Mount Dora politics #2

Subject: Mount Dora Politics - #2

Please feel free to pass this on to your Mount Dora friends and neighbors, who need to be informed before they vote on November 5th.......

I was forwarded this email from Randy Wiseman, candidate for Mayor of Mount Dora. 

It's a classic in a number of ways.....this is Wisemans email.....

WHAT ABOUT THESE FACTS

These are the FACTS:

Main Street Leasing has taken over Mount Dora.

FACT They own more than half of the 11 acres that is downtown.

FACT They have a vacancy rate of over 50%

FACT They want to build 6 story buildings downtown.

FACT The new streetscape goes all the way around Main Streets city block.

FACT The new streetscape provides Main Street Leasing city property to use for FREE for PROFIT.

FACT Main Street Leasing is supporting their own slate of candidates.

FACT Main Street Leasing is giving their candidates money.

FACT Main Street Leasing does not care about the rest of the city.

FACT Main Street Leasing has always supported Melissa DeMarco.

FACT Melissa DeMarco has endorse Main Streets slate of candidates.

FACT Melissa DeMarco IS Main Street Leasings MOUTHPIECE. 

FACT Main Street Leasing does not want any distractions to their projects. Ergo they are using Medallion Homes as a distraction.

 

You should share this email with your friends if you care about Mount Dora.

If you do not care about Mount Dora; well then you know where you can put it.

Some comments......

1/ He's blaming the messenger. 

He rants about the former mayor Mel DeMarco, who isn't running for office, who did a stellar piece of investigative reporting on campaign contributions from Medallion Properties to candidates.....copy below.

2/ It's strange and incoherent.

The entire memo is to do with Main Street Leasing. What has this to do with anything directly relevant to this election? And whatever your opinion of Main Street Leasing and how it is handling it's holdings in Mount Dora, it's a law abiding corporation that minds it's own business in our private enterprise system. 

3/ It's angry.

Look at the last lines......

You should share this email with your friends if you care about Mount Dora.

If you do not care about Mount Dora; well then you know where you can put it.

4/ It's not true.

This is Mel DeMarco's reply to Wiseman's FACTS letter......Oct. 4th

Oh my, here we go, 

I am not sure why I am the person targeted in this race by Mr. Wiseman or some of his supporters.  My name is not on any ballot.  I am not a candidate for public office.  I served for 6 years.  I enjoyed it;  I did my best at it.  I am a private citizen who probably has a little head start when it comes to knowing where to look for information about local politics, that's it.  I am absolutely certain that I was not the best mayor Mount Dora ever had - but I also know I was the very best mayor that my integrity, my passion, my experience and my ability allowed me to be.  I look back on that time with great appreciation and fondness for the memories and challenges it provided.

I will say that it is humbling to see that my letter reached so many hands and was so widely read and appreciated. In that letter I do not speak for anyone but myself.  I never have - other than for a brief period in my life, when as the mayor, I spoke on behalf of Mount Dora - in accordance with our City's charter.  

Now…rather than respond to or encourage this type of angry rhetoric, I encourage whoever receives this to do what I did…research it.  Just because someone types "FACT" before a sentence or sentence fragment does not make it true.  

To be blunt - I don't know what Larry Baker, Ken Mazik or Main Street Leasing think about what I wrote - nor did I ask for their opinion or their input when I wrote it.  I also did not ask what any of the candidates thought about what I wrote.  Didn't ask Medallion Home either, obviously.  I read all of the campaign finance reports for the last 2 years,  I talked to most of the candidates to get their views on the City.  I read and reviewed article after article from the papers in the Bradenton and Tampa area, I reviewed meeting minutes from P&Z,   I reviewed City Council meeting records, I spoke with a former elected official from Manatee County where the Medallion Home developer was working to push through the Long Bar Pointe project, I spoke with the citizen chairman of the Mount Dora Planning and Zoning Committee and with a representative from the Tax Appraiser's Office in Lake County.  I did public record requests.  Then I shared my research and the opinions I came to based upon what I found.

I researched for hours before I wrote that piece about campaign contributions.  I am happy to share my source documents with anyone.  I stand behind my research 100%.  Somehow I am doubtful much thought went into the below missive that was originally emailed under the name "Dax Lannister".   This email below is incorrect in most - if not all of its assertions.  Its belligerent  tone is designed to create a specific emotional, angry response from the reader.  With some it will succeed; there is absolutely nothing I can say to change that, and I wouldn't dream of trying.  But, what it also tells me is that my letter hit a very real nerve to have triggered such a response.

