The program provides grants to very low-income households (or single persons), up to $1,000, for payment of security and utility deposits. The utility deposits are limited to water/sewer and electricity/gas. The city contracts with the South Brevard Sharing Center to administer the program, but the money is paid by the city.

Palm Bay receives its funding for this program through SHIP (State Housing Initiatives Partnership), a state fund administered by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, a 25-year old ‘corporation’ created by the Florida State Legislature to help “fellow Floridians obtain safe, decent affordable housing that might otherwise be unavailable to them.”

This week, the City depleted the funds granted to them for the 2008-09 fiscal year (Oct 1, 2008 - Sept 30, 2009). According to Bill Pehaim, a 10-year employee with the City of Palm Bay’s Housing and Neighborhood Development Services, there is a “great likelihood the program won’t exist next year”. Mr. Pehaim noted that the State of Florida is currently facing a $2 billion budget deficit.

Moreover, according to Pehaim, the SHIP program itself is funded through the purchase of docstamps, which are purchased primarily during the sale or transfer of homes. With home sales at record lows and foreclosures at record highs, Pehaim notes that its little wonder there is a funding shortage on programs like SHIP.

Tickets will be $5 per person and attendees will be able to stay for the baseball game afterward between the Brevard County Manatees and the Daytona Cubs set for 7:05pm. There will be a full fireworks display after the game sponsored by MetroPCS.

Tickets to a game are normally $7 so this is a great deal, plus an opportunity to participate in a patriotic tea party on a day devoted to our country’s founding.

Nye hopes to fill the stadium - all 8,000 seats - by turning out at least two percent of the 359,682 registered voters of Brevard County. Such a showing would send a powerful message to both our local public office holders, but to federal and state elected officials as well.

It’s not often we get to cover ‘government’ and ‘entertainment’ in a single post here on Brevard Outlook. And it’s even less rare we get to participate in government while having fun, either. Consider it a rare opportunity to really make your voice heard, watch a good ol’ fashion baseball game, enjoy some fireworks, and eat some homemade apple pie. What could be more American than that?

Uh, there will be apple pie there, right Mr. Nye? Oh well… maybe we should all bring enough pie for a big post-fireworks pie-and-ice-cream parking-lot dessert. I’m sure the Sheriff’s office won’t mind as long as we bring some for them, too! An apple pie tailgate party!

Want to get involved and make a difference? Read more here –>

SOAR stands for Search Operations Aerial Response. They’ll be flying “powered paragliders” - essentially parachutes with lawnmower engines - as low as 400 feet. On occasion, they’ll be flying over your yard.

If you were tired of the helicopters flying over your neighborhood - at times, for over an hour - get ready for more annoyance.

The city even spent money to bulletproof the seat of the officer on the paraglider. While it may seem reasonable that a criminal might fire a weapon at a pursuing police officer, it’s probably more likely they would get hit by birdshot in some areas of south Palm Bay, just by accident. Or a model rocket.

So what does the city plan to do with these new aerial patrols? According to their website, the police department “intends on using this aircraft for search and rescue operations for missing endangered children and adults, surveillance and reconnaissance, locating stolen and discarded vehicles and other property, identifying hazards within the City, photographing crime scenes, and damage assessment after disasters.”

Most of this sounds well and good. But wait a minute. Did they say “surveillance”? Without a court order? Shouldn’t the average citizen have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their fenced backyard? While the implied meaning is quite clearly to locate drug growing operations, think twice about laying out nude in your backyard. Unless you enjoy teasing officers a mere ten stories above you.

While officers have long enjoyed the ability to use ‘casual’ observations in public areas as grounds for arrests and investigations (i.e. they see you punch your neighbor in your front lawn as they drive by), this is far more intrusive.

Considering the cost of flying an officer around (not to mention the increase in insurance premiums), they might as well put up cameras on huge towers that blanket the entire city. Of course, no one would tolerate that. But somehow Palm Bay citizens are supposed to be okay with this?

The Palm Bay Police Department needs to do two things immediately if they want public support on this.

First, they need to reassure the public that flyovers over residential neighborhoods will comply with the Fourth Amendment against search and seizure, that pilots will not photograph or intrude into the privacy of families and individuals without a court warrant, and that pilots will immediately fly away from any backyard scene that could disrupt, embarrass, or humiliate a Palm Bay citizen.

