If YOU can help with any information, let’s please give KPD OR Crimeline a call and get this dope off the streets. The next time, it could be YOU looking at a gun barrel!
Kissimmee, Fla. (July 30, 2009) – Kissimmee police detectives are looking for a man who robbed a local resident at knife point.

On July 29, 2009 at approximately 1:00 a.m. on the west side of Hoagland Boulevard near the Fox Hall Condos, the victim was approached by an unknown male who asked him “what you got?” while brandishing a kitchen knife. When the victim told his assailant that he had no money, the suspect slashed the victim twice with the knife; cutting the victim’s shirt and leaving two minor slash marks on his chest. The victim fled the area.

The suspect is described as a Hispanic male, approximately 23-28 years-of-age, 5’10” and 170 pounds with an athletic build. The suspect was clean shaven except for a thin mustache, has short shaved black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information on the suspect or the crime is asked to contact the Kissimmee Police Department’s Major Crimes Division at 407-846-3333 or by email at seeitsayit@kissimmee.org or CRIMELINE at 1-800-423-TIPS (8477)
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The following is a message from Tom Long, President of the Osceola Landlord’s Association. As usual, he’s got quite a line up of people coming to the meeting to explain taxes in, and around Osceola County. Even the County Manager, “TakeTwo", is scheduled to be there. Let’s not disappoint these fine people by attending this meeting. Bring your neighbor, bring a friend, bring someone! Maybe Ms Pace will be able to explain the confusion over the scholarships directly from the City of St. Cloud, paid to the Osceola Foundation, yet not one person is aware of how a St Cloud resident can obtain the application for the scholarship for adult education!

Greetings All,

Did you know…
The County wants to raise your millage from 5.1942 to 6.5902, raise your fire fee another $30 and start a water fee of $38 to $98 for a single family home.

The School District is going to raise their total millage from 7.513 to 7.763

Saint Cloud wants to raise their millage from 4.045 to 4.9322

Kissimmee wants to raise their millage from 3.7058 to 4.6253

This is with over 11% unemployment and over 22% underemployment. Property values have dropped by about 19%.

These are your tax dollars. Are you willing to learn more and speak out?

There will be a PUBLIC meeting, regarding local taxes, hosted by the Osceola County Landlord Association.

DATE: August 6 TIME: Meeting starts at 6:30 P.M.
HELD AT Kissimmee Utility Authority, 1701 W. Carroll St., Kissimmee, 34741 click here for maps
The speakers will be:

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First, from overnight here’s the latest from the Sheriff’s Office. Seems we’re stuck with a lot of crime lately. Let’s try to help get these dirtbags!

Deputies Investigate Multiple Burglaries on West 192
Osceola County – Osceola County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating three burglaries on West 192 and two suspects are currently in custody. The investigation began at approximately 2:42 a.m. when deputies responded to a burglary alarm at 2927 Vineland Road in Kissimmee. Upon arrival, deputies observed broken glass where the front door was smashed open and electronic items in the store were missing. Approximately 20 minutes later, deputies responded to a burglary alarm at Target located at 4795 W. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway. Deputies met with store management at the location but nothing appeared suspicious. At 4:04 a.m. employees who were opening the store reported the front doors were broken and items from the jewelry counter were missing. At 5:10 a.m. deputies responded to Digital 4 Less located at 5001 W. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in reference to a burglary alarm. The front doors of the store were smashed open and electronic items were stolen.
Minutes later deputies located the suspects and conducted a traffic stop on West 192 near Poinciana Boulevard. Detectives are currently interviewing the suspects who might be responsible for multiple burglaries in Central Florida. The investigation is on-going at this time with additional charges pending.

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We have lots to say tonight so we’ll start with the Sheriff’s Office. Take a look at the recent releases and if you can help with a tip to nail these idiots, go for it. There might even be a reward for your information!

