McClash Clash
Nick Azzara's lead piece on the Bradenton Herald's front page Sunday is a dramatic follow-up to his earlier piece in which County Commissioner Joe McClash "shrugged" off concerns that 3,000 new homes coming before the commission this week may overburden State Road 64 east of I-75. McClash said the homes might never get built, given the economy, seeming to suggest that approving them doesn't matter.
But the county commission chairman resumed his hard line on new development in Sunday's story, apparently having heard enough from the likes of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch developer Rex Jensen, who has been clashing with the county commissioner over road-building at least since early July. Jensen, whose Lakewood Ranch super-district has bonding authority to build $4 billion in roads and infrastructure, gathered developers to complain about the McClash clash, which threatens "tens of thousands" of jobs, according to high-ticket homebuilder Lee Wetherington, an attendee.
McClash sang a different tune a week ago, when the state appeared go along with a plan to let Manatee County advance the funds and be repaid, so that developers who need new roads built before their projects can be approved can go ahead with their plans.
What's going on, although the Herald doesn't say so, is that developers who were using the county as a rubber stamp for their pricey projects are getting a new signal from McClash, who appears to be putting his foot down on uncontrolled development and may even seek a moratorium on projects that need road-widening or have new-road components.
We say, well, it's about time. Manatee County needs to turn inward and restore some the of the dilapidated neighborhoods in the county's historic core. Those neighborhoods have never seen a curb or a storm drain or sidewalk. much less a streetlight or a new park. But we never expected McClash - or any Republican - to lead the way.
A month ago, on July 2, McClash told Azzara "I cannot in good faith allow more traffic to be on State Road 64" than was already there, and by rejecting three new projects at that time, he gave some badly needed confidence to slow-growth advocates when he also spoke out against the Riverview South.
McClash appears to be rejecting the new developments he was shrugging off a few days ago. He is obviously under a lot of pressure from constituents who say they don't want county taxpayers to bear the ultimate cost of road-building that benefits the developers of new communities and few others, and in Sunday's piece he acknowledges for the first time that the builders' huge profits could easily accommodate the cost of roads.
Azzara did not make mention of the fact that Schroeder-Manatee Ranch officials won a $4 billion bonding authority in earlier negotiations that created a "super-district" within the county, and that bonds are designed for use to "create roads and infrastructure for the future," according to a Herald article by John Simpson on June 15.
Jensen told the paper at last week's meeting that the company has built more than $80 million in roads, and angrily denied that it has been derelict in its obligation to do so.
Short Takes
Big Pull
St. Petersburg millionaire Frank Maggio, who recently announced he is taking on AC Nielsen in the broadcast ratings business, has hired a top NAACP figure and "consultant" Rep. Frank Peterman to back up his play for approval of the Riverview South condominium project on the shore of the Manatee River in downtown Bradenton. The project has run into opposition from County Commission Chair joe McClash and others.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune's account in Sunday's paper is a pretty good one, revealing that Peterman has never done consulting before and that Maggio's contract essentially put him in business.
The NAACP figures in because the neighborhood that is being cheated of park land and a substantial low-income housing project (instead of the 37 units over stores that Maggio plans) is mostly black and represented by NAACP stalwart Rev. James Golden, a traditional black Democrat.
Presumably, the understanding is that if someone has to sell out the community it might as well be one of their own, although the Trib doesn't say that. Attorney Darryl Rouson of St. Petersburg was president of the St. Petersburg NAACP until he stepped down last September. Now he plans to become Maggio's partner in First Dartmouth, Maggio's hot real estate venture.
Secret Cases
When I learned in 2000 that a tentative decision to award plaintiffs in the long-running Winnie the Pooh royalty case against Disney was under seal, I could hardly believe my ears. I got access to the order and wrote about it, but other news outlets like Daily Variety, the Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter were forced to play catch-up ball because it wasn't available to them.
Under a judge's order, some 47 or 48 boxes of records were being hidden from the public, which at that point had been paying for court services for the plaintiffs and defendants for nearly 10 years.
In response The American Reporter hired an attorney friend named Alexander J. Petale, and he joined lawyers for the Times and Daily Variety in a motion to unseal the documents.
It took a little while and Disney was allowed to redact some documents, but they did get opened and set off a worldwide firestorm of publicity for the case, in which entertainment lawyer Bert Fields and O.J. nemesis and Ken Lay attorney Dan Petrocelli were the opposing lawyers.
Now it seems Sarasota courts have a secrecy problem.
A terrific read in the Trib this morning tells of a
dozen cases that have been sealed without adequate protections for the public, who wouldn't even have known the cases existed if they had to rely on the court clerk's record system.
The system was instructed to delete all informaion about most of the cases, and apparently all but one judge didn't know that:
That jurist, Judge Deno Economou, will soon be facing sanctions, we'd guess, for refusing to provide even case titles and numbers to the public on the grounds that the litigants are "not public figures:"
One would be hard pressed to find such a lame excuse, and one so ignorant of a court's responsibilities to the public, elsewhere in Sarasota courts. Other judges contacted by the Trib immediately realized that the seals were indefensible and opened the records.
A few remain closed, however, and as Judge Economou dawdles, Attorney General Charlie Crist is doing the brave and noble thing - nothing, as usual. He presumably doesn't know what kind of hornet's nests may erupt if the secret cases are unsealed, and doesn't have the courage to find out.
