The Tallahassee Two Step

As Originally Published in Key West the Newspaper July 15, 2011

I grew up in the middle of the energy crisis back in the 70’s when gas skyrocketed from around thirty five cents per gallon to well over a buck.  America was in a crisis.

I remember a conversation my Dad and I overheard while standing in line at the hardware store.  It seems “Mr. Green”  had found a solution to the high price of gas.  Apparently the adjacent town had an Esso station that was selling gas for five cents less per gallon than the Shell station in our town.  As we left the store I watched as Mr. Green drove off in his Chevy Impala the size of a barn.

I struggled to do the best math my seven year old head could muster.  If the next town was ten miles away, and Mr. Green’s car got twelve miles per gallon, it would mean Mr. Green was burning a couple of bucks in gas to save maybe a buck.  To me, something just didn’t add up.  Maybe there was a great deal on smokes too, who knows?   I was just a seven year old, and Mr. Green was an adult.

My parent’s solution was a ‘72 Toyota Corolla that got 34 miles per gallon.  My folks had traded in the station wagon with the tailgate you could play volleyball in for the car we affectionately called the grapefruit.  Supposedly for it’s color, but more for it’s size.  I fondly remember the ten hour trips to visit grandma with two adults, five kids and a dog piled into that car.  We did more with less and survived.

The Sunshine Flaw

As Originally Published in Key West the Newspaper June 24, 2011

I’m not a fan of the Sunshine Law.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love the intent of the Law, just not the law itself.  You see very often politicians in the interest of appearance “solve” a problem by creating legislation, then pat themselves on the back, give themselves accolades and add the accomplishment to their campaign rhetoric.  Regardless of whether or not they actually resolved the problem.

In the case of the Sunshine Law, who could argue with trying to stop public officials from conducting business behind closed doors, or working back room deals.  But as with many of these feel good laws it only serves to keep legal people legal.  Those intent on doing back room deals will continue to do so simply because the parties involved and benefiting from the meeting behind closed doors wouldn’t turn each other in.  It is also important to note that the legislature in all it’s great concern, exempted themselves from the law.  Go figure.

So what does that leave us with?  Those trying to abide by the law have to struggle with understanding it, abiding by it, and need to worry about the occasional minor slip up.  That slip up then becomes the fodder of political opponents, and a consumption of time for the State Attorney to diagnose.  In addition, the State Attorney has sponsored symposiums that only a handful of locally elected officials have attended, or even expressed interest in.

What a cataclysmic waste of time and resources.  However, if any politician had the courage to propose a change to it, it would be political suicide.  Imagine the simple minded headlines, “Gardi wants to promote back room deals!”   

Untangling the Foreclosure Mystery - Part 6

I’d like to extend a heartfelt thanks to Key West the Newspaper for providing me this forum to discuss the critical nature of this foreclosure mess over the last several weeks.  I hope at the very least I have been able to illustrate a reason to look beyond the headlines so that we all become a little more aware of these issues.  It is critical that we all understand how so many financial ailments find their root cause embedded in the intentional fraud devised and perpetrated by the too big to fail banks.  It is a layer cake comprised of mortgage fraud, fraud when the mortgages are securitized, and all topped off with a nice decorative icing of foreclosure fraud.

So now that we are in this mess, how do we get out of it?  First we have to stabilize property values by building confidence in our title histories.  The downward spiral  we are in only places more homeowners in a negative equity position, which is the primary cause of foreclosures, and this only perpetuates the cycle.  We need to do more than run articles of Real Estate agents screaming buy, buy, buy!!!

Our County Clerk needs to do an intensive reclassification of virtually every property in our County.  Not just those in foreclosure, but EVERY property.  Notices need to be sent out to every mortgage holder that if proper assignments have not been accurately recorded within a time specified period that all claim to the property beyond what is on file will be eliminated.  Any subsequent assignments need to be accompanied by copies of a properly transferred note, whose dates of transfer correlate with the mortgage assignments. Detailed documentation of the physical location of each note from inception to present needs to accompany these new filings.  These filings need to be reviewed in detail to detect any BS, and anything that even looks suspicious needs to be immediately referred to the State Attorney.

Untangling the Foreclosure Mystery - Part 5

Last week in Key West the Newspaper we began to review case 09-CA-471-K, a foreclosure case here in the 16th Judicial Circuit.  We highlighted some clearly questionable documents produced by the Law Firm Marshall C. Watson, on behalf of their Plaintiff Countrywide.  I also acknowledged that the case I began to describe in detail was my own.  However, it is also similar to countless other cases filed here in the Keys and throughout the State of Florida.

