NO MORE SILENCE — WE WANT ANSWERS
QUESTIONS FOR MAYOR KANT
1. Planning and Zoning
The number one financial drain in Fairhope is the Planning and Zoning Board.
They are appointed by the Mayor and are responsible for dozens of lawsuits since their appointment. They are also responsible for MILLIONS of dollars in lawsuit representation and settlements.
Mayor Kant uses the planning and zoning board as a vehicle for good ole boy deals and in doing so he violates our ordinances and our comprehensive plan.
No change in the P&Z will mean more lawsuits and good ole boy deals.
2. Lawsuits
The Triangle lawsuit cost a total of $12 million to SETTLE.
The Mayor, also the utility director, drained $3 million from the utility fund to pay down on the SETTLEMENT.
An additional bank loan of $5.25 million was secured to live up to the SETTLEMENT. The attorneys got $3 million and promised the court would insist on the Dyas family paying the City’s legal fees.
The Court ruled that THE CITY HAD to pay its own legal fees. Fairhope’s municipal insurance carrier then drops the insurance and sued the city and the Mayor, claiming fraud. Then the city hired the same attorneys that caused the lawsuit to represent the city against the carrier.
The biggest fraud in Fairhope is the Mayor continuously saying that the triangle lawsuit was the purchase of a Park. It was not.
It was a legal SETTLEMENT where the Mayor agreed to purchase the triangle.
We LOST.
The condition of the SETTLEMENT was that the city MUST purchase the property in order to comply with the legal SETTLEMENT. The second, of many lies is that we are going to build a one million dollar PARK with an Archery Range on a 12 million dollar piece of property.
3. Sewerage System
The Sewer System just had a $10 million dollar upgrade that was described as a band aid.
The plant still sits close to the bay with a discharge line into the bay that it uses to dump processed sewage during overflows from heavy rains. Instead of the band aid we could have spent $30 million on a new facility located away from the Bay, a facility more centrally located and with no regular discharges in the Bay.
This would have been an excellent BP grant request for the City of Fairhope. Instead, it’s an opportunity lost. Currently Fairhope has approved multiple subdivisions and the Fly Creek Apartments, which is in court, this will overload the present system and we will be discussing again upgrades or a new sewer plant, after spending 10 million?
4. A “World Class Soccer Complex”
The soccer field complex off Manley Road started out at $2 million.
We are now approaching $6 million for one sport. The estimated maintenance has not been discussed nor the water necessary for the fields. It will take at least 2 employees working full time or more. The Water needed is another problem the City did not address before construction. In fact, the original contract did not call for bleachers, bathrooms or concession stands. This is not planning. The Mayor now wishes the Single Tax and the Soccer club to bail him out. This project is far from over and the end financial status will be self evident. It will not be a “WORLD CLASS" facility.
5. The Fairhope Library
The library has had major problems since its construction and the Mayor has kicked the can down the road by never fully repairing the building.
Now we face $500,000 in repairs that should have been completed at construction.
This is micro management and poor planning. The City should have never accepted the certificate of occupation until all the construction issues were addressed.
6. The Fairhope Pier
The Pier restaurant and Marina was leased as a good ole boy deal at $400.00 a month.
That’s right, four hundred dollars a month for a restaurant and Marina.
Does that sound right?
Conditions of the lease call for a 3% of gross sales, if greater than $400.00 and 25% of Marina rentals.
How is that being accounted for?
7. Geese Killings
The Mayor ordered the execution of the Geese at the Seaside Park and Quail Creek Golf Course and then denied he did anything.
What many people do not know is that the geese at the Bay were sacrificed for golf.
That’s right golf.
The geese at quail creek golf course were doing their business all over the golf course which got poop on the golf balls. No one wants to play golf with poop on their balls, so off with their heads.
The Mayor blamed the geese at the bay for pollution, actually it was our own sewer system, this resulted in the execution of over a 100 geese.
8. Mayor/Utilities Head
The Mayor is double dipping; he gets paid as a Mayor and as Utility director and has 30 years as an employee which gives him a 100% pension. Vote him OUT and let him enjoy his pension. We must have change; current policies will negatively affect YOUR quality of life.
