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Mark's comments on Chris Curry's article in the Gainesville Sun on the questionable hiring practices of the City Of Gainesville
Mayoral race has Democrats fuming Gainesville Sun (daily newspaper of Alachua County, Florida) http://www.gainesville.com/article/20130425/ARTICLES/130429731/1160?p=1&tc=pg published: Thursday, April 25, 2013, 5:03 p.m. last updated: Thursday, April 25, 2013, 5:03 p.m. Clifford Patrick: Welcome to the independent movement! The portion of the electorate that is independent is now about forty percent, and has been growing for many good reasons. The dominant, two parties in this country, especially at the national level, are wholly owned “subsidiaries” of the “corporatocracy,” the ruling power structure composed of large banks and multi-national corporations and our federal government. The high-level positions in large banks and international corporations and in our federal government are occupied by people who freely migrate between them—through the “revolving door”—and routinely collude to enact public policies that favor large banks and international corporations at the expense of the constitutional governance, the rule of law, our economy and the safety of our republic and at the expense of our citizens. To support those two, dominant parties at the local level gives support and power to the state and national levels and facilitates the many unconstitutional and unlawful actions in which they—as subsidiaries of the corporatocracy—engage. At the local level, we have seen most of the Democrat office holders and the leaders of the Alachua County Democratic Party sit silently through numerous public policy injustices inflicted on African-Americans and on their communities and through efforts by citizens to examine and critique the very financially disadvantageous power purchase agreement for biomass-produced electricity. Why such otherwise good people have done these things is baffling. Many explanations are possible but are not excusable. Be no longer deceived or deluded that being affiliated as a member or as an office holder with a corrupt, dominant party you are effecting more good than bad. You are effecting more bad than good. Grow from any primordial or practical compulsion that you may have to be associated with a group or with dominant or “successful” entities when those groups or entities stray racially from the visions, values and missions that they espouse and cause great disharmony and damage to our world. Review the Internet sites of leading organizations in the independent and minor party movement, and become a member of at least one: Free and Equal (slightly right-leaning) www.FreeandEqual.org Independent Voting (slightly left-leaning) www.IndependentVoting.org No Labels www.NoLabels.org (no leaning) Patrick, you and any other eligible elector can change party affiliation—including change to “no party affiliation”—online or at the Supervisor Of Elections Office. The address of the page of the Internet site of the Supervisor Of Elections office at which you can change your party affiliation (update your registration) is: https://www.voterfocus.com/ws/pfinder/navigate.php?county=alachua&buttop=none&return=http%3A%2F%2Felections.alachua.fl.us%2Fvoter-registration%2Fregister-to-vote%2Fsuccess.html The address of the Supervisor Of Elections Office is: 111 SE 1st Avenue in Gainesville A safe, healthy, attractive, prosperous, sustainable and nurturing city, county, state and country are ours for the making! -------------------- Amen. Political parties CAN serve a positive function in defining visions, values and policy objectives and in selecting and presenting candidates to the electorate. However, political parties should never be in the business of injustice, suppression or coercion of any kind. -------------------- Well written. Consider becoming an independent or a member of an as-yet-non-arrogant and non-abusive non-dominant party. See my extensive comment below. A safe, healthy, attractive, prosperous, sustainable and nurturing city is ours for the making! -------------------- Parties can mend fences after the sources of conflict are identified, addressed and resolved. The Alachua County Black Democratic Caucus (ACBDC) has taken that first step. Thank you, leaders of the ACBDC. -------------------- “Our [members' of the Alachua County Democratic Executive Committee] relationship with the local African-American community has been negatively impacted [by the "disloyalty" of members of the Alachua County Black Democratic Caucus]..." That relationship has been strained by an unfortunate succession of many instances of neglect and abuse of the African-American community by the members of the Alachua County Democratic Executive Committee and by Democrat office holders. Thank you, courageous members of the Alachua County Black Democratic Caucus. Mark's comments on Billy Kennedy's article in the Independent Florida Alligator on the League Of Women Voters Candidate Forum
