ENGLEWOOD WATERFEST BEGGING FOR YOUR MONEY
It’s Easy to Spend Other People’s Money
The Englewood Waterfest came begging to the County Commissioners meeting on September 22. And guess what? They received everything they wanted, and more!
You may remember that a boat race was tried in Englewood last year. Although considered a success, it lost money due to out of control costs for ” government security”. And because the government security was not paid, the county commissioners shut future races down. But, not so fast.
You won’t believe this, but a new group from Englewood decided to try it again. They promised that they could do it better. That they could make a profit this time. That they could do it without using any public funds. That they could do it right.
The Charlotte County Commissioners bought into this hogwash, and so the rest of the story begins. (Oh – did we mention there was still $80,000 taxpayer dollars “leftover” from last year’s race? God forbid that money go back to taxpayers, right?)
At the 9/22/15 Commissioners meeting, the leaders of Charlotte County agreed to “develop an agreement” to pay for the Waterfest security costs. The Charlotte County Sherriff, $31,000; Charlotte County EMS, $6,450 and Florida Fish and Wildlife, $6,500. The commissioners also agreed to pay the $45,000 “balance due” to the race sanctioning body. And, they also agreed to look into (read: waive) the $25,000 fee from the County Parks and Recreation Department. And waive the $3,000 permit fees associated with the race. That’s $116,950, so far. Hold on. We’re not finished counting up the goodies. Let’s not forget the $20,000 the Waterfest team already received from our County’s Travel and Tourism Department and the $5,000 grant from (state taxpayers) Visit Florida. Adding those to the mix, the total comes to $141,950. That’s a lot of public money for a group that stated they could do it better, with no government assistance.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t add the Englewood Fire District’s request of $19,320. They were hoping to be included in the public money give away. They were probably shocked when their request was not included in the commissioner’s motion. Miraculously, Englewood Fire District later reduced their “fee” by 50% stating that they “reviewed their plan” and found that they could reduce costs, thus helping the community. We guess that community spirit appeared when they found that no free public money was coming.
The saddest part of this story is the outrageous costs that the government security departments force upon organizers that are trying to do something good for the community. Keep in mind that the Charlotte County Sheriff, EMS and Englewood Fire District already receive in excess of $100 MILLION a year from taxpayers. Who knows what Florida Fish and Wildlife receives in funding each year. Also, keep in mind that the other five boat race sites in Florida pay just 5% – 8% of what is demanded here in Charlotte County, for what is exactly the same job.
The Commissioners voted 5-0 to support the “wish list” agreement. Commissioner Constance stated that he didn’t support the race last year, yet after waffling around, he voted in favor of spending more tax dollars to pay our own county employees to do what we are already paying them to do. Commissioner Duffy proposed the agreement and after a few additions, the deal was set. Of course, Commissioner Deutsch did his usual tap dance while balancing on the proverbial fence post, but relented after stating he had grave concern about last year’s race.
Another race will be held in Englewood. Another chance for our safety guys to enjoy a day at the beach while collecting overtime pay. Another chance for the charities the race is supposed to help watch as the money disappears into the government safety department’s bottomless pockets. That’s a disgrace.
So you, the taxpayer, are going to fund another event that failed due to high security costs and is, once again, facing the same, if not higher costs this year. But, as they say, it’s easy to spend other people’s money, especially when it’s in the home community of our current County Commission Chairman, Bill Truex. And it’s always easy for commissioners to spend taxpayer money to line the pockets of our own government “safety” departments, which are a huge voting block for commissioners running for office. Those running for re-election are Truex, Deutsch and Duffy. Constance is rumored to be running for the State Representative job.
Do you see a coincidence or pattern?
Who’s paying whom? For what and why?
