Shallow concern

"Have you ever heard of a term called defensive attribution?" The textbook definition of this term is having a self-serving bias that occurs when people attribute their success to internal or personal factors but attribute their failures to situational factors beyond their control. This term could easily be applied to some individuals in our community who have cried foul due to the collapse of the housing industry which has created a ripple effect on local economy. These individuals have refused to accept any blame for their own actions in the real estate market during the building boom which has resulted in super-inflated property values and record foreclosures, choosing instead to condemn the government for their woes.

Hernando Times guest column this morning by Blaise Ingoglia is a classic example of this "defensive attribution." Mr. Ingoglia's comment stating "we must unite the community and bridge the divide between us and government" while outlining his negative perception of local officials underscores his shallow concern for our community. This statement alone would make one wonder if he has become delusional with his own perceived notoriety during his Government Gone Wild series last year. It appears that Mr. Ingoglia views himself as the "anointed one" who has been literally chosen to speak for the masses in our community. It should be noted to the promoter of this Government Gone Wild series that even though some people consider him to be a 'true' prophet, he is simultaneously considered to be a 'false' prophet by the majority in our county.

It appears that Mr. Blaise Ingoglia is using scheme to obtain, and gain, political power by appealing to the masses in our community, preying on their emotions with unrealistic fears, which are meant distort the truth for the average citizen. His demagoguery during this shaky economy should be be questioned by any rational person. We have an economy that is hinging on recession, a recession that has come at the hands of the collapse of the nationwide real estate market, and the avalanche of foreclosures caused by sub-prime mortgage failure.

The underlying question that should be posed to Mr. Blaise Ingoglia is, "Why didn't you stand up and shout "Hoo-rah" when the Hernando County Commission passed the largest Ad Valorem reduction in our county's history during last year's budget hearings instead of blaming them for your own personal woes.

NCRWN

Last Friday, I listed a candidate forum for district 3, county commission candidates on May 6 but forgot to list the contact information. Here it is:

Nature Coast Republican Women's Network (NCRWN)
Pat McNiff / President
pkmcniff@surfmk.com
352-666-8972

**The NCRWN is chartered from the Florida Republican Women's Network and the National Republican Women's Network.

Swift actions

Hernando County Administrator, David Hamilton needs to be commended for his swift actions relating to the charges of racism at the Utilities Department. Mr. Hamilton had been criticized publicly by some community activists for hiring an outside law firm to handle this delicate matter but this proved to be a wise decision on his part to get the unvarnished truth. In this "unvarnished truth," racism reared its ugly head but more importantly it gave a birds eye view to the administrator, and public, that their system for handing grievances, such as this, has been broken for a long time. The opinions by this outside law firm brought to light the antiquated methods used in the office of former Human Resource Director, Barbara Dupre.

In this investigation, several disturbing points were made about the practices in the Utilities Department which were not related to the charges of racism. Eight employees of the Utilities Department said they were instructed to dump raw sewage onto the grounds of the waste water treatment plant in Aripeka. They also indicated that they had not been given gloves and hazards suits to wear when handling this type of material. These revelations should send up red flags to everyone in Hernando County, in light of the fact we have spent millions of dollars cleaning up the hazardous waste in the Department of Works compound. It is quite remarkable that the Department of Environmental Protection has not issued citations for this flagrant violation of the rules to dispose of this waste material.

Even though Mr. Hamilton has had a rough start in his new job as our county administrator, it appears that he handled these problems with the ease of a true professional...

Not entitled to perks

The headline in yesterday's paper read "Kingsley returns $3,600 in tuition money." Apparently, Hernando County Commissioners exceeded their budget which sent up a red flag to clerk of court, Karen Nicolai. Ms. Nicolai found the line item of $3,600 related to Mr. Kingsley and immediately had her department's attorney review the expenditure. Ms. Nicolai's was quoted as saying, in part, "A county commissioner getting a master's degree on the county doesn't pass the smell test." You bet it doesn't pass the smell test, Ms. Nicolai.

The most incredible point about this expenditure was Mr. Kingsley's surprise that anyone would question this expense. He said, "I can't understand why anybody would be against education and I'm not going to apologize for going out there to learn." Mr. Kingsley just doesn't seem to get it. No one is against education but this is taxpayers money and he is not entitled to these perks as a county commissioner. Yes, Mr. Kingsley returned the money in full but he never should have taken it in the first place.

