addresses
A D D R E S S
of Mark Venzke, citizen of the City Of Gainesville, Florida,
to the Commissioners of the City Of Gainesville, Florida
during the early evening public comment period
at the regular meeting of the Gainesville City Commission
on Thursday, April 18, 2013 at about 6:45 p.m.
concerning
the effects of impaired driving
I am Mark Venzke of Gainesville.
Mister Chairman, I and I am sure many others are disappointed that you have not yet publicized your addiction evaluation that your plea agreement stipulates that you must undergo. The results of that evaluation are obviously immaterial now in the runoff election that you lost, but they are material to whether you would get any help that that evaluation may reveal that you would need and that your plea agreement stipulates that you would need to get, to the public knowing the efficacy of our criminal justice system and, ultimately, to the public knowing the safety of our roads.
I continue to raise the issue of impaired driving not to be mean but to push for public safety. My intention is to motivate you and all other drivers who hear my address to drive responsibly.
After hearing my last, two addresses to this commission on the subject of impaired driving, an associate recently asked me if I had been personally touched by it. I told her, “No,” but that I have been a low-key, person-to-person advocate for unimpaired driving since I viewed my first, dramatic public service announcement about impaired driving on television when I was a boy.
PRESENT EXHIBIT 1 – Chocolate Cab reference
As the former host of the world-famous Chocolate Cab here, in Gainesville, I had encouraged countless passengers—mostly University Of Florida students—to never drive while impaired. The home page of the Chocolate Cab Internet site (at www.ChocolateCab.weebly.com) to this day has five pieces dedicated to promoting responsible consumption of alcohol and unimpaired driving.
REMOVE EXHIBIT 1 – Chocolate Cab reference
As I stated in my last address to this commission, Mister Chairman, you could have drifted across the center line of the road in the early morning of March 21. From an examination of the photo images of your accident scene that have appeared in the media since my last address, you appear to me to have done just that. The trench in the ground marking the path of your car that lead to the downed road sign that your car hit are on the left side of the road.
Mister Chairman, this is Jacqui Saburido.
PRESENT EXHIBIT 2 – Jacqui Saburido flyer
She was twenty years old when her life changed dramatically. Here is a brief account of her ordeal that caused her injuries and disfigurement:
At 4:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 19, 1999, five young people were in a car heading home from a birthday party in Austin, Texas. Natalia Bennet was driving. Jacqui Saburido was her front-seat passenger.
Reggie Stephey, eighteen at the time, was also heading home in his car. He had been drinking alcoholic beverages. Less than a mile from his home, Reggie's car drifted across the center line and struck Natalia’s car head on. Natalia Bennett and Laura Guerrero died at the scene.
Jacqui suffered third-degree burns over 60 percent of her body after the car caught fire. She has undergone more than 100 surgeries since the accident.
Mister Chairman, this is the kind of injury that you could have caused.
Am I “down on” impaired driving and impaired drivers? You bet I am.
Mister Chairman, you and anyone who views or reads this address who uses licit substances, please, please, use them responsibly and, please, please, never use illicit substances or use licit substances illicitly.
REMOVE EXHIBIT 2 – Jacqui Saburido flyer
A safe, healthy, attractive, prosperous, sustainable and nurturing city is ours for the making!
I yield the remainder of my time.
564 words
3.40 minutes (00:03:24) at 166 words per minute
video
of Mark Venzke, citizen of the City Of Gainesville, Florida,
to the Commissioners of the City Of Gainesville, Florida
during the early evening public comment period
at the regular meeting of the Gainesville City Commission
on Thursday, April 18, 2013 at about 6:45 p.m.
concerning
the effects of impaired driving
I am Mark Venzke of Gainesville.
Mister Chairman, I and I am sure many others are disappointed that you have not yet publicized your addiction evaluation that your plea agreement stipulates that you must undergo. The results of that evaluation are obviously immaterial now in the runoff election that you lost, but they are material to whether you would get any help that that evaluation may reveal that you would need and that your plea agreement stipulates that you would need to get, to the public knowing the efficacy of our criminal justice system and, ultimately, to the public knowing the safety of our roads.
I continue to raise the issue of impaired driving not to be mean but to push for public safety. My intention is to motivate you and all other drivers who hear my address to drive responsibly.