Detectives Looking for Armed Robbery Suspects
Osceola County – Osceola County Sheriff’s detectives need the public’s help in identifying a robbery suspect. On July 25 at approximately 11:00 p.m., Osceola County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the area of Remington Boulevard and Prestwick Lane in Kissimmee. Upon arrival, deputies spoke with three victims who indicated they were walking home when a black Honda Acura with a New York tag pulled up next to them. Approximately five males got out of the car. One individual implied he had a handgun and demanded the three victims give them personal items and money. One suspect grabbed gold chains from one of the victims before the suspects left the area in the car. The victims describe the suspects as having tattoos on their upper bodies. Some were wearing grey tank tops and black/red hats.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office at (407) 348-2222 or Crimeline at (800) 423-TIPS (8477). Calls made to Crimeline remain anonymous and tips that lead to the felony arrest of suspects and/or the recovery of stolen property and drugs are eligible for cash rewards of up to $1,000 dollars.

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This will be a short blog as we want to get plenty of sleep for Monday’s Commission meeting, so here we go.

Seems Jay Wheeler’s weekly diatribe email appears NOT to have shared some brand new news sent to him from Tallahassee! Seems that Mr. Wheeler has had a complaint filed AGAINST him with the Florida Division Of Elections in Tallahassee. We’re sure that when he returns from vacation Mr. Wheeler will be eager to share his news with his weekly readers! Until his return, we only wonder what EXACTLY he did, or was that did NOT do to get himself in some hot water? Perhaps it was some of his political advertising which may have been missing some of the legal stuff required of ALL politicians? We’ll see but we’ve been told the fines could start at $500.00 per violation. OUCH!

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Thursday’s Osceola News Gazette Editorial was right on target regarding certain aspects of the way our county is running! Especially so, the wasting of millions of tax dollars to have road construction inspectors(including trailers,phones,and God knows what other perks) when we could EASILY retrain OUR OWN building inspectors to do the very same work. Instead, we have a non county, some sort of director, Mr. Adtkins calling the shots (with TakeTwo’s permission) and signing up OUTSIDE companies for the easy money. Sniff, sniff! Anyone else smell the stink in these deals?

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Seems that we learned some information while “Take Two” was taking two weeks “vacation". Seems he’s applied to be a manager in Lee County In FACT, Lee is tops in the nation for home mortgage foreclosures! This information was learned on the internet as Lee County released their list of applicants, by Florida law. Osceola County could learn a lesson on release of certain information, particularly, HR.

Now that it’s officially known we can’t help but wonder when the commission will allow the manager to seek employment, full time. Why? What staff member or director will be gung ho in supporting a lame duck county manager? Since Mr. Freilinger has already made the move to seek new employment let’s give him all the assistance he needs to get the heck out!

By the way, this PUBLIC information is posted at NBC-2.com, and check out Lee County news. The list below is the posted article in its entirety.

EmailPrint
List of county manager applicants

FORT MYERS: Those seeking to fill the vacant Lee County Manager position had until midnight to apply for the job.

Below is a list of candidates, along with their most recent job, that have already applied.

The recruiter in charge of organizing the applicants says there may be a few more additions of those who got in before the deadline but may have misdirected their application.

The final list will be complete in a few days, according to the agency.

APPLICANTS:

Azbart, Kimberly

Baker, Roger
County Manager, Gilpin County, Central City, CO, 05/03 - Present.

Ballantyne, Duncan A.
County Administrator, Martin County Board of County Commissioners, Martin County, FL, 10/05 - 04/09.

Banyai, Cindy L.

Bergman, Frank C.

Blanc, Walter R.
General Manager, Dixie Clamp & Scaffold, 07/08 -05/09.

Broadley, Larry

Carey, Gary C.
Sales and Marketing, Kilcarey, Inc.,2008 - Present.

Carolan, Nancy
Director, General Services & purchasing, City of Sarasota, FL, 1997 -2008.

Cash, Angela M.
Realtor, Sun Realty, Punta Gorda, FL, 02/2008.

Cole, Ann F.
PreK-12 Building Principal, Worcester Central School, Worcester, NY, 07/06 - Present.

Colvert, F. Norris
Principal, Management Strategies, LLC, Brentwood, TN, &Hollywood, FL,2000 - Present.

Conrecode, Thomas E.

Conway, Burton T.

