I had a very good conversation with Steve Brendtro of "We are Perdido" last week on my Coffee with the Commissioner event Wednesday. (Starting at 19:29 of this video)
I had a lot of folks watch and comment and I tried my best to be neutral while at the same time asking Devil's Advocate type questions.
My official position: I am neutral on this Perdido City Incorporation initiative, because although it is in my district-- I believe the citizens have the right to make this decision without my thumb on the scale. And as I said during my coffee meeting--if such an initiative goes through-it actually makes my job easier as many of the headaches and legacy traffic and other issues could be passed along to the new city. IF the new city wants to take them.
Which brought me to the seminal question of the interview Wednesday: What particular problem is incorporation looking to solve? If the new Perdido City will keep the county's existing fire service, schools, sheriff's department, code enforcement, parks, beach access points, code of ordinances and will NOT take over Perdido Key Drive or Innerarity Road along with Bauer Road from the County---then what problem is incorporation solving?
The answer was opaque, byzantine and nebulous at best, feel-good and subjective at worst as I look back on the interview and study the responses carefully.
I think folks would support paying new taxes on their utility bills, new and higher business taxes and fees, and the big Kahuna of it all --two or three new mills on top of the existing property tax bill------if there was going to be new police coverage, new fire services, a new planning department, a new parks department, road and drainage engineering staff, etc. But I'm hearing none of this is part of the plan.
So if not-- again an important question must be answered which is this---what problem is this solving?
Now, in the wake of the interview, several have facebook messaged me that they are "blocked" from the "We are Perdido" facebook site and some comments are hidden and others are not being allowed to post.
I know, better than most, that social media can be a toxic gutter of trolls,fakes, wannabes, losers and bullies. That's the arena in which we live today, and you have to have thick skin and a titanium backbone to play in it. And you have to ignore the garbage spewers and haters. Most of them have empty lives and are simply attempting projection.
So yes---- you have to strap on your armor and take it -----you can't just censor it----or else people feel they are being misled or deceived which is not good when citizens are being asked to get behind a new and expanded government model which will cost potentially millions of dollars in new taxes and fees on top of the existing tax burdens they carry already.
A former commissioner knows this very well as he is currently in litigation over such conduct while he was in office and he might potentially face huge legal fees as a result--in addition to ethics charges, huge state ethics board fines, and all kinds of horrible press.
Now, We are Perdido is a private group so they may not necessarily have to be fully transparent on social media like elected officials are supposed to be. But if they aren't transparent---the optics are bad.
So I went and looked at the We are Perdido Facebook site and indeed it does appear as if several posts indicate multiple comments while only one or two such comments are visible. This is a problem.
If you want to be neutral and unbiased, you can't engage in viewpoint discrimination by blocking folks, hiding citizen feedback, and stifling dissent.
Very poor form.
4 comments:
Deleted comments still count in the totals. If the number of comments doesn't add up to the total that doesn't mean comments are hidden unless the comment is hidden from you.
Northescambia does the same thing.
Wouldn't surprise me if they are curating responses in the forum. One of the reasons I got off Facebook; it's impossible to have an honest conversation because the disinformation artists and propogandists that have their center of operations on Jacqueline's ECW site unethically delete and block so that majority opinion appears to be on their side. Of course, this has the effect of cultivating an echo chamber wherein the participants often lose all touch with the political realities they obsess over, and that's why most people seasoned in Escambia politics no longer pay much attention to that forum, other than to keep an eye peeled for their latest lies and a good laugh.
Heads up though that the moderators of that forum don't have control over who the individual contributors have blocked from viewing their personal accounts. Jacqueline alone has dozens and dozens of people active in politics blocked from being able to view her comments (she even blocks people she allows to continue on ECW, so they can't see any strings she OP's, any of her comments, or any comments under her comments). That's just how these folks roll, and so the effects from that scenario mean everybody is inclined only to see opinions that agree with theirs--no two Facebook accounts interacting with the discussions there will see the same discussion.
This is a separate issue from how Doug was manipulating his commissioner page, claiming that people were blocked and blah blah off a key word list. The judge in David Bear's federal suit declined from delving into that mess--as she said she was disinclined to get into the social media aspects from the onset of the trial--and that's how he pretends he has won that suit. When people with a brain in their head, who aren't fooled by their propaganda on ECW and can instead read a docket, know full well he is up shit creek without a paddle right now on that one. And deservedly so, as the judge made very clear.
Thank you for providing the opportunity for discussion as well as the consise questions, which answers appeared to be ambiguous at best. Any entity that denies the rights of clear and open debate eludes of impropriety.
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