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Re: Arrests are great, but sheriff's cameras still feel like face invasion, Sept. 16.
While Howard Troxler vilifies Pinellas sheriff's deputies for using the face recognition software program in their patrol cars, I firmly believe every law enforcement patrol car in America should be equipped with this program utilizing a national database. Fugitives routinely use aliases and fake IDs to elude capture.
If Tampa police cars had had the face recognition equipment in 1998, Detectives Randy Bell and Ricky Childers and Florida Highway Patrol Trooper James Crooks would still be alive.
The face recognition program has the potential to become one of the most important law enforcement tools officers can carry in their cars. It can save officers' lives, apprehend serial rapists or another Hank Earl Carr or Ted Bundy, and rescue kidnapped children like Elizabeth Smart.
So go ahead, Mr. Troxler, stick out your tongue and cross your eyes at the camera; it's the perfect pose for a "me" generation journalist.
Re: Candidates in the debates.
Americans are being deprived of meaningful political discourse because George Bush and John Kerry are too much alike. Besides being Skull and Bones members, they are both big-government establishment politicians. Bush and Kerry share a fondness for the same sort of policies. Kerry did not oppose Bush's Iraq war, Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind, or prescription drug benefit plan. The debates will be little more than a showcase for the rhetorical performances of Bush and Kerry. Of course, they will present a plethora of promises and programs to be paid for by us.
Voters are short-changed when debate is reduced to partisan platitudes. Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik (www.badnarik.org) will not be at the debates. Despite achieving ballot access in most states and a Rasmussen poll showing 68 percent in favor of including Badnarik in the debates, he will be excluded. Are the Bonesmen afraid of Badnarik?
Re: Bush likely to bow out of one debate, Sept. 8.
I think the debates are very important. This is the only time the candidates are side by side and the people have the opportunity to hear the differences between George W. Bush and John Kerry.
Is Bush afraid to debate the real issues in our country that affect our daily lives? Considering the importance of the position of president, we, the people, are entitled to and should demand the three debates be held.
On Aug. 22 the Times ran an editorial, Innocence lost, regarding Wilton Dedge. On Sept. 9 Howard Troxler's column was County takes inspection fees, but not responsibility. The two articles demonstrate a recurrent theme when dealing with bureaucrats, lawyers in particular.
Dedge was innocent and Brevard County prosecutors Robert Wayne Holmes and Assistant Attorney General Bonnie Jean Parrish argued before Florida courts that regardless of the result, Dedge should remain in prison whether he did the crime or not.
In the Pinellas case, County Attorney Susan Churuti was asked by Troxler if the inspection process doesn't mean anything, even after the government collects millions of dollars in the form of permits and inspection fees, then why do it? She laughed and said, "I guess the answer is, for the public good."
The essence of the article was that the county collects all these fees to ensure that construction work and materials meet code but cannot be sued if the inspectors are inept and the building becomes defective as a result.
In both cases, no one is liable or willing to take responsibility. No heads roll, there are no investigations, no repercussions. The taxpayer continues to pay and the victims - Wilton Dedge and the residents of Nature's Watch - have no recourse. In Dedge's case it cost him 22 years of his life. And the Nature's Watch residents are being solicited for $92,000 each. I am speechless!
Re: County takes inspection fees, but not responsibility.
It's about time someone sued about inspection fees. Pinellas County won its case by saying it's not promising anything to the public when it inspects a construction site. If that is so, then why do you have to pay an inspection fee and have a permit?
We lived in Pinellas County for 38 years and during that time remodeled a bathroom, which required a permit and inspection fee. The inspector never showed up, and we removed the permit from the front of our house after three months.
At another time, we had a new roof put on our house. Again we had to have a permit and pay an inspection fee. The inspector finally showed up about three months after the roof was installed. He didn't have a ladder with him; we had to furnish that so he could inspect the roof. And he was more interested in the plants and fruit trees in our yard than he was in the roof.
