Cazual Conversation

It is not complicated. Three members of the Bay County School Board voted to spend some $9 million the district does not have.
   It’s for the kids, you know.
   It is not complicated to board members Pat Sabiston and Jon McFatter. Said McFatter after ending up on the losing side of a 3-2 vote: “Once again, this board has chosen to spend money it simply doesn’t have. And Jon McFatter will never support an increase in millage until this board gets control of its spending habits.”
   And that’s the nut of it.
   Not that we begrudge the children, or think we should do better than having classrooms in the gym, like at Mowat. Nor is it odd that the teachers and administrators want to see the millage upped to accomplish that.
   They, as well as anyone, know the futility of asking the board to cut back and find the money in existing revenue streams.
   It apparently is not within the capabilities or our existing board members, or at least the three of them (Johnny Brock, Donna Allen and Ginger Littleton) who voted for the expenditure. They’ll tell you it’s not possible, period.
   It must have been some black magic afoot over in Okaloosa County when they slimmed things down under the direction of current Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.
   We have no fat to trim, Superintendent James McCalister proclaimed during his push for the half-cent sales tax, which failed because voters aren’t as gullible as they used to be and because we are all pinching pennies.
   Board members warned folks that the capital outlay millage rate might increase from 1 mill to 2 if the half-cent failed, as if they were doing us a favor with the half-cent tax. They neglected to mention that the capital outlay millage, which is capped at a maximum of 2 mills, sat at exactly 2 mills during most of the life of the half-cent sales tax.
   We’ve rehashed ad nauseam the explosive growth of the school district’s budget. It bears repeating: Over a period of five years, the budget grew from $206 million to $375 million in 2007. There is no getting around that fact.
   But there’s no fat to be trimmed, they say.
   Look around your world. Chances are you know someone who has lost a job or is in danger of doing so. You see the shrinking economy, the empty work sites, the rising gas prices. Chances are good many of you did not get raises last year, did not get the usual raise, did not get a raise that kept pace with inflation or have loved ones who fall into that category.
   I have friends who were gainfully employed a year ago now looking for work because of cutbacks forced by the current economy.
   Your newspaper is tighter, and we don’t have as many positions as we did a year ago.
   Many made less in 2007 than they did in 2006.
   Premium cable channels are out at my place, and grocery shopping at Grocery Outlet is, at times, a necessity rather than a blundering attempt to appear frugal.
   This is what I see when I look around.
   I’m not sure what board members see, but it certainly isn’t their budget growing smaller. They don’t see fewer employees. They don’t see any of the things that we, the people not employed by the government, see daily.
   We’re hurting, we’re tired of being told it is OK, or that it is for the children, or that we need to do our part, until we see the school district do its part.
   To date, it hasn’t happened. We’re not holding our breath.

The McDonald’s downtown on Harrison Avenue has been taken over by aliens. The kind from outerspace.

That was the first thought in my mind this morning as I sat in the drivethrough in the mighty KIA ordering a large coffee.

Circumstances - let’s just say it will cost me $3,500 if I drink a carbonated beverage - drove me to abandon my morning Diet Coke’s. I could not arrive to work unarmed, hence the caffiene trip.

I asked one of those questions that does not lend itself to a short answer, something drivethrough people abhor since they’re judged on how fast they move customers along.

“What kind of coffee do you have? Just regular? Or do you have choices?” I asked.

She laid it out for me. They have regular, in different sizes. They have several different kinds of caramel/ice coffees.

I ordered a large regular coffee and committed the next cardinal sin: I asked for extras.

“Can I get three creams with that?” I asked tentatively. It is so rare that my request ever matches what shows up in the bag that it’s surprising I haven’t quit yet.

“Sure, sweetie,” said Christina. I know that’s her name because that’s what was on the card she gave me at the window a few moments later.

I said my goodbyes after paying, sure I had found yet another date. She even had her number on the back, 1-800-244-6227. Woohoo!

My coffee was ready at the next window, and I was out in less than two minutes, even with several cars ahead of me.

Sure enough, though, there was no cream with my coffee. Not even one little packet.

“M’am, could I please get three creams?” I asked the woman at the second window.

“It’s in the coffee for you, already done,” she said with a smile.

Wow.

After some thought, it occurs to me that the McDonald’s may be undergoing some upgrades in customer service, and that’s a good idea.

David Costa is the name on the other side of that card, and I’ll let him know it’s appreciated and noticeable.

The downtown Mickey Ds is a landmark of sorts, and it’s to see it come around.

Now if he can just explain to me why my grilled chicken salads I get every day at the Michigan Avenue location are so much smaller, with less chicken, than the ones I get at the U.S. 231 location.

Mike CazalasManaging EditorWe do our part to make sure you sleep a little more safely.

   Mike Cazalas

Managing Editor

As his after-sentencing press conference wound down last week, Joe Francis offered that his private investigators will soon provide proof of wrongdoing by State Attorney Steve Meadows.

   Meadows didn’t attend the sentencing, though he assured his constituents that the plea had nothing to do with the pending prosecutorial misconduct claims. 

Now we know from a Nightline report only days after the plea came together that, according to Martin Bashir, Meadows did show him portions of the tape in which the underage girls were nude.

Meadows told The News Herald that it’s OK, though, because it’s not child pornography if the underage girls are just naked, only if they are having sexual contact.

