New Type of Smoke Filled Backrooms
Am I missing something here or is this just a new legal way to circumvent the Florida Sunshine Law?
Before the State passed a law, it was called “Smoked Filled Back Rooms” Because of recent Florida Sunshine Laws they now call it ” Schedules” ?
From:”Christina Myers” <chris@lacourandcompany.com>
Good morning Cindy,
Schedule look fine.
Thanks
Chris
—– Original Message —–
From: Rivera, Cynthia
To: City Council ; Ben Talluto (tallutob3@bellsouth.net) ; suzblonz@aol.com
Cc: chris@lacourandcompany.com ; Kisela, Greg
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2013 5:56 PM
Subject: Meetings with LaCour
I have the following schedule set up for next week. If the dates/times are not acceptable, please let me know.
Wednesday, July 17
Time Name Location
9:00 a.m. Ben Talluto LaCour Office – 220 Charles Street
10:00 a.m. Mayor Green LaCour Office – 220 Charles Street
11:00 a.m. Suzette Blahnik LaCour Office – 220 Charles Street
12:00 p.m. Bob Ford LaCour Office – 220 Charles Street
Thursday, July 18
Time Name Location
1:00 p.m. Drew Bastian City Manager’s Conference Room
2:00 p.m. Don Burnette City Manager’s Conference Room
4:00 p.m. Dennis Kennedy City Manager’s Conference Room
Thank you,
Cindy
Cindy Rivera
Executive Assistant to the City Manager
From Ted Noftall
To Pat Nelan
Pat,
You are not missing a darn thing. These by invitation only meetings are violation of the spirit of Sunshine and they need to stop now.
It was bad enough when the former Manager was arranging private meetings between Council and the Riverwalk Promoter at City Hall, but our new Manager is now doing so at the Promoters offices. If that location is acceptable is his private yacht acceptable also ??
If the Riverwalk Promoter has something he wishes to pitch to the Council representatives and CRA members they should absolutely listen to that pitch – in public, take comments from the public, and then make their decision in public.
The bedrock premises of Sunshine regarding the decisions of elected reps is that, the public in an open meeting, shall be able to see when decisions are made, AND how those decisions are made.
In this instance we are childishly expected to believe that the Manager has arranged 7 separate meetings with the Promoter during which no decisions are going to be elicited, AND no information on which decisions could be based is going to be shared. This is such bullshit.
The whole expectation of these meetings is to reach a consensus in private and do a show presentation for the public at a later date.
Because the Mayor is conflicted out with this Promoter any vote to proceed with anything will have to be made on a 3-1 basis. It may be reasonably assumed that Councilman Burnette will support the Promoter, and that Councilman Kennedy will support anything the Mayor really wants. But that is only 2 votes…… meaning either Councilman Ford or Bastain will need to sign on for this taxpayer rape to be consummated.
Councilman Ford has made principled decisions in the past and it is time for him to make another one, AND that is he will no longer violate the spirit of our Sunshine laws by attending private meetings where the city administration is PIMPING for a particular Developer or Promoter.
Ted Noftall
3 Responses to Riverwalk Project and Sunshine Law
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hank says:
1. From Port Orange including all governmental agencies right up to the federal government, in response to the public’s clamor for transparency, the governmental agencies are complying by telling us when they are meeting behind closed doors.
2. A former Port Orange City Council addressed my concerns of not being able to access information in the closed arbitrator meeting between Port Orange and Daytona Beach Shores, with the assurance that probably a City Councilman will be happy to give us some details after the meeting is over. There are two things unsatisfactory about such a latent disclosure.
A. The public should have instant access to such behind closed doors meeting when over 1 million dollars are at stake,
B. The public know longer trusts information coming only from a politician without the opportunity to check the facts.
3. I point out that Mayor Green knew of the money deal going down between Ken Parker and John Shelley, and did not tell the city council about the financial plan, until it was a done deal. And then for months, Green did not tell the public about him knowing of the deal when it was being formalized, because he did not want to aggravate things. You see people; there are still things that you are better off not knowing about.
4. Golden Coral has not told us why its meat was by a dumpster. Perhaps they know that we would not believe them. So, has Golden Coral persuaded a Florida State official, over one week after the discovery of the improper food handling, to investigate to find out why food was over by a dumpster? Perhaps Golden Coral thinks we will believe a plausible explanation from a state official, but we all know to the tune of billions of dollars in this nation, that governmental agencies really believe that large profitable money making institutions are too big to fail. Speculation, speculation, suspicion, not fact! — Expect to see an explanation from the Florida State Official that the meat was over by the dumpster, because there was no room for the meat in a refrigerator or freezer, so it was planned to throw away the food, but the snitch took a video of it, as if it were food going to be served to customers, but that was not the case. So, Ok, folks, you can go back to eating at Golden Coral.
5. Previous comment by me Hank about a city councilman having to explain his vote on proposition 11 has been deleted, because I am getting old, and mixed up the council people who voted yes and no on proposition 11. I am very pleased that Councilman Kennedy and Councilman Burnette voted to approve proposition 11. Bob Ford when he recovers from a minor injury, has promised to tell us why he voted “no” on proposition 11.
— Question everything, even me. — Hank springer
The city should cut its ties with the Grand Master Developer before it loses another two million dollars. — hank