NY Times columnist Gail Collins delves into Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial slugfest today, including allegaitons about drunken orgies on candidate Jeff Greene’s 145-foot yacht. Says Collins, “Being the rich candidate is not without its burdens. For one, there’s the matter of that yacht, the Summerwind. Greene might see himself as an upstanding family man, but his yacht is bad, bad, bad. It’s an embarrassing, headline-making connection — the Levi Johnston of boats.”

Despite Greene’s denials that his boat, the Summerwind, is a floating rumpus room, she continues:

Clearly, the Summerwind has a life of its own, cruising around the globe, burning 50 gallons of fuel an hour, throwing orgies for B-list celebrities while Greene is home reading. It played host to Lindsay Lohan, who Greene claims he’s barely met. It took Mike Tyson on a Black Sea cruise that culminated in a drug-and-sex romp in Amsterdam, but Greene was only around for the part where they visited an 11th-century monastery in Ukraine.

To read the full story, click here.

St. Augustine activist Ed Slavin says a group of more than 18 city residents will join a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order against the St. Augustine City Commission.

The order will stop three commissioners from taking an all-expense paid trip to Spain later this month. Commissioners and three staffers plan to meet with Spanish dignitaries to seek their participation in the city’s 450th anniversary celebration. It is a violation of the state Sunshine Law for two or more elected officials to discuss city business without publicly noticing the meeting and holding it in a place that is easily accessible to the public. Slavin says meetings in Spain can’t possibly meet those requirements.

The commissioners and three staffers are to leave for Spain, I believe  on August 20. The group  hopes to file the lawsuit next week and to convince a judge to order the city crew to postpone the trip until the Sunshine issues can be heard. Slavin said he and several other residents met with Holland & Knight on Thursday, and the law firm has agreed to represent them.

In addition to stopping the trip to Spain, the residents also believe a contract approved unanimously by the City Commission on Monday violates the Sunshine Law. Commissioners voted to give $275,000 to a recently formed non-profit to manage the city’s 450th celebration. The main reason for turning over the party planning to a private entity is to circumvent the open meeting and open records laws. Compiling with the law would hamper planning and seeking sponsors. The tradeoff is oversight and accountability.

City Attorney Ron Brown explained to commissioners that the non-profit First America Foundation is exempt from the Sunshine Law because it isn’t performing a core function of city government, the city won’t exercise control over the Foundation’s plans and the Foundation’s bank won’t primarily be city-funded, although the first $275,000 certainly will be. But Brown says the celebration will cost millions. Slavin and the others want a judge to determine if the organization is indeed exempt. They think not, and they will ask the court to freeze a $275,000 lump sum payment the city is to pay to First America order a refund.

— Susan Cooper Eastman

Straight from the file containing “Songs that make you want to scrape your own ears off” comes this little ditty, courtesy of Mike Weinstein’s unbearbly white son, Scott Leigh. According to Daily Caller, the state Rep’s son “wrote, produced, choreographed and danced the lead in the music video.” The online publication observed, “the ad would easily fit into an advertisement break during an episode of ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ – when the show was still in its prime. And, to clarify, the video is not a parody.”

The item was picked up and furhter savaged by Gawker.com, which issued this caveat: 

Warning: If you watch this video, a campaign song about Florida State Rep. Mike Weinstein, you will be hearing “Mike! Mike! Mike Weinstein!” all day. It’s just thatcatchy.  

So true. Watch it at your peril.

– Posted by Anne Schindler

Former 7th Circuit District State Attorney John Tanner called Folio Weekly a short while ago to alert us to Circuit Court Judge Kim Hammond’s decision to unseal an incredibly damning final order regarding former State Attorney Harry Shorstein. 

Tanner and Shorstein have been at war for years, through court battles and grand jury investigations, and the fight continued even though both are now out of office. Tanner’s effort to get the judge’s order unsealed — which Shorstein fought — was facilitated by the fact that Shorstein’s successor (and bitter foe) Angela Corey chose not to fight Tanner’s motion to unseal. 

In brief, Hammond concluded (in August 2008) that Shorstein’s 2006 grand jury investigation into Tanner’s corruption probe of Flagler County police “unlawfully infringed upon the independence of the Duval County Grand Jury.” Hammond said Shorstein “tainted said grand jury with his self-admitted preconceived notions as to what his responsibilities were” and further accused the veteran former prosecutor of “selectively withholding evidence.”

Judge Hammond’s order orders that Shorstein’s 2006 Grand Jury Presentment on Tanner’s conduct be “expunged and repressed in its entirety.” That last bit means that we will never get to see Shorstein’s investigative findings, which were presumably very damaging to Tanner, since he spent some 1 million taxpayer dollars fighting their release.

It’s hard to imagine that the new information won’t affect Shorstein’s current bid to be named the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. Shorstein’s name was one of three passed to President Barack Obama, though he’s recently been the target of a behind the scenes fight to keep him from the job (a fight led in part by former Jackosnville Mayor John Delaney).