After hearing my last, two addresses to this commission on the subject of impaired driving, an associate recently asked me if I had been personally touched by it. I told her, “No,” but that I have been a low-key, person-to-person advocate for unimpaired driving since I viewed my first, dramatic public service announcement about impaired driving on television when I was a boy.
PRESENT EXHIBIT 1 – Chocolate Cab reference
As the former host of the world-famous Chocolate Cab here, in Gainesville, I had encouraged countless passengers—mostly University Of Florida students—to never drive while impaired. The home page of the Chocolate Cab Internet site (at www.ChocolateCab.weebly.com) to this day has five pieces dedicated to promoting responsible consumption of alcohol and unimpaired driving.
REMOVE EXHIBIT 1 – Chocolate Cab reference
As I stated in my last address to this commission, Mister Chairman, you could have drifted across the center line of the road in the early morning of March 21. From an examination of the photo images of your accident scene that have appeared in the media since my last address, you appear to me to have done just that. The trench in the ground marking the path of your car that lead to the downed road sign that your car hit are on the left side of the road.
Mister Chairman, this is Jacqui Saburido.
PRESENT EXHIBIT 2 – Jacqui Saburido flyer
She was twenty years old when her life changed dramatically. Here is a brief account of her ordeal that caused her injuries and disfigurement:
At 4:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 19, 1999, five young people were in a car heading home from a birthday party in Austin, Texas. Natalia Bennet was driving. Jacqui Saburido was her front-seat passenger.
Reggie Stephey, eighteen at the time, was also heading home in his car. He had been drinking alcoholic beverages. Less than a mile from his home, Reggie's car drifted across the center line and struck Natalia’s car head on. Natalia Bennett and Laura Guerrero died at the scene.
Jacqui suffered third-degree burns over 60 percent of her body after the car caught fire. She has undergone more than 100 surgeries since the accident.
Mister Chairman, this is the kind of injury that you could have caused.
Am I “down on” impaired driving and impaired drivers? You bet I am.
Mister Chairman, you and anyone who views or reads this address who uses licit substances, please, please, use them responsibly and, please, please, never use illicit substances or use licit substances illicitly.
REMOVE EXHIBIT 2 – Jacqui Saburido flyer
A safe, healthy, attractive, prosperous, sustainable and nurturing city is ours for the making!
I yield the remainder of my time.
564 words
3.40 minutes (00:03:24) at 166 words per minute
video
viewable and printable documents
PDF format
ADDRESS of Mark Venzke to the Gainesville City Commission of April 18, 2013 concerning the effects of impaired driving
EXHIBIT 1 - Chocolate Cab reference
EXHIBIT 2 - Jacqui Saburido flyer
PDF format
ADDRESS of Mark Venzke to the Gainesville City Commission of April 18, 2013 concerning the effects of impaired driving
EXHIBIT 1 - Chocolate Cab reference
EXHIBIT 2 - Jacqui Saburido flyer
A D D R E S S
of Mark Venzke, citizen of the City Of Gainesville, Florida,
to the Commissioners of the City Of Gainesville, Florida
during the early evening public comment period
at the regular meeting of the Gainesville City Commission
on Thursday, April 4, 2013 at about 7:00 p.m.
concerning
impaired driving and the fitness of Craig Lowe to serve as mayor
I am Mark Venzke of Gainesville.
Mister Chairman,
Your recent arrest on charges of driving under the influence with property damage and of careless driving has appropriately raised the issue of impaired driving in general and the issue of your fitness for public office in particular.
As I related from a number of authoritative entities during public comments at the last City Commission meeting:
An average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before first arrest.
(Centers for Disease Control. “Vital Signs: Alcohol-Impaired Driving Among Adults — United States, 2010.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. October 4, 2011.)
One in three people will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “The Traffic Stop and You: Improving Communications between Citizens and Law Enforcement.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, March 2001, DOT HS 809 212.
Almost every 90 seconds, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash.
Blincoe, Lawrence, et al. “The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes 2000.” Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002. NHTSA FARS data, 2011.
Every day in America, another 27 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2012.
I raise the issue of impaired driving in general because I want to promote public safety and your arrest in particular because I want to promote informed voting. I do not raise them to be mean.
I want all drivers to drive only while sober. I want our men and women in our criminal-justice system—our law enforcement officers, our prosecutors, our judges, our parole officers and our intervention specialists—to know that we citizens who highly value public safety stand unwaveringly behind their efforts to stop impaired driving. I want you, Mister Chairman, to be responsible to the citizens of Gainesville.