9. Committee Games
The Mayor eliminated the Finance Committee, the Tree Committee and Environmental Committee at the beginning of this last term. Committees are toothless. The Mayor has micromanaged every department and every city checkbook without any oversight or finance committee.
He uses the utility fund to finance lawsuits, 3 million on the triangle lawsuit.
What about other accounts such as employee pension fund??
10.
The city has “sealed” lawsuits that the citizens of the community have no idea of settlement, fees or why it was sealed. There is NEVER any explanation by the Mayor as to any details of any lawsuit, 90% of lawsuits are the results of Planning and Zoning.
11. Fixing the Elections???
In the document titled “OBSERVATIONS OF FAIRHOPE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS-9/11/2012,” this first hand account supports previous allegations of VOTER FRAUD.
These OBSERVATIONS are not allegations they were witnessed by a Fairhope certified poll watcher, who is an attorney. The observations support multiple other complaints however those complaints were allegations, now we have reason to believe VOTER FRAUD existed.
These details have been forwarded to the Sec. of State Elections Division. We are asking for strict oversight of this election.
12. Supporting Schools
The Mayor was originally opposed to giving money to the schools; his explanation, to council at the time, was that if you started giving them money then the city would be expected to do so each year.
The Mayor uses the schools as a political issue. He will flip flop on education depending only on the political position at that time. Fairhope has spent $100,000 on studies and exhausted countless hours for an Independent School System, all to no avail. Cooperation with the Baldwin County School System is strained yet we have an excellent schools and teachers.
The teachers need to unite and vote Mayor Kant out. A new and cooperative approach needs to be established void of municipal politics. In the last 4 years under Mayor Kant, Fairhope has spent 20 MILLION dollars on lawsuits and parks, your tax dollars. This year Fairhope gave the schools $294,000? We do not have an education problem, we do not have a teacher problem, we have a Mayor problem.
13. Travel Questions
The Mayor has been traveling out of State with city employee Sherry Sullivan and has not offered any explanation as to why she would attend meetings out of state conferences or award ceremonies involving city business, such as the utilities. No explanation as to why the travel expenses are paid by the city. It has been rumored that Sherry has been tapped for Mayor in 2020. A Mayor in training on our dime, selected by the Mayor not the people, the Mayor refuses to comment. The Mayor has offered no explanation allowing rumors among employees and citizens to fester…SILENCE
14. A Nuisance
The Mayor has refused to adopt a nuisance ordinance which has led to citizens in the community suing one another when a simple ordinance would give the city the ability to settle such issues, such as Tamara’s backyard barbecue. We do have an ordinance against noise and crack??
15. Tattooed
The Mayor made a huge stink about the tattoo parlor. He said people with tattoos are “white trash.” The blowback was so powerful the mayor had to eat his words and the tattoo parlor was given a license. Kevin Black made Mayor Kant look foolish and has proven that a tattoo parlor can coexist in the downtown business district. Predictions by the mayor that the tattoo business would bring undesirables to downtown and crime would increase all have proven false and totally unfounded.
16. Ethics
The Mayor has continued, as well as the council, to do business with elected officials. Senator Pittman has held the emergency management debris removal contract while representing the same constituents. This is by definition a violation of state ethics laws. Common sense not ethics should tell you that doing business with an elected official, who will personally be financially rewarded, or his company, is ignorant. This is a good ole boy deal that has spanned Mayor Kant’s career.
The Mayor, the City Of Fairhope and Senator Tripp Pittman have had a BP grant Fraud complaint filed against them for the BP Boom Grant funds. A subsequent FBI investigation and grand Jury forwarded the complaint to Alabama Attorney General, White Collar Crime Division Headed by Special Prosecutor Matt Hart, who just convicted the Speaker of the House. Mayor Kant and Sen. Pittman are as guilty as Mr. Hubbard.
Mayor Kant and Senator Pittman say they have been EXONERATED by the Ethics Commission, they are lyin! The letter does not exist. Ask them to produce evidence of their claim. They are lying and cannot produce any evidence at all that they have been exonerated, quite the contrary.
