Rumble Report 3.29.2022

Below is a transcript of notes shared on Facebook by one attendee during the Sarasota County Board discussion of what to do about Rumble, the alt-right online platform that somehow discovered Sarasota (through Enterprise Florida, according to Commissioner Ziegler). 

Here's the "trending" page on Rumble taken the day before the hearing:

Last fall, the Board gave the Economic Development Corp. of Sarasota the OK to explore a prospective deal that would give $825,000 tax dollars as incentive to the company to move its headquarters here. A building has been identified as Rumble HQ on Longboat Key, but does not appear to yet be occupied. No money has yet been approved - the deal is still in the works.

On March 29, 2022, citizens attended the Board meeting seeking to speak to the issue. They were concerned that this platform, which consistently trends toward nonsense about the last presidential election being stolen and similar themes, would receive tax dollars. Prior to the meeting, over 1500 citizens had signed a Petition calling for any deal with Rumble to be quashed.

There was also disgust that Rumble offers one of the only platforms where Russian Television (RT) can be accessed outside of Russia. RT is Putinganda, a myopic self-justifying view of the invasion of Ukraine where even the word "war" is not permitted to be used.

A contingent of Ukrainian citizens, mostly from North Port, attended the meeting, some with flags. One man from Ukraine spoke eloquently about the deep division between Ukrainians and Russians. He said Russian media always lies, and worried that it would take footage from platforms like Rumble, twist it to its own purposes, and use it to support Putin's effort to overpower Ukraine.

Instead of beginning the official meeting with Open to the Public, Commission Chair Al Maio asked the Board to discuss what to do regarding the EDC idea of awarding tax dollars. The discussion became protracted as Commissioner Ziegler presented all the reasons he sees as valid to incentivize a media platform like Rumble to come to the county - jobs, basically.

Eventually Maio allowed a few citizens to address the issue, but told others who had come to speak that they would have to wait until later in the day - possibly to the end of the meeting.

Below are brief notes on the Board discussion leading up to the curious way in which two Commissioners' proffered motions to resolve the Rumble morass tumbled, or fumbled, into a bumbling virtual stalemate.

Notes from the BCC meeting, taken live 3.29.22:

===

Commissioner Detert at beginning of meeting moves that the County takes no further steps toward offering a tax dollar incentive to Rumble for moving to Sarasota County. Seconded by Cutsinger.

Commissioner Ziegler taking a large amount of time going through the presented justifications for bringing Rumble to Sarasota - without actually taking a stand on the motion.

Ziegler wants to amend Detert's motion - he wants the Board to discontinue all economic incentives via the EDC. Moran, who has been critical of the EDC in the past, supports Zig's amendment. Detert speaks against Zig's amendment and does not wish to make a decision on all economic incentives today.

Commissioner Ziegler's amendment to the motion passes 3-2 (Cutsinger, Zig, and Moran for, Detert and Maio against).

Ziegler is now saying he will oppose Detert's motion - he sees people opposing Rumble as "cancel culture" and advocating false information.

Detert's motion is up for a vote, but now she is saying that having passed Zig's amendment, her motion is moot. The county atty says they still need to vote on the main motion, which included Zig's amendment.

Detert's motion FAILS (Moran, Ziegler, and Cutsinger vote no). This cancels Ziegler's motion - he just voted against his own amendment.

Ziegler moves to table the discussion to end all economic incentives until the Board's next meeting. Maio seconds.

Detert says the EDC should be invited to the meeting at which ending all taxpayer incentives will be discussed.

Board unanimously approves motion to postpone discussion of taxpayer incentives.

In brief: the Board punted. There was no decision about Rumble, and none on the amendment to cancel all economic incentives. The Board's dodge has put discussion and any decision on the Rumble taxpayer incentive off to a later meeting.

===

When available, a link to the official video of the Board meeting will be posted here.

Background:

WUSF / NPR

https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/politics-issues/2022-03-28/rumble-still-airs-russia-state-controlled-news-channel-headquarters-could-soon-be-in-sarasota

New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/business/media/rumble-social-media-conservatives-videos.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/technology/parler-rumble-newsmax.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/technology/parler-app-trump-free-speech.html

Anderson, Vice, and Sarasota's mysterious gaggle of alt-right conspiracists

The piece below is from the "watchdog editor" of the Herald Tribune, Josh Salmon.

St. Cassian, murdered by children

It's a handy guide to several of the incisive editorials written by HT columnist Chris Anderson. Anderson looks into the curious Sarasota County concentration of a species of high-profile extremists who believe -- with the indomitable conviction of medieval martyrs -- that former president Donald Trump is the legitimate president of the United States, notwithstanding cumulative evidence so decisive that even the most determined liar on the planet could not make the facts turn Red. 

Let's hope Mr. Anderson keeps looking.

