FKAA Board Chairman Under Criminal Investigation
by Naja and Arnaud Girard**…….
UPDATE: 9/18/2015
Click here for updated article: State Attorney Challenges FKAA Chairman’s Right To Vote In Key West Elections
As of Thursday afternoon, the office of the Monroe County State Attorney has begun investigating the Chairman of the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority [FKAA] Board of Directors.
J Robert Dean (aka Bob Dean), the man who for years has been presiding over a board that commands a $50 million annual operating budget and over $200 Million in Keys central sewer construction contracts, may have been lying about having the right to his seat on the FKAA board.
If confirmed, the fraud would also involve Mr. Dean’s right to vote in Key West elections and, as it turns out, his right to a seat on another mysterious multimillion dollar board: The Key West Housing Authority.
It all started last week with the controversial resignation of another FKAA board member: Melva Wagner.
The claim was that Ms. Wagner no longer lived in the Florida Keys (a violation of the state’s enabling statute that governs FKAA). She tried, with the support of FKAA’s attorney, to deny the accusation, but by the end of the week even her own [former] neighbors had made public affirmations that Wagner and her family had moved to Naples for good over a year ago. She resigned.
Now the same claim is made against Chairman Dean himself. However, in his case, the consequences could be much more dire.
In 2005, Mr. Dean was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to represent the Key West district on the FKAA Board of Directors. Last week a Blue Paper article pointed out that Mr. Dean has a homestead exemption for his Key Haven home. If Dean lives outside city limits he is not eligible to represent Key West. Mr. Dean however claims that he lives on Bahama Street, behind his Key West funeral home.
“Are we really expected to believe,” asks Colby Fisher, who has been investigating job fixing allegations at FKAA for the past year, “that Mr. Dean lives at 417 Bahama Street with at least 5 other people [based on names found on front porch mailboxes] while his 80 year old wife lives alone in a house outside the Key West city limits?”
Colby Fisher observed that there are two mailboxes at 417 Bahama Street. However, the two paper tags affixed to the boxes are attributed to other people, not Robert Dean.
But his position on the FKAA board may not be Mr. Dean’s main problem. The issue is compounded by the fact that, even though he and his wife claim a homestead in Key Haven, Robert Dean is registered to vote in Key West.
“Homestead,” said Supervisor of Elections, Joyce Griffin, “should normally determine where you vote. Voting rules and homestead rules are kind of joined together. If he is voting out of his precinct, it is a criminal offense.”
On Wednesday, her office mailed Dean a voter information card asking him to state whether or not he lives in Key West. “The criteria for us is basically where do you sleep,” says Ms. Griffin.
So where does Mr. Dean sleep at night? In the past he has answered the question with, “that’s a personal matter.”
Joyce Griffin said the issue had been brought up before, when she was the assistant to the Supervisor of Elections. “The only thing we did back then was to call him and ask, ‘Do you live in Key West?’ – and he said he did.”
“His car is registered in Key Haven, the address on his driver’s license is in Key Haven,” says Randy Pekarik, the Homestead investigator for the Monroe County Property Appraiser. “Utilities are all in his name [at the Key Haven home]. I don’t know about the voting rules, but as far as homestead goes, it is pretty clear he lives in Key Haven, not in Key West.”
We also found Florida Department of Corporations records that show Dean has consistently given his personal address, as a corporate officer for both of his businesses, as his home on Key Haven. [See Here and here] Likewise, his current license as a funeral director gives his personal address as his Key Haven home.
In Florida, voting outside the district where you reside is a felony of the third degree punishable by up to 5 years in prison. So why did he do it? Why would Mr. Dean expose himself to – even giving the impression of – such impropriety?
If our information is correct, Bob Dean has spent about 26 years serving on the FKAA board. However, he was out of the picture from early 2001 through 2004 when the legislative mandate to sewer the Keys began being implemented. FKAA was designing over 200 million dollars worth of public works projects that would be funded with public money.
Battles erupted over who would control all that money and Mr. Dean was rushed back in, in 2005, through the open Key West, district 3, seat.
The rhetoric at the time was virulent:
“What we have here,” said State Representative Ken Sorenson [in 2005], “is a board that has the right to go out and bond unlimited millions of dollars, which become the obligation of the Monroe County taxpayer. The complaint is that they are not accountable.”
There is little doubt that the same distrust for FKAA and the more recent public outcry regarding lack of transparency about hiring practices, awarding of grinder pump contracts, use of shallow injection wells, and public records responses, is the wind behind the current attack on its chairman.
Tolerating board member Melva Wagner’s repeated telephonic appearances for board meetings for the better part of a year is representative of the questionable practices that have been ongoing at FKAA under Chairman Dean’s direction.
Last week, State Attorney Catherine Vogel sent correspondence to District 1 board member Cara Higgins, pointing out that, under Florida’s Sunshine Law, Ms. Wagner should have been allowed to attend telephonically only in case of medical necessity.
“… my reading of the [Attorney General’s] opinion suggests mere inconvenience is not a sufficient circumstance,” wrote Ms. Vogel.
[Could this possibly nullify the board’s decisions during those sessions?]
To make matters worse, Mr. Dean also sits on the board of the Key West Housing Authority, which under City Code section 38.117, requires all members to be “permanent residents and electors of the city.”
