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Criminal charges against Venice Airport manager Fred Watts have been dropped by the State Attorney's Office, this according to information from Watt's attorney's office.
Michael Barfield, assistant to attorney Andrea Mogensen, notified Venice Florida! dot com this morning of the State Attorney's decision to drop the charges. In an email sent out this morning, Barfield wrote, "The charges against Fred Watts have been dismissed. He returned to work today."
Watts had hired Mogensen to represent him after Watts was arrested last month. Watts was accused of battering his wife. According to the police report, Watts had pushed his wife during an argument about her use of prescription pain pills. Watts was reportedly accused of pushing his wife as she was attempting to obtain more pills.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Multi-million dollar lawsuit filed against Boone law firm for legal malpractice
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(photo, left to right: attorneys Jeff and Dan Boone, the public face of the Boone law firm)
Claiming he has lost millions as a direct result of legal negligence and breach of professional duty, noted Venice orthopedic surgeon J. Fred Miller has filed suit against the Boone law firm for legal malpractice.
Reached by phone, Miller's attorney, W. Cort Frohlich, stated, "This is as clear a case of legal malpractice as you can get and we are going full steam ahead."
The suit, filed in circuit court on October 15, 2009, by Miller's attorney, W. Cort Frohlich, accuses the Boone law firm of failing to represent Miller in a foreclosure lawsuit after the law firm agreed to do so. The suit names law firm partners Stephen Boone and John Koda as well as the Boone law firm in toto (civil complaint, 6 pages, PDF).
In March of 2008, Community National Bank (since absorbed by Stearns Bank) filed a foreclosure suit against Miller over his interest in some undeveloped commercial land in Sarasota County.
According to Frohlich's complaint, the Boone law firm was hired by Miller to represent him in the foreclosure action. Frohlich writes that the Boone law firm subsequently failed to provide any meaningful or substantive legal services, causing a domino effect of legal and financial failures which, in turn, culminated in the seizure of Miller's thoroughbred horse breeding operation in Kentucky during an advertised horse auction.
According to the complaint, the Boones failed to respond to the initial filing for foreclosure, which allowed Community National to successfully obtain a summary judgment against Miller. This not only gave Miller's land interest to the bank, but also allowed the bank to obtain a money judgment in the amount of $1.99 million with the crucial wording "for all of which let execution issue."
According to the complaint, this, then, gave Community National a huge legal crowbar to go after any and all of Miller's professional and personal assets, which the bank did, starting with Miller's thoroughbred breeding operation in Kentucky, Miller Thoroughbreds, LLC.
Miller, apparently unaware of the Boone law firm's failure to represent him in the first action, re-hired the Boones to represent him in the Kentucky foreclosure action. According to the complaint, Miller was told "that he need not take any action in response to the filing" in Kentucky.
That was a second case of negligence, according to Frohlich, one that shut down Miller's horse breeding business when, unbeknownst to Miller, an advertised auction of thoroughbred horses was taken over by the Jefferson County Court in Kentucky in November of 2008.
According to Frohlich's complaint, the proceeds of the then-upcoming advertised auction were ordered to be deposited with the court. The auction house was served with the seizure notice just days before the auction, and the auction house promptly canceled the auction and terminated Miller Thoroughbred's credit line.
Thanks to the fact that no attorney showed up in court to defend Miller, Community National obtained from the Kentucky courts a second summary money judgment against Miller, this time in the amount of $1.98 million.
Word spread quickly through the equine world, and Miller, according to the complaint, "was forced to sell his stock at severely deflated prices." That, in turn, caused Miller Thoroughbreds to be unable to pay vendors, auction houses, banks, etc., and the company quickly spiraled into bankruptcy.
Frohlich alleges that Miller's economic implosion is all a "direct result and consequence of the negligence of Boone, Koda and [the] Boone law firm. ...None of the above would have occurred, but for the negligence and breach of the professional duty of care by" the Boone firm.
Frohlich writes that "by advising Miller that he need not respond or take any action in response to the filing of the Kentucky Action...," and "by failing to advise Miller that he needed to immediately retain counsel in Kentucky to defend the effort by the bank" to go after his assets there, that the Boones "were further negligent in their legal representation of Miller and further breached their duty of professional care."
The court filing concludes with this statement: "As a direct and proximate result of the negligence of (the Boone firm], and their breach of their professional duty to Miller, Miller has suffered and will continue to suffer damages in the millions of dollars as a result of the impact to him personally as well as to the entities which he owned and invested in."
Reached by phone, Boone law partner Jeff Boone stated "I honestly can't comment on it as I am not the attorney handling this case." Jeff Boone referred all questions to his brother, law partner Stephen Boone, who was not in the office.
While Frohlich writes in the complaint that Miller is seeking damages in excess of $15,000, Frohlich stated by phone that was a necessary minimum amount that needed to be in the legal wording just to get the case into circuit court. Frohlich stated that his client had lost several million dollars and that Miller was seeking compensation for the money that was lost as a result of the Boone law firm's handling of the two cases.
The Boones have untilthis Friday (two days from today) November 29 to have their response clocked in to the clerk of court's office to avoid yet another default judgment.
(photo, left to right: attorneys Jeff and Dan Boone, the public face of the Boone law firm)
Reached by phone, Miller's attorney, W. Cort Frohlich, stated, "This is as clear a case of legal malpractice as you can get and we are going full steam ahead."
In March of 2008, Community National Bank (since absorbed by Stearns Bank) filed a foreclosure suit against Miller over his interest in some undeveloped commercial land in Sarasota County.
According to Frohlich's complaint, the Boone law firm was hired by Miller to represent him in the foreclosure action. Frohlich writes that the Boone law firm subsequently failed to provide any meaningful or substantive legal services, causing a domino effect of legal and financial failures which, in turn, culminated in the seizure of Miller's thoroughbred horse breeding operation in Kentucky during an advertised horse auction.
According to the complaint, the Boones failed to respond to the initial filing for foreclosure, which allowed Community National to successfully obtain a summary judgment against Miller. This not only gave Miller's land interest to the bank, but also allowed the bank to obtain a money judgment in the amount of $1.99 million with the crucial wording "for all of which let execution issue."
According to the complaint, this, then, gave Community National a huge legal crowbar to go after any and all of Miller's professional and personal assets, which the bank did, starting with Miller's thoroughbred breeding operation in Kentucky, Miller Thoroughbreds, LLC.
Miller, apparently unaware of the Boone law firm's failure to represent him in the first action, re-hired the Boones to represent him in the Kentucky foreclosure action. According to the complaint, Miller was told "that he need not take any action in response to the filing" in Kentucky.
That was a second case of negligence, according to Frohlich, one that shut down Miller's horse breeding business when, unbeknownst to Miller, an advertised auction of thoroughbred horses was taken over by the Jefferson County Court in Kentucky in November of 2008.
According to Frohlich's complaint, the proceeds of the then-upcoming advertised auction were ordered to be deposited with the court. The auction house was served with the seizure notice just days before the auction, and the auction house promptly canceled the auction and terminated Miller Thoroughbred's credit line.
Thanks to the fact that no attorney showed up in court to defend Miller, Community National obtained from the Kentucky courts a second summary money judgment against Miller, this time in the amount of $1.98 million.
Word spread quickly through the equine world, and Miller, according to the complaint, "was forced to sell his stock at severely deflated prices." That, in turn, caused Miller Thoroughbreds to be unable to pay vendors, auction houses, banks, etc., and the company quickly spiraled into bankruptcy.
Frohlich alleges that Miller's economic implosion is all a "direct result and consequence of the negligence of Boone, Koda and [the] Boone law firm. ...None of the above would have occurred, but for the negligence and breach of the professional duty of care by" the Boone firm.
Frohlich writes that "by advising Miller that he need not respond or take any action in response to the filing of the Kentucky Action...," and "by failing to advise Miller that he needed to immediately retain counsel in Kentucky to defend the effort by the bank" to go after his assets there, that the Boones "were further negligent in their legal representation of Miller and further breached their duty of professional care."
The court filing concludes with this statement: "As a direct and proximate result of the negligence of (the Boone firm], and their breach of their professional duty to Miller, Miller has suffered and will continue to suffer damages in the millions of dollars as a result of the impact to him personally as well as to the entities which he owned and invested in."
Reached by phone, Boone law partner Jeff Boone stated "I honestly can't comment on it as I am not the attorney handling this case." Jeff Boone referred all questions to his brother, law partner Stephen Boone, who was not in the office.
While Frohlich writes in the complaint that Miller is seeking damages in excess of $15,000, Frohlich stated by phone that was a necessary minimum amount that needed to be in the legal wording just to get the case into circuit court. Frohlich stated that his client had lost several million dollars and that Miller was seeking compensation for the money that was lost as a result of the Boone law firm's handling of the two cases.
The Boones have until
Monday, November 16, 2009
Batshiat Crazy Harry on losing: "The horror," the horror, the horror
The man with the heart of darkness faces his own political apocalypse and the results are not pretty
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Batshiat Crazy Harry Walia may come back for more self-created public abuse next year. Then again, he may not. It all depends.
In an open letter to his supporters (PDF file, one page), Walia shows off his math skillz, thanks his supporters, comments on "the horror of smear" aimed at him, and warns that he may come back for sloppy seconds next year.
Walia claims in his letter that he endured "the horror" only to lose by 70 votes. In fact, the margin was 139 votes, but who's counting? It's only math.
"Your hard work... helped us to dispel the difficulties, to withstand the horror of smear, insults, and personal attacks."
Claiming that his campaign was "a success even though it did not bring me a victory," Walia claimed to have run a "clean campaign."
Hold that thought for a moment. Here's an email I received on October 29, a week before the election.
During Sun Fiesta I had a yard sale and used one of his illegally posted [on city property] signs as the foundation for my yard sale sign. During the parade they blocked off an entrance to my street, so I went to check on my signage. The sign I posted below Walia's sign had been ripped off and was nowhere to be found (in other words, it had been stolen).
Several days later, I happened to look out my window and saw Harry placing one of his signs in MY yard. I promptly went out, picked it up, saw that he was walking back to his car which was parked halfway down the street, and approached him saying, "You cannot place your sign on my property."
He responded that it was not my property, but the property of the doctor's office next door.
I replied that a) he was mistaken, it was my property; and b) that regardless of whose property it was, it was illegal to post the sign so close to the road as it obstructs drivers' views.
I handed him his sign and he said, "You're miserable!"
I bit my tongue and only responded, "Well, at least I didn't throw your sign away. And, by the way, there are at least 30 of my friends and family whose vote you will not be getting."
After reading the comments on this website, and the article in the paper yesterday, I wonder, "Who's miserable NOW???" Cheers.
The real horror (or the real fun, depending on your point of view) comes in his less than obscure threat to maybe sort-of return for more self-created public abuse: "I will only say I may return, God willing."
Hell, Harry, don't go away mad.
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Batshiat Crazy Harry Walia may come back for more self-created public abuse next year. Then again, he may not. It all depends.
In an open letter to his supporters (PDF file, one page), Walia shows off his math skillz, thanks his supporters, comments on "the horror of smear" aimed at him, and warns that he may come back for sloppy seconds next year.
Walia claims in his letter that he endured "the horror" only to lose by 70 votes. In fact, the margin was 139 votes, but who's counting? It's only math.
"Your hard work... helped us to dispel the difficulties, to withstand the horror of smear, insults, and personal attacks."
Claiming that his campaign was "a success even though it did not bring me a victory," Walia claimed to have run a "clean campaign."
Hold that thought for a moment. Here's an email I received on October 29, a week before the election.
During Sun Fiesta I had a yard sale and used one of his illegally posted [on city property] signs as the foundation for my yard sale sign. During the parade they blocked off an entrance to my street, so I went to check on my signage. The sign I posted below Walia's sign had been ripped off and was nowhere to be found (in other words, it had been stolen).
Several days later, I happened to look out my window and saw Harry placing one of his signs in MY yard. I promptly went out, picked it up, saw that he was walking back to his car which was parked halfway down the street, and approached him saying, "You cannot place your sign on my property."
He responded that it was not my property, but the property of the doctor's office next door.
I replied that a) he was mistaken, it was my property; and b) that regardless of whose property it was, it was illegal to post the sign so close to the road as it obstructs drivers' views.
I handed him his sign and he said, "You're miserable!"
I bit my tongue and only responded, "Well, at least I didn't throw your sign away. And, by the way, there are at least 30 of my friends and family whose vote you will not be getting."
After reading the comments on this website, and the article in the paper yesterday, I wonder, "Who's miserable NOW???" Cheers.
The real horror (or the real fun, depending on your point of view) comes in his less than obscure threat to maybe sort-of return for more self-created public abuse: "I will only say I may return, God willing."
Hell, Harry, don't go away mad.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wiand, Jet Center hit with second motion; Wiand accused of inflating Jet Center's value, profitability
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Two days ago, City Attorney Bob Anderson sent out a letter to Burton Wiand, the court appointed receiver for Nadel's Scoop Management Ponzi scheme. Anderson's letter accused Wiand of playing fast and loose with the facts.
Early today, potential Jet Center buyer Earl Niemoth filed papers in federal court accusing Wiand of much the same thing [text copy provided by Niemoth].
This is Niemoth's second attempt at asking for court intervention to examine Wiand's involvement in the receivership of Nadel's Ponzi scheme.
His first attempt was rejected by the court because, according to the rejection ruling, the court apparently didn't recognize Niemoth as a potential buyer, instead ruling against Niemoth as a creditor trying to leapfrog over Wiand to get at the Jet Center's assets.
Niemoth addresses the apparent error in his newest filing.
To date, the only assett left for Wiand to recover is the fiunds tied in to the Jet Center. Niemoth accuses Wiand of inflating the value. Niemoth states he has examined the books and the tax returns for the Jet Center and that the business has been losing money steadily -- specifically in the six digit per annum range for the last three years.
Niemoth also accuses Wiand of playing fast and loose with potential buyers by not picking and choosing who Wiand would let have a seat at the table.
So far, no comment from the city on Niemoth's motion.
Two days ago, City Attorney Bob Anderson sent out a letter to Burton Wiand, the court appointed receiver for Nadel's Scoop Management Ponzi scheme. Anderson's letter accused Wiand of playing fast and loose with the facts.
Early today, potential Jet Center buyer Earl Niemoth filed papers in federal court accusing Wiand of much the same thing [text copy provided by Niemoth].
This is Niemoth's second attempt at asking for court intervention to examine Wiand's involvement in the receivership of Nadel's Ponzi scheme.
His first attempt was rejected by the court because, according to the rejection ruling, the court apparently didn't recognize Niemoth as a potential buyer, instead ruling against Niemoth as a creditor trying to leapfrog over Wiand to get at the Jet Center's assets.
Niemoth addresses the apparent error in his newest filing.
To date, the only assett left for Wiand to recover is the fiunds tied in to the Jet Center. Niemoth accuses Wiand of inflating the value. Niemoth states he has examined the books and the tax returns for the Jet Center and that the business has been losing money steadily -- specifically in the six digit per annum range for the last three years.
