Alachua City Hall catches fire....records burn..curiouser and curiouser

[madfloridian]

I have written a lot here about the mess in Alachua City, Florida. Charges were dropped against Charlie Grapski after he was charged with felony wiretapping though his tape recorder was sitting in plain view on a table.

Here is the background:

More vindication for the Alachua voting activist...Charlie Grapski

State: Watson breaking law by also being police officer"

ALACHUA - As both a city law enforcement officer and the Alachua city manager, Clovis Watson Jr. is illegally holding two offices, according to opinions written by the Attorney General.

That now leads to questions about the validity of arrests that Watson has made since 2002, including the well-known arrest of Charlie Grapski on charges that were later thrown out of court.

Questions also are raised about the fact that the city puts extra, "special risk" money into Watson's retirement fund, treating him as a police officer. Watson has even been given a second title, called "police commissioner."

Much more at the link.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/714

But now it just gets more interesting, much more interesting.

http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2006/12/04/breaking_news/break01.txt

ALACHUA -- Alachua City Hall caught fire Sunday night with flames shooting through the roof, and the building is so extensively damaged that mobile homes will be brought in Tuesday to act as a temporary City Hall for roughly three months.

The electrical system is the suspected culprit, said Alachua City Manager Clovis Watson Jr., who stood outside City Hall early Monday morning, directing city workers to other city buildings for emergency meetings.

Watson said the fire appears to have started near the room where city computer files are kept. Those city files primarily included financial information. Watson said the city works with an outside company on the city's utility billing, payroll and other financial information, and he said that company is going to send the backed-up information to the city by Tuesday.


PHOTO OF CITY HALL: The fire is believed to have started near the Alachua City Hall computer room (seen at left in the hallway). A more detailed inspection began around 11:30 a.m. today after a crane lifted air-conditioning units off the roof. The units could have fallen into City Hall at any time because of the weakened structure. (Photo By Ronald Dupont Jr.)

And several interesting comments posted by Charlie at HEP.

http://howardempowered.blogspot.com/2006/12/alachua-city-hall-catches-fire.html

I have been pushing for a number of key financial and other related public records.

I stated that if I did not receive them by today I would take legal action.

Then last night - about midnight - the fire.

Just move along, folks. Nothing to see here at all.

[Mnemosyne]

1. kick for curiosity. n/t

[madfloridian]

2. Thanks for the response. These posts always drop and disappear.

So rapidly. It is amazing what goes on in Florida without anyone especially noticing.

[KingFlorez]

3. That does raise a red flag

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Don't get too excited.

Alachua county is a blue county, isn't it?

[madfloridian]

5. Read up on the background I posted above.

Not about red and blue.

About elections and people holding too many jobs, etc.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Local government hijinks in Florida is bad, madfloridian.

I hope they get down to the core of the trouble, but I think the problem is that too many people in this country, and especially in this state, think that greed is good and that stealing from the public is an acceptable trade-off for progress. I wish, I really wish we could call an agency where we can report things we've seen happen with the city's knowledge, and know that the agency will clean up the graft for us, regardless if there are Democrats or Republicans involved.

[madfloridian]

8. There's a tale I could tell...

About a local bunch of city commissioners and county commissioners who sold our area out to developers. The land use change and restrictions in the paper are taking up more room than the news now.

When you put developers in charge of government, you get...guess what...uncontrolled development.

Other stuff, too, but that is what is really getting to me. I see areas having condos and other huge single and multifamily dwellings being built on land that was country and rural not long ago.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. And the worst of it is that the people are used as useful idiots to

protect the greedy bastards who are pocketing the profit and acting like they're entitled to it. Nobody has successfully been able to explain to the public that the more they demand for property rights, for example, the more they're squeezing their own balls. Developer-lawyers are only too happy to represent pro-bono an individual homeowner on something like the use of wetlands because if that individual gets the right to undue the wetland restrictions, then the developer gets to use the case as precedent to bulldoze an entire swamp. And of course, an individual homeowner gets more sympathy from the public and has their support. Unfortunately for everyone, they're just too stupid to see that the case is being used as a Trojan Horse.

In the same vein, some residents will sell out their own neighbors and make terrible decisions as Association leaders. Those decisions may have short term gains for a few connected individuals, but devastating consequences to future homeowners for years to come. But, when you have the support and protection of the city, local community leaders and local attorneys, it's just too tempting to pass up. That's the big secret scandal in my city. In the name of progress, Association leaders are doing some self-serving things that the city might want and support, but that the residents of the communities are never told about until it's too late.

Hell, in my community, two out of three board members have For Sale signs up because they know the shit is about to hit the fan. The future came too soon for them.

[madfloridian]

6. Video of Charlie talking to the Alachua City Commission.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/689

"Operation Red intends on converting Alachua County, one of the two Democratic Counties in Florida, to a Republican majority through the use of funds coming from corporate developers and big-box stores and the attempt to influence the African American voters to switch to the Republican Party.

You can see the publication Grapski is referring to at http://freealachua.org "

And when Jake Fuller does a cartoon about the guy who are criticizing...well, you have done something right.

[rman]

10. let me guess: they have no off-site backup

of those computer files.

[w4rma]

11. Original paper records will have been destroyed. They might have scanned them into the computers.

Off site tape backups are standard with such important data. They *should* have them unless the people in charge of that are extremely incompetant (or corrupt).

[madfloridian]

12. Just doing a little search on Alachua...fascinating.

Developers have been burying tortoises alive?

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061204/LOCAL/61204009/-1/news

"In addition, the Nature Conservancy is buying the nearby 1,300-acre Barry's Ranch property. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Wednesday will vote on purchasing the land for a gopher tortoise preserve. It would reimburse the conservancy the $10 million cost out of a fund made up of fees charged to developers who bury tortoises.

As many as 70,000 gopher tortoises have been buried in the last 14 years under the system. But the fish and wildlife commission in January voted to propose declaring the species as threatened. The move launched the development of a new management plan, which should be completed by 2007.

Ashton said he's optimistic the plan will mean the end of the state-approved burial of gopher tortoises. The new program could provide incentives to protect existing tortoise habitat and create preserves that benefit relocated tortoises and other species, he said.

"Instead of losing tortoises, we'll be using tortoises for conservation," he said."

On edit, this is Alachua County I think, not sure.

[madfloridian]

13. Alachua City Hall was for sale? I missed that. To highest bidder.

http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2006/11/22/news/news06.txt

For Sale: Alachua City Hall, 1.32 acres, for $1.5 million-plus
High Springs Heralds, FL - Nov 22, 2006

ALACHUA - "Alachua City Hall is worth at least $1.5 million and will be put up for sale to the highest bidder, and 11 other city properties will be put up for sale, too, the city commission voted Monday.

A few residents at Monday's meeting questioned the city's decision to sell the properties, saying more discussion was needed on whether selling the land was the best decision for the city to make. Residents also questioned why City Manager Clovis Watson Jr. was being given the sole discretion to determine to whom to sell the 11 parcels of land.

For more than a year, Alachua city commissioners have discussed what might happen to City Hall once the new one was built. Commissioners had remarked that they were not sure how much the 3,930-square-foot city hall and its 1.32-acre parcel of land was worth.

An appraisal and market analysis by SRS Appraisal Service and Stephen Silberman set the value at $1.5 million."