Don Marsh for City Commission

“Gamblers who bet the house and lose end up with their furniture on the lawn and no place to live. The city of Buena Vista has bet the house — its city hall, actually — and is now in danger of losing it as payment for a multimillion-dollar debt.” Read the rest of this story about a city and its money-losing golf course. Hey! We’ve got one of those!

We need to remember that our city commissioners insisted on keeping Iron Wood Golf Course, even though it is projected to lose $300,000 per year.  They have just committed to borrow millions of dollars to renovate this money pit and to build a one-stop homeless center. And what will they do when these losing propositions go south? They can just keep raising your electric and water bills because they will need more and more money transferred to the general fund from GRU.

Or, they can just create a new fee, like the one they hit us with for fire services. Because they overspent on Ironwood, they had to switch to a new fee to pay what your property taxes used to pay for.

During the past Mayoral race, I can recall how the fire assessment fee was brought up. It was always to be levied against churches and non-profits. Over and over again, this was how it was framed. It was to be against churches and non-profits. Now we have discovered that they were not the only targets. Everyone is getting robbed!

It seems to me that this was the intention all along. But churches and non-profits were trotted out as the “someone else” that the public could accept as the victim of a higher tax burden.  As long as it’s someone else that gets hit, it doesn’t move us. Now that people who live in the unincorporated area are getting their bills from the county, all property owners get to be that special “someone else”. Ah, yes. To borrow from Martin Niemoller, “When they came for the churches and non-profits, I did nothing.”

Now that the election is over, and reality is setting in, we need to consider why this new fee, and all the higher fees and higher utility rates happen. Simply put, it is the city’s addiction to meet needs that are not their responsibility. For instance, it is going to cost millions to narrow streets in Gainesville to make them more “pedestrian-friendly”. Then we are going to clog those marrow streets with nearly-empty buses and trolley cars. The money spent on this Soviet-style central planning is what SHOULD have been spent on the fire department. But selling people on “the street narrowing tax” would be a harder sell, so they deceive you by telling you that fire services must be cut if they don’t have the fee. The truth is, stupid planning adventurism must be cut!

We recently had to pass a bond to build the One-Stop Homeless Center and to refurbish a golf course that the city admits WILL NEVER MAKE MONEY. Every other golf course in the county makes money, but we need to take out a loan to keep this one running UNprofitably. Instead of whipping out the city’s Visa card, why not pass a Homeless Shelter and Golf Course Assessment Fee? Instead, we are baited and switched again. This expense will show up under “debt service” or something else that hides its meaning next year, when we have to make the payments. None of this stuff is free. And it’s all part of the reason you’re getting hit with a new fee.

And let’s not forget our glorious electric bills. In the city’s budget summary, they even tell us that rates must be raised because of the rate-payers’ conservation measures. It only makes sense. When they depend on tens of millions of dollars to flow in from GRU, and their customers cut back on how many kilowatt hours they use, they have to raise what they are charging per kilowatt hour! So, if you are like me, trying to implement cost savings by paying for new windows and solar tubes and solar hot water heaters out of my own pocket, and you wonder why your rates keep climbing, wonder no more! What you do means nothing! It’s all about the city and their appetite for your money!

Next time, elect people who want to do less with the power of city government. Elect people who want to cut back on government, cut back on fees and taxes, and have fewer needs to harass you. Elect me, Don Marsh, to be your at large city commissioner next March.

This is the last call for voters to show up and demand that they have the opportunity to vote on whether or not our county commission will have single member districts.  This is not a city issue, but it is a matter of whether or not we will continue to have a Gainesville-centric county commission. Currently, all 5 county commissioners must each live in the district they serve. However, they are elected at-large, which means that the districts are essentially meaningless. People in Waldo or Hawthorne or Micanopy  or High Springs or Newberry may be in a certain commission district, but the people of Gainesville elect their representative.  Is this fair? Should the people of Alachua County be allowed to at least VOTE on it? So far, about half the charter review committee has made like it would be some sort of disaster, and some people have come forward to claim their would be racial unrest if we had single member districts. Please come out to the County Administration Building tonight and speak out or the demagogues will have their way. Do not let false accusations of racism chill the debate! Let the people vote!