If Mr. Dean is living in Key Haven, he certainly doesn’t qualify to be on the Housing Authority board either, but then again three of the other four members of that board don’t reside in Key West either. In fact, two of them live in … Key Haven.
But that is a story for another Friday…
———
**Special thanks to Colby Fisher who assisted with research and the collection of documentation material.
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And whatever happened to the effort to make the FKAA board an elected one?? People in the Keys voted overwhelmingly (70 percent I believe) and it went nowhere in the legislature. I don’t believe that Holly Raschein really pushed it because everyone said the governor would veto it. And so it continues to go with our alleged democracy.
Hello Michael! If you read the “Why Did They Lie?” article we explain what happened with the efforts in Tally to do What the voters asked … The article can be accessed thru the link above or on left sidebar…
I have uploaded the bulk of documents showing FKAA Chairman Dean’s residence at 14 W Cypress. In addition, there are also documents showing the people who are registered to vote at 417 Bahama Street. There is also the Monroe County Property Record for Dean’s son Jerry which shows that he also owns a home on Key Haven, but is also one of the people registered to vote at 417 Bahama street. Just go to the following URL and click on the first thumbnail to view the slide presentation:
http://tiny.cc/fkaachairman
To zoom in on the graphics, just click on the magnifier icon near the top right. That will load a slider that you can move to the right to enlarge.
Ahhh…Key West, so much corruption, so little consequence….
You are exactly right Alex …too often in the past we have just rolled our eyes and accepted that this is just how things operate in Key West – well IT IS FINALLY TIME FOR ALL THAT TO CHANGE and Naja and Arnaud are leading the way. I always say changing the corrupt system is a 2 step process:1. education and 2 ACTION. The Blue Paper has educated us as to this the latest of many problems at the FKAA, so NOW is the time to increase the pressure on the FKAA, and any agency overseeing adherence to the rules and LAWS, including the Supervisor of Elections, the State Attorney, the Monroe County canvassing Board, and others – WE VOTE AND WE HAVE VERY LONG AND GOOD MEMORIES. We can count on The Blue Paper to remind everyone at election time WHO did their jobs and WHO DID NOT.
I’m calling for a total investigation of FKAA, from Dean on down. Look into their Billing practices. Large water gluttons get cheaper rates and their proposed sewer rates for swindle family homes. My sewer impact fee is more than my Total water bill. WTF??
Wow. Just wow. Outstanding work. Thanks Blue Paper.
Bravo Naja and Arnaud!, another exquisite well-deserved skewering of the people who also waste your, my and everyone down here’s tax dollars advertising on local radio stations, and perhaps elsewhere, the wholesome, pristine water FKAA treats with chemicals and imports from the mainland, as if there is someone down here competing with FKAA – the local grocery, convenience and drug stores, which sell imported bottled water?
Any chance you can provide, now, the names of the other Key Haven residents who sit on the Housing Authority board, and, if you know, their and Bob Dean’s political party affiliationsi?
On Cudjoe Regional, although Bog Dean and his gang at FKAA are the contractor, they were hired by the Monroe County Commission, who are paying for Cudjoe Regional, and who made the final decisions on its design. The County Commission wanted the cheapest sewer system FKAA could design, which the wonderful Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) would approve. The County Commission backed FKAA all the way, until various citizens, sometimes called watchdogs, agitators, communists, terrorists – I like calling them La Résistance – started speaking out and raising bloody hell, to be blunt, which led to what hopefully will be Waterloos for not only Bob Dean and his gang at FKAA, but also for county commissioners. It probably will take an Act of God, or a return of Joan of Arc, to straighten out FDEP.
Sloan –
PARTY AFFILIATION IS A PUBLIC RECORD. You should be able to obtain that information:
FROM THE FLORIDA DIVISION OF ELECTIONS
Voter Information as a Public Record
Voter registration information is public record in Florida with a few exceptions. Information such as your social security number, driver’s license number, and the source of your voter registration application cannot be released or disclosed to the public under any circumstances. Your signature can be viewed, but not copied. Other information such as your name, address, date of birth, party affiliation, and when you voted is public information.
I know that, but I want to know the names of the other Housing Authority board members who live in Key Haven and vote in Key West. I suppose I could scratch around and learn who they are, but I imagine Arnaud and Naja already know who they are. If I have their names, I will try to find out what political parties, if any, they belong to.
http://flvoters.com is a great resource for finding voter information. If you go to http://flvoters.com/by_address/33040.html you will see all of the people who are registered (both active and inactive) in the 33040 zip code. They also have a link to current and past voter roll databases that you can download for free.
More great reporting. Thanks, Colby, Naja, and Arnaud.
I hope this makes a difference. We have a better SA and Commissioner of Elections than we did the last time this was (not) investigated by them.
Great article! But I think Rick Boettger is a bit optimistic about having a bettr SA making a difference. Better, maybe. Not corrupt, not hardly. We have seen the Eimers and Murphy cases go nowhere, and there are others. Even if we did ever get an honest SA, which is about as likely as snow, the SA office seems to have lawyers and investigators and others who are career bubbas, and have corruption as a way of life. And it is probably almost impossible to get rid of them because of rules and contracts that protect them.
