends)
Early Voting Site
Supervisor of Elections Office
County Administration Building
12 SE 1st Street, Gainesville

And this is what I have to say about it. The Millhopper Branch of the public library, which is usually used for early voting, in out of commission at this time, and it has been for months. That means the only place where early voting can be done is at the Supervisor of Elections Office, which is a nightmare to get in and out of during the week. This may skew turnout heavily in favor of whoever gets students out to vote. Students usually don’t participate at a very high level, last election notwithstanding, so it may be a wash.

But the availability of another site with good access and parking could have helped turnout in the more suburban areas. Of course, City Hall is quite interested in seeing that a NO vote on Charter One gets all the breaks it can get. They decided how the amendment would be worded, and that has been sufficiently confusing enough. Tamping down the turnout in the suburbs might also help them out.

I expect a lot of absentee ballots this year. Although I have not voted that way before, some voters have told me they get theirs automatically now. I was surprised to hear this. They have also voted already; even earlier than what early voting would have allowed.

Tuesday night, March 3rd, the candidates for the 2 city commission seats were asked to respond to the Leaguea of Women Voters, The forum met on the fourth floor of the downtown public library, and due to time constraints, there were no citizen questions sought from the audience.

The forum opened with single District 1 candidates Marcia Wimberly and the incumbent, Sherwin Henry. The audio I recorded was not as good as usual, due to the poor acoustics and sound system. Therefore, after taking a lot of notes while straining to hear these recordings, I will give you the summary of the questions and answers.

How to prioritize budget?

Wimberly: No cuts at all to health (trash pickup) and public safety. Local stimulus package for local businesses…money for local citizens to buy things from local merchants.

Henry: We’re already doing it. 4 day work week. Delay projects. Not hire replacements. We will get citizen inputs.

Editor: I have no idea where Wimberly’s “stimulus” money is coming from. And Henry’s assertion about getting citizen input for cuts seems unlikely. Citizens only show up to protect programs that benefit them. And when they show up to oppose them, the commissioners routinely stand to defent the citizens who benefit from them. In short, neither candidate wants to cut anything.

How do we attract jobs to (East) Gainesville?

Henry: We could manufacture solar panels. Streamline permitting process.

Wimberly: Incentives and tax credits to attract businesses. Incubator programs to help people start businesses.

Editor: I think Mr. Henry ought to talk to both the city and county commissioners about solar panels. They would love to buy them, but I cannot imagine them wanting to make them here. And Ms. Wimberly ought to have illuminated us as to the success of the existing incubator program in East Gainesville.

How to conserve energy?

Wimberly: Promote solar.

Henry: Weatherization is most important. Bring landlords to the table and show them the incentives. Educate homeowners about investing in energy saving. Get banks to give low interest loans.

Editor: Wouldn’t have much to say about this except that I have invested a lot in conservation the past couple of years, and some of my savings have been wiped out by higher rates. Can we work on that?

Your position on Charter One?

Henry: I am against it because of home rule. It does not enable us to protect all of our citizens.

Wimberly: Against it because it is a step backwards. City should have left out the controversial language from their ordinance.

One stop homeless center:

Wimberly: This is not a top priority at this time.

Henry: It’s important.

Editor: Both seem to be for it in principle, but don’t think we have the money.

Mom’s Kitchen purchase?

Henry: For it. No money was taken from anywhere to buy Mom’s Kitchen. For Ironwoood, too. And wants to improve it and let it pay its way, as far as it is able.

Wimberly: We cannot ignore the recession. Mom’s Kitchen should not have been a priority.

Editor: I’d like some explanation as to where the money did come from.

Are officials out of touch?

Wimberly: We need economic stimulus to help citizens get online and better informed.

Henry: I am not out of touch. I go to their churches, their neighborhoods, hosted a city commission meeting at the MacPhereson Center.

Now for the responses to mostly the same questions from the At large 1 Candidates…

How to prioritize budget?

Krames: Cut back on low priority serivces and duplicated county services. More business to make money and pay taxes. Stop excessive taxes.

Mastrodicasa: Delay new projects and trim services.

Selwach: Renegotiate union contracts. Cut departments like mosquito control in urban areas. Sell golf course.

Schlachta: Make apprpriate cuts, but did not identify.

Cunilio: The spending by the city is profligate. Go to University to tell freshman to leave cars at home and have a lottery for sophomores to have cars. Synchronizing traffic lights a waste. We’re never going to be happy with that. $70,000 to come up with a slogan for Gainesville? “Give me a break!”

Editor: Cunilio and Selwach were most specific. Kudos for actual answers.