Crawford, Donald D.
City Manager, Hamtramck, MI, 2005- 2008.

Crawford, Shane B.
Deputy County Administrator, Walworth County, WI, 2004 -Present.

DiVirgilus, James S.
General Manager/Parts & Service, Daimler Chrysler Corp., 04/04 - Present.

Dougherty, Francis X.
Deputy Chief Business Officer Operations, School District of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 2008 -Present.

Ducas, George J.
Architect, Consultant, Contract, GJD Designs, Phoenix, AZ & Dallas, TX, 2006-2008.

Ebling, John

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The Osceola County Commission met Monday evening with a decent crowd on hand. After the usual opening dialogues, the first Hear The Audience began. Richard Appelton, a fellow who appears frequently before the commission because he doesn’t like Osceola Parkway’s wall, got up and spoke about…you guessed it, Osceola Parkway. Mr Appelton has had more meetings with staff, the county manager, as well as Commissioner Quinones and even we hear them telling him, they’re working on it, but he doesn’t give up. Our surprise was when Mr. Appelton was cut off by Mr Quinones, as he was handing over some “evidence” supporting his cause. Now, there is a 3 minute rule to speak on items not on the agenda, but Q has allowed violations of the 3 minute rule since being chairman. We believe it’s his lack of control, or inability to control the meeting. The very next person, a woman, who got up to speak talked for well over 5 minutes and Q never even asked her to wrap up, an obvious slap to ol’ Mr. Appelton.

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Tonight, at 5:30PM, the County Commission meeting should go fairly smoothly. No, there’s not a new Chairman(yet) but Commissioner Ken Smith is supposed to be out of town, and Take Two remains on vacation,thus eliminating some reminiscing and travels down memory lane by Smith as well as long, uneducated guesses by Take Two. Without any major interruptions, this meeting should go well.

If anyone saw the article in the local/state section regarding the corrections officer arrested for “allegedly” assisting a dirt bag in an escape attempt, had been hired despite the facts which were revealed during her background check. What concerns us is the statement by the current HR Director on how Corrections Officers are hired and backgrounds checked. We wonder, what on Earth would he know about it? The jail has always operated its own HR Department under a system set up long before the HR Director was given his job. One woman did the hiring for anyone under the Corrections department, including probation officers, corrections officers, and other important positions. There had been numerous concerns and complaints expressed about how this woman processed applications but county management, including Mrs. Peach, either wouldn’t listen, or didn’t care. The statement in the article by the HR Director was simply baloney.

This past week an interesting article was actually printed in the Orlando Sentinel. You remember them don’t you? Used to have an Osceola Sentinel a long time ago. Anyway, the article was all about the former quaint park, Splendid China and all the code violations that are currently plaguing the property.

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Pay attention to this if you’re planning on seeking a break from the heat at the Saint Cloud Lakefront!

‘St. Cloud Beach’ closed until further notice

Submitted by City of St. Cloud
St. Cloud, Fla. – The City of St. Cloud has closed the area known within the community as “St. Cloud Beach” - the lakefront (East Lake Tohopekaliga).
The Osceola Department of Health issued a letter to the City July 17, stating that water samples were taken July 13 and the results exceeded the State of Florida bacteria standard for fecal. City officials immediately closed the beach area and Parks and Recreation staff posted notice of closure signs throughout the area.
The beach is closed and will remain closed until the Osceola Department of Health informs City officials that satisfactory samples have been received and that it is safe to reopen St. Cloud Beach.
The picnic areas at the lakefront remain open to the public.

We received this bulletin compliments of the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. Hispanics, in particular, ELDERLY Hispanics, should use extreme caution if they are approached with a sure fire way to help an alleged illegal claim a lottery win. While this is from Seminole County, it’s good to alert everyone that these scamming dirt bags are here in Central Florida trying to steal your money!

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Listed below is a Public Notice sent out by Larry Krause of the Public Information Office for the County.

Due to Sharp Reduction in Development, Osceola County
Reorganizes Building Division


Osceola County, Florida – Due to a continuing trend in the reduction of building and development activity throughout Osceola County, the Osceola County Building Division has projected an annual operating deficit of $1.8 million, and will subsequently need to eliminate 25 department-funded positions.