Let’s now take a look at how those in a position to address such egregious docs are handling the oversight of such cases.  First, Attorney General Pam Bondi.  She did recently fire Assistant Attorney General Erin Collins Cullaro for having “moonlighted” at a foreclosure mill law firm. (Who then went on to work for Shapiro and Fishman, another foreclosure mill under investigation.)  But what comes from these investigations?  In the instance of Bondi’s review of Marshall Watson it resulted in a two million dollar fine, and no admission of wrong doing.  That may sound like a lot, but remember this is one of the largest foreclosure mills out there, two million dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to their annual revenue.  It’s the cost of doing business.

Folks, these documents in many cases are potential felonies...countless in number, used to take possession of peoples homes, and that ultimately destroy YOUR property values by creating questionable title histories throughout our community.  No admission of wrong doing, and right back at it!!??  Why not jail time?  Bondi may as well be applying sun lotion to Marshall Watson’s back.

Untangling the Foreclosure Mystery— Part 4

As seen originally in Key West the Newspaper May 27, 2011

Commentary by Matt Gardi

The last few weeks, in this newspaper, I have made an attempt to expose what is truly going on in the foreclosure process, and how it ties back to a myriad of other systematic issues affecting our daily lives. Last week, we touched on the fact that the court system is incentivized directly by the Banks that have caused this crisis.

But I would be remiss if I did not mention the Foreclosure and Economic Recovery Plan, aka the “Rocket Docket.” In FY 10 -11, our legislature, (clearly influenced by the Banking lobby) devised the Rocket Docket to appoint retired Judges to reduce the backlog (grease the skids) of foreclosure cases by 62 percent during the fiscal year.

You might note that appointed retired Judges do not face the scrutiny of elections.

Here in the Keys, that duty has been assigned to Judge Sandra Taylor. Taylor has made an effort to proactively dismiss cases for lack of prosecution, but according to a report by the Office of State Courts Administrator, she only disposed of 23 cases in the first three months by dismissing them, while granting 100 Summary Judgements of Foreclosures. That is a four to one ratio in favor of the banks.

Again, allow me to remind you that defendants are not challenging most of these cases, and if a decent review of each case is not conducted, you may end up with a watershed of adverse consequences down the road, as per my commentary from last week. Attention to the documents in each case is essential to preserve the integrity of our title histories, and ultimately our property values, regardless of whether or not a defendant is present.

Untangling the Foreclosure Mystery - Part 3

As seen in Key West the Newspaper May 20, 2011

Over the last couple of weeks I have been sharing with you an ugly portrait of how almost every economic ailment we are faced with somehow ties back to bank fraud, and what has now morphed into foreclosure fraud.

I’ve described how the banks defrauded investors, destroyed the titles, evaded filing fees, and are now stealing houses. It affects everyone, and you should be irate not only with the banks, but with those responsible for maintaining the integrity of our system.

For example, when you hear about budget cuts at the school affecting your child’s education, it is traced back to tax base, and property values. Property values are traced back to confidence in title histories, which have been wantonly destroyed by the banks while our County Clerk has been asleep at the switch by allowing the banks to arbitrarily decide that they will now maintain land records.

Untangling the Foreclosure Mystery - Part 2

As seen in Key West The Newspaper May 13, 2011
Part Doo because this is where it really starts to stink, and we’re all stepping in it.

If you recall last week I began to unravel the foreclosure mess that is invariably affecting every one of us. I began this series of commentaries to discuss how all of the economic ailments you are hearing about lately are intimately entwined.

Property values, court budgets, pension funds, robo-signing, tax base, foreclosures, and bank fraud are all seamlessly linked together.

Last week I described how main stream media covers this crisis superficially, and never gets to the meat of the story, while only touching on foreclosure “paperwork issues” the banks are having, and thereby omitting the holy grail of systematic fraud.

I posed the question, “Why do the banks have to produce questionable documents to proceed with a foreclosure?” and “Why can’t the banks simply use the documents on file in the County Clerk’s Office to foreclose?”

I alleged rampant, intentional, widespread bank fraud is the reason, and I answered the questions above by suggesting that the banks intentionally destroyed original notes and mortgages. On purpose.

Untangling the Foreclosure Mystery - Part 1

As run in Key West the Newspaper May 6, 2011
How is it that so often I am reading a news article and find myself pleading with the reporter to ask the next question?

So often it seems reporters will just leave the story with one major disconnect that could put all the pieces of the puzzle together. That was the case again recently with an article regarding foreclosure in the Sunday Citizen. The worst part about it is that the story was just starting to scrape the surface of what very few journalists have been able to expound upon.

