Has Everyone Lost their Mind?

Well, it seems they have.  Gleaning through the news we just couldn’t refrain from posting a blog about our local government’s scenanigans.  So, why don’t we have a little recap of the tiraids and activities of our “leaders”.

First off, we have the City Attorney debacle in Crestview.  Did he quit or not?  Are they going to have an attorney, the same attorney, another attorney or what?  It appears that the City Attorney, Ben Holley, got his feelings hurt when the City Council decided to check into getting requests from others.  While acting as if he was about six years old he came just short of a full blown temper tantrum and at one point nearly turned blue from holding his breath.  We can’t wait to see how this one turns out.

Crestview, for no apparent reason, and with no apparent need or use or plans, decided buying a piece of land was a good idea.  Who is benefiting from this $30K land acquisition?  If you want to read more about this “Capital Venture” read this article in the Daily News.

And then we have the Crestview Fire Chief.  Chief Traylor solved the problem of the upcoming election because he captured and killed Obama.  WTF you say, yep he did and then briefed the council on his accomplishment.  Here is a little diddy to prove his intelligence and abilities.  And to think firefighters used to fight fires, now they fight presidents.

But Crestview is not alone in the loss of their minds.  It seems the esteemed Sheriff of Okaloosa County is on the warpath too.  Larry Ashley has proven that he will spare no expense to control our county.  He is even threatening to sue the Board of County Commissioners.  Now isn’t that special.  One elected official sueing another grup of elected officials in the same county.  Can we be more screwed up?  The Daily News featured an article outlining our intelligence in this matter.  They even gave us a headline of “Sheriff threatens lawsuit over airport request” to make sure we (or anyone else in the world) didn’t miss it.

Well, that is our report from the wonderful world of politics and leadership in the land that is Crestview and Okaloosa County.  And remember, they are from the government, they are here to “help” you.

Website Crash and the Fallout to Come

To everyone who has sent us an inquiry: We did not have anything to do with the internet blogger’s site crashing.  We did not hack his site, nor did we do anything to his domain.  May be someone he screwed over recently.  Cal, have you been up to no good this past week, or maybe it was Jerry or Linda or Mike or Bill or ………..

Web Resources for those in Baker affacted by the Sludge

This is just a quick post to provide the residents of Baker, Florida with a few web resources as they continue to combat the sludge dumping in their community.

www.sludgefacts.org

www.sludgevictims.org

Farming Magazine article

Sourcewatch Articles

If any of our readers have additional resources please feel free to post them in a comment or email them to us.

Thank You Crestview, Support Trumps Attack

Wow, it was quite a busy night last night.  Sometimes things move quickly when the citizens get involved.  What a great showing at the City Council meeting and the signs supporting the council were a very nice touch.  A packed house of supporters for our duly elected officials is a great demonstration of our Community involvement.  We heard many words of encouragement.

Mr. Nielsen gave the City Council his apologies and we were skeptical, but later in the evening the video expose’ was removed from his website.  This removed some of our skepticism, but time will tell the true story.  Crestview, you spoke and some listened.  Your display of solidarity against attacks of questionable motivation made of proud of our community.  Thank you for your statements, Mr. Nielsen.

However, your voice was not heard by all of the involved individuals.  Following the meeting we received a comment on our “Gaming the System” post which showed the attitude, motivation and ethics of the “Super Experienced Radio Guy”.  Rather than answer any of our questions he decided to go on the attack.  He made it quite clear of his dislike for the Council President since he dedicated two full paragraphs to discussing Mr. Baugh and none of the other s are mentioned which does contradict his second paragraph.  He doesn’t like the inaccuracy in our article about his board membership, but missed the part that it was a quote (that is what those little “ “ things mean) from the Crestview News Bulletin.  Did he point out this inaccuracy to them?  He must have a deep seated hatred for typographical errors, which we apologize for.  But, the most concerning attack was on our readers, those making comments, “likers” for lack of a better word, all of which in his opinion must be “confused folks”.  Were all those “folks” in the City Council Chambers last night confused?

The best part of the post was the “smoked up” comment.  It is much better to just throw out random allegations than answer the simple questions we posed in our post.  But, everyone has their viewpoints and that is one of the great things about our country.  We not only have freedom of the press, but we have freedom of speech and freedom to assemble also.

Theories and Questions Abound about Emails

It has been a very busy week since our last post.  Our email box is taking quite a beating from some very upset citizens.  It seems there are three theories floating around the community about the email situation.

