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| "Mike Kohler Looks to Restore Trust in District 2 Commissioner's Seat" is how PNJ's misleading headline above should have read..... |
Yesterday's electronic PNJ put out a story about soon-to-be
sworn in County Commissioner-Elect Mike Kohler.
And once a reader was able to get by the BS headline--the story was
well-written. (and don't worry, the PNJ are saving this piece, along with the garbage headline, for their Sunday edition....the only day they have any readership of their hard copy product to speak of.....
I get a lot of email, phone calls, and feedback directly from constituents all day, every day. They don't hold back, either. Rarely do I get a complaint about the 401a, lack of a strategic plan, or the idea of consolidation or creating a "charter county" with a "strong elected administrator." I never get complaints about firing former administrator Janice Gilley. Nope-those are the issues of the PNJ and a handful of downtowners. Normal folks are concerned with their own issues--traffic, over-development, and to a lesser degree--stormwater issues. What I don't hear is ordinary folks upset about the PNJ's faux issues of anger above. Never.
from the article:
"Kohler said for the first few months in office, he would focus on restoring trust in the District 2 office. “I really want to try to build a decent relationship with the other commissioners so that hopefully they'll work with me to get some stuff done in District 2," Kohler said. "I know the people in District 2 really feel like they've been underserved..Kohler said he hopes he is not "held hostage" by the actions of his predecessor, who he pointed out did not support him during his election campaign. I'm hoping I can make some amends and just go in and prove to them that I'm not an enemy," Kohler said."
So, I asked Jim Little about the misleading headline. I told him the headline should have been
something like "Kohler to attempt to restore trust in D2 Commission
seat" which he disagreed about. He
doubled down on the headline he used.
"I see your point, but I think the article conveys he is looking to
restore trust in the D2 seat but also trust in the county for the residents of
D2. So, I think the headline fits the
story" he stated.
If they (the PNJ) were offered a community guaranteed to be
free of crime or any issues with locally elected leaders that served the
citizens and functioned at a high level --but this scenario required them to go out of
business---they would cast that perfect community aside for the ability to continue doing what
they do---fostering discontent with fake, garbage "news", misleading
headlines, unfair and inaccurate "editorials" and cartoons ONLY on
their perceived philosophical rivals and those who their advertising patron(s) disfavor.
8 comments:
One more inaccuracy, dd didn't have to use his discretionary funds to get a project done, (which by the way he always said he was against but sure didn't want to use them for a public use but wanted to use them for pet projects.) dd would have killed a project in his own district, and the rest of the board had to vote to use the discretionary to move it forward and not jeopardize grants. Does Little know that?
Wonder if Chief Blow knows about that one in his hood..
If Kohler doesn't run hide in a facebook page guarded by weirdo guard dogs nor keep going to PNJ with half cocked truths and passing on the gossip about a perfectly fine one time payout rather than receiving a lifetime pension with survivor benefits -- he will probably survive and do fine.
If he doesn't publish shade transcripts, private HR documents, confidential economic development projects, get drunk and loudmouth on the keyboard on weekends, call leaders and businessmen and peers insulting names in public, he may do alright.
He is a member of a board, a cog in the wheel. Vote of 3 gets it done, 2 don't.
He isn't supposed to direct staff.
Running after a vote to facebook and whining, blaming, lying, calling the other commioners names won't win any favors.
Been there done that.
Fault finders will still be there but they aren't elected peers.
I agree with you that the headline is deliberately sensational.
And I agree with you that the Pensacola News Journal needs to sack their dishonest executive editor, then install someone with journalistic ethics.
I would highly recommend Kevin Robinson.
As for you, Jeff, I wish you would stop acting like a child 50% of the time. Fifty percent of the time you do alright, but the great citizens of Escambia County deserve to have an adult on the commission 100% of the time.
Get over yourself and the childish feud you had with Doug Underhill. You did everything in your power to do him in; and now you’ve “won”. He’s gone Why are you still taking pot shots at him? Grow up.
Congratulations Jeff. Everyone is impressed.
Now set an example and start doing your job.
Pensacola News Journal has done a lot of damage. The reporting in general around here needs improvement.
For instance Bay County News seldom front pages car wrecks and crime. They lead with the good news, community improvements, creative pursuits. They even make the weather look pleasant no matter what. Spotlight the area and draws visitors.
PNJ is a real estate commercial with ridiculous prices and WEAR gets its stories from the police radio and arrest reports and CNN.
Put your staff to work via PIO, let them fill in the gaps and swing the pendulum.
Be Proactive rather than reactive and Positive rather than negative.
That will make a difference.
Tom, count yourself lucky that you weren't one of the dozens of people that Doug and that horrendous forum you frequent have never come after you, your family, your children, your pet, your business, your property, or your reputation. It's very easy to cast aspersions until you've not just been there yourself, but have spent *years* trying to help people who have been harassed, threatened, defamed, and had a County commissioner and his Bevy of Bullshit bring every drop of hate, lies, and their own misery that they have to contribute to destroying people's lives. Doug, his wife, and Jacqueline Rogers cost my husband and me a quarter of a million dollars on bogus legal. Don't you think that warrants a bit of a moment?