Granted, the reporter may have been limited by the confines of column inches, or the directive of editors telling him to be concise, but why can’t reporters just dig a smidgen deeper versus regurgitating the same old rhetoric about foreclosures that’s passed around the AP wire?

Fortunately, it’s why everyone should, and I do, love Key West the Newspaper. They are concerned about the truth, and making sure you know it. To that end they have provided me the opportunity, in a forthcoming series of articles, to provide an explanation of how it all ties together. In the next few weeks I hope to enlighten you on how bank fraud, your property values, everyone’s due process, our tax base, robosigning, court budgets, banks, Pam Bondi, the Florida Bar, real estate agents, overwhelmed judges, and market confidence all twist together like one large screw applied firmly to a certain part of your posterior anatomy— regardless of whether you are a homeowner, a pensioner, a taxpayer, or just someone who breaths oxygen—trust me you’re feeling it. Here’s the same old tired story from the main stream media:

Gardi Answers Boettger: Corporat Republicans? Puhhlease!

ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN KEY WEST THE NEWSPAPER Sept 24, 2010

NOTE: Matt Gardi ran
against Morgan McPherson for
the Republican nomination for
State Representative. He beat
McPherson in most of the lower
Keys precincts where both candidates
were best known, but
lost district-wide. McPherson,
whose funding came primarily
from out of district, outspent
Gardi more than ten to one, and
enjoyed unprecedented Republican
Party of Florida financial
support during the primary. As
a result, Gardi told the State and
County Republican leaders to
“stick it” and still took home 45
percent of the true Republican
vote in the District.

by Matt Gardi

I am compelled to respond
to Rick Boettger’s recent rants
against the national Republican
party. Why? Well because he
is spot on....of course. Now, I
can hear some of you saying...
what’s that, Matt? But...but,
you’re a Republican! Yes. Yes I
am, and a proud one at that.

I often agree with much
of what Rick says, and he has
my utmost respect when it
comes to being someone who
stands up to the system. I feel
he is dedicated to the cause of
informing the public about the
injustices within the machine.

But as much as I agree on his
points about the Republican
party, we do part ways on one
very fundamental component
of his argument. And while
it is only one component, it is
unfortunately so material that it
actually makes Rick a helpless
culprit in facilitating all that he
is ranting about.

Rick, seriously, do you
think that the national Democrats
are any less culpable of
the infractions that you assign
to Republicans? Now stop right
there! I don’t intend to stand toe
to toe and debate which party
is the more conspiring, which
party has more negative advertising,
which party is controlled
by wealthy elitists behind the
scenes calling the shots, which
party is facilitating more rewards
for it’s contributors, or
which party has greater heroes
or villains.

Nope, I won’t do it. Why?
Because if I do, I fall into “their”
trap, and become “their” tool.
Unfortunately that is exactly
what Rick has done. I don’t
blame him, it takes the greatest
concentration to break away
from the hypnotic influence of
the machine.

You see, Rick has fallen
prey to the left-right schism
that is created and refined by
those that truly own our government,
lock stock and barrel.

It’s a classic divide and conquer
methodology that keeps us all
busy pointing fingers at each
other, versus ransacking the
folks behind the curtain pulling
the levers and giving them one
seriously painful wedgie.

Listen, as much as anyone
might disagree, our government
is bought and paid for
by people who have no ethical
or moral compass, no concern
for right or wrong, nor even a
concern for America in general.
It’s all just a game to maintain
control, power, influence, and
the true wealth of this nation,
even in the midst of its deterioration.
They balance taking from
the producers, with distributing
to those in need solely to maintain
their respective support
base, all the while their only true
concern is who actually holds
the purse strings and doles out
the goods . . . after skimming
their take of course.

And it’s not just on the
national level; it permeates
every level of government,
right down to our municipal
commissions. It is those at the
most grassroots level that are
the most disheartening conscripts.
They put towing the line
of the State Party leaders over
the principle that their party is
supposed to represent--solely
for maintaining their positions
within the local control group
Local candidates and elected
officials fear speaking out
against the ruling kingmakers
for fear of losing party support
and financing. They, too,
become hapless tools of those
that control the system from top
to bottom.

Party officials are masters
at creating our heroes and villains
for us in order to keep us
distracted and pointing fingers.
Obama is the Democrat’s Bush.
As a Republican I could never
understand why Bush wouldn’t
reign in spending and the size of
government, and I watched us
give up our liberties in the name
of protection from terrorists.

