The quartet of free spending Fernandina Beach City Commissioners (Tim Poynter, Genece Minshew, Joyce Tuten and James Antun) not satisfied with milking city residents for wildly unpopular parking fees and questionable impact fees, have hit new lows.
Their arrogance and incompetence know no boundaries. In a nutshell here’s what they’re up to now:
- Making taxpayers pay to prevent commissioners from picking their pockets.
- Making taxpayers buy them a new and bigger place to plot their future taxpayer shakedowns.
They’re telling residents who are suing them for taking their money for the parking fiasco, that those same residents must now pay to defend a pair of the Commissioners who are spending their cash for something residents made clear they do not want.
Two Commissioners, Tim Poynter and Genece Minshew, have filed suit in Nassau County Circuit Court seeking to stop the certification of recall petitions against them. In other words, the city is countersuing the recall (taxpayer) group, which want the duo recalled for their misguided parking meter fiasco. And they’re sticking the taxpayer with the bill. It’s like making his duped investors pay for Bernie Madoff’s defense.
They also need a new place to plot future capers, so they stuck the same taxpayers with a $2.2 million tab to buy a site to build a new City Hall instead of utilizing an existing non-tax-paying city site or facility. This gang of four miscreants determined they need larger digs to plot future “screw the taxpayer” schemes, so they screwed the taxpayers into buying them one.
How dim and brazen are these four Commissioners? Here’s an example. Commissioner Joyce Tuten, publicly defended the purchase of an old soon to be demolished warehouse for a new city hall saying: “I think it’s a great buy, the value of that property is not going down.”
To my knowledge the city has never sold a nonperforming real estate asset. It just buys more, plucking them off the tax rolls. In the future if there was another municipality out there in the market for a city hall how would that sale work Commissioner Tuten? “City Hall for sale! No deliveries. Must pick up and provide own transportation.”
Commissioner Poynter agrees with Tuten as he said: “The city needs to hold and control properties. When that property goes away it’s gone forever.”
Instead of addressing or fixing their constituents’ concerns these four gaslight them by pretending the problems don’t exist, poohpoohing them, making up outlandish nonsense, and countersuing.
I have yet to speak to a single Fernandina business owner or operator who favors the paid parking scheme. Every single one I’ve spoken to tells me he or she opposes it.
Why don’t they speak out publicly? “Simple,” said a business owner, who wants to remain anonymous, “The city retaliates.”
Besides city staffers and the four commissioners, who out there favors a new city hall?
The lone Commissioner who consistently opposed the paid parking scheme and the city hall purchase has been Darron Ayscue, who is as popular in these current commission chambers as Dylan Mulvaney at a fraternity kegger.
It’s past time to get Tallahassee involved. Something hereabouts doesn’t smell right.
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“Was It Something We Said”? While Democrat governors in California, Illinois and New York, are in free spending frenzies and their populaces are fleeing, many to Florida. The Sunshine State’s economy has been booming with those fed up being fleeced in Democrat-run states..
So, what do Democrat governors like New York’s Kathy Hochul do? Instead of fixing the problems she shamelessly and naïvely begs former New Yorkers to return and pay her state’s sky-high tax rates instead of the considerably lower ones they pay in Florida.
Not long ago this clueless nitwit told the same people to “hop on a bus and get out. Go to Palm Beach,” she barked. And they did. Now she’s begging them to come back. They won’t. She’s running a haywire marketing campaign advertising: “Why pay less for better products in a cleaner, warmer, safer environment?”
According to the latest economic outlook forecast through 2035 from Florida TaxWatch, a report on the third quarter of 2025 found that Florida’s economy reached $1.85 trillion in GDP, making it the top state in the nation for economic growth. Take THAT New York.
“Overall, Florida’s economy is now set to return to pre-pandemic growth rates over the next five years, after experiencing high economic growth in the past three years,” Florida TaxWatch President and CEO Jeff Kottkamp said.