Additionally, officers should not be allowed to file any type of report (no matter how informal) or broadcast any message in relation to personal backyard activities. Sadly, officers (in any force) can not be left to their own judgment on this, and unless there is a clear and public policy on this, it won’t be long before legal challenges cost the city big money (and by extension Palm Bay citizens).

Considering that this is a “first” (no other police department in the nation currently uses low-flying air patrols over residential neighborhoods), Palm Bay can not afford to be the legal testing grounds of dozens (if not hundreds) of legal challenges.

The Police Department needs to go “above and beyond” simple courtesy by providing clear guidelines for their officers, and posting them on its website so the public knows when officers are violating command orders (should that happen).

Second, the department needs to increase regular vehicle patrols. Think about this. When was the last time you saw a Palm Bay police officer patrolling a neighborhood or business parking lot? One of the smart moves Palm Bay made many years ago was the purchase of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles to help get officers into more remote areas of the city. Yet, every time you see the slightest disturbance in Palm Bay, it’s a 3-vehicle minimum. It’s not unusual to see six or seven vehicles respond to simple matters of domestic abuse, minor vandalism, and traffic stops.

Chief Bill Berger, coming up on his fifth year, initially shook things up at PBPD. But, aside from the novelty of this paraglider program (and his department’s bizarre request last year for the use of a CIA spy drone plane which was rejected by the FAA according to Florida Today), the department seems content to let patrol cars congest at intersections. Of which, no doubt, criminals are well aware, as well as wildfire starters. The point of a car is not to sit still. Sitting in a patrol car at McDonald’s writing field reports is not why officers are supplied with vehicles.

It’s time to force patrols on foot and car and make better use of the resources already supplied to the department. While the paraglider may prove useful in locating lost children (or stolen cars) and for patrolling non-residential areas, Palm Bay citizens need to see solid community policing if they are going to support long-term efforts to combine aerial patrolling methods with traditional patrolling techniques.

They voted unanimously to hire Brian Binggeli to replace Richard DiPatri as the Superintendent of Brevard County Schools. One should always be weary when elected officials vote unanimously; when everyone is thinking the same, someone isn’t thinking. In this case, it might be everyone.

In a time of economic unrest, budget cuts, and an uncertain future, school board members refused to hire their other finalist, Brevard County’s own Brenda Blackburn, the current Associate Superintendent - and one with experience in Brevard County schools.

Binggeli pledges to Florida Today that “I’ll begin to learn everything I can, as I tried to do already. I’ll read as much as I can and start talking to folks”.

Too little, too late. Parents with children in Brevard County schools deserve better. This isn’t the time to hire a pure-bred government bureaucrat with no experience in Brevard County schools, much less its vitriolic politics. Parents need someone they can trust to truly turn things around. They need someone who already is well-versed on the issues and, perhaps as importantly, knows intimately the delicate nature of the factions within the Brevard County School System.

Newspaper accounts imply that Binggeli is just an unhappy Fairfax employee. Or at least he must be so. In February of this year, he was in Arkansas soliciting them for a higher paying job telling them that he found the Fayetteville, Arkansas area to be an “eclectic, friendly, vibrant place”, according to The Morning News. You would likely find any area to be eclectic and friendly if they were going to double your salary. Even Arkansas.

A month later, Binggeli was one of three finalists in…. wait for it… a South Carolina school district. We’ll let our faithful readers decide whether Bingelli was shooting high or aiming low by targeting South Carolina after Arkansas.

One year earlier, Binggeli was in Knoxville soliciting for a job as superintendent there. He sounded as bureaucratic as DiPatri. According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, he told the Knoxville board members that his vision of a quality education would include surveying students and explaining that “we want you to understand where we’re trying to take you.” Huh? I’m sure every 8th grader can’t wait for that seminar.

Oh, he also wanted to help kids learn more about the internet. Uh, yeah. The internet is definitely a serious educational deficiency for most children these days. Maybe we should cut back on math and writing so kids could surf the web more and learn about Wikipedia. At 49 years old, maybe Binggeli should be the one learning about the ‘interwebz’ instead of talking down to students who could likely YouTube him into the next county.

Goofy statements like those are why at least three other school systems passed on Binggeli before Brevard County school board members thought it appropriate to make him superintendent at a time when children are more at risk than ever.