Surely there's a good story behind the mysterious manner in which Sarasota County became the Florida base for alt-right, QAnonical, white supremacist, Proud-Boy-loving, Moms-for-Liberty-leading "influencers." 

So far, despite Vice News's claim to explain How Sarasota Became the Conspiracy Capital of the United States, much remains obscure -- as dark as the Dark Money that has throttled and twisted local elections here for many years (see Cathy Antunes' guide entitled Local Dark Money . . . Citizens United meets Main Street, which not so strangely happens to focus on Sarasota).

Here's Salmon:

This week, I'd like to highlight one Herald-Tribune journalist in particular and his dogged reporting to keep accountability on a powerful and influential group of new Sarasota County residents. Herald-Tribune watchdog columnist Chris Anderson started with a curious post office box in Ellenton, where he found former Donald Trump national security adviser and Englewood resident Michael Flynn was chairman of a nonprofit called America's Future . The organization became notable when it was revealed it gave Cyber Ninjas Inc. a total of $976,514 for a controversial “audit” of the 2020 presidential election votes in Maricopa County, Arizona.

But his reporting did not stop there. Through a series of investigative opinion columns over several months, Anderson has beaten big national outlets on a huge story in our backyard – one he says could threaten our very democracy.

He shed light on the mysterious money behind Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, whose Sarasota computer security company was in charge of the ballot “audit” in Arizona. Anderson found that groups tied to Flynn, Sidney Powell and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne funded Logan’s Arizona project with nearly $6 million of privately raised money.

He also found Byrne purchased six properties in our area – four homes, a condominium and a medical building owned by a Venice gynecologist – for $10.4 million, overpaying the current market value by $6 million in the process. The columns noted that Byrne had some voter discrepancies of his own, registering to vote in Park City, Utah, listing his place of business as his residence.

Throw in Charlie Kirk, a Longboat Key resident and founder of a popular far-right group that is targeting local school boards around the country, and Anderson writes that Sarasota County has become the Conspiracy Capital of the World.  A chart of blind PACs from Cathy Antunes' exploration of Local Dark Money:

Kumbaya? Or abject public sycophancy?

SNL: Two of our largest developers have offered to write their own piece of the 2050 Comprehensive Plan (Sarasota News Leader story) to accommodate their unslakable desire to build every available open area of Sarasota County. 

Rex Jensen: Lakewood Ranch has about 2,000 home sales a year. 

    “We’re the second-fastest selling community in the United bloody States,” he added. 

[Commissioner Mike] Moran: “You’re such a visionary.” 

Jensen: “We haven’t developed much in Sarasota, though that will change.” 

    Note: Rex Jensen's Waterside at Lakewood Ranch is a 5,144-home, 5,500-acre development in Sarasota County set around a series of seven large borrow pits left over from mining operations. It stretches from I-75 to Lorraine Road:

Moran noted of Waterside Place, “That project is fabulous.” 

Jensen: “We’re going to be out of land shortly, and we have about 4,000 acres” that Shroeder-Manatee Ranch would like to develop.

“What really grates on us,” Jensen said during his presentation, “is the numerous prescriptive requirements [of 2050] — “the ‘Thou shalt’s’ and the ‘Thou shalt not’s.’”

So, Jensen and Pat Neal offered to write their own Shalts and Shalt Nots:

  Comprehensive Planning -- The Developer Version

“What’s wrong with what you see at Lakewood Ranch?” Neal asked. Jensen is just seeking “to dispense with the prescriptive requirements that you have in the 2050 [Plan].”

 “I think this is a great process,” Chair Alan Maio said

Commissioner Christian Ziegler concurred on the latter point.

And so, as the Sarasota News Leader reports, ". . . the County Commission has given Rex Jensen, the developer of Lakewood Ranch, the go-ahead to work with county staff on a new residential density category within the county’s 2050 Plan, which has guidelines for communities created east of Interstate 75."

 

Suncoast Waterkeeper: A look back and what's ahead

 A newsletter from the group that sued Sarasota County leading to major wastewater plant upgrades:

