TASTE OF IRB

Let the Good Food Roll

What is it that makes Indian Rocks Beach Indian Rocks Beach? A beautiful beach. Interesting people. Great businesses--including some of the finest restaurants anywhere.

This Saturday, November 8th, everyone will, once again, get a chance to sample the best IRB has to offer at the "Taste of IRB" presented by the IRB Homeowners Association. Admission is FREE.

The festivities get underway in Chic-A-Si Park (across from the Post Office) around 5 p.m. and last until 10 p.m. so bring lawn chairs and blankets (NO coolers or dogs!) and plan to spend the evening.

A special thanks to the local businesses, who even in these challenging economic times, came through to support this event...one the entire community looks forward to.

Parking: Munce Marketing parking lot (Walsingham & 2nd Street), the vacant lot on 1st Street next to the Fire Dept, and the IRB Post Office parking lot. (Or, you can always jump on the Beach Trolley.)

I’ve never been to an IRB Homeowners Association event yet that wasn’t a blast. Plus, all the proceeds from beer sales, etc. go back to the community. Contrary to what some have unfairly termed as "a drinking club that moves from bar to bar," the Homeowners Association holds events that bring our folks together (in bipartisan fashion) to have fun and just enjoy one another's company. Phil Wrobel and Becky Griffin, the "driving forces" behind the "Taste of IRB" and many other successful community events, do more than any others in town to draw residents from surrounding communities into IRB to support our businesses and to experience what we, as IRBers, enjoy every day. Kudos to both of them for the personal time they spend making IRB a better place. (And yes, these two are fun people and know how to make sure others have fun, too...which is a real talent!)

If you’d like more information, please visit the "Taste of IRB" page on the IRB Homeowners Web site: http://www.irbhome.com/taste.html

Nancy Obarski
Beach Trail/IRB

P.S. I, who have never draw a beer from a tap or served anybody anything for that matter, will be there selling beer from 8 to 9...so don't wear anything you value. See you there!!

LOVE SONG FOR LEO

Seventy-Seven Trombones

Leo…buddy…has your cheese finally slipped off the cracker totally?

It’s true. I did attend the last commission meeting—however--I uttered NOT ONE SINGLE PEEP. (And…I missed the prior meeting!) Yet, your Web site account of the October 28th meeting made it sound like I marched through the City Hall auditorium leading a 100-piece marching band with double euphoniums. What’s up with that, buddy?

Has your source failed you or did you just decide to take a little more creative license because it made for a better read? I didn’t know that merely “being there” seated in the audience at a commission meeting qualifies as yowling.

Damn…and here I thought attending commission meetings was akin to participating in my local government and caring about how my tax dollars are being spent in IRB. What was I thinking anyway?

Nancy Obarski
Beach Trail/IRB

IRBeHEARD Bloggers: LEO NEEDS A THEME SONG. While I trust that many of you will do much better when you blog in with your own nominations, how about “Luck Be a 93-year Old Lady”?

Luck be a 93-year old lady tonight.
Luck be a 93-year old lady tonight.
Stick with me baby, Im the gal who beat up Leo.
Luck be a 93-year old lady tonight.

PAPER OR PLASTIC

Touch Screen to Scanner

Well…the big day is finally here and the sun is peeking out on yet another Presidential Election Day. This one proves to be more historic in nature than most of us have seen in a lifetime.

Election Day never goes by without me thinking about my grandpa. The last time he voted was for Herbert Hoover. His father, in his best broken German, told his young son, “You do down der and you vote for dat Herbert Hoover…he’s a good man.” Pops did as instructed, the country fell into the Great Depression and he NEVER voted again.

After the election debacle in 2000 that cast all eyes on an impotent election system, will Florida again be in the hot seat? (For those of you who haven’t already seen the made-for-HBO movie Recount with Kevin Spacey, currently running on cable, it’s definitely worth watching!)

