When it comes to politics or statecraft, we seem to believe that anyone who can collect the necessary votes is able to rule" - Plato

We're still here covering the Real news in Daytona Beach and reporting what the News-Journal won't.

Please feel free to comment or question what areas of concern you have about Daytona Beach in our Public Forum.

In the meantime, we'll be watching!

Friday, January 29th, 2010
City Commission Attempts To Destroy Special Events Again...
At least our elected officials are predictable.  Why encourage motorcycle, racing and beach events that bring tens of millions of dollars to our community over a short ninety day period, when you can spend millions of taxpayer dollars promoting the arts?  If some powerful local leaders get their way, Daytona will be known for beautiful symphonies and places to canoe with marketing and promotion paid for by...you guessed it...our tax dollars!  Just to make sure it happens that way Commissioner Rick (I got a free house from taxpayers) Shiver, is backing Manual Bornia, President of the Daytona Beach International Festival that brings the London Symphony Orchestra to our fair city every year, to head up the committee.
We here at Real Daytona have no problem with the arts, just the fact that the majority of taxpayers in our city get stuck with paying for them and don’t get to attend.  The LSO is a perfect example.  The cost of bringing this group to our city has been outrageous.  It eventually destroyed the local newspaper, cost the taxpayers $500,000 and now will cost our local university (which is tax supported) millions as well.  Bornia’s claims that the Festival makes money and brings customers from out of town is ridiculous.  If that were true, then he would have paid the $70,000 the Festival owes the city for rental of Peabody Auditorium already.
We understand that supporting the arts cost money and often times this will be at a deficit.  Our complaint is the potential to easily increase RaceWeeks, Bike Week , Biktoberfest and (gasp) even Spring Break revenue without significant government spending is already there.  But that’s not the way of our politicians.  Why spend only $100 when you can spend $1 million and receive a much worse return on tax dollars invested?

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
City Commission Quietly Screws Local Vendors With Chamber’s Support...
For years the Daytona Beach city commission insisted local vendors that receive temporary permits for outside sales during special events, have their stores open and staffed the majority of the year.  They were rewarded for doing so by the commission severely limiting the number of part-time, out of town vendor permits issued during special events.  Not anymore!
At the Chamber of Commerce urging, our city commission quietly changed the rules.  Now businesses only have to be open ninety days over the whole year in order to qualify for an outside vending permit.  The chamber stated this makes it easier for local business to do business.  Wrong, this allows out of town businesses to blow into Daytona, rent a store front for ninety days and then leave, taking their profits out of our community. 
We wonder what kind of ‘donations’ the chamber members and city commissioners received from out of town vendors for this vote.

Tuesday, January 19st, 2010
Local Chamber of Commerce and Tea Party Members Are  Hypocritical And Bankrupt Morally As WNDB/Black Crowe Broadcasting Is Financially...
We recently read an interview between Congressman Ron Paul and Steve Forbes.  Paul stated,
“In a free market system some businesses make mistakes.” “ If those mistakes are bad enough the company gets liquidated and employees and shareholders suffer.”  “But that doesn’t happen in government.” “They just continue to push more money at bad ideas while attempting to convince taxpayers the artificial growth created is real growth.” “It’s not.”  “Great reasons cities use to create artificial growth are ‘serving the interests of the poor, of the developers, of professional sports teams or of the financial community.” 
Daytona’s Chamber of Commerce and Tea Party members love to hypocritically quote Ron Paul but certainly don’t support his philosophy at the local level.  What they do support are taxpayer funded government hand-outs, such as CRA’s, the Ezone, and tax increment financing.  Daytona’s history of attempting to create artificial growth is all around us.  Residents are still paying the long term financial price of bonds for failed and sold hotels, removing valuable property off the tax rolls for a performing arts center and the most recently buying out a defaulted pier lease for $1.3 million to save a local bank and developer.
Our local Chamber and Tea Party leaders like to make residents think they’re on our side.  In reality the only side their on is the side that pays them our tax dollars.

Friday, January 15th,
WNDB/Black Crowe Broadcasting Files For Bankruptcy Protection...
Looks like talk radio host Mark Bernier ridiculously right wing attitude has helped put WNDB’s finances in the toilet.  They filed recently for bankruptcy protection.  Can’t place all the blame on Bernier though, company management was heavily involved in local politics.  They supported a number of candidates that are now in office, fleecing the public on regular basis.  Rumor is a number of Bernier’s advertisers tired of his incessant rants and refusal to discuss the real problems in our community.  We’ve also heard another major advertiser is close to pulling the plug on Mark.  Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.  He portrays himself as a ‘family man’ yet he’s rumored to be one of the public bathroom stall boys like past commissioner Mike Shallow.  No matter what Bernier’s sexual preference is, we’re happy to see a local news firm punished by it’s advertisers for not doing it’s job in protecting the public interest.  The News-Journal family thought they were untouchable and their paper was just sold for cents on the dollar.  Can WNDB and Mark Bernier be far behind?

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
Daytona Beach City Commission Meeting=Business As Usual...
It’s not surprising that some things never change in our fair city.  City Manager Chisolm still rules the Mayor and City Commission with an iron fist.  Rather than forcing local contractors to be competitive in their bids for city work, commissioners continue to attempt to modify a local preference ordinance, fumbling miserably.  The Seabreeze Historic District ordinance was defeated four to three.  It’s no surprise developers managed to influence Mayor Ritchie, Gilliland, Reynolds and Shriver.  They want less preservation, more unregulated development.  The commission voted to let manger Chisolm spend ‘only’ $25,000 per issue or project without their approval.  Nobody discussed the fact the Chisolm has authorized multiple $25,000 amounts be paid for the same project or issue in the past.  Chisolm continued to ignore the commissions directive to hire a Grant Writer.  The position was budgeted for 2009.  He stated money was tight (year right!), so he elected to not to hire anyone, completely ignoring the directive of the commission.  The Daytona Beach International Festival still hasn’t paid the $60,000 it owes the city for the rental of the Peabody.  Apparently no interest or penalty charges will be accrued.  We wager the city will never be paid.  Meanwhile the mayor and commissioners continue to wonder why nobody wants to move to Daytona Beach. 

Monday, January 12th, 2009
Ormond Beach City Commission Listens To It’s Residents, Daytona Beach Doesn’t...
There will be no new riverfront restaurant and boat dock in Ormond Beach.  Seems residents came out in force against the idea.  “We as commissioners listen to our boards and citizens,” said Mayor Fred Costello, who initially saw a riverfront restaurant as a way to draw more visitors to downtown.  The same can’t be said for the Daytona Beach city commission.  A few weeks ago they ignored their citizen board and residents pleas against spending $1.3 million in unbudgeted dollars, to purchase the lease of the Daytona Pier. The pier was in significant disrepair and would have come back to the city due to default.  In truth, the city commission voted to bail out a local bank and developers whom are major campaign contributors, George Anderson and Len Fink.  As the drama continues to unfold Daytona residents are now on the hook for $800,000 in property insurance and up to $3 million to renovate the pier to make it safe and usable again.  Anderson and Fink walk away with $1.3 million in profit.  Another fine example why locals just don’t want to live in Daytona Beach.

Thursday, December 7th, 2009
News-Journal Sale Just About Finished...
Looks like the sale of the News-Journal is almost complete.  Halifax Media Acquisitions, backed by an Arkansas investment firm, has agreed to pay $20 million for the publishing assets of the company.  The sale includes the News-Journal offices, printing plant, the ‘Penny Saver Shopper’ and the ‘Complete Phone Book’. 
The sale was forced due to a lawsuit filed by Cox media, a minority shareholder that sued the News-Journal in 2004 after majority owner Tippen Davidson pledged $13 million for naming rights of a downtown arts center.
Halifax Media Acquisitions has pledged to keep the majority of the News-Journal employees.  We hope they get rid of editorial and government reporting staff.  These ‘journalists’ have failed miserably in their ‘watchdog’ responsibilities over Daytona Beach politics and government.  Looks like the old adage you can’t fight someone that buys ink by the drum and paper by the pound was wrong.

