Three Consent Agenda Fraud Scenarios: Discredited

Charlie Grapski said:
2) You beg the biggest question of all. Show me a time when the City of Gainesville or the County of Alachua has KEPT something on a consent agenda WHEN a member of the public requested to give input into the matter?

Very good, Charlie! A third change in your Consent Agenda Fraud Scenario. Your feet move faster than anybody I know. Let’s review your, so far, three different Consent Agenda Fraud Scenarios:

Charlie’s Consent Agenda Fraud Scenario #1:
Consent agenda is illegal because it implies consent from each commissioner, up-front – which implies communication between the commissioners – which results in a violation of Sunshine Laws.

Scenario #1 Discredited:
We pointed out that you don’t understand how the consent agenda works. It doesn’t require prior consent by the commissioners. The manager or staff can put items on the consent agenda. In fact, if you look at the City of Gainesville Consent agenda, they have a section for each department that puts stuff on the consent agenda. Fraud Scenario #1: discredited

Charlie’s Consent Agenda Fraud Scenario #2:
We proved you wrong on 1, so you modified your fraud scenario to “How they use the consent agenda”. You claim that they cannot put substantive items on the consent agenda. In your postings across the net, including at HowardEmpowered.com, you claimed that expending money and approving the application of grants were substantive items. On howardempowered.com, you specifically complained about the last consent agenda in which the city accepted a road for which a grant had been awarded, about 2 years ago. From your posting, you, obviously, didn’t understand that the road had been approved about 2 years ago, the grant awarded, and the only thing left was the housekeeping as required by the grant for the city to accept the road.

Scenario #2 Discredited:
The Gainesville City Commission and the Alachua County Commission both use the consent agenda and both use it for items that you describe as substantive. Bud has pointed out $5,300,000 expenditure on the 07-11-06 Alachua County Commission consent agenda. During the 06-12-06 meeting of the Gainesville City Commission, the commission approved $75,000 on the consent agenda. At the 06-26-06 Gainesville City Commission meeting, on the consent agenda was an item to apply for grants from the Department of Homeland Security totally more than $2.2 million over 5 years, and, if awarded, the city would kick in a matching amount of more than $2.2 million over 5 years. Fraud Scenario #2: discredited

Charlie’s Consent Agenda Fraud Scenario #3:
Show me a time when the City of Gainesville or the County of Alachua has KEPT something on a consent agenda WHEN a member of the public requested to give input into the matter?

Scenario #3 Discredited:
I don’t know that they have, or haven’t, and neither do you. The problem with this scenario is that you never asked in the appropriate fashion. The agendas are available before the meeting. Before the last couple of meetings, both Michael Canney and David Russ asked to have items removed from the consent agenda. The City of Alachua accommodated them. They know the proper procedure. It is NOT the proper procedure for a member of the public to stand up and start shouting out motions. Robert’s Rules apply to the commission members, and DOES NOT APPLY TO YOU, as a member of the public. It seems that you are the only one that doesn’t know how to have an item removed from the Consent Agenda.

The only fraud being perpetrated on the public is by you, dear Charlie. You are also perpetrating a huge fraud on your howardempowered.com friends. I don't blame them, because they only know what you tell them.

As a public actor and as a prototypical Alachua County Democrat, Charlie, your actions have been reckless and immoral with the goal of nothing more than stopping economic development, job creation and of progressivly creating an unattainable socialist utopia.


Posted by SJ