Is leaving the disastrous touch screen system behind and returning to paper ballots read by a scanner going to produce more accurate results? It’s amazing that the finest example of the democratic process can’t seem to land on a voting system that is foolproof…especially in this age of technology. I have always wondered what area, other than medicine, could be more important for implementing the most advanced technology available.

Rumor has it that a bunch of IRB neighbors…Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians alike…will be watching the election returns tonight at the Red Lion from about 8 p.m. on. The more the merrier…so stop on by.

Nancy Obarski
Beach Trail/IRB

INTERNET FOR TOURISTS

Indian Shores Charges Them?

Is it true that Indian Shores charges tourists for internet access at their library? Hmmm. And they didn’t even have to hire governmental accounting consultant Rob Garner to the tune of thousands of dollars to find that alternative revenue source, did they?

Nancy Obarski
Beach Trail/IRB

S.O.B.

Shop our Businesses in IRB

In a recession, the economy operates backwards. It recedes instead of advancing. Most folks you talk to in IRB have all felt the pinch…albeit to differing degrees. But, the folks most affected by the economic downturn are our small businesses—our shops, restaurants, bars, salons, etc.

The official definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth marked by a slump in consumer spending. Only a very few number of businesses—like funeral homes--are truly recession-proof. (Death and taxes, right?) For the average retailer here on the barrier island, the challenge is to keep the doors open with less revenue while maintaining the same quality and level of service. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy relies on consumer spending. For our local restaurants, hotels, shops, bars, etc. in IRB, that percentage is undoubtedly much higher.

It’s more important now than ever to “buy” locally. As a community, IRB is fortunate to have so many solid small businesses headed by smart, successful proprietors. They deserve our respect and our support—now and always.

In lean times, businesses tend to reduce advertising expenditures, so we must be proactive patrons—and visit without waiting to be “coaxed” to do so. Some IRB businesses have intelligently explored ways to replace the business robbed by the economy. My Place, J.D.’s and Crabby Bill’s appeared at last Tuesday's commission meeting (10/28) to ask the City to allow them to extend live entertainment hours by one hour on the weekends. Please urge your City Commission to grant this request. And hopefully, as former City Commission candidate and IRB P & Z Board Member Don House suggested, the deadline for businesses to comply with the new sign ordinance will also be extended. As a community, we need to do everything possible to keep the businesses we love from being downturn casualties…even if it means lesser emphasis on the esthetics...at least in the short run.

You’ll notice a new addition to the right-hand column of the IRBeHEARD blog—IRBeBiz. E-mail us at irbeheard@cmdinc.net with a great experience you’ve had with an IRB business. We’ll share it with our readers in an upcoming posting—a little FREE word-of-blog advertising for our local businesses!

Shop, eat, party, pamper, recreate…right here at home in IRB. It saves on gas!

Nancy Obarski
Beach Trail/IRB

FIRED AND RE-FIRED

Schless Pink Slipped--AGAIN?

At the October 14th commission meeting, Finance Director Marty Schless was, by a 3-2 commission vote, relieved of his duties as our city’s Chief Financial Officer. However, the item, as it appeared on the meeting agenda, called for a performance review only. Once again, it took citizens to point out that Marty’s firing was not agenda-ed properly and that the action taken needed to be formalized by a resolution since termination of a charter officer requires it.

At last night’s commission meeting (October 28th), the City Attorney indicated that a resolution is in the works and asked that it be put on the next meeting’s agenda. So, another vote will be taken and Marty will be fired—a second time—by resolution. The termination, according to Kiefer will be retroactive. Doesn’t it seem like a lot of things require “doing and re-doing” these days?

Kennedy, who made the motion to fire Schless at the 10/14 meeting, went predictably into “blame mode” and asked if she did anything improper in making the motion to fire Marty. Kennedy carefully pointed out that she asked the City Attorney first before making the motion and Kiefer gave her the go-ahead.

Could this incessant need to point fingers be why no one on the commission seemed particularly “excited” about Kennedy’s desire to be appointed as the beaches’ representative on the Pinellas Planning Council?