Impaired driving is not a personal problem. It is a very public problem. People who drive while impaired are not due the privacy that we afford to people who have personal problems that do not affect the public. DRUNK DRIVERS KILL PEOPLE.
Further, people who abuse mind-altering substances function deficiently.
I appreciate sanctions that are good for the public, good for offenders and good for our criminal-justice system. I support the concept of “intervention programs” for offenders of various kinds that target effective measures to address offenders' problems to prevent future offenses.
However, I think that the provisions of the deferred prosecution agreement into which you entered with Prosecutor William Cervone are deficient. Two weeks of deprivation of your driver's license is too short a time for the severity of your offense, and substance abuse assessment that is optional will fail to identify an addiction if you have one and require you to treat it if you have one. Instead of veering into a ditch, you could well have veered into the path of an oncoming vehicle. YOU COULD HAVE KILLED SOMEONE.
A pubic office holder who would have an addiction would be unable to give his important work the quality of effort that he or she would otherwise be able to give to it. He or she would also be prone to engaging in distorted deliberations and to making imprudent decisions.
For citizens to cast an informed vote in the runoff election on April 16, they need to know whether you have an addiction to alcohol. Will you, Mister Chairman, undergo addiction evaluation and make the results of such an evaluation public before the runoff election?
I yield the remainder of my time.
498 words
3.00 minutes (00:03:00) at 166 words per minute
of Mark Venzke, citizen of the City Of Gainesville, Florida,
to the Commissioners of the City Of Gainesville, Florida
during the early evening public comment period
at the regular meeting of the Gainesville City Commission
on Thursday, April 4, 2013 at about 7:00 p.m.
concerning
impaired driving and the fitness of Craig Lowe to serve as mayor
I am Mark Venzke of Gainesville.
Mister Chairman,
Your recent arrest on charges of driving under the influence with property damage and of careless driving has appropriately raised the issue of impaired driving in general and the issue of your fitness for public office in particular.
As I related from a number of authoritative entities during public comments at the last City Commission meeting:
An average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before first arrest.
(Centers for Disease Control. “Vital Signs: Alcohol-Impaired Driving Among Adults — United States, 2010.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. October 4, 2011.)
One in three people will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “The Traffic Stop and You: Improving Communications between Citizens and Law Enforcement.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, March 2001, DOT HS 809 212.
Almost every 90 seconds, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash.
Blincoe, Lawrence, et al. “The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes 2000.” Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002. NHTSA FARS data, 2011.
Every day in America, another 27 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2012.
I raise the issue of impaired driving in general because I want to promote public safety and your arrest in particular because I want to promote informed voting. I do not raise them to be mean.
I want all drivers to drive only while sober. I want our men and women in our criminal-justice system—our law enforcement officers, our prosecutors, our judges, our parole officers and our intervention specialists—to know that we citizens who highly value public safety stand unwaveringly behind their efforts to stop impaired driving. I want you, Mister Chairman, to be responsible to the citizens of Gainesville.
Impaired driving is not a personal problem. It is a very public problem. People who drive while impaired are not due the privacy that we afford to people who have personal problems that do not affect the public. DRUNK DRIVERS KILL PEOPLE.
Further, people who abuse mind-altering substances function deficiently.
I appreciate sanctions that are good for the public, good for offenders and good for our criminal-justice system. I support the concept of “intervention programs” for offenders of various kinds that target effective measures to address offenders' problems to prevent future offenses.
However, I think that the provisions of the deferred prosecution agreement into which you entered with Prosecutor William Cervone are deficient. Two weeks of deprivation of your driver's license is too short a time for the severity of your offense, and substance abuse assessment that is optional will fail to identify an addiction if you have one and require you to treat it if you have one. Instead of veering into a ditch, you could well have veered into the path of an oncoming vehicle. YOU COULD HAVE KILLED SOMEONE.
A pubic office holder who would have an addiction would be unable to give his important work the quality of effort that he or she would otherwise be able to give to it. He or she would also be prone to engaging in distorted deliberations and to making imprudent decisions.
For citizens to cast an informed vote in the runoff election on April 16, they need to know whether you have an addiction to alcohol. Will you, Mister Chairman, undergo addiction evaluation and make the results of such an evaluation public before the runoff election?