Democrats are probably
just as puzzled as to why
Obama can’t end the wars, is
still paying Halliburton and has the same banking cartel advising
him that Bush did. Meet
the new boss, the same as the
old boss. You are delusional if
you think anything other than
that.

As someone who considers
himself a Republican, it
doesn’t mean I have to accept
the fact my party has been coopted
by frauds at all levels.

I’m a proud Republican because
I stand for small government,
low taxation, free enterprise,
and self-sufficiency. Democrats
I know and respect articulate
a hope of a society that takes
care of those that can’t take
care of themselves. Neither
of us would argue with each
other’s intention. Between us,
the only debate is how much
do you take, and how much
do you give as a government
and a society so that production
is maintained, the needy
are served, and dependencies
are not created.

When does government
support, control and protection
become an intrusion? That’s it
in a nutshell, one spectrum, and
one healthy discussion.

But ultimately, it is our
government, and those that are
in control of it and our party
structure that dictate the discussion.
They create the demons,
heroes and issues du jour that
keep us polarized and make us
lose sight of what is truly going
on in our country.

So long as they can fight
it out at the national, state, and
local level for the money, power,
control and influence without
having “us” disrupt their little
charade, they care neither about
us, nor our country. They
control and own our media, so
an outsider pointing out their
infractions is ostracized, and
marginalized.

They maintain the party
structure, the legislation, the
lobby groups, the 527s and campaign
finance, and thus control
the candidates, so much so that
what we feel are our choices,
are in fact nothing more than
puppets of their design. Unless
you’re one of the few that has
the time to dig into the morass
they create to figure out who
candidates and elected officials
actually owe their allegiance to,
you cast your vote assuming
you made a difference.

When no difference appears,
you lash out at the opposition,
and their corrupt ways...

just wait till we can vote them
out next time... just wait. How
dare they assail us? Where’s my
flag, where’s my lapel pin, get
me a sign to wave! And then,
when election day comes, we
celebrate because we transposed
the mirage for a short
period of time, until it becomes
painfully apparent that we must
demand change yet again. And
again. And again.

If you consider yourself
a Republican, don’t lash out
at Democrats; create a party
you can be proud of. Create a
party that will inspire others to
participate, one that can stand
on it’s merits and ideas, a party
that does not disenfranchise a
broad spectrum of participants.
If you’re a Democrat, do the
same.

Don’t tolerate the BS that
we all know goes on in both
parties; challenge it. If you consider
yourself a leader in your
party, whether it be as a party
official, candidate, or elected
official, realize the fight is for
what is right, not what is most
beneficial to the puppet masters
that have control of the system.
Stand up and be counted and
point your fingers at the appropriate
villain.

When the discussion is
between honest concerned
people about how much we
can tax ourselves, and how
much we can expect our government
to provide for us, and
not about how much our parties
can spend to buy an election or
denigrate an opponent, then . .
. then “we”— Democrats and
Republicans— have finally
won.

Rick, are you with me?

Why Is Everyone Hanging Out on a Cloud?

ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN KEY WEST THE NEWSPAPER JAN 22, 2010

...Or better yet, why aren’t
they?

It’s a question everyone
is asking lately, what is all this
talk of doing business in “THE
CLOUD?”

Essentially, the concept
of “the cloud” is hosting business
services such as email,
calendaring, documents, invoicing
and bookkeeping out
on the web, and accessing these
services from any computer
in the world with internet access.

Hey, let’s face it, times are
changing. Our cell phones are
now as powerful as our desktop
computers were a mere four or
five years ago. The concept of
a small business, or government
agency hosting these
services in house is not only
outdated, but it has become
archaic.

Historically, a business
or agency would build
the infamous “server rack” in
a “server room” which would
include the necessary hardware
to host all these services. Staff
with thick rimmed glasses and
pocket protectors would then
be concerned with patching
servers, worrying about equipment
failure, concerning themselves
with a reliable power
source, making data backups,
and budgeting for the life cycle
replacement of this entire mess
of hardware and wires. The
points of failure were countless,
and the downtime was inconvenient
to say the least.

But today, with the advent
of companies like Google
developing all these services in
a web based platform, small
business and government
agencies can migrate it all out
to the web, and need only concern
themselves with reliable
internet connectivity to obtain
the same if not a better system
performance.

Companies like
Google have teams of engineers,
and much more reliable
equipment to host the services,
ensuring less downtime, better
access, and greater security. As
a business, your only concern is
providing staff with convenient
access to the internet, and this
gets easier every day. Further,
with the ever increasing
methods of obtaining internet
access, reliability and accessibility
become the norm versus
the hope.