Let’s hope he misspoke - or that I’m completely off on this one - because there are plenty of people in jail who wish that were the case.

Francis is gone, finally, thankfully and hopefully for a long time.

Francis assures all he is through with Bay County.

He made it clear, however, that he is not through with Meadows.

   Still, the plea really made very little sense for Meadows given the rhetoric between the two sides over the past couple of years. The outcome apparently was distasteful enough for the state that Meadows didn’t attend.
   And while it was prudent to require that Francis drop his litigation against Meadows and the state, it’s a bit disingenuous to suggest it had no bearing on the plea deal.
   It is clear Francis broke the law, and it is clear he does not understand that. In a nutshell, there are landmark cases that make it crystal clear that determining the age of participants in filming is 100-percent the job of the filmer.
   So it doesn’t matter if the girls in this case were 17-year-old topless dancers or 14-year-old choirgirls.
   It’s all those other charges that get you to thinking. More than 30, initially. A seized jet and car. Allegations of drugs that didn’t hold up. The pursuit of racketeering charges.
   Francis brought it on himself, but the investigating officers and state sure seemed more than willing to heap it on.
   Francis seems ready to put these charges behind him, but is far from ready to let go of Meadows.

When the sound pierces the morning air Saturday and brutalizes my eardrums, sending my heart into palpitations, there will be no thoughts of Joe Francis.

As I draw the cherry wood striker slowly across the sandpapered surface and pop it quickly, simulating a coy cry for friendship and the yelp of “Come and get me,” attack ads will not be on my mind.

When Kevin and I are rewarded with another gobble, and the bird walks into view, my muscles will clink tight enough to crack granite.

Whether a bird is harvested matters little. At the end of the day, I’ll drop to my knees and thank God for the opportunity, and once again realize how great it is to be an American.

Turkey season opens in 13 hours (it’s 5 p.m. Friday as I write).

Gobble, gobble.

Mike Cazalas

Managing Editor

If you take nothing else away from the Joe Francis/GGW saga, let it be this: the man is now a convicted felon.

Circuit Judge Dedeee Costello made that clear during today’s proceedings as Francis, minus a tie, stood hands in pockets, answering her queries with “nope” and “yep,” and cracking jokes until she told him to hush up.

An exchange went something like this after his no-contest plea was entered.

“You are adjudicated guilty,” Costello told Francis.

“But I pled no contest,” he replied.

“Yes, and you are adjudicated guilty. You are a convicted felon and get everything associated with that. Do you understand?”

Francis said he did, though having attended the hearing I’m wondering if he really does.

Outside, asked how he felt about being a convicted felon and whether adjudication was part of the plea negotation, Francis was unable to answer the question, instead talking about pleading no contest to a felony.

 What adjudication means is he’s still a multi-millionaire. He’ll remain in business and surrounded by the most beautiful of the pretty people. He gets back his Ferrari.

It means that anytime he fills out paperwork related to a job, or court business, or applying for just about any kind of credit or loan, he gets to check “Yes” by that little box that universally says: “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?”

It means he can proclaim his innocence, as he did minutes after his no contest pleas were accepted, but it is innocence professed by a convicted felon. No contest means you don’t really admit you did anything wrong, but admit the state can make a case. A withholding of adjudication means, legally, means you weren’t found guilty of what you pled to.

It is a big deal, and it’s for sure that Costello recognized it.

As his press conference wound down, Francis offered that proof is forthcoming of corruption involving State Attorney Steve Meadows. And unable to restrain himself despite his two attorneys telling him to hush, he let out that a plea bargain is underway in his federal tax case that will have him serving no additional jail time there, either.

He’ll remain engaging, energetic, likely successful and even right about many of his complaints as they go to the First Amendment and his treatment here.

He’ll also remain a convicted felon.

A Panhandle man outsmarted himself by tossing one beer when officers spotted his ATV but apparently forgetting he had more in his possession.

Mike Cazalas

Why all the hate toward Spring Breakers?

Those of us who were once young and have the capacity for honesty can relate to some extent.

Spring Break, you can argue, has gotten out of hand. Who is to blame for that, the kids or those who rule over them and desire their money?

My first Panama City Spring Break came many years ago when, as an 18-year-old, I came to visit my father. The lure to see him was Spring Break.

It was about 1980, and I remember …

A party at the Fountainebleu, on the roof or some outside structure, featuring a very loud band and numerous kegs. We were loud, obnoxious and fun. We explaine this all to the police who arrived around midnight.

There was a K-9 present, and teens barked at it. The dog did not take the bait, nor did the officers. We behaved in a way we would never think of at home, and the police here behaved differently, as well. It’s one of the reasons we felt safe.

The night ended at a west end bar with a friend thinking he had “gotten lucky” only to discover, on the way out the door, that his new friend was a hooker. He ended that venture and we went on about our business.

It was part of growing up, and it seems we get a little shortsighted about our own youth when we watch other generations grow.

The fact is, kids are going to get hurt. They are going to die in wrecks. They are emotional roller coasters.

This is true whether they are partying in Panama City Beach, their college, or their homes. 

The state once had a slogan for Spring Break - “The rules are different here” - and it was dropped after much outrage from people who said it painted us in a bad light. But the rules are different here, and we can either accept it or change it.

Accepting it means you embrace it or you stay off the beach for the next month. Changing it means you run them off and accept the economic consequences.