Anyone wanna play another round of Mudball?
Massive amounts of sewage regularly and deliberately dumped on Venice Airport property over the past 5 years, probably for much longer
A Venice Florida! dot com exclusive
Cover-up went all the way from line workers though former city manager Hunt to council and Mayor Calamaras -- yeah, we couldn't believe it at first, either
-- Venice Florida! dot com, REVISED 12/29/04

The Florida Commission on Ethics Report on George Hunt
A Venice Florida! dot com exclusive
full text, 25 pages, Adobe Acrobat file
State Ethics Commission gave the former city manager a clean bill of health for his involvement in the computer department's embezzlement scheme of a few years back; after reading the investigation, ya gotta wonder what drugs the commission members are on
-- Florida Commission on Ethics, posted to the web 12/18/04

The Florida Commission on Ethics Report on Dean Calamaras
A Venice Florida! dot com exclusive
full text, 23 pages, Adobe Acrobat file
Mayor Calamaras honestly didn't know his son would be working for Garden State Fireworks until the week before the 2002 fireworks show -- at least that's what the mayor told the Commission, anyway; Calamaras and former Sertoma prez C.J. Fishman point the finger at each other over who picked Garden State to be the city's fireworks vendor
-- Florida Commission on Ethics, posted to the web 12/18/04

The traditional Christmas dinosaur
Some things never change and traditions become the comforting constants in a turbulent world... and then, there's Venice
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 12/01/04

Gondolier attacks Levine
Contains the original audio recordings of Levine's arrest at city hall
In an editorial published on November 3, the Gondolier Sun muddied the waters surrounding the arrest of Herb Levine; Venice Florida! dot com attempts to clear the air by restating a few simple and provable facts
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 11/10/04

Sarasota County wants your help to spam the nation
 11/24/04:  Spam-o-matic page was down, now it's back up
"Our area has seen three hurricanes this summer, but youd never be able to tell. Sure, the power flickered off and on, but a fresh tropical breeze was all Sarasota and her islands saw of the summer storms" -- a fresh tropical breeze????
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 11/19/04, revised 11/24/04

The return of PuterGate:
State ethics commission investigating mayor and city's computer department head
Over a year ago, Gary Anderson filed four ethics complaints against city officials; the state commission is just now following through on the complaints
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 10/20/04

Vedder compares Levine to bin Laden
That wacky Gondo publisher is at it again, this time he goes off the deep end with a bad metaphor, gets athlete's mouth from eating own foot; hilarity ensues
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 11/07/04

Politically motivated(?)
Levine files suit against the mayor and the city for a false arrest that occurred two years ago; city celebrates the grand opening of a bridge that's not open yet; of course, none of this is politically motivated
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 10/31/04, REVISED 11/01/04

Levine vs. City of Venice, Calamaras, Hunt, Slapp
COUNT 1: False Arrest
COUNT 2: Assault and Battery
COUNT 3: Malicious Prosecution
-- full text of civil complaint from court records, filed in court on 10/29/04

Race for mayor's seat is brutal, bloody and ugly
It's also turning into some darned fun lowbrow entertainment
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 10/13/04, revised 10/15/04

Venice Florida! dot com's 2004 endorsements for the City of Venice
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 10/23/04, REVISED 10/25/04

Herb Levine on the VGA: If there's nothing to hide...
Taxpayers League prez wants access to the Venice Golf Association's financial records
-- Herb Levine, 10/10/04

Geri in her own words
This web site bids a final farewell to a good friend, Geri Weinberg
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 10/04/04

Misunderstandings? maybe...
The critical campaign issue last year was George Hunt; this year, it's the VGA lease and their list of owners
-- Herb Levine, 10/02/04

Venice Main Street axes staff
Directors want volunteers to man the office
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 09/09/04

Frances pics -- photo essay
Venice -- before, during and after Hurricane Frances
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 09/06/04

Lane and Wilson are out, OMI is in
Includes over a half-hour of audio from the budget workshop that killed their jobs
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 08/18/04

City's finance director bolts
On the job for less than two months, James Olson abruptly quits, goes into hiding
-- Venice Florida! dot com, fully revised 08/11/04

Attorney Tommy Meyer files second whistleblower lawsuit
Original lawsuit has been bumped to federal court in Tampa
-- full text of civil complaint as filed in circuit court on 07/27/04

Venice Florida! dot com enters the airport bidding war
After months of preparation, plus soliciting for financial backing, this web site is now prepared to present its plan for development at the Venice Airport
Take a look at our simulated view of what we envision as the Airport Project

Hunt, Black face off over DEP consent order
City manager caged match proves to be an audience favorite; final score: Black 1, Hunt 0
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 07/28/04