Future farmer

Yesterday, my husband and I received the nicest thank you card from a future farmer in Hernando County. This young farmer's name is Tyler Sikes and he just happens to be the grandson of Juanita Sikes, our county tax collector. For the last several years, we have been assisting Tyler with donations so he can raise pigs for the Hernando County Livestock Show.

Tyler's pig, Milkshake, was the largest pig in the entire show this year. Milkshake and Tyler placed 2nd in their class and 13th out of the 49 total pigs that had entered the swine competition. Juanita said that Tyler had an extremely difficult time letting go this year when it came time to auction off his pig. He should be proud of his accomplishment though because the hams on Milkshake tipped the scales at 60 pounds (for each ham).

Congratulations to Tyler and all the other young adults that participated in the Hernando County Livestock Show.

Grand opening

Today at noon I attended the grand opening of the new Hernando County Association of Realtors Association which is located on Sunshine Grove Road. The place was packed with a varied mix of individuals from government officials, candidates, builders, and of course, realtor's who were all there to see this magnificent new addition to Hernando County. All I can say is Wow!

District 3 candiate forum

The Nature Coast Republican Women's Network will hold a candidate forum for republican candidates running for the county commission, district 3 race on Tuesday, May 6, 2008. This forum will take place at 6 p.m. in Oak Hill Hospital's 1st floor conference room (near the cafeteria). Candidate scheduled to participate in this forum are John Druzbick, Wayne Dukes and Charles Gaskins. Random questions for the candidates will be taken from the audience during this forum.

Events

Here are several fun events that will take place this weekend:

• 6th Annual Congressional Art Competition Awards Ceremony hosted by Rep. GinnyBrown-Waite / Brooksville City Hall / Friday, April 25th from 6 to 8 p.m.
• The Legends of Doo Wop & Joey Dee / Sunday, April 27th from 4 to 8 p.m. at Palace Grand / Tickets range from $25.00 to $45.00 with all proceeds to support HC Fine Arts Council's Bandshell Bash

Pleased as punch

Very seldom do I discuss anything personal on this blog but today I am just as pleased as punch to report several items in our family that have enriched our lives.

Last week, our son Bryon became a state certified electrical with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations. At the young age of 32, Bryon is rapidly becoming a rising star in the business world and certainly has impressed his aging parents that have been in the trade since Edison discovered the light bulb.

Today, I completed my last class at PHCC to earn an AA degree. I will officially graduate next week from PHCC with honors, as a member of Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society and the Psi Beta National Honor Society. I recently was accepted by the University of South Florida's School of Journalism as a junior for the 2008 fall term.

Weeki Wachee press release

John Athanason, Marketing & Public Relations Director for Weeki Wachee issued the following press release this morning:


WEEKI WACHEE, FL- The status of Weeki Wachee Springs becoming the 162nd Florida State park is now unclear. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) submitted their budget request to fund Weeki Wachee Springs prior to this year’s session. The Senate has voted to fund Weeki Wachee. However, the House has not.

The issue will be addressed by the Budget Conference Committee and funding may or may not be provided by the Legislature as they are entering its final days of regular session.

If funding is not provided by the Legislature, it will leave unclear status of the donation of the attraction to the State Park system.

Background

The DEP was invited to take part in the mediation process as a possible resolution the four year litigation between the attraction and the Southwest Florida Water Management District. After several meetings between the DEP and attraction officials, an agreement was signed between the two parties that allows the City of Weeki Wachee to donate all assets to the State on November 8, 2008, thus making Weeki Wachee Springs an official State Park.

Reception

This afternoon, I attended the reception in the atrium of the government center to welcome our new county administrator, David Hamilton. It was good to see that Mr. Hamilton had a good size crowd in attendance even though most were elected officials or county employees.

Several members of the Brooksville City Council were also on hand to welcome Mr. Hamilton on board, as were the city manager, Jennene Norman-Vacha, Chief Mossgrove and police Chief Turner. Many other familiar faces in the crowd included John Drubick, Judge Steve Rushing, Alvin Mazourek and Pat Fagan.

Even though this was my first opportunity to meet Mr. Hamilton, I would like to offer him this friendly suggestion. Stop by and see Juanita Sikes so she can give you a few pointers in southern art of meeting the public. Juanita can school you in the meaning of a good, firm hand shake while looking you square in the eye to help ease you through your next chance encounter with a citizen of Hernando County, Mr. Hamilton.

