Ray Emmons said it best...people don't like it when you pull the skunk's tail.

Scientology is the skunk that politicians in Clearwater want you to avoid but, tonight, I pulled hard on that tail.

I attended the first of four meetings in Clearwater about the new downtown development proposal. This one was held at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in the predominantly black community of Greenwood. There were about sixty people in attendance. More than half of them were city officials from the mayor to city council members to people from various development offices.

Also in attendance were Scientologists Pat Jones and Mary Story and a handful of public Scientologists, leaving perhaps a dozen or so unbiased civilians.

Interim City Manager Bill Horne introduced the man in charge of selling the plan who walked us through a Windows PowerPoint presentation projected onto a portable screen. The plan was a revamped version of last year's proposal, scaled down and without the onus of leasing the city's land for 99 years to out-of-town developers.

The main details remained very similar, with talk of residential housing being a key factor. Apartments and condos for various income levels were proposed, some of them wrapping around parking structures to disguise the urban blight.

Cleveland Street was part of the first phase of development. The sidewalks would be broadened. Trees would be planted, decorative benches would dot the landscape. Traffic would be re-routed as proposed last year, away from downtown and onto one specific road closer to the Fort Harrison.

No businesses were committed to moving in although later, Bill Horne said one major grocery store was considering coming into the adjacent area. It was all fairly nebulous because they didn't have a lot of details worked out. This time it seemed that the area would be beautified in the hopes that it would attract businesses.

When the presentation was over, they opened the floor for questions. A man behind me was the first to speak and he asked the question I kept pondering as I watched the presentation. Where would people park? Last year, they had discussed specific places where parking would be added. This year they didn't.

The answer was a little troubling as the planner said that they didn't think it would be a major problem. He said he was in a high building downtown today and looked down at the rooftops of the two parking structures already in existence. He said he saw many open spaces on the top floors of the structure. He felt the city could handle it the added traffic.

This seemed very reckless to me and I followed up with my own question about parking. I told them that I worked downtown and the parking structure next to our building has a waiting list for people to buy monthly passes...and this is with largely empty businesses and no one downtown. It was foolhardy not to give this serious consideration, I suggested.

As long as I had the handheld wireless mic in my possession I followed up with another parking question. I asked if the city was going ahead with their proposed partnership with Scientology in constructing a parking structure next to the Super Power building?

I added that I was troubled by the quote Bill Horne gave to the St. Pete Times where he said the joint venture was a good idea and "it's time to forget the past."

"To forget the past is never a good idea," I said. "Especially when it comes to Scientology. But let's not talk about the past. Let's talk about the present. Right now, Scientology's president, Heber Jentzsch, is a fugitive from justice in Spain...France this past week passed a landmark law on "Mental Manipulation" largely to help the victims of Scientology...and in Germany, Scientology is still considered a dangerous paramilitary organization."

Well, this pulling of the skunk's tail did not go over well with this crowd at all since it was 80-90% people in bed with Scientology or cult members themselves. One man behind me shouted "German laws have nothing to do with Clearwater...take the mic away from him!"

Well, I had said all I needed to say so I said "I'll give you the mic" and handed it back to the woman working the crowd.

Bill Horne leapt to his feet and went over to the man conducting the presentation and put his arm around the man's shoulder. "Let me give you a hug. This is not about politics. We can't get anywhere fighting with one another. We all have to work together to make this work," Horne said.

With that they moved on without answering the question of whether there would be a joint Clearwater/ Scientology parking structure. Looking back at Pat Jones and Mary Story they were chortling with glee at what they perceived to be a "win."

More questions were raised on various issues and then we were told that unlike last year, the citizens wouldn't be voting on this plan. Since it didn't include public property they didn't have to put it to a vote. The meetings are just a chance for the city to take the pulse as it were and then do whatever they feel like doing.

After the meeting I went up to Bill Horne and shook his hand and told him I was largely in favor of the plan but they needed to seriously consider issues like parking and traffic. I told him I knew the city officials hated it when I pulled the skunk's tail but they need to seriously consider the consqequences of joining into a partnership with Scientology. I asked again if the joint venture was on or off and he told me nothing had been decided and it had to be advantageous for all parties concerned.

He reiterated the feeling that we all had to work together as one and we couldn't afford to be fighting each other. I asked about the "forget about the past" comment and he said that quote was taken out of context "as newspaper reporters do." He then said that they can't worry about what happened 30 years ago.

I said, "I'm not talking about 30 years ago. I'm talking about the fraud and decption and criminal activities that are going on today right inside the Fort Harrison. Everyday we interview people who have been defrauded out of tens of thousands and even millions of dollars. When the next raid of Scientology happens, and it will happen, only then will you see the scope of the illegal activities going on in your city."

Mr. Horne repeated his contention that we all have to get along and not fight and move forward.

I urged Mr. Horne to take the pulse of the city. I reminded him of the poll numbers from the newspaper published two days before last year's referendum.

67% of the people felt the development only favored Scientology and 100% of the people said they wouldn't come downtown even if it was redeveloped. Mr.

Horne said "If we put something down here they would come."

I asked him to conduct a few polls and find out people's true feelings on the matter but he wasn't interested. With that we called it a night.

Wow. You are so right, Mark. Clearwater is ignoring not only the problems of the Gabe Cazares era, but of the Rita Garvey era and the current mayor.

The reversal of opinion of Clearwater officials is, I believe, a direct result of Scientology lawsuits. They are afraid. As any logical person would be who didn't have sufficient outrage about the abuses of Scientology. At the very least, their outrage is being overwhelmed by their fear of a lawsuit. And not just any lawsuit, a lawsuit from an organization that knows they can intimidate even when they lose. It's a shame that they know the facts, but don't have outrage sufficient to let them do the right thing.

"We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers--and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine." - 1 Timothy 9-10 -- Rod Keller / rkeller@voicenet.com / Irresponsible Publisher / Black Hat #1 Expert of the Toilet / CWPD Mouthpiece / Shelly Thompson in Drag The Lerma Apologist / Merchant of Chaos / Vision of Destruction Bigot of Mystery / OSA Patsy / Quasi-Scieno / Mental Bully / Killer Rod

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