I chose to support candidates who I think will be best for the serious job of the governance of the City of Mount Dora, that's all.  That's what all citizens should be doing, nothing more, nothing less.  Doing homework, listening to all sides of an argument, weighing the evidence - and voting.  

Mel

Medallion Homes and the Mount Dora City council

This is what made Mr. Wiseman so angry that he sent out the above "FACTS" email - the original letter on Sept. 29 from Mel DeMarco about how Medallion Homes has made campaign contributions to candidates Jon Canas [at large], Denny Wood [District 4] and Brian Payne [District 1], and that Wiseman has tried to interfere in the P&Z area on behalf of Medallion.

This was an excellent piece of investigative reporting.

Mel DeMarco	Sep 29
to meldemarco

Is Mount Dora's city government for sale?  And if it is - who's buying? I’m worried.

A lot of folks have asked who I am voting for this year.   I suppose they think that as a former mayor I have some inside track on information in Mount Dora.  Well, I wish I did, but I don't.  I have to research like everyone else.  And like they always say - follow the money.  So I did - and I don't like what I found.

When I began my evaluations of the candidates, some of them I knew, some I didn't.  I talked to most of them.  And I started by following the money.  I called City Hall to request copies of the candidates' financial disclosure forms.  You can, too - those are public record.  I looked for a few things, but mainly...were there any trends?  Well there certainly were.  There is a grouping of South Gulf Coast developers who are investing rather heavily (by Mount Dora standards) in our city council elections.   

Medallion Home’s (who purchased Lakes of Mount Dora in 2011) office is located where Land Experts, Inc., Cargor Partners III, Charlie Michaels,Inc,  - are located - all at the same address of 2212 58th Avenue East, Bradenton Florida.  Those businesses have sent fat checks to a few candidates.  Well now, finding that would make anyone curious...  So I checked further to see whose campaigns were benefiting from that out-of-town money.

Jon Canas - $1,500.00; Denny Wood - $500; Brian Payne - $1,000.  Now that last one really got me.  Brian Payne is running in District 1 which is nowhere near the Lakes of Mount Dora...so why would a group of South Florida developers contribute to a candidate outside the district where their investment lies?  With that, I was curious enough to pull last year's financial records...and voila!  More surprises.  Councilman Nick Girone received $3,500 in contributions last year - also from companies or individuals who work at 2212 58th Avenue East, Bradenton, Florida.  I've been around politics here for a decade and I have never seen any out-of-town interest invest $6,500 in our small city council races.

Here are some things you should know:

Medallion Home sued the City of Mount Dora because the developer was allowing construction, delivery and resident traffic to use a neighborhood next door to theirs as their own short-cut toward Highway 441. The police and the council determined the practice was dangerous so the City stopped them.  Medallion Home lost the lawsuit, but informed sources report they are still trying to gain access to that neighborhood’s streets for their convenience.

Medallion Home applied for an agricultural exemption to lower their taxes - agriculture right there, in amongst where there are homes at the Lakes of Mount Dora, Lancaster at Loch Leven, the Country Club of Mount Dora and Loch Leven. Follow the money - the South Gulf Coast developer would save over $40,000 a year in taxes that we - the local residents - would have to make up for and pay. If that sounds ridiculous to you - as it did to me - you should know that though this request was denied by the City more than once, the developer has ignored what the residents and their representatives here want and they went to the County Appraiser's office to apply for the exemption anyway.  The hearing that Medallion Home requested on this issue is set for October 7 in Tavares before a magistrate.

That same special interest group would like the city to give up its rightful interest in a 5-acre parcel that is planned as a future well site and potential fire station.  That well site is to be used as an important safeguard and supplemental well for the benefit of all of Mount Dora, not just the developer at the Lakes of Mount Dora.  Use permits for water are precious, complicated and expensive to procure here in Florida.  Our city staff has put considerable effort and expense into devising an effective, comprehensive  water plan for Mount Dora that includes this previously agreed upon well site.

For Medallion Home to achieve all of the things it wants will only take a majority of four of your city council members to look favorably upon and then vote for their requests, their interests.  And I thought, well...there are four candidates who have taken some significant money from them. 

Add this to the mix - Mayoral candidate Randy Wiseman phoned Carroll Jaskulski who is the Chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission and asked Carroll to grant the latest in a list of special requests that was submitted by the South Florida developers (prior to the Board’s September 18 meeting) to the Planning and Zoning Commission.  Why would Randy Wiseman try to influence our Planning and Zoning Board Chairman on behalf of any business, much less a huge special interest?  Who does he think the mayor works for?  Does he understand the responsibilities of P & Z?