17. Anchors Away
Mayor Kant the city of Fairhope and Senator Pittman were to recover all the Boom, rope and anchors from the bay as per the grant. They cut the ropes to the anchors and left everything in the Bay; hundreds of anchors were left in the bay along with hundreds of feet of rope. In spite of recovered anchors, they still deny the obvious and continue to lie to the general public.
18. Fly Creek
The Publix projected filled Fly Creek with mud, flooded the wetlands, cut down all the trees, eliminated buffers and graded away right of ways. This resulted in a lawsuit that they lost. This good ole boy deal with Arthur Corte, a contributor of his campaign, costs the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.
19. Fire Station on a Dead End Road
The Mayor located a Fire station on Parker road a dead end, to accommodate Mr. Corte second phase of the project, Fly Creek Apartments. This cost the city $500.000. A lift station was also built and located for an easy hookup for the Apartments, another three or four hundred thousand dollars. All this was done while misleading the public and keeping the Apartments a secret. The previous City Council and Mayor Kant promised that no apartments would be built on the site. They Lied.
20. Fly Creek Apartments
The recent approval of Mr. Corte’s Fly Creek Apartments with full support of the Mayor was the epitome of fraud and corruption. A lawsuit has been filed and has temporally halted the project. The Mayors betrayal of the public was front and center and clear as a bell. He supports the developer over the best interests of the public and environment.
IF TIM KANT IS RE-ELECTED HE WILL IGNORE THE COMMUNITY AND ALLOWS THE APARTMENTS TO PROCEED.
IF MAYOR KANT LOSES IT IS HIGHLY LIKELY THE PROJECT WILL BE DEAD, AND THE COMMUNITY WINS. YOUR CHOICE.
21. $35k for Football
The Mayor supported Mr. Angus Cooper’s request for $35,000 dollar donation to the Senior Bowl, in return, the football team will cross the bay and use Fairhope’s Football field for a two hour practice and short meet and greet.
In addition to the 35 thousand the Mayor provided police, cleanup maintenance and all utilities, FREE. The total price for Fairhope to host the event came to approximately 50,000 dollars, or 25 thousand an hour. The event was during school hours and kids that wanted to attend had to be checked out of school. The players left immediately after the event back to Mobile for lunch? They did not spend a dime in Fairhope. Another event that week was Mr. Cooper’s fundraiser for Mayor Kant?????????? What a deal!
For the Mayor.
22.
The Mayor has always had a close relationship with the fire department. His father-in-law, Tom Odom, is the Fire Marshal. Fairhope supports the fire department with hundreds of thousands of dollars for support, yet we have no say in how they conduct business.
Mr. Kant borrowed $50,000 from the fire dept. and another $50,000 from a city employee. He invested the money in an investment co. he owned. He lost the whole $100,000 and has never paid the fire department back. The previous city councils never broached the issue and the $50,000 of donations by citizens and the city vanished— without a word.
This is a sample of ISSUES that the Mayor has not addressed or continues to fabricate his own explanation regardless of the facts.
PLEASE ATTEND YOUR FAIRHOPES FUTURE IS AT STAKE Fairhope Candidate Forum Press Release
Fairhope First and WABF Radio will present a Fairhope Candidate Forum on Thursday August 18 at the Fairhope Civic Center. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. There will be an informal candidate Meet & Greet, followed by the forum on stage at 6:00 p.m.
Mayoral and City Council candidates will deliver their opening statements in four minutes or less, followed by a question/answer session. General questions may be written down and submitted by the public for consideration, during the meet & greet period.
If you cannot attend, the City of Fairhope will stream the forum live on their website, and WABF 1220 AM will broadcast it live on the radio. The event is free and open to the public.
PLEASE VOTE AUG 23 FAIRHOPE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS BRING A FRIEND OR NEIGHBOR, SPREAD THE WORD. IT IS A PRIVILEGE TO VOTE, DON’T WASTE THE OPPORTUNITY