Venice on the web
A semi-regular column

- John Patten, 06/21/02 jpatten@veniceflorida.com

Got a comment? Make it here.

Now that's a secure server
Contrary to what I was told, it appears that the ultra secret Petra-designed stealth web site that was created on the city's behalf has surfaced (see Where's The Web?). Turns out it was locked in a safe in City Hall the whole time.

When asked why I was sent on a treasure hunt on a previous occasion, I was told "That's a misunderstanding on your part."

As a friend noted to me privately, what part of "I-don't-have-it" did I misunderstand?

It is important to remember that up until a few weeks ago, nobody at City Hall had ever released any information that this web site had ever been paid for or even existed. The official line was that "software, support and training" were purchased from city I.S. Director Steve Randall's secret company, Petra Software [link points to archived version of web site, Petra Software's web site was taken off the web on June 28, 2002], and the city was sticking to the story that they had gotten way more than they had paid for. Turns out there was no software, there was no training, and the 'support' was ambiguous at best.

But at least this $40,000 web site finally surfaced, a year after being buried and hidden from public view, some 20 days after a copy of it was formally requested from the city, some eight days after I was told that nobody could remember where they had left it.

OK, so now it can be shown, right?

Nope. While the city had allowed reporters from the Gondolier and the Herald-Tribune to see the web site in a controlled situation, I was denied access, in spite of a written request made to the city on May 31.

I was referred to City Attorney Bob Anderson for an explanation.

Apparently, Venice Taxpayer's League reps who had come to City Hall to request a copy of the site were also turned away. The Taxpayer's League is reportedly livid: 'Civil Rights Violation' is the phrase of the day. 'Freedom of Information,' 'Public Document,' etc. As cantankerous as the Taxpayer's League is attributed as being, the plain fact is that they have a point. It's a public document. The public has the right to see it. That's the law.

Me? I just want to see a $40,000 web site that was so good it had to be stored within the most secure server of all: an office safe.

Extortion and bovine by-product
I have received two reports that City Manager George Hunt has made statements to the effect that I was trying to extort from the city. To wit, I am alleged to have stated, "If you give me a job, I can make this all go away."

Now there's a bright idea: try to extort from a city manager and a former chief of police.

To be fair to Hunt, I've left a message with his secretary asking if he really said that and if he'd like to comment. So far no response.

I won't deny that I have sought work from the city as a web designer. Hell, who wouldn't? But an if-then statement like the one that is being attributed to me would be reprehensible, unethical, immoral and probably criminal.

Under NO circumstances would I ever have agreed to sweeping any of this under the carpet, nor would I ever have even hinted that I thought that would be acceptable behavior.

Moreover, such an idea is ludicrous on its face. The Taxpayer's League has had this story for a while trying to figure it all out. Numerous employees at City Hall have been all over this info. The FDLE even has all of this, although they've declined to get involved at this time based on some obscure jurisdictional issues that I still don't understand.

In order for me to be able to make it all go away, I'd need a large ditch out past the freeway big enough to hold at least 20 bodies along with a crew of diggers and about a ton of lime. While the city has the budget for such an endeavor, I don't.

I'm also hearing that I am being described by various parties as loopy, crazy, a loner, someone who spends too much time in cyberspace, etc., etc. Which is fine, I have no problem with any of that, it's all absolutely true.

Duck the message, discredit the messenger. Dish out the bovine by-product.

Now, City Hall keeps saying that everything is on the level, that this is a non-issue. No harm, no foul, nothing funny going on around here.

Assume for a moment that I'm lying and that the official version from City Hall is true. Everything there is on the level and I am an extorter. How does one extort from an honest man? Give me a job or I'll lie about you so that that you can prove me to be a liar?

Extortion can only work when both parties are dirty.

