Eco Arts Story. lookback

The Pine Lake Eco Arts camp was a summertime happening for children and parents. The Camp and staff of talented mentors organized a creative learning experience with poetry, nature walks, puppetry and the arts, that served the community for 9 years. Who can forget the song of robust young voices drifting across the lake on humid summer days? ‘We all live in a yellow submarine…’ Yes, we still hear those voices. This is a sad story; how could it be anything else? The Eco Arts camp is gone; a Petrie dish of artistic creativity cast aside. Now it is time to set the record straight; because, there have been a number of misleading statements & rumors regarding the camp. ‘So we sailed up to the sun, Till we found the sea of green…’ First, and foremost, the Eco Arts Summer Camp was funded by the parents of the children who attended the camp. The Camp was not subsidized by the City. A Council person complained in a letter that most of the camp budget went to pay staff; imagine, a City Council person complaining about camp salaries that the City does not pay! The third highest single expense for the camp was the nearly $2000 the camp paid the City for a permit and facility rental; the same Council person called the $300 a week paid by the Camp a ‘pittance’. When you add in the $334 weekly cost of the Permit, the bottom line amount the CamThe Eco-Arts Story paid the City per week was $634; about $125 per day. “And our friends are all on board…Many more of them live next door” The Council inexplicably became convinced that the 3 weeks long camp was somehow keeping the City from a gold mine of income, I guess we could call this the wishful thinking method of governance; because, there is no evidence to suggest the City can command $1500 for a 5 day, during the week, facility rental. “And the band begins to play” The Council adopted a false narrative as a cover for a rental increase that was nothing less than fiscal sabotage of the camp and the parents; who most certainly could not pay for such a cruel increase. The cruelty did not begin with the rental increase; the flimsy fiscal ‘cover’ that the Council concocted needed help; so, a shame based whisper campaign ensued to sully the camp and the reputations of staff and parents who supported the camp. “We all live in a yellow submarine…” The children, the parents, and our community lost a great gift; betrayed by a dysfunctional governing body. Not one council person stood up for the Eco Arts Camp; so, it is not a council that discusses and weighs matters that are important to the community. This is a council that sees itself as subservient to the Mayor’s agenda and not a council in tune with the community. A ‘mayor’ is ’first among equals’, not an autarch; the Council should not be a “rubber stamp” for one person’s flawed agenda. “…yellow submarine, yellow submarine…” With the summer camp gone, we witnessed and unprecedented level of Mayoral participation at kid’s events and a rash of ‘kid’s town halls’ as the Mayor fumbled for a way to blunt the fallout from the Council’s ‘Blue Meanie’ decision. ‘Here, Your Blueness... have some medicine!”

Look back: Pine Lake 2009-2011 The enclave of white privilege gets expensive.

-City Scape. 2009-2011

The Zarus administration. directed most of its energy toward managing special projects, the lake dredging, flood plain reconfiguration, sidewalk.

According to the 2010 Audit, mismanagement of bond funds, Federal State and Local, has left the City $160,000 of debt. The Administration improperly spent from bond funds $160k and must pay the money back.

Management's claim that it was unaware the money would have to be paid back lacks credibility as this is a repeat audit finding. In 2009 management was cited by the auditor for misappropriating $32,075 in bond funds. The following year 2010 management misappropriated $120,885 from bond funds. The 2010 theft was deliberate and kept the City out of default; allowing the administration and Council time to avoid default and keep the police department. The City property tax millage rate tripled over a 3 year period, soaring to 29.5 Mils. During 2011 the Council tapped an environmental fund,100K, in order to keep municipal default at bay. Successive audits reveal a financially dysfunctional City with no cash reserve, severe cash flow problems, and a three year deficit spending record; $60,000 in deficit spending in 2010. Deficit spending violates state law.

Basic and mandated accounting practices were not performed. The City does not have a ledger for each of its individual accounts, a violation of state law; management blames the problem on accounting software. The City's financial records are not adequately transparent. Financial reconciliation of all accounts should, but does not, occur on a monthly basis. If fraud occurs the City would not be able to detect the fraud in a timely manner.

The City does not have a financially sustainable configuration. In the fall of 2010 the Mayor and Council reported that the City had no cash flow and no reserve. The bank would not approve a 50k tax anticipation loan. The city was unable to pay its bills for a 3 month period.

The Auditor recommended that the city discontinue the police services in order to avoid default. The auditor reported that the Council had made unethical requests.

Update: O3/20/2025

The Red Flag

I met a man named Vick; far away from where I live now.  We got to talking and discovered we had attended the same high school at different times.   We became friends; he was a neighbor.  He owned the Grand Hotel; the only thing grand about the Grand Hotel is the sign which sits just above the door and occupies the entire front of the modest one and a half story house.  The hotel had two rooms upstairs;  bathroom downstairs. The rest of the house filled with an amazing array of items.  I bought a clarinet from him; I still have it.

Vick was an elected member of the town council.  I asked him to bring up an idea of mine at the Council meeting.  He said ‘You should come to our next meeting and present your idea to the Council’.   I asked: why don’t you just bring my concern to the Council meeting?  He said:  Because that kind of arraignment can lead to abuse of power and corruption.

How so, I inquired?  Vick said, here is an example.   Suppose a constituent approaches me and asks me to get something done for him; but, he doesn’t want the public to know about his plan because it is only beneficial to him and a few of his neighbors; so, he does not want  his proposal to be made a part of the public record.  If I, as a Council person, agree to take on this project, as my own, hiding his identity, aiding his greedy intentions, well, usually there is a quid pro quo ie: a bribe. Vick concluded his remarks with: Good governance is all about  making the process transparent. The absence of transparency is the red flag for abuse of power. If you have business with the City; bring it up at the council meeting. Keep it on the public record.

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Mayor’s Vanity Project ‘Trumps’ the Code, I wrote this years ago regarding the Art Fence. It is an example of abuse of power where the Council blocked transparency.  You can read the full article here: https://www.pinelakevoice.org/post/mayor-s-ego-arts-project-irks-pine-lake-residents

I requested the minutes of all council meetings in which the ‘fence’ is mentioned by the Council.  There were five council meetings between, September 2016 and March 2017, where the fence is reported on by Council Brandy Hall.  There is no description of the fence recorded in the ‘minutes’.  The ‘minutes’ did not provide enough information for the public to determine what the City’s Municipal Arts Panel was actually planning to build.

I obtained a copy of the Fence Permit Application which was approved on the same day it was received. The information on the form is sparse.  At the bottom of the application it reads: applicant/administrator with two signatories:  Council Brandy Hall & Clerk Valerie Caldwell.  The City’s Code enforcement officer, Chief Green, did not sign the permit.  Clearly stated on the permit is the fence height limit: 48 inches.

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Now here’s the thing.  It would have been simple.  Apply for a Variance.  The  Council and Mayor decided no, let’s just break the code.  A variance hearing would have allowed transparency.  Like Vick said: The absence of transparency  is the red flag for abuse of power. There have been quite a few instances of lack of transparency.