Your position on Charter One?

Krames: Yes.

Mastrodicasa: No. It’s stops home rule. It lets smaller businesses off the hook becuase the state levels are only apply to businesses with at least 15 emplyees instead of 5 at the city level.

Selwach: Yes. Women do not want men in the ladies room.

Schlachta: Yes. The present ordinance is bad enough to take these measures. If it doesn’t pass, we must change the ordinance.

Cunilio: Yes. He doesn’t want us to be paraiahs to the rest of the state, and the Tallahassee government.

Mom’s Kitchen purchase?

Mastrodicasa: Ironwood is used by the citizens. We should not be treating it as a business. It is a recreation opportunity, like our pools and parks. Mom’s Kitchen is an opportunity for the city to redevelop part of the city.

Selwach: Ironwood was built on a flood plain, and it’ s bottomless (money) pit. Againest Mom’s Kitchen purchase because a private person could have bought it for less.

Schlachta: Ironwood has not been managed well. We should improve it, but also look to the developer next door to help out. Mom’s Kitchen is bad timing for this economic climate.

Cunilio: We already have a public golf course at the University. Recategorizing Ironwood does not elevate its value.

Krames: Mastrodicasa called it an asset. An asset does not lose money. When we are looking at shortfalls, should you be looking for ways to spend more money?

Should new developments have to include affordable housing?

Selwach: Yes

Schlachta: No, not for every development.

Cunilio: Yes.

Krames: No. We need fewer burdens on developers. Higher fees and regs force builders to build the most expensive homes to get their money back.

Mastrodicasa: Yes, it’s part of mixed use.

Editor: The tanking housing market is creating more affordable housing every day. It’s a buyers’ market. Does the government really need to enforce this?

What qualifies you to be on the board of GRU, and how can you reduce the cost of electricity?

Schlachta: Spread out sources of fuel.

Cunilio: Energy is my area of expertise. I have been part of getting getting away from coal for years. Mastrodicasa is trying to take credit for what I have done.

Krames: Wood is good, but we need to diversify into green tech. Coal is cheaper and cleaner than it used to be. Green is too expensive to cast our lot with too soon.

Mastrodicasa: I have been serving for 3 years, and have a law degree and PhD. Conservation is the way to reduce costs.

Selwach: Conservation is good, but solar is too vulnerable to hurricanes. Coal and biomass are both dirty. Biomass might eventually turn into municipal trash burning. Nuclear is the way to go.

Would it be good to consolidate services?

Editor: This question is asked at every forum since the early 1990s. Everyone is for it, but it will never happen because there are important political interests that carry more weight than the tax payers. End of rant….

Should we duplicate the Reichert house for boys with a program for at risk girls?

Mastrodicasa: Yes.

Selwach: Yes

Schlachta: Yes

Cunilio: We must support traditional marriage.

Krames: Yes.

Editor: I think we can ascertain support for the idea from Tom Cunilio, although he spent his answer praising a black church he visited recently for teaching the importance of marriage and family values. He seems to be happy with the job they are doing.

Should we go to fall elections for the city?

Selwach: Yes

Schlachta: Yes

Cunilio: No. I think the problems are uninspiring leaders, sexual politics, etc.

Krames: Yes. It’s more convenient for the citizens.

Mastrodicasa: No. City issues get lost in the fall elections.

END

The Gainesville Sun has released the picture taken by a security camera in the Home Depot on highway 441 inside the Gainesville City limits. This man is still at large. He is wanted for walking into a women’s restroom and attempting to take a woman’s picture with a cell phone camera that he held underneath the stall while she was in it.

It took about 3 weeks for this story to finally get out. This is the first time we have had a photo available. It was first published by the Gainesville Sun and was included in this story.

Is this related in any way to the Transgender bathroom ordinance? He will not be able to defend himself with the ordinance. But that has never been the concern of the ordinance opponents. The problem is that no one could legally STOP HIM from entering because we cannot judge his ‘inner sense” by looking at him. All we can tell, even from this grainy photo, is that he is a man.

Although I have been busy trying to make a living, your intrepid blogger has stayed on the trail of this mysterious $5,000 donation to “Equality is Gainesville’s Business” (EGB). I finally got some answers.

The donor was another political action committee (PAC) called “Basic Rights Gainesville” (BRG). This PAC was created by Gainesville City Commissioner Craig Lowe. He also created the recipient of the donation, EGB. He created EGB in June of 2008. The first donation was recorded on 6/24/08.