Threats
In the early morning of June 16th, some idiot posted this threat on the venfl.com message board. It was actually posted at 2:20am EST, as the board records time in Mountain Standard Time (don't ask). Seeing as that word 'extortion' pops up again, it's not wild speculation to wonder if one of the players involved posted it after drinking a few too many on a Saturday night. Whoever it is left their IP number behind, which told me that he / she is a customer of verio.net. The reference to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is particularly disconcerting as it almost implies an anthrax-type reaction.

Despite my flip response to the post, I take such threats VERY seriously. I think under the circumstances, any reasonable person would.

I filed an abuse report with Verio (which may or may not have any effect) and I gave the mess to the Venice Police Department to let them figure it out. There's enough clues available to determine who the actual culprit is.

Surreal life
This whole story has a sense of unreality to it, surreal in nature. It may seem like small potatoes at first, a little thing blown out of proportion. It has turned into a big deal, a very big deal. What has had me reeling is the utter ferocity of the responses I received when I first started talking with city officials about this mess.

Hunt was alternately amicable and hostile when I met with him, at one time charging at me from across the room while yelling that I had bought into Taxpayer League lies. Absolutely apoplectic. I stood still with my hands in my pockets, more than a little freaked, and asked him if he intended to duke it out with me. He calmed down after that and the conversation turned amiable, but it was a very weird moment.

Emergency Services Director Joe Slapp is a man I've known, admired and respected for going on 14 years or so. I've often described him over the years as a man who takes no shit before its time, a description he would probably agree with. I can remember interning with the Venice Police Department when I was a student at USF. Richard O'Shaughnessy was Chief then, Slapp was still Deputy Chief. Slapp always taught that a citizen, especially a law enforcement officer, lived in a glass bowl. Accountability. CYA. Do the right thing. Follow procedures, dammit!!! They are there for a reason.

Despite his strong personality, I've never felt uncomfortable around him before. Never had a reason to be. Now we eye each other suspiciously, each wondering what the other is capable of doing.

Red hand on a smoking gun / fragging the poodles
I heard a City Hall employee state that this is the tensest situation that has been seen in City Hall in 20 years or so. I find the statement more than a tad exaggerated, but things are pretty crusty, certainly far more so than over the usual run-of-the-mill fodder over who's packing heat or who's putting a noose on an African-American employee's desk.

The EPA is in town, by the way, supposedly livid over a number of violations at the water treatment plant. Lips are tight, but the rumors are endless. Normally that would be THE story within City Hall. Right now, any revelations about the EPA's investigation, no matter how bad, would probably be a welcome respite.

What is unfathomable is how quickly and tightly the wagons circled around Steve Randall when, nearly a year later, revelations started coming out about what was really on those invoices and the story behind them.

As scandals go, this is actually pretty mundane -- a civil servant started a fake company, set up an unknowing shill to act as a front man, submitted the bills from his own company to the city and authorized the payments himself. Not the most original idea to have ever crossed a civil servant's mind. It's actually pretty cut and dried: red hand on a smoking gun. You be busted.

Even George Hunt admitted the whole thing was illegal. But, while illegal, it was merely a lapse in judgment. A one time mistake that was understandable and fully explainable.

OK, I believe in forgiveness. God knows, I've needed it in my own life many times. But that's assuming you are getting the straight story to begin with.

I have a hard time reconciling 'a lapse in judgment' in juxtaposition with the longstanding fabrications about the Petra invoices: where the money went, what was actually received in exchange.

Why did it take nearly a year to get the full story? Why go to such great lengths to protect the public and the press from the truth about a wayward employee involved in a rather unimaginative scheme?

Why hide a web site for nearly a year? A web site that the city paid $4,700 for and was subsequently valued at $30,000 to $40,000? If it's that good, why put it on a compact disc, lock it away, and describe it publicly only as unnamed 'software?' 

The biggest question: Why the continuing and escalating viciousness in response to questions about something that is 'a lapse of judgment?' Right now, poodles are sniffing at the door, not wolves, not yet. The big dogs haven't caught the scent yet. The city, though, is pulling out rocket launchers to deal with the poodles.

It's damned odd. The whole thing.