The concept is demonstrable
by looking at the advent
of online banking. Most of us
can remember the time consuming
effort of writing checks,
licking envelopes, and incurring
the expense of postage.
Yet now, all this can be done for
free in a fraction of the time by
using online banking available
at almost every bank.

One local administrator
who has taken advantage of
the concept is State Attorney
Dennis Ward. Ward turned to
local consultant Matt Gardi, of
ViaVende Technical Consulting
to bring his email and calendaring
system into the twenty first
century.

“I parallel the difference
to snail mail versus email,” said
Gardi. “At the State Attorney’s
Office, by deploying Google
Apps, we were able to migrate
their email and calendaring
systems to the cloud, increasing
functionality, accessibility,
security, and reliability all at
a fraction of the cost of what
Microsoft was providing.”

Aside from the direct
cost advantage of licensing
fees, Gardi sees tangential
cost savings by leveraging the
systems in the cloud. “I give a
lot of credit to forward thinking
administrators who are
able to look past the hurdle of
systems migration, towards
the benefits achievable down
the road.”

Gardi also credits
Public Defender Rose Enright,
who with his assistance
last year migrated their case
management system to a web
based platform. “For instance,
being in the cloud would allow
for an attorney to access case
information, create a motion,
share it with her legal assistant,
and update a co-councel’s calendar
to reflect a change in a
hearing date, all from a mobile
device while she’s waiting for
the bus.”

When asked what other
agencies he believes could benefit
from the cloud, Gardi said,
“Well, I could argue almost any
business or government entity
would realize cost savings and
increased functionality, but seeing
as Google Apps provides
many of these services free to
educational institutions, what
comes to my mind immediately
is the Monroe County School
District.”

Recycling: The good, the bad, and the ugly

ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN KEY WEST THE NEWSPAPER FEB 13, 2009

by Matt Gardi

Recent consideration and
adoption of a recycling ordinance
in the City of Key West
has caused a healthy debate
among residents and City officials,
which is a good thing
as it has raised awareness. The
discussion alone has indirectly
promoted recycling all by itself.

That being said, during the
discussion a lot of facts and
fears were debated, many of
which were valid, and many
of which were not. Folks from
both inside and outside the
proverbial recycle bin threw
out so much factual rubbish, it
makes Mt. Trashmore look like
an anthill...and that is bad. Yet
ultimately, Key West’s recycling
rate is abysmal, and that’s not
just ugly, it’s coyote ugly. Something
must be done to address
the situation.

I don’t claim to be an
expert, and admittedly I don’t
have all the answers, but I do
feel I have good insight on the
issue. I served on the Burlington,
VT City Council when we
grappled with the recycling
issue over a decade ago. I’ve
lived in Heidelberg, Germany,
where I kid you not, my wife
and I produced one thirty gallon
trash bag a month at most, and
everything else was recycled.

Maybe it was because I had to
walk down to the “Rathaus”
(AKA City Hall...somehow they
got the name right over there)
and pay about five bucks for a
numbered trash bag to place
in my bar coded trash bin, or
maybe it was because we were
conscientious recyclers...I prefer
to think the latter.

And finally,
I have tried to avidly recycle
here in Key West, and have experienced
the frustration both
as a resident, and as a business
owner on Duval street.

Let’s take a look at the
obvious. Recycling is good.
There is no valid argument
that can be made to suggest it
is better to place something in
the trash that could be reused.
End of story. However, reusing
misinformation as a proponent
is bad because it only gives opponents
the ability to incinerate
all the arguments of the pro-recycle crowd.

First, everyone
needs to stop suggesting the City
will save a million dollars. I have
seen this on the petitions, and I
have heard countless residents
and City officials make this
proclamation. Nothing could
be further from the truth. It is
not only simple minded, but it is
disingenuous to recruit supporters
by suggesting this. No, we’re
not going to plug a budget gap
with “recycling savings.” Simply
because we pay $66 dollars per
ton of trash, and recycling will
reduce the total amount of trash
does not mean that the City or
residents will save one penny.

Even during times when the
recycled materials fetch a good
price on the market, there is a
net cost associated with the collection,
transportation, sorting,
storing and reselling of the full
range of recyclables. Even if Key
West increased its recycling to
fifty percent and reduced its
trash disposal costs by as much,
don’t delude yourself into thinking
Waste Management, or any
business for that matter, will take
the hit for the increased cost of
the recycled materials they pick
up. That increased cost will come
back on residents one way or
another, whether it be through
increased trash and recycle rates,
or some other form of taxation.

No question “it’s the right thing
to do,” but recycling costs more,
it’s a zero sum gain and someone
has got to pay. It certainly won’t
be Waste Management.