Wiseman is funding his campaign with a $10,000 loan to his campaign account, a large amount.  That is probably why he can afford to bombard your mailbox with flyers and cards and letters.  Because he made that loan (which is perfectly legal), we may not know who his supporters really are until after the ballots are counted and the dust settles - and the final campaign finance report has been filed after the election is over. We do know, though, who he says endorses him.  And two of those council members who endorse him have taken money from this South Florida Gulf Coast developer that owns Medallion Home - who also, by the way, has ties to Bain Capital (talk about big business!).

Google Long Bar Pointe - a proposed mixed use development that includes 4 and 5-story buildings that the owner/developer of Medallion Home was trying to ram through on the waterfront in a little community down in Manatee County this summer.  Only because the meeting was canceled and rescheduled due to a tropical storm did the the public have time to rally and come out a thousand strong to fight against it - in a 13 hour long meeting.  Still, most of it went through as the developer wanted. A similar public outcry arose a few years ago in the little city of Yankeetown when the community rallied against these same big business interests.  I want to see Mount Dora rally, too! 

Anyway, the long answer to a short question is I am supporting Ryan Donovan in District 1 - he lives and works here in Lake County, father of 2 kids, uses common sense, independent thinker, experience on council.  Michael Tedder, At-Large - Michael has lived here a long time, raised a daughter, now has a grandchild.  His business is here, he supports downtown businesses.  He is an active boater and advocate for our docks and waterfront.  I am for Carla Pepperman District 4, also has lived in Mount Dora for decades. She is a lawyer, a mom, an active citizen in our community who has the talent, education and smarts to make a difference.  I support Cathy Hoechst for Mayor, she's a champion for downtown vitality, volunteers endlessly with children and our local food pantry, has worked for the interests of small business tirelessly, has had a corporate career, remains objective and she works to build consensus among her peers.

By the way, I do want to make clear that I certainly support our local builders and construction companies, but this nonsense?  No way.  Just some facts I gathered and my resulting opinions, nothing more.  Please do your research - this politics thing gets more muddy and complicated every year, doesn't it?  

Sent from my iPad

Who is Randy Wiseman? 

He ran for Mayor in 2011 - below is what I wrote about him two years ago - this year he seems to have toned down the rhetoric in his campaign, but he's the same man.....

Written in October 2011

Owns a gym on old 441, served on the School Board and has some plainly stated positions - his words.....

1. "Analyze all ordinances and fee charges, and eliminate those which are unnecessarily hampering business. Wiseman says he will strive to make Mount Dora pro-business.
2. As a trained facilitator, Wiseman will impose, on all City of Mount Dora departments, a new philosophy, which treats business and property owners in the manner in which they deserve.  He wants city employees to be pro-service and more business friendly."

These quotes are from his interview with the "Right Side of the Lake", a Lake County conservative blog, and it's interesting to read the full text, including his attacks on the other two candidates. I've not heard this kind of vitriol in Mount Dora politics before.

http://lakecountygov.info/2011/09/22/wiseman-needed-in-mount-dora/

Relevant to your decision whether to vote for him or not might be this article from the Orlando Sentinel - Wiseman sued the School Board last year, saying he was harassed in his job as a school custodian by a co-worker because he was disabled.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-07-11/news/os-lk-wiseman-school-lawsuit-071110-20100711_1_randy-wiseman-school-district-district-officials

And this is Wiseman's website.

 

http://randywiseman.com/

So if you really believe the type of person we need for Mount Dora is one who will slash services, rule the City Departments with an iron fist and cut your taxes, this is your man.

 

This election - Tuesday November 5th 2013

I agree with Mel DeMarco's recommendations below.....

I am supporting:

 Ryan Donovan in District 1 - he lives and works here in Lake County, father of 2 kids, uses common sense, independent thinker, experience on council.  

Michael Tedder, At-Large - Michael has lived here a long time, raised a daughter, now has a grandchild.  His business is here, he supports downtown businesses.  He is an active boater and advocate for our docks and waterfront. 

Carla Pepperman District 4, also has lived in Mount Dora for decades. She is a lawyer, a mom, an active citizen in our community who has the talent, education and smarts to make a difference. 

Cathy Hoechst for Mayor, she's a champion for downtown vitality, volunteers endlessly with children and our local food pantry, has worked for the interests of small business tirelessly, has had a corporate career, remains objective and she works to build consensus among her peers.

More Surprises

And in case you have doubts that there may be an agenda here, I got a copy of this email sent out from Mount Dora Councilman Nick Girone in which he urges support for Wood, Payne, Canas and Wiseman [see PDF attachment].

From Mel DeMarco's piece:

More surprises.  Councilman Nick Girone received $3,500 in contributions last year - also from companies or individuals who work at 2212 58th Avenue East, Bradenton, Florida.