Monday, January 1, 2018

PAC Money, Dark Money in Sarasota FL

Astonishing half-hour talk by Cathy Antunes tracking the flow of large sums through interlinked PACs in Sarasota County, FL

Cathy Antunes on Dark Money in Sarasota Politics - anonymous PACs whose sole function is to funnel money into the campaigns of politicians who serve the interests of developers, builders, contractors. Antunes explores the relation of their interests to Charter Schools who spend 40% of their revenues on rent paid to real estate groups from whom they lease their school buildings.

At the center lies Eric Robinson, whose accounting firm channels money at the behest of big donors like Pat Neal, James Gabbert (waste plant at Celery Fields), Rex Jensen (Lakewood Ranch), Gary Kompothecras (Siesta Key), Benderson Development and Carlos Beruff. It also earns rather hefty fees for its "consulting" work, notes Antunes.

The money flows from these developers to PACs run by an elected official (Robinson is on the Sarasota County School Board) to Republican political campaigns. A former head of the Republican Party in Sarasota, Bob Waechter, is active in finding malleable candidates for the County Commission, School Board, Hospital Board, Charter Review Board and other races.





2 comments:

  1. Sarasota County voted unanimously this Wednesday 25th April,to allow Neal to change Ibis Street road status from local to interconnect, so that it helps him with his main goal of pushing through this action to change the zoning on Grand Lakes from 300 to 1100 homes, whilst potentially pocketing $5M in impact fees. Only problem is that the 'through' road they approved will take 20 years to build and is not funded, or even up for funding! End result means grid lock as all the traffic will flow down our road until then,and even then 80% traffic will still flow North down Ibis Street. A road that is already overtaxed at the connection point to Clark due to the Twin Lakes Park that hosts year round baseball/lacrosse/football/soccer and each year gets busier and busier. All entering the park on Ibis, not even the main Clark Road entrance, as that makes way more sense to send traffic down smaller side roads, than have them feed off main roads!
    Neal is not a Sarasota resident, nor does he live in this neighborhood so how can this action be allowed to be brought privately? Apparently it was because it was already in the future plans of the Sarasota Planning Department and they asked him due to lack of funding (sure!!! We all believe this!),but realistically by doing so it meant less public interference to be able to fight it. Commissioners corrupt? I can't say, but residents fought this as much as we could, suggested better alternatives since Ibis would need extensive ROW changes (which were not even considered) and suggested that if the goal of Sarasota Commissioners was to ease congestion, that wouldn't it make sense to add roads through undeveloped land, rather than change road status to benefit Mr. Neal? Or at least change the road status it when the road is actually broken through to Venice?
    To me it seems unethical and honestly should be illegal for commissioners to patently ignore their electors in favor of developers. Conflict of interest is rampant if they receive campaign contributions or worked for companies that are referenced in the cases. Mr Maio for example should not be allowed to take part. His voice should be mute as he worked for Kimbley Horn and was paid large amounts of $ by Neal to get him into office. Maio is supposed to be our district representative (4) but not one intelligent counter question came from him, and the last meeting he sat and played on his laptop most the time. My money is on Maio, ignoring his electors and backing Mr Neal's next request (real reason for road change) and allowing him to change the zoning to increase number of homes Neal builds on his land from 300 to 1100. He will say it is a success as he will get low income housing, but the reality is that the roads can't take this increase in traffic and he has a strong relationship with Neal. It would be so refreshing to hear the logical response to Neal - yes you can increase to 1100 once the interconnect road you just won is complete,and you build a back road to your development to allow for traffic control , keeping it open for benefit of the existing local residents, ultimately providing a much needed east/west interconnect! I can bet Neal will have the interconnect built within one year as I am not doubting his abilities, nor is his character in question - you have to be ruthless to get what you want and be successful. It is the County and Commissioners that are in question.
    We are ultimately responsible for electing these board members in and when we voted them in, often based on party - not individual, so we made bad decisions. We all need to take accountability to know more about who affects us locally, not just nationally and vote on their bios not party affiliation. Often laziness when we go to vote (if even going), to spend our time doing research. That said, the board has responsibility FIRST to us and they need to be held responsible for their time in office. This board is destroying what makes Sarasota great and we can't undo it.

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  2. Here's an update from the Sarasota News Leader on this story, with some curious incidents during this hearing at which the Board approved Lorraine Rd. extending right to Mr. Neal's new doorstep.
    https://sarasotanewsleader.com/last-minute-plea-fails-to-halt-county-commission-plan-to-add-north-south-lorraine-road-connector-to-the-countys-future-thoroughfare-map/

    Another link:

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/193wiKa5uFn8cEWwsAxRe0ZZWd48-7L94cxcJOwirLOY/edit?usp=sharing

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