Niemoth also accuses Wiand of playing fast and loose with potential buyers by not picking and choosing who Wiand would let have a seat at the table.
So far, no comment from the city on Niemoth's motion.
Attorney cat-fight -- Anderson to Wiand: DIAF, you lying sack of protoplasm
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To: Burton W. Wiand, Esquire
From: City Attorney Robert C. Anderson
Date: November 10, 2009
Subject: Scoop Receivership
Your November 6, 2009 correspondence to Isaac Turner [link to story] continues your pattern of evasiveness, misrepresentation, and erroneous conclusions. Mr. Turner and I believe that a line by line response would be a futile exercise and the City of Venice prefers to allow your actions and those of the City to speak for themselves.
The City looks forward to working with the purchaser of the Venice Jet Center, LLC regarding future leasehold improvements.
Sincerely,
Robert C. Anderson
City Attorney
To: Burton W. Wiand, Esquire
From: City Attorney Robert C. Anderson
Date: November 10, 2009
Subject: Scoop Receivership
Your November 6, 2009 correspondence to Isaac Turner [link to story] continues your pattern of evasiveness, misrepresentation, and erroneous conclusions. Mr. Turner and I believe that a line by line response would be a futile exercise and the City of Venice prefers to allow your actions and those of the City to speak for themselves.
The City looks forward to working with the purchaser of the Venice Jet Center, LLC regarding future leasehold improvements.
Sincerely,
Robert C. Anderson
City Attorney
Press release from Wiand's approved Venice Jet Center buyer -- full text
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(editor's prefatory note -- The big big question now is: Who are the angel investors, the hidden money guys behind this offer? Or, possibly: Does Tri-State really have them lined up yet? With the history of the Venice Jet Center as the site of a long history of known and documented criminal and terrorist activity (Art Nadel, Rudi Dekkers, Wally Hilliard, Mohamed Atta and the 9/11 terrorists, drug trafficking, etc.), the fact that it is planned to be opened under the name of Suncoast Air Center with no knowledge yet as to who the big money guys are behind the purchase is going to prove to be majorly distressing to city hall and to local residents who just want a cleanly run airport. -- JP, editor)
John:
My apologies for not copying you on the [press] release. I had e-mailed it directly to the Tribune and the Gondolier only, but I'm happy to share the complete text with you (found below). I know you are a voice in the community so I want to keep you in the loop. Unfortunately, all I am able to disclose at this time is the information contained within. The articles published in the Herald Tribune and Gondolier are correct with the exception of Mr. Giles report that I am a former Venice resident- I have not lived in the city, though I have been a resident of this area for some time.
If you have any further questions, feel free to e-mail and I will be happy to help answer them as best I can. I'm looking forward to working with you and your fellow Venetians to help resolve the ongoing issues for everyone's benefit.
Best Regards,
Marty Kretchman
Vice President
The Tristate Group, LLC
--PRESS RELEASE--
Tristate Aviation Group LLC was supplied a bidders package early this year along with many other potential bidder groups. Tristate did its own due diligence and we were asked to submit our best offer to purchase the assets of the Venice Jet Center controlled by Burton Wiand, the Receiver. Our offer was submitted and based on our understanding the Tristate offer was the best offer for the asset. This offer was accepted by the Receiver.
This closing of this contemplated transaction still requires approval by the Federal Judge overseeing the receivership and as a result, no assurance can given at this time as to whether the transaction as contemplated will close. In an effort to dispel any further misleading information, I can confirm that, based on what I have read in today's Herald Tribune, that the cash payment of our offer to the Receiver is "multiples higher" than that of any other party. We are also very sophisticated in this type of transaction.
As there are multiple parts of the transaction, the assets will be purchased by Tristate Aviation Group of Florida LLC, of which I am the Manager for Tristate. We intend on operating the FBO under Suncoast Aviation Center of Florida LLC under the trade name "Suncoast Air Center “, which are under common ownership by Tristate.
Our goal is to return the FBO to good standing in the Community and to work to mend broken fences with the residents of Venice and the City Council. Having the experience of operating FBO’s and being an integral part of numerous communities will allow us to utilize this experience to ease tensions and to the re-development of community relations. As a resident of the area, I am acutely aware of the need to re-establish many disconnected relationships.
Assuming the transaction closes as contemplated, our customers will notice a new face, new image and a willingness and desire to bring the aviation business and the attendant positive economic impact back to the forefront of SW Florida and to the residents of our area.
Tristate Aviation Group LLC., is comprised of myself Brian Ciambra and Henry Paulino. Collectively, we have over 40 years of combined experience owning and operating Fixed Base Operations, including the management and structuring of the Volo Aviation chain of FBO's across the country.
A short bio of each of us is as follows:
Marty Kretchman - Marty has worked in aviation within the state of Florida for over 7 years. He is a former corporate pilot, holding a Captain’s rating in Cessna Citation series business jets. Marty transitioned to the FBO management side of corporate aviation in 2004 when the organization employing him in Orlando acquired a facility at their airport. As General Manager of Avion Jet Center. Marty was able to increase market share over the competitor on-field by 40% within the first 12 months.
In early 2008, Marty was recruited as General Manager of Volo Aviation Sarasota. Managing a staff of fifteen Marty has earned the respect of his employees and customers as a solid leader with exceptional attention to customer service.
Marty is Senior Vice President of Tristate Aviation Group LLC.
Brian Ciambra - Brian has over 17 years aviation experience, half of which was spent working with Signature Flight Support, the world¹s largest FBO chain. Within that organization, he held the title of Regional General Manager covering White Plains and LaGuardia in New York and Morristown in New Jersey, some of the largest and most successful operations in their worldwide network.
Brian has more recently served as the Vice President of Operations for Volo Aviation, an FBO venture of Merrill Lynch. He personally oversaw the establishment of the Volo Aviation brand name and the acquisition of five fixed base operators across the country. He was instrumental in creating infrastructure to support and expand these operations on a national level.
Brian is the CEO and President of Tristate Aviation Group LLC.
Henry Paulino - Henry has worked in aviation for over 16 years. He spent 12 years with Signature as General Manager of several of their facilities in the Northeast. Along with Brian, he also worked with an entity known as Skyport Flight Services that acquired a small underutilized FBO in Westchester County, New York in June 2004.
In September of 2007, Henry was hired as Regional General Manager for Volo Aviation. In concert with the location General Managers, he has helped to oversee the operations of five facilities as well as the acquisition of several large clients, leading to multiple long term leases and lucrative returns for Volo and its partners.
Henry is the Chief Operating Officer of Tristate Aviation Group LLC.
Let me be careful to preface. There are still hurdles left to overcome prior to the transaction closing, that may affect whether or not it closes. As such, we are not at liberty to disclose the terms and conditions of the Tristate offer until they become a matter of public record, which we hope will be in the near future.
--Marty Kretchman,
Vice President, The Tristate Group, LLC
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(editor's prefatory note -- The big big question now is: Who are the angel investors, the hidden money guys behind this offer? Or, possibly: Does Tri-State really have them lined up yet? With the history of the Venice Jet Center as the site of a long history of known and documented criminal and terrorist activity (Art Nadel, Rudi Dekkers, Wally Hilliard, Mohamed Atta and the 9/11 terrorists, drug trafficking, etc.), the fact that it is planned to be opened under the name of Suncoast Air Center with no knowledge yet as to who the big money guys are behind the purchase is going to prove to be majorly distressing to city hall and to local residents who just want a cleanly run airport. -- JP, editor)
John:
My apologies for not copying you on the [press] release. I had e-mailed it directly to the Tribune and the Gondolier only, but I'm happy to share the complete text with you (found below). I know you are a voice in the community so I want to keep you in the loop. Unfortunately, all I am able to disclose at this time is the information contained within. The articles published in the Herald Tribune and Gondolier are correct with the exception of Mr. Giles report that I am a former Venice resident- I have not lived in the city, though I have been a resident of this area for some time.
If you have any further questions, feel free to e-mail and I will be happy to help answer them as best I can. I'm looking forward to working with you and your fellow Venetians to help resolve the ongoing issues for everyone's benefit.
Best Regards,
Marty Kretchman
Vice President
The Tristate Group, LLC
--PRESS RELEASE--
Tristate Aviation Group LLC was supplied a bidders package early this year along with many other potential bidder groups. Tristate did its own due diligence and we were asked to submit our best offer to purchase the assets of the Venice Jet Center controlled by Burton Wiand, the Receiver. Our offer was submitted and based on our understanding the Tristate offer was the best offer for the asset. This offer was accepted by the Receiver.
This closing of this contemplated transaction still requires approval by the Federal Judge overseeing the receivership and as a result, no assurance can given at this time as to whether the transaction as contemplated will close. In an effort to dispel any further misleading information, I can confirm that, based on what I have read in today's Herald Tribune, that the cash payment of our offer to the Receiver is "multiples higher" than that of any other party. We are also very sophisticated in this type of transaction.
As there are multiple parts of the transaction, the assets will be purchased by Tristate Aviation Group of Florida LLC, of which I am the Manager for Tristate. We intend on operating the FBO under Suncoast Aviation Center of Florida LLC under the trade name "Suncoast Air Center “, which are under common ownership by Tristate.
Our goal is to return the FBO to good standing in the Community and to work to mend broken fences with the residents of Venice and the City Council. Having the experience of operating FBO’s and being an integral part of numerous communities will allow us to utilize this experience to ease tensions and to the re-development of community relations. As a resident of the area, I am acutely aware of the need to re-establish many disconnected relationships.
Assuming the transaction closes as contemplated, our customers will notice a new face, new image and a willingness and desire to bring the aviation business and the attendant positive economic impact back to the forefront of SW Florida and to the residents of our area.
Tristate Aviation Group LLC., is comprised of myself Brian Ciambra and Henry Paulino. Collectively, we have over 40 years of combined experience owning and operating Fixed Base Operations, including the management and structuring of the Volo Aviation chain of FBO's across the country.
A short bio of each of us is as follows:
Marty Kretchman - Marty has worked in aviation within the state of Florida for over 7 years. He is a former corporate pilot, holding a Captain’s rating in Cessna Citation series business jets. Marty transitioned to the FBO management side of corporate aviation in 2004 when the organization employing him in Orlando acquired a facility at their airport. As General Manager of Avion Jet Center. Marty was able to increase market share over the competitor on-field by 40% within the first 12 months.
In early 2008, Marty was recruited as General Manager of Volo Aviation Sarasota. Managing a staff of fifteen Marty has earned the respect of his employees and customers as a solid leader with exceptional attention to customer service.
Marty is Senior Vice President of Tristate Aviation Group LLC.
Brian Ciambra - Brian has over 17 years aviation experience, half of which was spent working with Signature Flight Support, the world¹s largest FBO chain. Within that organization, he held the title of Regional General Manager covering White Plains and LaGuardia in New York and Morristown in New Jersey, some of the largest and most successful operations in their worldwide network.
Brian has more recently served as the Vice President of Operations for Volo Aviation, an FBO venture of Merrill Lynch. He personally oversaw the establishment of the Volo Aviation brand name and the acquisition of five fixed base operators across the country. He was instrumental in creating infrastructure to support and expand these operations on a national level.
Brian is the CEO and President of Tristate Aviation Group LLC.
Henry Paulino - Henry has worked in aviation for over 16 years. He spent 12 years with Signature as General Manager of several of their facilities in the Northeast. Along with Brian, he also worked with an entity known as Skyport Flight Services that acquired a small underutilized FBO in Westchester County, New York in June 2004.
In September of 2007, Henry was hired as Regional General Manager for Volo Aviation. In concert with the location General Managers, he has helped to oversee the operations of five facilities as well as the acquisition of several large clients, leading to multiple long term leases and lucrative returns for Volo and its partners.
Henry is the Chief Operating Officer of Tristate Aviation Group LLC.
Let me be careful to preface. There are still hurdles left to overcome prior to the transaction closing, that may affect whether or not it closes. As such, we are not at liberty to disclose the terms and conditions of the Tristate offer until they become a matter of public record, which we hope will be in the near future.
--Marty Kretchman,
Vice President, The Tristate Group, LLC
.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Hizzoner to Wiand: Thank you for adding more bulls**t to the pile
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The following is a guest column that Mayor Ed Martin has submitted to various news outlets. The column is in response to attorney Burton Wiand's letter of November 6, which, among other things, falsely accused the city of making a disingenuous offer to buy the Venice Jet Center.
Before you read Hizzoner's column below, it would be helpful for you to know (you will not believe this at first, but it is true) (and I'm going to shout it for the idiots at the printed papers who seem to have taken some serious hallucinogens) the following:
THE CITY NEVER, EVER, EVER OFFERED TO BUY THE VENICE JET CENTER. IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. THE NEWSPAPERS ARE LYING TO YOU WHEN THEY SAY THE CITY DID MAKE AN OFFER OR THAT THE CITY DID TRY TO BUY THE JET CENTER.
I challenge anyone in the print media to come up with ANY document that is anything more than a general inquiry about the possibility of buying the Jet Center, those inquiries based on an amatuerish offer posed by Jet Center manager Roger Jernigan in what appears to be a desperate attempt to save his job by trying to get an owner that would be dumb enough to keep him on.
OK? Comprendé, amigo?
The rest of this text, below, is the mayor's column (edited slightly by me for style and a couple of punctuation errors). I wrote the headline, so blame me for that.
----------
Hizzoner to Wiand: Thank you for adding more bulls**t to the pile
a column by Mayor Ed Martin, 11/07/09
The city council has never made an offer of any kind to purchase the Jet Center. No vote to do so has even been presented. Citizens proposed the idea and at least one council member expressed interest. No majority sentiment has ever been tested.
Roger Jernigan of the Jet Center called City Manager Isaac Turner and told him that the receiver would entertain an offer that provided $1.9 million to pay off a bank loan on the current facility, plus $1 million to compensate people allegedly cheated by Arthur Nadel.
The city did not entertain this offer, responding to Mr. Wiand, the “Receiver,” asking him for a formal offer, in writing. No response was forthcoming until the letter from Wiand, November 6. It said that he had an agreement in principle to purchase the lease.
Because the bidding process the Receiver was using required confidentiality on the part of the bidders for them to see the financial records of the Jet Center, the city could not possibly be engaged in that process because of Sunshine Law stipulations. So no action was contemplated nor taken by council. No “due diligence” would have been possible.
Council authorized Turner and attorneys representing the city to meet with Wiand to offer to settle the dispute about the Jet Center’s application to build four hangers.
At that meeting, Turner offered to allow the four hangers to be built. In exchange, the city asked that the receiver/owner would move the four hangers to a site further from Airport Avenue and nearby residences [to a site] already approved by the FAA for future hanger development. The current site under dispute is marked for a “terminal” and “apron,” not for hangers.
The city offered to pay all costs to extend utilities to the new hanger site.
The city offered to give the receiver $130,000 a sum approximating the rent paid previously on a five-acre site east of the disputed property that is not now scheduled for construction.
The offerings were legitimate offerings and our attorneys were there so that any counter-offers could be analyzed and recommendations brought to council for final approval.
Wiand never responded to this offer and did not reply to two follow-up, phone calls from Turner. His statements about this offer in the letter and in the Part 16 filings are deliberately misleading--they were bona fide offers.
