Currently Browsing: Palm Bay
Nov 3, 2018
Posted by AAfterwit on Nov 3, 2018 | 4 comments
As a bit of a background in case you weren’t aware, City Council Seat 5 is up for grabs and the election is between incumbent Jeff Bailey and Aaron Parr.
We haven’t seen the same fireworks between Bailey and Parr and their respective supporters and we think that is due to Bailey letting his record and his ideas speak for themselves. He is just not willing to engage in the type of manure slinging that we have seen elsewhere.
We were therefore somewhat surprised by this post from Aaron Parr on Thursday night at the City Council meeting.
There’s a problem with this.
Here is a screen shot of Bailey at the meeting during Tres Holton’s “farewell address.”
Why looky looky!
There is Councilman Bailey sitting in his customary seat.
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Nov 2, 2018
Posted by AAfterwit on Nov 2, 2018 | 9 comments
In August of last year, we sent our graphics guy up to the meeting of the Palm Bay City Council
We had several issues that he discussed including a failed public records request that was not filled completely by the City and then City Attorney Andrew Lannon. That presentation failed so we sent him up there again armed this time with a full blown graphic presentation on the law, what was required, etc. Lannon admitted no wrong doing, but Councilman Tres Holton attacked our guy from the dais which led to another presentation on what we felt was corruption in the City.
The meeting was long and during a break, our guy decided to leave the meeting and head home.
As he left, he was approached by two men.
One of the men said he was running for City Council to replace Tres Holton. He then said that he appreciated what our guy had said and that he agreed with us. The men and our guy talked for about 10 – 15 minutes. The man explained his background and philosophy. Our guy explained that he did the graphics on Raised on Hoecakes and he invited the man to stop by and read the content.
It was a pleasant conversation and before our guy left he shook hands with the candidate.
The candidate reiterated the he liked what we said about Holton and the City and he wanted to help clean it up. He said that he hoped that he could have our guy’s support.
Our guy explained that we don’t endorse candidates on the site, but if he was elected, we would hold him to the same standard that we held Holton.
The man said he would want nothing less and expected nothing less.
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Nov 1, 2018
Posted by AAfterwit on Nov 1, 2018 | 9 comments
This is the third time we have used the above image in a post. The prior two are here and here.
Questions have arisen as to why we chose to blur out the person to whom Robert Burns was talking to and the content of their discussion.
No one has bothered to stop by here and ask us directly and instead have chosen to attribute our blurring to some nefarious purpose in other forums.
We want to end that speculation now.
We blurred the other person and the topic of conversation because it had nothing to do with Robert Burns’ threats to sue people. (For those who don’t remember, Burns is Kenny Johnson’s campaign manager.)
The topic or gist of the thread had to do with Johnson’s past, which Burns doesn’t like being brought up.
(When the issue was raised, we covered the Johnson campaign’s response here. The campaign was kind enough to mail us their response which we published in its entirety. We know the particulars of the allegations and have decided to not make them public for a variety of reasons.)
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Oct 30, 2018
Posted by AAfterwit on Oct 30, 2018 | 2 comments
As you can imagine, our post this morning was met with some interesting reactions – including one from the Mr. Johnson Jr., himself. More on that in a moment.
This series of posts from Facebook caught our eye:
There are a couple things to address here. One, instead of addressing the issue, the person labels us an “unreliable source” and then labels us as “racist.”
To the commenter, you are certainly free to address our pack of facts on this issue. We try very hard not to miss the mark on the stories we do. When we do miss the mark, we apologize and move on. So please dear commenter, address what we have gotten factually wrong about this story.
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Oct 30, 2018
Posted by AAfterwit on Oct 30, 2018 | 4 comments
The races for Seat 4 and Seat 5 for the Palm Bay City Council have been rather nasty, but this takes the cake.
In the race for Seat 4, supporters of Thomas Gaume and supporters of Kenny Johnson Jr., have been going at it tooth and nail. The Johnson supporters have been led by the Johnson campaign manager, Robert Burns.
Yesterday, Burns threatened people with lawsuits and said that process servers were either coming to, or preparing to come to people’s homes to serve them with lawsuits.
Here is but one screen capture of Burns trying to silence a person with the threat of a lawsuit:
There are many problems with this.
