Friday, August 20, 2010

Bigotry was motive for candidate's attack

In a recent letter, Sloan Bashinsky claims he has been urging GOP primary voters to vote for George Neugent over Danny Coll because Danny's promise to be the "fiscal watchdog" for the taxpayers is negated by the "fact" that his NAPA business in Big Pine Key is in trouble. Incredibly, he bases this assertion solely on a few statements by a few dissatisfied customers.

Truth is that even in these hard economic times, Danny's NAPA business continues to show a profit. He of course has owned the NAPA business for 10 years. That Danny will be our fiscal watchdog is demonstrated by the fact that he discovered the county has wasted tens of thousand of dollars in legal expenses by engaging a law firm from California to defend the county in several "taking" cases. It was George Neugent who sponsored the resolution to hire this firm.

Bashinsky's actual reason for opposing Danny was revealed in a blog he posted on his website a few weeks ago blasting Danny for his Cuban heritage. He even suggested Danny was part of a Cuban cabal to exercise control over the "gringos." The racism of his blog was an insult to all decent-thinking citizens of this county. Ethnic intolerance is reprehensible whether directed against blacks, Jews or Hispanics.

Unfortunately, Mr. Neugent has failed to disassociate himself from the racism of Bashinsky, his most vocal advocate, suggesting that Neugent hopes to benefit politically from the anti-Hispanic prejudice Bashinsky attempts to incite.

Richard Sands

Key West

Candidate is counting on short voter memory

Mario Di Gennaro is counting on voters to forget the last 3 ¬½ years. Lest we forget:

Remember Mario's buddy Dave Clark and Cay Clubs? Friends who lost everything when the smoke and mirrors magic show folded surely do. Speaking of magic, remember the Gang of Three, and the shambles their dirty tricks made of our county finances? With arrogant disdain, they supported developers and offered funding for some of the most hair-brained plans imaginable. Among others, there was Mario's North Philly friend who was going to build luxury high-rise hotels at both airports; another Mario idea was to take over Pigeon Key and build condominiums.

Faced with the reality of our financial devastation, Mario said, "I have total confidence in Tom Willi," and thus his friend, the ex-county administrator, was rewarded an enviable severance package. Then there was Randy Acevedo's cover-up of his wife's financial mismanagement of school funds, to which Mario responded: "Randy is a good friend of mine and he's innocent until proven guilty." Will three felony convictions do?

Mario's response when asked about his poor choices in alliances and friendships was that he's a changed man, having learned by his mistakes. Yet new Mario's actions can still remind us what lurks just beneath the surface. Follow the money of his campaign finances, wherein the most recent disclosure reveals that of the $91,000, the most ever raised by a candidate for this office, $10,000 is from Mario's own funds, ... 42 percent of the total is from non-locals and 30 percent of the contributions are from developers, lobbyists and disaster recovery companies.

Based on Mario's previous associations, one must question if donors have been led to expect preferential treatment and favors.

Since the demise of the Gang of Three, four commissioners, seemingly working in the best interests of the county, have isolated Mario. They don't always agree, but mutual respect facilitates focus on ideas and dialogue necessary to solve our county's problems. These officials, who have actually been elected, don't need Mario's grandstanding and personal agenda to deal with.

Remember with your vote. Give us all a break.

Bill Ehrhorn

Marathon

Fixing Washington is insurmountable task

[Letter-writer] Roger Kostmayer, if he had true grit, plus an even more truly stupendous legal budget, could redress our national electoral travesty. It's still a technical possibility (1/10,000, tops) that he could cut off the fat cats' century-old magic political bean stalk at its roots.

He'd have the lasting gratitude of every citizen in our still so-called republic.

And I wish him all the luck in the world.

Paul Williams

Stock Island