That was very clever of Supervisor of Elections, Joyce Griffin, to send Dean a voter information card. If he returns it signed and states that he lives at 417 Bahama, then he sets himself up for a felony arrest. If he returns it signed and states that he lives at 14 W Cypress, then he immediately loses his board seats. My guess is that he will just ignore it, do nothing and make Griffin take further official action to question his residency. Feeling invincible, he’ll bet that she won’t do anything. Even if she does act, that will only drag out the process, and if the usual Keys political game happens, then the issue will soon be forgotten. Life would continue for him as usual, and he could ride out the time until the end of his FKAA term in December 2016. That is why we need to keep the pressure on and not forget.
It is up to us to see the issue is NOT FORGOTTEN
Another outstanding job by Naja and Arnaud – THANK YOU!
It seems we have 2 different issues here. One is the legal aspect which TBP has covered well and it appears there are agencies looking into. I will tell you as a poll worker who knows Joyce Griffin’s ethics – she takes pride in the honesty of Monroe country elections. If left to her, I believe she will do a through job investigating. We all know where Bob Dean actually lives (you vote where you sleep) so let’s wait for the results. But now we are wondering about many others and the validity and legality of their votes and service on other Boards like the Key West Housing Authority. If it turns out that we are not satisfied with the outcome of this current investigation, there are a couple options we can exercise, but let’s give The Supervisor of Elections who I have faith in, and the State a Attorney’s office a chance to clean this up.
Secondly, and maybe more important than the legality of Bob Dean serving on the FKAA board (isn’t he also on the Housing Auth Board???) and where he is required to be voting – is the trust, transparency, honesty and budget of the FKAA. I think it is safe to say we have NO trust in them, with the exception of Cara Higgins. We owe Cara a huge debt of gratitude – she is alone fighting the self-serving attitude of the FKAA board, their family and friends. Cara if your read this, know there is more going on behind the scenes to clean house on the FKAA board and to find you honest, competent, fellow members. As far as CHANGING the system, with TBP having educated us we are to the importnat step of ACTION! Don’t just complain about the situation DO SOMETHING. We are responsible as citizens to see the FKAA board is cleaned up and cleared out. Jim Reynolds where are you? Step in – throw your name in for appointment! As an official recently suggested to me “I wish he would apply for the vacant seat on the FKAA Board (if he lives in that district). But of course if they do nothing about Mr. Dean then I guess that Jim could apply no matter where he lives.”
ACTION now required of you is to take a minute and CALL Holly Raschein’s office 850-717-5120 Tell her the FKAA board needs to be an ELECTED board NOT appointed. Sadly the ball was dropped several years ago by another politician and we have to start this process over again – sorry Holly. Now take one more minute and CALL the Governors office 850-488-7146 Tell him you are appalled at the actions of the FKAA board – from 1.nepotistic questionable hiring practices to 2. members serving on the board who are not residing in the required district and 3 ask for an audit to be performed given the many serious questions on the shallow wells, grinder pumps and overall contracts for the over $200 million dollar sewer system. Tell the Governor you lack any confidence in the FKAA board OTHER THAN MS. HIGGINS.
To the public – you have the power to change the system – ACT NOW. MAKE THE CALLS LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD.
Now to the FKAA – Honesty and truly transparent public service is not too much to ask – CLEAN UP YOUR ACT NOW, OR WE WILL SEE IT IS CLEANED UP FOR YOU.
Another excellent reporting job, Naja, Arnaud, and Colby. But I find this all so troubling that, week after week, more examples arise showing what a scummy, pathetic, corrupt little podunk town this is. I imagine similar activities happen in larger cities all over America but I am amazed at how adept Key West has become in the greed and corruption game.
So tell me, just who the hell is Bob Dean, other than a local mortician? I heard years ago he was the most powerful man in Key West. Why? Maybe he knows where the bodies are buried, so to speak. If that’s so, perhaps he has used that information to get this revered title.
Key West could be so much more than it is. Instead the mayor and City Commission spend ridiculous amounts of money on pet projects, spend more money on studies that get tabled upon completion, create focus groups whose suggestions are routinely ignored, protect their bubba buddies, and basically thumb their noses at what the citizens of this city really want to see. Well, elections are coming and I truly hope to see some positive changes and new faces.
Once again I thank “TheBluePaper.com” for its tireless efforts to expose the seemingly endless stupidity, wrongdoings and corruption that is so prevalent in this town. I don’t know how you do it, week after week, because just reading about this stuff raises my blood pressure and makes it hard to keep my breakfast down.
Former Banker, one of my big disagreements with the way the city commission operates is it creates focus groups, instead of the mayor and city commissioners being the focus groups. The “focus group” known as Truman Waterfront Advisory Board went haywire, designing a $60,000,000 new park, now the mayor and city commissioners have something they ought to scrap altogether and go back to the drawing board and decide all by their lonesomes what to do with Truman Waterfront. That’s an aside, though, to the Bob Dean article.
There are people who think they are above the law, and they have no problem with it. Dean appears to be one of them. I can name others in this area, whose names are fairly well known. But right now, it’s time to roast Dean and the other folks living in Key Haven, who think they are above at he law. That’s why I asked in an earlier comment today, if Naja and Arnaud could furnish their names and political party affiliations now?
As for the upcoming city commission elections, I opined on that in an email to Christine Russell today, which, with her email on same, is included in the latter part of my 911 – Key West, 2015 post at http://goodmorningkeywest.com/?p=32138 today. If you are the former banker I know, then you know I ran 4 times for mayor of KW, and 3 times for county commission, and 1 time for school board, and this is not virgin territory for me.