Speaking of Waste Management,
another ugly fact is
that they don’t actually want to
recycle. I have seen their staff toss
the contents of my residential bin
into my garbage can. I have seen
them toss bundled commercial
cardboard into the trash truck.

I have been told that I have to
go out to their facility to get
a recycle bin, and when I do,
aggravated staff hunt around
for ten minutes trying to find
one. My stories are not isolated
incidents as evidenced by the
countless other similar stories
articulated at public forums.
The pretty presentation at the
commission meeting of their
single stream sorting facility
stunk like a dirty milk jug, considering
they escape being held
accountable for such frequent
incidents.

Not only do these
infractions contribute directly
to Key West’s abysmal recycling
rate, but they indirectly deter
motivated recyclers from even
trying. I unfortunately count
myself among those who have
been discouraged as a direct result
of what I have witnessed...

and yes, I can tell the difference
between a trash truck and a
single stream recycling truck. I
must have missed the language
in the recent ordinance regarding
fining Waste Management?

Think about it, they get paid
by each resident for recycling
whether or not the resident participates,
they get paid per ton of
trash they haul, and they incur
additional costs if they actually
collect the recyclable material.

Their incentive is to haul trash,
and enjoy a low recycling rate
regardless of whatever pretty PR
they push...and it all gets back
to their contract with the City.
It makes one wonder why the
City is even a middle man for
residential trash, and if such a
contract is even helpful.

Ahhh, the City. It’s funny
how the ugly six percent recycling
rate comes right back to the
City. It’s the same government
entity that created a contract
that motivates our trash hauler
to toss recycling in the trash
and created an uncompetitive
environment where residents
have no choice, that has now
passed an ordinance regarding
residential recycling.

As much as
I think the adopted toned down
version was a help in creating
awareness, it’s passage was
like leaving a half eaten slice of
pizza in the box, and tossing it
in the recycle bin. It simply was
the easiest thing to do so that
everyone could pat themselves
on the back, satiate constituents,
toss the hot potato, and claim
they are “for” recycling...kind
of like Waste Management is
“for” recycling. Why be creative
and think outside the pizza
box when all you have to do is pass a new ordinance, law,
or regulation, feel good about
yourself and move on?

Also
why isolate the residential side,
when the commercial side is
much more of a travesty? Don’t
draw any conclusions from the
number of commissioners that
are business owners...let’s just
leave those sour grapes on the
compost heap.

OK, OK, I feel the collective
sentiment of the reader at this
point. Enough of the criticism
you over-opinionated trash
mouth, what are your solutions?
As I stated at the beginning, I
don’t have all the answers, but
perhaps we should dispose of
the governmental red tape. First,
it’s the private organizations
like Love Your Island that have
been the most effective in raising
awareness during this debate.
Beyond that, how about giving
tax and regulation breaks to any business that consumes locally
produced recyclable materials?

Hypothetically, if someone
wanted to produce cardboard
furniture out of local cardboard
waste, grease the skids for them.

If some artists wanted to smelt
beer bottles and make a huge
artificial reef out of their creations,
let them use some City
resources like land, buildings
and equipment. How about a
worldwide contest for the best
idea for such a business, and
produce a press release similar
to what Australia just did for the
best job in the world. Provide an
incentive for a property owner
to offer a year of free rent for
housing and/or a business to
the winner. Think of the ideas
we’ll receive as entries.

Stop waiting for China to
create a demand for our recyclables,
and find ways to create a
demand for our own recyclables
right here in town. Across the nation,
waste oil from restaurants
is now in demand because of
people making biodiesel. What
restaurants once paid to dispose
of, has now become a commodity
because of the development of
the demand side of the equation.
I know, I know, it’s not easy,
and it’s clearly more difficult
than tweaking the language of
another ordinance, or writing a
bid for a contract to “haul our
trash.” But it is that sort of
brainstorming, inventiveness
and creativity that City leaders
need to manifest to create a more
effective solution, increase recycling
rates, and raise awareness.

Now, that would be good.

Did Court Clerk Kolhage Change Website to Try to Help Incumbent State Attorney?

ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN KEY WEST THE NEWSPAPER NOV 28, 2008

WHEN CITIZEN WATCHDOG STARTED ASKING QUESTIONS, KOLHAGE CALLED HIS BOSS AND ASKED THE SHERIFF TO INVESTIGATE HIM

by Matt Gardi

Can anyone ultimately ever prove motive? The only method people have to assess motives, are facts they can prove. That is why I have no alternative but to believe that staff from the county clerk’s office removed information from their public website, in an attempt to help State Attorney Mark Kohl win re-election, and County Clerk Danny Kolhage condoned it.