The layoffs come as the Building Division, which funds staff solely from income generated through services provided by the county such as permitting, inspections, and plans examinations, has seen activities decline approximately 25% from two years ago.

“We will be reducing our Building Division and Customer Resources staff by 24, and eliminating one additional vacant position. There just is not enough building activity occurring in Osceola County to fund these positions,” said County Manager Michael J. Freilinger.

Requests for single family home permits in Osceola County have declined steadily over the past five years; the county issued 4,755 single family home permits in 2004, and 701 such permits in 2008. So far this year, 183 single family home permits have been issued in Osceola County.

Staff reductions include two administrative secretaries, six commercial inspectors, five commercial plans examiners, one driveway/grading inspector, six residential inspectors, one customer care assistant, a permit technician, a permitting supervisor, a plan review coordinator (vacant), and a senior permit technician.

In determining which positions would be eliminated, many factors were considered, including experience, seniority, expertise and qualifications/certifications. At least two positions were transferred from inspector to plans examination as part of the re-structuring.

“With the remaining staff and current workloads, I believe we will be able to continue to deliver a high standard of service,” said Growth Management Administrator Don Fisher.

“As in the past, we will do everything we can to help those who are laid off,” Freilinger added. “In addition to assisting them with résumé building, interview skills, professional image training, job search skills, and one-on-one counseling and coaching, we will continue to work with agencies like Workforce Central Florida and IMPACT to help employees find new positions.”

For more information, contact the Osceola County Public Information Office at 407-742-0100.

**We absolutely love the quote, allegedly by Take Two where he states “as in the past, we will do everything we can to help those who are laid off". Seems most of the employees allegedly laid off last year are still waiting for that help! The beat goes on and the Commission sits on their thumbs!

Even though old “Take Two” has left the county for a “vacation", he’s still been able to be responsible for a misguided termination list, handed off to someone else to do his dirty work but HE forgot to sign off on it. No signature, no action, at least for now, according to the “labor” attorney who said the manager’s signature was essential to completing the termination action. *Carl has asked a friend to obtain a copy of the list, which is available under Florida’s Sunshine Law. The list is alleged to contain the names of 24 more employees, most from the Development Services area, and was to have taken effect this week, while the manager was off elsewhere.
Meanwhile, not one of the manager’s “top” people in management have taken a nickel in pay cuts, a move the manager has told the people close to him will never happen. Meanwhile, the county commission will no doubt sit by and allow more employees to hit the streets, unless they either call a special meeting, or take action next week to stop the terminations. Once we have obtained a copy of the list, and it certainly does exist, we will post it here for all to see, especially those employees who haven’t even been given the courtesy of any advanced notice.

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Friday, County employees received an email from their leader, the current County Manager, ol’ “take two". In it he claimed there would be NO layoffs IF the County Commission adopted the proposed rollback rate on taxes. Hmmm, nothing like an alleged “manager” not managing and dumping the bad news on his bosses!

We’ve also learned there may be a proposed 80% increase in the Commercial Fire Rate and a possible 15% proposed increase in the Residential rate. Oh, this guy is good!
There will be a budget workshop at the county building Monday afternoon at 3:30 P.M. , right after the regular Commission meeting.

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We have received several emails regarding both the City of Kissimmee and Saint Cloud for allegedly seeking a tax rate hike. This actually may NOT be 100% correct. By law, the appraiser must receive tax proposals by a certain date. Also, by law, the rate submitted is the highest it may be for that tax year BUT, it can be reduced and almost always is once the budget process is completed. This is a wacky system, set up by, who else, the State government. Everyone knows the budgets are not near completion yet, but an official tax rate MUST be submitted. We can assure everyone that the process has not been circumvented and neither city manager is personally proposing a tax hike. They are simply doing their jobs.

As expected, the Osceola County School Board agreed to raise school taxes by a quarter mil, but did NOT designate a specific target for this amount raised by the increase. We believe that’s a mistake because of the lack of trust between the taxpayers and the school board members. We’ll see what happens with the increased collections.