In reference to Kennedy’s fingerpointing on the Schless firing, Kiefer said that everything was done properly but that a resolution was required. So, Marty’s “real” firing is now scheduled for the upcoming meeting on November 13th.

Blamers and bumblers and whiskers on kittens…some of IRB’s favorite things.

Nancy Obarski
Beach Trail/IRB

IRB BLAME GAME

Fine Art of Fingerpointing

I often ask my two mischievous nephews the proverbial question…"Alright, which one of you two did this?" Inevitably, they grin and point to one another uttering those magical words nearly in unison “HE did.” I never get any closer to the answer, yet I still ask the question. The truth is that I get a kick out of their rather predictable responses. With kids, fingerpointing is amusing; with adults, it’s not…especially when it’s more motivated by politics than by a desire for “real” answers.

Last Sunday, October 29th, a St. Petersburg Times article included back-to-back fingerpointing quotes by two IRB City Commissioners.

When speaking of Finance Director’s Schless firing, Commission Wollin was quoted as saying: “It is not his fault that he was hired without that experience. That is the fault of the people that hired him.” Schless had no municipal accounting experience when joining the IRB staff. Do you think Wollin realizes she’s criticizing the judgment of the gentleman immediately to her right on dais, Mayor (then Commissioner) R.B. Johnson—who voted “Yea” on the Schless hiring? (Wasn't it Ockunzzi and Carmody who were the initial "NO" votes for Schless?)

Commissioner Kennedy's reported remark accuses the city of using “bad judgment” in hiring Marty without the proper experience. How soon she forgets that Marty's predecessor left behind an accounting mess so abomindable that it required a forensic accountant to unravel it. And that was a DiNicola commission who hired the Schless predecessor...right? That kind of spoils Kennedy's depiction of the “DiNicola Days” as some sort of beachy Camelot with herself as one the roundtable knights, doesn't it?

Commissioner Valery doesn’t point fingers. He speaks his mind and has very strong opinions but is not a blamer. The thoughtful Torres isn’t a fingerpointer either. Mayor R. B. Johnson almost goes the other way; he tends to accept responsibility for his decisions even when it’s not really warranted.

So…why is it that primarily the women on our commission engage in “blamecasting” every chance they get? Is the purpose of this selective disparagement to somehow make themselves look smarter or more qualified?

And, some of the fingerpointing has been rather expensive. Consultant Rob Garner’s timetable tracing the Sewer/Solid Waste Funds debacle represented thousands upon thousands of dollars in prime PowerPoint fingerpointing. His timetable listed the names of all the commissioners who sat on the commission and the dates when City Managers and Finance Directors came and went in relationship to the still-mysterious loans. Yet, when it came to showing important info, like the actual date when Pinellas County increased their rates to IRB, that info was noticeably missing. Instead, the date when the commission was TOLD about the County’s increase was shown…because that date better supported the claim that the County’s rate increase is what caused the Sewer Fund to go upside down.

Ironically, when it comes time to engaging in fingerpointing that could actually be beneficial, the commission suddenly develops a case of governmental carpal tunnel syndrome. Soon-to-be-departing Finance Director Marty Schless has been blamed for everything in IRB right down to Chief Chic-a-Si breaking his ankle while crossing the rocks in the Narrows. Don't some of the misdeeds Schless has been saddled with pre-date his arrival in IRB? Plenty of fingers were pointed at Marty alright. But, when it came to asking him the hard questions like “Who the hell authorized these loans?” or "Did you take it upon yourself to approve the loans," no commissioner so much as raised a pinky.

Is this commission protecting someone? Won’t the City’s errors and omissions insurance cover the loss if some sort of malfeasance can be shown? Isn’t that reason enough to put a proverbial finger on the culprit or culprits? Or, is it just easier to continue protecting those who put our City in such financial peril while the taxpayers foot the million dollar tab?

Nancy Obarski
Beach Trail/IRB