Day 14. Where is De Santis?

[Baitball Blogger]

22. The County's sister city program was undermined by our City leaders. One in particular.

But, the County only has itself to blame. In 1995-1996, our City was about to correct the overreaches of a City Commissioner who was on several boards at the County level. But the election of 1996 election cleaned out the old commissioners and brought in a whole new crew that had a grudge against a private developer. The Commissioner who should have had her power stripped remained on the Commission. She not only survived, but she magnified her power because Seminole County allowed her to serve and direct many County boards. I saw her as unethical being. But she was patted on her back by the County, probably because she was useful to them. Many County programs were going to need City approval and she was easy to do business with.

She was connected to the group that had a grudge with the developer. And she used her County board positions and power to hijack the sister city program. When the representatives from Wicklow came to visit, she took them on a detour and brought them to the City on a Sunday morning, where a new land developing lawyer presented them with an overview of a private development that would carry the sister city name. The development was in range of City review, so this was a breach of the Sunshine Law. This development was one of three that the other developer, the one that was disliked by the local group, had already obtained approval at the Planning and Zoning board level.

If the City were operating under good legal practices, they could have stopped everything in their tracks. Instead, they facilitated a rush through of the new developer's plans. And when you do something with speed, mistakes are made along the way that need to be patched up secretly. Which meant a long-lasting relationship between the City and the group with a grudge.

It's been messy.


The real travesty is how the people at ground zero terrorized the rest of us, because, if we had known the facts, we would have understood their culpability. It was nearly impossible to unravel the facts because they were so tied to the City. But, once I did figure it out, i realized there was no one to tell.

It is true, most people would rather accept ignorance, than deal with confrontation.