Superficial

The Hernando County Taxpayers Alliance announced that their group is throwing its support behind Jim Adkins, Hernando County Commission candidate, district 5 for the Primary Election in August. Our answer to that should be, so what!

This endorsement of the Hernando County Taxpayer Alliance appears to be the sole recommendation of the founding member of this organization, Linda Hayward. Are we expected to be impressed by her political recommendation? Hopefully, no one has been fooled by this sideshow that has been dressed up to resemble a legitimate endorsement.

It is ironic that the founder of this organization who demands transparency to hold public officials accountable is now acting as a political committee named Hernando County Taxpayers Alliance. This organization is listed with the Hernando County Supervisors of Elections office as an active political committee and it appears they do not think the rules apply to them. To date, this organization has yet to file any required financial disclosure forms with the SOE’s office to list monetary arrangements for their recent bus trips to Tallahassee or for the design of their web page which has been active since 2007.

Transparency cannot exist as a on-way street in our society. The rules that exist for public disclosure should be strictly enforced to prevent a facade that could be used to create a 'false-front' to intentionally fool the public.

Each year, local campaign committees undertake dirty tricks to get a competitive edge on their opponents. This current, superficial endorsement of Mr. Adkins appears to be just another feeble, gimmick similar to the one used in his 2004 campaign. You may remember the phone banks run out of REC headquarters which gave the illusion that Mr. Adkins had endorsement of the entire executive committee when, in fact, that was not the case.

Here we go again, all sizzle and no substance, for this endorsed candidate who professes tax relief but owns no real property in Hernando County.

District 3 race

It looks like the race for county commission, district 3 is really starting to heat up. The most recent report from the Supervisor of Elections office has John Druzbick in the lead for campaign fundraising, amassing $23,250, to date, for his war chest in comparison to incumbent, Diane Rowden's total of $10,295. In fact, Mr. Druzbick's campaign has surpassed the fundraising abilities of his two republican primary opponents by 2 to 1 with their combined totals of $10,337.

Even though money isn't everything in running a campaign, it sure helps along with name recognition of the candidate. John Druzbick's name is certainly a household word in Hernando County, with his 12 years of distinguished service as a previous member for the school board.

Mr. Druzbick had a very successful meet & greet with the citizens of Hernando County at Weeki Wachee several weeks ago. This free, fun event was promoted by the John Druzbick campaign to give him opportunity to listen to the concerns of the 500+ attendees.

Its early yet but Mr. Druzbick seems to be well on his way for a smooth run in the Primary Election, with the completion of his petition cards to get his name on the ballot this week .

30 days

Today, Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite will testify before the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health. She will present her legislation, H.R.5622, which would require standard access to health care for veterans seeking primary care within 30 days. This bill allow veterans the ability to use a non-VA facility if the VA cannot meet the 30 days from first point of contact. The VA would also be held responsible for the cost of non-VA medical care.

Bring a flag

I received this message by email last week and thought I would pass it along:

Approximately 80 of our brave Army Air National Guard members are leaving for 12 months in Iraq next Friday, April 18. We're asking people to come to Anderson Snow Park to form a human "Thank You" on the field, that they will see as they fly over when they leave.

Here are the details:
Be there by 8 am
Wear a red shirt (www.RedShirtFridays.org)
Bring your flag to wave, if you have one. If you don't have one, there's plenty of time to get one! Try Wal-mart in the stationery section.

Dee Mills, Gold Star Mom and founder of Lea's Prayers and Postage is planning to get there early to place a chalk line on the field so we'll know where to stand. So come and just look for the people. You might want to bring a camera!

Grassroot support

Shirley Anderson, republican candidate for Hernando County Supervisor of Elections, has successfully qualified to run for office by the petition method. Ms. Anderson's campaign easily obtained over 1,196 petition cards to have her name placed on the ballot earlier this week. The grassroot support for the campaign of Shirley Anderson seems to be gaining speed in the run up to the General Election.

Prestigious

Today, Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite was awarded with the prestigious Spirit of Enterprise Award by the United States Chamber of Commerce for her support of pro-growth legislation in second session of the 110th Congress. This award is given to members of Congress based on rankings for key business votes. Rep. Brown-Waite holds a cumulative 90% ranking during her tenure in Congress. Way to go, Ginny!

Hernando County Song

If you missed the opening Karaoke contest between the county commissions at the Hernando County Fair, Commissioner Stabins that took the prize with a tune he penned for the occasion. Commissioner Rocco gets an honorable mention for her rendition of Dolly Pardon, dressed in full make-up and costume. Commissioner Kingsley participated even though he didn't sing, unlike Commissioners Russell and Rowden who were "no shows" for this light hearted event to kick off the Fair.

