39 last show

Sometimes I wonder if the truth about government, and the powers that be, is ever heard on this podcast.
To be honest, there for a while I was contemplating the last show, and what I would say. How would I end my ramblings about the ills of government and how it was destroying our way of life.
I then would have to find some other endeavor to occupy my time, here in the old Iron bunker, doing my best to stay out of the hair of the boss. Trust me; you never want to poke the bear.
As I contemplate this option in my retirement years, and truly consider the fading off into political and internet obscurity, someone opens up a can of worms, and writes something or posts a comment on the old book of faces, or in an e-mail to me.
Sometimes I get a phone call from an adoring admirer, stating an issue that reignites the fire in my political soul, causing me to put pen to paper, and energize my creative juices into a boil.
{SB THE TRUTH}
The past few days have been those kinds of days, to which I speak. The latter of course.
First things first, Credit where credit is due, once again the Barkersview.org, has again ignited my fire. Thank you Mark Barker, by the way, drop me a line, I would like to talk to you.
And anyone can contact me at [email protected]
In his posting of Sep 20th, 2019, which is by the way the date of this podcast, he addresses in a way that only Mark can, a few of the issue that you should be alerted to. By the way you should read it, quite informative.
{SB ROOSTER}
Yes folks it is time to wake up, have that cup of coffee, and get it in gear.
He discusses the crippled campaign finance system.
The ultimate answer is there are no teeth in the enforcement of our campaign finance system.
Most do not know that our Volusia County Representative, Deb Denys, was actually charged with campaign finance irregularities. By the way this is a felony, not a big one like perjury, but still a felony.
She pled no contest, and was adjudicated guilty, with a small fine. I believe it was 1200 dollars.
No big deal to someone that has mucho bucks in her account.
By the way, she had to pay it out of her personal account, not a campaign account. Federal law.
Then on she goes doing, whatever she was doing, like nothing happened.
There is the problem, you break the law, a small slap on the hand, and off you go. Maybe the punishment should fit the crime. Like, oh, removal from office for being a convicted felon?
{SB SURELY YOUR KIDDING}
Just thinking, out loud.
Now, some good news.
Last week I spoke with Jeff Brower, and he is running for the Volusia County Chair, in 2020.
Now, I have known Jeff for some time now, and I have discussed the inner workings of the County Government, and he has decided to go for it.
I guess it did not scare him off.
{SB MAKE MY DAY}
In the very near future, actually after the New Year, I will be reaching out to those who are running, and asking them some very pointed questions about taxes (my favorite), homeless shelters, roads bridges, hurricane preparedness, and other issues.
I am not a politically correct man, and I do not hold back the punches, so get ready for maybe a heated Q and A session.
Speaking of Taxes………
{SB BE AFRAID}
Now enters the 1 billion dollar gorilla in the room.
Yup, with the new over bloated budget, and honestly, no one there to stop it, The Volusia County Council voted to raise your property taxes 4.8 Percent.
This brings the grand total of 980 million dollars to the never ending spending and getting nothing done hands of the Volusia County Manager.
I am sorry, George Recktewald, but I have yet to see anything getting done in our county.
The only thing that is happening is the Fire services are getting into the area of out of control, really how many fires do they really put out?
Our schools are sucking more and more and accomplishing less, and less. This is shown by the grades in and of our schools.
AND, the county still overpays for EVERYTHING!
(Quote from barkersview)
What is this really about?
{SB MONEY MONEY}
You really need to rethink the bidding process, because it seems to me, and a majority of those who watch, the same companies are getting the contracts, and they are usually over budget and in over time.
Prime example; the homeless shelter ripoff.
By the way, they still do not have a leader. Maybe I should apply, and get things going and under control.
I did it for the county.
A story, for another day.
But wait there is more, just to show you how much this council could care less about you.
During my tenure as Chair, I would start our meetings at nine AM, because we had very big agendas, and we needed to do the peoples work, now it ten am. I suppose the old man in the center needs his rest.
When I started, I lived about 45 miles away, and I still was there at eight am, to start the council meetings at nine, and I had the public input at eight thirty am.
Never did I ever stop a citizen from speaking, and sometimes if we ran over, I would ask the council if they would allow the last few to speak before we addressed the business of the day.
It is disrespectful, and actually a violation of Roberts rules of order, the manual the council voted to use as the guide for running the council meetings. But I suppose the rules mean nothing to the old man, or any councilman or woman on the board.
Very sad.
Now we come to another debacle in our county government.
Under the direction of six of the seven council members, that is important, the county manager and county attorney Dan Eckert, have filed an appeal to the state supreme court to defy the desires of the citizens of the state to make the sheriff, tax collector, election supervisor, and the clerk of the courts , Constitutional officers.
Passed so resoundingly, yet our charter officials are fighting the will of the people.
Do I need to say that again? Our Chartered Elected Officials are fighting the will of the people.
{SB FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE}
This in itself is a violation of the charter, and I quote from article one sec.101, basically the preamble to the charter.
“We the people of Volusia County, State of Florida, in order to create a more responsible and efficient local government, do in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the State of Florida, ordain and establish as our charter and form of government this charter of Volusia County, Florida.”
There you go folks, but the emphasis of this issue is this line,
“ do in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the State of Florida,”
Therefore, the rules of percentages of vote, well over the two third requirements, do hereby enact this law as the will of the people, period, the end.
So the acts of the county council, the county manager, and the county attorney, are in fact unconstitutional by the standards of the state of Florida, and the United States Constitution.
They of course will lose the case in the courts, and the will of the people will prevail.
How about that, there may be something that comes out of this anyways, some common sense.