Think we’re kidding about Binggeli’s bureaucratic tendencies? The Fairfax Times reported last month that when high school honor student Annie McCann committed suicide under suspicious circumstances, leading some investigators and her family to believe she was murdered, Binggeli refused to let McCann’s family distribute fliers at her high school (in his district) offering a $10,000 reward for information related to the student’s death. His reason? “A school is an educational institution and not set up for private investigations.” So, don’t count on Brevard County Schools to assist in any injuries or deaths of students under Binggeli’s watch. They’re just there to teach the kids about the internet, not assist law enforcement in keeping children safe from potential predators.

Some minor credit should go to Robert Jordan as the only recommendation for Blackburn. However, when it came time to vote, he too sided with the outsider over the established local candidate.

Brevard County Schools utilized the firm of Ray and Associates in Cedar Rapids, IA to help find the new superintendent. So, in addition to the double-salary they will be paying for this position until DiPatri retires at the end of June, taxpayer money was sent to Iowa so that 40+ additional candidates could be supplied.

Is there any reason why Brevard County schools can’t user Monster.com like everyone else? Of course there is a very good reason: anytime a government entity can help shift blame should something go awry, it’s money well-spent. For them, anyway.

Ray and Associates is a specialty firm that, quite literally, does nothing but shift school officials from one district to another, so that hapless parents get the feeling that a true ‘expert’ has been brought into shore things up in their hometown.

Sadly, more often it’s someone, like Binggeli, who just wants a better paying job. Meanwhile, taxpayers all over the country get stuck paying for increased salaries, costs of relocation, and consulting fees to companies like Ray and Associates, all while receiving the same homogeneous brand of ‘educator’ they had before, if not worse.

Until communities learn to promote from within, share knowledge from one generation of employees to the next, and build their own brand of quality education, careerists like Binggeli will continue to dominate the industry.

One things for sure. Binggeli won’t last long. He’ll do a two or three-year stint and start pushing his resume all over the country looking for his next opportunity. If Brevard County Schools isn’t totally demolished by then, maybe the board members (newly elected, we hope) we’ll have the good sense to give a local candidate a chance to truly turn things around.

Unfortunately, the article title is somewhat misleading. Although the article correctly identifies West Melbourne Councilwoman Stephany Eley as the person who placed the item on the agenda for tonight’s city council meeting, Florida Today’s title would lead one to believe that the entire city council, if not the entire city, is seriously considering a name change.

The idea’s paper trail consists of a single line near the end of the January 26 meeting minutes of the Citizen’s Advisory Board: “Board Member [Mark] Vorce spoke on the possibility of a name change for the City.” It’s hard to imagine that Councilwoman Eley placed this item on the City’s official agenda based on this alone. Eley has been at the center of the now longstanding squabble between the City of West Melbourne and the City of Melbourne over minor annexation differences and the supply and payment of water shared between the two cities.

Councilwoman Eley is quoted by Florida Today as saying she believes the council has “a responsiblity” to “explore the issue”. In fact, Eley and all local city officials have a responsibility to provide common services, keep taxes low, and minimize government intrusion. That she or any other council members would consider a name change for even 30 seconds of taxpayer-supported time is reprehensible.

By way of example, the City of Melbourne has long been involved in mindless attempts by some residents to change the name of University Blvd to Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Say what you want about the nobility of the idea, but the idea has been consistently rejected over many years and through many councils for one singular reason: the cost [read: tax] to businesses along University Blvd to update business cards, brochures, business forms, and now websites. The City of Melbourne, while interested in naming some street after Dr. King eventually, has had the common sense not to disrupt the business community, and in particular, a major university (Florida Tech) and its thousands of students that come to Melbourne from all over the road.

But Florida Today would have us believe that during this period of peak unemployment in Brevard that the City of West Melbourne is seriously considering altering the name of the entire city. And for what? To honor a famous civil rights leader? Not at all. Instead, Councilwoman Eley’s desire is to distance the city from the City of Melbourne. However, it’s simply one councilwoman with an agenda of her own, accompanied by the unsupported remarks of advisory board member Mark Vorce.

Hilariously, Mr. Vorce believes people get confused between the two cities. Although Mr. Vorce has lived in West Melbourne for nearly 30 years, he must be associating with a lot of northerners who’ve recently moved into Brevard the past ten years. Because they are the only Brevardians that sometimes don’t realize that West Melbourne includes the Palm Bay Walmart on Palm Bay Road, the Melbourne Square Mall, and now the new Hammock Landings on Palm Bay Road. Perhaps more confusing to a newcomer would be that the “West Melbourne” Target is actually on the property of Melbourne Village, an incorporated township that has nothing to do with either West Melbourne or Melbourne.

