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I'm going as far as the rules of evidence allow at this point in time. Simmonds and the Airport Advisory Board were easily the worst offenders. The AAB is gone. I, like you, am still waiting for the results of Mogensen's demands for the mayor's emails from his computer. Realistically: the city is broken and I don't see any way of fixing it. I think the whole system is beyond repair. I see two council members with common sense: Noren and McKeon. The rest I am scratching my head over, wondering when, exactly, did insanity grip these otherwise good and honorable people?

On a somewhat more personal note, Simmonds is the only one involved in this lawsuit to accuse another person of a criminal act in order to cover up his own actions. Remember: it was Simmonds, through his attorney Jeff Boone, that accused me of hacking into his computer in an initial court filing response to Mogensen's lawsuit. Simmonds himself visited the Venice Police Department in an attempt to kick-start a bogus criminal action against me for hacking into his computer, this because Simmonds claimed that there was no way I could have received an email that appears to have been forwarded to anyone who had a remote interest in setting up three council members in a lawsuit.

So in one way, this is very personal -- I get a bit unsettled when someone tries to put me in the frame to cover up their own actions. I'm funny that way. I know that sounds selfish and temperamental on my part, but there you have it.

That the mayor is sticking up for someone who tried to shove the mayor's head in a meat grinder is astonishing (reference: the emails between Simmonds and Art Nadel of the Venice Jet Center that earned me an accusation of hacking).

Current council and their attorneys are either in a total state of denial as to how bad things are going to get in the Sunshine Law lawsuit OR they do realize how bad things are going to get and they don't want the public to fully figure it out.

Top that off with the fact that we are looking for a new city manager in the vain hope that we'll get a stellar candidate who will be able to sort this all out and do all of the dirty work in cleaning up the dysfunctional machine that city hall has become, dirty work that council is too cowardly to do on its own. Reality: we'd be lucky if George Hunt would offer to come back. Who the hell in their right mind would risk their career by stepping into this huge pile of shit? Only someone who has been chased out of everywhere else. Thus -- if council makes no attempt to clean up city hall on their own, hoping for a savior is an act of self-destructive stupidity and foolishness that is beyond the comprehension of anything capable of generating neural pathways.

Ignoring the Sunshine Law lawsuit, you have the following:

A city clerk's office that can't figure out what is and what is not a public record, that can't figure out how to save and archive public business emails, that can't honor simple public records request, and that can't even figure out how to get a public records request from a fax machine in one part of the building to the clerk's office in another.

An IT department run by a guy with a G.E.D. who started out with the city as a sewage pipe cutter, a guy who can't figure out how to archive electronic data and emails in accordance with the Florida Administrative Code, and he's running a department (complete with a highly paid outside consultant that city hall is fabulously happy with) that has shown itself to be equally clueless in achieving that one simple objective.

An interim city manager whose stated labor policies include denials of transfers and promotions to anyone who is a member of a labor union, especially if the candidate has ever used the union to file a grievance.

A press officer who can barely spell her own job title and who is totally incapable of issuing anything in writing that might actually help form a favorable public opinion towards anything that city hall might be engaged in.

A code enforcement head who lies to his own department to prevent them from performing their state-mandated functions in order to benefit favored code enforcement violators by allowing them full benefits of unrestricted permits without having to go through the process of acquiring those permits (e.g.: Tavern on the Island and, a couple of years before that, the Venice Island Pub).

What's not to love? How much would you pay for all of this? Man, if I am looking for a job as a city manager, this is just perfect, right? A dream job. All that is missing is a cigarette and a blindfold.

But wait... there's more.... fun.

"Spoliation." It is the piano on a thin wire hanging over all of council's heads in the current lawsuit and you WILL see this argument coming out very soon, probably this Monday. When this dragon rears its ugly head, it means one thing: game over.

If this lawsuit continues in the way that it is now looking like it will, there may be calls for other resignations from other publications that traditionally have not made such requests. I can certainly understand why folks feel that they have been let down by the entire council. This is a mess.

All of which leads to a question that Hizzoner isn't asking, to wit: how many friends does the mayor have left in the media? The Herald-Trib? uhhhhh....., no. The Gondolier? uhhhhh....., no. After this past Tuesday's performance, who amongst you could blame me if I turned full heel against him from here on out?

Simmonds' resignation would go a long way towards appeasing a hostile court process, so in that sense, it would be a first step towards saving the city from an even bigger calamity, but Simmonds is in no mood to take one for the team. As such, he can, and likely will, bring the whole system down. While both Simmonds and the mayor are too dumb to see it, Simmonds' attorney, Jeff Boone, isn't. Boone's tactics so far have seemed to me to be setting Simmonds up as a sacrificial lamb to bring all of city council down, a move that could tactically put him back in the throne of power for the next five years at least.

Council will all hang together or one or two members may hang separately, and they are collectively too dumb to see that. Mayor Martin is quite content to let Simmonds take the ship down, but I am not sure if it is because the mayor is being a total fool or or if he is just being a coward. Nevertheless, his own behavior is dooming him and the rest of council. They will not allow themselves to be saved.

Who's the anarchist now?

If I was a true anarchist, I'd just keep my mouth shut. The fall is coming, it needs no additional pushing. I've been stupidly trying to prevent it.