Great reporting. The Blue Paper’s many articles on the FKAA and the Keys’ sewer scandal are the stuff of Woodward and Bernstein. A few cliches on the scandal seem appropriate:
“Shit hit the fan”
“Scared the shit out of them”
“Like rats on a sinking ship”
“Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining”
One wonders if FKAA stands for:
Fraud
Kickbacks
Avarice
Artifice
Can someone tell me what the board members of the two mentioned
boards are making as board members? It seems to be an unmentionable item in all these stories. Also, when are you Key Westers going to annex that island way out in the Gulf with a prison fort already on it?
Apparently no one has any clue of the good Mr. Bob Dean has done for the city of Key West because as usual, Ms. Naja doesn’t put the good things about people. He has helped numerous people including myself, he’s one of the greatest men I have ever met in my entire life, he puts others in front of his own needs. He does not deserve jail time, he deserves to be commended for all of his hard work after ALL of these years. He’s a good man and doesn’t deserve this down trotting of idealism placed upon his name.
I wonder, Citizen 101, if the good samaritan Dean will submit a comment to this blue paper article, explaining why he is not guilty of “this down trotting idealism placed upon his name”?
I wanted to see Deen keelhauled, backwards, a few times, after he told a bunch of people at a public FKAA board meeting in Key West, that FKAA preferred gravity, to gravity pumps, and FKAA would provide gravity if the County Commission would pay for the additional cost. At that time, FKAA had already caved in to putting gravity every where feasible on the two Sugarloaf Keys, and on Cudjoe Key, and was just getting ready to install grinder pumps everywhere possible on Summerland and the keys above. So, during citizen comments, I thanked Dean for what he had said and asked him, and the rest of the FKAA board members, since they preferred gravity, and were using gravity wherever possible on the Keys below Summerland, to issue a stop work order in grinder pumps, until the County Commission provided the funding for gravity on Summerland and above. Gravity initially costs more than grinder pumps, but down the road is cheaper and more environmentally friendly, and it does not stop working during power outages in people’s homes. Dean, and the other FKAA board members, looked at me like I had sprouted horns, and said nothing.
I’m glad Dean has been good to you, Citizen 101 – sounds like the basic civics certificate. I wish Dean had been as good to 1000s of property owners in Cudjoe Regional, who now are stuck, or will be stuck, with grinder pumps, which they flat do not want.
I can’t wait to read in the local mullet wrappers Dean’s, or his lawyers’, response to the blue paper and the State Attorney’s inquiries.
Citizen101, this is the same logic as the one that Mussolini got the trains running on time. I’m sure that thousands of Italians were happy to leave their stations on time just to have the brown shirts murder them at their destinations.
Plain and simple, if you break the law you should face prosecution.
Regardless of Mr. Deans personal assistance to you lieing, misrepresenting facts and abusing the People of Key West are no trivial matters.
SUPERB investigative reporting! (as usual) Maybe this time, charges will stick.
Busting a myth:
The grinder pump sewers that FKAA selected are MORE expensive than any of the alternative systems, both up front and in the long run. They are the MOST expensive in the long run even compared to gravity in the CRWS. The pump was sole-sourced and available from only one dealer in the world. Is that an indicator of more corruption, or what? It’s also another RICO qualifier “restriction of trade” and a serious violation of public purchasing law. The selling of a grinder system as being cheapest is just one more FKAA fraud.
As for Dean living in Key Haven, with their sewer pipes reportedly so leaky that FKAA did not need to replace dead lift station pumps for weeks (the sewage just drained out of the pipes into the tide), is it any wonder that FKAA acquired the Key Haven sewer system? His sewer rate would have gone to the moon if FKAA didn’t take that plant and pipes. It will be millions of dollars for each. If you are on the Key West sewers, at least your bill won’t skyrocket along with all the FKAA customers’ who will be paying for what I think is far more than bad decisions. I still believe something stinks worse than what’s inside those FKAA sewers. Maybe Dean will turn State’s Evidence in a plea bargain? We are 10 years past due for the traditional “Bubba Bust”.
Colby let me remind you that that has nothing to do with what I said, and so because you feel a certain way about that you go after an 80 something year old man. That’s sickening, you really need to learn what today is really all about and that’s 9/11 not Bob Dean. This Naja woman I know many people who would love to do a story on her and all of her closets I know she has!!!!!!
Citizen101, thanks for the reply. When Naja is the FKAA Chairman and got there via surreptitious means, I’ll go after her with the same enthusiasm that I’m going after Mr. Dean. By the way, isn’t is ageist for you to infer that someone who is in their 80’s isn’t responsible for their own actions? Or is it possible that you have personal knowledge that he isn’t mentally capable and needs special attention?
“Citizen101” how about you come out of hiding and join the rest of us – Bob Dean, Colby Fisher, Naja and Arnaud Girard, and several other reporters and news publications – out here in the Sunshine. How about adding your name to your comments? Do you dare?
Naja, I would rather eat shit and die then to give you the satisfaction of knowing who in the world I am. Let it simmer for a while maybe you can figure it out since apparently you know it all….. Do some research.
Bonne appetite! I believe I know who you are. The question is will you let everyone else know?