I’ll be straight up about one motive I had. I wanted to see State Attorney Mark Kohl replaced because I felt he was soft on crime. For the last few years, I forwarded any example of this to Free Press reporter Robert Silk. One particular morning in the heat of the recent election cycle I had the chance to read in the Key West
Citizen about a charming Mr. Dieter in Marathon who allegedly beat up his wife and her son with a golf club. Mr. Dieter it appears, according to my review that morning of the sheriff’s and clerk’s websites, had previously been arrested in 2004 for attempted murder and numerous other charges.

According to the clerk’s
website on the morning that
story broke, the state charged
him with five counts ranging
from aggravated assault to
battery, and dropped three of
the five charges, while Dieter
plead to two counts. He was
sentenced concurrently to a max
of 11 months and 29 days, and
received credit for three months
and a day served. And he was
out on the street, violating his
probation, within six months.
As I had done on othr occasions,
I sent that information in an email
to Mr. Silk.





A few days later, to illustrate
my point to someone
else, I happened to go back to
Mr. Dieter’s case on the clerk’s
site. Oddly, any information
regarding what Mr. Dieter had
been sentenced to for his myriad
of charges was gone. Most of
the case history was still there,
as well as a lot of boring event
detail. Only Dieter’s slap-onthe-
wrist plea agreement was
missing
Granted, not as austere as
gaps in the Watergate tapes, but
this missing information clearly
exemplified a central campaign
issue— that Kohl was soft on
crime. And it was only a month
before the election.

Let’s be real here folks,
it didn’t really look too good
to have another violent crime
allegedly be committed by
someone who Kohl had slapped
on the wrist for a previous violent crime. Why would that
information be removed from
convenient public access on a
four-year-old closed case, one
month before the election and
a few days after the article appeared
in the Citizen? Clearly
it didn’t hurt Kohl to have it
disappear.

So I e-mailed Clerk Kolhage
about the missing sentencing
detail, and copied reporter
Robert Silk. First, I cited the case
and the exact information that
had been removed, and then I
asked detailed questions. Does
his system track when changes
or deletions are made, and
by whom? If his system does
track the changes, who made
the changes, and why? I also
asked if the State Attorney had
access to his system, and if they
had any administrative rights
beyond “Read Only.”

Of interest, I did not mention
where I was currently employed,
which is at the Office of
the Public Defender as a senior
systems analyst— because my
concerns had nothing to do with
my job, and I had been very
conscientious in not using work
time to do my research.

Now, if you were County
Clerk Danny Kolhage, and a
member of the public made
you aware of such an odd deletion
from your public website,
wouldn’t you respond by either
explaining why it was gone, or
replace the information immediately?

This is where actions
begin to paint the picture of
motive.

The next morning, at
work, I received a call first from
a member of the clerk’s staff and
then from Mr. Kolhage, himself.
Both tried to explain the issue as
a misspelling of the defendant’s
name. I expressed my concerns
about being at work, and asked
Mr. Kolhage if he could respond
to the questions in my e-mail
in writing. To paraphrase, he
heatedly told me that this was
how he was responding, there
was no conspiracy, nothing else
was missing, and that the typo
would be fixed. End of story.

Well I’ve worked in government
long enough to know
that when someone is hesitant
to put something in writing,
you can usually assume, where
there’s smoke, there’s fire. But
for my part, I let it drop. The misspelled
name was corrected on
the website, but the sentencing
info remained missing, arguably
with the approval of Danny
Kolhage. It was October 7, one
month before the election.
However, Mr. Silk was, apparently, continuing to casually
probe and ask questions.

About two weeks later, he
made an official public records
request for any system log file
that would show the detail of
changes made to that particular
case information.

Well, for some reason,
Kolhage then called my boss,
Public Defender Rose Enright,
apparently angry about my activities.
Ms. Enright reminded
him that it was something I had
pursued on a personal level,
and had nothing to do with her
office, or her oversight of my
employment.

Shortly after that Mr. Kolhage
now believed it important
enough to have the sheriff’s
department open an investigation
of what he termed in the
police report as my “…allegations
and implied inferences that
there were some improprieties
going on.”

Then, according to Robert
Silk, Kolhage tried to brush off
Silk’s public records request by
claiming it could not be released
as it was now part of an ongoing
criminal investigation!

So, after having sent an
e-mail to Kolhage asking questions
about a public website, he
had called me at work, though I
never told him where I worked,
he had called my boss at work
regarding my actions, and now
Detective Hamilton of the Monroe
County Sheriff’s Department
came to visit me with a printed
copy of my e-mail.

