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As bridges go, it's not a bad bridge. You can walk across it, drive across it, take a boat under it, so it's definitely a bridge. It's not exactly The Skyway or The Golden Gate, but it serves its purpose. A roped-off area in front of the makeshift stage had a hundred or so reserved seats for favored citizens, officials and dignitaries, while the general rabble was allowed to view the festivities, such as they were, from behind yellow police tape in the back. Calamaras and U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) were the first two speakers (Harris speaking to crowd, shown above), followed by County Commissioner Jon Thaxton (R) and State Rep. Nancy Detert (R). All four are up for re-election on this Tuesday's ballot. Several favored local politicos were allowed inside the ropeway -- council candidates Diana Mier, Fred Hammett, Mike Gelormino, e.g.
Needless to say, Gary A. Anderson, Calamaras' opponent in the mayoral race, was also not invited to sit inside the roped area. He took a pass on attending: "It's a fake grand opening -- they are having a grand opening for a bridge that isn't going to be opened. Let me know when I can actually drive over it, then I'll get excited, meanwhile I have some laundry to do and then I have to go to work." The festivities would culminate with a police-caution-tape cutting, followed by a small parade of bedraggled animals scrounged up at the last minute. Giraffes and elephants had been promised. Several horses, a pair of brown bears, a couple of camels and a very smelly llama were the actual visual fare, this after a half-hour wait following the yellow-tape cutting. One woman was carried off in a police van after complaining of symptoms of heat stroke during the wait. Then the bridge was closed down again, not to actually reopen until Tuesday, November 2. There were still a few repairs to be made, and the bridge wasn't open for business yet, despite the grand opening celebrations and the yellow-tape cutting.
The premature yellow-tape cutting, timed for the last weekend before the election, was not politically motivated. Any such suggestion that it might be received dirty looks. At least one council candidate, Bill Willson, held no such illusions or pretenses. Willson walked around during the event wearing a sandwich-board made from his campaign signs. Nothing quite says politically motivated like a grown man wearing a set of vote-for-me sandwich-board signs. On the personal upside, after missing the chance at a debate I moderated between Harris and Schneider for the Taxpayers League, I finally got a photo-op of myself and Katherine Harris.
The lawsuit On Saturday morning, both the Herald-Trib and the Gondo had the story, with the Gondo carrying it front page above the fold. The news was out and it was the buzz of the town: Venice Taxpayers League prez Herb Levine's much rumored lawsuit against the city had finally been filed at the courthouse. The City of Venice, Mayor Dean Calamaras, former city manager George Hunt and former police chief Joe Slapp are all named as defendants in the three-count lawsuit. Everybody had an opinion, ranging from "Go get 'em, Herb!" to "He's the president of the Taxpayers League, he's always bitching about spending, and now he's going to cost the city money by suing them -- what a hypocrite!" One thing about Levine -- you either love him or hate him, there is no middle ground. "Blatantly politically motivated," the righteously indignant mayor was quoted repeatedly as stating. "Everything's politically motivated," one councilman joked to me in response. In fact, the phrase "politically motivated" had become the humorous catch-phrase of the day. The lawsuit complaint filed by Levine's attorney, Peter Baranowicz, lists a horrorshow of events that occurred in the years leading up to the arrest of Levine. The list includes:
These were but preludes to the events of September 24, 2002, the date on which the city initiated the actions that led to the three counts mentioned in the lawsuit: Assault and Battery, False Arrest and Malicious Prosecution.