But in all seriousness, Citizen101, you do realize that we are just investigative reporters and it’s the State Attorney that is conducting the criminal investigstion? I admire your passion and willingness to stand up for someone you care about. I’m sure Mr. Dean appreciates it. I can’t think of anyone who would really want to see Mr. Dean go to prison… I’d like to think its more about setting things straight.
hummm ‘eat shit and die’….hummm sounds like?????? 😉
Mark Rossi!!!
Colby you have got to be the most ignorant person I have ever had a conversation with. He is very mentally capable. Are you?
Citizen101, you have said that you would rather eat shit and die than identify yourself. I prefer to be ignorant, hungry and alive.
In addition, I’ve never claimed to be mentally capable. In fact, I’m most likely far from it. That’s why I live in Key West.
Naja then take your best guess. If you guess correctly, i will let you know. And Colby please that’s such an old saying. Key west doesn’t have all the crazies and if you believe that then you need to live in Detroit or Michigan city. Maybe then you will see what real crazy is all about.
Citizen101, since you seem to have an intimate knowledge of Mr. Dean, could you answer how he responded to the voter information card he should have received in the mail today from the Supervisor of Elections? Did he reply that he resides at 14 W Cypress or 417 Bahama? Did he just toss the card or send it to his lawyer? If he did one of the former, then I have respect for his taking a position, and he will have to live with the consequences.
If he tossed it or sent it to his lawyer, then you need to look deep into yourself and ask why? It isn’t a difficult question. I know where I reside. You know where you reside. Will he tell us where he resides? That is what this all comes down to.
In any case, it’s almost 10 pm and way past my bedtime. I have a 1 year old who will be getting up at midnight, 3 and 5 so I need to get some rest in order to persecute some new and helpless octogenarian tomorrow.
Look at you all interested in just where someone resides. It’s a shame…… And you have a child? Shouldn’t you be more concerned with your child then with a politician who probably doesn’t even know who you are. Think about that while you sleep tonight. So sad
Citizen101, being ignorant as I am, could you tell me which felonies it is OK to commit in Key West. You apparently think some laws are OK to ignore. A nice list would be very helpful.
And Naja, it’s not about someone I care about nesasarily but about something that’s really not that serious . There are so many other issues that are more worth your investigative skills and yet you pick something and someone who has served the city of key west for more than 30 years. Investigative reporting is one thing, you like to continue to bash and trash talk. Reporters on the news don’t talk like they dislike someone but they know not of what or who they speak about. You write a lot of articles that yes are informative but at what expense???? You put your opinions in with your reporting and really it should just be the facts. I consider you to be dirty and one day, your skeletons will all come out. karma is a bitch.
Well, Citizen 101, karma is something I know a bit about, it has had its way with me, it is a bitch; and she is not selective, is something else I have learned. I know Naja and Arnaud pretty well, and they, and their readers, all know I am not reluctant to disagree with them publicly, on their website, under their articles, and at my website, goodmorningkeywest.com. Sometimes karma has weird ways of coming around; something so seemingly innocent, according to you, as lying about where you live, so you can vote in Key West city elections, for example, and be on the Housing Authority board, for another example, could turn into a felony prosecution, which might seem a bit overdone; but then, when you consider the destructive behavior of FKAA in Cudjoe Regional Sewer District, and who is the top person, what would be Bob Dean, then it’s a bit more blurry, the karma thing. It would not surprise me, Citizen 101, if you are Ed Swift, or Jim Hendrick. I’m not saying you are, but it would not surprise me, because you seem to think like I have observed them think. Maybe this time around, the Supervisor of Elections Office and the State Attorney Office, will not let it slide, and will get to the bottom of where Bob Dean lives, and get that and what is attached to it straightened out, and, in that way, get anyone else living in Key Haven, who is voting in Key West city elections, and sitting on boards which require them to live in Key West, straightened out. I already nominated Naja and Arnaud for a Pulitzer for their investigation and reporting of the Charles Eimers case. Their covering of the FKAA debacle, the alter ego of which is your white knight Bob Dean, seems to me to be moving in the Pulitzer direction, also.
no no no not ed swift? unless he has a piece of the 200M+ contract? 🙂
Sloan, those are the farthest people from who I am ha!!! But good guess well no not really because it’s the totally wrong gender. I think Naja and her husband are the dirtiest of people in key west, they are not investigative reporting, they are being opinionated and pick sides publicly which is very distasteful. The blue paper used to be something people would look forward to reading and now it’s the shit of the town. Everyone knows all you do is talk shit about people you don’t even generally know. Very very sad……
Citizen101, could I send you a dozen Solis Lillies as a peace offering? Should I have them delivered via Mr. Dean at 417 Bahama?
Nice hearing from you Citizen 101. Actually, I do generally know most of the people I write about, Ed Swift for example; Bob Dean, for example. I know Jim Hendrick personally. I know, because you declined Naja’s request that you tell her and her readers who you are, and you expressly declined, that you are a coward. Your gender is irrelevant to me. Your thinking, demonstrated in your comments under this blue paper article, reminds me of Swift’s and Hendrick’s thinking, which I have observed many times in public meetings, Swift, and far more times privately, Hendrick. Two people you might know, Todd German and Jolly Benson, who have lots of friends locally and public exposure, both told me I have no idea how many people in Key West read my daily blog, important people, who don’t want me to know they read it. I have no idea how many people read my blog; it doesn’t matter, I publish daily, regardless. I see the Citizen reported your white knight Dean’s situation in today’s issue. So, you now will send the Citizen a letter to the editor, with your name and address on it, as required to get it published, telling the Citizen and its publisher, editor and the journalist, Tim O’Hara, what terrible people they are for picking on an 80 year old man, who has done good things for you. Karma indeed is a bitch, she’s got you, and all of us, in her crosshairs. If you are interested, I can tell you some wonderful stories about the founder of the blue paper, it’s previous owner, which he would never have told on himself in the blue paper when he ran it, but he should have told them, and when he didn’t, I told them for him. I knew him a little better than generally, but not personally. He did some darn good reporting, as well. But he was not in Naja and Arnaud’s league.
