Cells
Roy Stout (shown at right), treasurer of the Venice Taxpayers League, dropped another bomb on council this past Tuesday. After making a detailed study of wastewater division head Patricia (Pat) Wilson's city-owned cell phone bills, Stout publicly accused Wilson, without actually naming her, of racking up near-astronomical bills for personal calls made at the city's expense. In a detailed analysis of Wilson's phone bills going back five years, Stout pointed to numerous instances of abuse of cell phone privileges, including extensive use of high-priced roaming charges of calls to friends and family while Wilson was on vacation in Colorado and Ohio (MP3 audio, 1.6 MBs, 4:15).

Stout was later asked if the employee he had been referring to was, in fact, Pat Wilson, and Stout answered affirmatively.

The Truth Squad's bells
City Manager George Hunt and Utilities Director John Lane dismissed the accusations, stating that Wilson used free minutes from a collective pool of minutes that Nextel provides as part of their base fee, something that the bills themselves do not bear out. Jeff Boone (shown at right, seated next to his father E.G. 'Dan' Boone), attorney for numerous developers, even got into the rush to defend Wilson.

Boone stated that most businesses allow their employees some personal use of business cell phones, citing examples such as calling home to find out about a sick child. While Boone apparently never actually looked at the phone bills in question, Boone stated that he saw nothing unusual in the phone bills. Specifically mentioning and addressing the TV audience that would watch the council proceedings, Boone stated that this was all an election ploy by the same few disgruntled citizens in an attempt to discredit the city. Boone continually referred to the Taxpayers League as the Tax League in an apparent attempt to paint the league as promoters of raising taxes.

His father, attorney Dan Boone, would later get into the act. Directly addressing the TV audience while noting that this is election season, the senior Boone called for the formation of The Truth Squad (insert your own kazoo ta-da music here) to combat the lies of "the Tax League." Apparently bragging about his control of newspaper content, he commended the two local newspapers for being smart enough not to print negative news stories about the Venice city government (MP3 audio, 0.6 MBs, 1:32).

The Boones are key sponsors for the Citizens for Quality Government PAC, a PAC that is often referred to by its own members as the Good Ol' Boys.

"It's theft, plain and simple," one police official told me on condition of anonymity. "If an officer in our department did this with a city cell phone, he'd be up on charges."

Pell
As reported previously, the city has been ordered to rehire fired worker Michael Pell. The arbitration order, which is binding and thus not open for appeal, stated that the city must "make him whole." It's that making him whole part that is going to be expensive. It means that Pell is to receive two-and-a-half years worth of back pay plus any medical benefits that he and covered family members would have been entitled to. Pell was making $30,000 annually at the time of his dismissal.

The back pay would also include raises that the city has agreed to under their collective bargaining agreement with AFSCME. Add on legal fees, the cost of arbitration, man-hours put in by numerous witnesses over the two-and-a-half years that the case has dragged on, and we're looking at upwards of $100,000 that the city is potentially on the hook for, money that will be spent while receiving nothing in return. It is still unclear whether the city can deduct from the Pell payout any monies that Pell may have earned elsewhere while the arbitration process dragged on.

Pell, who was an electrician in the city's maintenance division, was fired by the city in April of 2001. Pell was accused of misappropriation of city property, a charge that Pell did not contest. What Pell did contest was the fact that he was singled out for punishment for doing the same thing that his co-workers and supervisors were doing. Pell was the only employee disciplined, despite the city's knowledge of other employees who had committed the same offense.

Arbitrator Jerome Wilson stated in his final decision that the city cannot single out one person for punishment when a whole department, including supervisors, are caught doing the same thing, as was the case in in Pell's firing. Pell was accused of using city property to make signs which he then took home. Pell insisted he used scrap materials. According to the final arbitration ruling, one of his co-workers who was not disciplined, Harry Holder, had purportedly used city lumber and street sign poles to build two picnic tables while on city time. Holder was allowed to return the tables with no questions asked. Holder, who is still employed by the city, never faced any disciplinary action on the incident.

The impact of the Pell decision is devastating and has a direct impact on the city's bottom line. The city is choosing not to punish Pat Wilson for her personal use of cell phones. Because of this, any city employee may now use city phones to make all of the long distance charges that they wish. If they are a member of the union, any disciplinary action that the city takes can be challenged successfully in arbitration by citing the Pell decision as a precedent.