Last night the Gainesville City Commission voted 6-1, only Lauren Poe dissenting, to levy a fire services fee on all property owners. Churches and non-profits are not to be exempt.

The Gainesville Sun reported that, “the assessment — which technically is not a fee or a tax — would raise $7,166,675 next fiscal year”. This is the kind of lying that is done to try and fool the public into thinking that their taxes are not being raised. Call it what you want; it’s a tax. Likewise, when GRU raises its rates another 3% as promised, its purpose is to insure a larger transfer to the general fund. It’s also a tax. And when traffic fines are raised and policing becomes more and more aggressive, it’s a tax. The city needs more and more money because it spends more and more money. Yet, some blinking incumbent will sit and tell you next year that he didn’t raise taxes. Don’t you believe it!

The real issue is, as usual, runaway spending. That is WHY they need to increase your cost of living. Fire service is a fundamental thing that your property taxes are supposed to be paying for! To charge you extra for this service is like going to Subway to buy the $5 foot long, and getting charged $6 at the register because there is a Meat Assessment!

At the same meeting, Commissioners voted 6-1 to issue $5.3Million in bonds to pay for their unpopular One Stop Homeless Center and Ironwood Golf Course and Money Pit. For the uninitiated, this means they borrowed the money and that you will be assessed, fined or taxed at a later date.

Yesterday Cherie Fine, Craig Lowe’s attorney, told Judge Victor Huslander that her client would be sworn in under a week, and that this issue of voter fraud must be resolved immediately to keep her client from having to govern under a shadow of doubt. Although it was her earnest hope that the lawsuit filed by Phil Courson and Mason Alley would be tossed out today due to sloppy paperwork, the hearing will be continued on the 18th, just 2 days before Lowe is to be sworn in. Read about it in Alachua Voter Guide.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a report yesterday that celebrated a statewide crime decrease of 6.4% to a 39 year low. Unfortunately, Gainesville bucked that trend by heading in the wrong direction: crime has increased 36% since 2005.

It is not surprising to me in a town where law enforcement has to compete with a failing golf course for funding. Our city commission has asked police and fire to expect a 15% cut at a time when we are experiencing a crime wave. This is symptomatic of a city infested with a cult of overplanning. Millions are spent to make Gainesville “pedestrian friendly” while it becomes less safe to actually walk the streets.

Gainesville needs to get back to basics and provide for core services like police, fire, emergency services and good roads. This will only happen when the voters hold them accountable by showing up. A voter turnout of 9-14% tells commissioners, “We don’t care. Do whatever you like.”

Last month, 86% of voters opted out of making their commissioners listen to them. If you want to fight crime in Gainesville, start by voting in new leadership with better priorities.

During a phone banking operation last night, one of our volunteers got into a conversation with a member of the Evergreen Cemetery Association. That person gave us a number to call, and I called that person immediately. They are concerned that the city is wanting to develop the cemetery property. Presumably, this would include exhuming the remains and interring them somewhere else.

Evergreen Cemetery is a city owned cemetery, and a local heritage landmark. To me, it seems unthinkable and sacrilegious to develop this piece of land. I know that the city is committed to “infill development”, but this is beyond bad taste. If they want to remove a local landmark, I believe Ironwood Golf Course is still available!

If this is some sort of false alarm, the city needs to give its assurances to the members of the Evergreen Cemetery Association. If it is a real threat, I hope that I can help alleviate it after I take office.

Don Marsh

When I got into this race, I had my reasons. Obviously, I was unhappy about something, or I would not be going to so much trouble to effect the changes I want. As this campaign has grown, and others have gotten on board, I have found that many other people not only share my point of view, but some have brought reasons of their own! I just want to list those reasons here. You may find that you have a reason to become a part of it!