Speaking for myself, my impressions are that if Wiand has a viable offer and the purchaser meets the city’s financial review of the ability to build the hangars, I would not oppose that action. I stated this at the last council meeting. I anticipate a majority approval, but that remains to be seen.
I would ask the city manager and city attorney to see if the new lessee would agree to moving the hangars consistent with our offer to Wiand. The noise and air pollution effects on the neighbors would be positive from such a move. The airport, although saddled with a lease for the Jet Center that does not provide increased revenues from any and all new hangers on the site, would still receive revenues from the lessee under current terms.
It is council's stated intention that leases in the future will be more favorable to the airport.
--Ed Martin, 11/07/09
The following is a guest column that Mayor Ed Martin has submitted to various news outlets. The column is in response to attorney Burton Wiand's letter of November 6, which, among other things, falsely accused the city of making a disingenuous offer to buy the Venice Jet Center.
Before you read Hizzoner's column below, it would be helpful for you to know (you will not believe this at first, but it is true) (and I'm going to shout it for the idiots at the printed papers who seem to have taken some serious hallucinogens) the following:
THE CITY NEVER, EVER, EVER OFFERED TO BUY THE VENICE JET CENTER. IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. THE NEWSPAPERS ARE LYING TO YOU WHEN THEY SAY THE CITY DID MAKE AN OFFER OR THAT THE CITY DID TRY TO BUY THE JET CENTER.
I challenge anyone in the print media to come up with ANY document that is anything more than a general inquiry about the possibility of buying the Jet Center, those inquiries based on an amatuerish offer posed by Jet Center manager Roger Jernigan in what appears to be a desperate attempt to save his job by trying to get an owner that would be dumb enough to keep him on.
OK? Comprendé, amigo?
The rest of this text, below, is the mayor's column (edited slightly by me for style and a couple of punctuation errors). I wrote the headline, so blame me for that.
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Hizzoner to Wiand: Thank you for adding more bulls**t to the pile
a column by Mayor Ed Martin, 11/07/09
The city council has never made an offer of any kind to purchase the Jet Center. No vote to do so has even been presented. Citizens proposed the idea and at least one council member expressed interest. No majority sentiment has ever been tested.
Roger Jernigan of the Jet Center called City Manager Isaac Turner and told him that the receiver would entertain an offer that provided $1.9 million to pay off a bank loan on the current facility, plus $1 million to compensate people allegedly cheated by Arthur Nadel.
The city did not entertain this offer, responding to Mr. Wiand, the “Receiver,” asking him for a formal offer, in writing. No response was forthcoming until the letter from Wiand, November 6. It said that he had an agreement in principle to purchase the lease.
Because the bidding process the Receiver was using required confidentiality on the part of the bidders for them to see the financial records of the Jet Center, the city could not possibly be engaged in that process because of Sunshine Law stipulations. So no action was contemplated nor taken by council. No “due diligence” would have been possible.
Council authorized Turner and attorneys representing the city to meet with Wiand to offer to settle the dispute about the Jet Center’s application to build four hangers.
At that meeting, Turner offered to allow the four hangers to be built. In exchange, the city asked that the receiver/owner would move the four hangers to a site further from Airport Avenue and nearby residences [to a site] already approved by the FAA for future hanger development. The current site under dispute is marked for a “terminal” and “apron,” not for hangers.
The city offered to pay all costs to extend utilities to the new hanger site.
The city offered to give the receiver $130,000 a sum approximating the rent paid previously on a five-acre site east of the disputed property that is not now scheduled for construction.
The offerings were legitimate offerings and our attorneys were there so that any counter-offers could be analyzed and recommendations brought to council for final approval.
Wiand never responded to this offer and did not reply to two follow-up, phone calls from Turner. His statements about this offer in the letter and in the Part 16 filings are deliberately misleading--they were bona fide offers.
Speaking for myself, my impressions are that if Wiand has a viable offer and the purchaser meets the city’s financial review of the ability to build the hangars, I would not oppose that action. I stated this at the last council meeting. I anticipate a majority approval, but that remains to be seen.
I would ask the city manager and city attorney to see if the new lessee would agree to moving the hangars consistent with our offer to Wiand. The noise and air pollution effects on the neighbors would be positive from such a move. The airport, although saddled with a lease for the Jet Center that does not provide increased revenues from any and all new hangers on the site, would still receive revenues from the lessee under current terms.
It is council's stated intention that leases in the future will be more favorable to the airport.
--Ed Martin, 11/07/09
Saturday, November 7, 2009
BREAKING -- Airport Manager Watts arrested
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Airport Manager Fred Watts (right, from booking photo) was arrested this morning, charged with one count of domestic battery.
No bond has been set.
This story is developing.
No bond has been set.
This story is developing.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Nadel receiver Wiand to city: I have a buyer, now FOAD; Mayor Martin, Wiand exchange accusations of bargaining in bad faith
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Burton Wiand, the attorney appointed by a federal judge to act as receiver for Art Nadel and the Venice Jet Center, claims that he has a buyer for the Venice Jet Center.
In a letter faxed to the city earlier today (2 pages, PDF), Wiand attacked the city's offer to purchase the center as "disingenuous."
"Given this situation, it is my conclusion that the City has never made any proposals in good faith or had any good faith discussions with me.... For months the city has had every opportunity to negotiate in good faith it [sic] there was any genuine interest in the Jet Center... The city's lack of good faith in this matter and the continued sending of self-serving disingenuous letters has not been persuasive and will not move this matter forward. I have reached agreement in principle with a purchaser for the Jet Center and that purchase agreement will be presented to the United States District Court in the immediate future...."
Wiand concluded his rant on a particularly snarky note: "Thank you for your letter of October 26."
Reached by phone, Mayor Ed Martin called the letter "offensive and not an accurate portrayal."
"[City Manager Isaac] Turner and Tom Devine [an attorney hired by the city to handle Wiand's Part 16 complaint] met with Wiand. Turner laid out very specifically that we would approve the hangars if they agreed to move them out to the area designated for hangar development, and we in turn would pay the cost for moving utilities to that site.
"Turner also told him [that] we would give them $130,000 in back rent to replace the rent they had paid on the portion that they had not developed. We anticipated he [Wiand] would get back to us. We never heard from him. Then in the part 16 proceedings, he claims that we had not bargained in good faith."
Wiand's description of a "sub-rosa meeting," meaning, apparently, a secret meeting that Wiand had been invited to and that he had attended (eh?), was cause for further ire from the mayor: "I don't know why he would describe a meeting with him as secret. Turner had the attorney present so if there were any details that needed to be negotiated, they could be discussed and brought back before council with the attorney's recommendations. Wiand has never given us the courtesy of replying until now and Mr. Turner had since called him at least twice to get his reactions and had received no reply."
At the last council meeting on October 26, council had discussed that they had been waiting for some time a response from Wiand on the city's offer to purchase the Jet Center. Councilman John Simmonds stated factually that he knew that Wiand would turn down the city's offer as Wiand felt that the city was taking too long on some issues.
Martin stated that nobody could read the man's mind, then asked Simmonds if he had talked to Wiand. Simmonds stumbled a bit, then denied having any contact with Wiand.
Nevertheless, Simmonds, apparently by psychic powers, correctly predicted almost exactly what Wiand's response would be.
Martin stated he would meet with Turner and the city attorney to see what options are still available to the city.
Burton Wiand, the attorney appointed by a federal judge to act as receiver for Art Nadel and the Venice Jet Center, claims that he has a buyer for the Venice Jet Center.
In a letter faxed to the city earlier today (2 pages, PDF), Wiand attacked the city's offer to purchase the center as "disingenuous."
"Given this situation, it is my conclusion that the City has never made any proposals in good faith or had any good faith discussions with me.... For months the city has had every opportunity to negotiate in good faith it [sic] there was any genuine interest in the Jet Center... The city's lack of good faith in this matter and the continued sending of self-serving disingenuous letters has not been persuasive and will not move this matter forward. I have reached agreement in principle with a purchaser for the Jet Center and that purchase agreement will be presented to the United States District Court in the immediate future...."
Wiand concluded his rant on a particularly snarky note: "Thank you for your letter of October 26."
Reached by phone, Mayor Ed Martin called the letter "offensive and not an accurate portrayal."
"[City Manager Isaac] Turner and Tom Devine [an attorney hired by the city to handle Wiand's Part 16 complaint] met with Wiand. Turner laid out very specifically that we would approve the hangars if they agreed to move them out to the area designated for hangar development, and we in turn would pay the cost for moving utilities to that site.
"Turner also told him [that] we would give them $130,000 in back rent to replace the rent they had paid on the portion that they had not developed. We anticipated he [Wiand] would get back to us. We never heard from him. Then in the part 16 proceedings, he claims that we had not bargained in good faith."
Wiand's description of a "sub-rosa meeting," meaning, apparently, a secret meeting that Wiand had been invited to and that he had attended (eh?), was cause for further ire from the mayor: "I don't know why he would describe a meeting with him as secret. Turner had the attorney present so if there were any details that needed to be negotiated, they could be discussed and brought back before council with the attorney's recommendations. Wiand has never given us the courtesy of replying until now and Mr. Turner had since called him at least twice to get his reactions and had received no reply."
At the last council meeting on October 26, council had discussed that they had been waiting for some time a response from Wiand on the city's offer to purchase the Jet Center. Councilman John Simmonds stated factually that he knew that Wiand would turn down the city's offer as Wiand felt that the city was taking too long on some issues.
Martin stated that nobody could read the man's mind, then asked Simmonds if he had talked to Wiand. Simmonds stumbled a bit, then denied having any contact with Wiand.
Nevertheless, Simmonds, apparently by psychic powers, correctly predicted almost exactly what Wiand's response would be.
Martin stated he would meet with Turner and the city attorney to see what options are still available to the city.
Want to write here? Let us know
.
This portion of the site can host up to 100 different local writers. What gets written here gets read.
What that means is that now, anyone local who wants to become a contributor to Venice Florida! dot com can... with a few caveats.
We're not talking about posting comments. We mean full articles with a headline, byline, and your photos if wanted.
You can write about anything as long as it is Venice-related and will be of some some interest to any portion of the Venice community or to outsiders reading about Venice. You do not necessarily have to live within the city limits or think about Venice in those terms -- this can be more about the south county area.
You have to author your articles under your real name. You will be able to edit your own blog articles. You post them yourself using an amazingly easy publish function on this site.
We'll be changing the site title banner graphic to something a bit more appropriate for the open style. Any suggestions?
We reserve the right to edit for style, layout, punctuation, grammar.
Want to join and become a writer for Venice's best read web site? Write to send an email to jpatten@veniceflorida.com, tell us your REAL name, a brief (one or two sentences) description of what you initially want to write about (you can always write about different stuff later), your phone number so that we can contact you in the future for any questions about contents in future articles posted and that's about it.
This portion of the site can host up to 100 different local writers. What gets written here gets read.
What that means is that now, anyone local who wants to become a contributor to Venice Florida! dot com can... with a few caveats.
We're not talking about posting comments. We mean full articles with a headline, byline, and your photos if wanted.
You can write about anything as long as it is Venice-related and will be of some some interest to any portion of the Venice community or to outsiders reading about Venice. You do not necessarily have to live within the city limits or think about Venice in those terms -- this can be more about the south county area.
You have to author your articles under your real name. You will be able to edit your own blog articles. You post them yourself using an amazingly easy publish function on this site.
We'll be changing the site title banner graphic to something a bit more appropriate for the open style. Any suggestions?
We reserve the right to edit for style, layout, punctuation, grammar.
Want to join and become a writer for Venice's best read web site? Write to send an email to jpatten@veniceflorida.com, tell us your REAL name, a brief (one or two sentences) description of what you initially want to write about (you can always write about different stuff later), your phone number so that we can contact you in the future for any questions about contents in future articles posted and that's about it.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Election 2009: Batshiat Crazy Harry nearly pulls it off, Bennett barely stumbles into office; Thuggery beats incompetence in Carlesimo win
This was easily the weirdest local election I have EVER witnessed or covered.
There ain't no good guys. There were a lot of bad guys (apologies to Dave Mason, wherever you are).
For the record, I stated weeks ago that my prediction was that Emilio Carlesimo would win handily and that Jim Bennett would squeek by. I told Carlesimo as much at the VASI forum three or four weeks back. I've said it to numerous others as well. My numbers were a bit off, though. I stated Carlesimo would get approximately 70% of the vote (he ended up getting 61%), and I thought Bennett would win by a bigger margin than 139 votes -- that still astounds me.
I knew that Batshiat Crazy Harry Walia's mugshot would cause his campaign hopes to come to a screeching halt. As soon as I posted that picture, Walia should have stepped down -- he should have known that his campaign would end in flames and twisted wreckage. In spite of the close call this time, he stands zero chance of a comeback next year.
I didn't print my predictions for the same reason that I never have before: such prognostication in print within such a small electorate will invariably influence the result in unpredictable ways. It's the same in physics: mere observation and prediction alters the observed in measurable, but unpredictable, ways.
Bennett won, not because he ran a successful campaign -- he didn't. Both he and Ted Koszarski ran campaigns that could be best described as totally gay. Carlesimo and Walia exuded confidence, machismo, testosterone, a can-do approach. Both men knew how to work a crowd as intuitively as a carnival's best huckster knows how to talk the local schoolgirls out of their knickers, while Bennett and Koszarski came off as limp-wristed effeminites trying to host a drag tea dance.
The ONLY reason that Bennett won was because Walia was and is an incredibly duplicitous fiend and there was a wealth of paperwork to show it. Once the paperwork started slowly flowing from this web site to the public, it was too late for Walia -- there was no way to stop the fatal hemorrhaging, but he and his supporters tried to stop me anyway: I was involved in two altercations (one with a fellow journalist), received numerous threats of lawsuits, and one death threat. It's a personal best for a single election season.
Walia raised some $40,000 by October 29, a new record for a Venice council election, which means he spent $16.00 for each vote that he received. In contrast, Bennett raised almost $6,000, which means he spent around $2.40 for each vote that he received.
Last year, Emilio Carlesimo was thug extraordinaire. As the then-president of the MacArthur Beach and Racquet Club condominium association, he was involved in the ousting of 73-year-old Charlotte McGowan from her home because she did not trust the condo board or the condo management with a key to her unit. There's more to it than that -- the board wanted to rip out some of her internal walls so her upstairs neighbor could have a washer and dryer rather than use the community laundry two doors down. McGowan had just had her place remodeled. The fight was on.
While Carlesimo and MacArthur Beach management claimed they were playing fair, the legal record showed that they had played hide the paperwork by denying her access to condo board minutes and such, and that the hired help had been harrassing McGowan. Of course that was denied, but then the following post appeared on this web site on November 5, 2008 from someone posing as "realtor:"
"The papers did not pick up on those false stories from the 93 yr old lady because shes not telling the truth. The papers did their homework! You like talking to and listening to a ugly iside and out vindictive gas bag that lost in court. Nobody cares but a T.M.Z. wanna be like you. Your not man enough to keep this on here!!! DO your homework. [all errors sic]"
McGowan's attorney subpoened the ISP. It turned out that the above post came from the home internet account of a Tom Obermeier. He's not a realtor at all, but he was the property manager at MacArthur Beach at the time. McGowan described him as a resident terrorist who once tried to kick down her door. McGowan told me she was terrified of Obermeier. My nose and a whole lot of documented evidence had me leaning heavily towards believing McGowan. The later revelation that it was Obermeier that made that post on this site's message board confirmed to me that McGowan's assessment of Obermeier as a thug was spot on.
