Today's Letters: Commissioners watch out for us

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published June 26, 2007

A misguided courtesy leads to faulty governing June 21 editorial

This editorial continues your misguided attacks on the Pasco County commissioners. Pasco has had, and continues to have, severe problems dealing with land development. But the County Commission is not the problem. Your editorial writer would have done better to focus on the process, rather than the people.

The combination of a timid county attorney, a compliant Development Review Committee and a loosely written land development code has repeatedly led to the threat of legal challenge in any situation where developers do not get everything they request. The elected county commissioners remain the last appeal for an aggrieved citizenry for whom 30-day notice is the only courtesy offered before decisions severely affecting their quality of life are rendered.

I find your editorial position strangely at odds with the principles of representative democracy that are the basis of "consent of the governed." In the three minutes allowed to argue face-to-face with the commissioners against a well-funded developer armed with a hired-gun lawyer, the citizens who live along Denton Avenue must have made a powerful case to preserve their neighborhood. It is an established - if somewhat folksy-rendered - principle of equity that the right to swing your arm stops well short of your neighbor's chin. An incompatible development is an egregious violation of that principle.

As the representative of all of the citizens of the county, our commissioners must be free to decide, for so long it pleases the voters to keep them in office, what is in the best interest of all residents of the county. So please focus your attention on the real problems in land development in Pasco County, and applaud our commissioners when they act in the public interest, rather that slavishly following the narrow dictates of weakly written guidelines and reacting to the blustering threats of slick out-of-town lawyers.

Mac Davis, Aripeka

Mariano's actions could cost us all 

A misguided courtesy leads to faulty governing June 21 editorial

The Times editorial detailing a common but unwise practice of county commissioners acquiescing to a resident county commissioner's preference for his or her district is well-taken, but fails to expand on a very important point: The enormous potential consequences that Commissioner Jack Mariano's actions could have for taxpayers.

The court's strongly worded opinion characterizes Mariano's actions as whims followed by an $8.9-million damage request is just the tip of the iceberg. In several projects I have been involved with regarding property located in Mariano's district, I have seen firsthand how Mariano's actions ignoring the law continue to expose our county to unspeakable potential litigation. Some examples:

-Refusing to allow a rezoning application in Timber Oaks to come to a public hearing more than two years later (a due process violation).

-Refusing to allow cost reimbursement to re-engineer the Leisure Beach town home project after the Development Review Committee approved it and the county refused to issue a site development permit more than a year later.

-Ignoring zoning laws in a rezone petition on Kitten Trail for 16 single-family lots where up to 57 were potentially allowable based on the county's future land use map.

Even though the county attorney's office concedes exposure exists as a result of Mariano's actions, its hands are tied when the issue gets to the dais and its recommendations are summarily dismissed by Mariano.

Many of these offenses have yet to play themselves out in court and could take years to resolve. Several offenses may even rise to the federal level. With nowhere else to turn to seek redress and fairness in court, Mariano's actions could potentially harm taxpayers by costing them million in unnecessary attorney's fees, court costs, judgments and valuable staff resources in years to come.

It is little wonder Mariano has already opened a campaign account so early in the 2008 election cycle. He will definitely need all the help he can get trying to get re-elected.

Constantine Kalogianis, New Port Richey

So much for neighborliness

I have been a resident of Pasco County since 1973. I have always loved this place. You would think with progress that Pasco would be a much better place to live then it was back in 1973. Whatever happened to neighbor helping neighbor? Homeowners associations are destroying this.

On the night of June 20, I was eating dinner in my home in the association-run community of Riverchase. This is a two-street community that anywhere else, everyone would know everyone. I smelled smoke but could not find where it was coming from. I then decided to look into my garage and I walked into a garage filled with black smoke. You could not see 2 inches in front of your eyes it was so thick. I immediately opened the large garage door to let the smoke out. I thought I was going to die from smoke inhalation.

As the smoke was leaving the confines of the garage, my neighbor pulled up and said nothing. Not even, "Are you okay?" Or, "Is there anyone else in the house?" People were walking their pets and said nothing even though I was coughing so bad I thought my lungs would explode. One gentleman asked if everything was okay. I replied, "My house is burning down, " and he kept walking. Not one person called the Fire Department, not one person came to help, not one person in this community of Riverchase could have cared less if my kids were inside dead from smoke inhalation.

This is what the homeowners association and others like Riverchase has done. They turned neighbor against neighbor. I am sorry, but the people of this association have put so much fear into people that they could care less if their neighbors are dying. Thank you, Riverchase homeowners. Thank you, Pasco County. I hope something like this never happens anywhere else.

Joe Everhart, New Port Richey

Zeal shouldn't hurt innocent 

Re: Tallie Gainer III case

I am moved to want to do something positive as quickly as possible to help Mr. Gainer. At the same time, I am moved to raise an alarm about the apparent increase of prosecutorial misconduct, and the law enforcement and criminal justice system incompetency, zealousness or just plain apathy.

This is not just a local problem, but national as well. Too often it is after the fact, such as the Gainer case, the recent Nifong case involving the three Duke University lacrosse players or the falsely accused security guard in a bombing case many years ago. Prevention ensures the well-being and safety of the innocent. How many wrongly convicted people are there as proved by the development of DNA testing? How many have been forced to waste their lives in a jail cell because of an inept or overzealous system?

I remember learning in high school that it was better to let 10 guilty go free than to convict one innocent being! Maybe not 10 or maybe 100. The number is not as important as the innocent being wrongly accused and prosecuted!

First, I would ask if any organization has been set up for the aid of Mr. Gainer to both help to restore his financial situation as well as help him seek redress for the wrong apparently done to him by the Pasco County legal system? I would like to make a contribution to help.

Second, you have a distinct advantage in taking on a journalistic project that, hopefully, could spearhead a drive to get members of a bureaucracy to be more thoughtful and cautious in carrying out their responsibilities.

Perhaps there should be a national code of ethics, a checklist if you will, that law enforcement officials use before bringing charges. Their job is not easy, it certainly is not on the overpaid list, and it is occupied by many, if not a majority, of well-meaning and competent personnel. But there has to be a way to prevent or at least severely limit the kind of injustice (for whatever reason) you have so articulately described in your article.

Alan M. Shefter, Boca Raton

Applaud GOP for promised tax cut

Unfortunately, it's unusual to read stories about politicians keeping their word and delivering for their constituents. But Gov. Charlie Crist, Senate president Ken Pruitt, and Speaker Mario Rubio here in Florida have done just that. They followed through on their promise to cut our property taxes. They also gave homeowners an option to keep Save Our Homes.

Under Gov. Crist and the Republican leadership, the Florida Legislature just passed the single largest tax cut in Florida's history, and it is making local governments live within their means, like the rest of us. As a homeowner, I'm happy to hear that government budgets will not grow faster than family budgets.

Now if we could just get the federal government to follow Florida's lead.

Bill Bunting, chairman Republican Party of Pasco Bayonet Point

Don't ignore parent's red flags

An incident happened in the city of New Port Richey in which a 25-year-old mother (so-called) is accused of stabbing her own 3-year-old child. That mother must have known about her actions. Please, let us stop the blame game toward medication, etc. At that age, she should have known better.

The question would be, why did she bring a child into the world in the first place? Whose fault was that? Blame the child?

I also wonder, if this kind of individual gets custody, shouldn't she be evaluated from early warnings on her medical record? Is this what is so-called best for the child? The red flag is being raised every day. Our social culture will be destroyed.

Armenak Sarkissian, New Port Richey

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[Last modified June 25, 2007, 22:42:41]