Look for more on this evolving soap opera in the coming days…

– Posted by Anne Schindler

See the pupils-disappearing pit bull about to snap off the head of an innocent black squirrel in the picture above? That’s supposed to be an illustration of one type of ethics commission. One with bite, presumably, and crazy-eyes.

Elected officials fear this type of ethics commissioner like a little black squirrel about to get its head bit off, Jacksonville Ethics Officer Carla Miller explained in an email to the Charter Review Commission on Wednesday. They fear an ethics group that is vicious and attacks good people, that has no judgement, that is indiscriminate, and out of control. Hmmm.

The Charter Review Commission may recommend changes that would free the Ethics Commission from the administration and give it more independence and power. Miller used two images to illustrate the ideal commission, one of a Australian shepherd herding elected officials — errrr, sheep — and another of a yellow labrador retriever, well known as the friendliest, most easygoing dog on earth. Both represent ethics commissions that nip if someone is out of line, protect if under attack, and fight back. Pictures make it so much easier to understand.

— by Susan Eastman

2010 Lincoln MKZ

In concert with Lincoln dealerships all over the U.S., North Florida Lincoln-Mercury will donate $20 to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure tonight (Oct. 15) each time someone test drives a car. The dealership at 4620 Southside Boulevard in Jacksonville will be featuring test drives in its new 2010 Lincoln MKT and MKZ. The company will also demonstrate Ford’s new hands-free parallel parking technology and SYNC, a turn-by-turn voice-activated direction system. The event, with door prizes and drawings, lasts from 6:30-8:30 p.m. For more information, call 904-642-4100.

— Susan Eastman

Don’t know who Ander Crenshaw is? You’re not alone. Despite being the 5th-term Congressman serving Florida’s 4th District, and having previously served stints in the Florida House and Senate, he remains as invisible and politically irrelevant as he was in his days as an investment banker.

According to a piece in Roll Call, the newspaper of the Hill, Crenshaw is a member of the Obscure Caucus — a group whose members are most easily identified by C-SPAN’s inability to identify them quickly. The story explains that during a recent speech on the House floor, Crenshaw was initially mis-identified as freshman Rep. Michael Mahon (D-N.Y.). The piece continues:

The network quickly pulled that down and replaced it with Crenshaw’s correct identification, but by that point the Congressman was wrapping up his remarks.

As we watched this, we knew then and there that Crenshaw — a five-term Congressman who was mistaken for a freshman — was Obscure Caucus bound.

In fact, we’re kinda embarrassed that we missed him last time around.

Crenshaw, the story notes, also “tied for the distinction of introducing the least legislation in the 110th Congress.”

Check out Folio Weekly’s 2008 cover story on Crenshaw’s connections to big oil interests here.

– Posted by Anne Schindler

Florida State Rep. Jennifer Carroll, R-Jacksonville

In this week’s news story, “Reversal of Fortune,” Folio Weekly examines how a number of businesses became certified through the Jacksonville’s Small and Emerging Business program even though they didn’t seem to meet program qualifications.

Among those business owners who were initially rejected but subsequently certified was a prominent Jacksonville public official — Florida Rep. Jennifer Carroll (R-Jacksonville). The JSEB program rejected Carroll because a staff examiner said her personal net worth exceeded the program’s $605,000 limit. Carroll appealed the decision, explaining how she was really worth only half of what it first appeared.

Carroll’s explanations to JSEB of her true net worth only add confusion to a story about Carroll’s finances that Folio Weekly contributing writer Susan Clark Armstrong first delved into in 2006. Armstrong tried to make sense of the financial disclosure forms that Carroll filed with the Florida Commission on Ethics between 2002-2005. During that period, Carroll’s net worth jumped all over the place, from $23 million in 2004 to $202 million in 2005. Carroll explained to Folio Weekly then that she had made an error in 2005, and she did amend her state report for 2005, to reflect a net worth of $2.02 million.

Despite that correction, Carroll’s 2006 answers about her fluctuations in fortune and her actual net worth don’t correspond with what she reported to the city that same year as she sought JSEB certification.

The JSEB program initially rejected Carroll’s application because she reported her net worth as $2 million on her amended 2005 disclosure form. In a letter to Ivy Johnson, head of the city’s JSEB program, Carroll explained that on her 2005 disclosure form, she had mistakenly included assets that belonged solely to her husband, Nolan. She said a legal advisor from the state told her she should not have included her husband’s assets in her calculations. After subtracting his assets, Carroll said her net worth as of September 2006 was $429,932 – which qualified her as a JSEB business.

But the explanation directly contradicts what Carroll told reporter Armstrong that her “actual net worth” was in the first week of November 2006 — about $2.3 million.