Theory #1:
The first theory is very concerning, we didn’t even want to broach the topic; however, after several discussions and the fact that we state that we are Crestview politics Uncensored we feel we must let the opinions be heard.  We have received several emails questioning the possibility that the radio and internet video blog is a racial attack primarily against Mr. Baugh.  This theory does have some credence since the narrators repeatedly state that Mr. Baugh had not turned over his emails to them, but they read an email from him on almost every topic discussed.  We certainly hope this is not a case of four white media individuals using their position to influence a community against a black politician.

Theory #2:
We have also received some emails and messages connecting the email story to the FAMU campus coming to the downtown area of Crestview.  It seems that the Council president and the narrators have had some issues recently and some readers feel this may have been the motivation for the attack on the council.  If you will remember the September 9, 2011 article in the Crestview News Bulletin, these issues came to light.

“In particular, Baugh was displeased that the presidents of the Main Street Crestview Association and the Historic Preservation Board, former city councilman Ellis Conner and former mayor Jerry Milligan respectively, had co-signed a letter to FAMU President Dr. James Ammons and Director of Governmental Affairs Tola Thompson.

Cal Zethmayr, a member of both organizations, was at the meeting and explained the letter merely thanked the school for maintaining the building’s historic integrity and requested an existing plaque remain near the entrance. The boards also offered to present FAMU with the gift of a plaque relating the history of the building.” 

If you notice, it seems Mr. Milligan and Mr. Zethmayr were at odds with Council President Baugh during this time.

Theory #3:
The third and final theory posed to us via email and messages is that the email expose’ was targeted due to the landslide elections this past November in which long time politicians were handily defeated by up and coming political newcomers.  This hasn’t seemed to sit well with some of the former elected officials.  Did the email “probe” extend to these former politicians?  It doesn’t seem to be a part of the story other than being mentioned that former City officials and employees had come forward.

Questions:
With all the videos, articles and stories floating around we have a few of our own questions perhaps someone could answer:

• Why did these individuals create a massive smear campaign against the City Council and then afterwards turn their “evidence” over to the State Attorney?
• In the article written in the Northwest Florida Daily News, Cal Zethmayr states that a request was made after several emails were obtained.  How were these emails obtained and were they Legally obtained?
• In the article, Cal Zethmayr states that “Councilwoman Robyn Helt had turned over 972 emails and Councilmen Tim Grandberry, Phillip Berezo and Ben Iannucci released 927, 608 and 39 emails, respectively.  Zethmayr said there had been 229 emails in Iannucci’s City Council inbox Sept. 1, the day after the public records request was presented to the city.”  Our question is; how did Zethmayr know how many emails were in Mr. Iannucci’s inbox prior to or immediately after the public records request was made?  Could he have some Inside information?
• Did Barbara Peterson and Representative Gaetz actually review the emails or were portions of the emails read to them?  Hopefully, since they both rendered an opinion quoted in the newspaper, they at least read the emails prior to making a public statement to the media.  And were they commenting on the legally obtained emails through the public information request or the emails obtained illegally from the City computer?
• Funny how when presented with Mr. Zethmayr’s evidence, the State Attorney’s Office stated that it was going to be a lengthy investigation requiring a substantial amount of time as stated by Mr. Marcille.  Why would it require them so much time when Cal, Jerry, Ken and Tom have already rendered their verdict of guilty?

Backtracking:
Did you see the post by Ken Nielsen on the City of Crestview facebook page which said, “Please come and support one of the best councils this city has had in many years as they go through a difficult learning experience.”  Pretty bold for the man behind the camera while his buddies repeatedly accuse the City Council of criminal activity wouldn’t you think?

We have also heard that Milligan has resigned from the Historical Preservation Board, and that there has been a lot of backpedalling as the council members have been obtaining legal counsel.  We smell some potential lawsuits coming in the future.

And a special note to the “Good Old Boy Radio Guy”:  Thank you for your email, but just to let you know we have never “hacked” any computer.  This is just another one of your many unfounded allegations against anyone who doesn’t agree with you.  And, again in your email you state, “Interestingly Ben Iannucci deleted almost 200 emails from his inbox between September 1, 2011 and September 14, 2011 when his email files were provided to us by the Deputy City Clerk.”  We are so very curious just how you, a radio guy, know of any emails being deleted.  Did you already have the emails, did you have access to the City’s computer, or was a City employee providing you with information?  Please feel free to respond to any inquiry in our public forum.

Well, we know this has been a lengthy edition, but so much has happened over the past week, we just wanted to keep everyone informed.  Very little news is reported by our local media outlets unless it is some sensationally manufactured news story.  They hit people without any accountability and then they are gone without any follow-up or additional information.

