"This is the time to declare independence from Mayor Allen Green and begin a new era of transparent governance"
On this fourth of July I think we as citizens of Port Orange really need to do some soul searching and decide whether we have the wisdom and resolve to declare our independence from the southern plantation owner’s monarchal clutches of the non-transparent Allen Green regime. His most recent moronic statement that the citizens that he is supposed to be representing are at fault for the city’s implosion because they have a personal agenda which is not to have their taxes raised is ludicrous. How foolish he was to make this statement, and when Lori called him on that as being a questionable personal agenda, Green implied that there was another undisclosed agenda that he alluded to but was too evasive and embarrassed to disclose. Well obviously that agenda is that the citizens of Port Orange do not feel he is representing them honestly and transparently, and that he is operating out of personal and special interest. He demands tax increases without transparent disclosure or accountability for the current mismanagement of the city and its potential resources. This is a similar situation to what precipitated the revolutionary war and the slogan of the patriot citizens back then was “no taxation without representation”.
“No taxation without representation” is a slogan originating during the 1750s and 1760s that summarized a primary grievance of the British colonists in the Thirteen Colonies, which was one of the major causes of the American Revolution. In short, many in those colonies believed that, as they were not directly represented in the distant British Parliament, any laws it passed taxing the colonists (such as the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act) were illegal under the Bill of Rights 1689, and were a denial of their rights as Englishmen.
Compare this with such things as Allen Green’s unwillingness to put the Riverwalk deal to a citizen’s referendum vote. Another non-representation of citizens is his current circumvention of the city council and independent scheming with a soon to be ex-city manager to shore up his regime and suppress the emergence of organizational transparency. How about his demonization of citizen watchdogs and lack of full disclosure to the press in the presence of his opposition. How about his present hiding of his city manager from the press to avoid him having to answer the hard questions that would publicly reveal the malfeasance, misfeasance, and intentional non-transparency that he and his imported administrative FCCMA management team that is currently imploding have perpetrated on the taxpayers to further his hidden agendas.
Sadly all he can come up with is that the citizens are to blame for all this mismanagement because they have exposed it and are asking for accountability and reform, and until there is reform and transparency they do not want to see tax increases to simply throw good money after bad money, bad management, and political corruption.
It is abundantly clear that Mayor Allen Green will never admit to what the real problem is and take responsibility and accountability for it. He will never relinquish his hidden agendas and focus in on the concerns of the voters and taxpayers. He will never operate transparently because he has too much to conceal. He will never have what remains of upper management in the city operations step up and rectify all the problems because his special interests are the problems.
If Mayor Allen Green will not be dealt with once and for all he will attempt to reconstruct his opaque management team and incentivize them not for managerial competency, but for their allegiance to him in facilitating his opaque regime and executing his special interests. This is the time to declare independence from Mayor Allen Green and begin a new era of transparent governance. All Port Orange patriots need to mobilize their forces and act together to bring the Allen Green era to an end. Port Orange voters, taxpayers, and citizens need the resolve and determination to act with indomitable will and purpose to petition and vote to remove Mayor Allen Green from office and expedite the new paradigm which is transparent government for the people
Recent photo of Mayor Green after being held accountable by Port Orange “Citizen Activests”
oh my, I laughed and laughed. very good.photo satire.
GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GREENMUST GO!!! GO!!! MUST GO!!!!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GREEN MUST GO!!!!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!!GREEN MUST GO!
what are you trying to say Rod? lol
Interesting article about the declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. If you read it you can see the analogy to what is currently happening in the City of Port Orange. If you let this article sink in and reflect upon all of the things Mayor Allen Green has done to suppress the Bill of Rights within Port Orange government it will enrage you. You will realize how unconscionable the present circumstances are and how citizens need to expedite the end of the Allen Green regime of Opaque governance.
http://ourconstitutionalrights.com/
Yes Carlos you are correct. Also we should not forget that Green also stated that citizens should not be bringing their concerns to city council people but should bring them to department heads. In other words, voice your complaints to his “team players” , not to the council people you elected to represent you in city affairs. The man has it all wrong and shows us how and why h is city government got into such a mess.