On October 3, 2008, Craig Lowe filed papers with the Supervisor of Elections registering the creation of Basic Rights Gainesville (BRG). The first donation, recorded the same day, was a $5,000 check from another PAC, Basic Rights Montgomery of Silver Spring, Maryland. This money was then recorded as an expenditure, in the form of a donation from BRG to EGB. EGB recorded that donation on December 24, 2008. Then, last month, Craig Lowe notified the Supervisor of Elections on January 9th that the last quarter report from BRG was its last. BRG was disbanded. It had served its purpose as a conduit for the donation from Basic Rights Montgomery.

What most of us want to know is, is this illegal? No, I don’t think so. The next question is, why the subterfuge? Why not just take a donation directly from Basic Rights Montgomery instead of creating a Gainesville entity to pass it through? It looks deceptive.

The very purpose of all this reporting and making things a public record, and putting them online is to make campaigns more transparent. The people who championed these laws and practices did so because they thought that the people of a community should know when big donors from out of the area are trying to influence their elections. In the spirit of those laws, I will try to keep these issues out in the Sunshine. I’m sure our city commissioners will agree that this is the right thing to do.

I welcome Craig Lowe or anyone else in EGB to take all the space they need in this blog to respond.

Cue the angry crowds. Light the torches. Sharpen the pikes and pitchforks. Just give me a 15 minute head start; but I won’t be using it to run. I need it to reason with you.

UF is getting the word that there are deep cuts to their budgets due to revenue shortfalls. Panic ensues. Everyone wants to preserve the status quo; only with more money than last year. Is this reasonable in the digital age, the Age of Information?

Brick and mortar retail stores are struggling to stay in business as they compete with Internet shopping. Paper and ink news organizations are falling to blogs and Craigslist. The recording industry is overwhelmed by file sharing. And education can now be gotten anywhere at any time, any way you want it, if you don’t care about ivy covered walls and parchment.

In the very near future, if it isn’t here already, no employer will care about your credentials and your certification. They will only care about results. If you are a graduate of UF with an MBA, and you are using your talents to fight the inevitable instead of driving the wave of progress, you’ll have a nice pink slip to go with that degree.

We are in a global economy, and that cannot be stopped. We are outsourcing jobs to people who get results and live in foreign countries. Freelancers from countries with lower infrastructure costs are doing our graphic design work, building our databases, shooting our tech troubles and doing it in English. Why don’t we think it is reasonable that other people in the education business will do the same?

Online learning is to Universities what Tivo is to traditional television programming. People get what they want when they want it, and can even eliminate the commercials. Then there is YouTube. The best thing about YouTube is that I don’t have to watch all of David Letterman to see the good parts. I have eliminated all the parts that don’t matter. That is what will happen to education. The time wasters. The bureacracy. The downtime. Outta here.

If “The Last Lecture” gave you the warm fuzzies, consider how much it terrified the people who saw this as the end of captive audiences paying high tuition. Not evereyone does see it, but they will. Our brick and mortar education system will have For Rent signs some day because people will not have to apply, be accepted, get aid, commute or leap through other hoops to learn. The poor and the inattentive, who finally come to terms with their futures, will be able to exploit an instant learning system that does not care what is on your permanent record.

Will this Brave New World education cost something? Some of it will. Some of it will be free. But all of it will be streamlined so you get exactly what you need, and don’t have to spend an entire semester mining that one nugget you were after when you could have gotten it from a one hour podcast.

Personally, I think this is a great thing. I didn’t finish my education whe I was young. I resisted going back because I didn’t think I could afford to while working to support a family. But I always wanted more. Now I am getting it and I didn’t have to go back to school.  Several years ago, in the comfort of my home, in the wee hours when professors are still in bed, I taught myself basic web design by using free online tutorials. I keep myself up to date with the latest Internet developments by downloading free tech podcasts. I download audiobooks on business and technology, and get all of them for free, without violating anyone’s copyrights. I am continuing my education while education is trying to stay put.

If you are in the field of education, you cannot rely on the lumbering government bureacracies to keep up with the latest technolgies and market trends. They have a vested interest in atrophy. I recommend that you find a business model for your skills, and start selling them in consumable forms to consumers. If you stand still long enough, the ivy will start to grow on you.

One good place for us to focus education skills in on the kids who still have no discipline and study skills. The scenario I have been showing you is one that will continue to favor the well-off because their parents are most involved in their cultivation and their success. Lower-middle class and lower class parents who are too busy to prepare their kids for the future, and let the media raise them. They are learning to be consumers, but not creators. That needs to change, and if you can figure out a business model that motivates young kids to learn now, you will have a product with a ready market.

Feel free to weigh in. This is a local issue because it affects us all. What’s a University town to do if it is unprepared for the future?