City candidates talk transportation, park plan during forum Independent Florida Alligator (student newspaper of the University Of Florida) http://www.alligator.org/news/local/article_62b94afe-7f0a-11e2-87d4-001a4bcf887a.html#user-comment-area published: Monday, February 25, 2013, 12:15 a.m. last updated: Monday, February 25, 2013, 12:27 a.m. This, the League Of Women Voters Candidate Forum, was another good forum. My thanks goes to Billy Kennedy and Becca Negron for their coverage. Mr. Kennedy, the writer of this article did not quite capture my position on “BRT,” or bus rapid transit. I oppose BRT because at $330 million we could not afford it now. Instead, I support experimental express bus service, or what I call "BRT light." I stated that I favor a limited-scale, trial for express bus service between "kiss-and-ride" (park-and-ride) parking lots in outlying communities and in Gainesville and major employment centers in Gainesville and Alachua such as hospitals, institutions of higher learning, warehouse and distribution centers, large industrial parks and large retail centers. Express bus service is characterized by a limited number of stops along routes. Express bus service need not have dedicated—entirely new and very expensive—traffic lanes. I propose that we lease up-scale buses for the trial to coax from their private vehicles customers who expect clean and comfortable transportation. I propose that we select only the most promising route as determined by market research for the trial, and I propose that we promote the trial express bus service creatively and aggressively. The next candidate forum will be the joint University Park Neighborhood Association and Duckpond Neighborhood Association Candidate Forum on March 3 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the United Church Of Gainesville. Please come. Mark Venzke candidate Gainesville mayor MarkForMayor.us Mark's comments on Debbie Martinez's comments on Chris Curry's article on the funds raised by candidates in the Gainesville city campaigns
Braddy Campaign raises 12K in first month Gainesville Sun http://www.gainesville.com/article/20130215/ARTICLES/130219684/1182?p=3&tc=pg&tc=ar published: Friday, February 15, 2013, 9:08 p.m. Correction: I have repeatedly made public my strong misgivings on the biomass electric plant contract since the beginning of my campaign for city commissioner more than a year ago. Despite my repeatedly asking opponents of the contract to present to the public documentation and calculations that substantiated their claims, they did not present them. While I only sought truth, they acted as though I was disloyal and subversive to their cause. Since I heard and saw sufficient evidence during the Alachua County Commission workshop on October 23, 2012 on the contract and during the City Commission public workshop on the contract that it was very disadvantageous to the GRU and the City Of Gainesville, I have expressed my opposition to the contract. In the latter workshop, lawyers presented evidence that one of them had obtained through the discovery process that had been previously unavailable to the public for the suit that Gainesville Citizens CARE filed against the City Of Gainesville. While many citizens in Gainesville have been expressing their strong oppositions to biomass- and surface-mined-coal-technologies and to the asymmetrical contract for biomass-produced electricity—which they should—no interest groups or individuals have expressed their strong oppositions to similarly destructive natural gas technology. Only Gainesville Loves Mountains and Alachua Clean Energy (ACE) have been working on practical alternatives to dirty, dangerous and destabilizing energy technologies. Gainesville Loves Mountains has been working on an ordinance that would provide to income property owners incentives and technical assistance to make energy efficiency improvements to those properties. Alachua Clean Energy has been working on developing mechanisms by which property owners would be able to conveniently finance energy efficiency improvements and installations of renewable energy systems. Neither has yet brought finished proposals for policies forward. I am the only candidate who has been publicly advocating that our City, our publicly owned utility, our County and our many private businesses and organizations aggressively promote and facilitate energy efficiency improvements and installations of cost-effective renewable energy systems. In fact, I had been doing that long before I became a candidate in the last election. Some candidates and their supporters rightly publicly oppose irresponsible energy production but wrongly fail to publicly advocate for responsible energy efficiency and responsible energy production. Debbie Martinez has inaccurately asserted in her public communications, including the one above, that Ed Braddy has been the only candidate to oppose the biomass contract. Several candidates in the last election opposed it and all of the challengers to incumbent mayor, Craig Lowe, in the current election oppose it. I would not characterize them as parrots. Certainly, in my case, I refused to become a parrot who would believe and repeat what opponents to the contract have repeated without providing adequate substantiation of their statements. I invite all those who oppose irresponsible energy policy to speak and write truthfully, to continue to present solid data to the public, to publicly express their support for responsible energy policy and to vote for me on March 19. MarkForMayor.us |
Please be aware that missing from this comments section are comments that inexplicably disappeared in the second week of February.
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