Chuck Webb’s Lesson In Motivations

Granted, City Commissioner Chuck Webb is a smart guy. A Marine officer with a degree from a prestigious law school (full disclosure: my law school, too) and a successful 25 year legal practice throughout the State of Florida. He is typically reserved unless provoked and it takes a lot to provoke him. His opinions appear to come with some thought and consideration of facts and circumstances instead of personalities and agendas. There have been hints and whispers of particular sympathies to and representation of aggressive development but his repeated insistence that current Pine Avenue green space remain untouched and that future plans require more green space is a welcomed sign.

And for those reasons his letter in this week’s Islander and Sun is just so, well, bizarre. Maybe he was rushed by the paper’s deadline or busy with a pending jury trial and ran out of time to actually read what he wrote but much of the piece is simply unsupportable and actually argues in favor of the Citizen’s Initiative petition he seems to be arguing against. We break it down after you hit the "Please Read More" link just below:

First, splitting hairs is an art practiced perhaps most proficiently by lawyers (mea culpa here). Webb argues that “City property will not be given to developers and tax dollars will not be spent on private development.” In a highly technical legal kind of way that may be true. There will certainly be no signing ceremony with the ubiquitous oversized check from Joe Taxpayer gifting the rights-of-way along Pine Avenue and its side streets to a smiling developer. No, it will be much more subtle and nefarious than that. By allowing the smiling developer to include the public rights-of-way in the parking equation necessary to satisfy site plan requirements instead of forcing him to figure out a way to handle his own congestion himself, the same result occurs:  taxpayer dollars used to maintain the very rights-of-way developers would be using to satisfy site plan requirements. So, okay, maybe he’s not being disingenuous but he’s close, splitting hairs maybe, kind of like "you say tomato, I say tomahto."

Second, his recollection that the parking committee determined “there was no current safety issue” certainly jives with the failed hopes and dreams of a few members of that committee, namely Micheal Coleman and Tom Aposporos, but it ignores reality. The commission minutes of February 11, 2010 which you can read by clicking HERE don’t get through the second paragraph before they record committee chairman Larry Albert telling the Commission, Webb included, that “the committee agreed that there was a safety issue…” Oops. And, of course, PAR’s parking savior Dan Burden put the issue to rest in his recent June 4th presentation to the Commission, again including Webb, when according to the minutes you can read HERE, “Mr. Burden stated that Anna Maria’s current parking method was the least safe.” It is not clear what Webb’s argument achieves by making this stuff up but the public record indicates his version of events is fiction.

Third, an old adage in lawyering goes something like this: If you got the law, argue the law. If you got the facts, argue the facts. If you got neither, scare ‘em. So Webb proceeds to tell people to “Imagine convenience stores stacked end to end...covered in pavement…” like “one continuous parking lot.” We gave him the benefit of the doubt the first time but not anymore. That is simply disingenuous rot, hyperbole intended to scare citizens into submissive acquiescence. Don’t buy it. No one is now considering nor will they ever consider building convenience stores end to end on Pine Avenue and you can be sure Webb himself will see to that. He knows it. More importantly you know it, so the next time you see him, tell him you know it and ask why he said it.

Fourth, Webb touts the joys and necessities of green space and trees and additional landscaping. That’s a good thing. And you can be sure he will be reminded of his words as future projects, some imminent, seek to rip out what little green space Pine Avenue has left. But read what he says very carefully. That new green space he champions will largely be on private property, controlled by property owners i.e. developers. In other words, let’s force the citizens to relinquish their rights-of-way so developers have room to pretty up their parcels with native flora and fauna. After all, who wants all those cars when the City is offering to find a spot for them on City controlled property. There is something very wrong with that picture.

Fifth, Webb urges us to “look at everyone’s motives.” Perhaps of everything he argues, that single phrase sums up the twisted tangle that is Pine Avenue parking politics. Motives? Okay let’s look at motives. Let’s start with some of the Citizen Initiative folks. Carl Pearman? You mean the guy Mayor Barford recently lauded publicly as a valuable and treasured member of the community? You know, Code Enforcement Board, Parking Committee. He has no skin in the Pine Avenue game and merely serves his community dutifully, as acknowledged by the Mayor and others. Judy Chable? Be honest, does she really strike you as someone bent on destroying “the charm and character of our town” as Webb would have you believe? Anna DeAugustine? Perhaps Webb has not met her but this relative newcomer to city issues is an articulate and fresh voice of reason in all of this parking madness. Read her “Emerald City” post by clicking HERE and then tell me she wants to “destroy” anything, much less the little city she loves so passionately. Larry Albert and Charlie Daniels are veteran Anna Marians. Their work and diligence in and for this town and its residents needs no garland from me. If Webb believes either of these gentlemen, or Carl, Judy and Anna, wants to “destroy the charm and character of our town” I’d invite him to say so publicly, on the record, to their face. It’ll never happen. And if he doesn’t believe it, why did he say it? Ask him next time you see him. Then tell us what he says.

But wait. Since Webb brought it up, let’s not forget the motives of the force driving this ugliness, Pine Avenue Restoration. As we broke down for you HERE and HERE in April, money motivates and conscientious bankers can be impatient taskmasters. It’s that simple. It has motivated PAR to relentlessly push the envelope with a take-no-prisoners strategy hammering at the City, its staff and its taxpayers to get what it wants. It has motivated PAR’s Micheal Coleman, the master of other people’s money, to retain a convicted thieving con-artist to create an expensive and divisive public records frenzy resulting in the resignations of good and valuable people; to sue the City he claims he loves over issues he knows he’ll lose; and, to bully shop owners and abusively intimidate fellow citizens when they simply disagree with his way of thinking. Sadly, it has also motivated Ed Chiles to ignore advice and counsel from friends and colleagues and to continue to risk a family legacy of philanthropy and community kindness by remaining in bed with the likes of Coleman and his felon, his lawyers and his lawsuits. Sad indeed.

Chuck Webb’s own motivations are known only to him. But, when considering whether to sign the Citizen’s Initiative on Pine Avenue parking, by all means, do exactly as he asks: “Look at everyone’s motives.” The picture is pretty clear isn’t it?

Print a copy of the initiative petition HERE and click HERE for information on how to make your signature count.

And stay informed.

Bill Yanger