City Manager Marty Black's privatization memo (PDF file)
Black dropped an e-mail bomb that rocked the utilities department to its very core; here's the memo that went out to council that explains the e-mail
-- posted to the web 07/27/04, 12:15 PM

At unknown risk:
The asbestos memos reveal an uncaring attitude in a clueless utilities department
Department now finds itself in the bizarre quandary of not being able to legally repair its own sewer and water lines
-- Venice Florida! dot com, revised 07/27/04

The asbestos memos
In the wake of a seriously botched asbestos cutting job, the city's utilities department releases several internal memos trying to explain what happened
-- City of Venice, internal memos (Adobe Acrobat file, 8 pages)
-- released to the web on 07/24/04

Search engines trip Hunt in job search
Mayor of Treasure Island discovers Hunt's past on a web search after getting a glowing report from research consultant
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 07/16/04

Finally, the web becomes a player in local elections
The good news: more city candidates than ever before are hitting the web; the bad news: with just more than 100 days left until the election, all of the sites are still in development
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 07/15/04

City hits regulatory wall in dealing with asbestos concrete; one worker, non-smoker, diagnosed with lung cancer
Venice Florida! dot com goes to the wall to successfully shut down a job site; per fed regs, only a "competent person," meaning someone who has taken a federally mandated 40-hour course and passed the test, may supervise asbestos-concrete jobs -- nobody on the city payroll has ever taken the course
-- Venice Florida! dot com, revised 07/15/04

Former city manager Hunt investigated, secretly taped by the FBI
Utils supervisor Skip Petitt and his attorney Tommy Meyer were wired for federal sound at a meeting with George Hunt -- yes, it really happened, and here's the full story
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 07/09/04, revised 07/11/04

Full text of the whistleblower lawsuit complaint -- Petitt, Evans, Campbell vs. City of Venice
Suit claims the FBI taped George Hunt in the act of retribution against city employees -- see item #8
-- civil complaint posted to the web on July 7, 2004

CQG turns to Hunt
Ex-city manager, at the behest of attorney Dan Boone, lays out the political strategy for the business PAC at a secret meeting in March; five city council members attend and come perilously close to breaking Florida's Sunshine Law
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 06/08/04

PWNED: City's Nextel phone account gets hacked
Quigley cleared of deliberate wrongdoing; thieves ordered $1500 worth of NASCAR cell phones; all your phone are belong to us
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 05/17/04, updated 05/23/04

"Am I telling the truth or is John Lane telling the truth?"
The war of words between Venice Florida! dot com and Utils Director John Lane continues; Patten accuses Lane of deliberately deceiving council about asbestos that had been dumped behind the city's drinking water plant
-- MP3 audio file, 2:20, 1.6MBs, from city council meeting of 05/11/04

Friable asbestos pipe
Utils Director John Lane stated emphatically to council on April 27 that "friable" (powdery and breathable) asbestos pipe had never been stored behind the drinking water plant -- it was the cornerstone of his remarks; here's a waste pickup manifest from 2002, one that was included in his own report to council -- note what is stated in the "Description of materials" field
-- posted to the web on 04/28/04, 1 page, Adobe Acrobat file

Lane to city attorney: can't we shut this web site down?
In an hilarious turn of events, we recently uncovered documents that show how Utils Director John Lane and ex-City Manager George Hunt tried to talk City Attorney Bob Anderson into taking legal action against Venice Florida! dot com
-- posted to the web on 04/26/04, 2 pages, Adobe Acrobat file

A closer look at the city's utilities department report on asbestos concrete
Things are rarely as they seem at the beleaguered department and this latest fiasco is no exception
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 04/24/04

THE STORY THAT STARTED IT ALL:
City's utilities department deliberately exposed workers to asbestos
For the last 10 to 20 years, city workers have been improperly handling asbestos concrete without the benefit of training or protection, all less than 40 yards from Utils Director John Lane's office; EPA launches new, separate investigation based on information discovered by this web site
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 04/19/04

The asbestos concrete report compiled by utilities department
In response to allegations raised by venfl.com, City Manager Marty Black requested a report from John Lane; our initial take: the report is self-contradictory and self-incriminating, Lane might have done better by refusing to comply
-- posted to the Web on 04/24/04, 19 pages, Adobe Acrobat file

Transcript of Patten's 04/13/04 statement to Venice City Council on the asbestos concrete problem
-- posted to the Web on 04/23/04

Calamaras takes another low-blow shot at Hanks
Just when you thought things had all settled down, Hizzonor sticks yet another foot in his mouth, this time in a letter to a city resident
-- letter written and signed by Mayor Dean Calamaras, dated 03/30/04 (Adobe PDF file)

GOTCHA!!!
Bing, Bang, Bong and a coupla other names -- Venice Florida! dot com spoofs the Boone law firm for April Fools 2004
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 04/02/04