Advocacy Journalism
Public journalism and, for the most part, citizen journalism can be viewed as examples of advocacy journalism, a form of journalism that endeavors to be fact-based, but does not separate editorial opinion from news coverage and often approaches the news from a specific viewpoint. Advocacy journalists distinguish the “good guys” from the “bad guys” and “actively participate in the debate, becoming more activists than observers of the events” (Ruigrok, 2010). Thus, they can be said to exhibit the same kind of “interventionist impulse” that scholars such as Hanitzsch (2007, p. 373) see at work in public journalism. Advocacy journalism has been at times credited with everything from combating “the moral failings of Western governments” (Hammond, 2002, p. 178) to offering “a more progressive notion of experts and expertise by citing community members while critiquing or pointedly ignoring dominant discourses from government and academic ‘experts’” (Heitner, 2009, p. 405). It has been tied to peace journalism (Kempf, 2007), “alternative” publications (Waisbord, 2009) and environmental journalism (Waisbord & Peruzzotti, 2009) among others. Some scholars contend that advocacy journalists can be assumed to write from a “leftist” point of view (Craig, 2004, p. 240), often as a counterweight to the “inherently conservative” notion of objectivity (Glasser, 1984, para. 3), which some argue serves as a tool to “help the powerful maintain order” (Ryan, 2009. p. 8). Many other scholars contend that any liberal bias on the part of journalists is more than offset by a conservative bias among owners. For example, Parry (2003) notes that “media owners historically have enforced their political views and other preferences by installing senior editors whose careers depend on delivering a news product that fits with the owner’s prejudices.”
Advocacy journalism has been seen at work in mainstream journalism as well (Schultz, 2013). As Downie & Schudson (2009) reported, “in the plurality of the American media universe, advocacy journalism is not endangered—it is growing” (para. 17).
http://www.mediaethicsmagazine.com/index.php/browse-back-issues/179-fall-2013-vol-25-no-1/3999003-objectivity-and-advocacy-in-journalism
I find it amusing that citizen101 is defending Bob Dean. The bubbas on this island think they are above the law and just by being a bubba entitles them to get preferential treatment above everyone else. I was passed over for a job with the city of which I was totally qualified to do. The person hired did not meet the requirements for the job but she had bubba connections and that is what matters on this island. I actually got into a heated discussion with a bubba a while back because he said that “all of the people from up north have ruined this island and we need to take it back”. Everything this island has become has happened because of the bubbas. They are not the brightest people but they are among the most corrupt and if they get called out on it they get really nasty. As far as citizen101 referring to The Blue Paper as “the shit of the town” was particularly laughable. It’s the only place to read about the shit the bubbas do on a daily basis and they just don’t like anyone exposing what they do.
We need to get as many people as possible to write to the Governor’s Appointments Office with letters expressing our concerns. The URL for them is:
http://www.flgov.com/appointments/
The email address is:
[email protected]
In addition, we can also write directly to Governor Scott at:
http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/email-the-governor/
I’ve already sent notes to both.
I called Naja yesterday afternoon re the deed on Bob Dean’s home in Keyhaven, because I wanted to make sure it is owned by Dean and his wife. Yes, Naja said, they both are on the deed. She added, Dean’s driver license says he lives at the Key Haven address, but his voter registration says he lives at the Key West address. Naja said it is the same degree felony to submit false information for either a driver’s licence or voter registration. She said she didn’t want to see Dean go to prison over this. I said I did want Dean to go to prison, because of what he led to happen in Cudjoe Regional Sewer System. He calls the shots at FKAA, he was who decided Zuelch would be FKAA’s CEO. His board votes in lockstep with him. Cudjoe Regional falls on his head. Naja said again, she did not want to see Dean in prison, and she doesn’t want to see anyone in prison. I said, she wants to see Gary Lee Lovette in prison. No, Naja said, she only wants to see Lee off KW police force. Gary Lee Lovette, out of his own mouth, stated we (him and several other KW cops) killed that man, Charles Eimers, murdered him, and I came down like a fucking bomb on him. I’m confused. A confessed murderer should not be in prison? If not, neither should anyone, nor in jail. That aside, there is another place where public officials, and other people, get outed, I do it just about every day at goodmorningkeywest.com, and I out myself and my friends, as well as the usual suspects :-).
Colby – Hard to imagine Governor Scott doing anything, if our own State Attorney doesn’t do anything. Supervisor of Schools Randy Acevedo was not removed from office by the Governor until he was indited for covering up what his wife was stealing from the school district. In other words, I think how this case goes hinges on what State Attorney Catherine Vogel does.