Thursday, December 7th, 2009
Daytona’s New Historic District Developer Driven...
You would think that a new historic district with more rules to protect home and building renovation would be a good thing, but it’s not.  While Daytona Beach city commissioners did vote yes to a new smaller historic district, in reality it should have been much larger.  As usual, developers such as Charlie Lichtigman lobbied the commission to decrease the amount of property that would fall under the new historic district.  Lichtigman stated a ‘desperate need for redevelopment in the area’ as why no historic district should be implemented.  In reality it’s a lot harder for developers to get CRA tax dollars for construction in historic districts and they have to comply with a lot more rules.  Guess we should be happy the commission showed some guts and said no to their campaign contributors.  But we’re sure they’ll gift them more of a tax dollars some other way.

Tuesday, January 5th, 2009
Another New Year Of Politics In Daytona Beach
Personal motivations rules most of our elected officials, with little consideration of the consequences to the community.  We no longer have a government ‘buy the people and for the people’.  Instead those in government are there for the kickbacks and to benefit friends and campaign contributors.  Why?  Because they can get away with it. 
Even elected officials who began as advocates for effective, fair and efficient government get co-opted over time.  One Commissioner recently said they would vote for a land change not in their zone even though they didn’t agree with it, if they would get a reciprocal vote from the other Commissioner on a different issue.  That’s how the erosion of their integrity begins.  A great example for term limits.
Sadly, most politicians run for elected office to gain power, stroke their egos or increase their income through influence peddling and illegal means. Daytona’s voter apathy has been caused primarily by a lack of honest candidates who can raise enough money to campaign against the well-oiled machine of commercial developers and large corporations that have controlled Daytona Beach politics for decades.  Waste, spending and corruption has blossomed in our city government over the past ten years, yet the quality of life for most Daytona residents is worse than it has ever been.
Until we have more citizen involvement, outraged and ethical, well informed people willing to run for elected office, nothing will change, regardless of how much money taxpayers are forced to spend.
Until we get non-partisan law enforcement willing to truly investigate and charge politicians and city employees with corruption and malfeasance, nothing will change.
Until we reign in our elected officials by voting for state and local amendments and charter changes that limit their ability to make decisions influenced by campaign contributors, nothing will change.
We urge you to continue to support Hometown Democracy state amendment 4 and the STAND
city charter amendment petition efforts.

Wednesday, December 16th
The Truth About The Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment...
Florida voters should be on the lookout for the Politicians and Speculators who are ramping up their founding fathers spin against the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment. This crucial Amendment will be on next November’s ballot as Amendment 4 (A4). Nothing else will make our representative government more “representative” than local voters checking politician’s most important work, Comprehensive Land Use Plan changes. A4’s link to our founding principles is found in our Declaration of Independence. Compare the historical and modern betrayals.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.
Rights evaporate when politicians make land-use changes that ruin your neighborhood. Taxation without representation exists in changes to rural areas where you will pay for wasteful new infrastructure.
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,”
Politicians haven’t feared losing power because they hide simple changes in techno babble so as not to anger too many people at once.
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness”.
What better way protect our environment and property values than for local voters to cast the deciding vote?
“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
A4 can’t stop political corruption but it will make it less profitable in city hall.
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations (zoning changes, loss of neighborhood schools and libraries, out of control taxes), pursuing invariably the same Object (Comp Plan Changes) evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security”   Enter Amendment 4“Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
The history of the present King of Great Britain (local power brokers and politicians) is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.”
Candid facts about my home town show we have less than 40,000 residences built but allow over 300,000. This is ridiculous when we are already pumping over 80% of our water allowance. Is it corruption or incompetence that leads politicians to keep changing our Comp Plan to make this problem worse instead of lowering our disastrous build out?
To make an informed vote next November you must find out the facts about your local Comp Plan and how much water you have left too. Don’’t be surprised when the politicos refuse to disclose in fear of local revolution. Will the media throughout Florida continue to ignore local facts until desalination raises our water bills five times? By then it will be too late. Amendment 4 is simply the Florida resident’s modern Declaration of Independence. Don’t get tricked into letting it fail.

Thursday, December 18th, 2009
Daytona Beach Attempts Development At Any Cost...
Commercial real estate developers have been hit hard during this recession.  They can’t get financing and don’t want to risk any money for building new hotels or condominiums.  But that’s
not stopping Daytona Beach City Management.  A consultant has convinced them that since developers won’t do it, taxpayers should finance a major hotel to be built near the expanded Ocean Center.
Apparently, wasting almost three million dollars to buy and repair a pier that we could have gotten back through foreclosure, isn’t enough for city leaders.  Now they want to risk millions more on a major hotel.  Every time tax money has been used to ‘assist’ beachside hotels, taxpayers end up getting screwed when the hotel owner sells and leaves the area.
Politicians screwed up by investing millions to expand the Ocean Center when trade show and trade show attendance has been declining for years.  Now they again want to throw good money after bad again.  The key reason their developer buddies don’t want to build a major hotel near the Ocean Center is because IT WON’T MAKE ANY MONEY!  So tax payers will again be forced to pay million for the stupidity of elected officials and consultants that don’t really understand our city.
While we despise local developers that have bought numerous elections with campaign contributions, we should respect their decision not to spend money constructing a major hotel and force taxpayers into doing it.  But you can’t argue with Red-Neck Riviera politics, ‘Stupid is as stupid does.’

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2009
Report Shows Daytona Pier In Bad Shape...
Bad enough our City Commission ignores their own board and residents wishes buying out the pier lease for $1.3 million and bailing out the Diland Corporation.  Now a report shows the pier is in much worse shape than initially thought.  Many of the pier pilings are at a 75% deterioration level with three at 95%.  While the pier is still considered ‘structurally sound’ it needs at least $1.6 million worth of work.  If we would have just foreclosed on the least and not bailed out Developer Fink and the local bank that gave him the loan, pier repairs would only cost taxpayers $300,000, instead of $2.9 million!  But hey, why do something for $300,000 when you can hose the taxpayers for a few million more?  You really have to respect the balls of City Manager ‘King’ Chisolm and the total outright stupidity of our City Commission.  Makes us wonder how most commissioners are even intelligent enough to find there way to city hall.  Daytona Beach financial planning at it’s best in the ‘Red Neck Riveria’

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2009
Jamie France Still Not Allowed To Drive...
Jamie France asked for his drivers license back today during a hearing with a local judge, while awaiting trial for allegations of driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance.  The judge said ‘Nope.’  Not surprising.  Since uncle Brian France got a free pass for an accident while driving under the influence a few years ago, we doubt if the courts are going to give Jamie a pass on anything.  Looks like his attorney has his work cut out for him.

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2009
Huge Development Plan Objected To...
Municipalities in Florida continue to push for more tax dollars through unregulated growth and sprawl, which places our supply of potable water at risk.  Elected officials sign off on this growth to ‘pay back’ all the campaign contributions they received from developers.  Taxpayers have fought back with local and statewide referendums such as Florida Hometown Democracy. 
A 50 year growth plan recently approved by  Volusia and Brevard County Councils’ was objected to by the local school board and the Florida Department of Community Affairs.  Seems they don’t want 30,000 homes and 4 million square feet of commercial development space on land used for growing pine trees and reclaiming water to our watershed.  The department slammed the proposed land use changes saying they constitute urban sprawl by leaping over undeveloped land and calling for unsuitable use of an environmentally sensitive areas.  The schools don’t want the development because that land area is designated for no school growth.
Looks like some of our state officials are finally beginning to protect our wildlife and water supply.  While this battle isn’t over by any means, at least someone is trying to protect us from developers buying sprawl through campaign contributions.