And Remember:  You can show your support for the Crestview City Council by showing up at the Meeting tonight and giving your support, and by contacting the advertisers of these media outlets and letting them know you do not approve of their tactics and attacks.  You, the citizens of Crestview, are the only ones with any power to make positive changes.

Gaming the System

In today’s edition we would like to continue our discussions concerning the local media expose’ of the Crestview City Council’s emails.  We have listened to the reading of the emails, the extensive commentary, and the continual accusations posed by the radio station and video blogger.  But, let’s take a analytical look at the actual emails in question:

Episode One, entitled: Introduction to Florida Sunshine Law Florida Public Records Law

This episode is far from an introduction.  It contains approximately 19 minutes of rambling, self promotion, video footage of a public records request being “served” at City Hall and a generalized attempt at sensationalism.  This by the way was an EPIC FAIL!

After 20 minutes of mind numbing banter, the esteemed narrators made it to an actual email.  This email was sent by Mr. Baugh to council members concerning an email sent to him By Mr. Steele.  Mr. Baugh was advising members that the CH2M Hill task 1 had a cost of $20,000.  The narrators attempted to make this email seem cloaked in secrecy; however, the email was also sent to Mayor Cadle, the City Clerk and Finance Director, which was omitted by the narrators (makes it less juicy).  Then there was some big hullabaloo over the Mayor calling a special meeting which was sent to all elected officials and department heads it seems.  Our question is what is the big deal over this?  Then there was an exchange which seems to be an attempt to get clarification concerning an invoice and how Taxpayer money was spent.  Mr. Iannucci advised all about the Sunshine Law and the need to further discuss in a public forum and that statement is being used against him by these to non-attorney/non-judge self appointed “Trier’s of Fact”.  It seems to us that this was just a well thought out statement reminding others of the law.  A question to our readers, where in this exchange is there any discussion about how a particular member is going to vote?  As taxpayers, we are glad they are being responsible with our money.

Episode Two, entitled: Council Email Discussing the Utilities Audit

After another four minutes of commentary and accusations the same two narrators began to discuss and email sent by Mr. Iannucci.  It seems the narrators have issue with Mr. Iannucci telling other elected officials that the City needs to remove itself from the forensic audit of the utility funds and make sure it is done correctly.  Wow, we definitely need to string him up for that email.  We certainly wouldn’t want the City to do the right thing.  The real problem is he used a term that these people are unfamiliar with, the term INTEGRITY.  After that email discussion the narrators went off on another two and a half minute editorial moment about who reads their emails.  This again was entirely meant to degrade the City Council.

Episode Three, entitled: Council Email Discussing the RFP for Banking Services

The narrators pretty much went to the point of the emails in question.  The big issue here seems to be emails concerning the City’s banking where the council members were attempting to determine if they had properly provided all banks an even playing field.  It seems from the email that all members of the council had the City’s financial interest in mind.  This of course is what we the taxpayers expect from our elected officials.

They then move on to discussions where allegedly some former city Officials, former city employees and current city employees brought information to them from saved emails.  This discussion takes place prior to the discussion about the Atzberger property.  We are wondering if these crack pot investigators obtained those emails sent by the “former City Officials”.  Leads you to believe maybe this has been going on since before this council took office.

They then discussed the property and costs associated with the City taking the property where two council members told the Police Chief to move forward with the property.  A thank you letter from Carlos Jones was discussed, but we are not sure how that was brought into this because the Council had already taken action.  There were short comments about bricks on Main Street and the cost savings by purchasing Police Vehicles that were last year’s models.  Some pretty serious issues, NOT.

Episode Four, entitled: Reading and Commentary on Emails Discussing Five City Employees

This episode begins with another six minutes of drivel which has been beat to absolute death by the narrators, more accusations, more degrading comments.  They then spend about five additional minutes discussing an email about employees of which the City council has no authority over, so that is a very dead point.  The council can’t take action so why is it an issue?  They then use their tremendous knowledge about how email works to spend another five minutes or so discussing BCC (blind carbon copy).  Frankly, we became so bored that we really didn’t do that much analyzing in this area.  One member of our consortium actually began to snore while the video was playing.

Things did perk up a little when the narrators discussed and provided a document from Mr. Baugh concerning a possible breech in the City’s email system.  Apparently, Mr. Baugh suspects that his email account was hacked and he has some pretty interesting evidence to support this potentially illegal activity.  Seems the media already had his emails and the public records request was just “cyr” (cover your rear).  Seems pretty suspicious since the current IT dude didn’t get the contract for the City for the next year.