I can assure you I am the farthest thing from who you think I am and I think if I ever do decide to tell you who I am, I honestly believe you would feel bad for talking to me the way you have. Bob dean does live in key west so I really think you guys need to get your facts straight. Another address on his ID, ok that’s fine, his wife lives there and that’s it. His name are on the bills because maybe hello!!! His wife lives there. He’s the general income holder so why wouldn’t he have his name on the bills and on his ID hold the key haven address. Bob dean does live in key west. His business is in key west, and you guys are digging an empty hole for nothing.
empty holes? like are you saying he is
1-seperated from his wife?
2-divorced?
3-key haven is much too far to travel every day so he lives in town?
4-felony false residence for voting is ok? [just like the dead voting for oblabla!]
5-lovette is just a lovable cuddly teddy bear?
6-lovette only ‘mis-spoke’ and didn’t cover up the killing?
7-killing the homeless is ok and a new key west sport?
8-is you harry?
9-but but but did you eat shit and die…and still vote?
;):);):);):)
Are you stupid? Or just extremely illiterate??? As I stated in my previous post I am not Harry, “is you mad? Or is you mad as fuck?” You want to laugh and make jokes? How about tell us who you are. I’ve already stated I’m not but that’s me. If you want to make jokes and be rude then state who you are. THANKS!
I have no clue who you are, Citizen 101, I made my assessment based on how you express yourself in writing into this article. Bob Dean, if he dose actually live, and sleep, in the house in Key West, should be able to prove that to the Supervisor of Elections and State Attorney Catherine Vogel, by real evidence. His argument the last time this came up, where he sleeps nights is nobody else’s business, was priceless.
Has Dean returned the card from the Supervisor of Elections with a signed official answer to the simple question of where does he live? As I stated before, he will never return it because if he does, then that will be the basis on which felony to charge him with. Either way he makes an official statement, he loses, and both he and his lawyer know it. The best we can probably hope is that he doesn’t return it, and the Supervisor of Elections questions his residency location and invalidates his voter registration. That won’t send him to prison, but it should be the basis to lose both his FKAA and Housing Authority board seats.
If you did know who I am I guess I could consider that quite a compliment that you thought I was 2 of the most paid people in key west. I appreciate that 🙂 I’m sure you guys see it differently but again, these people are strong elders to me. There’s your hint. I don’t return my voters registration card and I don’t even vote. I think voting is stupid because it puts people like you and everyone else in their business. And quite frankly where he sleeps at night is none of your l business. But that’s just 1 sheeps in a conversation full of wolves.
I’m sorry “one sheeps OPINION in a conversation full of wolves”
Oh me, Citizen 101- you done messed up. I never said I thought you were Ed Swift or Jim Hendrick. I said the way YOU think reminds me of the way THEY think. They are wolves in sheep clothing, they twist, spin, to get what they want; you are well on your way to being like them. In fact, Citizen 101, some basic civics here, since you seem to lack any civics, other than Mafia version, it is indeed the business of the Supervisor of Elections, where a voter sleeps at night, as that is the district in which the voter is suppose to vote. Therefore, it is also the business of the State Attorney where a voter sleeps at night, if it appears from various documents the voter has created, such as his driver’s license and other paper trails, that he lives in another voting district than the one in which he votes. Likewise, it is the business of the Governor to know if a person he appointed to represent a particular district of FKAA, actually lives in that district. You are, however, right: there are real wolves in this conversation, but they are very different from the wolves who mask themselves as sheep. Real wolves make no pretense they are sheep. Arooooo!!!
Oh no see you miss understood me . I was calling all of you stupid asses that apparently have no life wolves for the way you bully other people into A) thinking like you and B) bullying others like you own the town and C) are you a lawyer ??? Oh no so then stfu 🙂 and if I do think like them then that means I was raised the right way!!!!!
Yes, Citizen 101, I am a lawyer, I once did practice law, in Alabama. Then angels got hold of me, and now what I am is not comprehensible to who I was when I was a lawyer, nor to you, nor to a whole lot of people. You dragged karma is a bitch into this discussion, then you dragged wolves into it. I know a pack of wolves the likes of which you cannot imagine, who actually are battle angels running with Archangel Michel, who appears as a great eagle in that dimension. They have very different ways of doing things. Maybe they are now on this case, since you brought wolves into this discussion. If you wish to aspire to be like Ed Swift and Jim Hendrick, that’s your choice. Quite a few times have I heard people who are respected in Key West say neither man has a moral compass.
Sloan,
the angels, meaning the board of directors that speak to you in your dreams right??? I think you are a very confused individual. However, in one of your posts I seemed to have found, you talk about being homeless at one point. Did someone perhaps buy your silence? When you speak of how your brother committed suicide because of being gay you just sound like you’re trying to convince yourself and everyone else to buy into the story.
You just keep over selling it. I think there is something fishy in Bham and perhaps Key West too with you. I think as a writer, you’re full of shit. You want the spotlight off of you but weren’t you a suspect in his murder for a while? Oh, I’m sorry I mean suicide …. right? Everyone can do research Mr. Sloan and everyone has skeletons. Mr. Dean is a damn good man that has wonderful kids and amazing grandkids. To say “you hope he goes to prison” is a horrible thing to say, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone unless they murder someone or hurt children or animals … oh look it there haha I seemed to have done it again. So shouldn’t you be locked up? oh but wait you didn’t do it, he killed himself for being gay, I’m sorry I forgot ha.