West Melbourne’s original charter was chiefly designed to create an incorporated city that did not have a property tax for residences and very low property taxes for businesses, a chief reason why the mall was developed in West Melbourne thirty years ago when the hub of commerce in south Brevard was then two miles awsay in downtown Melbourne and at the Babcock & Hibiscus intersection.

Sadly, West Melbourne has spent the past ten years moving away from those early principles. In 2005, the City began charging a residential property tax.

One would think that Mr. Vorce, a nearly 80-year old retired man, would be more concerned about overturning that so that he wouldn’t have to pay additional ‘government rent’ on his own home. But Mr. Vorce is no one to be trifled with: he seems to relish the expansion of government. Just two months ago, Mr. Vorce was quoted in Florida Today that “the federal government has money up there. All you have to do is go after it.” He made those comments to the Brevard County Commission to encourage them to aggresively pursue grants and loans from the federal government so that Brevard could grab it’s fair share of the pie, seemingly unconcerned that the money is not just “up there”, but from other small communities, individual taxpayers, and small businesses across America.

Mr. Vorce, in other words, is an expansionist, and his off-the-cuff idea of altering West Melbourne’s name is done solely for political reasons. He and Councilwoman Eley have given no thought or concern about the massive expenses that would be incurred by thousands of businesses in West Melbourne, to say nothing of the private budgets of tens of thousands of homeowners in the city, many of whom are proud of the City’s name, heritage, and loose affiliation with the City of Melbourne.

But when you are retired, or, in Councilwoman Eley’s case, on a government paycheck (she is also employed as Brevard County school teacher), it is easy to forget about the real businesses and people who struggle every day to support their family and to forge a living, particularly in these challenging times. In fact, it’s sad that not only does it take third parties to bring these thoughts to their attention, but that they take no measure of responsibility for their time, instead allowing their thoughts to turn to ‘flights of fancy’ - rather than work like a dog to fix the very real problems in the city.

Perhaps we should blame ourselves. How many of us attend our local city council meetings on any regular basis? How many of us volunteer our time for city zoning and advisory boards? How many of us write letters to our local news media and tell them to quit hyping the facts in their titles?

Or are we content to let ‘retirees’ run all the boards? Are we content to let city councils meet ‘unchecked’ and only populated by a local reporter, a handful of factionist activists, and people involved only in their particular dispute? Are we content to let our local news media continue to try and ’shock and awe’ us - as if we aren’t busy with real issues and matters in our homes and businesses and place of employment - just so they can pick up a few extra sales, instead of really diving into the merits and meat of particular ’stories’.

While this ‘idea’ of Mr. Vorce and Ms. Eley’s will of course never come to pass, the annoying thing is that Florida Today will continue this muckraking. More than likely we will sadly miss more important issues elsewhere while everyone panics and becomes pre-occupied with trivial nonsense such as this. And that is the real problem that will repeat itself out many times before citizens wake up and get more involved in government.

Worse, many state legislators and governors have cowered in the face of massive federalist intrusion, and voted overwhelmingly to accept such funds, forever tying many of their states to federal debts and mandates that their citizenry has neither desired nor requested.

As such, “tea parties”, in the American individualist and rugged spirit of our founding fathers, have cropped up all over the country. Largely, they consist of large crowds, guest speakers, and a public showing of dissent from the present course of solutions foisted upon Americans without the consent of the governed.

On Sunday, April 19, 2009, Brevard County citizens will hold their first Tea Party to draw attention to not only excessive federal spending, taxation, and debt creation, but also to Brevard County’s own long history of heavy-handed taxation of both its residents and its encompassing cities.

The government of Brevard County, the local schools, and the overall budgets have mushroomed beyond any normal bounds of any county government - and with apparently no end in sight. Each forced ‘budget cut’ is met with cries and threats of desperation by county government employees, school board employees, library employees, parks and recreation employees - all apparently convinced that every citizen in Brevard is enslaved to these services and will bolt the County unless these cuts are rescinded.

