Is The Local Chamber of Commerce, the Auxiliary Arm of the Construction Mayor of Port Orange?
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These guys may be a Chamber of something but it is certainly not of commerce. As someone who worked in “commerce”, i.e. a profit making business for decades and was also a collections manager, you would NEVER walk away from $1,050,000 as a receivable and that is exactly what this is. A giant receivable. You would pull out every stop to get that money. You would be taking legal action. You would have to or go broke. A million bucks is real money. Not a debt you would write off casually. Big issue for cash flow to have a debt like that outstanding..
I would think any Chamber member would strongly advocate that companies pay their bills and honor their contracts. Where were those Chamber members last night? Come on guys….THIS IS BUSINESS!!
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My guess is that they do not want to bite that hand that feeds many of them; the City of Port Orange. Through contacts, networking, taxpayer funded projects and patronage in many forms. Its in the mix.
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My question is this: how many taxpayer dollars are funneled either to the chamber or to its members through various circuitous routes? From the actual building the Chamber uses to the various quasi business government projects out there? Let me count the ways.
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Dianne Templeton Gardner
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Comment by Hank:
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Dianne you are right on! Chamber of Commerce, the auxiliary arm of the construction Mayor of Port Orange.
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The national chamber of commerce is an even worse agency for the interests of citizens and consumers. Many people are starting to observe this unscrupulous alliance of businesses, corporations and the Holy Chamber of Commerce. Some times I see them acting like the Masons.
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– hank springer
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postesd on www.popdradiolog.com at 10:33:45 AM July 18, 2014
Considering all the money lost and wasted on metering I’d say the city could use the money.
The Chamber of Commerce wouldn’t touch that $1.050,000 receivable that Halifax Paving owes Port Orange with a ten foot pole. Neither does Allen Green want to because that would make Halifax Paving very angry. Do you think that Halifax Paving might know just where that million dollars worth of mystery dirt was trucked to? What if it was trucked to some swamp land that had all the muck dug out of it, was used to fill it in, and than graded to produce prime development property? What if someone is or was a silent partner in a land development LLC with other contractors and builders? What if pursuing the million dollar receivable and angering Halifax Paving would relieve a case of amnesia and loosen their tongue to the destination of that dirt and the ownership of the land it may have been deposited on? Well it was 10 years ago and it’s only dirt so lets vote 3 to 2 to not dredge up old mistakes and just move forward with better internal controls.
Well Tony…I share your lack of trust. And yes..I am speculating too. Hence the following sent Friday, July 18, 2014 to our City Clerk:
Dear Robin,
Good morning.
Please consider this a request for proof of payment under the Freedom of Information Act for the following:
1.) Proof of payment for the $1,050,000 that was to be paid by Halifax Paving to the City of Port Orange by contract Bid B05-04 Sale and Hauling of Fill Material. At last night’s special meeting, Mayor Green seemed to believe this had been paid and city attorney, Margaret Roberts, seemed to say she would produce proof of payment.
2.) Payment for Coraci Ball Field Settlement of 2009; specifically, the $40,000 cash payment that was due from Halifax Paving within 10 days of acceptance of the settlement. See attached.
3.) Evidence any late charges were ever levied against Halifax Paving for failure to meet contract deadlines.
Thank you Robin.
Best regards,
Dianne Templeton Gardner
618 Ruth Street
Port Orange, Florida 32127
386-527-1641
Dianne, great work and excellent due dilligence on your and your husband’s parts. I think the key now is that as a substantive amount of information emerges and is composited, the citizen watchdogs need to funnel this information to Lori Brown and the other
local investigative reporters. This is big news and something they will want to pursue. If Lori Brown interviews Bob Ford and some of the citizen watchdogs about this perhaps it will be the catalyst to compel council to pursue an outside inquiry to all the missing dirt and place pressure on Halifax Paving to pay those back receivables and/or cough up the records of all the dirt transactions they have on file regarding this situation. If then the bushes can be rattled enough and the snakes come out perhaps enough information can be uncovered to get Pam Bondi involved in this. Therefore it is imperative that the press be involved in this.
Dear IW,
My feeling..we need more substantive media scrutiny and frankly we need more taxpayers up there at the podium asking questions. Or sending emails to the mayor and council asking questions about current topics under discussion. I, like Shakespeare, believe the truth will ultimately out on all these topics..like they did with the revelations of 2012 and 2013 under Parker. It takes a while to get the various issues to critical mass.