Along with investigating
any illegal activity at the clerk’s
office, I was led to believe that
I was now under scrutiny for
possibly having used work
resources to obtain my information!
I pointed to the e-mail that
was sent at 10 at night from a
personal account, and showed
it only referenced the clerk’s
public website. I also explained
that I had made no allegations
of any illegal activity, and had
only asked questions which still
remained unanswered— and
I said that I was puzzled by
Kolhage’s bizarre reaction.

I might have been intimidated
if not for the fact I had wet
myself laughing at the absurdity
of being accused of wasting public
resources by a clerk who was
wasting public resources.

D e t e c t i v e H a m i l t o n
wrapped up his investigation,
citing no criminal activity had
occurred. But the sentencing info
still remained missing in action
on Kolhage’s website.

Mr. Kolhage eventually
provided Silk with some convoluted
info that did illustrate
the sentencing info that was
removed, but did not show by
whom, or when. Fortunately,
Detective Hamilton’s report
does include this information.
Apparently, Maria Arellano,
a felony clerk in Kohlage’s
Marathon office had made the
changes.

According to her sworn
statement, “This is not an isolated
case. I edit (clean up) all
or many cases that I’ve come
in contact with…” and, “The
implied allegations of the email
from Mr. Gardi is totally
unfounded.”

Her supervisor, Gail Mercer’s
statement said, “The Implied
allegations made by Matt
Gardi are not founded. Changes
made to the case in question were
done only to conform to other
cases appearance.”

Implied inferences, allegations,
improprieties…whatever!
Excuse me, but I was damn right!

Someone should explain to the
clerk and his staff the difference
between allegations, and
observations. I was 100 percent
accurate in my observations that
specific sentencing information
was removed from the website,
and all I asked for was who,
when and why. I never made
accusations of illegal activity,
so why the smoke and mirrors
to obfuscate the facts that were
eventually admitted to in the
police report?

Questions were swarming
around my head like black flies
in the mangroves. If deleting
information was so routine, why
not just reply to my e-mail in the
first place stating that?

On the other hand, if the
concern existed about “illegal”
conduct, why not initiate a criminal
investigation immediately,
and not more than two weeks
later when Silk’s public record
request would further prove my
observations?

My e-mail was sent on October
6, Kohlage initiated the investigation
on October 22. Also,
if everything was so innocuous, why hasn’t Kolhage ever replied
to my questions? Instead I had
to get my answers by requesting
a police report from the sheriff’s
department— which I received
in minutes by the way. How
many county resources were
wasted as a result of the fact
that Kolhage didn’t reply to my
e-mail immediately?

And why is it apparently
a standard work practice to
remove helpful information
from a convenient format such
as a publicly accessible website?
Are we to now expect that sentencing
detail will be removed
from every case in the system
for some illogical “conforming”
reason?

Quite the contrary. It’s
standard to have that sentencing
detail appear in the case
information, and Mr. Kolhage
and his staff know that. Who
are they trying to kid?

To prove my point, if you
go to the clerk’s website and
review other cases, you can easily
find sentencing information
(www.monroe.fl.us.landata.
com).

But here’s the kicker. Now,
for some odd reason, that very
same sentencing detail I originally
asked Mr. Kolhage about
having gone missing before the
election, and that was admittedly
removed to “conform to
other cases” by his staff, is miraculously
back on the website!

After the election! Go figure. For
fear of a full body cavity search,
I will avoid asking Kohlage for
an explanation.

Sure Kolhage can say that
he called for an investigation that
ultimately cleared him of any illegal
activity, and I can’t tell you
with certainty what the motive
was for removing the information
in the first place, and then
not replacing it immediately. All
I can tell you is what actually
happened:

• Information was removed
from the Clerk’s site
days after the Citizen article
appeared.

• Kolhage was made aware
of it, and ignored it.
He angrily called me at
work, although I had never given
him that information.

• He tried to get me in
trouble by calling my boss.

• He attempted to intimidate
me by initiating a criminal
investigation.

•He resisted responding
to a public records request by
the press.

•His staff claimed they
deleted the information as part
of their normal work routine to
justify its removal.

• But then they put the
information back on the websire—
after the election.

At the very least, in my
opinion, Kolhage abused his authority
and his control of public
resources. And he disrespected
a citizen who was simply asking
questions about his alleged
abuse of his authority.

Hopefully with a real State
Attorney now taking office, public
officials won’t feel so comfortable
with such questionable and
intimidating behavior.