The Blind Leading the Blind

Why does the commission and the planning and zoning board avoid technical issues such as water/sewer pipeline projects or deciding which equipment is purchased by our police and public safety departments, while at the same time seeking to micro-manage far more technically complex issues such as community-wide telecommunication?

At a recent commission meeting Ms. Simpson, the planning and zoning department director, told the commissioners that the town's public safety managers might want to locate 800 megahertz antennas on cell towers to improve the current spotty public safety band radio reception on the island. Spotty 800 MHz reception is common in all sorts of communities from large cities to rural areas. Many of these municipalities employ vehicle mounted booster radios with high-gain antennas to insure adequate radio reception inside buildings and outlying areas. Having a vehicle mounted signal booster provides a strong signal wherever police and fire staff are located. Having the radio signal in close proximity to the hand-held radios is a superior solution to a distant cell tower, where the signal may be attenuated by intervening buildings and trees. There are many companies that supply the public safety sector with 800 MHz vehicle mounted booster packs. I assume that our fire and safety personnel already use vehicle mounted booster packs. I assume the booster packs work well. I hope the town has not been waiting years for the possibility of using a cell tower when good safety communications has always been available.

Why are we looking at cell tower solutions that have a profound negative impact on property values when there may be far less invasive solutions? Is the commission sufficiently informed to make optimal decisions in highly technical engineering fields?

Too often the previous town manager used his golden Rolodex of no-bid contract vendors to inform the commission about various topics. For the past 20 years I have cautioned the town about limiting itself to the proposals from a single company that also stands to make a lot of money if their advice is accepted. I congratulate the current commission for breaking a decades-old dysfunction by demanding that town staff do a more thorough job of supplying the commission with accurate and complete information. However, if the messengers are themselves uninformed then the process cannot succeed. Such is the history of cell towers on Longboat. To date, the entire cell phone process has been a monologue conducted by a cell tower salesman who represents himself as an expert. For some reason the previous town manager and Ms. Simpson have doggedly insisted that the cell tower salesperson's pitch was all that the commission needed to know.

I have no idea how a cell tower salesman managed to convince Ms. Simpson and the former town manager that they need look no further than the top of a 150 foot tower to solve all our communications needs. Unfortunately, this is a very limited solution for a much greater challenge that confronts our community as we begin to enter the baby-boomer era of fast evolving wireless telecommunications technologies. 

During the past four or more years that the cell tower company has pitched their rather imposing structure at one place or another on Longboat, there has never been a discussion about the adverse impact on local property values. Finally, two prominent real estate people have come forward and affirmed that cell towers in upscale communities seriously impact surrounding property values. Today the Observer printed their comments. I am sure more real estate people will join the chorus when they realize that a cell tower will scare people away from our community. People who can afford to purchase property anywhere they choose, do not choose communities with ugly and unsafe cell towers in their midst. 

Longboat Key deserves a well designed modern communications infrastructure. Unfortunately the town staff in charge of advising the planning and zoning board and the commission appear to be too cozy with the cell tower salespeople. I am uncomfortable seeing Steve Shields, planning and zoning staff member in charge of the current cell tower application at the Island Chapel, with his arm over the shoulder of Mr. Eatrides, cell tower applicant, at Harry's Cafe, beaming from ear to ear. I am uncomfortable with Ms. Simpson repeatedly sitting with the cell tower salespeople at advertised commission and planning and zoning meetings. I dislike the appearance of bias and a good-old-boy relationship between public servants and salespeople looking for favors. I am not alone in having strong objections to either Ms. Simpson or Mr. Shields having anything to do with cell tower applications or town communications policy. I do not feel that either employee has the requisite credentials or technical background to be in charge of such a complex and important element in our community's future.

We need to do better now that we have turned a new leaf so to speak.

Asking for Informed Government

This picture is a licensed surveyor's to-scale rendition of the proposed 150 foot cell tower at the Island Chapel using the dimensions appearing in Ridan's application. The upper 60 feet of the tower is 42 inches in diameter and 72 inches at the base.