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Sep 4, 2018
Posted by AAfterwit on Sep 4, 2018 | 6 comments
According to multiple independent sources, Palm Bay City Councilman Calvin “Tres” Holton has packed up his house and left the city.
There are several implications to this.
His leaving the town he claimed to love and serve means that Holton should not be able to vote in any upcoming meeting.
The City Charter requires a City Council member to be a resident of the city. With Holton abandoning his residence, the implications are clear. He no longer meets the standards to sit on the Council.
The real issue then becomes “what happens to Holton’s seat?”
The City Charter does not allow a sitting Council member to have 4 unexcused absences in a row. Furthermore, the absent Council member can’t just say “I’m sick” or something like that. The absence and the reason has to be verified and approved.
3.063 Absenteeism.
(1) Absence from four (4) consecutive regular meetings of the council, or a total of six (6) within a twelve (12) month period, shall vacate the seat of the member. The city clerk shall notify the council of the third and fourth consecutive absences or the sixth within a twelve (12) month period of any councilmember.
(2) Absences created by illness, mental or physical disability, written suspension by court order, or other lawful written order or action shall not be considered absences for purposes of this subsection. However, the existence of an illness or mental or physical disability must be established by written medical evidence setting forth in detail the nature and cause of the illness or mental or physical disability and the prognosis thereof.
With the Seat vacant, the City Council appoints someone to fill the vacancy as per the City Code:
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Aug 24, 2018
Posted by AAfterwit on Aug 24, 2018 | 1 comment
Two of these things are NOT John Mendoza
There has been a great deal of acrimony in this year’s elections in Palm Bay, and nowhere is that acrimony greater than in the race for Seat Four between Calvin “Tres” Holton, Thomas Gaume, and Kenny Johnson.
While in most campaigns there are barbs thrown back and forth, this election has been different. In posts on Facebook there have been pleas for decorum only to be followed by posts that attack everyone who disagrees with someone else. (If we had a nickel for every ad hominem attack we have seen, the entire staff here would retire.) For the most part the candidates themselves have tried to stay above the fray. That is not to say that the candidates have either directed or encouraged supporters to be more like attack dogs, but it seems that is what has happened.
One of the “attack dogs” who has been particularly vicious has been an account by the name of “John Mendoza,” who is a supporter of Holton.
Both the Gaume and the Johnson camp have wondered who this person is as they are not registered to vote within Palm Bay. Speculation from those camps has always been that “John Mendoza” might be Holton himself but that was a tough nut to prove.
Until now.
In a forum, the following exchange took place between a Gaume supporter and “John Mendoza.”
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Aug 21, 2018
Posted by AAfterwit on Aug 21, 2018 | 8 comments
The Johnson campaign has released a statement in response to the information that we talked about the other day in a post. At the time, we said that as there was not much known about the alleged incident, people would have to decide for themselves whether what was disclosed mattered to them in deciding who to vote for.
As we discuss below, we think the statement from the campaign should be added to that equation.
Here’s the statement:
Campaign Official Statement of 2015 Incident
We can confirm there was an arrest. As a result of an investigation all charges were dropped. The record was expunged by mutual agreement to protect all parties involved. This information was not released prior because that is the entire purpose on an expungement.
The other party involved in the incident is aware of the current political attacks and at the request of the family, the campaign had not released a statement up to this point. We have been asked not to share further details about the incident to protect their privacy, and to avoid the same attacks, slander, and libel that I and my campaign manager have faced in recent weeks.
Local authorities have opened an investigation into how this information was obtained and disseminated publicly by people involved with our opponents’ campaign.
Since the incident in question, Kenny is a current certified A Plus Volunteer with Brevard Public Schools which requires an extensive background check by the State of Florida. He was awarded the 2018 Partner of the Year Award from Brevard Public Schools.
Our campaign is focused on how to come together as a community to move our City forward, together. We are focused on running a positive campaign for the betterment of our community. It’s unfortunate that others have felt the need to resort to negative campaigning and petty politics. This type of political mudslinging is exactly what’s wrong with government and why it’s time for a change at City Hall.
We understand this response will not and cannot satisfy everyone. We encourage that you vote based on who you think will best serve the City of Palm Bay and the community. It is important to remember there is another party involved, and they deserve the privacy and protection they have requested. For that reason there will be no further comment on the matter.
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