I yield the remainder of my time.
498 words
3.00 minutes (00:03:00) at 166 words per minute
video recording of ADDRESS
ADDRESS of Mark Venzke of 2013.04.04 on impaired driving and the fitness of Craig Lowe to serve as mayor
The Internet address of the page of the City Of Gainesville Internet site on which the video recording of the 2013.04.04 City Commission meeting is posted is:
http://gainesville.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=5&clip_id=1738
from 3:08:02 to 3:11:08
viewable and printable documents
PDF format
ADDRESS of Mark Venzke of 2013.04.04 on impaired driving and the fitness of Craig Lowe to serve as mayor
Plea Agreement, FL vs Stuart Craig Lowe
FL v S C Lowe, evidence, exhibit 1, receipt, House Of Beer, 2013.03.21
Plea Agreement Guidelines
ADDRESS of Mark Venzke of 2013.04.04 on impaired driving and the fitness of Craig Lowe to serve as mayor
The Internet address of the page of the City Of Gainesville Internet site on which the video recording of the 2013.04.04 City Commission meeting is posted is:
http://gainesville.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=5&clip_id=1738
from 3:08:02 to 3:11:08
viewable and printable documents
PDF format
ADDRESS of Mark Venzke of 2013.04.04 on impaired driving and the fitness of Craig Lowe to serve as mayor
Plea Agreement, FL vs Stuart Craig Lowe
FL v S C Lowe, evidence, exhibit 1, receipt, House Of Beer, 2013.03.21
Plea Agreement Guidelines
A D D R E S S
of Mark Venzke, citizen of the City Of Gainesville, Florida,
to the Commissioners of the City Of Gainesville, Florida
during the early evening public comment period
at the regular meeting of the Gainesville City Commission
on Thursday, March 21, 2013 at about 6:15 p.m.
delivered extemporaneously and here transcribed and edited by the speaker
concerning
impaired driving and the reputation of our mayor and city
Mayor Pro Temp ore, Mark Venzke.
I've been....struck today by the unfortunate news of Mayor Lowe's arrest [on drunk driving charges.] I think it is something that we should all be concerned about.
There is...widespread abuse of alcohol in this country, and I think we need to realize that.
I've...got some statistics from the Internet site of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) that are very startling. ...[They say] that:
An average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before first arrest.
(Centers for Disease Control. “Vital Signs: Alcohol-Impaired Driving Among Adults — United States, 2010.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. October 4, 2011.)
About one-third of all drivers arrested or convicted of driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence of alcohol are repeat offenders.
(Fell, Jim. “Repeat DWI Offenders in the United States.” Washington, DC: National Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Traffic Tech No. 85, February 1995.)
50 to 75 percent of convicted drunk drivers continue to drive on a suspended license.
(Peck, R.C., Wilson, R. J., and Sutton, L. 1995. “Driver license strategies for controlling the persistent DUI offender, Strategies for Dealing with the intent Drinking Driver.” Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research Circular No. 437. Washington, D.C. National Research Council: 48-49 and Beck, KH, et al. “Effects of Ignition Interlock License Restrictions on Drivers with Multiple Alcohol Offenses: A Randomized Trial in Maryland.” American Journal of Public Health, 89 vol. 11 (1999): 1696-1700.)
Drunk driving costs the United States $132 billion a year.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2010
Drunk driving costs each adult in this country almost $500 per year.
(Taylor, et al 2002) Full cite: Taylor, Dexter; Miller, Ted; and Cox, Kenya. "Impaired Driving in the United States Cost Fact Sheets." Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002.
One in three people will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “The Traffic Stop and You: Improving Communications between Citizens and Law Enforcement.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, March 2001, DOT HS 809 212.
Almost every 90 seconds, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash.
Blincoe, Lawrence, et al. “The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes 2000.” Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002. NHTSA FARS data, 2011.
Every day in America, another 27 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2012.
In 2010, 211 children were killed in drunk driving crashes. Of those 211 deaths, 131 (62 percent) were riding with the drunk driver.
(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Traffic Safety Facts 2010: Alcohol Impaired Driving” Washington DC:National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2011.)
This is a bad time for Mayor Lowe, but it's also a time for all of us to think of the consequences of drinking and [of drinking and] driving especially.