What does all this mean?

In a lot of business practices there is a term called Gaming the System.  Gaming the system, also called “rules lawyering”, is the following of the letter (sometimes referred to as RaW or Rules as Written)—over, or contrary to—the spirit (sometimes referred to as RaI or Rules as Intended) of the law. It is used negatively to describe the act of manipulating the rules to achieve a personal advantage. It may also mean acting in an antisocial, irritating manner while technically staying within the bounds of the rules.

This basically is what these “reporters” have done.  Have there been ANY breeches of the Sunshine Law?  Maybe or Maybe Not!  Did these individuals use their influence, media outlets and credentials to degrade the City Council?  Certainly!  They repeatedly state that laws have been broken, council members violated the law and recite the punishments.  However, is not true that in the United States of America a person is innocent until proven guilty?  Even on COPS they state something to the effect of all suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.  These three people have declared themselves prosecutor, judge and jury.

But, every video presented begins with a disclaimer which states they can’t guarantee the accuracy.  This, our readers, is outrageous and we would encourage everyone to let their voice be heard on this issue and rest assured, THEY ARE WATCHING US!

Send us your thoughts and remember their business depends on advertisers and the advertisers depend on YOUR BUSINESS!

Jerry, Ken and Cal and the “Email Hanky Panky”

Well it seems that Jerry Milligan, Cal Zethmyar and Ken Nielsen have decided that they can use their media privileges to publicly make allegations against all members of the Crestview City Council.  They have produced a series of videos and radio stories alleging that the City Council members have violated the Sunshine Laws of the State of Florida.  However, they apparently are concerned about future legal actions by the members under attack because they felt the need to post this disclaimer on every video and social network entry:

THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS OF THIS VIDEO PRESENTATION ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS OF CRESTVIEW COMMUNITY TELEVISION, IT’S OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, PRODUCERS, VIDEO CREWS OR ADVERTIZERS. CRESTVIEW COMMUNITY TELEVISION CAN NOT GAURANTEE THE ACCURACY OF THIS PRESENTATIONS MATERIAL CONTENT OR LEGAL OPINIONS AND DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL RESPONSIBILTY FOR ANY LOSS, INJURY, DAMAGE OR EXPENSE DIRECTLY ARISING FROM THE USE OR RELIANCE ON THIS PRESENTATIONS MATERIAL CONTENT OR LEGAL, OPINIONS.

Now, this is pretty interesting that the Video is not necessarily the views and opinions of their Video Blog; however, if you check out Corporate Wiki you will find that the officers of Crestview Community Television are Ken Nielsen (the person running the camera during the interviews) and Cal Zethmyar (the person on the camera with Jerry Milligan) telling all the viewers that the City Council broke the law.  But, it is not necessarily their opinion.  And, they cannot guarantee the accuracy of the content.  What, you people are producing radio programs and video footage, but you are not sure of the accuracy.  Further, when you are the one shooting the video footage, or are the one in the video making the allegations of criminal activity, how can you remove yourself from the responsibility for any loss, damage, injury, etc.  Nice try guys.

To further compound the politically motivated attack on the City Council members, we have received an email which was sent out to media contacts, government officials, and businesses advertising their videos and radio programs.  Here is the email so that you may read it and make your own opinion as to responsibility:

From: Cal Zethmayr <calz-waaz-wjsb@cox.net>
Sent: Sun Sep 18 12:34:06 2011
Subject: Email scandal at Crestview City Hall

Hopefully you listened to the special Z FILES radio program yesterday at 7:06am on WAAZ-FM 104.7 and WJSB-AM 1050 where we discussed the EMAIL SCANDAL AT CRESTVIEW CITY HALL and you heard about Governor Scott removing FIVE city commissioners from office in Wachula, and about the $2,000,000.++ lawsuit because of illegal emails in Venice, Florida.

 As promised yesterday… we will broadcast a SPECIAL EDITION Z FILES starting at 4:06pm TODAY on WAAZ-FM 104.7.

 AND you can log onto www.wcvctv.com later today and see this same program and see the emails on the screen. It will be on the LOCAL channel.  Just look for the Z FILES logo, and click on it to watch.

 If you got this message after the Sunday radio broadcast and/or missed hearing it on WAAZ-FM 104.7 or if you live more than 75 miles from Crestview… you won’t be able to hear our 100,000 watt signal… BUT you can watch the program anytime you want at www.wcvctv.com

 You might want to expand the picture to full screen to see the details on each email.

 I invited former Crestview Mayor and Radio Station WCNU owner/newsman Jerry Milligan to join me on this program.