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Daytona Police Harass Bellair Plaza Business And Hotel Owners Over Turkey Rod Run Crowd...
Looks like Police Chief Chitwood is a total political sell out at this point.  Earlier in the week he threatened to shut down the street rod scene in front of Bellair Plaza during the Turkey Rod Run, unless business owners come up with $10,000 to pay for police overtime.
Charging businesses additional money for use of police services is an interesting concept except for the fact that they already pay for these services through the highest rate of property taxes in the city and county.
Since Chitwood is setting a precedent, we need to charge every business for any extra police service.  We should back charge Beach Street merchants for the extra cops required during the  Art Show last weekend.  Main Street merchants will have to pay big money to cover their block parties and the two annual motorcycle events.  However, the biggest business use of police overtime is, (you guessed it) International Speedway Corporation (ISC).  95% of police overtime is allotted to Speedweeks. 
When Chitwood was hired, he questioned billing ISC for all the police overtime.  He was told by City Manager Chisolm, “There’s nothing to talk about, it’s not going to happen.”  Of course Chisolm was interviewed, hired and ‘blessed’ by Bill France, so there’s no way ISC will be forced to pay. 
Meanwhile, the majority of our brain-dead City Commission sits by and does nothing.  The rich get richer the rest get hosed.  Red-Neck Riviera politics never change, they just get a little smellier from time to time.  Yee-Haa!

Friday, November 13th, 2009
Water, Water Everywhere But None To Drink...
As the fight over the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment increases an area few have paid any attention to is development impact on our water supply and the associated cost.  The following information was obtained from the St Johns Water Management District pumpage reports and our area cities Consumptive Use Permits:
2008 Volusia Water - Availability v/s Actual Use
CITY OF HOLLY HILL 78.17%
CITY OF LAKE HELEN 103.51%
CITY OF NEW SMYRNA BEACH 69.89%
DAYTONA BEACH CITY OF 82.21%
DELAND CITY OF 64.65%
DELTONA WATER 82.79%
EDGEWATER CITY OF 57.02%
JOHN KNOX VILLAGE 75.01%
KOVE ASSOCIATES 84.81%
LAKE BERESFORD 85.65%
ORANGE CITY UTILITIES 62.19%
ORMOND BEACH 78.82%
PIERSON TOWN OF 88.42%
PORT ORANGE CITY OF 65.79%
Volusia County Overall 74.05%
State rules mandate we must have a concrete plan in place when we hit 80% of total use. Daytona Beach currently has less than 40,000 homes yet is already using over 80% of it’s total water supply.  City management has allowed for growth to 300,000 homes in our Comprehensive Plan.  Where’s the water supply to support the growth?  It’s not there!  The Florida Hometown Democracy amendment will give residents the right to determine what development they want and not politicians or city management.

Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Daytona Fire Department Greed Continues....
State representative and Fire Department do-boy Du-Wayne Taylor continued his rape of the Daytona Beach taxpayer recently.  Du-Wayne tried to get the legislature to vote for letting municipalities with over 30,000 residents to have the right to withdraw from the Countywide EVAC ambulance system and let the local Fire Department have it. Volusia County EVAC is one of the only public/private partnerships that works well, where the taxpayer doesn’t get hosed.
EVAC employees earn less than half the salary Daytona Firemen make and we don’t have to pay a ridiculous amount for their pension.  They also work a full month as compared to our fearless firemen that only work ten days per month but are paid as if they work full-time.
Fire Lieutenant and political advisor Len Taft is doing a road show, lying to anyone that will listen that the Fire Department will save money compared to EVAC.  It’s typical union bullshit, pure and simple.
Thankfully the County Council’s Advisory Board voted against any change.  That doesn’t mean it’s a dead issue but it certainly makes it much harder to get any changes.  State Representative Pat Patterson was so against Taylor’s resolution that he introduced legislation that would consolidate Daytona’s Fire Department into Volusia County.  Nice way to give the finger to the union Pat.  You’ll definitely get our vote next election.

Monday, October 26th, 2009
Volusia Tax Reform In Bed With The Daytona Beach Firefighters-Literally!
As we’ve said before Volusia Tax Reform (VTR) is really a developer driven organization misrepresenting themselves to residents, while working behind the scenes to take care of the people that bankroll them. 
A few years ago they stated they would force city and county governments to lower the millage rate.  That didn’t happen.  Then they said they’d form committees to do in-depth budget reviews of municipalities, to force less spending and that would result in lower property tax rates.  That didn’t happen.Now they’re lobbying for Daytona Beach to stop paying for the laundering of city employee uniforms.  Wow!  They might save the taxpayer a whole $10,000 out of $200 million city budget.
Meanwhile behind the scenes, VTR Chairperson Maureen France has decided to support the Daytona Firefighters bid to get the EVAC contract.  VTR will support the firefighters if the firefighters will support VTR’s various ‘developer’ based candidates during the next election.
We’ve heard this was all was negotiated during ‘pillow talk’ between Maureen France and Lt. Len Taft, the political guru for the Daytona Fire Department.  Seems France and Taft have been an item for awhile and are ‘sleeping’ together.
Shouldn’t be surprised.  The Daytona Firefighters union is going to bankrupt our city with their ridiculous pension plan and VTR management has been owned and operated by the development community since they started.  Too bad for the volunteers of VTR that thought they were really trying to accomplish something for residents.  It’s politics as usual in the Red Neck Riviera.

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Daytona Politicians Ignore Redevelopment Concerns... 
Thank Daytona’s city commission and city management for dropping the value of your house or condo even more, while placing our already tapped out water supply at even greater risk.  Two gigantic developments were approved in our drainage basin and aquifer recharge area by the Volusia County Council without any protest from Daytona Beach officials.
The first was an annexation that doubled the size of Edgewater adding 10,000 more homes on  swamp land. The second, Farmton GreenKey, created another 29,000 homes  farther out in the swamp.
State regulators are taking Daytona Beach to court due to city management’s lies about how much water they sell to other municipalities while Volusia County rubber stamps even more unnecessary growth putting our water supply and the St. Johns River at even greater risk.  Apparently it’s not enough that sheets of toxic algae grow in the river.  Now they want to pump out more water so their campaign contributors can clear the state water review. Pumping will only increase the river's pollution concentration killing more estuaries, plants and fish creating low oxygen dead zones, red tide, and beach closures when it reaches the oceans.
Some say Farmton will never be built and all this is just to artificially run up the property value before another triple price conservation purchase, but what if they do build? Then just add another zero to your water bill.  Since our politicians can't say no to an obvious fleecing of our future. it's bye-bye real estate recovery and hello to more tax subsidies for urban redevelopment.
Since they said nothing, it’s obvious Daytona Beach officials really don't care about redevelopment, they only care about routing redevelopment dollars to their campaign contributors and the kickbacks that come with them.

