"Anybody else wish to come forward and get arrested?"
City Council to Herb Levine: Do not pass Go, do not collect $200
-- John Patten, 09/28/02, revised 09/30/02
jpatten@veniceflorida.com

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Related:
Venice City Council meetings offer many models of cool, calm stability
-- Tom Lyons, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 10/01/02
Levine considers lawsuit over arrest
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 09/28/02
Hold that line -- Venice should tread lightly on free-speech rights
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune editorial, 09/27/02

Bad day, bad kids, bad sandbox
On September 24th, things finally came to a head in the longstanding feud between City Council and City Manager George Hunt and their evil nemesis, Venice Taxpayers League President Herb Levine. At a final reading of the city budget, Hunt took the opportunity to go off-topic and blast at Levine and the Taxpayers League in a highly emotionally charged speech. While Hunt didn't specifically name Levine, he made repeated references to an article penned by Levine in a recent edition of the VTL newsletter with hot-button words like "audacity," "fallacious" and "yellow journalism" (MP3 audio file - 2.5 MBs - 3:44).

After basically being called a liar in public, Levine returned the favor, albeit far more bluntly. When Mayor Dean Calamaras later called for public comment, Levine responded directly to Hunt's comments.

Levine managed to get one sentence out before the melee started: "I want to comment on Mr. Hunt's brilliant talk about the literature that the Venice Taxpayers League puts out, and all I can say is that Mr. Hunt has always been a liar, has been been caught lying so many times, that why would you listen to him now?"

Councilwoman Virginia Warren immediately and loudly interrupted Levine. Mayor Calamaras banged the gavel and interjected. Levine abruptly stated "Goodbye," and walked away from the podium.

From start to finish, Levine's tirade lasted thirty-five seconds, in sharp contrast to Hunt's previous three-minute rant.

That should have ended the matter, but cooler heads all around did not prevail.

As Levine was returning to his seat, Vice Mayor Jim Myers growled "Get out, I've had enough of your lies and innuendos." Levine laughed it off, and Myers then compared Levine to a hyena.

Levine cat-called back to Myers from the audience, "Idiot! Drunk!"

Calamaras immediately ordered Levine out of the council chambers. Levine didn't obey fast enough.

Levine was then placed under arrest by Emergency Services Director Joe Slapp, who physically removed Levine from his seat in the audience while Levine cried out in pain.

As Levine was being removed from council chambers, Mayor Calamaras offered this invitation to any other would-be dissenters: "Anybody else wish to come forward and get arrested?" (MP3 audio file - 1.6 MBs - 2:22 -- includes the entire verbal exchange and subsequent arrest).

Can't we ignore the 1st Amendment and just go with the 2nd?
Later, Councilman David Farley wondered aloud if the city could go after Levine under stalking laws or some similar legal protection. Councilman Rick Tacy and George Hunt both agreed that Levine was "...obviously threatening" Hunt in the exchange, something that the audio record refutes. Tacy referred to Levine as "a nutcase."

And then came the scariest statement made all day. Hunt, after equating being called a liar to a threat of physical harm, openly lamented not being allowed to carry a gun to work anymore (MP3 audio file - 1.9MBs - 2:43).

I'll take a double shot of Drano, neat, with a bleach chaser
It must be something in the water. They're dumping LSD into it in massive quantities over at the water plant. Famed horror writer Stephen King bought property in nearby Nokomis, maybe he's to blame for bringing a collective psychosis into our fair community, as in his novels The Tommyknockers and Needful Things. Mind altering spores in City Hall's ventilation system. Something. Anything. Cuz folks be gettin' real wacky lately, and when the insanity needle hits max on the loonometer, city hall is almost always the center of the psychotic vortex.

At the core of this particular disagreement is the recent millage cut in city taxes. Hunt and City Council have lauded themselves for coming up with a way to provide more services to the community while reducing taxes. Levine and the Taxpayers League have attacked city hall's accounting, referring to it as a marriage of trickle-down and voodoo economics done with fuzzy math. "It's a shell-game con," Levine stated to Venice Florida! dot com. "They reduce our taxes by a little and jack up our user fees by a lot."

Hunt denies the charge, stating that the difference is made up from revenue from new construction and development.  Levine counters with the argument that Venice taxpayers end up footing the bill for the developers, not the other way around, and that Hunt has been dishonest with council and the city at large about so many things that even the papers have taken him to task on severe credibility issues.

Hunt states that the Taxpayers League is fallacious. Levine states that Hunt is a liar.

And on and on and on.

It could drive a reformed alcoholic to drink. I mean the strong stuff: Drano, bleach, sulfuric acid. Anything that might cause enough pain to ensure that this is actually reality, that city politics hasn't become a massive collective hallucination. 