Here is the tune composed by Jeff Stabins' Hernando County version of "I've Been Everywhere.

"I was toting my pack along the dusty Weeki Wachee road
When along came a semi with a high canvas covered load"
If you're going to Weeki Wachee, Mack, with me you can ride"
And so I climbed into the cab and then I settled down inside
He asked me if I'd ever seen so much limerock and sand
And I said, "Listen, Hutch! I've traveled every road in this here land!

"I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the sandhills bare, man
I've breathed that Osowa air, man
Hernando County Fair, man
I've been everywhere

I've been to:

Istachatta
Aripeka
Every place that's in between a'

Brooksville
Spring Hill
Rerdell and Chassahowitzka

Brookridge
High Point
Hammock that is Ann'teliga

Ridge Manor
Rich Loam
Bayport and Chicochatta

Glen Lakes
Garden Grove
Timber Pines and Pineola

Silverthorn
Silver Ridge
Silver Hills, not Silver dolla'

(Repeat Refrain)

I've been to:

Spring Lake
Hunter's Lake
Bystre Lake and Neff Lake

Citrus Lake
Mountain Lake
Long Lake, Lower Lake

Oak Lake
Gold Lake
How 'bout Squirrel Prairie Lake?

Mud Lake
Nicks Lake
Tooke Lake, Sparkman Lake

Irwin Lake
Silver Lake
Stafford Lake and Tank Lake

McKeethan
LakeOriole
LakeBagwell Lake, for Pete's sake

(Repeat refrain)

I've been to:

Nobleton
Wiscon
Talisman, East Linden

Springwod
Tanglewood
Rainbow Woods, Dogwood

Sherman Hills
Seven Hills
Hernando Beach, Southern Hills

Masaryktown
Oak Sound
Cloverleaf and Downtown

Royal Highlands
Royal Hills
Royal Oaks, Pine Island

River Country
River Heights
River Run and Hexam Heights

(Repeat refrain)

I've been to:

Lake Lindsey
Lake Village
Lake View, Lakeside Village

Lake in the Woods
Barony Woods
Amber Woods, Amidon Woods

Hill 'n Dale
Croom Rital
Withlacoochee State Trail

Woodland Waters
Rolling Acres
Highland Acres, Happy Acres

Brooksville
Spring Hill
Rerdell and Chassahowitzka

Istachatta
Aripeka
Every place that's in between 'a

(Repeat refrain, then pass out)

Hinders women's rights

Except for the rarest cases, Rep. Ron Schultz disagrees that a sonogram is medically necessary to perform an abortion. In the Hernando Today, Rep. Schultz said, "I don't believe that government should ever mandate a medical procedure. Medical procedures should be done for medical reasons."

Medical procedures should only be done for medical reasons, not for political reasons, as in the case of Florida House that voted 75-40 on Wednesday for approval to require women to have sonograms before undergoing abortions. This bill was meant to intimidate women and could potentially cause great harm to those unable to pay for mandated sonograms.

Rep. Schulz indicated that this is a measure by anti-abortion lawmakers to add an obstacle to prevent women from having this procedure. Senator Fasano criticized Rep. Schultz' vote and said show me where in the bill it hinders women's right to an abortion.

Here's a few examples, Senator Fasano. What happens in a circumstance in which a woman cannot pay for a sonogram because she is uninsured or does not have the necessary funds? Are these 75 lawmakers in the Florida House going to pay for the long term medical needs of this woman. In the event of rape or incest by a family member who is going to pay for this procedure, Senator Fasano? Are these 75 lawmakers going to pay for the long-term related costs to raise an unwanted child to adulthood?

This bill mandates medical care without a medical license. Too bad the Florida Legislature cannot be held responsible for malpractice claims. These 75 Republican lawmakers just don't get it. Rep. Ron Schultz(R) should be commended for his vote on this legislation...

Truth in advertising

"Candidate admits mistake" or so says the subtitle for the article about Jaz Zydenbos' campaign finance reporting to the Supervisor of Elections office. Apparently, Mr. Zydenbos did not report expenditures for some professional-looking campaign flyers that he distributed at Christmas party during the last quarter reporting period which was required by the SOE's office.