I do hope city council people distance themselves from Green’s ideology and make it publicly known that they do not support his ideas of how citizens should interact with their government. This city is not owned by the chamber of commerce, the real estate agents, developers, construction people, team players or banks of loan, but by the people. Green would contest that thought. To him I just named the good citizens in Port Orange, and the rest are just investors in their personal agendas. So sorry about Cookie, and I feel for the 12 yr. old girl who still is waiting to eat an ice cone in La Cour’s Riverwalk park.
Yes Hank…poor Cookie’s story was tragic..really….it was some good stuff..the master developer is a master bullshitter too…..we were in the presence of greatness the other night..well orchestrated by Buddy, the mayor and all the chamber types. Buddy clearly was not leaving the 2nd presentation to his less than effective lackeys who managed to perform so poorly on the first attempt at persuading council to give him our ten million…Our funeral home..etc…the well crafted soft ultimatum…yep…June 30th was a real extravaganza….of course Buddy has a much heftier production budget than the rest of us….
Back to your point about to whom does an aggrieved taxpayer apply to for relief???…..to a staff member?….huh??….well why have elected officials?….The mayor either really mis spoke the other night or he is beginning to lose his grip on some very basic concepts about how municipal government operates….plus our neighborhood tried the “approach department heads first” method actually….And that really did not work for us…..got the archival data on that effort folks ..hence our move to the podium, appealing to the dais and the courts of public opinion…
After the mayor’s interview with Lori Brown from WFTV who certainly can ask the appropriate follow up question…..a real journalist. …her hero is Tim Russert…that got my attention…thank you Ms Brown for your competence….it occurred to me that we may have more than one problem with this mayor…heard from several Green boosters that they were distressed…he seemed confused…. he really did appear to be lobbying for higher taxes…it was very bizarre…
“In Florida, transparency is not up to the whim or grace of public officials.
Instead, it is an *******enforceable right.”
— Attorney General Pam Bondi
Florida: DOES MAYOR FIT THIS CRITERIA:
Malfeasance, misfeasance,* neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties, and conviction of a felony involving ***moral turpitude. (Fla. Stat. Ann §100.361)
IF SO:
RECALL PETITION:
(a) Petition content.— “A petition shall contain the name of the person sought to be recalled and a statement of grounds for recall. The statement of grounds may not exceed 200 words, and the stated grounds are limited solely to those specified in paragraph (d). If more than *** one member of the governing body is sought to be recalled, *****whether such member is elected by the electors of a district or by the electors of the municipality at-large, a separate recall petition shall be prepared for each member sought to be recalled. Upon request, the content of a petition should be, but is not required to be, provided by the proponent in alternative formats.”
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0100-0199/0100/Sections/0100.361.html
I wonder if the following are reasons for a petition.
1. Green thinks people who want to keep taxes down are not good citizens.
2. Green thinks people should not communicate with their council men but should talk to Departmental heads in city government.
3. Green thinks citizens are investors, and as such deserve only the fortunes of the market, and not a just return for their taxes.
4. Green in the past has stopped a cra member from speaking his thoughts at a cra meeting and and then recently did not allow a citizen to speak, and wouldn’t hear a council man’s request to let the citizen speak.
5. Green does not share important information with the city council. A. he did not make the city council aware that a secret plan was being hatched to buy the Lohman Funeral Home at twice the market cost. B. He did not make the city council aware that the former city manager was making a financial legal deal with a resigning Finance Director which would give the Director benefits that are never given to other city employees.
6. Green is forever looking for new team players, not council people with an open mind who can provide valuable input into the problems in front of the city administration.