Several years later, a leak developed in our bathroom - the same one we'd had remodeled. We couldn't find the leak and called a plumber. He checked everything and could not find a leak. He was sure it was coming from the vent pipe on the roof above the bathroom. We finally got the company that installed the roof to send an inspector, and lo and behold he found that the shield around the vent pipe had been put on upside down - that was the cause of the leak. They came and made the repairs without any cost to us. However, had the inspector done his job when he should have, before the shingles were installed instead of three months after the job was completed, we wouldn't have had to pay a plumber for no reason and could have avoided all the hassle.
If the county's inspectors are not going to be held responsible, then the public should not have to pay an inspection fee. They can't have it both ways, government or not!
Re: County takes inspection fees, but not responsibility.
Howard Troxler makes a number of very good points in his article regarding the Nature's Watch townhomes and the fact that Pinellas County is assuming no responsibility for construction defects, having reviewed plans and performed inspections for that project.
Having experienced similar situations in Miami-Dade County after Hurricane Andrew, I feel badly for the residents of the development and hope they ultimately have legal recourse to those primarily responsible for the defective work, namely the contractors and designers, if in fact any of the flaws are related to inadequate construction plans.
While it appears to me that some employees of the building department may be subjected to discipline if still employed there, the statutes and the building code clearly make the design professional responsible to produce a code-compliant set of plans and specifications, and the contractor responsible for building in accordance with those plans, once approved and permitted. If the Legislature ever moves to shift that burden of responsibility, building permits will become much more expensive to reflect the additional time spent by building department staff during plan review and inspection.
While not popular in the state of Florida, some jurisdictions require contractors to post compliance bonds as part of the permitting process so that local governments have recourse when situations like the one at Nature's Watch occur. Many governmental units have found themselves as helpless as homeowners in situations where latent defects are found to be extensive, and they cannot compel compliance through the courts where contractors have the distinct advantage. If Pinellas County were to require compliance bonds on major projects, those contractors whose bonding companies were frequently called would eventually have to find work elsewhere.
Re: We need leadership, letter, Sept. 11.
I am impressed with the state, federal and local response to the hurricanes that have hit Florida this year. Certainly everyone learned from Hurricane Andrew, and those lessons have changed the face of response. I only wish the general public had learned those lessons as well as government and relief agencies.
The governor is the leader, the one who sets the pace, direction and morale of both the helping staff, agencies and the affected people. To do this he needs to assure people that he is listening and seeing the problems they are facing. There is no more certain way to assess accurately than to visit and see firsthand. While it may appear to be PR, it works to boost morale - and boy, do we need that!
Re: What's not to like? Sept. 13.
As I celebrate the conclusion of my third year here in paradise, I get a personal chuckle from the article regarding the alluring Dakotas. During my career working for a major car manufacturer, I lived in eight different states, and my second assignment covered all of North Dakota, two thirds of Montana, and the upper half of South Dakota. I was "stationed" in Bismarck, and it was one of the most enjoyable places I ever lived.
There are some points you and all the press miss. First, that country is a lot more Western in ambience than it is Northern. Besides wheat and sunflowers, there is a lot of cattle, buffalo, wild horses and cowboys. There is even cactus. In five winters I never missed one day due to snow.
The photo on the front of the Floridian section looks terrible, but with a 30-inch snow blower that entire drive would be cleaned in less than one hour. There is no humidity, so I did not wear an overcoat outside unless it was zero or below. I have frozen in St. Louis, New Orleans, Chicago and Detroit when it was 35 with high humidity. In the Dakotas, it was usually so cold and without humidity we had no trouble driving 80 mph in the snow, as it almost always blew off the road surface.
The people were fantastic - mostly Scandinavians or Native Americans. The nearest town of significance to Bismarck was Minot - 117 miles north. Fargo was 200 miles to the east and it was not unusual to go there and back in one evening for a dinner or social engagement. People in Fargo, Grand Forks, Bismarck, and Minot knew each other the way we know people in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Sarasota.