Ankle manacles at city hall: The arrest of Herb Levine Levine waited an hour or so until the end of the meeting to return the favor. In a thirty-second retort during the public speaking portion at the very end of the meeting, Levine referred to Hunt's comments by calling Hunt a liar. Councilwoman Virginia Warren immediately started yelling, interrupting Levine. Levine, sensing an ugly mood that had just gotten uglier, leaned into the microphone, said "Goodbye," and walked away. Vice Mayor Jim Myers barked out as Levine was walking away, calling Levine a hyena. Levine again returned the favor, this time from the audience, and Myers was publicly dubbed a drunk and an idiot. Calamaras, who had been banging the gavel continuously since Warren spoke out, finally managed to get a word in and immediately ordered Levine to leave council chambers. Levine refused. Councilman Burt Brown chimed in, commanding Emergency Services Director (and former police chief) Joe Slapp to arrest Levine. Slapp pulled Levine out of his seat and placed Levine under arrest (MP3 audio file - 1.6 MBs - 2:22). According to Levine, he was subsequently handcuffed and placed in ankle manacles at city hall, then marched out the front door of city hall, west along Venice Avenue, then south along Harbor Drive. Levine states that he was finally placed in a police vehicle that was parked at the south end of city hall on Harbor Drive. Yes, you read right, handcuffs and ankle manacles were placed on a 75-year-old man, who was then paraded through downtown for two blocks. The arrest of Levine, of course, was not politically motivated. According to witness affidavits and Slapp's own written account, this was a public safety issue of serious import. The newspapers presently are stating that the State Attorney's Office dropped the charges against Levine due to "insufficient evidence." That's partially true. The State Attorney's Office did drop the charges. There was, however, an overabundance of evidence: over 20 people filed witness affidavits and all of them gave taped depositions to the prosecutor. Then there was the audio recording of the same event. Additionally, Slapp ordered full forensics workups of council chambers in the days and weeks following the arrest. Photos, maps, movement diagram charts, the whole schmeer. One cop told Venice Florida! dot com that the police department used more man hours in the Levine case than they had used in their last murder investigation. Thus, there was probably more evidence in the Levine case than in any other misdemeanor criminal case brought to the State Attorney's Office that year. Remember -- Levine was arrested for two misdemeanors: Trespass After A Warning and Resisting Arrest Without Violence. In those two misdemeanor charges, the amount of evidence was anything but insufficient. The problem was that the evidence clearly showed that Levine hadn't broken any criminal law. That's kind of a crucial element in an arrest, or so I'm told. If you are a prosecutor, there's a bit of a comfort factor in knowing that you have a statute that is clearly stated in precise and understandable language and that you have evidence that clearly indicates that a defendant has violated that statute. The problem with the Levine case was that while the amount of evidence was nearly overwhelming, there was (and still is) no statute on the books that can be pointed to with anything close to a degree of clarity that can be used to define any illegal behavior on Levine's part. Levine was rude, admittedly. So were Hunt, Warren, Myers and Calamaras. They were all rude and unruly, and if you carefully follow the sequence of events in the audio tapes, Levine was rude only in response to rudeness that he received. Unfortunately for Hunt, Slapp, Calamaras and the city, there are no statutes against rudeness. Former city council candidate Jim Leis, who was one of the last to be deposed by Assistant State Attorney Kurt Hoffman, quoted Hoffman as stating, "If the Venice City Council would play by the same rules that they impose on everyone who comes before them, they'd be in a much better position on this case." The grand irony of the whole case: there was no further business at the meeting after Levine spoke. The formal budget meeting had been concluded, the public speaking portion was the final event and Levine was the only speaker. Levine ultimately was accused of interrupting a meeting that was only seconds away from being concluded. All Calamaras had to do in order to avoid the fiasco was to bang the gavel, conclude the meeting and walk away -- Levine could have been left in an empty auditorium staring at empty chairs on the dais.
Politically motivated? Nah, no way Gotta hand it to hizzonor: nothing gets by him. Calamaras apparently feels that the timing of the lawsuit is an unfair election tactic. There's one problem with that: the lawsuit wouldn't and couldn't be used as such a tactic if, two years ago, the mayor had been smart enough to intercede in Levine's arrest. If it is indeed an election tactic designed to unseat the mayor, Calamaras should have seen it coming two years ago: it's kind of ridiculous to complain about a dog biting you at an inopportune time and place when you were the one who previously let the dog out to roam the neighborhood. Instead, Calamaras thought the whole thing was pretty funny at the time. Immediately after Levine was marched out of council chambers and as he was being sized up for ankle manacles, Calamaras was yukking it up: "Anyone else want to come forward and get arrested?" Levine failed to see the humor then. He's still somewhat less than amused. Seeing as he is just days away from a visit from a process server, Calamaras probably doesn't think the joke is funny anymore, either. As to the mayor's complaints about the timing of the filing, Levine shrugs and wonders if the public will ever truly understand the arrest incident from his perspective: "Whether or not the lawsuit is politically motivated is not the issue -- it's a way of avoiding the issue. The real issue is what Calamaras, council, the city manager [Hunt] and part of his staff did to a citizen of Venice. There was nothing I did that the state would prosecute. This onus of what they did to a citizen is glossed over with the phrase 'politically motivated.' As I was being led away in ankle manacles and marched down the streets of Venice, I'll bet you they were snickering the whole way." According to the audio record, they were (MP3 audio file - 1.9MBs - 2:43).
John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times. |
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Politically motivated(?)
Jan Schneider
(D), Harris' opponent in the upcoming November 2 election, was left
standing behind the rope with the rabble (shown at right, dressed in white and looking at the camera). "I like rabble," Schneider
later joked,
downplaying the municipal dissing.
With the November election only days away, this allowed
Harris, Calamaras, Detert and Thaxton one final shot at addressing a large crowd and at getting some
coveted photo-ops, all on the city's dime. Calamaras even held an infant during
part of his speaking appearance. While none of the politicos mentioned the
upcoming election during their speeches, all but Thaxton spoke of
their involvement in helping to build this magnificent structure. Oh, and