We want to wish a happy new year to the entire Suncoast Waterkeeper family.  Our waterways and natural areas support the local economy and quality of life.  Together, we fought to protect our water in 2021 and, with your help, will continue to work to preserve what makes the Suncoast special.   Here’s a look back at our work in 2021 and a preview of what we’re working on for 2022: Piney Point Piney Point has been a ticking time bomb.  Due to neglect and inaction, the State of Florida was forced to dump over 200 million gallons of contaminated water into Tampa Bay.  Over the course of 2021, we experienced some of the worst red tides, other harmful algae blooms and fish kills that we have ever seen.  The threat doesn’t end there.  Now the State of Florida and DEP are working to inject the wastewater into our aquifer without adequate testing or filtration.   That is why we launched and are continuing to pursue a federal lawsuit to safely close Piney Point with other partners and organizations in the region.   In addition to the lawsuit, we hosted educational forums and conducted advocacy campaigns to demand better from our local and state elected officials on Piney Point.   Stopping Sewage Spills    Our region has suffered from numerous sewage spills due to poor management of aging environmental infrastructure.  According to the City of Bradenton’s own reports, 160 million gallons of raw and partially treated sewage was dumped into the Manatee River over the last four years.  This contributed to declining conditions in our estuaries.  In 2021, we filed a notice of intent to sue the City of Bradenton over repeated sewage spills into our waterways.  We hope to resolve our case against Bradenton in 2022. Our previous sewage lawsuits have resulted in major investments in wastewater infrastructure and fewer sewage spills.  Together, we’re going to continue our work to reduce sewage spills on the Suncoast.  Water Quality Monitoring  To enjoy our waterways, we need to ensure that they are clean.  We sample water quality weekly to keep our community informed about the water they rely on for recreation, work and more.  In 2022, because of your support, we’ll continue to monitor water quality in our waterways.   Monitoring Public Information & Demanding Accountability In many ways, regulation and oversight in Florida is broken.  Our regulators have repeatedly ignored or failed to address threats to our water quality, quality of life and local economy.  That’s why we regularly monitor public records for information on water quality, pollution, harmful algae blooms and new and existing projects.  Monitoring this information allows us to let you know what is happening in our community and lets us know when we need to take action.   Your support means that we’ll be able to continue to work to protect our water.  We can’t afford to let pollution, contamination and inaction from our government officials threaten our water, quality of life and local economy.  Together, we’ll continue to make a difference in 2022.  Thank you,  Suncoast Waterkeeper http://www.suncoastwaterkeeper.org/

Commissioners: Respect the Charter and the People

Board of Sarasota County Commissioners

Date: 12.6.21

To: Mike Moran, Al Maio, Ron Cutsinger, Nancy Detert, Christian Ziegler

cc: Matt Osterhoudt, Ron Turner

Commissioners of Sarasota County:

You're in a bind. You have consistently fostered pro-growth policies and approved super-sized developments, despite public hearings that bring hundreds of people to your chambers in hopes of persuading you to moderate, if not halt, egregious development plans.

Your largesse has increased over time; your regulatory authority is so little used in development approval hearings that the rules have become flaccid, feckless things. Instead of assiduously applying the laws that express the people's wishes for their community's future, you have handed interpretation of our Comprehensive Plan to the construction syndicate. 

Tens of thousands of dwelling units are already approved and on your books. The total is far more, as I understand it, than the most liberal projections for the county's housing needs predict.Yet you refuse to publicly discuss the planning overview, the total context that would give us the basis for deciding when too much is too much. Knowledge of the facts would bring a strong reaction from our residents.

Here's the point: You have disappointed and angered people in each of the five districts -- people who deeply care about what is happening to the place where they and their neighbors live, where their children go to school, and where they once were happy. 

Because you know this, you are doing everything you can to turn upside down the voting structure we the people put in place in 2018.You know that your pro-growth insensitivity has angered many people in your districts, and you wish to avoid your official accountability to them.

So here's the math: Each district is drawn to contain roughly 75,000 voters. Each of those voters has had the opportunity to experience the pain and hassle, the traffic and construction detours caused by your approvals of developments where they live.

The only way to kneecap those 75,000 angry voters before they enthusiastically retire you from office is to have 285,827 people from other districts bury the informed electoral power of your district voters under an avalanche of ignorance.

Add this to your gerrymandered redistricting and the extent of de-democratization in Sarasota County becomes clear. This is not about Dems versus Republicans. It's about undermining Democracy itself. 

When the voters tell you to refrain from placing Single Member District voting on a costly special election ballot, listen to them, Commissioners. Do not approve any special election without itemizing in complete detail how many of our tax dollars will be needed if this bureaucratic tantrum is exercised.

Very truly yours,

Tom Matrullo 

Citizen of Sarasota County

Growth in Sarasota County and voter power

Growth in Sarasota 

County staff produced the information below to advise the Board about what large developments it has approved in North, Central, and South county. The document is not dated, and appears to be out of date. 

Some large housing projects the Board has approved in principle, such as Hi Hat Ranch, projecting 13,000 dwelling units, are not included. Then there's Wellen Park in South County, which projects 23,000 units totaling 60,000 residents. What other large developments, destined to be approved, are not included?

Add in Hi Hat and the total for North County alone is about 23,000 units. With Wellen, the county total comes to about 

79,000 dwelling units

What's not included are small developments, new developments, and developments yet to approach the Board for approval.

Most residents of the County never see this information, because it's not published for us, but maintained in-house for internal use.

Under Single Member District voting, you would be able to request this information for your district from your Commissioner, and ask him or her questions - such as, what will this do to our traffic? How much will the new services cost? What portion of these costs are paid for by the developers? 