Teddy Roosevelt visited Medora, N.D., often and said, "If it weren't for the time I spent in North Dakota, I don't think I could have been the president." I'm not too sure what he meant by that, so I retired here and am very happy.
Re: What's not to like?
Seeing the Sept. 13 picture of the blizzard in South Dakota was reminiscent of my younger days in Nebraska. Those days when prodigious blizzards hit are not pleasant memories. I'll take my chances with a Florida hurricane any day.
We can survive in Florida without heat or air conditioning, but a person cannot survive a blizzard without heat.
My older siblings told me that I almost froze to death in 1931 when our family was caught in a blizzard traveling in an unheated car.
I left Nebraska in 1952 without regrets.
I read the recent letters about the electric utilities not trimming trees and I, for one, would like to thank Progress Energy for trimming the trees in my neighborhood. A few months ago, I came home in midafternoon from work and found at least 30 large trucks around one quadrant of Woodlawn Circle. It startled me with so many workers with saws and bucket trucks and chipping machinery. They were trimming lines in our neighborhood of homes, many of which were built in the 1940s or earlier. And some of these homes, like mine, have "creative" wiring from the poles to their houses.
I'm grateful they trimmed, as we were a neighborhood with no power outage during the recent storm, although our streets were lined with broken tree limbs and debris. Had they not trimmed near wires, I'm sure we would not have been so lucky.
High fives to Progress Energy for trimming my neighborhood and for the work they've done restoring power as quickly as possible to other areas. I am grateful and pray for those less fortunate.
I was one of those unfortunate people who were without electricity for several days during Hurricane Frances. It's a given that the power outage was uncomfortable considering that electricity in today's world is more then just a luxury. It is only natural to expect people to get emotionally and physically stressed when the power is shut off.
This stress was compounded, however, by the lack of communication from our power company. I should mention that this has nothing to do with the linemen who, as always, did a wonderful job.
My concern is with the company executives. Considering that these hurricanes threaten us each year, it is mind-boggling that our power company still does not have a contingency plan to communicate with the public and keep the people informed as to the status of the power outages in particular neighborhoods. Calling up and getting a phone recording is just not good customer service. Each month I pay this company a fair amount of money and so when the service fails, I would like a little more respect.
Re: Charley offers lessons in real estate marketing, Sept. 12.
Sue Lackey, the Prudential real estate agent who referred to me, a real estate investor, as a "whore," infuriated me, but saddened me even more. I have attempted to educate the "uneducated" real estate professionals for five years, yet ignorance like hers still abounds in the industry. Would this woman call Donald Trump or Arnold Schwarzenegger a "whore"? These men made their fortunes in real estate. It's the American dream and the American way. People expect to get paid for what they do.
If a house is distressed and a person wants out of it to avoid the hassle of rebuilding, the investor has a right to make a profit on it. We, the investors, save people from foreclosure, save their credit, and make their lives easier, and we make a profit doing so. I imagine that Sue Lackey expects to get paid her commission for listing and selling the house, so why are we "whores" for expecting to make money doing what we do, taking problem properties off of people's hands?
In your Sept. 15 editorial When to close schools, you missed the real question of when the school year should start. With the world's scientists telling us that there is global warming, severe tropical storms could be the norm and not the exception. Since the various county school systems are starting early in August to provide time to teach for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, it would seem logical to schedule the test later in the year and to start school later.
We should be writing and calling our state legislators to get this done. This would cut down on the number of times education is interrupted and permit people to evacuate in a safe manner. Our family lives in an A evacuation zone and when school was closed on Monday, we were caught between whether to evacuate or whether there would be school.
The picture on the Thursday front page with the story about Hurricane Ivan indicates to me that the editors have forgotten what responsible journalism is all about and prefer the sensationalism of grocery store tabloids.
Emergency management personnel continually stress the need to exercise caution and good judgment, to avoid beaches and water, remain indoors, etc., when there is any type of severe weather, particularly a hurricane.
But for the second time this hurricane season, you have seen fit to print a picture countering those cautions. Oh, you set such a fine example.