Reviewing Carroll’s disclosure forms from 2002-2008, is a wild ride. The value of Carroll’s personal assets took a big hit between 2004 to 2006. From that height of $23 million in 2004, the value of her household goods and valuables plummeted to $2 million in 2005, then to a mere $130,000 from 2006 through 2008. It’s the declining worth of those valuables, not the fact that she opened two hair salons or the income from her consulting business, that seems to account for her widely-ranging fortunes.

But it’s impossible to decode the method Carroll used to compute her net worth. She reported her net worth at $397,200 in 2002, even though she listed her household goods and vehicles at $700,000. There’s no way to determine how the assets, liabilities and net worth are related, and simple addition and subtraction doesn’t account for it. In 2004, Carroll reported her net worth as $23 million — the same as the value of her personal valuables. She seemingly didn’t count her $60,000 income from her work as a legislator and from her Navy retirement in computing her net worth, nor did she report any income from her consulting business.

When speaking to Folio Weekly in 2006, Carroll never mentioned the inclusion of her husband’s assets as the reason for the errors on her financial disclosure form. She explained the increase in her fortunes was due to the two hair salons she bought for $1 million cash, with an inheritance. She also told Folio Weekly the salons were making money, although she reported no income from them on her financial disclosure forms in 2005 and told Johnson she would lose money if she sold them. Although Carroll didn’t report any income from her consulting business, she told JSEB that the company earned $85,809 in 2004 and $331,334 in 2005.

But the prime reason for the confusion over her assets wasn’t her fuzzy math or her incorrectly filled-out forms. It was the fault of Folio Weekly.

“Recently in the Folio Weekly newspapers listed some information that was not factual about my net worth,” wrote Carroll in a letter to Johnson on Nov. 9, 2006, “and this letter is my response to the erroneous information presented by the paper.” (Most of the information Armstrong used in her report came from financial statements that Carroll herself submitted to the state.)

Coincidentally, Carroll’s net worth and assets dropped dramatically after 2005. Following her appeal, Carroll’s consulting business, 3N & JC Consulting, was certified as an African-American-owned JSEB in January 2007. Subsequently, Carroll has reported to the state that her net worth was $520,000 in 2006 and 2007, and estimated the worth of personal at $130,000. In December 2008, Carroll reported that her net worth dropped to $206,783, although her considerably-depreciated valuables remain steady at $130,000. Although she fought for the JSEB certification, Carroll’s firm hasn’t been awarded any contracts with the city of Jacksonville in the past two years. (More to come on responses to public records requests regarding any Carroll contracts from the city’s independent authorities.)

— Posted by Susan Eastman

Appalled that the annual Veteran’s Parade was hacked during the Finance Committee’s budget sessions, private donors rushed in with the dollars to make it happen. To some libertarian-leaning council members, that’s the way government ought to work. The community cared enough about the Veteran’s Parade to fund it privately. And if no one had stepped up? So be it. Hobble on without. 

But Dristrict 5 City Councilmember Art Shad balked yesterday when District 11’s Ray Holt proposed forced volunteerism on kids attending the city’s summer camp programs. The children do attend summer camp for free and most receive free daily lunches — Holt merely asked them to give back. He offered an amendment to the Children’s Commission budget requiring kids in camp programs at city parks to pick up litter two hours a week. It’s a way to pay back for all the “enrichment” they’re receiving, said Holt, and for the city to impart the lesson that good citizenship requires community commitment.

To Shad, however, it said it sounded more like the city was forcing children to fill gaps in city services.  “I understand we decreased our parks budget,” said Shad. “But now we are going to be asking our children to maintain our parks? I would rather increase the parks maintenance budget.”

The amendment passed, much to the chagrin of Annie Egan, chairman of the Children’s Commission. To anyone who’s encountered used hypodermic needles, sticky condoms and other potentially germ-and-virus-laden detritus in city parks, she thought the city should think twice about sending flocks of children skipping out to pick up litter. “I think it’s a profound safety and health issue,” she said.

— Posted by Susan Cooper Eastman

… And he doesn’t care who knows it. In a surprise appearance on this morning’s Week In Review program on WJCT 89.9, Peyton blasted City Council President Richard Clark and the council’s Finance Committee, saying that budget discussion had descended into “chaos” and revealed “how little they [councilmembers] know about this process.” Peyton added that the council’s efforts were “shameful,” “ridiculous,” and “very disappointing.”

Although Peyton insisted the issue was “not personal … just a severe policy disagreement,” he railed against Clark for creating a Finance Committee interested only in “cutting for the sake of cutting” and said Clark was alone among the six Council Presidents he’s previously dealt with in his unwillingness to meet the Mayor halfway on budget matters.

“The [Finance] Committee was stacked to get this result,” the mayor said. “We’re getting what the Council President created.”

Peyton also mocked councilmembers for refusing to cut their own paychecks to balance the budget. They’re willing to cut things, he said, “except for their salary and benefits and the things they enjoy as elected officals — and that’s the irony I think.”

Budget battle getting uglier? Um, yes.

– Posted by Anne Schindler