EDITOR'S NOTE: Below is an article by John Susce that will be published in an upcoming print edition of Tempo News under the headline "Ship of fools at helm of Sarasota Herald-Tribune." Susce is, to say the least, highly critical of the Herald-Trib's glossing of recent events at Grove Terrace, the HUD-funded housing complex owned and operated by the Venice Housing Authority. The breaking point for Susce was this recent Herald-Trib editorial.
     I have been following this story as it has been developing. I agree with Susce that the Herald-Trib's coverage has been abominable, but I disagree with Susce on the cause of the bad coverage. Susce implies that the reason for H-T's fictional gloss job is that the H-T is in bed with land developers and is deliberately and consciously lying --  that's not an entirely unreasonable conclusion one might come to if one knew the Grove Terrace story well and then started reading the H-T's interpretation of recent events.
     I think the Herald-Trib suffered from a failure to fully understand the story -- this has more to do with sloppy research combined with blind trust in statements made by the VHA's board.
     I have relayed these thoughts to the H-T's editorial department and received some raised eyebrows: the paper was apparently unaware that there was any dissension aimed at the VHA's recent decision to push for demolition. I have been promised by the H-T that they will re-examine the story in light of both Susce's recent writings and complaints by the new residents council.
     We'll see how it goes.
-- John Patten, editor, Venice Florida! dot com 

Ship of fools at helm of Herald-Trib
If anyone wants another example that Dianne McFarlin is commanding a ship of fools at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, read the recent editorial in the paper calling the redevelopment of the Grove Terrace Public Housing a “model for public housing.”

The editorial in the paper states “Venice Housing Authority (VHA) is advancing an impressive plan that calls for the demolition of the 50 unit Grove Terrace project.” The problem not spelled out by the Herald-Trib is that after the VHA runs the residents off with Section 8 vouchers and demolishes the property, there is nothing in the plan calling for the redevelopment of the site or for bringing the residents back. According to VHA/HUD consultant George Bell, “that is down the road.”

The Herald-Trib editorial mentioned that “Bradenton public housing has successfully demolished and re-built on site and the housing authority in Sarasota is on its way to doing the same thing.” What the editorial conveniently fails to ask is: How many of those residents that received vouchers to move out before demolition have moved back into the rebuilt Bradenton project? How many will move back in Sarasota?

Another problem with the editorial is a statement by Samuel Prost, chairman of the VHA, which is inaccurate according to a consultant for the VHA. In the editorial, Prost is quoted as saying “The authority has no intention of selling the property.” Unfortunately for Prost (and the writer of the editorial), the consultant for the VHA disagrees. At a resident's council meeting on November 28, VHA/HUD consultant Bell stated that the selling of the property to a private developer “...Is still on the table.” Bell explained that in order to get HUD approval to evacuate current residents and demolish the existing buildings, “...it is not necessary to have redevelopment in the plan.”

As for the Sarasota Housing Authority (SHA) “formula,” take a look at how the same experts that were hired to remove HUD beneficiaries in New Orleans have replicated the same formula at the recently demolished Cohen Way public housing site in Sarasota. SHA Residents were “vouchered out” prior to demolition, then the property was sold to private developers within weeks of the demolition. The buyers were Lions Gate, the multi million dollar developers of the Proscenium in Sarasota, under the guise of Habitat for Humanity (for those folks who are under the illusion that Habitat for Humanity in Sarasota is some sort of benevolent organization, ask the residents of the Cohen Way condo association -- They were recently sued by Habitat and the SHA).

Nothing in the Herald-Trib's editorial stated that the VHA has been chatting up the demolition plan for 10 months while there was no resident’s council in existence (a resident's council is a legally required participant in the entire process of developing any new plan such as the one under current consideration). Nothing has been written by the Herald-Trib about the VHA attempting to conduct an illegal resident's council election back in January. Nothing in the editorial or any other item recently published in the Herald-Trib investigated why a highly politically connected consultant hired by VHA, Kirsten Packard and the Picerne Developers, “pulled out” of project last year after they were given $8.1 million in tax credits by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. The “official” reason given was that after a year of planning the project and receiving the grant, it was suddenly discovered that Grove Terrace was “vulnerable to floods.”

It is about time that McFarlin and her multi-million dollar developer “mentor,” Lee Wetherington, attend one of the VHA meetings. They need to observe firsthand the actions of an incompetent housing board as they run poor working folks off of valuable property, actions that are driving Venice Taxpayers League president Herb Levine, in his words, “to tears.”

John Susce is a reporter for Tempo News -- he has been covering stories about HUD housing in Sarasota County for a number of years. This article was reproduced with the permission of the author.