But Matt Nye, Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Central East Florida, and editor of Space Coast Politics, has organized the Brevard Tea Party to demonstrate that not everyone shares the views of those government workers while peacefully protesting out of control government spending.

The date of April 19 is purposely linked to the 234th anniversary of the first military engagements in the American Revolutionary War (Concord and Lexington).

Unlike some other Tea Parties going on around the country, the Brevard Tea Party will be on a weekend (Sunday) so that all citizens (both employed and unemployed) should be better able to attend. The growing movement of Tea Parties seems to be the only thing so far that has undermined the trend of spending - and even then, only just enough to bring attention to the idea that there might be others who don’t fully support the debt creation that has already passed, as well as the number of spending bills looming on the horizon.

Expected attendees and speakers include: newly elected Congressman Bill Posey, political pundit Chris Ingram, and Brevard County entertainer Mark Vance.

Every few years, when Brevard residents walk on the beach they are walking on a new layer of sand.

Of Brevard’s many public beaches, 30.7 miles have been artificially improved by adding more sand. Beach restoration projects counteract erosion, maintain wider beaches for tourism and provide sea turtle nesting sites.

The natural movement of the ocean, hurricanes and tropical storms cause beach erosion, said Mike McGarry, an environmental scientist with the Brevard County Natural Resources Management Office.

Brevard County renourishment projects involve hiring a contractor to dredge sand from the ocean or a river and bring it to the beaches by boat.

Restoration projects have been ongoing since 2001, including the Emergency Dune Project in 2005 that counteracted the effects of the destructive 2004 hurricane season, said McGarry.

The 2009 FEMA Sand Project is restoring sand eroded by Hurricane Fay in August 2008. Renourishment is ongoing from January 19 until April 1 in Indialantic, Melbourne and Satellite beaches.

“Approximately 25% of the sand originally placed [in 2005] was eroded. We’re replacing the losses,” McGarry said.

Funding for beach restoration projects comes from a combination of federal, state and local sources, McGarry said.

The Federal Shore Protection Project [authorized by Congress in 1986] is funding is 55 to 60 percent federal. Florida’s Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems covers 20 percent or more, leaving Brevard County with about 20 percent of the total cost, McGarry said.

Brevard’s Tourism Development Council covers the local share of beach restoration costs with hotel tax revenues, said Rob Farley, executive director of the Office of Tourism in Brevard.

Brevard County’s bed tax revenues are down about 7 percent for the first months of the fiscal year, Farley said.

“It’s not a collapse of the tourism economy,” McGarry said. “Any decline is a concern, but it’s not enough to instill panic.”

The Tourism Development Council markets Brevard as an affordable vacation spot with lots of available beaches.

“When you ask tourists why they come to Brevard, they say for the beach,” Farley said. “It’s our number one attraction.”

Not only popular with tourists, Brevard beaches are also vital turtle nesting sites.

Brevard is one of the most important turtle nesting beaches in the world, said Cindy Dolaway, a volunteer with the Sea Turtle Preservation Society in Indialantic.

Last year there were about 60,000 loggerhead turtle nests worldwide and half of those were in Brevard County, Dolaway said.

Green and a few leatherback turtles also nest on Space Coast beaches.

Brevard County has a careful system of permits that must be obtained for beach restoration, and turtle experts are called in to monitor beach construction.

Beach restoration projects are never conducted during the turtle-nesting season, Dolaway said.

“The future for the turtle is on the beaches,” Dolaway said.

Beach renourishment with sand isn’t the only way to maintain beaches and beachfront property. The county and the Army Corps of Engineers have considered other options, such as building seawalls or breakwaters, said McGarry.

A seawall would effectively protect beachfront property, but it would completely erode the sandy beach, hurting tourism and turtle habitats, McGarry said.

The need for continual beach restoration projects won’t be going away anytime soon. Whenever new sand is dumped on the beach part of it is naturally sucked out to sea to form a sandbar. Also, beach restoration can prevent hurricane damage to beachfront property.

Beach renourishment has the best cost to benefit ratio, McGarry said.

“The cost of continued maintenance is justified by the tourism of healthy beaches.”

There are many changes and improvements already in progress. Meyers has made a commitment to inject $1.3 million into renovating the restaurants. “By the end of March we will have completed the McCafe implementation and we will be selling the espresso-based specialty coffees. We are also doing complete dining room remodels in five locations. You won’t even recognize Merritt Island or Dixon Blvd in Cocoa when they are finished. It is very exciting.”