Please note the recently purchased Grand Mariner luxury condominiums in the background along with the church steeple. The Grand Mariner building lies within 260 feet of the proposed cell tower that will be located directly in their line-of-sight.

 Did you know that on September 1st the planning and zoning board spent over an hour listening to a lawyer named Gary Resnic, from Gray Robinson in Boca Raton, about multiple cell towers on Longboat Key? Neither did I, until after the planning and zoning board meeting, even though Steve Shields, who is in charge of the current cell tower application, was asked about the meeting agenda two days prior to the meeting, and said the only agenda item was the transportation elements of the comprehensive plan. Mr. Resnic's hour plus presentation did not appear in the published agenda, so no one from the public was informed about a major discussion by the planning and zoning board about cell towers. What has happened to fair and open government in our community that people are sneaked into advertised public meetings? The planning and zoning board then spent less than 20 minutes on the advertised transportation agenda item. I also wish to point out that even if a resident had accidentally attended the meeting, their participation would have most likely been limited to all of 3 minutes. A few years ago when an industry expert from Next-G traveled hundreds of miles to address the commission about DAS, the commission granted him all of 3 minutes, while listening to the cell tower salesperson for hours on end, meeting after meeting. On two occasions the town manager conducted private meetings with the cell tower salesperson, outside the commission chamber, in the middle of an advertised public commission meeting. If the planning and zoning board now contends, after talking to a cell tower lawyer for an hour, that it has vetted the island's communications needs, and commences to once again recommend multiple cell towers up and down our island, then I feel they have failed their fiduciary obligation to serve the public to the best of their abilities. I contend that talking for an hour with a cell tower lawyer, who admitted that he had no technical knowledge about cell towers, the need for cell towers, or the public's desire to have or not have tall cell towers within their community, then the planning and zoning board has failed their duty.

The last time the planning and zoning board recommended multiple cell towers on Longboat Key, the community responded with a petition, with over 630 signatures from north end registered voters, that they did not want any structures over 35 feet. They packed the commission chamber on several occasions and the commission voted unanimously to retain our current cell tower codes. That commission listened and are to be congratulated for being responsive to their constituents. The current chairperson of the planning and zoning board recently stated that we now have a different commission with reference to long standing cell tower policies supported by decades of previous town commissions.

Now we have a commission, along with their appointed planning and zoning board, that do not appear to be even slightly concerned with what the residents want. For the past two years the word resident has been seldom mentioned by the commission. On the other hand, we here more and more about how it is the town's obligation to promote business and development on Longboat, and that the codes and comp plan must be gutted to welcome unbridled development. Cell towers will most likely be their first concerted effort, and their actions will have a severe financial impact on surrounding property values, while reaping huge financial gains for cell tower companies. All this without ever asking industry experts to educate the community about what is best for our exclusive town.

The unwillingness of the commission and the planning and zoning board to get input from anyone except cell tower salespeople, and cell tower company lawyers, will most likely prevent more technically advanced forms of communications from ever reaching our island, thus impeding our path to becoming a technically advanced community that will attract tech-savvy baby-boomer home-buyers. This has been confirmed by a large cell tower company executive.

Our neighbors on Anna Maria have retained an industry expert to assist their efforts to rewrite their communications codes. Here the commission will control the process to include input exclusively from cell tower salespeople and their lawyers. This is unfortunate if your are a homeowner. Our community needs island-wide broadband wifi along with less expensive alternatives to the high fees being charged by Comcast and Verizon. When visitors come to our island they bring their IPads and notebook computers. They want wifi far more that cell phones since they already have VOIP phone apps such as Line2 on all their smart devices. These apps are carrier neutral so even people with small carriers receive great cell phone reception indoors and outdoors if wifi is available.

The Key Club might attract more and younger quests if they offered wifi in the hotel rooms instead of just in the lobby area. Longboat Key is badly behind the times in terms of modern communications available in most other up-scale communities. Pervasive wifi is essential to compete in these times. Cell towers are antiquated and soon to be replaced by less expensive technologies. Ask your children what they think? Do you want a cell tower salesperson to decide your communications future?