Tuesday, September 30th, 2009
Daytona Pier Review Committee Member Comments Publically On New Information...
City Commissioner Gilliland was on Roland Via’s radio show today taking questions on the Daytona Pier buyout and other issues.  Pier Review Committee member Gary Libby called in and told Gilliland the committee should be reconvened to discuss the new information regarding the state land lease, which significantly devalues the Diland pier lease buy back deal.
Gilliland didn’t agree and Libby stated they committee would take back its recommendation to buy out the Diland lease, if the city commission didn’t let them meet and review the new information.  Libby is not just issuing and idle threat.  As Chairman of Volusia Forever, Director Emeritus of the Museum of Science and current Planning Board member, he knows his way around city hall and can significantly influence those involved.
Meanwhile the City Commission won’t meet until October to discuss City Manager Chisolm suppression of the state lease information.  It seems Commissioner Shiver is on a four week vacation in Costa Rica, smoking dope and surfing and won’t be around to vote.  It must feel kind of odd for Chisolm to not have Shiver’s lips kissing his ass for a whole month!

Tuesday, September 30th, 2009
Marina Contractor Deal Definitely Smells Fishy...
We received more information on the Halifax Harbor pier repair deal and it’s all bad.  A boat maintenance company named Island Bound Marine services, was given a no bid contract by Marc Phillips, the guy managing the Marina for the city.  Island Bound Marine Services is not a licensed contractor and doesn’t have insurance to cover this type of repair.  They were paid over $100,000 and didn’t make the repairs per the engineer’s specifications.  Initially Daytona Beach code enforcement was contacted, and then the building department, then City Manager Chisolm but no one did anything to correct the situation.  Eventually a complaint was filed with the State Department of Business and Professional Regulation, who filed a stop work order against Island Bound Marine Services because they weren’t a licensed and insured contractor.  One of the interesting things about this is that two employees of Island Bound Marine are related by marriage to two of the management staff of Halifax Marina.  At this point the dock work has not been completed.  If a storm hits and causes damage to boats on the docks repaired by Island Bound Marine Services, the city will probably be sued since the contractor doesn’t didn’t have a license or insurance.  There are over 100 boats on the docks repaired by Island Bound Marine Services so the potential cost of litigation to Daytona residents could be substantial, since our city is self insured.  Meanwhile our city manager continues to ignore the issue and keep the city commission uniformed, as usual.     

Sunday, September 20th, 2009
City Manager Under Fire From Yacht Owners...
Daytona City Manager Chisolm continues to ignore the laws and rules in place to protect the residents of Daytona Beach.  It appears Chisolm hired and paid an unlicensed contractor to do work at Halifax Harbor Marina on various I and J docks in June of 2009.  That contractor damaged a number of boats and Chisolm responded by doing nothing.  The resident with boar damage contacted called Weisheit, of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.  She agreed with the resident that Chisolm and the city should have never employed an unlicensed contractor and shut down the job.  Not the repairs are unfinished, the contractor already paid and Chisolm is doing nothing.  When the next big storm comes and boats get damaged do to shoddy dock repairs, taxpayers will foot the bill because Chisolm didn’t do his
job again.  When will the City Commission grow some balls and fire this turd of a City Manager?
Never, why get someone good to do the job when you can pay more for mediocrity in the ‘Red Neck Riviera.’

Thursday, September 24th, 2009
City Manager Chisolm, Rumors & Accusations...
We’ve said through the years that Chisolm considers himself to be King.  He’s extremely well versed in herding the ‘sheep’ on our City Commission and convincing them to rubber stamp whatever he proposes.  Besides the information in the previous story, here’s some other issues Chisolm is being investigated for: 1. The Florida Department of Community Affairs is calling for a formal hearing regarding the changes in Daytona’s Comprehensive Plan.  Seems Chisolm violated state law by making illegal Comprehensive Plan changes.  This is also related to violation of the St. John’s Water Management C.U.P. water use plan, where Daytona’s planned growth through Comprehensive Plan changes will pump out too much from the aquifer.  Chisolm violated the city charter by using outside legal services without Commission and City Attorney approval. 2. The city commission had a contract with a company to provide bus benches with advertising on them.  He only provided a few and refused to place them in low income neighborhoods.  The City Commission told Chisolm to cancel the contract in December of 2008.  He didn’t and the contractor is still being paid.  What’s interesting to note is the contractor is a friend of Chisolm’s from the city he was previously Manager of.  3.  It appears Chisolm withheld an environmental report that shows the city will have to pay millions more to meet environmental laws regarding renovation of the city pier.  City Management chose not to advise Commissioners that the State land lease for the property the pier is on prohibits charging for access.  So the Diland corporation has been violating the land lease for years. Any other city would have fired Chisolm a long time ago, but in the Red-Neck Riviera, this is just politics as usual.

Thursday, September 24th, 2008
City Manager Chisolm Accused Of Violating City Charter...
In a letter to City Manager Chisolm and the City Commission, Mayor Ritchey accused him of violating the City Charter by using outside legal counsel without city commission and city attorney approval.  Seems Chisolm placed an outside attorney on the city’s payroll to defend the State Department of Community Affairs action related to violation of recently filed Comprehensive Plan changes.  Chisolm paid the attorney in excess of $375,000 without the City Commission’s knowledge or approval.  Residents see a continuing pattern of high-handedness and disregard of residents needs and demands by Chisolm.  He’s secretive and solitary and disregards advice of resident boards as well as inquires by many City Commissioners.  Chisolm’s fate won’t be decided until October when all the City Commissioners’ will be in attendance. Commissioner Shiver is currently surfing and smoking dope in the Costa Rican house residents bought for him and unavailable to do the job he was elected for.

Thrusday, September 24th, 2008
Property Tax Victory Of Sorts For Daytona Residents...
A number of cities surrounding Daytona dropped their effective property tax rate to give their residents a break during one of the largest recessions in history. Immense pressure applied by Daytona Beach residents during public meetings resulted in the same property tax rate as last year.  It’s ‘bullshit’ pure and simple.  City Commissioner Sheila McKay’s various proposals would save over $20 million.  The boys from STAND have six charter amendments that would save over $50 million.  Yet, our City Commission acts like they did us a favor by holding to last years rate.  If they quit believing everything city management said and actually looked at the real numbers, they see many more cuts can be made.  Another year, another wasted tax dollar in the Red-Neck Riviera.

Sunday, September 20th, 2009
City Pays $50,000 Over Bad Arrest...
Many Daytona police officers are decent people.  Many are heavy handed, just looking for any excuse to pull over drivers and harass them.  A 26 year old black woman was stopped in a Midtown neighborhood in 2008 for a burned out license plate light.  She asked the officer to let her get her purse from the trunk, which had her drivers license in it.  He refused eventually arresting her for not signing the ticket for not giving him her drivers license.  Her car was impounded and she spent the night in jail.  Police Chief admitted the young officer made a series of mistakes but didn’t believe the case was racial profiling.  He also believed the cop learned from his mistake and will be better for it.  Yet, a young, innocent black woman, was falsely arrested in front of her three year old son, jailed and residents get to pay $50,000 for the error since our city is self-insured.  What kind of training do our police get to avoid this kind of situation?  Remember the next time you get pulled over for a minor traffic violation, kiss the ass of the Daytona Beach cop and give them the immediate respect they think they deserve or you too could be jailed for a minor traffic violation.