Obermeier later admitted to me that he had made the post and stated that he had Carlesimo's permission, as Obermeier had made the post on his own time from his home computer. Carlesimo didn't deny it when asked -- he shrugged and walked away.
When all of this started coming out on this web site (Obermeier's full involvement wasn't known yet), it ultimately cost Carlesimo the election to city council. Carlesimo lost handily to Kit McKeon in November of last year.
Meanwhile, this web site continued to broadcast McGowan's plight in an appeal to the MacArthur Beach board to show some sense of fairness. In spite of the obvious injustice, MacArthur Beach continued to treat McGowan like she was living in a banana republic.
Curiously, Obermeier still has his job.
Earlier this year, Carlesimo was ousted from the MacArthur Beach board, probably because of reports from this web site. It looked like Carlesimo was politically done and toasted. He plodded on, worked like a dogged madman, and campaigned hard to get onto Venice City Council.
Meanwhile McGowan was rapidly running out of money due to ongoing legal fees. She eventually lost her legal battle with MacArthur Beach due to economic attrition -- they outspent her, a guaranteed winning strategy. It didn't help that her attorney, Kerry Mack, turned the case over to Mack's attorney daughter, who reportedly struggled with coming up to speed on the case in the courtroom at McGowan's expense. The younger attorney took a near-guaranteed legal winner and plopped it into the toilet, and thus McGowan's life and home were flushed.
McGowan lost, with Judge Bennett curiously ruling that state condo laws obligate McGowan to turn over a copy of her house key to Tom Obermeier, in spite of the fact that no such state law actually exists. No such rule was in the condo association's docs, either, but without the ability to appeal, Bennett's ruling became law.
Bennett also awarded legal fees to MacArthur Beach, meaning McGowan would have to reimburse the condo association. In a sad irony, McGowan stated to me that MacArthur Beach was earning such a bad PR reputation in the real estate market that, coupled with the downturn in real estate, it was impossible for McGowan to sell her place. Well, who would want to move in once they had read about the board and the management there?
So now, according to what Carlesimo told me on this year's campaign trail, MacArthur Beach is readying to slap a lien on McGowan's condo in the first move to foreclose and take ownership, only they can't find her.
A few months back, McGowan called me up. She knew that she was going to end up homeless, so she was packing up to move out to Yosemite National Park, where she had had many happy experiences earlier in life.
McGowan sounded totally crushed. Nobody locally has heard from her since. Calls made by me to Yosemite have turned up nothing.
Carlesimo always insisted that McGowan was a crazy old woman. I met McGowan a few times. I found her to be sane, highly intelligent, but a bit goofy, and definitely cantankerous.
From MacArthur Beach's and Carlesimo's point of view, they have done a good thing: they have driven a dangerous crazy woman from their posh community.
My take is that MacArthur Beach is apparently a good place to move out of and not a good place to move into. Be careful, those who still live there -- if your mind slips a few notches, these predators will take you down and eviscerate you like a pride of lions on a lame gazelle. They kept this manager after all.
Still, in this year's campaign, Carlesimo proved himself to be predatory and competent, two things that Ted Koszarski, his opponent, could not successfully claim to be. If there was ever a more incompetent campaign run in local politics here, I can't remember one. Helen Jean Wilson's campaign from quite a few years back comes close.
Competent and predatory won out. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe, just maybe, Carlesimo will turn out to be a decent councilman. If he does, we all win. If he turns out to be evil, it can only make Martin, Lang & Co. look good. So either way, Carlesimo can't hurt the town.
However -- if Ted Koszarski had a disastrous first year while working the learning curve, Martin, Lang & Co. would pay the price, as Ed Martin, Sue Lang, and Ernie Zavodnyik are all up for re-election next November.
So, with apologies to Koszarski, his campaign was a campaign full of fail right from the start. One could blame the print media and not be entirely wrong. The Gondolier was living way out in the land of biased fiction to give praise to Carlesimo, while the Herald-Tribune did not cover the race with any greater degree of accuracy. Neither paper has ever printed the name "Charlotte McGowan" which means many of you never saw that side of Carlesimo unless you read my back articles from last year.
The Gondolier endorsed Carlesimo but refused to make any endorsement in the Jim Bennett / Harry Walia race. The Herald-Tribune didn't endorse anyone in either race -- instead they took pot shots at Bennett and Koszarski while refusing to even look at the background records of any of the four candidates until I started slamming their foreheads into a pile of legal papers.
A few days before the election, Kim Hackett finally decided to take a closer look at what I was writing about Walia, probably in an attempt to slam me down. She finally admitted, after looking closely, that I had been right all along: Walia really is a total nutjob who needed elongated sleeves, large quantities of Thorazine in his bloodstream, and some quality time in a rubber room.
By then it was almost too late: both papers had been solidly praising Walia. Giles at the Gondo alternately lied in print about the nature of Walia's legal problems while accusing both the existing court records and myself of lying about Walia. Eric Ernst at the Herald-Trib wrote that it was racist to point out that Walia had been using two names when Walia was falsely claiming to have used only one all along.
Meanwhile, Venice Florida! dot com took the exact opposite approach as the Gondo: this site tacitly supported Bennett by showing up Walia as the slimey amoral horrorshow that he turned out to be, this in spite of outright fabrications pushed by print media about what a great maverick businessman he was supposed to be. At the same time, this site made no implicit endorsement or journalistic inroad into the Carlesimo / Koszarski race because, when it came down to it, neither candidate was endorsable.
This election better give Martin, Lang & Co. pause for reflection. Their campaign needs to begin today, which I told Lang, only she doesn't seem to believe it. Koszarski was creamed, a statement against Martin, Lang, & Co. that they need to pay strong attention to: this was a violent attack on their existence as much as on Koszarski.
The fact that a pathologic and psychotic lunatic lost by only 139 votes says something else: Bennett has no mandate and half of Venice voters found a clone of Idi Amin to be preferable to another egghead drone from the Ed Martin College of Political Diplomacy.
On the record, I asked Ed Martin, Sue Lang, and Ernie Zavodnyik last night if each of them were running for re-election in 2010. Lang said yes, Martin and Zavodnyik both said maybe, with Martin spitting out some gobbledegook political phrasing about a need to "take the pulse of the people." Apparently, he needs a stethoscope to read this year's election numbers.
Ed, Sue, Ernie: You guys have one year from today to figure out all that you have done wrong, somehow correct it, and figure out a way to bypass the newspapers in getting your message out. Otherwise you are doomed and you will take us all down with you.
There ain't no good guys. There were a lot of bad guys (apologies to Dave Mason, wherever you are).
For the record, I stated weeks ago that my prediction was that Emilio Carlesimo would win handily and that Jim Bennett would squeek by. I told Carlesimo as much at the VASI forum three or four weeks back. I've said it to numerous others as well. My numbers were a bit off, though. I stated Carlesimo would get approximately 70% of the vote (he ended up getting 61%), and I thought Bennett would win by a bigger margin than 139 votes -- that still astounds me.
I knew that Batshiat Crazy Harry Walia's mugshot would cause his campaign hopes to come to a screeching halt. As soon as I posted that picture, Walia should have stepped down -- he should have known that his campaign would end in flames and twisted wreckage. In spite of the close call this time, he stands zero chance of a comeback next year.
I didn't print my predictions for the same reason that I never have before: such prognostication in print within such a small electorate will invariably influence the result in unpredictable ways. It's the same in physics: mere observation and prediction alters the observed in measurable, but unpredictable, ways.
Bennett won, not because he ran a successful campaign -- he didn't. Both he and Ted Koszarski ran campaigns that could be best described as totally gay. Carlesimo and Walia exuded confidence, machismo, testosterone, a can-do approach. Both men knew how to work a crowd as intuitively as a carnival's best huckster knows how to talk the local schoolgirls out of their knickers, while Bennett and Koszarski came off as limp-wristed effeminites trying to host a drag tea dance.
The ONLY reason that Bennett won was because Walia was and is an incredibly duplicitous fiend and there was a wealth of paperwork to show it. Once the paperwork started slowly flowing from this web site to the public, it was too late for Walia -- there was no way to stop the fatal hemorrhaging, but he and his supporters tried to stop me anyway: I was involved in two altercations (one with a fellow journalist), received numerous threats of lawsuits, and one death threat. It's a personal best for a single election season.
Walia raised some $40,000 by October 29, a new record for a Venice council election, which means he spent $16.00 for each vote that he received. In contrast, Bennett raised almost $6,000, which means he spent around $2.40 for each vote that he received.
Last year, Emilio Carlesimo was thug extraordinaire. As the then-president of the MacArthur Beach and Racquet Club condominium association, he was involved in the ousting of 73-year-old Charlotte McGowan from her home because she did not trust the condo board or the condo management with a key to her unit. There's more to it than that -- the board wanted to rip out some of her internal walls so her upstairs neighbor could have a washer and dryer rather than use the community laundry two doors down. McGowan had just had her place remodeled. The fight was on.
While Carlesimo and MacArthur Beach management claimed they were playing fair, the legal record showed that they had played hide the paperwork by denying her access to condo board minutes and such, and that the hired help had been harrassing McGowan. Of course that was denied, but then the following post appeared on this web site on November 5, 2008 from someone posing as "realtor:"
"The papers did not pick up on those false stories from the 93 yr old lady because shes not telling the truth. The papers did their homework! You like talking to and listening to a ugly iside and out vindictive gas bag that lost in court. Nobody cares but a T.M.Z. wanna be like you. Your not man enough to keep this on here!!! DO your homework. [all errors sic]"
McGowan's attorney subpoened the ISP. It turned out that the above post came from the home internet account of a Tom Obermeier. He's not a realtor at all, but he was the property manager at MacArthur Beach at the time. McGowan described him as a resident terrorist who once tried to kick down her door. McGowan told me she was terrified of Obermeier. My nose and a whole lot of documented evidence had me leaning heavily towards believing McGowan. The later revelation that it was Obermeier that made that post on this site's message board confirmed to me that McGowan's assessment of Obermeier as a thug was spot on.
Obermeier later admitted to me that he had made the post and stated that he had Carlesimo's permission, as Obermeier had made the post on his own time from his home computer. Carlesimo didn't deny it when asked -- he shrugged and walked away.
When all of this started coming out on this web site (Obermeier's full involvement wasn't known yet), it ultimately cost Carlesimo the election to city council. Carlesimo lost handily to Kit McKeon in November of last year.
Meanwhile, this web site continued to broadcast McGowan's plight in an appeal to the MacArthur Beach board to show some sense of fairness. In spite of the obvious injustice, MacArthur Beach continued to treat McGowan like she was living in a banana republic.
Curiously, Obermeier still has his job.
Earlier this year, Carlesimo was ousted from the MacArthur Beach board, probably because of reports from this web site. It looked like Carlesimo was politically done and toasted. He plodded on, worked like a dogged madman, and campaigned hard to get onto Venice City Council.
Meanwhile McGowan was rapidly running out of money due to ongoing legal fees. She eventually lost her legal battle with MacArthur Beach due to economic attrition -- they outspent her, a guaranteed winning strategy. It didn't help that her attorney, Kerry Mack, turned the case over to Mack's attorney daughter, who reportedly struggled with coming up to speed on the case in the courtroom at McGowan's expense. The younger attorney took a near-guaranteed legal winner and plopped it into the toilet, and thus McGowan's life and home were flushed.
McGowan lost, with Judge Bennett curiously ruling that state condo laws obligate McGowan to turn over a copy of her house key to Tom Obermeier, in spite of the fact that no such state law actually exists. No such rule was in the condo association's docs, either, but without the ability to appeal, Bennett's ruling became law.
Bennett also awarded legal fees to MacArthur Beach, meaning McGowan would have to reimburse the condo association. In a sad irony, McGowan stated to me that MacArthur Beach was earning such a bad PR reputation in the real estate market that, coupled with the downturn in real estate, it was impossible for McGowan to sell her place. Well, who would want to move in once they had read about the board and the management there?
So now, according to what Carlesimo told me on this year's campaign trail, MacArthur Beach is readying to slap a lien on McGowan's condo in the first move to foreclose and take ownership, only they can't find her.
A few months back, McGowan called me up. She knew that she was going to end up homeless, so she was packing up to move out to Yosemite National Park, where she had had many happy experiences earlier in life.
McGowan sounded totally crushed. Nobody locally has heard from her since. Calls made by me to Yosemite have turned up nothing.
Carlesimo always insisted that McGowan was a crazy old woman. I met McGowan a few times. I found her to be sane, highly intelligent, but a bit goofy, and definitely cantankerous.
From MacArthur Beach's and Carlesimo's point of view, they have done a good thing: they have driven a dangerous crazy woman from their posh community.
My take is that MacArthur Beach is apparently a good place to move out of and not a good place to move into. Be careful, those who still live there -- if your mind slips a few notches, these predators will take you down and eviscerate you like a pride of lions on a lame gazelle. They kept this manager after all.
Still, in this year's campaign, Carlesimo proved himself to be predatory and competent, two things that Ted Koszarski, his opponent, could not successfully claim to be. If there was ever a more incompetent campaign run in local politics here, I can't remember one. Helen Jean Wilson's campaign from quite a few years back comes close.
Competent and predatory won out. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe, just maybe, Carlesimo will turn out to be a decent councilman. If he does, we all win. If he turns out to be evil, it can only make Martin, Lang & Co. look good. So either way, Carlesimo can't hurt the town.
However -- if Ted Koszarski had a disastrous first year while working the learning curve, Martin, Lang & Co. would pay the price, as Ed Martin, Sue Lang, and Ernie Zavodnyik are all up for re-election next November.
So, with apologies to Koszarski, his campaign was a campaign full of fail right from the start. One could blame the print media and not be entirely wrong. The Gondolier was living way out in the land of biased fiction to give praise to Carlesimo, while the Herald-Tribune did not cover the race with any greater degree of accuracy. Neither paper has ever printed the name "Charlotte McGowan" which means many of you never saw that side of Carlesimo unless you read my back articles from last year.
The Gondolier endorsed Carlesimo but refused to make any endorsement in the Jim Bennett / Harry Walia race. The Herald-Tribune didn't endorse anyone in either race -- instead they took pot shots at Bennett and Koszarski while refusing to even look at the background records of any of the four candidates until I started slamming their foreheads into a pile of legal papers.
A few days before the election, Kim Hackett finally decided to take a closer look at what I was writing about Walia, probably in an attempt to slam me down. She finally admitted, after looking closely, that I had been right all along: Walia really is a total nutjob who needed elongated sleeves, large quantities of Thorazine in his bloodstream, and some quality time in a rubber room.