If the commission and the planning and zoning board make uninformed decisions, advised only by cell tower salespeople and their lawyers, they will undoubtedly make uninformed decisions and we all know what that usually means. Who will buy homes in a community that is controlled by people who have no regard for well established and proved community codes? Who will buy homes in a community divided by strife and lawsuits and a town government that has ceased to listen to its people?

Of Crocodile Tears and Propaganda

Crocodile Tears:

Last evening I witnessed an interesting spectacle at the end the the commission meeting, in the form of an emotional reaction by the commissioners to the perceived mistreatment of Commissioner Larson at the hands of a guest columnist in the Longboat Key News, and thus by extension to the editor of the paper, Steve Reid. To his credit, Mr. Reid defended the basic American right to a free press. As an American who has had members of my family fight in every war of freedom ever fought by this country, including two family members who fought in the Revolutionary War, I object to anyone trying to intimidate the press, even though I often disagree with entire segments of what now sadly postures as news in this country, both on the far right and the far left. It does not help the commission's case that at least one commissioner has publicly called for the demise of the LBK News. Unfortunately, the other paper has morphed itself to a social register and real estate listing for their advertisers. I don't know anyone who goes there for credible news.

It alarms me that another columnist in the LBK News used a disgusting four letter word to describe the president of the United States of America, and not a single commissioner voiced any objections. I am proud that I did respond strongly to that mean-spirited slander. There were no four letter words attributed to commissioner Larson, yet last night the commissioners spent about twice as much time complaining about that newspaper column than they spent on approving the 2012 budget and millage rate combined.

I have been politically active on Longboat for over 25 years. During that time I have read many articles in both local newspapers that were highly critical and unflattering towards certain town staff and/or elected officials. I include myself as one of them. When one willingly becomes a public figure one also accepts that not everyone will agree with your views and actions. I wonder why the commissioners have once again forgotten that they are politicians and fair game for public scrutiny. If you become apoplectic about some columnist saying that a commissioner acts unintelligently, and you do not react to much worse personal attacks on your country's president, then you lose credibility through inconsistency.

Propaganda:

In response to my comment in the LBK News, asking the town to once again consider alternative beach stabilization technologies, in light of a recent Army Corps of Engineer's mandated three year test of the Granger Plastics "Sand Saver" devices on the shores of Lake Michigan, the mayor responded "Not one well-known company has anything positive to say about the company Mr. Jaleski is supporting. Why is this not apparent to Mr Jaleski ?". My response is two-fold.

First, the inaccuracy of the statement does nothing to further the community dialog surrounding the glaring failures of the commission's current beach policies. The taxpayers have just thrown $4 million plus dollars into the Gulf of Mexico in the past three months with little to nothing to show for it at the north end beach. I am requesting that the mayor produce a certified list of all the "well-known companies" that have nothing "positive to say about the company". Here are a few "well-known" companies that will not be on the mayor's list - Department of Defense (DOD), Temporpedic, and DHL Global, along with many other well-known Granger Plastics clients. I believe the mayor owes Granger Plastics and me an apology for his baseless attack on both Granger Plastics and me. He has shown disrespect towards me as a resident and he is also blatantly wrong. This type of mean-spirited misuse of public office needs to be answered and that is just what I am doing here.

My second complaint is more serious. I find it dangerous when a high-profile elected official uses that position to make frequent unsubstantiated personal attacks on all those who dare question his power and prowess. Too often I have read the same response from this elected official, to those who question his judgment, in the form of - he/she/they don't know what they are talking about. I like to believe that such comments are beneath our town officials. Once again at last night's commission meeting this response was hurled at Al Green. Of course, this only highlights the fact that the commissioners probably have no idea that their meetings are recorded on digital audio and video and are available on-line. I often use these facilities when I am fact-checking.