The report projects that Florida’s GDP growth rate in 2026 will be 2.7%, but estimates that it will drop to 1.9% by 2035. Those numbers, the report notes, also suggest that inflation may decrease slightly in the coming years.
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Watch What He Does, Not What He Says: Experts I’ve read say to ignore what President Trump says about negotiating with Iran. Who’s left to talk to? And didn’t Trump say the same things just a few days before he snatched Maduro out of Venezuela?
Trump is determined to put an end to the Iran terror regime, and it’ll happen when least expected. Trump acts when it’s least expected and Iran has never been weaker.
Trump is poised to change history, and it doesn’t involve some phony deal with a lying group of Iranian terrorists on nukes. He is not Obama or Biden.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the mullahs have already moved billions out of Iran, acting like they plan to flee. Media reports say that the ayatollah’s son, or what’s left of him, has accumulated a sizable real estate portfolio in London, so they have sizable wealth when they hit the bricks. The UK should seize those assets the minute that terrorist family arrives.
Experts (not Democrats) say Trump has no illusions about the Iranians and he is not going to sign a fake nuclear deal. Iran is bankrupt, its military in shambles, and the economy and infrastructure are collapsing and there is no way the mullahs can fix it. Trump is buying time.
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Speaking Of Broken Things: Chuck Schumer and his motley crew of anti-American Democrats are once again making fools of themselves. Their refusal to fund TSA and FEMA will backfire bigtime this November.
How can any sane American who purchased an airline ticket the past few weeks even consider voting for Democrats who created the airport chaos. Anyone who missed granny’s funeral, their son’s or daughter’s wedding, a job interview or any other important event won’t blame Republicans. Airport DHS agents, who are working without pay, probably won’t be voting for more of the same in November.
Despite media propagandists most voters are in favor of ICE arresting criminal aliens and for paying government workers to keep us safe.
Dave, this is not an April Fool’s joke…
Wednesday (April 1st); there will be what can only be called a “Double Moon” event.
At 6:24 PM, Artemis II lifts off from just down the road and I’m sure your readers know where to go to see launches.
The astronauts are going to “the Dark Side of the Moon”.
An hour later (7:37 PM) , Mother Nature will honor our astronauts by raising the full moon over Fernandina Beach. Cue up the Pink Floyd tracks…
And for our Jewish friends, turn your back on the full moon rising and watch for the sunset over the marsh as Passover begins at sunset (7:44 locally).
I have a small, but loyal Full Moon group each month at the boat ramp in Pirates Wood subdivision (Over the Bridge).
The moon rising over the papermills is a site to be seen…
Bring gnat spray!
All evil needs to triumph is for good men to say and do nothing.
Dave, if you think something doesn’t smell right downtown, go to the airport and take a whiff!
Why would the city of Fernandina Beach be opposed to generating revenue from flight schools operating their commercial businesses from other airports?
Years ago, the city went through a long and costly dispute with McGill Aviation, the former airport operator. That case taught the city several important lessons: everything must be clearly documented, the FAA requires fair and consistent treatment of all operators, and the city must be able to justify any fees or rules it puts in place.
The city lost the ten-year battle as the court ruled in favor of McGill Aviation. Those lessons matter today because Jacksonville-based flight schools are using our airport heavily for training, but they contribute nothing to the cost of maintaining the runways and systems they rely on. The city can address this, but it must do so carefully and in a way that follows FAA rules.
Here are some steps the city can take:
• Exempt Based Aircraft Owners, who already pay and contribute
• Charge reasonable landing fees for all aircraft that are monitored and billed by a third party provider that uses an optical system. Unlike ADSB-B, these systems are allowed and being installed now in cities like Kissimmee, Tallahassee and several others.
• Establish clear training-flight procedures
These actions are fair, legal, and commonly used at other airports facing similar issues. The goal is simple: ensure that outside schools pay their fair share and that the airport is managed responsibly for both residents and the city.