There will be a renewed commitment to customer satisfaction. “These are the kind of restaurants that are coveted by owner/operators throughout the country. This is a terrific place to live and the potential here is limitless. I was chosen from many willing and able franchisees for this great opportunity. Needless to say, the expectations are high. I’m here to run the best McDonald’s restaurants the state of Florida has ever seen.”

Meyers brought in a director of operations, Dona Zulawski from New York and has added talented local, Pam Ajluni as a supervisor. Additionally, Mary Rao was hired as human resource director and Jay Phillips as office administrator. “We were able to retain some really talented management personnel and we have already built quite a team. The community deserves fast, friendly service in spotlessly clean restaurants and that is exactly what they are going to get.” says Meyers.

The restaurants involved in the purchase are: Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral, US1 in Rockledge, 1000 Courtenay on Merritt Island, inside the Viera Wal-Mart and the three Cocoa locations.

John and his wife Billie Jean have four children and reside in Melbourne.

Weldon, who betrayed his own pledge to supporters not to run for office after four terms by running again in 2002, 2004, and 2006, apparently decided to break away from his own party and vote for an increase in government power and a huge cost to Brevard county’s next generation: thousands, or perhaps tens of thousands of dollars.

In one sense, this may be the final hallmark of Weldon’s failed legacy as a conservative. Some may differ with the view that Weldon is a failed conservative, but consider the following: Weldon rarely fought proudly (or loudly) on any conservative issues, for which he was elected, instead choosing to focus on health care (due to his experience as a doctor) and space issues. While that may have pleased some, Weldon remained over the years, for the most part, a solid vote, but a quiet voice in D.C. In other words, instead of using his increasing tenure as a measure of authority to push legislation that he claimed he supported, he was often mysteriously quiet.

While Brevardians should be thankful for Weldon’s victory over some of his past oppenents who would have harmed Brevard far worse (John Byron, David R. Golding, Patsy Kurth, Jim Tso, Simon Pristoop, Bob Bowman, and of course his first oppenent, Sue Munsey), it has been a debate among conservatives for some time whether Weldon remained the best choice for Brevard and for Brevard conservatives (who make up a majority of the voting population).

Not only did Weldon appear to become more confused in supporting the right issues, drifting slowly toward federalism, often against the wishes of the people he represented, Weldon also violated his own pledge he made prior to his first win: To stay in office for only four terms (eight years).

Weldon later broke that pledge, long after the Contract with America disappeared from the radar screens of most Americans, and got surprisingly little resistance, partly out of people feeling he shouldn’t be held to the pledge prior to his own real experience and understanding, and partly because his supporters were more concerned about not letting the other side win.

What most people failed to point out was that Weldon neglected eight years of local politics, becoming more entrenched in Washington D.C., not raising up anyone to take his place. One wonders how serious Weldon was about resigning after eight years while taking no effort to ensure a legacy for his seat.

Even as recently as July 24, Weldon voted to give away $48 billion of your money to overseas countries to combat AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis. Perhaps he felt good about it, being a doctor, but how do you feel about it? Moreover, now that the economy is in trouble, do you get the impression that Weldon’s been bothering to do his homework in meeting with Brevardians? Where are the fifty percent or more of Brevard citizens who thought this was okay? It was an outrage.

But Weldon, on his way back to Brevard for good, today has used that July 24 vote as a mere stepping stool by voting to stiff America with huge debt and give the Secretary of the Treasury the power of a dictator in regards to our economy.

Why would Weldon vote so contrary to his supporters? There is possibly one horrible reason: personal selfishness. One hates to think so, but the facts seem dangerously supportive of that view.

It seems that Weldon voted to save his own investments over and above his neighbors here in Brevard. It seems Weldon drifted even further to the left toward the philosophy of Karl Marx and away from the principles of Adam Smith.

Sadly, instead of a final heroic stand to help rally members of Congress to fight this “Bad for Brevard” legislation, Weldon will return home as not only a pledge-breaker, but no longer a real conservative. Truly, this is a shame. He did support many important issues over the years, including tough votes on abortion, and as previously mentioned, helped keep Cape Canaveral a hub of space commerce.