The Florida Gator Well Office...[that]...promotes wellness on the University Of Florida campus has a longitudinal study that runs between the fall of 2004 and the fall of 2011. I can report from the graphs here [in the study] that there's been a general decline in the use of tobacco, alcohol, ecstasy, marijuana and cocaine with slight increases [in all of them] in the last...one or two years depending upon the substance.
Of those surveyed, those who performed poorly on tests or on [an] important project [during the preceding year] declined from twenty-five to fifteen percent. [Those who] drove a car while under the influence [during the preceding year] has gone from thirty-seven and one-half percent to seventeen percent. That's good, but that is not what we need. We need people to...use alcohol responsibly.
...[The irresponsible use of alcohol by our mayor] goes to the character of the leadership of our city, and I want to say that it does not reflect...[well]...on our mayor or our city.... [I also want to say that]...we had much better choices [in candidates in the general election than the two now standing in the runoff election—that include our mayor—] that were available [to voters and that those choices included me].
With that, let us all endeavor to use alcohol [responsibly] and...[not]...use other [mind-altering] substances.
453 words
2.73 minutes (00:02:44) at 166 words per minute
of Mark Venzke, citizen of the City Of Gainesville, Florida,
to the Commissioners of the City Of Gainesville, Florida
during the early evening public comment period
at the regular meeting of the Gainesville City Commission
on Thursday, March 21, 2013 at about 6:15 p.m.
delivered extemporaneously and here transcribed and edited by the speaker
concerning
impaired driving and the reputation of our mayor and city
Mayor Pro Temp ore, Mark Venzke.
I've been....struck today by the unfortunate news of Mayor Lowe's arrest [on drunk driving charges.] I think it is something that we should all be concerned about.
There is...widespread abuse of alcohol in this country, and I think we need to realize that.
I've...got some statistics from the Internet site of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) that are very startling. ...[They say] that:
An average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before first arrest.
(Centers for Disease Control. “Vital Signs: Alcohol-Impaired Driving Among Adults — United States, 2010.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. October 4, 2011.)
About one-third of all drivers arrested or convicted of driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence of alcohol are repeat offenders.
(Fell, Jim. “Repeat DWI Offenders in the United States.” Washington, DC: National Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Traffic Tech No. 85, February 1995.)
50 to 75 percent of convicted drunk drivers continue to drive on a suspended license.
(Peck, R.C., Wilson, R. J., and Sutton, L. 1995. “Driver license strategies for controlling the persistent DUI offender, Strategies for Dealing with the intent Drinking Driver.” Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research Circular No. 437. Washington, D.C. National Research Council: 48-49 and Beck, KH, et al. “Effects of Ignition Interlock License Restrictions on Drivers with Multiple Alcohol Offenses: A Randomized Trial in Maryland.” American Journal of Public Health, 89 vol. 11 (1999): 1696-1700.)
Drunk driving costs the United States $132 billion a year.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2010
Drunk driving costs each adult in this country almost $500 per year.
(Taylor, et al 2002) Full cite: Taylor, Dexter; Miller, Ted; and Cox, Kenya. "Impaired Driving in the United States Cost Fact Sheets." Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002.
One in three people will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “The Traffic Stop and You: Improving Communications between Citizens and Law Enforcement.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, March 2001, DOT HS 809 212.
Almost every 90 seconds, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash.
Blincoe, Lawrence, et al. “The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes 2000.” Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002. NHTSA FARS data, 2011.
Every day in America, another 27 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2012.
In 2010, 211 children were killed in drunk driving crashes. Of those 211 deaths, 131 (62 percent) were riding with the drunk driver.
(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Traffic Safety Facts 2010: Alcohol Impaired Driving” Washington DC:National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2011.)
This is a bad time for Mayor Lowe, but it's also a time for all of us to think of the consequences of drinking and [of drinking and] driving especially.
The Florida Gator Well Office...[that]...promotes wellness on the University Of Florida campus has a longitudinal study that runs between the fall of 2004 and the fall of 2011. I can report from the graphs here [in the study] that there's been a general decline in the use of tobacco, alcohol, ecstasy, marijuana and cocaine with slight increases [in all of them] in the last...one or two years depending upon the substance.
Of those surveyed, those who performed poorly on tests or on [an] important project [during the preceding year] declined from twenty-five to fifteen percent. [Those who] drove a car while under the influence [during the preceding year] has gone from thirty-seven and one-half percent to seventeen percent. That's good, but that is not what we need. We need people to...use alcohol responsibly.