Oops, I did it again
While Hunt beats his chest and proclaims his honesty, it must be noted that earlier that same day, he was, shall we say, less than honest with council about a contract with computer consultant Mike Stewart and DKE Commerce. In hyping Stewart to council in support of a tech contract that Venice Florida! dot com feels is unnecessarily bloated, and that even Councilwoman Martha Hanneman stated she has strong reservations about, Hunt told council that Stewart provides support to both Bon Secours Hospital and the Venice Area Chamber of Commerce. It's a claim Hunt has made in the past when asked about nebulously worded invoices that have been submitted to the computer department from Stewart.

It's simply not true, according to both organizations.

The Chamber uses noted and respected Venice gearhead Van Vangor for support functions and cannot remember having dealings with Stewart, either as DKE or in his previous company, Gulf America Computers. "Maybe we bought some computers from Gulf America a long time ago, but if we did, they're not here anymore," a Chamber employee told us.

The Chief Information Officer at Bon Secours, Ted Bailey, claims to have never heard of Stewart or DKE, and stated that if Stewart was doing consulting work on any of the hospital's computers, he would know about it.

Oooops. George, about that credibility thing.... ah, nevermind.

Do not pass Go, do not collect $200 (who's this Miranda dude, anyway?)
Levine was transported to the South County Jail, where he was given a breathalyzer and was questioned about his drinking habits and a few  other items (he blew a 0.0). Then he was transported up to the main jail in Sarasota. All without being read his Miranda, according to Levine. "Other guys were getting read their rights and signing the forms. They never got to me," Levine shrugs. "I'm told this might be important."

As to his jailhouse experience? "It was hysterical, in a way," Levine stated. "I'm 75 years old and I'd never been in jail before. I'm sitting around with about five guys and they're all talking about what they got arrested for. This one a burglary, that one for punching somebody, etc. Then they get to me and look silently, waiting for my story. So I tell them I'm in here because I called the City Manager a liar. All of a sudden they're throwing their fists in the air yelling in anger, I'm thinking I'm gonna get attacked, only they're not angry at me. They can't believe you can get thrown in jail for such a thing, and it suddenly dawns on me that these guys have more respect for the democratic process than our own city government does."

Bad behavior or criminal behavior?
Was Levine's behavior caustic? You bet, but no less caustic than Hunt's behavior earlier in the same meeting. Go back up the page and listen to Hunt's and Levine's respective rhetoric in the audio files. Listen to the rage in both voices: the level of contempt is nearly identical. Bob Vedder ain't all wrong when he stated that these meetings deserve to be civil (see Vedder's quote in the sidebar above), but if you follow the logic that incivility is an actionable criminal offense, Levine shouldn't have been the only handcuffed passenger in the paddy wagon by a long shot.

Hunt was the initial instigator in this particular incident. He threw out the taunts, then cried foul and hid behind the teacher while wiping fake tears on her skirt. That's not to say that Levine was an innocent: he threw it back with equal, if not greater, measure. This was a schoolyard scrap between two guys who are known for not getting along well in the same sandbox.

Then you add in Myers calling Levine a hyena and Levine's response of calling Myers an idiot and a drunk. The whole affair was childish. Hunt, Levine and Myers all deserved a trip to the principal's office.

Bad behavior? Definitely, but was it criminal? The courts will have to make that determination, and that process will start on October 21 when Levine is scheduled to enter a plea before Judge Barbara Briggs at the South County Courthouse.

Contrary to some printed reports, at no time did Mayor Calamaras ever call for Levine to be arrested. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

Councilman Burt Brown at one point excitedly yelled out for Levine's arrest. Both the mayor and the vice-mayor downplayed Brown's exuberance and requested that Levine simply be removed from council chambers.

How that will play out in Judge Briggs' courtroom should Levine enter a plea of not guilty is anybody's guess, but count on it being a factor.

Those pesky constituents should not be allowed to be such whiners
Council members and the city manager have complained long and loud that they shouldn't have to put up with verbal haranguing from their constituents, that it is improper, that it impinges upon their rights as public servants. Unfortunately, once you take on the mantle of public office, you have to give up a lot of comforts and protections that the private sector affords. Public office would be a great thing if you didn't have to put up with those pesky constituents.

Ultimately, the mayor and council bear the blame for fostering an atmosphere of incivility over the past year or two, an 'us versus them' mentality aimed at anyone who comes before them with a complaint. As lawmakers, they have tolerated and looked the other way at a great deal of lawlessness over the past two years, leaving citizens and city employees feeling like they have little recourse other than to yell and scream and shout.

When lawmakers tolerate and promote lawlessness, they should not be surprised when anarchy rears its ugly head. They have only themselves to blame.