Friday, September 4th, 2009
Daytona Refuses To Correct Most Of It’s CRA Problems...
It’s been over a year since the State Auditor General found Daytona city management guilty of violating numerous laws, policies and procedures, illegally spending millions out of our CRA redevelopment funds.  In their recent re-audit, this is what they found...
A. City management spent almost $3 million in 2007 that didn’t qualify out of CRA’ funds.  They reimbursed $1.95 million back to the CRA but refuse to reimburse the other one million dollars, including $250,000 the gave the London Symphony Orchestra.   In 2008-2009 they illegally transferred another $800,000 to the General Fund.  Taxpayers screwed in the amount of $1.85 million in illegal CRA fund use, from 2007-2009.
B.  The city never provided sufficient detail to determine if many of the CRA expenditures followed their plan or state statute and were told to do it better in 2007.  In 2008 city management and the City Commission approved four amended CRA plans but still didn’t provide enough detail on the spending to make them legal.
C.  In 2007, city management did not use the appropriate property values in calculating tax increment revenues due from the Downtown Development Authority.  In 2008 and 2009 the city still did not use real property values to calculate tax increment financing, which costed taxpayers over $100,000.
D.  In 2007 salary and benefits charge to the CRA fund were not always supported by time records or appropriately allocated.  City management is still not correctly logging time and reimbursing city employees without receipts for travel and expenses.
E.  In 2007, Almost $30,000 in severance was payed to a former Redevelopment Director without Board approval and against state statute.  In addition the employee received a 2% salary increase while on administrative leave, Christmas bonus pay and insurance benefits equaling another $17,223 for a total of $47,223, which didn’t receive CRA Board approval and violated Florida statute.  In other words Chisolm did this without the City Commissions knowledge and approval and violate state law.
G.  In 2008 to present, City Management and our City Commission continue to pay tens of thousands of dollars in reimbursement for vehicle travel and cell phones without any receipts.
They continue to spend our tax money on anything they want without proper receipts or documentation.  Amounts totalled almost $3 million in 2008.
Bottom line city management and elected officials gave the finger to the State Auditor and residents illegally spending almost $7 million in three years against CRA regulations and State statutes.  Interesting how they can’t cut property taxes but can continue spending like this, isn’t it?

Friday, September 4, 2009
Volusia County Councilman Josh Wagner, Another Empty Suit
Like Daytona City Commissioner Pam Woods, recently elected County Councilman Josh Wagner has turned out to be another ‘empty suit.’  Josh got elected by saying he would bring fresh insight to the County Council, vote to control spending and lower property taxes.  What he did was bring his rubber stamp and agree to every spending and property tax increase possible.
His most recent brilliant comment was, ‘You can’t run government like a business.’  Yeah right, maybe in your case you can’t, since you’ve ran your law firm so badly.  You don’t have to worry Josh, we’ll be around to remind everybody how you pimped us in the next election and then you can turn your attention back to your crappy little law practice and we’ll elect a Real reformer.

Wednesday, August 26th, 2008
The Truth About Your Rising Property Taxes...
The growth boom approved by your local government is the real reason your property taxes are increasing.  Here’s the latest tally of the wreckage government of the developer, by the developer and for the developer has brought Florida: 400,000 vacant homes, highest foreclosure rate in the nation, highest mortgage delinquency rate in the nation, over half of homeowners are ‘upside down’ owing more than their property is worth and crashing real estate values.
The government’s big lie is growth builds the tax base.  We just had the biggest growth binge in history and what happened?  Growth builds government!  It always needs more money to fund the growth.  Over the past ten years local government spending has doubled.  High salary to staff, new roads, schools, infrastructure and services to accommodate never ending growth wasn’t cheap.
What did you get in return.  Responsible tax payers who didn’t flip and speculate are left holding the bag.  Your property taxes are going up.
It’s not surprising most public officials oppose the Florida Hometown Democracy amendment.
Although they’re responsible for this disaster they’re also desperate to hold on to their power.  They dream of a quick return to the ‘bubble.’
Hometown Democracy Amendment number 4 will begin to reign in this utterly irresponsible, corrupt system.  Voters will have veto power over speculative growth that we’ve been forced to pay for.  Remember last year’s battle cry for property tax reform: ‘Your taxes will drop like a rock!’  So what happened?  Amendment 4 will ensure real tax reform!  (Story borrowed from Daytona Beach News-Journal and www.Floridahometowndemocracy.com)

Friday, August 21st, 2009
Halifax Hospital Cuts Staff & Saves $15M...City Of Daytona Beach Does Nothing...
Halifax hospital is a despicable organization.  They’re one of the few tax supported hospitals in the state and have had no problem is wasting our money.  Remember the six-figure party they had for Board members when they opened their new wing?  Seems even they understand taxpayers are angry and decided to cut $15.6 million from their payroll, laying off a number of staff.  If a money wasting organization like Halifax can do it why hasn’t the city of Daytona Beach done so?
Because City Manager Jim Chisolm doesn’t want to lower spending (or property taxes) and the sheep on the City Commission continue to let him tell them how to run our city.  As the boys from Striving Towards A New Daytona (STAND) have pointed out, Daytona employees 300 more people than comparable city’s like Deerfield and Delray Beach.  This is part of the reason why they spend $120 million more per year in their budget than the other two cities.  Meanwhile
the majority of the City Commission wanders city hall in a stupor, their decisions being managed by ‘King’ Chisolm.  To quote Forest Gump. “Stupid is as Stupid does!”

Thursday, August 20th, 2009
City’s Budget Road Show A Total Waste Of Time...
The Mayor and City Manager ‘King’ Jim Chislom are at it again, trying to use smoke and mirrors while attempting to peddle the 2010 budget to residents.  We’ve mentioned before this budget includes a 17% property tax increase due to the decline of property values in the city during the recession.  Seems each Road Show is a general discussion of what makes up the budget.  All the details are omitted so no hard questions can be asked by residents that attend.  No surprise really.
Commissioner Sheila McKay has been asking for in-depth budget meetings for the past year and a half with no result.  Seems ‘King’ Jim just doesn’t want to be bothered with details like justifying where he spends our tax dollars.  Meanwhile, the rest of the sheep on our City Commission quietly eat a little grass, chew a little cud and calmly rubber stamp whatever’s put in front of them by ‘King’ Jim.  We predict these ‘sheep’ will be slaughtered in the next election.

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Daytona Beach Spending $15 Million To Get A Payback Of $1.5 Million Annually!...
It’s a beeyootiful day in the Red Neck Riviera neighborhood!  Our brain-challenged city commission is supporting City Manager ‘King’ Jim Chisolm’s idea to bond $15 million to change our water meters to an automatic system.  He claims many of our 26,000 water meters are
old and don’t read accurately, which results in a $1.5 million loss every year for the city.  Perhaps if Chisolm and our City Commission would stop transferring money from the water and
sewer funds to other money losing ventures, they’d already have the money to fix the broken water meters, rather than having to bond millions for them. But hey, why use our money for what it’s intended for?  Isn’t better to sink the city deeper in debt and lower our already crappy financial rating?  Wonder how long these automatic water meters will work before they break and have to be replaced?  Did we mention that this ‘little’ expenditure isn’t on the 2009 city budget?  ‘Yee Haa!’

Thursday, August 13th, 2009
Florida Chamber Of Commerce Gives Up On Smart Growth Petition...
After admitting to spending about $4 million on their campaign so far, the “look-alike” petition sponsored by ‘Floridians for Smarter Growth’ appears to be dead. Their “Smart Growth” petition was created in the summer of 2007 by the Florida Chamber of Commerce with the sole purpose of destroying Hometown Democracy.
Since then “Smart Growth” has submitted 443,000 valid petitions to the State.. Their campaign needs about 230,000 more to make the 2010 ballot.
Truly the devil is in the details of their petition. Full of trickery and deception, they tell people what they want to hear and then pull the trap door.
Recently, Hometown Democracy supporters pointed out that the ““Smart Growth”” amendment process discriminates against active military and National Guard deployed abroad who can’’t get home to sign a petition
The smart growth process also discriminates against active military and National Guard deployed abroad who can’t get home to sign a petition. The “Smart Growth” process also discriminates against disabled, homebound people and probably violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Of course, the “Smart Growth” crew never gave a second thought to those Floridians¼¼their sole goal is to perpetuate the status quo of government of, by and for the developer.  But they overreached and they now know it.
We’ve heard the Chamber is abandoning the “Smart Growth” petition. Instead, in a desperate move, they’re going to lobby the Florida Legislature and push legislators to put a competing amendment on the 2010 ballot to kill FHD. We should not be surprised. This is the crew who recently passed the “360” bill, virtually gutting remaining growth management.
Smart Growth’s real message is: ‘Pave over paradise and wreck Florida’s economy with over-building and keep on doing it.  Don’t let the people vote on growth!!!!   Let’s make sure we hand these dirtbags a loss at the vote in 2010!