Last night's unfounded commission attack on Steve Reid, and freedom of the press, seemed to be hypocritical and unattractive. I am an opinion columnist who tries to inform the residents of my community about what I believe to be important alternative views to those put forth by the town government. Sometimes we agree and sometimes we disagree. I always try to be constructive and always offer alternatives. I love Longboat Key and only want the best for our town. I strongly object to threats and intimidation by certain elected and appointed officials.

Don't Get Cute

Excuse me if I profess to being a little confused about what it is that the commission and the Key Club are doing these days.

For the past eighteen months we have been told repeatedly by the commissioners that they are hard at work developing tourism and retail business on Longboat Key. So far their efforts have not produced a single improvement in either sector of the island's economy. To the contrary, the commissioners have been unable to have a positive affect on declining home sales and prices, as well as more and more shuttered businesses. I am reminded of a billboard along the freeway in Seattle in the early 70's that read "Will the last person leaving Seattle please turn off the lights". I am sure that the commissioners are as aware as anyone else of the passing months and years of economic decline on the island. I do not believe that long-range plans and projections will have a positive impact on our current dilemma.

Perhaps their efforts might be better spent promoting Longboat Key today and not some commercial Shangri-La that might or might not materialize in a decade or two. I am afraid that most of us will not be here to see any possible benefits from their tourism expansion plans.

I have read one commissioner's comments that the commission is merely trying to restore tourism to the level that existed on Longboat twenty years ago. I am afraid that will be insufficient in today's tourism market. Building a dozen ten story hotels on the north end of the island, with retail shops on the ground floor, will not transform our elite residential retirement-home community into any sort of viable tourism destination for more than a few months a year. And that is if anyone in this country still has any money. I believe many taxpayers need to sell their homes now, not fifteen years from now.

For the past twenty-two months the commission has dedicated itself to transforming our comprehensive plan and building codes to conform to a blueprint submitted by the Key Club in the form of ordinances 2009-25 and 2010-16 . One commissioner has stated that the Key Club application illuminated the inability of our comprehensive plan and codes to accommodate increased density, and that is why it has become the duty of the commission to change the town's regulations. The commissioner failed to mention that caps on density were put there intentionally by the wise architects of a community development plan that has created one of the premier second-home retirement communities in the world. At the same time the commission and town attorney contend that all the time and money being spent by the town and taxpayers has nothing to do with the Key Club, and therefore the Key Club does not have to reimburse the town for costs associated with altering and litigating numerous alterations to the comp plan and codes, that in fact were first defined by the Key Club as being required to make the club expansion street legal. I am confused when public officials say two things at the same time that are exclusionary.

The Key Club management and their legal minions represent another enigma for me. I was on the original commission that initially listened to many paid lobbyists for the Key Club expansion proposal, including Mr. Lesser, who assured us that the Loeb Group was a friendly neighbor in our community. Reading the most recent Key Club forum article in the LBK News, the Loeb Group and their lawyers now sound like shrill petulant three-year-olds in a candy store, who have just been told they will just have to wait until all the court suits have been completed before they may be able to increase their raw land value, with the willing help of a professed developer-friendly commission. I am saddened by the harsh hard-line legal threats currently being used by the Key Club. Whatever became of the warm and friendly Key Club? I wonder if Mr. Lesser realizes the folks he is threatening can easily purchase the Key Club, but are smart enough to avoid investments with diminishing returns. Perhaps the Loeb Group is experiencing cash-flow problems and needs to speed up the whole process of gutting our land use codes. Unfortunately the Loeb Group chose to use politics instead of government to try to achieve unwarranted density increases at Island Side. Now they are reaping their own rewards. To his credit the town attorney tried to persuade Mr. Lesser to use a less problematic approach.

More and more of those people in favor of turning our idyllic tropical paradise into Reddington Beach are using insults and intimidation to try to achieve their ends. Perhaps the time has come for the silent majority to come forward and become part of the democratic process. If you are not willing to participate then you have no right to complain no matter how you feel about tourism on Longboat Key.