...[The irresponsible use of alcohol by our mayor] goes to the character of the leadership of our city, and I want to say that it does not reflect...[well]...on our mayor or our city.... [I also want to say that]...we had much better choices [in candidates in the general election than the two now standing in the runoff election—that include our mayor—] that were available [to voters and that those choices included me].
With that, let us all endeavor to use alcohol [responsibly] and...[not]...use other [mind-altering] substances.
453 words
2.73 minutes (00:02:44) at 166 words per minute
video recording of ADDRESS
ADDRESS of Mark Venzke of 2013.03.21 on impaired driving and the reputation of our city and mayor
The Internet address of the page of the City Of Gainesville Internet site on which the video recording of the 2013.03.21 City Commission meeting is posted is:
http://gainesville.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=5&clip_id=1722
from 1:43:19 to 1:46:56
viewable and printable document
PDF format
ADDRESS of Mark Venzke of 2013.03.21 on impaired driving and the reputation of our mayor and our city
ADDRESS of Mark Venzke of 2013.03.21 on impaired driving and the reputation of our city and mayor
The Internet address of the page of the City Of Gainesville Internet site on which the video recording of the 2013.03.21 City Commission meeting is posted is:
http://gainesville.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=5&clip_id=1722
from 1:43:19 to 1:46:56
viewable and printable document
PDF format
ADDRESS of Mark Venzke of 2013.03.21 on impaired driving and the reputation of our mayor and our city
A D D R E S S
of Mark Venzke, candidate for mayor of Gainesville, Florida
to the assembled citizens and journalists
at the demonstration in support of termination or renegotiation
of the biomass electric generating plant contract
before Gainesville City Hall
on Thursday, February 7, 2013, 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
concerning
the needs for a radical change in energy policy and to elect forward-thinking officials
Fellow citizens of Gainesville:
I am Mark Venzke. I am a candidate for the office of mayor of Gainesville.
I have followed the biomass electric plant issue for about one and one-half years. Throughout my campaign for Gainesville city commissioner last year and since, I have repeatedly declared my strong misgivings about the power purchase agreement, the contract for the purchase of biomass-produced electricity.
Made clear to me by the presentation of evidence from the now-settled lawsuit, Gainesville Citizens CARE vs. The City Of Gainesville at the special City Commission workshop on the genesis of the power purchase agreement on Wednesday, January 9, 2013 is that what started as an idea for the least bad means of producing of electricity—biomass-produced electricity—besides renewable energy technologies morphed into a "monster." That "monster" is more secure and lucrative than necessary to engage a company to provide biomass-produced electricity to Gainesville Regional Utilities. It is a monster that will devour the financial resources of our City for more than a generation and with those resources the quality of life that they would have supplied.
The appeals of citizens to obtain information about the power purchase agreement and all that it specifies about the size of the proposed plant, the duration of the contract and the wholesale price of the electricity and many other details have been kept from the public in violation of our laws. Never should citizens have to sue their governments to obtain un-redacted, public documents and to secure full hearings of the issues involved in a policy, and never should a government or an agency of it radically change a major policy without affording to the public opportunities to learn about those changes and to comment on them.
We are in the midst of the Gainesville general election campaign season at the end of which the voters of Gainesville will decide the occupants of the elective offices of mayor and district four city commissioner for the next three years. The citizens who we elect to those critical positions will strongly influence the direction that our City takes on the biomass electric plant contract and many other important public policies.
We must accomplish through the electoral process what we have been unable to accomplish through rational educating and the lobbying processes: the termination or renegotiation of the defective power purchase agreement between the City Of Gainesville and the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center, the contractor that will own and operate the biomass electric generating plant.
For the sake of the financial future of our city, we must elect citizens who are committed to exercising one of the legal options that our City has that arises from the substantial and obvious breach of that contract, the sale of more than half of the ownership of the original company with which the City Of Gainesville entered into the contract.
If the citizens of Gainesville were to elect me mayor, I would work to convince my fellow commissioners of the need to terminate or renegotiate the contract and would work to get them to vote to do so. I would work to include an even more aggressive renewable energy promotion and facilitation program than our utility already has to secure all of the long-term benefits of renewable energy and to avoid all of the long-term harms of dirty, dangerous and destabilizing carbon-fuel and nuclear-fuel technologies.
I shall entertain questions from the media.