Friday, August 14th, 2009
Smart Ideas From Commissioner McKay On How To Reduce Daytona’s City Budget....
City management and the majority of the City Commissioner don’t want to stop spending.  They’re going to raise your property taxes during one of the worst recessions in history, just to prove it.  City Commissioner Sheila McKay emailed a bunch of potential ways to save taxpayer’s money, but sadly, most won’t even be considered.  These common sense changes would save over $20 million from Daytona’s budget annually!
1. Cut $4.6M out of the budget and maintain the current 5.42 property tax rate rather than increase to 6.53.

2. Cut city employees salaries across the board to equal the needed revenue.
4. Make the pier into a state park, saving the city many maintenance dollars.
5. Review bottling water operations for profitability
6. Reduce city management personnel by 10%
7. Regionalize fire services - stop sending a fire truck and EVAC to every medical emergency.
8. Look into overtime practices in fire and police departments.
9. Put leisure services and utilities back into city buildings - save $150,000 in rent.
10. Sell Halifax Harbor Plaza - not making profit and city should not be in the business of rentals.
11. Eliminate Support Services department and out-source fleet maintenance
12. Release LS facility on Orange Ave. to create taxable reuse. This could be used by city to produce income or sell to private user.
13.  Out-source fleet maintenance  No need to keep up our own equipment. Eliminates 65
Public Works employees and 25-30 in Leisure Services, saving almost $3 million.
14. Out-source auto maintenance - being investigated by Mike Robertson at the mayor’s request.
15. Eliminate Government Relations Administrator. One PIO is enough.  Savings $125,000.
16. Increase medical contribution/employee $5??/month. Savings $52,620
17. Reduce the number of consultants at $5M/year.  Savings $2.5 Million
18. Have 19 employees over $100,000; 67 between $70,000 and $100,000. This number has doubled since 2004.  Reduce number of employees and salary levels
19. Reduce vehicle purchase plan - savings $1,500,000? - being done this year.
20. Cut cell phone costs by $35,000 - Cost has tripled since 2004
21. Freeze all raises
22. Cut printing costs. Savings $115,000.  Costs escalated from $94,072 to $248,559
23. Eliminate special magistrate @125/hour Savings = $6,000/yr. He is not needed now. Our code board is underworked and does their work for free.
24. Hire grant writer - 3 grants will be the price of employee (has been put into this budget)
25. Add parking meters for local areas.
26. Hire a professional events coordinator with specific expertise to bring in real income to the city from our events. Perhaps ad some family friendly events.
27. Review Leisure Services department budget line by line.
28. Ease regulations so that more non-conforming buildings can be occupied thus generating additional tax dollars.

29. Account for all monies being spent by fire department in covering such areas as HH, DBS, So. Daytona and the airport with little or no reimbursement by these entities.
30. Remove the restriction on the amount a person is allowed to put into rehabbing their house to bring in more tax money.
31. Put some CIP’s on hold unless "essential to health and safety" of residents and businesses.
32. Do not accept automated water project.  Savings $11Million
33. Stick with established goals of 2004: ‘The City Commission shall adopt measures to reduce costs and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its service delivery systems as a matter of 1st priority.’
The City Commission will consider adoption of new source of revenue only if deemed necessary to ensure the financial stability of the city.
New revenue sources will be considered after cost reductions and efforts to achieve efficiency and effectiveness are adopted and only if the need for new revenue sources is demonstrated to the public.
34. Put traffic lights on sleep mode after 10 or 11PM - flashing only. Saves lots of electricity dollars.
35. Begin two week unpaid vacations for city employee.
36. Modify the city’s pension plan, which has $1.2B unfunded liability, by reducing the 8.4% rate of return, have the participants contribute and change the retirement age and years of service criteria. (Done in Jacksonville)
37. Smokers pay a higher premium for health care. Orange city will charge $650 for smokers/year.

Thursday, August 6th, 2009
Pier Debacle Continues...
Developers hold over Daytona’s city commission was never more secure than now. Pier Developer George Anderson, front man Bill Geary, and lawyer/political hit man Gerry Finke had to do very little work this time.  First George had to pay to take Bill Geary off the corporate paperwork for the boardwalk project, now that it is dead in the water. Geary won’t be his ‘front man’ any longer without more money.
Next, Finke let the pier run down so far that it’s impossible to do any business there.  What’s a developer to do in such tough times?  Anderson decided to make a little withdrawal from the public treasury by having Mayor Ritchey and the city commission buy back what the public already owns.  Seems only right for them to repay all his past campaign contributions and buy out his lease.
The timing is perfect.  If the pier collapses while Anderson holds the lease, his insurance has to pay, however, his insurance won’t pay if there’s lack of maintenance.
George is afraid all of this information becoming public knowledge will jeopardize the giveaways that he hasn’t fully cashed in on for the boardwalk property yet. The plan, written by former Commissioner George Burden, was for Anderson to buy off Gerry Finke and shed himself of the pier liability and now it’s coming apart.
Documentation is being presented almost daily showing the city could evict and the basis of Anderson’s request for payment is all smoke and mirrors. The latest bullshit floated is they own the structures on the pier and deserve to be paid for them. A few shanty town like plywood kiosks are hardly a basis for a multi-million dollar payment..
After dozens of residents objected, the commission pulled back at the last second tabling the pier buyout for another month. Now we can watch them come up with another version of the pier  giveaway while they’re screwing us with next years wasteful budget all at the very same meeting!
Fortunately the truth is out there for all to see. In any other city it would be unthinkable to even propose buying back the pier lease. Here it’s dragged on for months, led by the charge of the   City Manager Chisholm, who owns a beach vendor business and has a clear conflict of interest in even being involved in this issue.
Will anyone ever prosecute these scumbagss? Will voters ever get a choice other than sold out city commissioners like Woods, Reynolds, Shriver and Gillian?  ‘Gillian’ should be given extra scum bag points for arguing the city should cough up the bailout.  Don’t ever expect him to be the people’s choice for Mayor in the future. Campaign contributions in the hundreds of thousands and the resulting multimillion dollar public giveaways will insure his developer buddies always get what they want!

Thursday, July 17th, 2009
Huge Property Tax Increase In Daytona Beach...
When families and businesses experience a drop in income, they chose to spend less.  Instead, our City Commission chooses to spend more by increasing property taxes 17.5%!  In the worst recession of fifty years, with Volusia County number two in the nation in home foreclosures, we can’t believe they chose to increase taxes.
Daytona Beach property values dropped during this recession almost 30%, so the amount of property tax the city collects would have declined the same amount.  Instead of laying off all the extra city employees or not spending $2 million to buy the pier back from Finke, our City Commission decided, it’s only money, so we’ll just tax some more.
They’re hiding behind phrases like ‘rolled back rate’ which is really saying we want to collect the same amount we did last year regardless of the value of your home.
Per County Tax Assessor Morgan Gillreath, over the last nine years Daytona property taxes have increased 135%, while the budget has more than doubled to $220 million!.  The cause is uncontrolled spending, pure and simple.
Mayor Ritchie, Commissioners Shiver, Gilliland, Henry and Reynolds all voted for the tax increase.  Can’t wait to see how they expect to get reelected after angering voters.  Why don’t you give them a call and tell them what you think.

Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Residents To Pay For Daytona Pier Deal...
Looks like major campaign contributor Jerry Finke is going to get yet another great deal that taxpayers will be forced to fund.  The current lease between Diland Corp., (Finke’s company) and Daytona Beach, says Finke is responsible for maintaining the pier.  In the most recent Bellair Community Group Newsletter, pictures of the pier and building on it show major degradation, rot and rust.  Finke’s done virtually nothing to maintain it, nor has he built the public park next to it as he also contracted to do.
Now Finke and city management are attempting to convince our City Commission to spend $2 million to buy out his lease, rather than make him perform or foreclose on his failure to do so.  Despite the obvious and deplorable degree to which Finke has allowed the pier to deteriorate and not performed as our lease with him stipulates, our illustrious city commission appears likely to give him a gift of $2 million of taxpayers money.  On top of that the city estimates it will cost another $2-3 million to repair and remodel the pier and make it usable again, something Finke was supposed to do in the first place.  After we pay to repair the pier then we’ll have to lease it to a company to operate.  Guess who’ll be first in line to lease it back?  That’s right, Jerry Finke!
So we’re paying Finke $2 million, for not doing what he contracted to do, paying another $2-$3 million to repair what he screwed up, then giving him the option to lease it back and operate it at a profit! Just another fine example of how our city management is totally corrupt and could care less about protecting taxpayers interest.
Finke, has made millions over the years by getting special land use changes in exchange for campaign contributions for his hotels and nightclubs, then selling the property and huge profits.
It’s time this piece of garbage is forced to comply to the terms of the lease he signed and actually work to succeed or fail, rather than have taxpayers bear the burden of his bailout again.
Please call and tell the Mayor and City Commissioner you don’t want to bail out Finke and pay him millions for not doing his job.  Mayor Ritchie  671-8007, Rick Shiver 671-8001, Pam Woods 672-8002, Sheila McKay 671-8003, Rob Gilliland 671-8004, Derrick Henry 671-8005, Cassandra Reynolds 671-8005.

Monday, July 1st, 2009
STAND To Sue City...
We spoke to the boys from Striving Towards A New Daytona (STAND) and got current on where they are.  City Attorney Hartman admitted in a letter that Daytona’s city charter is illegal and can’t require 20% of registered voters to sign petitions.  Doesn’t matter to STAND because they collected just short of 10,000 registered voters or 24.5%.  Hartman claimed the need for a certified affidavit from the signature gatherer and 5% of registered voters from each zone is still constitutional.  STAND’s attorney said it’s against state law and they will be moving forward with a lawsuit.  All through the petition collection process city management and elected officials have never addressed STAND’s claims regarding their spending of $100 million more than other cities of similar size or having 300 more city employees than similar municipalities.
While the Mayor and two city commissioners have signed the STAND amendments, the majority of have refused, ignoring ten thousand residents who want to vote on the amendments implementation.  This should be remembered when these fools come up for reelection.  They’re self-serving, ignoring resident’s needs, totally trusting of city management, and easily bought and paid for by developers and other special interest groups.  The STAND boys won’t quit and change is coming to the ‘Red-Neck Riviera.’

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Neighborhood Leaders Meeting A Waste of Time...
This was supposed to be a meeting that promoted the chance for City Commissioners and Neighborhood Leaders to talk and ask questions of city employees.  Instead, Grand Puba Jim Chisolm gave a 40 minute presentation of staff accomplishments, which have been previously stated over and over again.
Chisolm mentioned that five new parks were created.  He neglected to mention that Lenox Park was actually less usable than before the renovations were done.  Perhaps if plans were discussed with the City Commission before the renovation, the results would have been better.
It was mentioned that Daytona will enter into discussions with Holly Hill, South Daytona and Port Orange to find solutions to the flooding problems.  No concrete time line was given.
Approximately 80 residents commented on lack of street lighting, request of more police officers on the street, increased use of public schools for city led recreation programs, burying electric lines, prostitution, panhandling and homeless issues. 
The only city employee that seemed to have real positive results was police Chief Chitwood.  Department arrests have increased from 6,000 in 2006 to over 14,000 in 2009.
It seems City Manager Chisolm’s strategy to have numerous meetings at inconvenient times, conveying the same useless information over and over again is working.  In the meantime he’s having almost no budget meetings to discuss the $220,000 million waste of taxpayers money.
Some things never change in the ‘Red-Neck Riviera.’

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
City Commission Meeting...
Daytona’s Police Athletic League basketball team won the state championship again this year and are traveling to Ft. Wayne, Indiana for the national title game.  We salute their achievement
and decry the fact that City Commissioners gave them $7,500 of our tax dollars to cover traveling expenses.  This is a perfect example of what not to do with taxpayers money.  The police should get off their butts and do fund raising to pay for this which is what happens in most other cities.
During the Consent Agenda, where no discussion by Commissioners or residents is permitted,
city commissioners spent money from their ‘slush funds’ on favorite charities.  Another waste of our tax money that shouldn’t happen.
The Catholic Charities issue was postponed to the July 1st meeting.  This issue should be killed off by the Commission due strictly to the verified high crime and panhandling statics that surround these types of ‘charitable’ situations.
Past waste of space Mayor Bud Asher was reappointed to the Racing and Recreational Board by Commmission vote.
In the May 20th Commission meeting the Gateway Village planned unit development was extended to 2014, or five years. 
This means we have no way to force development which would increase our property tax revenue, while sitting with a large piece of undeveloped land.  As usual developers that contribute large sums to Commissioners campaigns get what they want.

Monday, June 29th, 2009
Commissioner Shiver Campaigns For Mayor...
Rumor has it that Daytona Beach Mayor Glenn Ritchie is considering resigning his position so he can concentrate on running his automobile dealerships.  City Commissioner Rick Shiver wasted no time in speaking with Daytona’s power brokers International Speedway Corporation and Brown & Brown Insurance, to get their permission for him to assume the position if Ritchie leaves.  Only in Daytona Beach would a half-way decent mayor with years of business experience get replaced by an arrogant ‘pot-head’ city commissioner who accepted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer’s money to buy his house, a vacation home in Costa Rica, a beach concession and membership to a local hunt club.
Shiver’s voted for ever property tax and spending increase and bad zoning change suggested by City Manager Chisolm.  In fact, he’s crawled so far up Chisolm’s behind you might as well change the City Managers title to Mayor.
Hopefully, voters will object to our city commission promoting ‘pot-head’ Shiver and insist on a special election so they can actually select their mayor, rather than have our puppet city commission just appoint anyone.  ‘Red-Neck Riviera’ politics...the needs of the many don’t matter to the few with the money.

