Alachua Voter Guide

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.

It’s mid-January and we now have a couple of actual contests for the two city commission seats that are up for election. In District One we have the incumbent, Sherwin Henry, challenged by Marcia Wimberly. I have contact information on each of them on the page, “2009 Candidates” but nothing more.

In At-large District One, (so-called because it is an election open to all city voters, as opposed to the other District One race, which is open only to voters living in that district), we have a little more available because both candidates have groups on Facebook. I have made a point of joining both of them.

The incumbent, Jeanna Mastrodicasa, according to her website, is the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at the University of Florida, where she manages professional development, assessment, publications, and other support for the Division of Student Affairs. She was elected in 2006 when she defeated Tony Domenech for the open seat. The challenger, Robert Krames, has a website that is under construction, and I have not heard from him yet, although I have only tried to establish contact in the past 12 hours.

That’s about all I have for now. This story is developing, and I hope to have actual candidate input soon. If anyone wants to cover one of these candidates, you are welcome to contact me at dontwc@gmail.com. If anyone wants to post comments, even anonymously, you will only need to have your first comment moderated, and after that they will all be automatically approved.

Here are the links to the Facebook groups for both Jeanna Mastrodicasa and Robert Krames. Get involved.

There was a time in the not-distant past when it was hard to get a Republican to even run for a county-wide seat in this largely Democratic county. Adding to the difficulty was the common occurrence of a third-party or no-party candidate splitting the conservative vote. It looked like the same sort of thing would be happening in the County Commission’s District 3 race when Ward Scott (R) decided to get in with Lloyd Bailey (NPA) and whoever the Democrat would be in November.

Lloyd Bailey had been one of the 2 NPAs who ran, and lost, against Rodney Long in 2000. There was no Republican candidate that year. Bailey also lost Cynthia Chestnut in 2006, when there was no Republican in the field that year. Mr. Bailey, seeking a different result, has decided to change his strategy and try to take out the other conservative early, so he can face either Paula Delaney or her Democrat challenger, Bill Russell, alone in November. Bailey has switched his party identification to Republican, and that means Alachua County Republicans, for the first time in memory (if not history) will have a choice in who represents them on the ballot in November.

Lloyd Bailey has run twice before and has been the standard bearer for less government and lower taxes both times. A John Birch Society member, Bailey’s credentials as a conservative are beyond question. His decision to run as a Republican, a party that is probably not conservative enough for his taste, can best be interpreted as a strategy for winning instead of just standing on ceremony. This is also a real opportunity for the Republican voters in this county to show where they stand on the ideological continuum.

Ward Scott switched parties a couple of years ago, after losing a relatively close Democratic Primary for the county commission against the incumbent, Mike Byerly. Scott could be a strong candidate in November if he is able to attract a large number of Democrats who are loyal to him personally. But he will first have to convince Republicans that he can best represent them and their interests.

No matter how this turns out, it is extremely exciting to see how this could energize voters across the spectrum. There is a real opportunity for the citizens to learn what their local government is up to as things come out and issues get attention that are usually left in obscurity. I look forward to the performance of both candidates in this primary contest.