Last week, I wrote a column explaining how the county’s expensive, tax-payer-funded PR machine was attempting to mislead the public regarding the county commission’s most recent giveaway to the developers who have purchased their seats. This week, the bull manure was piled even higher as well-coordinated propaganda came at voters from additional angles.
You may remember that District 3 Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge enraged many of his constituents when his failed effort to use taxpayer money to purchase highly detailed voter data resulted in a massive data breach. As a result, the very personal information of nearly 20,000 constituents entered the public domain.
Van Ostenbridge dubiously claimed he only wanted email addresses for his constituent newsletter. However, that information is available for free. It would not have needed to be purchased from a Nevada-based political consulting firm specializing in such highly detailed data, primarily for political campaigns. But just like the press releases that come out of what is supposed to be the county’s information outreach department but has been seemingly hijacked as a taxpayer-funded reelection apparatus for developer puppets, it is choc full of misleading propaganda. So, I suppose, on some level, it made sense to use a political outfit.
Under the hilarious heading, Commissioner Van Ostenbridge Pushes to Reign in Growth with Impact Fee Hike, the newsletter stated the following:
“On February 23rd, your County Commissioners approved my motion to increase impact fees to the legal maximum amount,” the newsletter read. “Impact fees are a one-time charge collected when new construction is completed in the unincorporated areas of Manatee County. That will mean a 50 percent increase over the next four years. I led this effort to get the maximum increase supported by Florida Statue to ensure developers pay their fair share.”
The newsletter coincided with a blog post from the “Real Manatee County Conservatives,” an astroturf propaganda site that previous reporting by TBT showed to be linked to the same developers and consultants who worked hard to get Van Ostenbridge and the other puppets on the dais elected. Titled, Manatee County Commission Votes to Make Developers Pay Their Fair Share, it attempted to make the case, as the social media lead noted, that “Thanks to the leadership of Ray Turner and Kevin Van Ostenbridge, Manatee County developers are on the hook to offset their impact on infrastructure.”
As I explained in my last column, commissioners could have sought and received 100 percent of what they knew they had needed for years, but the development cabal would never let that happen. County Commissioner George Kruse (R-District 7) also did a deep dive into the reality of what occurred in his most recent Substack blog post.
Like Van Ostenbridge and Turner, Kruse is up for reelection this year. However, he has long since fallen out with the development crowd and is no longer receiving the funding or handling from developers or their minions the way he did when he first ran in 2020. He’s also not getting the free boost from the county PR machine. He’ll have a grassroots campaign account, and we’ll have the meager budget of an independent media outlet, both of which cannot begin to compare to the resources being used in an attempt to make voters believe that green is blue and black is white.
I suppose this is what we might call late-stage democracy in the post-Citizens United era. Special interests buy the elected officials and use them to gut the local government of honest brokers who are replaced with more bought and paid-for puppets in the bureaucracy. Then, the taxpayers get stuck paying for an in-house propaganda department that supplements the attack ads and other misleading material used to divide and conquer.
Let’s hope that enough people are seeing with their own eyes and hearing with their own ears. For, if we don’t course-correct in this year’s elections, the amount of irreversible damage being inflicted on this community may well prove insurmountable.
Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. His 2016 short story collection, Casting Shadows, was recently reissued and is available here.
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lib224
Please do stories on alternate candidates!
Sunday, March 3 Report this
jimandlope
Look up Diana Shoemaker candidate for Van Ostenbridge’s seat and you will find integrity as opposed to what we are stuck with now. Jim Tierney
Sunday, March 3 Report this
ruthlawler
Thank you Mitch. The BoCC propaganda machine is alive and well. I do resent that KVO and his minions are using tax payer paid for County employees and media resources to spew their propaganda. It makes it appear that they are credible and ethical, whereas just the OPPOSITE is the case. Let them use their developer $$, of which hundreds of thousands are already in their campaign coffers, NOT our tax supported resources. Just another unethical ploy. Another point is that when I attend the BoCC meetings in person, we can first hand observe their mostly utter disrespect of many citizens' comments. You do not see that on the video. Most Commissioners are on their phones or computers, talking among themselves, snickering and laughing, eating snacks, or in Satcher's case, just staring out into nothingness. I encourage citizens to come see for yourself, look them in the eye. Ruth Lawler
Sunday, March 3 Report this
David Daniels
Ruth, I agree completely with your comments. How much public $ was spent on the brand new commission chambers? How much public $ has gone into new promotional video technology and talent? The Board could easily direct staff to present a split screen during presentations. I have previously written and requested a split screen but didn't get a reply. Manatee School Board meetings have a split screen showing the presenter and the dais simultaneously. A Commissioner's behavior and body language is also part of the 2-way communication that occurs in public comments. It is a sacrifice to take the time and effort to speak. Being heard is an expectation. Listening attentively is a duty. Both sides should be recorded and preserved as part of the public record.
Sunday, March 3 Report this