7. Green has not reclused himself from decisions about Lacour’s investments, citing that it is legal to be involved in Lacour’s problems with the city, and …ignoring the fact this his long standing business and personal involvement with LaCour is baggage which makes city council and the public suspicious about the proceedings of city council in the Riverwalk Project.
Hank, I think that these are legitimate questions that we should communicate to Pam Bondi.
I love Carlos Castenada commenting on the writings of Don Juan Matus…nice ironic literary touch Sir!!
And yes..I am enraged. Thoughts on how we can expedite the end of the regime? Only thing I know to do is to keep up the scrutiny. If there is another method, or more methods, please suggest them. I think our city is at a possible window of opportunity for achieving the open, transparent, and responsive government we all seek and taxpayers deserve. Thank you so much for your comment. I thought DJM’s post was most excellent as well.
Who better than Carlos to comment on the writings of Don Juan. Donnie Was Chucks’ teacher.
PS… What is Rod trying to say?
Mr. Nelan pleas post Don Juan Matus’s visions for Riverwalk, poeple may have missed this and is ideas are brilliant. It’s in the section Mayor and Mr. Manager stop this.
Don Juan Matus is a man of visions. Must be a Yaqui, Nagualism thing.
Yes Woodrow, I seen this in a vision I received from my sacred spirit guide the trickster Mescalito! Me and Don Genaro had the same vision. We then invoked Mescalito to transfer the vision to Carlos. Now the visionary who is responsible for this wonderful public forum, the Cub Reporter, that brings us all together to express our solidarity for open governance and transparency has posted this vision I received from Mescalito. I hope that all my friends out their will share their visions and improvise together with me to collaborate on a better vision than the Green/Lacour version of Riverwalk and demand a citizen’s referendum vote on this TIF subsidized project. Mescalito says, power to the people!
This in a link to an excellent article about the new paradigm of transparency in local government and citizen partnership with public administration in governance.
http://www.innovation.cc/volumes-issues/gibson1.pdf
What Department Heads? They’ve left the building! Are the department heads our elected city representatives? Department heads are bureaucrats not the peoples representatives! Also I think we should include and let the citizens vote on the Riverwalk when we have the elections for council members.
RTW check out this image of one of Allen Green and Greg Kisela’s handpicked and shit canned FCCMA Managers In Transition!
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Images+of+Moronic+Management+Team&qpvt=Images+of+Moronic+Management+Team&FORM=IGRE#view=detail&id=DCC989F7E91BBF0A759F1017889F465D357EDEBB&selectedIndex=0
I have found a printable award that we can give Mayor Allen Green at the next council meeting.
http://www.snidelyworld.com/Humor/Upgrade.htm
HERE IS SOME INFORMATION THAT MIGHT HELP YOU DEAL WITH ALLEN GREEN
Dementia Tantrums
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Call it a catastrophic reaction, a meltdown, or simply having a fit, when someone with dementia has a tantrum, both the cause and the effect are often very similar to a two-year-old’s tantrum.
Ask a two year old to pick up his blocks and without warning you can be in the middle of a full-blown tantrum hurricane. Wow! What happened? Ask someone with Alzheimer’s or a similar dementia to change clothes or take a bath, and you can find yourself in the eye of the same storm. Whoops! What happened?
In the case of the two-year old, the tantrum is his way of expressing his frustration about something. He may be hungry, overtired, over stimulated from the day, or simply overwhelmed by the number of toys on the floor. He doesn’t have the words or the insight to express his frustration, anger or discomfort, so he howls.
In the case of someone with dementia, the frustrations are similar. Hunger, thirst and simple tiredness may overwhelm someone who can’t identify or verbalize the reason for his discomfort. Something as small as a piece of uncomfortable clothing or an itchy mosquito bite may heighten anxiety. A formerly routine task that’s suddenly too complicated creates frustration, anger and embarrassment. The early stages of a developing illness are notorious for causing tantrum behavior. Just like a toddler, any one of a thousand possible triggers can cause a dementia victim to have a meltdown.