By then it was almost too late: both papers had been solidly praising Walia. Giles at the Gondo alternately lied in print about the nature of Walia's legal problems while accusing both the existing court records and myself of lying about Walia. Eric Ernst at the Herald-Trib wrote that it was racist to point out that Walia had been using two names when Walia was falsely claiming to have used only one all along.
Meanwhile, Venice Florida! dot com took the exact opposite approach as the Gondo: this site tacitly supported Bennett by showing up Walia as the slimey amoral horrorshow that he turned out to be, this in spite of outright fabrications pushed by print media about what a great maverick businessman he was supposed to be. At the same time, this site made no implicit endorsement or journalistic inroad into the Carlesimo / Koszarski race because, when it came down to it, neither candidate was endorsable.
This election better give Martin, Lang & Co. pause for reflection. Their campaign needs to begin today, which I told Lang, only she doesn't seem to believe it. Koszarski was creamed, a statement against Martin, Lang, & Co. that they need to pay strong attention to: this was a violent attack on their existence as much as on Koszarski.
The fact that a pathologic and psychotic lunatic lost by only 139 votes says something else: Bennett has no mandate and half of Venice voters found a clone of Idi Amin to be preferable to another egghead drone from the Ed Martin College of Political Diplomacy.
On the record, I asked Ed Martin, Sue Lang, and Ernie Zavodnyik last night if each of them were running for re-election in 2010. Lang said yes, Martin and Zavodnyik both said maybe, with Martin spitting out some gobbledegook political phrasing about a need to "take the pulse of the people." Apparently, he needs a stethoscope to read this year's election numbers.
Ed, Sue, Ernie: You guys have one year from today to figure out all that you have done wrong, somehow correct it, and figure out a way to bypass the newspapers in getting your message out. Otherwise you are doomed and you will take us all down with you.
An open letter to Earl Midlam
REF: Campaign takes a wierd turn
Dear Earl Midlam, you reeky boil-brained maggot-pie:
You are currently upset because you claim that you saw the mayor uproot a sign that you admit was illegally placed.
Read that sentence again, you unmuzzled sheep-biting lewdster.
The mayor told me that he found the sign upside down in the bushes, somehow that was mistranslated by the Gondo into "Martin said he came across a face-down sign," which, of course, is unbelievable as the signs are printed on both sides. That is, of course, why the Gondo, a two-ply rag published by a beslubbering unchin-snouted wagtail, deliberately misquoted the Mayor.
Dear Earl Midlam, you reeky boil-brained maggot-pie:
You are currently upset because you claim that you saw the mayor uproot a sign that you admit was illegally placed.
Read that sentence again, you unmuzzled sheep-biting lewdster.
The mayor told me that he found the sign upside down in the bushes, somehow that was mistranslated by the Gondo into "Martin said he came across a face-down sign," which, of course, is unbelievable as the signs are printed on both sides. That is, of course, why the Gondo, a two-ply rag published by a beslubbering unchin-snouted wagtail, deliberately misquoted the Mayor.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Herald-Trib takes money, fails to run Bennett / Koszarski ads
.
Election ads for Venice City Council candidates Jim Bennett and Ted Koszarski that were bought and paid for, and submitted before the deadlines, were dropped by the Herald-Tribune with no explanation. The ads were to run in yesterday's and today's newspapers. The election takes place today with polls open until 7:00 pm.
The Herald-Trib did manage to successfully run ads for Walia and Carlesimo.
Reportedly the Herald-Trib has promised to make good on the Bennett and Koszarski ads by running them all tomorrow -- the day AFTER the election.
Election ads for Venice City Council candidates Jim Bennett and Ted Koszarski that were bought and paid for, and submitted before the deadlines, were dropped by the Herald-Tribune with no explanation. The ads were to run in yesterday's and today's newspapers. The election takes place today with polls open until 7:00 pm.
The Herald-Trib did manage to successfully run ads for Walia and Carlesimo.
Reportedly the Herald-Trib has promised to make good on the Bennett and Koszarski ads by running them all tomorrow -- the day AFTER the election.
Walia, Carlesimo supporters dog Koszarski, con cops and Hackett at Herald-Trib
This past weekend, Walia supporters plastered Publix parking lots with Walia signs (pix below).
On Sunday evening, I asked the assistant manager on duty at the Publix on the island if Walia had received permission to place the signs, I was told no, that the signs had just appeared. He even walked around the parking lot with me, pointing them out. Then he left them where they were (about a dozen, maybe more) and went back in to the store.
Roughly half of the signs were in between the sidewalk and the street, meaning they were illegally on city property (municipal land).
Without my asking, he graciously gave me permission to take photos of the Walia signs at the edge of the parkinglot as long as I didn't include any Publix logos in my photos. I graciously thanked him and told him he couldn't prevent me from taking any photos I wanted in an open air public place.
Then comes this story from Kim Hackett, who was successfully lobbied by Ed Taylor (outgoing first lady to Council Member Vicki Taylor) to post a story about an evil Ted Koszarski handing out flyers at the off-island Publix on Venice Avenue.
On Sunday evening, I asked the assistant manager on duty at the Publix on the island if Walia had received permission to place the signs, I was told no, that the signs had just appeared. He even walked around the parking lot with me, pointing them out. Then he left them where they were (about a dozen, maybe more) and went back in to the store.
Roughly half of the signs were in between the sidewalk and the street, meaning they were illegally on city property (municipal land).
Without my asking, he graciously gave me permission to take photos of the Walia signs at the edge of the parkinglot as long as I didn't include any Publix logos in my photos. I graciously thanked him and told him he couldn't prevent me from taking any photos I wanted in an open air public place.
Then comes this story from Kim Hackett, who was successfully lobbied by Ed Taylor (outgoing first lady to Council Member Vicki Taylor) to post a story about an evil Ted Koszarski handing out flyers at the off-island Publix on Venice Avenue.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Republican Walia supporter issues death threat to Venice Florida! dot com's Patten
Here's the latest retard to climb aboard the crowded Walia special busMeet Ken Hansraj (photo at right), aka Dr. Kenneth K. Hansraj, a spine doctor from upstate New York. He's been a friend and supporter of Batshiat Crazy Harry Walia, and now he's become an amateur cyber-terrorist.
In his spare time, when he's not making an ass of himself on the web, Hansraj is a surgeon at a spinal surgery center in Poughkeepsie, The Special Spine Institute.
Hansraj took a strong dislike to my coverage of Batshiat Crazy Harry's campaign for elected bullydom here in Venice. Hansraj was so enraged that I would diss his fellow countryman that he posted on the message board that I was a racist.
For that, he was instantly banned.
He attempted to make some twenty other posts along the same line, but once you call me a racist, you have pretty much lost the right to talk to me.
When he discovered he was not going to be allowed to spam-bomb the site, Hansraj became unhappy. So unhappy, in fact, that he attempted to post the first (and lesser) of two electronic threats to my life, this in a bottom-of-page post below this article about Batshiat Crazy Harry. There, the physician wrote, "The law of karma dictates that [Patten] has a stroke and dies." Due to the comedy value in the inanity of the post, it was allowed to be published to the page.
That made me immediately wonder how the AMA and the New York medical boards would feel about a physician openly wishing a stroke and subsequent death upon another human being. I wrote as much online.
That apparently only enraged Hansraj even further. An email was sent yesterday from Hansraj's AOL account to both Batshiat Crazy Harry and myself, and this time Hansraj appears to have stepped over the legal line: "...it has been my observation that BAD KARMA may end in sudden death, God's laws."
Full routing code and text of the email is below.
Well, Ken, I don't know who or what your god is at the Fundie Hindu Temple of God-Let-Me-Kill-That-Guy-Because-He-Looked-At-Me-In-A-Funny-Way, nor can I tell you about your particular god's apparently wacko laws regarding retribution for basic news reporting, but I can tell you about the laws of man, particularly the laws involving making death threats by electronic means: It's a felony in most states, it's a felony in Florida, and it is a felony violation of federal law governing interstate electronic communications. I'd be amazed if it wasn't a felony in New York. In fact, you have motivate me to find out. I'm waiting for 8:00 AM to roll around so I can give the Poughkeepsie Police Department a call.
A few weeks back, Walia supporter and local Republican nutbasket Cynthia Crowe sent an email stating she was coming for me. Thankfully, the aging bovine battle-axe did not have romance on her mind, as within days of sending the email, Crowe took a swing at me at a local candidate forum. This was followed by a trip to the Venice Police station where Crowe and Walia stated that they wanted me arrested because my chest hurt her fist. The cops told the pair not to go away mad, but just to go away.
Here's the full text of Hansraj's email as sent to both Batshiat Crazy and myself at 1:21 PM, EST on 11/01/09. Source and full header code follows the text.
Dear Harry
John Patten is not a fair reporter.
Not only is he not fair, he is using the media only against you.
Besides being ugly and fat (which I pointed out was the only crime that he found in one blog) He is also a dim-wit. I took him down many times, but he deleted it.
For example when he told me to GFY (Go F**k Yourself), I blogged back that"does this mean that God Feels for You? Ha Ha
But he is unfair in that HE REMOVES ANY COMMENT THAT IS POSITIVE TO YOU.
I WOULD SUE HIM AND INVESTIGATE HIM
Have your attorneys investigate if the owners of the media gave hime permission to allow only negatives about you.
If you do nothing, it has been my observation that BAD KARMA may end in sudden death, God's laws.
Ken Hansraj
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To: jpatten@veniceflorida.com, HarryWalia@aol.com
Subject: Leveling The Playing Field
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(photo credit: Ken Hansraj, from specialspine.com, used under Fair Use guidelines)
Saturday, October 31, 2009
This just in: Public records paperwork on Walia's campaign treasurer has arrived - Candia Lynch-Mausser nailed for securities fraud by SEC in 1995
Judgment and sentencing paperwork from 1995 (13 pages, PDF) shows that city council candidate Harry Walia's campaign treasurer, Candia Lynch-Mausser, was a leader of a Cincinnati securities fraud ring in the early 1990s. While never criminally charged, the SEC adjudged her civilly as guilty of fraud and assessed over $6,000 in "disgorgement" fines against her. The company she worked for was ordered to pay $30,000 as a direct result of her actions. Additionally, Mausser was barred from ever selling stocks and securities for a minimum of four years.
Up until the receipt of the documents early this morning, Venice Florida! dot com only had sketchy details of Mausser's legal problems with the SEC. Knowing that Venice Florida! dot com was looking into the charges, Walia's campaign had reportedly been telling the Gondolier and the Herald-Trib that Mausser's SEC history was a minor matter and that Mausser had gotten into some small trouble as the result of taking bad advice from someone that she had trusted.
The investigative and judgment paperwork from the SEC received today indicates that nothing could be further from the truth.
The SEC filings and judgments were sent pursuant to a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made by Venice Florida! dot com approximately ten days ago.
According to the filings, Mausser was an employee at, and later the "Branch Manager" of, a franchise office in Cincinnati of Corporate Securities Group, Inc., a Florida-based corporation. The Cincinnati office was owned by Dr. George Rizos and Matthew Zahn.
Mausser was accused by the SEC of selling unregistered securities, lying about their value, and funneling the sales proceeds to Rizos' personal accounts instead of into the corporate accounts of Corporate Securities, Inc.
From pages 3 and 4 of the PDF file (same as pages 1 and 2 of the second document in the file): "Mausser willfully violated Section 17(A) of the Securities Act of 1933 in that, in the offer or sale off securities, ...Mausser employed devices, schemes, or artifices to defraud; obtained money or property by means of untrue statements of material facts, ...[and] engaged in practices or courses of business which operated as a fraud or deceit upon the purchaser."
Specifically, Mausser was accused of making "...material misrepresentations and omissions in the offer or sale of Goldstar securities by making baseless price predictions, making false assertions that Goldstar would be freely tradable and would be listed in NASDAQ."
In other words, Mausser was a sort-of miniature version of Art Nadel.
Mausser had two co-defendants, Rizos and Zahn. Rizos was ordered to pay $14,500 in fines and disgorgement fees, while Mausser was ordered to pay $6,300. No penalty was assessed against Zahn. Corporate Securities was ordered to pay $30,000 in fines because of Mausser's and Rizos' activities.
Additionally, Mausser was barred for four years from selling stocks and securities and from working for anyone who does sell them. Rizos was barred for two years while Zahn was barred for six months.
That makes two out of two staffers on Walia's campaign staff with what could loosely be termed as less than stellar backgrounds.
Walia's events coordinator, Heather Skeffington, is on probation with the Florida Department of Corrections for burglary. Additionally, she is still facing charges of using a stolen credit card and exploiting the elderly.
In one of the biggest PR mistakes ever in the history of Venice politics, Walia used Skeffington to park cars at his July 24 fundraiser for Republican Bill McCollum's gubernatorial bid. McCollum is currently employed as Florida's Attorney General. Attendees at the event were not told that they were giving their house and car keys to someone who was on probation for burglary and was facing other theft-related charges.
Up until the receipt of the documents early this morning, Venice Florida! dot com only had sketchy details of Mausser's legal problems with the SEC. Knowing that Venice Florida! dot com was looking into the charges, Walia's campaign had reportedly been telling the Gondolier and the Herald-Trib that Mausser's SEC history was a minor matter and that Mausser had gotten into some small trouble as the result of taking bad advice from someone that she had trusted.
The investigative and judgment paperwork from the SEC received today indicates that nothing could be further from the truth.
The SEC filings and judgments were sent pursuant to a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made by Venice Florida! dot com approximately ten days ago.
According to the filings, Mausser was an employee at, and later the "Branch Manager" of, a franchise office in Cincinnati of Corporate Securities Group, Inc., a Florida-based corporation. The Cincinnati office was owned by Dr. George Rizos and Matthew Zahn.
Mausser was accused by the SEC of selling unregistered securities, lying about their value, and funneling the sales proceeds to Rizos' personal accounts instead of into the corporate accounts of Corporate Securities, Inc.
From pages 3 and 4 of the PDF file (same as pages 1 and 2 of the second document in the file): "Mausser willfully violated Section 17(A) of the Securities Act of 1933 in that, in the offer or sale off securities, ...Mausser employed devices, schemes, or artifices to defraud; obtained money or property by means of untrue statements of material facts, ...[and] engaged in practices or courses of business which operated as a fraud or deceit upon the purchaser."
Specifically, Mausser was accused of making "...material misrepresentations and omissions in the offer or sale of Goldstar securities by making baseless price predictions, making false assertions that Goldstar would be freely tradable and would be listed in NASDAQ."
In other words, Mausser was a sort-of miniature version of Art Nadel.
Mausser had two co-defendants, Rizos and Zahn. Rizos was ordered to pay $14,500 in fines and disgorgement fees, while Mausser was ordered to pay $6,300. No penalty was assessed against Zahn. Corporate Securities was ordered to pay $30,000 in fines because of Mausser's and Rizos' activities.
Additionally, Mausser was barred for four years from selling stocks and securities and from working for anyone who does sell them. Rizos was barred for two years while Zahn was barred for six months.
That makes two out of two staffers on Walia's campaign staff with what could loosely be termed as less than stellar backgrounds.