Likewise, the city has left itself open for various other scams. Back in 2000, Charles (Steve) Randall, head of the city's computer department, formed his own company and secretly billed the city for over $12,000 worth of invoices, a direct violation of state law. The city made the checks co-payable to Randall's company, Petra Software and a friend of Randall's, Jim Gardner. According to internal documents, the city was never told that Randall owned the company. The checks were deposited into Randall's business checking account without Gardner's endorsement. When contacted last year, Gardner stated that he had never laid eyes on the checks that were made payable to him and didn't know that his name was on internal city documents or on any checks.

Randall was suspended without pay and was later given a raise that compensated for the loss in pay due to the suspension. He was never ordered to pay back the $12,000.

Taking the Petra Software case and applying the Pell decision makes for a frightening scenario. As it stands right now, any city employee who wants a bump in pay can form their own company and start billing the city. If the person is a member of AFSCME and is caught, the most that the city can do as punishment is to issue a suspension. Under the precedent established by the Pell decision and because of how Hunt handled the Petra Software case, the city could likely not fire the individual, couldn't order them to make any restitution and probably could not successfully prosecute any such thefts.

So who's responsible for this mess?
In the case of Petra Software and Steve Randall, a whole lot of folks are responsible for this mess. Councilman David Farley, now-retired Police Chief Joe Slapp and Mayor Dean Calamaras were staunch supporters of Randall. Hunt (shown at right) ultimately issued the decision to merely suspend Randall and subsequently lied to council and the city about the incident, stating that the city had received "more than it had paid for" in the form of software, training and support (no software or training was ever actually received, and the support was something that falls under Randall's job description). In spite of the admitted illegality of the whole affair, Randall still works for the city as the head of the computer department.

In the case of Michael Pell, Hunt's fingerprints are again all over an ugly and expensive situation while city council looked on and said nothing.

So, to answer the question of who is responsible for this whole mess: Hunt primarily, with a lot of help and support from several members of council.

With $10 million in the balance, the city holds a gun to our heads
Meanwhile, Hunt and council are on a begfest of questionable motives, asking the citizens to cough up votes that would allow the city to borrow $10 million. There are already signals of deception.

Soon, every citizen will receive a brochure in the mail with their water and sewer bill. Smack in the center of the slick-paper tri-fold is this statement:

Q: What will happen if the bond issue does not pass?
A: If the bond issue does not pass, it will be unlikely that the Island Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant will be purchased and converted to a park, as no other funds are available for this project.

Which is absolutely not true.

At the council meeting of July 22, 2003, Mayor Calamaras promised the community that even if the bond issue didn't pass, the city would make good on its promise to buy the plant and turn it into a public park. This is noted in the minutes of that meeting: "Mayor Calamaras reiterated, should the bond referendum fail to pass, the designated projects would occur but would be over a longer period of time."

The mayor was asked again about that at the end of the meeting, and he affirmed his statement. When questioned about the wording in the brochure and asked if the wording would be changed to reflect the mayor's and council's intent, the mayor stated that the wording in the brochure would be changed.

Despite the mayor's promises, the wording that remains in the brochures states that it is unlikely that the plant will be converted to a park if the bond referendum fails. Tracy Knight of Knight Marketing, the company contracted by the city to produce the brochure, has stated that she has received no direction to change the wording.

Moreover, at least two separate sources of potential funding do exist. Jeff Boone, at the council meeting of March 11, 2003, noted that the county has funds set aside for just such purposes, and he urged council and the Taxpayer's League to pursue such alternate funding.

The Taxpayer's League did better than that. Roy Stout discovered a little known FAA policy that would allow the Federal government to actually give the land to the city at no cost under a set of conditions that would include turning the land into a park permanently. Stout has stated publicly that he has spoken with the FAA about possibly donating the land and that the FAA has been receptive to the idea. Hunt, wanting the bond issue to pass, has stated that Stout's conversations with the FAA are fabricated.

EPA indictments in the wings
The EPA criminal investigation into the city is reportedly about as finished as it is ever going to be. According to knowledgeable sources, the EPA is now waiting for a Federal courtroom in Tampa to be freed up so that formal Grand Jury proceedings can commence. The timetable now is reportedly around mid to late October for the Grand Jury to be in full swing. This in turn means that any indictments that are handed down will likely be issued some time after the November 4 election.

That the EPA will be seeking numerous indictments against city officials and employees is a foregone conclusion. The questions that remain now is who, what specific charges and how many counts?

It has been learned that City Manager George Hunt is a primary target of the investigation, along with Pat Wilson and John Lane (both shown at right). Additionally, eight other individuals on whom the EPA is likely to seek indictments have been identified. These include former and present members of city council as well as supervisors and employees of the city's utilities department. The charges that will reportedly be sought at the Federal Grand Jury are serious enough that, if convicted, some or all may face lengthy prison sentences.