Playing the race card - a look back at an article from last year
Back in August of last year, Venice Florida! dot com accused the utilities department of stalling the Union Missionary Baptist Church and of deliberately under-reporting a sewage spill in the church to the county and the DEP to avoid responsibility -- Utilities Director John Lane responded by accusing this site of playing the race card
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 08/31/03 (part of a longer article)

Taxpayers League First Annual "Achievement in the Venice Community" Awards for 2003
Venice Florida! dot com's Patten gets a pat on the back along with four other notable community members
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 03/21/04

FOP blasts back
REVISED 03/15/04: Former police chief Joe Slapp had called for the ouster of current chief Jim Hanks, stating "Just go to the rank and file;" rank and file answers in resounding support of Hanks in an overwhelming vote of confidence; cops trying to move police force out of political line of fire
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 03/14/04

Patten blasts back -- Venice Florida! dot com's John Patten fires back at Venice cop Mike Treanor, accusing Treanor of twisting the facts to win points in a personal feud with Chief Hanks -- 3/11/04

EPA issues another Grand Jury subpoena -- Just when you thought they had gone away, the EPA lays a subpoena on the city for a mammoth amount of printed and electronic data; this time around, they want customer reuse water records, including records relating to the Venice Golf Association and all other golf courses -- PDF document dated 03/05/04

I said what? A letter to the Herald-Trib -- A little fact-checking goes a long ways, guys -- 03/09/04
(subsequent correction by the H-T -- see last item on page)

Slapp? A control freak? Nah........ -- In a web exclusive, Venice Florida! dot com shows two memos from Joe Slapp that reveal how much of a control freak he really was -- 03/06/04

SNN Reports: The Avery Report -- An initial preliminary study done by a research group that had never worked with a law enforcement agency before is used by the media as an indictment of Venice's top cop; former chief Joe Slapp rubs his hands with glee; Hunt wanders into camera view, asks for a stick of gum -- 03/05/04

Venice Citizens for Quality Taxpaying -- Parts 1 & 2 complete: Strange things are happening as both the CQG and the VTL move towards the center (includes one paragraph that was excised from the printed newspaper version)

Got a virus? Bet ya! Wanna lose all your data on your computer? Bet ya don't! -- Virus and spyware infections are plaguing local businesses, one local business owner was unknowingly running a porn server; Venice MainStreet takes a nervy challenge

Resignations rock city hall's old guard -- Hunt honchos are heading for the hills, more resignations and possible firings are rumored; First Baptist Church gets slammed as a parting shot

Sludge -- Right next to youth soccer and baseball fields, right across the street from residential housing, lies some of the nastiest stuff you ever laid eyes on, and it's laid there unattended and ignored for 13 years (a story in progress)

Want more Wellfield sludge pics? -- The complete set of our Wellfield sludge pics, downloadable in a single 2.8MB ZIP file. These pics (and these pics only) may be freely reproduced on the web, in print or whatever without obtaining prior permission from us -- use 'em as you see fit, absolutely free with no copyright protections attached (please give credit to venfl.com; this applies ONLY to the photos in the ZIP file)

Townhall meeting turns ugly as villagers run amuck; 6 dead, numerous wounded -- satire -- Former councilman, now development investor, David Farley seen running into the night carrying airport plans and yelling, "My Precious! They're trying to steal My Precious!"

City employee singled out for disciplinary write-up by utilities supervisors for supporting Marty Black -- Council had already warned the supervisors not to take such actions; "Do these people not learn?" one city official wonders

Blacklash -- Venice Florida! dot com finds itself in the awkward position of actually defending a public official: A smear job on Deputy City Manager Marty Black has an enticing (if inaccurate) hook, local media gets reeled in; smear campaign appears to be originating from the city's own Utilities Department

DEP alleges Wellfield Park groundwater is tainted with heavy metals and other toxic contaminants -- State agency accuses city of stalling, not monitoring properly, allowing tampering of monitoring wells and making unsupported accusations aimed at the DEP
-- letter from Michael Gonsalves of the DEP dated June 26, 2003

City to DEP on Wellfield Park letter: Everything's fine, stop worrying -- City responds seven months later to DEP's letter that demanded a response within 30 days; city insists DEP has it all wrong, everything is hunky-dory at the Little League youth sports complex park
-- letter from Larry Heath, Director of Public Works, dated 01/14/04

To everything (spin, spin, spin) there is a season (spin, spin, spin) -- Local media, citizens, council all wanted Hunt to stay -- or at least that's what they are saying anyway
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 01/15/04

With federal indictments looming, Hunt takes a dive -- EPA is reportedly ready to turn investigation over to federal prosecutors to start grand jury proceedings; Hunt, Lane, Wilson at the center of EPA's target
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 01/10/04