Walia's events coordinator, Heather Skeffington, is on probation with the Florida Department of Corrections for burglary. Additionally, she is still facing charges of using a stolen credit card and exploiting the elderly.
In one of the biggest PR mistakes ever in the history of Venice politics, Walia used Skeffington to park cars at his July 24 fundraiser for Republican Bill McCollum's gubernatorial bid. McCollum is currently employed as Florida's Attorney General. Attendees at the event were not told that they were giving their house and car keys to someone who was on probation for burglary and was facing other theft-related charges.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
--THE REAL STORY-- Inside sources: Police not charging Walia, Crowe with filing false police reports because of Walia's political connections, particularly with Attorney General Bill McCollum
Despite an abundance of proof that city council candidate Harry Walia (photo at right) knowingly gave police false information in sworn affidavits and interviews, there are no plans to charge Walia with filing false police reports. According to police sources who wish to remain anonymous, the police are giving Walia a pass due to his Republican Party political connections, both local and statewide.
In late July and early August of this year, police conducted an investigation into allegations that Garry Moore, of State of the Art Landscaping, had sabotaged and vandalized Walia's irrigation system and electrical wiring. Walia refused to pay Moore for fixing a water fountain pump. Walia was, at the time, fixing up his backyard for a July 24 fundraiser for the gubernatorial campaign of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum. McCollum did attend the fundraiser at Walia's house.
Walia is alternatively known in numerous legal records, including the deed to his house, as Harbhajan Singh Ahluwalia.
Walia, his girlfriend/attorney Diana Pankova(1), and two staffers, Heather Skeffington and Candia Lynch-Mausser(2), all gave sworn written statements to Venice Police Detective Ron Perisho, all implicating Moore as having criminally caused a series of electrical and plumbing failures that police later determined were due to shoddy repairs previously authorized by Walia. All but Pankova gave taped verbal interviews to Perisho as well.
According to a statement obtained by Venice Police from an electrician contracted by Walia, the system had been defective from long before Moore had ever laid eyes on it, and it was rapidly deteriorating. "It was a Mickey Mouse job," Ron Parish, of Best Electric, told police in his police interview.
Walia liberally name dropped the state's attorney general, Bill McCollum, in his interview with Detective Ron Perisho, this as heard in the audio recording of Walia's police interview as obtained by Venice Florida! dot com. At one point, Walia infers a strong chummy relationship with McCollum by stating that the pair of men were together until midnight on July 24. Walia name drops McCollum in his written sworn affidavit as well.
Moore, who did this repair as a one-off job and had never met Walia or been at the property prior to July of this year, stated to this writer that he tracked down prior workmen that Walia had used and that these workmen claim that they had warned Walia repeatedly about the shoddy electrical and plumbing work that
was on his property, but that Walia ignored their warnings.
Both Moore and Venice Florida! dot com have been inquiring as to why Walia remains not criminally charged with knowingly filing false criminal complaints.
The unofficial reason given to both Moore and to myself was that this whole mess was too political and that Walia is too highly connected.
Officially, the reason given to Venice Florida! dot com is that the complaints were dropped as "unfounded," therefore they don't exist as criminal complaints any more and thus cannot be false.
According to Moore, the official reason given to him was that, despite proof of Walia's prior knowledge that both the police and Moore unearthed, Walia is goofy enough that police couldn't prove that Walia understood that he was making a false statement. In other words, the police appear to be claiming that they will not charge Walia because Walia might claim an insanity plea. Remember, this is a man who is currently running for election for a seat on Venice City Council on a so-called "common sense" platform.
Moore has filed a contractor's lien against Walia's house for just over $900. Additionally, Moore has filed suit in small claims court. Walia has filed a countersuit.
The second criminal complaint involves Walia campaign staffer and supporter, Cyntia Crowe, who was caught on video physically attacking this writer at the Venice Library immediately after a League of Women Voiters debate.
Crowe had watched as Walia, outside of the room where the debate had been held, was asked about the criminal complaint that had been filed against Moore. Crowe then followed this writer back into the room where the debate had been held and issued threats of an impending lawsuit. When asked why, Crowe repeatedly refused to answer and proceeded to threaten and then follow through with a right-handed punch.
The video, and a verbal witness statement made to Venice Florida! dot com by Mayor Ed Martin, clearly show that Walia is not in the room at the time of the attack. In fact, Walia was some twenty to thirty feet outside of the room and around a corner.
Nevertheless, Walia and Crowe both filed criminal affidavits claiming that I physically attacked Crowe (PDF, 4 pages).
That complaint was dismissed as unfounded after detectives reviewed the video, which by that time had been published to YouTube.
Again, no charge of filing a false police report is being contemplated by the Venice Police Department, this because the complaint has been determined to be "unfounded," so it doesn't actually exist as such and therefore cannot possibly be a false complaint situation (or: since it was false, it cannot be valid and only a valid complaint can later be investigated for being false).
Meanwhile, Venice Florida! dot com has made inquiries to Attorney General Bill McCollum's office to inquire if it is the attorney general's policy to give a pass to offenses and crimes related to fundraisers for McCollum's election campaign.
I am still awaiting return calls from Captain Tom McNulty of the Venice Police Department and from the state's Attorney General's Office to see if either law enforcement agncy can come up with any clarifications as to why Walia is getting a pass from prosecution for what are prima facie cases of abuse of perceived authority in the filing of false police reports.
[FOOTNOTES:
(1) Walia identifies Pankova as his girlfriend in the audio recording of Detective Perisho's interview
(2) Walia staffers and witnesses against Moore, Skeffington and Mausser, both have problematic legal pasts. Skeffington is currently on probation with the Florida Department of Corrections for burglary. She still is facing charges of exploiting the elderly and multiple counts of using a stolen credit card. Mausser and an associate were accused of securities fraud by the SEC in 1994, a $30,000 administrative fine was imposed against the pair.]
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Batshiat Crazy Harry's foul odor solution and other great insights from the candidates
Venice Florida! dot com welcomes Mary D. as a new volunteer staff writer. This is her first piece.
Ref: Ideas for council candidates by Bob Vedder, Venice Gondolier Sun, 10/28/09
"While we think this year’s city council candidates lack experience in city and community affairs, they still have many ideas, some good, some questionable. ... Yet there is a lot more to a candidate than ideas. I hope we have laid out enough information for you to choose."
I must have missed all the info the Gondo has been laying out about the candidates. This babble fest seems to be one of the more detailed write ups and it didn't provide squat as to who is qualified. One particular blurb from this article did catch my attention though:
"Because our beaches are rated very low, Harry Walia suggested that we route stormwater into the holding ponds that used to be for treating effluent at the old Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. Harry has had some engineering experience, which came out a couple of times in his interview. Jim Bennett, his opponent, thinks we need to better define what is causing the problems before we seek a solution."
Wow, now Batshiat, in addition to those many other talents we've seen like drunk-driving, speeding, running a development into bankruptcy, avoiding paying for services received and showing off his scary knowledge by making comments like Venice joined the UN for $3500, acknowledges that he can fix our wastewater system with his engineering skills. That's funny because, from what I've read, Harry can't fix his own fountain or sprinkler-system.
Perhaps this next idea of Batshiat's will give us more insight, "to solve the foul odor coming from the wastewater and water treatment plants ... He thought there should be a tall vent stack to carry the odors higher so as not to bother homes and businesses nearby." Maybe Harry can just invent a giant deodorizer to put on the side of the treatment plant instead. I think it would make as much sense. I'm qualified to make that comment because I had a semester of engineering in college, which I'm guessing is more "experience" than Batshiat has ever had.
Can't ignore Jim Bennett's comment that he needs to better define what is causing the problem. Ah, the problem would be rain, Jim, and at times lots of it, and with no good place to go after it lands on the ground. Maybe Harry can control the weather, though. In between his engineering courses, he may have taken a class in ancient rain-dance rituals. Of course, I'm sure there are more problems to define now that I've answered that one. I'm sure Jim will get to the bottom of them before he votes for the giant deodorizer.
Some of the other great insight offered by the Gondo's article was that Ted Koszarski would like to use volunteers as consultants and that he himself would volunteer to do a veterans video archive, and that Emilio Carlesimo would like to have a swing set on the beach. Ted and Emilio were not quoted on their theories about rain and smelly water so we'll have to make a leap of faith as to what they think about my giant deodorizer idea.
According to the Gondo, after reading this pile of crap you are officially locked and loaded with all the info you need to vote this coming Tuesday. Good luck ...
Ref: Ideas for council candidates by Bob Vedder, Venice Gondolier Sun, 10/28/09
"While we think this year’s city council candidates lack experience in city and community affairs, they still have many ideas, some good, some questionable. ... Yet there is a lot more to a candidate than ideas. I hope we have laid out enough information for you to choose."
I must have missed all the info the Gondo has been laying out about the candidates. This babble fest seems to be one of the more detailed write ups and it didn't provide squat as to who is qualified. One particular blurb from this article did catch my attention though:
"Because our beaches are rated very low, Harry Walia suggested that we route stormwater into the holding ponds that used to be for treating effluent at the old Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. Harry has had some engineering experience, which came out a couple of times in his interview. Jim Bennett, his opponent, thinks we need to better define what is causing the problems before we seek a solution."
Wow, now Batshiat, in addition to those many other talents we've seen like drunk-driving, speeding, running a development into bankruptcy, avoiding paying for services received and showing off his scary knowledge by making comments like Venice joined the UN for $3500, acknowledges that he can fix our wastewater system with his engineering skills. That's funny because, from what I've read, Harry can't fix his own fountain or sprinkler-system.
Perhaps this next idea of Batshiat's will give us more insight, "to solve the foul odor coming from the wastewater and water treatment plants ... He thought there should be a tall vent stack to carry the odors higher so as not to bother homes and businesses nearby." Maybe Harry can just invent a giant deodorizer to put on the side of the treatment plant instead. I think it would make as much sense. I'm qualified to make that comment because I had a semester of engineering in college, which I'm guessing is more "experience" than Batshiat has ever had.
Can't ignore Jim Bennett's comment that he needs to better define what is causing the problem. Ah, the problem would be rain, Jim, and at times lots of it, and with no good place to go after it lands on the ground. Maybe Harry can control the weather, though. In between his engineering courses, he may have taken a class in ancient rain-dance rituals. Of course, I'm sure there are more problems to define now that I've answered that one. I'm sure Jim will get to the bottom of them before he votes for the giant deodorizer.
Some of the other great insight offered by the Gondo's article was that Ted Koszarski would like to use volunteers as consultants and that he himself would volunteer to do a veterans video archive, and that Emilio Carlesimo would like to have a swing set on the beach. Ted and Emilio were not quoted on their theories about rain and smelly water so we'll have to make a leap of faith as to what they think about my giant deodorizer idea.
According to the Gondo, after reading this pile of crap you are officially locked and loaded with all the info you need to vote this coming Tuesday. Good luck ...
Herald-Trib [finally] nails Batshiat Crazy Harry for being batshiat crazy
Carlesimo won't openly endorse or denounce Walia, refuses to admit or deny that he voted for Walia
"The police report, filed Sept. 23, is the latest twist in the Walia-Bennett race. Bennett's supporters have cited the report, a 16-year-old DUI against Walia -- later reduced to reckless driving -- and a number of lawsuits and foreclosures he has been involved in the last few years in opposing Walia."
--from City Council candidate's complaint is dismissed by Kim Hackett, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 10/28/09
Well, not exactly. This isn't "the latest twist," nor was it being "cited" by "Bennett supporters." That's more than a bit dismissive of an incredible amount of time that I've put in to research this very shady politician.
This was the starting point for a series of investigations into Walia's past that has resulted in two physical attacks against me so far, one by Walia supporter Cynthia Crowe, another by Gondo reporter and Walia supporter Greg Giles. Walia and Crowe filed a criminal complaint against me for hurting Crowe's wrist when, according to the pair of would-be victims, my chest slammed into her fist (I wish I were kidding -- you can see the video and read the affidavit for yourself).
That complaint was also dismissed by police as "unfounded." Mercifully, I had a vidcam rolling during the latter incident. YouTube can be a good friend.
Bennett once stepped on my foot. I have every reason to believe it was an accident. He apologized, not that there was any real need to.
Walia didn't like my questions, so he inquired about getting a restraining order to prevent me from attending any more political events as I might endanger more of his supporters' wrists when they take a swing at me.
Bennett once took me out to lunch.
I can't call myself a Bennett supporter, but if I'm interviewing a candidate, I sure as heck have a preferance to getting a free meal over being punched and then later lied about.
Still, Hackett scored a major coup when she caused Batshiat Crazy Harry to pop the latch on his cranium so that she could could peer down inside at the vodka and ether soaked cobwebs within, this when Batshiat stated of Garry Moore, "He tried to burn down my house!"
Did you see the name drop of Attorney General Bill McCollum? Did you note that, as though that gave some imprimatur of validity to Batshiat's ramblings? He tried that name drop with the cops, too, it's in the recorded audio of his police interview. It worked so well with police that they still wrote Walia off as totally unreliable: "He could have paid Mr. Moore but for whatever reason, [Walia] is blaming [Moore]," that quote attributed by Hackett to Detective Ron Perisho.
Translation: Walia is nuttier than Jimmy Carter's farmland.
Then there is the check-swapping scam at a health care provider, the accusations of fraud, inducement to fraud, and conversion levied against him in a counter-suit filed by Florida Flight Training Center, and more.
Look in your own archives for a story I found from 2000 or so when Walia was in a dust-up with a Sarasota pizzaria owner.
Drivers License suspension, tags not assigned, driving with no insurance -- those are out of county charges that show up in his DUI court file driving record as then-recent events (normally, these are crimes of poverty, but Walia claims to be and been highly affluent).
There's more. Much more. Way too much more. Enough that Venice Florida! dot com has officially dubbed him "Batshiat Crazy Harry."
I'm actually debating whether to vote for him, as he is and will continue to be the most fun and inane untamed wildness that I could watch for the price of a vote.
Walia's running mate, Emilio Carlesimo, has stated that he has already voted. Curiously, Carlesimo won't admit or deny that he voted for Walia. There's a ringing endorsement, eh?
"The police report, filed Sept. 23, is the latest twist in the Walia-Bennett race. Bennett's supporters have cited the report, a 16-year-old DUI against Walia -- later reduced to reckless driving -- and a number of lawsuits and foreclosures he has been involved in the last few years in opposing Walia."
--from City Council candidate's complaint is dismissed by Kim Hackett, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 10/28/09
Well, not exactly. This isn't "the latest twist," nor was it being "cited" by "Bennett supporters." That's more than a bit dismissive of an incredible amount of time that I've put in to research this very shady politician.
This was the starting point for a series of investigations into Walia's past that has resulted in two physical attacks against me so far, one by Walia supporter Cynthia Crowe, another by Gondo reporter and Walia supporter Greg Giles. Walia and Crowe filed a criminal complaint against me for hurting Crowe's wrist when, according to the pair of would-be victims, my chest slammed into her fist (I wish I were kidding -- you can see the video and read the affidavit for yourself).