And your Commissioner would have to provide you with real answers.

That's now how it is now. Under At-Large voting, you can ask all the questions you want of the 5 County Commissioners. They will just stare at you. They do not have to provide you with information, they often do not respond to emails from constituents, and rely on people to forget about the development issues in their district by the time the next election rolls around.

Single Member Districts count more than many imagine.

North County

Add Hi Hat Ranch: 13,000 units.

Central County

South County

                                    Add Wellen Park: 23,000 units

There's a way to slow this rampant growth. It's to make each Commissioner accountable to the voters of his or her district. In 2018, voters across all five districts approved Single Member District Voting. Now the Board is doing all it can to revoke the citizen Charter Amendment -- to avoid direct accountability to the people of their districts, whom they are supposed to represent.

Don't Let the Board Dumb Down Your Vote!

Retain Single Member Districts

Board Dead Set on Repealing Citizen Initiative

On December 7, the Board of Sarasota County Commissioners will designate a special election to repeal Single Member District voting.

They're back . . . Sarasota’s highest elected officials intend to undo a Charter Amendment that the electorate approved just three years ago.

What’s going on? Why does the Board want us to re-vote on an amendment we approved by 60 percent across all five districts in 2018?

Fueled by hollow rhetoric, reasons offered by the Commissioners have been shifting:

We the People were “confused” when we voted for Single Member Districts, according to Commissioner Al Maio.

After the public explained -- in person on three occasions and through a professional County poll -- that it was not confused, Commissioner Mike Moran offered another story: “Sly Democrat operatives” have fooled a gullible electorate into voting for Single Member Districts, he said.

When the non-partisan Citizens for District Power noted that the 2018 vote passed by a strong majority in all five Republican districts, Moran switched to “sly political operatives,” or just “sly operatives.”

Instead of describing voters as confused or hoodwinked, Commissioner Nancy Detert said, "I've never liked Single Member Districts, but I'm getting tired of trying to save people from themselves.”

Board of Sarasota County

Why are our elected Commissioners bound and determined to reverse this citizens’ amendment to Sarasota County’s Home Rule Charter?

In a word, fear.

The Board has a critical task: to evaluate and approve large-scale developer plans for housing projects, commercial centers, apartments and roads. What can happen to their political careers if each Commissioner had to answer to citizens impacted by their rapid-fire blanket developer approvals in his or her district?

Take for example the highly controversial “mega-hotels” recently approved on Siesta Key.

Scale of proposed Siesta Key hotel

Residents from some 70 Siesta Key HOAs hired lawyers and professional planners, and came out in force, presenting strong, cogent arguments why these hotels would be disastrous to the local character of the barrier island. To no avail -- the Board approved both hotels that have come before it (two more are in the pipeline). Under Single Member Districts, the Board members would be answerable to their district voters on Siesta Key. In a re-election, they’d face intense public scrutiny of their voting record.

When these same politicians are elected by all the voters of the County, they can avoid addressing issues of concern in their District. They’ll drown the mailboxes of North Port, Northeast Sarasota or Englewood with their mailers, knowing full well that many voters in other districts neither know about nor care what the Board allows developers to do to Siesta Key.

In the current economic environment, Countywide voting allows candidates to ignore everything that urgently matters to residents of their district. In recent years, incumbents have refused to participate in public forums or debates, to hold town hall meetings, even to be interviewed by the press.

That allows politicians running for our Board, which dedicates a great deal of time to growth issues in an overheated developer frenzy, to evade the people who want to preserve our Siesta Key and oppose mega hotels, or who fight the transformation of vast ranchlands into suburban gated communities, or who worry about an intersection that can’t handle oversized developments -- like Siesta Promenade at Stickney Point and US 41.

Single Member District voting requires each Commissioner to face the people who feel their neighborhoods, roads and environment are imperiled by their Board votes. And SMD candidates can reach their district voters without needing developer dollars or Dark Money, while Countywide campaigns cost at least $100,000.

Over time, special interests have made it clear that to even hope for their support, you have to publicly demonstrate your pro-growth credentials -- by serving on the Planning Commission, for example. Planning “commissioners” are not elected, but are appointed by County Commissioners -- Maio, Moran and District 5 Commissioner Ron Cutsinger all are alumni of that self-fulfilling loop.

Sarasotans worked hard to adopt Single Member Districts from a shared sense that growth here has gotten out of hand. Those who remember Sarasota as a place of taste, charm, and intelligence do not need to be saved from themselves. Rather, they need a level of political accountability that could save Sarasota from its at-large-elected officials.

Come to the Board Hearing on December 7 to speak, or simply to pack the room. The latest Hearing information will be posted to the home page of the Citizens for District Power site.

The Board discussion described above took place on Nov. 16, 2021, beginning at the 2 hour, 50-minute mark.