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Keep those cards and letters coming, kids
Tom Lyons' column in the July 14th edition of the Herald-Trib was a shocker. Certainly it was the biggest media blast yet made on City Hall's handling of PuterGate. Lyons was highly critical, not only of the illegal dealings that have taken place in city hall's computer department, but of the city giving the computer department director a raise in pay following the debacle. Lyons was additionally unamused at City Manager George Hunt's use of bogus figures in battling what Hunt referred to as "bogus accusations" from detractors.

But the clamor about [city computer department head Charles "Steve"] Randall's deal with himself was no witch hunt. And if Hunt wants to maintain his image as a professional manager contending with a half-cocked rabble that makes bogus accusations made of air and innuendo, he blew it that time. As he admitted last week, he was the one using phony facts that day. It cost nowhere near $40,000 to handle those complaints. He just made up that number, for dramatic effect. "It was almost a joke, really," Hunt explains now.
-- Tom Lyons, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 07/14/02

That joke, incidentally, was used as justification for the firing of computer department employee Dan Acosta, a critic of Randall's and an employee who had been kept out of the loop after questioning Randall on the city's legal procedures in buying and licensing software used by the city.

The Venice Gondolier Sun has not been kind, either. In an editorial entitled We Expect More, the Gondolier hinted that now might be a good time for a few folks to update their resumes:

We have high expectations for our city officials and believe that those who can no longer meet the demands of their jobs should be asked to improve or asked to leave.
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 06/29/02

So far, City Hall has remained strangely quiet, at least publicly. In a move that gives the appearance of near desperation, Hunt apologist John Simmonds quickly fired off a letter to the Herald-Trib decrying the paper's treatment of Hunt.

Your newspaper has beaten up on George Hunt for two weeks now, in a story, column and editorial, and done way more damage than any good city manager ever deserved.
-- John Simmonds, letter to the editor, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 07/17/02

Simmonds is a former mayor of Winter Haven, Florida, and has been a minor political player in Venice since landing here. Simmonds' support is historically funereal. The last time he rushed to a city manager's defense in this manner was back in February of 2000. Winter Haven's then-city manager, Carl Cheatham, was in a lot of hot water over allegations of nepotism and incompetence. Simmonds wrote a letter to the editor of the Polk News Chief in support of Cheatham, a letter that is remarkably similar to his recent Herald-Trib epistle. In May of 2000, Winter Haven's city commission voted to force Cheatham to retire.

Way to go, John. Keep those cards and letters coming.

PR goes FUBAR
In a case of seemingly petty retaliation for our coverage of PuterGate, city hall has stopped issuing the city hall employee newsletter in web format. Venice Florida! dot com's parent company, Creative Pages, was informed earlier this week that the city will stop providing, via e-mail, the Adobe PDF version of the newsletter. Creative Pages had been publishing the newsletter online via the Venice Police web site as well as through Venice Florida! dot com.

Reason given? According to an e-mail received by Venice Florida! dot com, the employee newsletter was written for city hall employees and was never intended for public consumption. This, in spite of the fact that the public has had online access to it for the past year with the city's approval. As of this writing, there is no intention on the city's part to make the newsletter, a public document, available online (watch that change about ten minutes after someone at city hall reads this).

This is not the first time that city hall has reacted like this to negative press.

Within the last year, Michael Kayatt, publisher on the online zine OurTown50.com, was told he wouldn't be receiving any more news releases from the city after publishing a political cartoon critical of George Hunt's predilection for bringing a firearm into to the workplace. The cartoon showed a poster of the Clint Eastwood movie, The Outlaw Josey Wales, with Hunt's face superimposed over Eastwood's. The caption indicated that Hunt was hosting a Clint Eastwood film festival in his office for city employees in honor of his right to bear arms.

"They threatened to withhold information and news releases," Kayatt stated earlier this week. "I have received maybe two releases [from Venice] in the last six months."

Even News40, the news department at local television station WWSB, has been the brunt of such tactics. After the station aired an unfavorable news story about the now-infamous noose incident that was written and narrated by WWSB reporter Silke Rible, Assignment Editor Sandy Matheson was informed by a city official that Rible "...is no longer welcome at city hall." Rible's story, and the subsequent public furor it caused, was largely responsible for the city's decision to reexamine the case after nearly closing the books on the incident.

Matheson indicated that this mandate from the city had no impact on the news department, and that News40 will send whoever is available, Rible included, on any future stories they are covering at city hall.

And if Rible is escorted out of the building on her next story? "That would be a violation of the Sunshine Law," Matheson stated, "and it would be news as well."