That complaint was also dismissed by police as "unfounded." Mercifully, I had a vidcam rolling during the latter incident. YouTube can be a good friend.
Bennett once stepped on my foot. I have every reason to believe it was an accident. He apologized, not that there was any real need to.
Walia didn't like my questions, so he inquired about getting a restraining order to prevent me from attending any more political events as I might endanger more of his supporters' wrists when they take a swing at me.
Bennett once took me out to lunch.
I can't call myself a Bennett supporter, but if I'm interviewing a candidate, I sure as heck have a preferance to getting a free meal over being punched and then later lied about.
Still, Hackett scored a major coup when she caused Batshiat Crazy Harry to pop the latch on his cranium so that she could could peer down inside at the vodka and ether soaked cobwebs within, this when Batshiat stated of Garry Moore, "He tried to burn down my house!"
Did you see the name drop of Attorney General Bill McCollum? Did you note that, as though that gave some imprimatur of validity to Batshiat's ramblings? He tried that name drop with the cops, too, it's in the recorded audio of his police interview. It worked so well with police that they still wrote Walia off as totally unreliable: "He could have paid Mr. Moore but for whatever reason, [Walia] is blaming [Moore]," that quote attributed by Hackett to Detective Ron Perisho.
Translation: Walia is nuttier than Jimmy Carter's farmland.
Then there is the check-swapping scam at a health care provider, the accusations of fraud, inducement to fraud, and conversion levied against him in a counter-suit filed by Florida Flight Training Center, and more.
Look in your own archives for a story I found from 2000 or so when Walia was in a dust-up with a Sarasota pizzaria owner.
Drivers License suspension, tags not assigned, driving with no insurance -- those are out of county charges that show up in his DUI court file driving record as then-recent events (normally, these are crimes of poverty, but Walia claims to be and been highly affluent).
There's more. Much more. Way too much more. Enough that Venice Florida! dot com has officially dubbed him "Batshiat Crazy Harry."
I'm actually debating whether to vote for him, as he is and will continue to be the most fun and inane untamed wildness that I could watch for the price of a vote.
Walia's running mate, Emilio Carlesimo, has stated that he has already voted. Curiously, Carlesimo won't admit or deny that he voted for Walia. There's a ringing endorsement, eh?
Monday, October 26, 2009
Readers submit their own Walia scandal articles to Gondo, Herald-Trib, are told to go away
When I published the article entitled How to write your own Walia scandal story, it was intended as a deliberate and outrageously voiced jab at the local print media for continuing to fail at their very basic mandate, to wit: to report the news and to inform their readership.
What I didn't expect was that any readers would actually take me up on the challenge.
Two readers did, working independently. They both took the core elements available on Venice Florida! dot com, gathered additional material, and did their own interviews. Before submitting the articles to Venice Florida! dot com, they shopped them to the two local print newspapers for hopeful publication.
Both women writers (neither of whom have I yet to actually meet in person) claim they encountered a hostile barrage of denials from Greg Giles at the Gondolier. Giles made it clear that he believed that if the stories were not written entirely from the perspective of his favored candidate, the stories could not possibly be fair and balanced (a la Fox News). Those weren't Giles' exact words, but the message was clear to its recipients: Go away and leave me alone, I barely have a job at a barely-existing newspaper and if this shitpile collapses, I don't think I can find anyone else who will hire me.
The irony here is that Giles (seen at the right side of photo, being confronted by Venice Taxpayers League prez Gary Budway at a recent campaign event) has claimed to me that I am biased while remaining clear that his straight news coverage at the Gondo is unbiased.
I am biased. I am partisan. I never claimed to be otherwise. It's a deliberate attempt to bring some balance into an extremely biased media environment that claims to be otherwise. As to this new Gondo/Fox News philosophical merger in the Gondo's bogus claim to be fair and balanced, I have a few rude Monty Python quotes that spring to mind. Some Shakespeare insults as well.
I'm not saying it is wrong to be biased. It is genuinely and transparently dishonest to be so heavily biased as the Gondo has become while claiming to be unbiased. It's a lie and the paper is fooling no one.
Victor Hull at the Herald-Tribune, after being offered a couple of inches-thick stacks of papers from the pair of women, reportedly stated that he needed more info from them about the nature of the documents. God forbid he should actually have to glance at a stack of docs.
So, I am led to believe that the research department at the Herald-Tribune is unaware of the existence of the internet, this web site, or the clerk of court. Either that, or Hull is just too lazy to attempt to understand the story or he's too lazy to make a few phone calls to validate any of it or he's too lazy to tell one of his staffers to make a few phone calls to validate it.
Another possiblity, one that I am beginning to give more and more credence to, is that William Randolph Hearst has risen from the grave, bought both papers, and, like his famous missive about Billy Graham so many years ago, has sent two-word telegrams to both papers: "Puff Walia!"
The latter theory makes more sense than anything else. It means that both papers are under orders from a highly influential and powerful man to deny readers any meaningful insight as to who the stealthed-out CQG is asking you to vote for.
Please: do not tell me the CQG is not in this. I was at the VASI forum. I watched the temporarily dethroned King of Venice, land development attorney E.G. 'Dan' Boone, as he lovingly gazed at his best hopes to regain his throne: candidates Emilio Carlesimo and Carlesimo's running mate, Batshiat Crazy Harry Walia. If these two get in, it's Happy Days Are Here Again time at the Boone, Boone, Boone, Dewy, Cheetham, and Howe law firm, which in turn means that the treasury looting will begin again under the guise of heading towards prosperity.
The way Dan Boone was gazing at retired fireman Carlesimo could only mean one of two things: that Boone was having a near-rapturous religious experience in his ongoing worship of green bits of paper, or he has turned gay late in life and he totally wants a wet weekend with a guy who knows his way around a fire hose.
I'm not exaggerating for the sake of humor here. I don't need to. The truth is pretty hilarious. As Carlesimo talked, Boone, unaware that anyone was watching him, looked like a child at the circus. A gnomish, deformed child with spinal bifuda, granted, but a child nonetheless. I've never seen him gleeful before, and yet the glow on his face as he gazed at Carlesimo was undeniable.
But I digress.
Since the papers refuse to inform, I will do two things over the next few days. The first is ask for a one- or two-week boycott of both newspapers. Everybody calls in on the same day to cancel their subs for two weeks. The front page of Venice Florida! dot com will be replaced during this time with boycott calendar. I urge all readers of this site, as well as leadership of the VNC and VTL, to help the call out on this rather radical move in an attempt to make the newspapers aware that their readership are indeed NOT IDIOTS as their editors seem to think.
The other is that I will be running the two articles written by readers that were intended for publication in the Gondo and the Herald-Tribune. If the Herald-Trib or the Gondo actually wants to take a crack at it, then I will withhold publication. Short of that, a hearty sweet F.A. goes out to both publications for their failure to inform in the face of a hungry audience.
What I didn't expect was that any readers would actually take me up on the challenge.
Two readers did, working independently. They both took the core elements available on Venice Florida! dot com, gathered additional material, and did their own interviews. Before submitting the articles to Venice Florida! dot com, they shopped them to the two local print newspapers for hopeful publication.
Both women writers (neither of whom have I yet to actually meet in person) claim they encountered a hostile barrage of denials from Greg Giles at the Gondolier. Giles made it clear that he believed that if the stories were not written entirely from the perspective of his favored candidate, the stories could not possibly be fair and balanced (a la Fox News). Those weren't Giles' exact words, but the message was clear to its recipients: Go away and leave me alone, I barely have a job at a barely-existing newspaper and if this shitpile collapses, I don't think I can find anyone else who will hire me.
The irony here is that Giles (seen at the right side of photo, being confronted by Venice Taxpayers League prez Gary Budway at a recent campaign event) has claimed to me that I am biased while remaining clear that his straight news coverage at the Gondo is unbiased.
I am biased. I am partisan. I never claimed to be otherwise. It's a deliberate attempt to bring some balance into an extremely biased media environment that claims to be otherwise. As to this new Gondo/Fox News philosophical merger in the Gondo's bogus claim to be fair and balanced, I have a few rude Monty Python quotes that spring to mind. Some Shakespeare insults as well.
I'm not saying it is wrong to be biased. It is genuinely and transparently dishonest to be so heavily biased as the Gondo has become while claiming to be unbiased. It's a lie and the paper is fooling no one.
Victor Hull at the Herald-Tribune, after being offered a couple of inches-thick stacks of papers from the pair of women, reportedly stated that he needed more info from them about the nature of the documents. God forbid he should actually have to glance at a stack of docs.
So, I am led to believe that the research department at the Herald-Tribune is unaware of the existence of the internet, this web site, or the clerk of court. Either that, or Hull is just too lazy to attempt to understand the story or he's too lazy to make a few phone calls to validate any of it or he's too lazy to tell one of his staffers to make a few phone calls to validate it.
Another possiblity, one that I am beginning to give more and more credence to, is that William Randolph Hearst has risen from the grave, bought both papers, and, like his famous missive about Billy Graham so many years ago, has sent two-word telegrams to both papers: "Puff Walia!"
The latter theory makes more sense than anything else. It means that both papers are under orders from a highly influential and powerful man to deny readers any meaningful insight as to who the stealthed-out CQG is asking you to vote for.
Please: do not tell me the CQG is not in this. I was at the VASI forum. I watched the temporarily dethroned King of Venice, land development attorney E.G. 'Dan' Boone, as he lovingly gazed at his best hopes to regain his throne: candidates Emilio Carlesimo and Carlesimo's running mate, Batshiat Crazy Harry Walia. If these two get in, it's Happy Days Are Here Again time at the Boone, Boone, Boone, Dewy, Cheetham, and Howe law firm, which in turn means that the treasury looting will begin again under the guise of heading towards prosperity.
The way Dan Boone was gazing at retired fireman Carlesimo could only mean one of two things: that Boone was having a near-rapturous religious experience in his ongoing worship of green bits of paper, or he has turned gay late in life and he totally wants a wet weekend with a guy who knows his way around a fire hose.
I'm not exaggerating for the sake of humor here. I don't need to. The truth is pretty hilarious. As Carlesimo talked, Boone, unaware that anyone was watching him, looked like a child at the circus. A gnomish, deformed child with spinal bifuda, granted, but a child nonetheless. I've never seen him gleeful before, and yet the glow on his face as he gazed at Carlesimo was undeniable.
But I digress.
Since the papers refuse to inform, I will do two things over the next few days. The first is ask for a one- or two-week boycott of both newspapers. Everybody calls in on the same day to cancel their subs for two weeks. The front page of Venice Florida! dot com will be replaced during this time with boycott calendar. I urge all readers of this site, as well as leadership of the VNC and VTL, to help the call out on this rather radical move in an attempt to make the newspapers aware that their readership are indeed NOT IDIOTS as their editors seem to think.
The other is that I will be running the two articles written by readers that were intended for publication in the Gondo and the Herald-Tribune. If the Herald-Trib or the Gondo actually wants to take a crack at it, then I will withhold publication. Short of that, a hearty sweet F.A. goes out to both publications for their failure to inform in the face of a hungry audience.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Herald-Trib joins the Gondo in cover up of Ahluwalia's past and present shady deals
Ref: Venice council race intensifies by Kim Hackett, Herald-Trib, 10/24/09
COVER UP COVER UP COVER UP COVER UP
I CALL SHENANIGANS -- BREAK OUT THE BROOMS
THE ABOVE LINKED-TO ARTICLE CONTAINS DANGEROUSLY TOXIC LEVELS OF BULLS**T
A normal side effect of numerous business deals does not include twice going to the police station to file false charges against people because, as in my case, Harbhajan Singh Ahluwalia didn't like my questions, or in the case of Garry Moore, because Ahluwalia wanted to avoid paying $900 for a decrepit fountain pump and an additional $800 to $1200 to repair the rest of a decrepit outdoor plumbing system.
Normal side effects do not include accusations of fraud and inducement to fraud, as the current countersuit against him from an airport business alleges.
I knew Ahluwalia for three minutes, had asked him one question about his affiliation with the young Republicans, and he threatened to sue me. Later on down the campaign trail, he didn't like my questions again, so he sent an old woman out to try to beat me up -- she and Ahluwalia tried to file criminal charges against me because I hurt her wrist when I attacked her fist with my chest.
Nobody "accused" Ahluwalia of using two names. The topic came up, Ahluwalia denied it, then came the proof that he was not telling the truth and Ahluwalia's tearful response of wrapping himself in the flag and claiming racism without actually saying the word.
As to the DUI -- there is that, but there is much more surrounding it over the past two decades, including two license suspensions (one as a result of the DUI), driving with no insurance, driving with no valid tags, an auto negligence lawsuit, and ticket after ticket after ticket for speeding. This guy thinks he is a teenager.
You know the full stories on this and much more.
This goes beyond partisan politics -- this is an issue of two papers deliberately fooling the public into favoring two pro-growth candidates because newspapers need growth to financially survive. Truth is abandoned in favor of $$$.
I've never been pro-growth or anti-growth. My issues have always been due process, truth in government, and truth in the press. Everything I've ever written revolves around at least one of those three concepts. Right now, the H-T is full of FAIL in the truth department.
I understand the need for $$$, growth would definitely raise my bottom line big time, but not at the expense of being honest with your readers or mine. That is not an option to me, although the Herald-Trib seems OK with it.
This is a cover up. Pure and simple. Prove me wrong.
The headline uses the word "intesifies" -- you wouldn't know it from this article.
One last thing. Pet peeve like fingernails on a blackboard. Grammar. To Kim: NEVER EVER EVER START A SENTENCE WITH "BUT" OR "AND." WERE YOU RAISED BY WOLVES?
Those two words belong in the middle of a sentence, never at the beginning or at the end (stylized prose, which inverted pyramid is not, and poetry excepted). Been meaning to say that for a long time, because you do it a lot, and you did it again in this article.
I probably should have said that to you in person, but right now I am so disappointed in you and so pissed at your newspaper that I'm unloading. I'd cancel my subs but I did that to both the Gondo and the H-T long ago.
COVER UP COVER UP COVER UP COVER UP
I CALL SHENANIGANS -- BREAK OUT THE BROOMS
THE ABOVE LINKED-TO ARTICLE CONTAINS DANGEROUSLY TOXIC LEVELS OF BULLS**T
A normal side effect of numerous business deals does not include twice going to the police station to file false charges against people because, as in my case, Harbhajan Singh Ahluwalia didn't like my questions, or in the case of Garry Moore, because Ahluwalia wanted to avoid paying $900 for a decrepit fountain pump and an additional $800 to $1200 to repair the rest of a decrepit outdoor plumbing system.
Normal side effects do not include accusations of fraud and inducement to fraud, as the current countersuit against him from an airport business alleges.
I knew Ahluwalia for three minutes, had asked him one question about his affiliation with the young Republicans, and he threatened to sue me. Later on down the campaign trail, he didn't like my questions again, so he sent an old woman out to try to beat me up -- she and Ahluwalia tried to file criminal charges against me because I hurt her wrist when I attacked her fist with my chest.