(Note from editor: Sorry, Citizen 101. Took out the last line. Perhaps a little less profanity?
Naja must be doing some Facebook stalking of bob dean ha!!! And I thought it was freedom of speech ?? Just like you …. And now you want to erase some of what I write because it says a cuss word ? Hmmmm some Hippocrates you guys are.
Naja, let her run, let her show herself fully to your readers, profanity is part of life.
Citizen 101. I was living in Key West, and was in Key West, as many people knew, when my brother went missing in Birmingham in early 2010. I had not been in Birmingham since late 2008. Yes, wingnuts accused me of being in on it, and you have joined them. Congratulations. I published many times, back then, that he was bisexual, he was married, twice, two children by the first wife, I had believed two children by the second wife, but years later, from one of his children by the first wife, that his children by his second wife were from different male sperm donors in California. He once had told me they were going out to California for fertility help, but not the details. I thought maybe his 2nd wife was infertile. We had not spoken since right after my father’s death and memorial service in early September 2006. I published that the day I learned of his going missing, it was revealed to me that he had killed himself and had tried to make it look like murder. When I shared that with a journalist from Birmingham, who had called me in KW to interview me, he said cold chills were running up and down his spine because the same thoughts had come to him just before he called me. I didn’t know the journalist, he had called a friend of mine in Birmingham to ask if he thought I might be interested in being interviewed about Major and our father’s company, since a letter, anonymous, showing up in sensitive places in Birmingham, hand delivered mostly, not mailed, into mail boxes, was about the company and its dividend policy, which seemed to have been written by an educated person who knew the company. I actually shared the views of the letter writer, and told the journalist that when he called me, after my friend had called to see if I would do the interview, and I said sure, have the journalist call me. It wasn’t long afterward that I understood what had driven my brother to kill himself: someone who knew he was bisexual was going to out him and there was nothing he could do about it. He was living two lives, and his straight relations had no clue he was bisexual, which I had known for many years. Turned out, I learned some years later, he also was in a lot of debt, and he had taken out a very big life insurance policy on his life, payable to his second wife, who ended up, I was told, with all of the insurance proceeds – several million dollars. The person who told me was in a position to know. As it turned out, the local coroner (medical examiner), and the city police detective assigned to the case, both, some weeks after his body was found in a public golf course pond maybe 2 weeks after he had gone missing, ruled it was suicide made to look like murder. That was reported in the Birmingham newspapers. I was never contacted by law enforcement about it, even though I made it known to them that I might be able to help them figure out what had happened, and why. The FBI was involved, and later I got its redacted file and saw they had no problem with the suicide finding. Heck, the gun found in the pond under his body was the same make and model, a rare Browning .32 automatic pistol, as was then found to be in a plastic display case in the den of my father’s home, then lived in by his widow, my stepmother. It would be just like my brother to see that pistol and then find and buy one just like it for himself. As far as I know, I have no skeletons in my closet, which I did not publish and put into the sunlight. I have been blasted by different well meaning friends, and unfriendly people, for laying myself naked in public. If you really read my old posts at my websites, you know I lay myself bare. You are protesting way too much, Citizen 101, for Bob Dean. I don’t want Dean locked up over where he lives. I want him locked up for what he did to all those people and Mother Nature in Cudjoe Regional Sewer District. But since that won’t happen, if he gets locked over the blue paper article, then that will have to do. I doubt I am hardly the only blue paper reader you have caused to wonder what about Dean we don’t know, which might be a tad more volatile than what the blue paper published? As for my being homeless, not only have I been homeless, I am homeless now. I sleep nights at KOTS. I have published that many times. I published it again today: http://goodmorningkeywest.com/?p=32210 , “even cowgirls get the blues – Key West local, national and species recovery spa”, in which I again gave this blue paper article and reader comments, thanks to you, Citizen 101, top billing.
Get that prison ready on Tortugas. Gee, even in my state of New York I don’t see the the high degree of arrogance that exists in the Public Boards and School Boards in the Keys. WOW !
It is criminal the way Key West operates. Of course not everyone but too many of these Bubbas are running amuck and when they get caught up in their illegal activities and exposed they all have the same response. “F–k You” and typically that is enough for the subject matter to go away.
Mr. Dean needs to be investigated and, if needed, prosecuted. I’d like to see him pay back the taxpayers of Key West for his salaries collected while misrepresenting and/or fabricating the evidence crucial to holding these positions.
on a side note about Bubbas: How is Joe “weed” Clements still an employee of the school district? Felony drug charges and operating an illegal sports betting ring are A OK with the school district? Perhaps the salaries spreadheet is dated and does not reflect his removal, if this is the case then it is an oversight by the board. If not can we find out what the deal is? Even Mark Rossi has banned him from the Rick’s compound, maybe just because he sang like a bird to save his own hide.
I am so dead to the world right now !!!! Lmmfaoooo !!!!!!!!!!!! Naja, youre contradicting as hell and I think today is the best day ever XD
I think we should get back to the real issue that started this thread which is the FKAA and County Commission and their attempt to put in shallow wells and grinder pumps when we were asked to vote for the 1 cent infrastructure sales tax to fund a decent central sewer system. First, they knew they should have a deep well and then manipulated data to just slide under that requirement. Then they spent a good bit of that money on pet projects and chose the cheapest and most dangerous system. That’s the issue in a nutshell. We been had. Pay attention now or pay big time later.