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Shock and awe -- city hall turns on a dime, now abuses the ex in-crowd's due process rights AUDIO FILE OF PLANNING COMMISSION MOTION & VOTE (9:42), MP3 file, 3.3 MBs Got a comment? Make it here.
What's wrong with this picture? Less than three years ago, an elected official made national news by calling me the worst thing that ever happened to the City of Venice. Last night at Casey's Bar & Grille, folks were waiting for the election results. I raced in with the results from eight of eleven precincts and had the distinct honor of announcing that Sue Lang, Ernie Zavodnyik, and Ed Martin had won their seats on city council handily, thus staging a bloodless coup and totally overturning current city government. It's a coup that has been a very, very long time coming. Just a bit later, Lang, as a newly elected official, publicly lauded me "for all of the hard work [that I have] done over the years." What the hell is wrong with this picture? Right after her acceptance speech, I told Lang, "Tonight you are the hero, but tomorrow you are my lunch." She laughed and immediately slugged me. Hard. It was one of those guy/guy jabs Into my left shoulder and I really didn't expect it. I'll give her this, for a relatively diminutive lass, she's got a good right swing.
We'll just continue the same shenanigans, we'll just find a different target Let's start with the Planning Commission's shenanigans from yesterday's meeting. While I have criticized developer Mike Miller and his attorney, Jeff Boone, for trampling on due process in their attempt to shove a Wal-Mart down our throats, if the accounts I am hearing about yesterday's meeting are true, I am even more aghast at the way the Planning Commission knee-jerked him into legal limbo. Boone and Miller asked for a continuance until mid-December on the Wal-Mart proposal. That's normally a gimme. The Commission said no. With voters racing to the polls and the big fear in the air that slow-growth candidates would soon be over their heads, the Planning Commission abandoned any semblance of common sense. Just no. No continuance. We're gonna deal with this now. That was bad. That was dumb. But wait... it gets worse. I am told that the Planning Commission started discussing how they were going to turn down a motion to approve the Wal-Mart, as no doubt the motion would be made shortly. According to witnesses (I have requested the audio as I still can't believe it), John Osmulski, Jim Myers, and Janis Fawn started going through the items that they didn't like in the Wal-Mart proposal. Then a motion was made to deny based on the reasons cited in the prior discussion about a possible upcoming motion. Then a vote was taken, and the commission voted 7-0 to deny. You can't do that. You can't discuss the contents of a possible future motion, at least not in an extremely prejudicial pre-judging manner like what happened yesterday. You can't do it. It's wrong. It is as clear a violation of due process rights as it gets. What the hell are these people thinking? Are they thinking at all? City Attorney Bob Anderson wasn't at this Planning Commission meeting, as he was on vacation. Sitting in his stead was his law partner, Wayne Hall. The Planning Commission might have done as well by appointing my dog as interim city attorney. Over the course of the past few weeks, I have repeatedly jumped on Miller's case for abusing due process. But Miller is not a government official. It was up to the Planning Commission to slam Miller at the meeting of two weeks ago. They didn't do that. Instead, they allowed Miller's circus of fake protesters to take center stage. The Planning Commission allowed the mob to run amuck at city hall, trashing council chambers and the bathrooms. The Planning Commission totally lost control and they have been apparently scrambling ever since to regain it. So, two weeks after that, in a knee-jerk and blindingly stupid reaction to their own stupidity, they returned the favor by trampling all over due process themselves by pre-judging a motion that had yet to be made. As one witness described it, it was like all the normally quiet kids on the playground descended on the loser of a swing set fight and they all started kicking him simultaneously.
Pissed off and rightfully so If I understand correctly, the Planning Commission so egregiously violated Miller's rights that they may have inadvertently guaranteed giving him the Wal-Mart in the future, this after a series of legal hearings that could culminate in a circuit court judge pimp-slapping the commission so hard that the city would end up paying for Miller's entire legal fees on this whole mess, plus be required to approve the Wal-Mart. Dumb. Just plain dumb. The Planning Commission, faced with a new city council, reacted out of a blinding terror that there might be calls for their replacement. As a result, they have practically ensured that such a call will take place. Let me be the first, right here and now. No really, it's my pleasure. My fight with city hall over the years has almost always involved the abuse of due process. While you might not feel sympathetic to Miller on this issue, I would suggest that you suddenly do get sympathetic. City hall has just been overturned in an electoral slaughter, this so that everyone can get a fair shot at (and due process when) being heard by elected and appointed city officials. That's been our call, that's been our cry, that's been our own personal Book of Lamentations. That "everyone" includes Mike Miller. The new city council and the newly empowered voters in this city's electorate need to learn that. Fast.
John Patten is the editor and publisher of Venice Florida! dot com and had previously worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times. |
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