The race for School Board Seat 1 has gotten another challenger by the name of Nancy Gemskie who currently is a member of the KUA Board. Gemskie, also married to Kissimmee City Commissioner Jerry Gemskie, has never run for a political office here in Osceola County. According to a quote in a local paper she said she felt a change was needed in the District 1 seat.

We couldn’t agree more! We also will say that we have heard from folks that there are a few others currently considering jumping into the race, which isn’t until next year. Kissimmee resident and former candidate John Cortes has also announced his intentions to run for the District 1 Seat.

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Tonight, the Osceola County School Board will discuss increasing the school taxes by one quarter mil. This ability came about by the State Legislature’s last day of session vote, giving local school boards the option for the additional quarter mil, rather than actually legislating assistance for schools across the state.
It should be an interesting discussion but we understand the needs of all school board, including Osceola’s. There just isn’t enough money to go around. There are areas which could be cut, such as the school board member’s personal expense account given to each board member. We believe that should be eliminated.

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The County Manager, most will agree, is a scoundrel. He does not play well with others, including the cities and Constitutional officers. Here’s what we have been hearing.

The current County Manager, after several meetings with all the Constitutional Officers this past Spring, told all the Officers to submit their budgets by June 1st and indicated they would receive what they submitted. A week ago, the current County Manager takes the dagger and plunges them all into the chest by sending back their budgets and telling them they will have an additional 10% insurance increase and they should pass that cost onto their employees. What a dirt bag.(our opinion) Now, the Officers are stuck having to run around looking for either an additional 15% funding from somewhere or cut another 10% to protect the health insurance. Nice.

This current County Manager has again stated he would NOT even consider any pay cuts to his upper echelon staff, and has told them he’d go down fighting for them. Meanwhile he’s looking to stick it to every employee below the $70k pay range, once again proving he’s not all there!

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If you’ver ever wondered, “Gee, whatever happened to those guys who signed the Declaration Of Independence", here’s the disappointing answer.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence ?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

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Sheriff’s Deputies have arrested and charged the below listed Dirt Bag (of course, in our opinion) in connection with the attempted jail escape this past week. Here’s a knee slapper. This dope is now represented by Attorney Jose Baez. Great work by the Sheriff’s Office. We understand there is a possibility of more action coming out of this.

Detectives Charge Additional Suspect in Inmate Attempted Escape
Osceola County – Osceola County Sheriff’s detectives have arrested another suspect involved in Angel Santiago’s attempted escape on June 22, 2009. Hector Luis Rivera is charged as principal to all of the felonies Santiago and Hung were charged with: Kidnapping, Armed Robbery, Aggravated Assault with a Firearm, Attempted Escape, Introduction of Contraband into a Detention Facility (2 counts), Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon, Impersonating an Officer, Persons Engaged in Criminal Offenses with a Weapon and Resisting with Violence. During the course of the investigation, detectives learned about Rivera’s involvement and believe he had knowledge of and helped in the attempted escape.
On July 2, Osceola County Sheriff’s detectives conducted a search warrant at Rivera’s residence located at 13815 Fairway Island Drive, Apartment 1314 in Orlando. Detectives found evidence that linked Rivera to the attempted jail incident.
Based on the information, early this morning Rivera was booked into the Osceola County Jail. He was later transported to the Orange County Jail where he is being held. The investigation is on-going at this time.

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Understanding the current County Manager is important. In fact, it’s a MUST for anyone remotely interested in how our county is being managed.
Plain and simple, the current manager has no experience so he takes the most uneducated guess he can come up with, mixes it with his total lack of care,(not only for employees and their families, but also the entire county), protects HIS salary by playing word games, and makes decisions which leaves even the brightest scholars scratching their heads.

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As we mentioned here in a previous blog, we suspected $1 Million bail wasn’t just for filing a false report! Here’s the rest of the story. Oh, and by the way Mr. Freilinger, no mention in the report regarding the unsafe setup of the current jail facilities!

Detectives Charge Corrections Officer in Inmate Attempted Escape

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