" Orchestrated whitewash is in the works"
By watching the city council meeting tonight and listening to Kisela and Green’s comments about the large meter replacement debacle you can bet an orchestrated whitewash is in the works. A whitewash that will take advantage of the council’s lack of technical knowledge bolstered by Kennedy’s obsequious acquiescence to the will of the mayor and his commitment to the status quo. Green’s utter disrespect for Drew Bastian and the right of public comment is very telling. The fact that Green is in total solidarity with Kisela in demonizing Tom Cinefro and any scapegoat Kisela puts forth is evidence of their orchestrated conspiracy to do damage control. They will bunker with a select group of employees willing to obfuscate the truth while excluding any employee that would objectively stand for transparency and truth. They will try to spin their incompetence and opaqueness to the rest of the council and our citizens as some fanfare of due diligence and hope to put enough time between this debacle in hopes that everyone’s memory and resolve will fail them.
Tonight at council was a night of drawing a line in the sand and demands total resolve and commitment from all those advocates of truth and transparency. We will prevail if we do not faint because the opaque ones implosion is imminent if we stand firm with persistent resolve and do not allow Green and Kisela to wiggle out of this. There will be more cannibalization among them in the ensuing weeks and a weakening of their resources to persist in their obfuscation.
The one that thinks he is a master poker player will bluff in hopes that you will lay down your cards prematurely, but don’t play poker with him because this is not a game of poker, it is a game of chess. This dude is going to lose all his main pieces, run out of pawns, and then its check mate.
What manifested itself with abundant clarity at last nights council meeting is that there is only one person that the city manager reports to and answers to and that is mayor Allen Green. The council is extremely divided and a line was definitely draw in the sand last night. There are only two councilmen that are truly committed to representing their constituency, which are the voters and citizens of Port Orange. They are councilman Bob Ford and Drew Bastian. These two gentleman demonstrated last night that they are the only elected officials in this city that have shown themselves to possess a pair of cojones, and have manifested clear evidence of their character and suitability to be leaders in this community.
The soon to retire Dennis Kennedy showed signs of reaching the end of his rope with the opaque and dysfunctional Machiavellian managerial style of Greg Kisela, and the city managers cozy obfuscating and collusive relationship with the mayor. Kennedy has been a quiet supporter of the mayor for many years and seemingly does not have the resolve or endurance to take a position against him in spite of the current organizational implosion.
Don Burnette seems to be taking the position that if he sits on the sidelines and avoids taking a stand, after being reelected and unopposed can wait things out and eventually he will get the golden ticket of becoming the new southern plantation owner and mayor of the City of Port Orange. Don Burnette is the linchpin and deciding force whether city management and government continues to retrograde and an opaque regime is reinforced and perpetuated, or he will take action along with Bob and Drew to institute open and transparent governance that is for the people as opposed to special interest. If that occurs you will see and instantaneous turnaround for the better, and a brave new day will begin for the City of Port Orange.
When the levy inevitably breaks which it most certainly will if no definitive action is taken immediately, what will be etched in the citizen’s of Port Orange consciousness is that Don Burnette was the linchpin that could have stepped up and averted disaster but instead put his own political career before the best interest of the citizens he is depending on to vote for him in the future for mayor. Hopefully their is a hidden hero in Don Burnette and his character is worthy oh his political aspirations.
I have predicted correctly thus far, and in the ensuing weeks you will see additional cannibalization and scapegoating in an attempt by the city manager (to coin his own phrase) to deflect accountability from himself and the mayor, and project blame on some poor unfortunate scapegoat. There are several other not yet manifested
scandals and debacles that are in the wings soon waiting to emerge. I would not want to be an elected official that has taken a back seat of inaction now when these travesties finally break bad. Take this prognostication seriously because the handwriting is on the wall. Don’t persist in an ostrich like mentality and feel like you are taking the safe political way out by waiting on the sidelines until the volcano blows. Show some character, courage, and conviction like people like Bob Ford, Drew Bastian, Ted Noftall, Bob Pohlmann, The Gardeners, Hank Schaffer, Hank Springer, Pat Nelan, and many other citizens of high moral standing as well as a contingent of brave city employees that stand for transparency and open government that serves the people and not special interests. The line has been drawn in the sand and you will have to decide whether you want to stand on the side of open, honest, and transparent governance or align yourself with opaqueness, obfuscation, and special interest.