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Simmonds, Cheatham (and how) Got a comment? Make it here.
Experience? It's his long experience in Winter Haven that Simmonds is campaigning on, that and his resounding loyalty to a great city manager that we have here in Venice, George Hunt. To Simmonds, Winter Haven and Venice have shared a number of similar problems. To which can be said: Amen! The similarities are numerous indeed.
Simmonds and Cheatham in Winter Haven To be fair, Simmonds left political office in Winter Haven in 1994 and he almost immediately started getting involved heavily in Venice politics. Much of this article discusses matters that have happened since then. That said, Simmonds did not remove himself entirely from Winter Haven's political picture, as is evidenced by his continued support through the year 2000 of Winter Haven's city manager, Carl Cheatham, a city manager who was forced to retire after the local paper, the News Chief, called for his resignation. Part of the story in Winter Haven involved a married couple, Marie and Brock Gainer, who ran the city's Leisure Services Department (yes, you read correctly). The Gainers were accused of falsifying time cards and appropriating city property. According to online news reports, their disciplinary hearings were messy at best, and raised questions about due process, a situation eerily similar to Venice City Manager George Hunt's handling of the Venice wastewater department investigation of last year. There were stories about Winter Haven getting hit with labor grievances that read almost exactly like stories that have come out of Venice. In Winter Haven, workers claimed that the city harassed, intimidated and retaliated against pro-union workers. There was a litany of allegations of illegal labor practices designed to scare the bejeebers out of city workers in an attempt to keep them from joining the Federation of Public Employees. Then there was the issue of how Winter Haven lost the spring training contract with the Boston Red Sox. A bizarre-sounding series of events led to the team leaving Winter Haven, while City Manager Carl Cheatham was left hosting an hors d'oeuvres party in which baseball dignitaries were invited. Only city employees showed up though, and were reportedly ordered to feast by none other than Simmonds himself. Simmonds subsequently claimed the Pittsburgh Pirates were in negotiations with the city, a claim that resident John McClain stated was patently false and that Simmonds could never reportedly substantiate. According to McClain's letter, Simmonds made up the story about the Pirates in order to avoid embarrassment over the botched hors d'oeuvres party. Simmonds stated that documents from the Pirates did exist to validate his claim, however he did not offer them to Venice Florida! dot com. Additionally, we cannot find any reference to them on the web, they were reportedly never supplied to the News Chief, and we were unable to locate John McClain for further clarification. At the center of all of these controversies was Winter Haven's city manager Carl Cheatham. Things had gotten so out of hand that by May of 2000, the News Chief had had enough and was calling for Cheatham's resignation. One week later, the city commission voted 3-2 to retire Cheatham. Now what does this all have to do with Simmonds, who left office in Winter Haven in 1994 and why am I bringing this all up? Because despite Simmonds' departure from office, he was still a major political player as an outsider in Winter Haven and he used his influence to support Cheatham. Just a few months prior to the News Chief editorial calling for Cheatham's head, Simmonds was blasting at the News Chief for their unfavorable coverage. In a letter to the editor that was published on February 17, 2000, Simmonds attacked the News Chief for the negative coverage by talking about issues such as a library expansion and a relocation of the local police station, issues that weren't even remotely relevant to why the News Chief would, three months later, call for Cheatham's resignation. A search on Google of PolkOnline.com on Carl Cheatham reveals a long list of articles critical of the former city manager and his heavy-handed policies. A list that reads eerily similar to articles written about George Hunt by our local papers. All of this has a direct bearing on Simmonds' political history in Venice, and mirrors almost exactly his political behavior here since becoming involved in Venice politics.
Simmonds and Hunt in Venice Perhaps the most extreme example happened last year. Tom Lyons of the Herald-Tribune wrote a scathing article about Hunt and his participation in a cover-up of illegalities in the city's computer department. This involved an admitted kickback scheme perpetrated by computer department head Charles "Steve" Randall. Hunt admitted that what Randall had done was illegal. Hunt further admitted that he subsequently invented financial information, this in a very public and botched attempt to cover-up the affair. Lyon's article was published on July 14, 2002, and was a follow-up to numerous articles that had appeared in the media about Hunt and his handling of the computer department's financial improprieties. In spite of the fact that Hunt (and Randall's) actions were indefensible, Simmonds wasted no time rushing to Hunt's defense. Three days later, on July 17, a letter from Simmonds was published praising Hunt and lashing out at the Herald-Trib for beating up on the city manager. Simmonds either willfully ignored the uncovered kickback scheme that the paper had reported or he was just too ignorant to figure out why the Herald-Tribune was unhappy with Hunt. Simmonds is no dummy, so the ignorance possibility is highly unlikely. Simmonds knew exactly what the papers were writing about, and Simmonds deflected it all with a strange and goofy straw man argument about how Hunt's opponents were after the city manager over issues of a strong mayor and a reduced but higher paid city council. Hunt's and Simmonds' tactics worked. Randall, in spite of Hunt's admission that the scheme was illegal, walked away from the deal with $12,000 in money earned from submitting bogus invoices to the city, plus Hunt gave Randall a $3,000 raise. Randall still heads the city's computer department. He has never been asked to repay the $12,000 to the city. In subsequent conversations, Simmonds claimed to know nothing about the whole Randall affair. Simmonds has, of late, toned down his vocal support of Hunt by name, but has continued in council meetings to support a number of questionable Hunt initiatives, including a sweetheart airport business park deal (see Simmonds' comments in the minutes of the April 22, 2003 city council meeting). That deal was shot down when newspapers and citizens started questioning how one developer got under the gate early and was formulating plans with the assistance of city staff before the city had even considered accepting bids. Local restaurateur Steve Harner was the developer who got in under the gate on that now-nixed deal. Harner owns, among other things, Bogey's restaurant. Right in front of the restaurant is a Vote For Simmonds sign. No surprise there.
Note: several messages had been left at Simmonds' phone number during the week prior to this article's initial publication in an attempt to allow Simmonds to challenge any inaccuracies that he might feel were reflected in the original version. Simmonds did not return the calls. Simmonds finally caught up with Venice Florida! dot com after the initial version of this story hit the web, and some additions and deletions were made to accommodate the info that he provided.
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. |
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In the Venice Gondolier Sun's