City Attorney Bob Anderson (who has not been identified as a possible suspect) has stated on the record at a recent city council meeting that the EPA is looking into undocumented spills, deliberate spills and falsification of records.

As to the number of criminal counts: based on information gathered from a variety of credible sources and on inferences from similar cases that the EPA has investigated in the past, the number of criminal counts for which indictments will be sought could number as high as 40 or 50.

The general consensus among city employees is that Hunt and council will somehow manage to wiggle out of any legal troubles that are coming at them. There is ample reason to believe that, the above mentioned Petra Software case being a prime example, along with the FAA's recent (and still ongoing, technically) investigation into the city for diversion of revenue.

Those within the city that are close to the investigation dismiss such fears, stating that there is no way that the EPA is walking away from this one, not after a year-and-a-half's worth of extensive work.

Most of what is known cannot be printed for fear of damaging the EPA's case. Rest assured, this is no fluff case.

Just as an indicator, take a look at a quote made by Rick Langlois, an EPA special agent in charge of investigations. Langlois spoke about the EPA's criminal investigation into Venice's wastewater operations and was quoted by Pat Horwell in a June 11 article for the Gondo as stating, "I'm not sure how many law enforcement agencies are involved. Right now, the best thing we can do is not talk about or discuss it."

Now take a look at recent EPA press releases. Note the kinds of cases in which multiple law enforcement agencies have been involved.

Even if you eliminate everything else, just the quote from Langlois and a read-through of recent EPA press releases should tell you that the city is in a very, very bad jam.

Sarasota County and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection join the fray
It appears that Sarasota County and the Florida DEP are both breathing additional fire onto the city's utilities department.

The DEP has been formulating fines that will be levied against the city for unlawful spills into Curry Creek. According to Tom Gucciardo of the DEP, an administrative settlement offer was mailed to the city on June 4. In that settlement offer, the DEP asked for $87,000 in fines. The DEP has an October 1 meeting scheduled with Venice officials to discuss the settlement offer.

Meanwhile, there have been numerous meetings within the past seven to ten days between Rob Patten and Rick Howell and the trio of Hunt, Lane and Wilson.

Rob Patten (no relation to the author of this article) is the Executive Director of Environmental Services for Sarasota County. Howell is the county's General Manager of Utilities.

The word among the troops is that the county may be moving in to seize the wastewater operations in coordination with the EPA's criminal investigation, a rare but not unprecedented action. If true, this would explain rumors that are flying around the utilities department that Hunt is again trying to privatize the plant in a hurry.

Despite numerous phone calls over the past week, the county will neither confirm or deny that such a move is in the works. The county will only confirm at this time that meetings are taking place but will not reveal why the meetings are taking place.

Whatever is happening, one thing is clear: the meetings with the county have Hunt, Lane and Wilson spooked mightily. Sources have provided some anecdotal information indicating that these meetings are weighing heavily, physically and emotionally, on the trio. Hunt's Manager's Report to council this past Tuesday omitted any mention of the meetings with county officials despite his attendance as confirmed by Rob Patten's and Rick Howell's offices.

The future's so bright, ya gotta wear shades
More than anything else, one thing becomes abundantly clear: the city government's veil of secrecy is about to be shredded in the coming months. For years, the Venice Taxpayers League has accused the city of a large number of shady deals. VTL president Herb Levine has alternately been demonized and canonized (and at one point, arrested) over the years, depending on which way the political wind was blowing at any given time.

For Levine, the moment of truth is nearly at hand. "I think it's about time. This has been a long time coming. What a shame that it has to come to this. We have a beautiful city, great weather, it's almost like paradise. But just because it's a paradise or an Eden, why do we have to have snakes? It's a sin that we have to have this kind of management in the city, but it's only a reflection of the council people that we have elected."

In this EPA investigation, one question rises: why? Why would people risk their careers, indeed their very freedom, to merely falsify spill documents? Why would a city manager, along with a full city council standing behind him, support several utility supervisors that should have been fired long ago for numerous documented transgressions?

As Nixonian as things have become, a clear lesson from Watergate is plainly evident: follow the money. Why would spills and sewage flows be falsified? Why would the city want to make it appear as if they are handling less sewage than they really are? Who would benefit financially from such a deception? With a brand new spiffy wastewater plant that is supposed to be able to handle practically anything that can be thrown at it, why is such a deception needed?

The answers to all of these questions are very likely at the core of the EPA's criminal investigation. As future events unfold, the answers will become painfully evident.

Stay tuned, this ride is just beginning.