Hammett snoozes through rezoning petition, wakes up, votes for it anyway
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz - huh?
-- John Patten, 08/23/06
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

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I was at yesterday's city council meeting for only about an hour. It was an hour that deeply troubled me for a number of reasons. There were rezonings like it was going out of style, only they aren't calling them rezonings, they are "Comprehensive Plan Amendments" -- see the agenda.

The S&J Properties amendment, adjacent to Sorrento Woods, is contentious at best. The Planning Commission rejected the proposal unanimously back in July. City council overruled the planning commission, stating that, in effect, the planning commission was clueless.

Huh?

There were so many red flags here.

1.) When the planning commission votes unanimously one way and city council votes unanimously in the opposite way, something is seriously wrong.

2.) interim mayor Fred Hammett couldn't possibly have heard all the arguments for the issue -- he snoozed through much of land use attorney Jeff Boone's presentation. Out cold. Gone. Head sideways, mouth agape. Practically had his head on Vice Mayor Vicki Taylor's shoulder.

I wasn't the only one to notice this, by the way. The denials will be fast and furious, of this I am certain. I will sleep through them. Wake me when the false indignity ends.

Hammett woke up just as Boone was finishing his presentation, groggily asked a couple of apparently scripted questions and acted like he had been paying attention. Hammett then proceeded to join with the rest of council to vote unanimously for the S&J development. Either he was staying on script or the sentiment is -- if you don't know what the hell the Boones are talking about, just vote for it and be done with it.

I'm thinking you are supposed to maybe recuse yourself in such a situation, but I could be wrong.

Herb Levine has a running joke and it could never have been truer: Hammett can't talk while Dan Boone (fellow land use attorney and father to Jeff Boone) is drinking a glass of water.

3.) Despite a volume of information from the Boones and from residents opposed to the north Venice development, John Simmonds rode the fence. Simmonds stated that even if council voted yes, they still could vote no later. Ya know... sigh.

It gives Simmonds the fudge room to say he hasn't voted for a massive chunk of growth in an overburdened real estate market. This was buck-passing at its finest. Boone agreed, stating he hoped all of present council would be back (after the election) to vote for the development.

Why would you vote yes now and string along a developer only to say no to him later? That just isn't going to happen. If Simmonds is claiming that he can't decide yet based on the information provided, that's crap. The planning commission felt that they had more than enough information to make a decision. Simmonds is for this baby, that's fine, but why hide behind this 'we can always say no later' ruse? Oh yeah, because he's up for re-election and this is a major chunk of growth that he can still say he didn't vote for... yet.

4.) Boone's remark that he hoped all of present council will be back to vote for the project was a hell of a lot more subtle than C.J. Fishman's famous 'The-CQG-owns-your-bought-and-paid-for-ass-now-vote-the-way-we-want-you-to' speech. Fishman gave that speech before council on Mike Miller's downtown towers project in the CMU debates in council almost a year ago. Nevertheless, Boone's comment was the same in context -- he and a few others hold the campaign purse strings. We hope you are back after the elections, but, ya know, there's this project here that I want passed...

It was probably the compelling argument that led to the 7-0 vote. Vote for me and I'll set you free. Well, not free, but I'll set you up with a nice campaign coffer.

5.) More developments? Doesn't anyone read the newspapers? We have too much housing, nobody can pay their insurance, property taxes are insane, nobody can sell their homes because of taxes and insurance, here, let's glom things up with yet more housing glut. I swear, we have lost our minds as a community. What did we do, take a look at Flint Michigan as a role model?

In the years past, Venice has been touted as the place to move to and the place to retire to. Looking at all of the for sale signs throughout the city (or even a walk through the MLS database), Venice has now become the new Dodge, as in "Get the hell out of..." It was avoidable -- smarter growth in the past five years could have prevented much of this, at least in our community. We still could, might possibly rebound if we can somehow figure out a way to get either taxes or insurance fees (or both) under control. Failing that, adding more homes into this mix at the present time is a formula for collapse.

I like Bill Willson, John Moore, Vicki Taylor and John Simmonds. I think they are the best thing that has happened to council since I have been here. I think they are honest and honorable -- a far cry from councils of the recent past. The problem is that these four still have yet to meet an annexation that they didn't like.

Christ on a cracker, this town is at an economic crossroad and council is cheerily veering on towards more glut, more growth, more tax liens, more foreclosed homes, more developers tossing in the chips.

I've never been anti-growth, much as folks would paint me out to be that way. I have always been pro-real estate (and the two are often at odds). The way we've done growth has been dumber than hell. Just look at a map of the city -- it was maps like this that led to the creation of the word 'Gerrymandering.' This latest batch of development proposals, S&J and Royal Capri, is sheer idiocy, if only for the economic timing.

Council can turn down a proposal for a variety of reasons. Worries about the current real estate market and the effects of current growth on that market are not invalid concerns.

Hell just go back to sleep, all of you. Raise your hands in an AYE vote when the Boones give the signal. If the strings are attached properly to Hammett's wrist, we won't even have to wake him up.


John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.