However, for all the effort and money spent by Brevard citizens on Weldon over the years, we should have recevied better results. We should have had a real contender for Senator or Lt. Governor in Dave Weldon. We should have had at least one, possibly two, solid conservative champions that would have served in District 15 since Weldon’s planned stepdown in 2002. Instead, we have an empty seat with no heritage.

Worse, Weldon did little to support and speak out on behalf of other candidates in his own party running for office, particularly those running for city council and county commission. Largely, he left them to run on their own rather than to dirty himself in local politics.

But Brevard citizens have only themselves to blame. Weldon was never held to account over his votes. Brevardians, and particularly conservatives, were happy enough to let Weldon carry the seat (quite easily most elections) and to worry instead about other races. Weldon was like a faithful dog, always holding the seat, always winning, and always, well, just “there”. But we took our eye off his office to focus elsewhere. And knowingly or not, he took advantage of that.

He wasn’t the only conservative who began to drift away from his own supporters. Helen Voltz who recently lost her County Commission seat after running a failed race for Property Appraiser, also began to betray her own principles, voting for bigger government, more taxes and spending, and doing so with an ever-increasing arrogance toward those who put her in office many years ago. Now, she’s unemployed, but in small circles her name had come up for years as someone who might be doing more harm than good.

We shouldn’t make that mistake again. This fall, four other candidates are vying for Weldon’s old seat: Bill Posey (R), Steve Blythe (D), Frank Zilaitis (Independent), and Trevor Lowing (Independent). All four have interesting backgrounds and positions and are well-qualified. Most seem to agree that Posey (a lifelong Brevard resident and ex-city councilman himself) has the advantage, but both Blythe and Zilaitis have fought hard. It’s been particulary exciting to see a solid independent have a real chance of winning. Considering Brevard’s recent population boon, maybe an independent would be the best person to represent Brevard.

But regardless of the victor on November 4, Brevard citizens need to pledge to themselves that they will keep a watchful eye on the new seat holder. As is common, once in office, it becomes enormously easy for an incumbent to keep their seat, even while their effectiveness and votes become watered down.

Should the new congressman fail to support Brevard citizens or forget who they are, Brevard citizens need to be ready to abandon that new District 15 seat holder and support someone else. If we let the new victor squat in office year after year, we will find them almost impossible to remove.

Today, Dave Weldon betrayed his neighbors and his community by supporting this bailout, but had he not decided to step down and was running for re-election, he would have easily won in November despite this huge blunder on his record.

This November, we will get new leadership in Washington D.C. to represent Brevard. Let’s make sure we help them to develop as a solid representative by holding them to account. Regardless of the outcome, the winner’s re-election will be in two years - and really, in less: between March and the end of April, 2010 to qualify for office. So, in literally 18 months, good men and women need to be ready to run for the seat in District 15 - just in case the winner turns out to be a disappointment.

Next month government employees in Utah will switch to a 4-day workweek, while counties such as Brevard consider the benefits of doing the same.

According to Letha Watts, an employee at the Brevard County Tax Collectors office, she believes a 4-day workweek would be beneficial to the county.

“The buildings and the government vehicles will be used one less day a week. This plan would help save the municipalities [cities] money.” she said.

“It will also save the employees money on gas, since they’ll be commuting to work one less day a week,” she said.

“Cities are looking at a lower tax income, because of Amendment one and they’re trying to find different ways to cut the budget,” she said.

The state of Utah has estimated this plan will save them $3 million a year. She believes the money saved could limit the number of employees who could potentially be laid-off.

“Finding other ways to cut the budget might help them save jobs,” she said.

Employees will put in 10-hour workdays to account for the lost day.

“The downside will be adjusting to the longer workday.  Once I adjust, I’ll do the stuff I was putting off.  It would be nice to have more free time to do the things I normally wouldn’t do,” she said.

Ethan Philpot, a materials engineering student at the University of Florida, spent the last two summers interning at the Kennedy Space Center and plans to again next summer.

The possibility of a 4-day workweek would allow Philpot to spend more time with family and friends.

“I would be able to spend more time with loved ones, but adjusting to a 10 hour day would be hard.  Eight hours is already hard enough to do,” he said.

According to Watts, a recent survey given in her office revealed 75 percent of the employees were in favor of a 4-day workweek.

“Right now they’re just trying to figure out how everyone feels about the idea, and then they’ll decide what they’re going to do,” she said.

“It may be an inconvenience for some, but in the long run I think it will be more of a positive thing than a negative,” she said.