Managing a two-year-old in the middle of a full-blown tantrum is easier than managing a full-grown 80 year old man who’s lost it. And while we can look forward to eventually being able to reason with our toddler, we don’t have the same happy prospect to look forward to when we’re caring for an elderly person with dementia.
No one should try to kid you that the following suggestions will put a stop to dementia tantrums, just as no one can assure you that your youngster will never have another meltdown. Life isn’t that easy for parents of toddlers, and it certainly isn’t for dementia caregivers. However, some of the following may prove useful as you move from stage to stage through the maze of dementia care:
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
Overwhelm seems to spark more dementia tantrums than any other single cause. As mental confusion increases, the ability to cope with too much stimulation and too many choices diminishes. Reducing both the amount of stimulation and the number of choices offered often helps greatly to reduce the sense of overwhelm.
Clear out closets, drawers, and the environment. Put away the knickknacks. Put pictures on the wall instead of on the table, and cut down on the number of pictures. Get all out of season clothing out of the dementia patient’s closets and drawers. If choosing what to wear is becoming difficult, remove all but two or three outfits. Do the same with shoes and accessories.
Try breaking your requests and instructions into simple steps. Just as you would never instruct a two-year old to “get dressed,” you will have faster and more peaceful progress if you give your elder cues one simple step at a time. If necessary, lay out clothing in the order it needs to be put on (underwear first, then socks, then trousers, then shirt, etc.).
Keep choices to two. “Do you want the red sweater or the green sweater?” works much better than, “Which sweater to you want?” The next time you try this, notice if your elder seems to choose the second item more often. “Last heard, best remembered.” This is a handy piece of trivia if you’d like to subtly provide some guidance, or you’d really secretly prefer to make a peanut butter sandwich rather than mess with making a hot meal.
Stick to a Routine
The further into the middle stages of dementia a person moves, the more routine becomes a critical stabilizing factor. As much as possible, try to do the same things at the same time every day. Even if your elder can’t articulate the schedule, she will still have something resembling an internal clock that she depends on for “normalcy.” If her day has no predictable routine she will be constantly off balance and she’ll react accordingly.
Build rest periods into the routine. A brief break in the middle of the morning and after lunch will give everyone, including you, the chance to recoup and re-energize. Put on an old movie, or play some slow and soothing music. If your elder won’t rest in his favorite chair, try a simple sorting activity or something else not too mentally or physically taxing.
Take it Slow
People with dementia need more time to process what you’re saying and what they should do about it. Give them time to answer or respond, and plan for everything to take twice as long as it “should” (just as with a two-year old). Be ready for two or three slow trips back for the forgotten sweater, the wallet or purse, and the handkerchief before you finally get out the door.
If you need to be somewhere at a particular time and you’re starting early, pack a drink and a snack. If you actually manage to get there early because you gave yourself extra time, have a snack in the car as a way of passing the time.
Back Off
Unless it’s life threatening, and if you can figure out what set it off, back off from whatever seems to have prompted the melt-down. Short of wanting to leave the house to “go home,” or playing with the power tools, there is little that can’t be overlooked or postponed, at least for a little while.
If you can safely leave the room, do so. It will give you both some much-needed space and keep you from being tempted to raise your voice. Tempting as it is to shriek right back, it will only make things worse.
Go to “Time Out”
You already know, “It’s not the person, it’s the disease.” That’s all well and good, but it’s still your mother/father/spouse calling you names and accusing you of awful things. It’s hurtful, and over time it can make you resentful, no matter how much you love the person you’re caring for. Even if it’s only for an hour, see if you can find someone to give you a break on a regular basis so YOU can have a “time out.” It will help. If you can come back just a little refreshed, you’ll be better able to manage the next crisis. You know there will be one, and it’s not your fault. Just as with the two-year-old, no matter how hard we try, there are some things we simply can’t completely control. Dementia tantrums are high on the list.