Nobody "accused" Ahluwalia of using two names. The topic came up, Ahluwalia denied it, then came the proof that he was not telling the truth and Ahluwalia's tearful response of wrapping himself in the flag and claiming racism without actually saying the word.
As to the DUI -- there is that, but there is much more surrounding it over the past two decades, including two license suspensions (one as a result of the DUI), driving with no insurance, driving with no valid tags, an auto negligence lawsuit, and ticket after ticket after ticket for speeding. This guy thinks he is a teenager.
You know the full stories on this and much more.
This goes beyond partisan politics -- this is an issue of two papers deliberately fooling the public into favoring two pro-growth candidates because newspapers need growth to financially survive. Truth is abandoned in favor of $$$.
I've never been pro-growth or anti-growth. My issues have always been due process, truth in government, and truth in the press. Everything I've ever written revolves around at least one of those three concepts. Right now, the H-T is full of FAIL in the truth department.
I understand the need for $$$, growth would definitely raise my bottom line big time, but not at the expense of being honest with your readers or mine. That is not an option to me, although the Herald-Trib seems OK with it.
This is a cover up. Pure and simple. Prove me wrong.
The headline uses the word "intesifies" -- you wouldn't know it from this article.
One last thing. Pet peeve like fingernails on a blackboard. Grammar. To Kim: NEVER EVER EVER START A SENTENCE WITH "BUT" OR "AND." WERE YOU RAISED BY WOLVES?
Those two words belong in the middle of a sentence, never at the beginning or at the end (stylized prose, which inverted pyramid is not, and poetry excepted). Been meaning to say that for a long time, because you do it a lot, and you did it again in this article.
I probably should have said that to you in person, but right now I am so disappointed in you and so pissed at your newspaper that I'm unloading. I'd cancel my subs but I did that to both the Gondo and the H-T long ago.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Gondo's Greg Giles covers for Walia, picks up where Cynthia Crowe left off
Gondo's Giles, Venice Florida! dot com's Patten get in a tussle at Gondo's offices
Over on the message board on the main web site, a "Jayne" wrote the following in response to my article entitled How to write your own Walia scandal story:
Well, after printing about 2 inches worth of documents and writing a very well-written article, if I do say so myself, it seems that we are running up against a wall when it comes to the Tribune and the Gondolier. Got one response from Victor Hull at the Tribune saying he needed more info which I offered to send but haven't heard back from him yet. I went to the Venice building but evidently the reporting and editing staff are "hardly ever" there, according to the front desk. Armed with a completed article and a file of documents to support it, I spoke with Greg Giles at the Gondolier this morning and that seemed like a strange conversation. I will wait until I hear back from him before I comment further on that. I can't figure out the resistance to FACTS (sorry for shouting, JP) - this isn't a smear campaign about anyone, it's about presenting facts so that voters can make an informed decision. Why is that so abhorrent to the establishment media?
I responded with this post:
Giles and I had a confrontation over this matter where Giles wanted to come to blows. He deliberately blocked my way coming out between two desks at the Gondo offices as I was trying to leave. I said "You wanna move?" He responded, "You wanna make me?" What is this, high school?
So I tried to push past him. He gave me a shove that pushed me backwards onto his desk, then started screaming that I started it by pushing him (well, not entirely untrue) and that he wanted me to get up.
Great. Wonderful. I had every eye in the Gondo building on me and I knew if this went any further, I'm gonna be painted as the psycho loon who was trying to kill Giles.
I rolled off of his desk and backed away, saying, "Yeah, whatever, OK, yeah, sure, whatever you say."
That was this past Tuesday afternoon.
What led up to this was that I was sitting at Bob Mudge's desk and Giles kept coming over to try to goad me into an argument. I had gone in to give Mudge some of this same paperwork on Ahluwalia and the police reports, plus Ahluwalia's attorney's accusatory police affidavits that contained even more false information. Giles walks into the conversation uninvited and stated that he views my articles on Walia as "character assassination." I responded that I cannot kill what never existed.
Giles walked away, then barged back into the conversation to call me an asshole and to accuse me of wanting sex with him in a bathroom (to understand that, you have to jump back to a prior council meeting: Giles overheard a conversation I was having with the Herald-Trib's Kim Hackett and he threw in his two-cents with a "F**k you" aimed at me. I responded "would you like to do that here or would the men's room be more private?" Giles got even more visibly pissed then and shook his fist at me; that image instantly made me think that I was the Red Baron to his Snoopy).
Giles walked away again. He came back to Mudge's desk again, the crap started again, Mudge told him to go away again, and Mudge chided me as well.
After he left this time, I joked with Mudge, "Aw c'mon, Bob, lemme ask him to step outside." Mudge didn't think it was funny, so I complained to him that he never let me have any fun. I was joking but I had no idea what was to come next. I truly didn't think Giles was that wacko. I knew he didn't like me, but I thought he would have more self-control.
So that leads up to Mudge making some copies and me getting up to leave and getting into a fracas with Giles.
Giles was visibly shaking with rage -- I mean just vibrating. I even commented on that just before I asked him to move out of my way: "Look at you, you're actually shaking."
I was a little pissed off about his behavior, but strangely, the biggest emotion I had at the time was humor. I found the whole thing to be funny and childish. I don't understand any of that. If Giles was so in Walia's camp -- OK. So what? Why get that personally pissed? I've been angry over a lot of crooked shenanigans over the years, but not angry enough to start swinging. I do not understand Giles' motivations at all here.
I didn't want to make a big deal out of it cuz after the Cynthia Crowe fracas, it all begins to look like I'm walking around looking for a fight. A friend of mine laughed and said I'm an idiot, I lead with my chin -- my "in your face" attitude with crooks and liars just begs for a punching from crooks and those with guilty consciences. "You just can't walk up to a crook and say 'hey, you're a crook!' -- the crook tends to get pissed and you are conveniently now the closest thing to him to release the piss on."
Make no mistake -- the Gondo is in Ahluwalia's camp. I give Ahluwalia two months in office before he is fighting ethics complaints. I will yell loud and clear that both the Herald-Trib and the Gondo knew about this man and deliberately fooled the voters by not doing that which they are entrusted to do -- report the news, but as to what that will affect, I don't know.
Giles and the Gondo have no intention of publishing any of this info on Walia, deeming it unimportant that you know nothing about the real man behind the names of Ahluwalia and Walia. Hopefully, after the election, they will reap the wind for their failure to do that which they are entrusted to do -- report the news.
As for Giles, if you don't like what the Gondo is doing, cancel your subs. If the paper wants to marginalize this election, marginalize the paper.
Over on the message board on the main web site, a "Jayne" wrote the following in response to my article entitled How to write your own Walia scandal story:
Well, after printing about 2 inches worth of documents and writing a very well-written article, if I do say so myself, it seems that we are running up against a wall when it comes to the Tribune and the Gondolier. Got one response from Victor Hull at the Tribune saying he needed more info which I offered to send but haven't heard back from him yet. I went to the Venice building but evidently the reporting and editing staff are "hardly ever" there, according to the front desk. Armed with a completed article and a file of documents to support it, I spoke with Greg Giles at the Gondolier this morning and that seemed like a strange conversation. I will wait until I hear back from him before I comment further on that. I can't figure out the resistance to FACTS (sorry for shouting, JP) - this isn't a smear campaign about anyone, it's about presenting facts so that voters can make an informed decision. Why is that so abhorrent to the establishment media?
I responded with this post:
Giles and I had a confrontation over this matter where Giles wanted to come to blows. He deliberately blocked my way coming out between two desks at the Gondo offices as I was trying to leave. I said "You wanna move?" He responded, "You wanna make me?" What is this, high school?
So I tried to push past him. He gave me a shove that pushed me backwards onto his desk, then started screaming that I started it by pushing him (well, not entirely untrue) and that he wanted me to get up.
Great. Wonderful. I had every eye in the Gondo building on me and I knew if this went any further, I'm gonna be painted as the psycho loon who was trying to kill Giles.
I rolled off of his desk and backed away, saying, "Yeah, whatever, OK, yeah, sure, whatever you say."
That was this past Tuesday afternoon.
What led up to this was that I was sitting at Bob Mudge's desk and Giles kept coming over to try to goad me into an argument. I had gone in to give Mudge some of this same paperwork on Ahluwalia and the police reports, plus Ahluwalia's attorney's accusatory police affidavits that contained even more false information. Giles walks into the conversation uninvited and stated that he views my articles on Walia as "character assassination." I responded that I cannot kill what never existed.
Giles walked away, then barged back into the conversation to call me an asshole and to accuse me of wanting sex with him in a bathroom (to understand that, you have to jump back to a prior council meeting: Giles overheard a conversation I was having with the Herald-Trib's Kim Hackett and he threw in his two-cents with a "F**k you" aimed at me. I responded "would you like to do that here or would the men's room be more private?" Giles got even more visibly pissed then and shook his fist at me; that image instantly made me think that I was the Red Baron to his Snoopy).
Giles walked away again. He came back to Mudge's desk again, the crap started again, Mudge told him to go away again, and Mudge chided me as well.
After he left this time, I joked with Mudge, "Aw c'mon, Bob, lemme ask him to step outside." Mudge didn't think it was funny, so I complained to him that he never let me have any fun. I was joking but I had no idea what was to come next. I truly didn't think Giles was that wacko. I knew he didn't like me, but I thought he would have more self-control.
So that leads up to Mudge making some copies and me getting up to leave and getting into a fracas with Giles.
Giles was visibly shaking with rage -- I mean just vibrating. I even commented on that just before I asked him to move out of my way: "Look at you, you're actually shaking."
I was a little pissed off about his behavior, but strangely, the biggest emotion I had at the time was humor. I found the whole thing to be funny and childish. I don't understand any of that. If Giles was so in Walia's camp -- OK. So what? Why get that personally pissed? I've been angry over a lot of crooked shenanigans over the years, but not angry enough to start swinging. I do not understand Giles' motivations at all here.
I didn't want to make a big deal out of it cuz after the Cynthia Crowe fracas, it all begins to look like I'm walking around looking for a fight. A friend of mine laughed and said I'm an idiot, I lead with my chin -- my "in your face" attitude with crooks and liars just begs for a punching from crooks and those with guilty consciences. "You just can't walk up to a crook and say 'hey, you're a crook!' -- the crook tends to get pissed and you are conveniently now the closest thing to him to release the piss on."
Make no mistake -- the Gondo is in Ahluwalia's camp. I give Ahluwalia two months in office before he is fighting ethics complaints. I will yell loud and clear that both the Herald-Trib and the Gondo knew about this man and deliberately fooled the voters by not doing that which they are entrusted to do -- report the news, but as to what that will affect, I don't know.
Giles and the Gondo have no intention of publishing any of this info on Walia, deeming it unimportant that you know nothing about the real man behind the names of Ahluwalia and Walia. Hopefully, after the election, they will reap the wind for their failure to do that which they are entrusted to do -- report the news.
As for Giles, if you don't like what the Gondo is doing, cancel your subs. If the paper wants to marginalize this election, marginalize the paper.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Mausser update -- SEC records sought by Venice Florida! dot com
On Wednesday, we reported that Candia Lynch-Mausser, staffer for Harry Walia's election campaign, had once been investigated by the SEC for securities fraud.
Mausser is listed on Walia's campaign contribution sheets as his Deputy Treasurer.
Mausser was called before the SEC in an administrative hearing in late 1994 or mid-1995, according to sketchy online records found by Venice Florida! dot com.
Venice Florida! dot com has issued a FOIA request for further documents in the case, including the results of the SEC administrative hearing.
Added to other items discovered by Venice Florida! dot com, this all has the cumulative effect of making Walia the most disturbing candidate ever in memory in southwest Florida.
... more to come...
Mausser is listed on Walia's campaign contribution sheets as his Deputy Treasurer.
Mausser was called before the SEC in an administrative hearing in late 1994 or mid-1995, according to sketchy online records found by Venice Florida! dot com.
Venice Florida! dot com has issued a FOIA request for further documents in the case, including the results of the SEC administrative hearing.
Added to other items discovered by Venice Florida! dot com, this all has the cumulative effect of making Walia the most disturbing candidate ever in memory in southwest Florida.
... more to come...
Batshiat Crazy Harry at VASI: "If you don't like me, move out of my town!"
No new surprises at yesterday's candidate forum held at city hall by VASI, the Venice area pilots' association. An audience of mostly out-of-town pilots and airport hangers-on gave rousing moments of applause to Harbhajan Singh Ahluwalia (aka Harry Walia, photo above taken at the VASI forum) and Emilio Carlesimo. Some token limp applause went to Ahluwalia's opponent, Jim Bennett, while Carlesimo's opponent, Ted Koszarski, wisely decided to skip the whole mess and host a veterans' war seminar instead.
Ahluwalia took the bold step of stating, although not explicitly at first, that since he lived in town longer than his opponent, that gave Ahluwalia more ownership rights in both the town he lives in and in the seat in government that he is seeking. This culminated in Ahluwalia's claim of total ownership of Venice when, in a boomingly loud voice, he shouted "If you don't like me, move out of my town! I'll even pay for new tires for your car."
Ahluwalia made it obvious that he was directing the comment both at his opponent and at me for uncovering and publishing stories about his past and present shady behavior. The VASI audience laughed heartily and approvingly at the comment.
In the same speech, he talked about how he will listen to all views and return city hall to a time when anyone could speak their mind and be listened to. Ahluwalia never stated when such a time existed.
Ahluwalia stated that he lives near the airport and that complaints about noise are exaggerated. He stated that the noise is no worse than a rattling home air conditioner or an older model dishwasher.
Carlesimo's comments about the airport mirrored his speech at VASI last year, when he made the now-infamous comment, "When I hear jets, I hear the sound of money."
Carlesimo stated he was in favor of selling the airport portion of the land that Sharky's restaurant sits on to the restaurant, apparently unaware that the city would be the purchaser of the section of land, not Sharky's. He was opposed to the city buying the Venice Jet Center, which makes sense if you understand that Carlesimo supporter E.G. 'Dan' Boone can make more money for himself and future clients at taxpayer expense if the Jet Center is managed by private entities rather than by the city. Not that the city has such a great track record at running anything profitably, that due in a large part to many prior meddlings by Boone.
In the same speech, he talked about how he will listen to all views and return city hall to a time when anyone could speak their mind and be listened to. Ahluwalia never stated when such a time existed.
Ahluwalia stated that he lives near the airport and that complaints about noise are exaggerated. He stated that the noise is no worse than a rattling home air conditioner or an older model dishwasher.
Carlesimo's comments about the airport mirrored his speech at VASI last year, when he made the now-infamous comment, "When I hear jets, I hear the sound of money."
Carlesimo stated he was in favor of selling the airport portion of the land that Sharky's restaurant sits on to the restaurant, apparently unaware that the city would be the purchaser of the section of land, not Sharky's. He was opposed to the city buying the Venice Jet Center, which makes sense if you understand that Carlesimo supporter E.G. 'Dan' Boone can make more money for himself and future clients at taxpayer expense if the Jet Center is managed by private entities rather than by the city. Not that the city has such a great track record at running anything profitably, that due in a large part to many prior meddlings by Boone.
(photo credit: J. Patten)
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