 You will hear us read many many examples of VIOLATIONS OF THE FLORIDA SUNSHINE LAWS.   We now have over 2500 emails for council members Berezo, Grandberry, Helt and Iannucci.  These were given to us by Deputy City Clerk Pattie Beebe as a result of the Freedom of Information request that Tom McLaughlin of the NWFlorida Daily News, Ken Nielsen of www.wcvctv.com and I filed with the city on August 31, 2011.

 Although that request was made over three weeks ago…council member Charles Baugh has refused to allow Ms. Beebe to release his email files to.   BUT we do have copies of some of his BCC type emails that he sends to council members and we will discuss them this afternoon. And we have copies of emails that he sent to other council members that violate the Florida Sunshine In Government Laws.

 There are serious penalties for violation of the Sunshine Laws, including fines, jail sentences, impeachment and removal from office.  We will discuss these penalties during this afternoon’s program.  There are additional penalties for deleting public records, and the Florida Attorney General’s office has rules that all forms of electronic communications that deal with city business are public records.  There are more penalties for deleting any of the emails requested by our FOI request…they must not be touched during the 30 days from the date the request was filed.

 PLEASE PASS THIS PROGRAM REMINDER ALONG TO ANYONE YOU KNOW THAT LIVES IN CRESTVIEW.

 After you listen to this afternoon’s program…   if you have any comments.. please feel free to reply to me at this email address.
or you can fax your comments to me at 850-682-5232

 Cordially

 Cal Zethmayr
The Z FILES
Community Information Programming
WAAZ-FM 104.7  100,000 Watts
WJSB-AM 1050  5,000 Watts
57 years of LOCAL news for:
Crestview-Ft. Walton Beach-Pensacola
Northwest Florida & South Alabama’

Is this a personal attack, a political agenda stemming from the thrashing that the Council incumbents took in the last election or is it just an attack on the Council based on different political views?  It sure seems like some kind of attack; because, if these individuals were truly concerned about illegal activity, they would have turned their “evidence” over to authorities for investigation and if founded prosecution of violators.  But, then they would have lost their audience and the sensationalism would not have had as big an impact.  This group is very good at spreading sensational headlines, but when the facts are uncovered, there is never any follow-up.

Well, that is our report for the night.  We are still dissecting the videos to see exactly how much damage may have been done and what other information we can report.  Remember, if you have information concerning this story, get in contact with us.  Be looking out for our next post.

Oh, and we thought that when Milligan and Zethmayer referred to the City of Crestview as “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “Deliverance” and had a big on camera chuckle about, well that was just tasteless.  But, it did show how they really feel about our City and our City leaders.

Media Questions City Council’s Integrity?

We recently recieved an email from a reader who is inquiring about something “going on” between some of our local “Media Moguls” and the City of Crestview.  We haven’t heard a lot about this but hopefully some of our INFORMED readers can shed some light on the situation.  Here is the email we received:

Please look into the Cal Z, Jerry M, Linda P,Bill P and Ellis C’s efforts to destroy the City Council, especially Mr. Baugh’s integrity and reputation and the fact that these folks have stollen emails and purloined documents from Councilmen Baugh’s document file all before their “official” public records request.  Cal keeps telling everyone Mr. Baugh is going to jail and has not come up with proof only innuendos and supposition.  He’s doing everything he  can  to destroy this man all because he (Mr Baugh) is hold the Historic Preservation Committee and Main Street Assc accountable.  this is serious.  Mr. Z its a felony to hack a govt computer for info…

If anyone has any additional information about this situation please comment or send us an email.   This has been the second request for us to publish the questionable actions by our local media.  Apparently, there is a battle brewing.

Next Election, Baker May Have Some Poop to Talk About

We bet Baker has something to say about how much their elected officials helped them out when Human Waste was dumped in their backyards.  We wonder how many Votes Greg Evers picked up by turning his back on the voters.  How about those County Commissioners, they really stepped up to the plate.  Did any of the Commissioners even contact these citizens?  We have posted pictures of the waste sitting on the ground with various “materials” still present on top of the ground, but this must be acceptable.  Today it is Baker Residents, but it could be you next.  The next Crook Creek Farms dump site could be in Crestview, North Okaloosa County, Walton County, Holt or next door to your house.  You may want to open your eyes and your ears to what your elected officials are allowing to happen.  You may want to ask some questions and get some real answers.  You better wake up and hold YOUR elected officials accountable; because if you let them, they will allow Crap to be dumped in Your Yard!

Photographs of Baker Sewage Dumping

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