Saturday, August 28, 2010

Elections supervisor serves the public well

It is with pleasure that I write this letter to the editor. As someone who admittedly is critical of government, and most services provided by government, I must extend a pleasurable thanks to the office of Harry Sawyer, Monroe County's supervisor of elections.

From my initial experience as a candidate for state representative, his staff was the best anyone could expect or imagine. Their service rivaled any private business, and their efficiency and diligence is unmatched. I have worked at all levels of government, served as an elections official, and an elected official in Vermont, and experienced the services of Miami-Dade County in my most recent race, and unequivocally, Mr. Sawyer's office is hands down the most perfect representation of what government should strive to be.

My hat is off to his talented and polite staff, and his skills as a manager to manifest such an efficient use of taxpayers' dollars. To perform the job that they do during such a stressful time for so many people, under the demands and expectations of so many various entities, is a marvel. For providing a service to the public that is often times neglected and taken for granted, Mr. Sawyer and his staff stand tall.

Matt Gardi

Sugarloaf Key

Bigotry accusation was unfounded, laughable

In a recent letter to the editor, Richard Sands accused me of being bigoted and racially prejudiced toward Hispanic people, and he said that's why I [had told] people to vote for George Neugent in the District 2 County Commission Republican primary.

My bigotry and prejudice against Hispanic people is blatantly evident by my having eaten several meals a week at El Siboney in Key West, until it was sold to Hispanic people I didn't know and the people who had been like family to me faded away.

My bigotry and prejudice against Hispanic people is blatantly evident in the five or so meals a week I have with Rose Dell and her mother at Coco's Kitchen in the Big Pine Key shopping center, where I cut up with Rose and her mother, and with gringos and Hispanics, and anyone else I can get to play with me. Rose nearly split her sides laughing when I told her of Sands' accusations.

My bigotry and prejudice against Hispanic people is blatantly evident in the number of Hispanic people, usually men, but a few women, I pick up at bus stops on U.S. 1 and give a free ride to Key West or up the Keys.

As I wrote to someone the day before Sands' letter to the editor was published (mine later was published to goodmorningfloridakeys.com), I like Danny Coll; if he gets his business and private life straightened out, he might make a good county commissioner in four years and his Cuban origins might come in real handy if/after the U.S. normalizes relations with Cuba.

Sloan Bashinsky

Little Torch Key

What was Ocean Reef thinking in primary?

I was looking at the election results from Tuesday's primary election, specifically the race between Commissioner Mario Di Gennaro and candidate David Rice. Of the 33 precincts in Monroe County, the voting results in 32 of those precincts reflected the fact that the citizens had rejected Mario by a large margin. Apparently Ocean Reef Club (Precinct 33) did not share the sentiments of the rest of Monroe County citizens.

Ocean Reefers voted 82.26 percent in favor of Mario. Looking at the figures, I doubt that these voters used their own brains and intuition to formulate their choice of candidates, or perhaps it was the Monroe County citizens outside Ocean Reef who were badly misinformed. However, I believe that if the Ocean Reefers were involved in what has been going on in Monroe County, they would have been a little more conflicted about Mario instead of voting en masse in his favor.

I am concerned that a gated community with this many votes, containing intelligent and caring people, has behaved like mice following a Pied Piper. I am appalled that a group of people such as this could allow their vote to be manipulated to this degree.

Ron Miller

Key Largo