Aug
15
Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton rapidly losing all credibility
Filed Under Florida Government, Jacksonville | Leave a Comment
The local rag in Jax, The Florida Times-Union, with it’s website, Jacksonville.com, are occasionally taken to task by smaller organizations for being too close and soft on business and political leaders in Duval County.
But, credit where credit is due, someone over there has their teeth into Mayor John Peyton’s rear-end and is shaking loose a host of sweetheart contracts awarded to friends and associates, including a $48,000 no-bid contract to an efficiency consultant.
Now, I have no idea if this person earned their money; I do know that a $48,000 no-bid contract in every business I’ve been associated with (Revenues ranging from $4M to $9Billion) would never fly. As someone that has been involved in selling products and services to the federal government for most of his career, I can say sole-source contracts exist when the government knows there is no viable alternative in the market.
This all comes on the heels of revelations of similar shady deals for a provider of IT consulting services, owned by a former Peyton staffer.
It is my opinion that IT consulting services and organizing-consulting services do not meet this threshold. Neither is unique, neither possesses technology nor skills that couldn’t be found elsewhere, and frankly, neither business has high barriers to entry.
Mayor Peyton has been a vocal opponent of property tax reform in Florida, warning that city services would have to be cut. When the reform package was passed and signed into law, Peyton submitted a budget that included heavy cuts in city services and new/increased fees for basic services.
A single instance, ok, you can forgive as a lapse in judgment or “slip”. But, it’s beginning to look like there is a pattern of corruption at Jax City Hall, and the mayor wants the taxpayers to foot the bill.
May
31
Here’s a big disclosure for everyone: I’m a big dude. So big, in fact, that I have two diet blogs! So, needless to say, I’m VERY familiar with the capabilities of an online calorie counter - I’ve used a number of them over the years.
Today, I created a profile at myfitnesspal.com, the sponsors of this post, because I wanted to judge for myself; frankly, I’m an expert at these things. The first thing I noted was that this is a free calorie counter - no monthly fees like other sites. The profile was easy to set up, in fact, it only took about a minute. You input your height, weight, birthdate, the level of activity you experience in your daily life, and the amount of exercise you do, and it generates nutritional and exercise goals. I was interested to see what was generated, and was surprised to see it matched the caloric intake I know works best for me. Most of these tools generate a caloric intake that’s too high for me.
The other cool thing is that you can customize the goals of your macronutrients to account for different diet programs - change them to match Atkins, South Beach, or just any old low-fat program. Another great feature is the exercise log that differentiates between aerobic and strength exercises. The food log is great for calorie counting. It is organized by meal, and even has a section to track the number of glasses of water you drink during the day. You can add food from their database and input the quantity you ate, and it will track your intake throughout the day. You can also create custom foods, which is a good feature to have in this day where so many of our meals come from boxes rather than scratch.
So, yeah, even though this was a sponsored post, I’m going to be using this as I work on my Florida beach body. Heck, the price is right - 100% free.
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May
14
From the files of too-stupid-to-know-better
Filed Under Florida Education, Florida Government | Leave a Comment
Forgive them - they too young and dumb to realize that once you add a “fee”, it defies the laws of physics that state that something that goes up must come down. Fees never come down, and volunteering to pay them damns the students that follow to pay escalations caused by an ever-increasing portfolio of “green projects”. After all, if I were a University president, every building in the planning stage would be classified as “green” and I’d rape that fund for every penny and hit those environmentally-aware-but-financially-stupid kids for every penny I could squeeze out of them. Or their parents.
Florida university students push for ‘green’ fees
Orlando Business Journal - 9:00 AM EDT Monday, May 14, 2007Students from the University of Central Florida, New College, Florida Atlantic University, University of Florida are working to kick-start a funding source to apply environmentally friendly practices on campuses. and the
The first phase of the plan is to incorporate a proposed 50- to 75-cent “green fee” into tuition to finance projects that would campus energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The proposals are asking for a campus sustainability committee made up of students, faculty and staff to oversee those funds.
UCF’s green fee campaign is expected to be voted on by students during the student government elections in the fall. It follows the national campaign Campus Climate Challenge, under which similar proposals have been made at southeastern colleges, such as the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and the University of Tennessee.
“Campuses use a large portion of the nations energy from non-renewable resources like coal which contribute to global warming pollution,” says Stephen Mortellaro, UCF student senator and green fee campaign coordinator, in a prepared statement. “We’ve got to do something and the [green] fee seems like a great first step.”
UF’s Gators for Sustainable Campus group recently passed a student vote with 78 percent approval. The issue is awaiting review by the board of trustees this summer.
Apr
23
Places I’ve Lived: Tampa (New Tampa)
Filed Under New Tampa, Tampa | Leave a Comment
Tampa is a cool city, with many activities for all ages. You’ve got Ybor City for the party crowd, but even there you can find restaurants and bars for older, more sedate patrons. There’s the beach, of course, and a decent cultural scene that consists of art museums, performing arts centers, and colleges and universities.
One of my kids favorite activities was the Jr. Gasparilla, usually held within a week or two of the Gasparilla race. The Jr. Gasparilla, has races of different lengths by age group for children from about 3 yrs of age up to 11 (I think!). There’s lots of activities, and best of all, it’s free thanks to the Mendez Foundation.
As for New Tampa… well… let’s just say we left for a reason!
The place is exploding, with property values that had headed out of sight. The problem with the area is that most of the homes are located in Community Development Districts (CDD) and subdivisions with Homeowner’s Associations. The dues for each of these groups can rival your tax bill. In 1999, for instance, a house we purchased 18 months earlier for $120K cost almost $4,000/yr in taxes, CDD and HOA fees.
Another problem with the area is that developers pretty much clear-cut the land and filled in the swamps to create these communities (my mother calls people that buy homes in places like this “Goober-smoochers” - I don’t know what it’s supposed to mean). There is some wetlands protection, but it’s minimal and it seems like the developers get to include golf courses as part of the wetlands. Whatever. Anyway, I wasn’t happy there and found the competitiveness for homes, schools, kids, salaries, etc. most unpleasant. In fact, it sucked.
Anyway, before I launch into a tirade against the Goober-Smoochers, I’ll wrap this post up by saying Tampa’s a great place to visit, but I don’t want to live there. 
Technorati Tags: Tampa, New Tampa, Goober-Smoocher, Mendez Foundation, Gasparilla