My reason tells me if they could produce proof of payment on the $1,050,000 they would. I would in their place. What they are doing now in my opinion is creating a narrative about why we don’t have the proof of payment but we somehow been made whole through another method. We got dirt or we got something of an equivalent value…we cannot exactly prove that..but trust us ..we got it.
So I just plan to keep on showing up..asking fact based questions in a civil manner and knowing that the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice.
If anyone can or will join us either behind the scenes or more openly, we need you. Strength in numbers. Their intent is to call us names or have surrogates call us names to shut us up ..it’s a classic technique…demonize or marginalize your opponent……it won’t work. Noftall, the Gardners, Schaefer, Springer, Nelan, Menocal, Woodman, et all are not going away. We are going to follow these topics to wherever they lead. The truth is there. We will find it.
If anyone wants to chat up Dianne..please call me. 386-527-1641. I understand confidentiality and can keep my mouth shut about identities. We just need hard data that can be verified through a paper trail. Again..it’s there. Incontrovertible proof is what I want.
Dianne Templeton Gardner
618 Ruth Street
Port Orange, Florida 32127
Halifax Paving is a large company and they most definitely keep copious records each year on how many loads of dirt they excavate and haul, as well as the ultimate destination of those loads and what corporation they are being charged to.
When the time is right, Pam Bondi and the FDLE will be able to access those records and find out the owners of the land development corporation silent partners and all. I am surprised that at least a couple of our councilmen are not looking into this kind of records inquiry considering this amounts to $1, 050, 000 of taxpayer’s money and they certainly have a fiduciary responsibility to conduct this kind of inquiry to protect their constituencies interests. Hopefully Lori Brown and the other investigative reporters will jump all over this and compel the city council to demand a thorough investigation of this.
To the Indomitable Witness. When can we expect you to call Lori Brown and Pam Bondi’s office? Also when will you be calling FDLE? Or are you making an accusation and hoping someone else calls? If you have some factual information that may be of interest to those people give them a call. Let’s see what they have to say. All you have to do is pick up a phone. Maybe you’re on to something or maybe you’re not. If there is something improper, or unethical, or illegal it will come out. Are you a whistleblower? Maybe you could cash in like the doctor at Halifax Hospital.
You might just be right. If you have the evidence I would encourage you to make the call.
Who is we, and what are you so worried about. You are definitely a minority on this blog and obviously an enemy of open governance and transparency. No need to call Lori Brown as she is more than likely following this like a guided missile. The due diligence that is being performed as you sit there is accumulating and approaching a level of critical mass. Before it gets to the place that it is taken out of the City of Port Orange’s hands it would be nice to see the majority of council pull out all stops to get to the bottom of this. As the old saying goes, police yourself or you will be policed. The day of sweeping things under the carpet is over and the new paradigm of open and transparent governance has emerged. That which has been done in secret will inevitably be set upon a mountain top and exposed to light. So just hang in there partner and be patient not discounting that you may very well be one that is sweating over this whole initiative. Anyhow, don’t worry about who is going to call who, just sit back and watch this unfold, because something wonderful is about to happen.
IW I don’t agree with your reply to The Real Ragner.
In that particular comment by TRR I don’t see how you come to the conclusion that TRR is ” obviously an enemy of open governance and transparency” . maybe there are other posts by TRR which I am not aware of, or maybe you know more about TRR than I do, but in this particular post of TRR all he is doing is suggesting you bring facts to the proper authority, if you have them.
This entire situation with the City of Port Orange is oh so discouraging. It’s like a baby’s diaper full of shit. The only thing you can do is clean the baby’s behind, wrap up the dirty diaper and dispose of it in the trash can. It’s a pretty simple job but you have to hold your nose and DO IT.
Come on council START HOLDING YOUR NOSES AND DO IT.
Yes know all the dirt, the city council has to start producing. The city council can take away most of the speculations on our blogs and move administration to real reform. The city council in general is letting the citizens’ down and it is about time to call them on it. For a starter, city council members should make some public comments about the Mayor calling people who want to keep taxes down, “bad citizens”, and his statement that citizens should not be taking their complaints to the city council people. How in the world the city council can sit silently when such idiotic statements were made on the TV News is beyond my understanding. Are they afraid to tangle with the construction Mayor? This whole business with city administration is dirty and the city council is starting to get some mud on their faces. Maybe the city council is the main problem for all the negative findings, and the lack of real reform in city administration. Who is suppose to clean up this mess? The news media, blogs, interested citizens, but not the city council? I urge the city council to take a look at themselves to see if the public perception of their work is starting to loom larger than the works or non works of Parker, Kisela, Green, and LaCour.