Mr. Zydenbos stated in the newspaper article that he believed the flyers were for in-kind contributions and not hard cash donations. He went on to say that he was not aware of the requirement to include in-kind contributions on campaign finance reports and pushed the blame on novice of his campaign treasurer.

Commissioner David Russell said he didn't believe this would justify a state investigation because candidates sometime forget about campaign expenditures. "These things happen and that why candidates have to ability to file amended returns should an oversight occur", stated David Russell. This is a very logical explanation from Mr. Russell but the circumstances of Mr. Zybendos reporting does not seem to fit into this parameter.

Why did these campaign flyers of Mr. Zybendos's have a disclosure statement saying this political advertising paid for and approved by Jaz Zybendos, candidate for Hernando County Commission, district 1 when he stated in the Hernando Today that these flyer's were in-kind contributions, not produced by cash donations or hard money. If these flyers were, indeed, in-kind contributions then his flyer disclosure statement would have to reflect that verbiage to be correct for the filing requirements at the SOE's office.

Somehow Mr. Zybendos' truth-in-advertising got lost in his explanation...

***Yesterday, I contacted the SOE's office in regards to the questions on Mr. Zybendos' filing requirements which were raised in the Hernando Today. This is the response, in part, that I recieved by email from the SOE's office concerning my questions:

This morning Mr. Zydenbos filed an amendment to his Q4 report (cover period October 1, 2007 - December 31, 2007). This report does show an in-kind contribution for post cards.

I have left a message for Mr. Zydenbos to call me regarding the article Mike Bates (Hernando Today) wrote, however, I have not heard back from him yet. I did speak to his treasurer (Teri Lyons). She said he will provide a written statement to the SOE office explaining why the "original" flyers had the incorrect disclaimer (as reported by the Hernando Today). The statement will also explain that the "second run/re-run" of the flyer has been "corrected" to show the right disclaimer.

Core supporters

The article titled, "Veteran rally goes on" in this morning's edition of the Hernando Today forgot to include the most pertinent piece of information. This article should have revealed that only 3 to 4 individuals attended to support Mr. John Russell's dog and pony show that had attempted to defame Congresswoman Ginny Brown Waite's record on veterans issues. The only veteran that did speak on the courthouse steps certainly did not present a representative opinion of veterans issues for our community. In fact, the gentleman that spoke had traveled to our community from Lakeland.

Congresswoman Ginny Brown Waite had a few core supporters standing on the courthouse steps beside her husband, Harvey. The positive influence of these supporters seemed to put a damper on Mr. Russell's event. What was most troubling about this political rally was the lack of any visible support from the local Republican Executive Committee. Since this was advertised as a political rally in the media, one would logically assume that the chairwoman and state committeeman of the local republican party would be on hand but they were no where to be seen at this event.

Only entity

I have only one question after reading the headline story in this morning's Hernando Today titled, "Veterans called to rally at Brown-Waite's office." Just who gave Chief Turner the authority to waive insurance and bonding requirements for John Russell's political rally? The only entity that has the authority to waive these requirements is the Brooksville City Council...

Pork barrel

Our local county commissioners should be livid over the article in this morning's Metro Section of the St. Petersburg Times. Livid because their feet are currently being held to fire to cut spending by over $9.2 million dollars and the state Legislature is oblivious to the budget shortfalls.

Steve Bousquet, Tallahassee Bureau Chief for the Times wrote an in-depth article on the Florida House leader's plan to allow the use of emergency funds before a deficit is declared at the state level. This hard hitting article detailed a plan being hatched by House Speaker Marco Rubio to give Governor Crist and the Legislative Budget Commission the ability to spend money in the Budget Stabilization Fund and the Lawton Chiles Endowment if the state's checkbook dips below $200 million.

The lawmakers stressed this amendment is crucial for us to have in our state budget. The main reason for the change is because our lawmakers would not have to return to Tallahassee for any cost cutting special sessions in an election year. It seems our lawmakers want an easy button to clear the way for their earmarks and pet projects to impress their electorate.

One item that should really impress all conservatives is the proposed $2 million regional hurricane shelter in Hudson set aside by Senator Mike Fasano. If you're not impressed with this proposed earmark then you will not be impressed with Senator Fasano who has proposed this facility be named after him. Conservatives everywhere are beginning to wonder if Mr. Fasano is related to Senator Byrd of West Virginia, the true king of pork barrel projects.

Apparently the good times will continue to roll for our Florida Legislature because they have discovered an innovative way to put their hand into the "reserve cookie jar" to pander to the public...