1. GRU electric rates. Yes, this was the original and most popular reason. It’s a cause that cuts across party lines and all sorts of socioeconomic barriers. A city commission that is tone deaf to this problem is destined to find opposition.
2. Koppers. I am finding that many environmentalists feel betrayed by a city commission that has talked a good game on the environment but that is, in the end, just a lot of talk. Whether it’s opposing the new tree-burning power plant, or cleaning up a Superfund site. I want to honor and prioritize the concerns of local Greens.
3. Police and Fire. Our first responders feel scapegoated by a city government that thinks it is only “fair” to make public safety take the same hit as other projects during a recession. And many individual fire-fighters are not happy that their union endorsed my opponent before talking to any other candidate.
4. East Gainesville. As we have walked the predominantly African-American neighborhoods of the East side, we hear that these people feel taken for granted. They groan at being given a park or beautification projects when they need opportunity for economic advancement.
5. Downtown businesses. Whether it’s a shop on ripped apart Main St., or local watering holes that feel endlessly harassed by a city that never thinks they are good enough, small businesses operate in a hostile government environment.
6. Angry insiders. I have received more than a few calls from people within the system who are upset at mismanagement and corruption. They want change, and they want new faces who are not connected to the powerful.
7. Churches. People of faith feel scorned by a city commission that looks down on them and judges their motives. When churches came to meetings to voice their concerns, they were called names and associated with hate groups. Then they were told they needed to pay a new fire services fee. The city needs to cultivate a better relationship with its many churches.
8. Commuters. People who drive want to know why fixing the existing roads is a lower priority than expensive and counterproductive cosmetic projects, like making Main St. more “pedestrian friendly”.

Feel free to add your reason to the comments section! And thank you to everyone who calls to say they are telling their friends about me, and the people I see holding my signs on street corners that I have never met, and all my friends who have reappeared from all the stages of my adult life to help.

Don Marsh

This week it was brought to my attention that Craig Lowe supporters were going through the Stephen Foster Neighborhood, removing my signs and defaming me as a gay-basher. I hold Craig Lowe personally responsible for this because he and his willing accomplices keep raising the specter of gay bashing without making any effort to hear from me, his only opponent! This silent accusation (and not so silent in the student-run Alligator rag) is now forcing me to divert attention from the issues that have been central to my campaign from early on: his inactivity on cleaning up Koppers, his guilt in raising our GRU electric bills, his threats to cut police and fire, and a new fire services fee on churches and non-profits. And frankly, that serves a man well who has been treading water, a do-nothing on the city commission since 2003.

Further exacerbating this, the irresponsible leaders of Dove World Outreach decided to stick an oar in the water and put up a sign that said, “No Homo Mayor”. This was brought to my attention by Sun reporter Chad Smith, who wanted my reaction. He got one. It didn’t see print. I told him that I called Dove personally and told them to get rid of it. I went on the record, but the record never got published. Thanks, Gainesville Sun.

Craig Lowe’s tone deafness to the citizens of Gainesville is made further manifest by the fact that his clowns are attacking me in the Stephen Foster Neighborhood. These neighbors are already aware of his deceitfulness in claiming credit for getting Koppers to agree to close and move. Their leadership showed up at one of the candidate forums at the Untied Church of Gainesville and called him out publicly for lying about his record. It was pretty exciting stuff, but you never read about it in the Sun.

I have been building bridges to the other voters who voted against Craig Lowe (about 60% of us) on March 16 because we have similar views on Koppers and on the poorly conceived biomass plant that he loves so much. That is what I am doing that Craig Lowe is not: forming new partnerships and listening to other constituents. He is ginning up fear and staying on his proven course of empty rhetoric. The choice gets clearer every day. VOTE APRIL 13!

If you are trying to come to grips with how we could have a toxic waste producer CONTINUE to pollute for 27 years after it gets named a Superfund site by the EPA, watch this!