But the county commission chairman resumed his hard line on new development in Sunday's story, apparently having heard enough from the likes of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch developer Rex Jensen, who has been clashing with the county commissioner over road-building at least since early July. Jensen, whose Lakewood Ranch super-district has bonding authority to build $4 billion in roads and infrastructure, gathered developers to complain about the McClash clash, which threatens "tens of thousands" of jobs, according to high-ticket homebuilder Lee Wetherington, an attendee.
McClash sang a different tune a week ago, when the state appeared go along with a plan to let Manatee County advance the funds and be repaid, so that developers who need new roads built before their projects can be approved can go ahead with their plans.
What's going on, although the Herald doesn't say so, is that developers who were using the county as a rubber stamp for their pricey projects are getting a new signal from McClash, who appears to be putting his foot down on uncontrolled development and may even seek a moratorium on projects that need road-widening or have new-road components.
We say, well, it's about time. Manatee County needs to turn inward and restore some the of the dilapidated neighborhoods in the county's historic core. Those neighborhoods have never seen a curb or a storm drain or sidewalk. much less a streetlight or a new park. But we never expected McClash - or any Republican - to lead the way.
A month ago, on July 2, McClash told Azzara "I cannot in good faith allow more traffic to be on State Road 64" than was already there, and by rejecting three new projects at that time, he gave some badly needed confidence to slow-growth advocates when he also spoke out against the Riverview South.
McClash appears to be rejecting the new developments he was shrugging off a few days ago. He is obviously under a lot of pressure from constituents who say they don't want county taxpayers to bear the ultimate cost of road-building that benefits the developers of new communities and few others, and in Sunday's piece he acknowledges for the first time that the builders' huge profits could easily accommodate the cost of roads.
Azzara did not make mention of the fact that Schroeder-Manatee Ranch officials won a $4 billion bonding authority in earlier negotiations that created a "super-district" within the county, and that bonds are designed for use to "create roads and infrastructure for the future," according to a Herald article by John Simpson on June 15.
Jensen told the paper at last week's meeting that the company has built more than $80 million in roads, and angrily denied that it has been derelict in its obligation to do so.
Short Takes
Big Pull
St. Petersburg millionaire Frank Maggio, who recently announced he is taking on AC Nielsen in the broadcast ratings business, has hired a top NAACP figure and "consultant" Rep. Frank Peterman to back up his play for approval of the Riverview South condominium project on the shore of the Manatee River in downtown Bradenton. The project has run into opposition from County Commission Chair joe McClash and others.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune's account in Sunday's paper is a pretty good one, revealing that Peterman has never done consulting before and that Maggio's contract essentially put him in business.
The NAACP figures in because the neighborhood that is being cheated of park land and a substantial low-income housing project (instead of the 37 units over stores that Maggio plans) is mostly black and represented by NAACP stalwart Rev. James Golden, a traditional black Democrat.
Presumably, the understanding is that if someone has to sell out the community it might as well be one of their own, although the Trib doesn't say that. Attorney Darryl Rouson of St. Petersburg was president of the St. Petersburg NAACP until he stepped down last September. Now he plans to become Maggio's partner in First Dartmouth, Maggio's hot real estate venture.
Secret Cases
When I learned in 2000 that a tentative decision to award plaintiffs in the long-running Winnie the Pooh royalty case against Disney was under seal, I could hardly believe my ears. I got access to the order and wrote about it, but other news outlets like Daily Variety, the Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter were forced to play catch-up ball because it wasn't available to them.
Under a judge's order, some 47 or 48 boxes of records were being hidden from the public, which at that point had been paying for court services for the plaintiffs and defendants for nearly 10 years.
In response The American Reporter hired an attorney friend named Alexander J. Petale, and he joined lawyers for the Times and Daily Variety in a motion to unseal the documents.
It took a little while and Disney was allowed to redact some documents, but they did get opened and set off a worldwide firestorm of publicity for the case, in which entertainment lawyer Bert Fields and O.J. nemesis and Ken Lay attorney Dan Petrocelli were the opposing lawyers.
Now it seems Sarasota courts have a secrecy problem.
A terrific read in the Trib this morning tells of a
dozen cases that have been sealed without adequate protections for the public, who wouldn't even have known the cases existed if they had to rely on the court clerk's record system.
The system was instructed to delete all informaion about most of the cases, and apparently all but one judge didn't know that:
In addition, Clerk of Court Karen Rushing's computer system that keeps track of every lawsuit and court case is programmed to remove any mention of sealed cases, leaving the public no way to know they ever occurred.
That jurist, Judge Deno Economou, will soon be facing sanctions, we'd guess, for refusing to provide even case titles and numbers to the public on the grounds that the litigants are "not public figures:"
But in a memo responding to the Herald-Tribune, Judge Deno Economou said he would not provide any information about two cases he sealed because "none of the parties are public figures."
One would be hard pressed to find such a lame excuse, and one so ignorant of a court's responsibilities to the public, elsewhere in Sarasota courts. Other judges contacted by the Trib immediately realized that the seals were indefensible and opened the records.
A few remain closed, however, and as Judge Economou dawdles, Attorney General Charlie Crist is doing the brave and noble thing - nothing, as usual. He presumably doesn't know what kind of hornet's nests may erupt if the secret cases are unsealed, and doesn't have the courage to find out.
posted by ...Joe Shea at 2:28 PM
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