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
Daytona’s New Deputy Manager Of Public Works, It Just Gets Better and Better...
The following is a press release from the Opelika-Auburn News in 2003 describing the horrible experience Winter Springs had with our new Deputy Utilities Manager, Ronnie McLemore when he was their City Manager:
Here he is praised for controlling growth --- just look about you at all the high rise, high density, ill planned condos/apartments going up to merely support the city's home grown farce called "Tiny Town" by residents, and mislabeled as the TOWN CENTER by those responsible for the phony concept. The mayor and ALL the commissioners are behind these ill planned projects.
Remember the NAME that McLemore brought in to combat the charter change that had signatures enough gathered that would have put the City government back in control by the People, for the People, and of the People. It was "Dr. Watson" alias Auburn city manager Doug Watson. McLemore not only had his commission pay him handsomely, but at times even used the City's police as a chauffer service to and from the airport at the expense of the taxpayers.
The below press release tells of the extraordinary number of jobs, not all by title, or locations that "Ronnie" McLemore has held, but it doesn't tell of WHY he changed jobs so much. We know, and have documents plus personal research in Stuart Florida that indicates he was FIRED from that position BEFORE he became city manager of Winter Springs. Current Mayor Bush and at least TWO of the current commissioners were in on that deceitful hiring without even a background check!
One of those commissioners is commissioner Blake who is now running for County Commissioner since his time has run out in Winter Springs. Of course the mayor Bush is running again for his current office, as is that McGinnis gal. Must be the wonderful high salary raises they gave themselves.
Oh yes we forgot to mention in the the opening regarding the changes in the charter that was to be put on the ballot in November of 2001 was a fact that city manager "Ronnie" McLemore got city attorney Garganese to claim that the paper used in obtaining the required signatures for the charter change was on the WRONG COLOR PAPER -- it was white! He wanted PASTEL colors --- preferably pink! Something's wrong with that guy.
We know what's wrong with McLemore --- he's money hungry. The people will really never know how many jobs, like the one above, he used city time. and money trying to gain employment elsewhere. We know of at least a half a dozen. He should take one --- whoops --- forgot he tried !
Looks like McLemore is the ‘mini-me’ to Chisolm.  He hates residents input and has apparently attempted to deny them their right to petition their government.  Meanwhile the City Commission continues in it’s blissful ignorance, spending more and more of our money on employees we don’t need or want.                                                                                        

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009   
Developers’ Win...Residents Lose Thanks To Crist...
Governor ‘Gimme Campaign Contributions’ Crist signed a new growth management law which gives the Daytona Beach City Commission the ability to change our Land Use and Zoning regulations at will, without any state review and no consideration for the lack of roads and infrastructure already in desperate need of repair.  Now all those really bad developer plans gathering dust on City Manager Chisolm’s desk can be rubber-stamped by the morons on our City Commission.
They’ll get rid of more public schools and destroy more neighborhoods after spending over $400,000 on two different Vision Plans that they now don’t have to use.  Some foolish residents actually believed their input in the Vision Plans had some meaning.
Local development mouthpiece Greg Blose from the the Volusia Homebuilders Association continues to cry poor for Developers, demanding the School Board drop impact fees because of this recession.  Maybe if they hadn’t bribed so many state and local politicians for land use changes, they’d have more money to follow the contracts we gave them and actually build something for once instead of flipping properties for profit after receiving land use changes granted by politicians they bribed with campaign contributions.
Blose neglects to address what will happen when demand returns.  After Florida Hometown Democracy passes, residents will see a stabilization, then increase in their property values.  That is until we run out of water due to over-development.
Which leads us to congratulation to ICI President Mori Housseni.  Looks like all those contributions to the Republican Party finally paid off.  Governor Crist appointed Mori’s sister to the St. John’s Water Management Board and simultaneously signed a new law which gutted the board’s power to stop new water withdrawals, giving almost all the Board’s power to ‘staff.’  Now Housseni’s sister and municipalities ‘Staff’ can make sure Mori’s additional requests for ‘new’ water for development use is always granted.
With Crist’s most recent decisions Daytona will continue to have a Beirut style ocean front, major roads in disrepair, flooding, development based on campaign contributions, highest property taxes in the county and the dumbest politicians Developers’ money can buy.  It’s a beeyootiful day in the Red-Neck Riviera!

Monday, June 1st, 2009
City Manager Chisolm Continues To Build His Kingdom And Spend Our Money Needlessly...
City Manager Jim Chisolm continues to spit in the face of residents begging for less city spending by hiring a ‘Deputy Manager’ of Public Works.  Chisolm stated this was to free up
Paul McKetrick who was doing the job of Public Works Director and assisting Chisolm as a Deputy City Manager.  The new Deputy Manager of Public Works will run the department and also assist Chisolm with city management duties as well.  Bottom line, Chisolm added another senior staff Director to assist him, when he already has eight people working directly for him.  They include:Deputy City Manager-Paul McKetrick, Deputy Public Works Manager-Ron McLeMore, Betty Goodman-Assistant City Manager, Hardy Smith-Government Liasion, Susan Cerbone-Public Information Officer, Bobbie Yarborough-Personal Secretary, Pam Fearn-Office Secretary andCarol Walton-newest Office Secretary.
Before Chisolm was hired, there were only four people in his office, one Deputy City Manager and three secretaries all earning approximately $220,000 plus $127,00 for the City Manager.  At that time three secretaries were considered to be too much.  Now Chisolm has doubled  personnel in his office to eight.  These people earn in excess of $650,000 plus outstanding pension and medical benefits. 
Since Daytona’s population remained the same for the past ten years, it’s logical to assume the amount of services the city needs to provide resident remains the same as well.  Yet, Chisolm has hired hundreds of additional city employees and doubled the budget to over $220,000 million dollars.  Meanwhile the majority of our retarded City Commission can’t seem to understand what the problem is.  Chisolm continues to spend without regard to what it cost residents and our City Commission does nothing.  We’ll make sure to remind voters of that during the next election.

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
Where Is Daytona’s ‘Storm Water’ Money?...
Water, water everywhere.  Flooded streets.  Flooded housing projects in the ‘hood’ at Nova and Bellevue and the $45 million collected over the last five years for storm water sewer repairs and expansion, is no where to be found.  The city of Daytona Beach has been collecting over $9 million annually for storm water repairs for years.  It’s even in a little category by itself on your water bill.  But, they never spend it for what it’s intended.  Like much of the funds in the city budget, it’s transferred and eventually lost, misspent in a never ending ‘shell game.’  You’ve gotta love city management’s creative accounting and the City Commission’s utter stupidity or lack of caring where voters money is actually spent.  Guess City Manager Chisolm believes it’s more important to give the Firemens’ pension fund a cost of living increase, buy and knock down City Commissioner Shriver’s home after he got some poop in it, for $100,000 more
than it’s worth or spend 95% of the police overtime budget on Speed Weeks and not charge the France family for it.  Guess we should get him a little plaque that says ‘God put the water here and God will take it away.’  Be prepared for an increase in your water bill after this little storm.  After all, when opportunity strikes your city management will always get in your pocket to pay for it.  Yee-Haa!

Monday, May 11th, 2009
Business As Usual In The Red-Neck Riviera...
The majority of morons in our city commission continue their tradition of taking direction from
‘King’ Jim Chisolm.  A budget amendment was passed to spend $10,000 from the Halifax Marina Enterprise fund to subsidize the money losing Halifax Marina real estate rental project.
By city ordinance, Enterprise funds such as the Marina and City Golf course are supposed to pay for themselves and not be subsidized from other funds.  You might remember Chisolm convinced the commission to allow Public Works employees to have offices in the Marina building last year.  So instead of rental property that generates income, we continue to subsidize a losing enterprise and allow city employees to work out of prime waterfront real estate owned by taxpayer.
They voted to change the building density at the old police station property from 21 units per acre to 35 units per acre.  This means more crappy apartments can be build on the site, inviting ‘new’ HUD construction for the black minority living in that part of our city.  Guess the commission thinks it good to keep our black resident packed in like rats in their part of town.
The Commissions’ Strategic Planning Meetings have continued with no actual planning taking place.  Now they’re working towards 2010.  No budget meeting have been scheduled and the budget is due to be voted on by August.  Compare that to Ormond Beach that’s had six budget meetings already and is planning a road show style meeting with their residents in every zone before August.  Chisolm continues his absolute control of the city commission wasting their time in numerous meeting where nothing gets accomplished and limiting their input on the way our tax dollars are spent.  Yee Haa!  Some things never change.