The operative term is sadism, Tom, and the difference between your personal disappointment with what happened on the Beach and what people have gone through under Doug is that you didn't have Commissioner Bender pummeling you with code violations, crooked Fire officials (yes, there were some pretty bad ones), and Sheriff's deputies (under Morgan, not Simmons), while Jacqueline Rogers spread vicious lies about you, tried to drum up court cases against you, and manipulated staff (back when she had pull at the County, which thank God she doesn't any more) to find every way possible to come at you. If Doug Underhill had been your commissioner, you might not just have the disappointment of missing out on fee simple. You might be tossed out of your house with no job by now, and a visit from regulatory agencies to boot. Plenty over here in D2 have experienced that. So damn right, those of us who hung on and fought their evil in and against this community for years on end are celebratory about having eradicated their poison from any further influence in the County.
Word is the best they will be able to do is Pam Childers giving Jonathan Owens a landing in the Clerk's Office. Hopefully that's either a rumor, or, if she's pondering it, she'll think better. Owens or anyone else associated with the Douggite enterprise has no business with ANY further access to County operations, least of all sensitive documents at the Clerk's office. It's bad enough that I don't think the BCC understands they need a white hat consultant in to the County to make sure Doug and the people who run his cyber ventures (who actually know what they're doing, unlike him) are indeed locked out of the County systems.
You and I will perpetually disagree about Save Pensacola Beach's impact on the zoning out there. But I can tell you I was knee deep in those negotiations, and in the entire zoning mess, and you are mistaken about what went on behind the scenes. For three plus years I was one of the people trying to keep everybody at the table, and thank goodness Commissioner Bender took the baton from Grover Robinson, or nobody but the monied interests would have gotten anything out of it. And you can bank on that. BTW, those towers at Portofino have been approved FOR YEARS. Do I agree with all that building? No. But that has been a done deal forever, so please quit conflating it with the hotel on Casino Beach. On which I absolutely agree with you the hoteliers should *not* have been given all those deals. Thank goodness the hoteliers don't have their old influence over the entire County like they used to. You're welcome for defeating them on the roundabout.
I think what Pino is saying about Kohler not talking to the right people what she's really saying is he's not talking to her and she hates that. Good for him. Hopefully, he'll create an email folder just for her to route all the spam messages. I heard she went full on ballistic against him and his wife prior to the primary elections so he finally blocked her and her nonsense. When she digs all the way into the Navy Boulevard project and can tell us when it actually started and who did the work I'll give her a thumbs up. 10 years in this county doesn't make her an expert in anything.
Hopefully he won't Karaoke Kohler the Mighty Mouse theme "Here I Come to Save the Day." Andy Kaufman style. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xi2h1n
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Anonymous 7:35, that is not at all what I am saying. Actually Mike Kohler and I did consider meeting during the primary, but as I had realized I was going to endorse in a different direction I felt it was bad faith, and didn't want to put either candidate in the place of wondering if I was playing both sides, something that I do not do, but both of them being so new to politics in the County wouldn't have any reason to take on faith.
I also sent their office the offer of assistance if they ever felt they needed it. The offer stands, and despite the fact that I hated the dirty campaign stuff--and endorsed opposite that sort of thing at the last minute on two other races--as I said, grown ups shrug off election bad will once campaign season is over and get to work. While you clearly don't have much idea of how these things typically roll, smart politicians and advocates alike do.
There isn't time or space here for me to fill you in entirely on the history of the Navy Blvd beautification project, either back in the day or in recent history. So just a quick sketch is that the project dragged so long after a former County director who is also a former City Administrator helped conceive it and get best plans for it, and the former JAG of the base who is now a prominent land use attorney was involved in trying to revitalize the area decades ago, and the former president of the WRC--God rest her--was a double edged sword who battled it into a possibility and then helped tank it through her truculence. That's way back stuff. More recently, Doug bait and switched the horribly named "Bring Back Warrington" movement which was led by a long past sycophant and his wife (the key keeper for a satellite college campus on the west side)into thinking he was actually going to do the project at long last, which was of course never his intention, although the Doug cult bought it hook line and sinker.
Then because the project was dragged for so long, DOT did its dead level worst to kill everything that makes sense to move traffic on Antique Row with an asinine plan that would have killed necessary truck traffic for, among other businesses, Frank Patti's shipyard. When Alan McMillan rightfully made that a sticking point, Doug flipped on his promise and beat Alan to the punch at the DOT "public input" (big quotes there) session at Brownsville Community Center, stabbing all his adoring fans in the crowd in the back and claiming he never backed the project at all, that it was a Gene boondoggle.
There's of course a whole lot more--the drama of that lot Jonathan Owens has interest in, the horrible blocking of a good convenience store on the Navy/Gulf Beach intersection for Jonathan's special interest, the idea of putting a welcome center for the Base at that corner, the cluster eff of who maintains that ROW, the development interest at the old Marcello's.
There's much more. And when I say Mike Kohler couldn't possibly know the half of it, it's because I know he isn't talking to the people who do. I would imagine he'll realize he's getting gamed at some point. And I bear no ill will to the man, and will be happy to welcome him to office tomorrow.
Pino, you made personal attacks against the man and his wife. That wasn't political. You were pissed because you were blocked like so many others have done to you. You're a toxic liability and anyone that hasn't been caught in your web of BS knows to keep you at a distance. And as far as Navy Blvd you don't know as much as you think and it shows.
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