Historic Lafayette Park--LPNA Vote Timeline Issue, Tallahassee, Florida

A Timeline of the Lafayette Park Neighborhood Association Historical Calamity Episode Voting Process, with comments and editorial opinion, based upon available documents, without the assistance or cooperation of the Lafayette Park Neighborhood Association.

"As Crooked As It Gets....."


DATE	EVENT	Comments	Supporting documents-- (click to view or for larger explanation)
1985	Original Lafayette Park Historic Survey (See below, at 15 July 2008, for "new " neighborhood definition map, with approximately 100 fewer properties removed, per the highlighted sections on this map)	Includes west side of Gadsden Street and North side of Sixth Avenue, and Marion Avenue. Do you wonder what happened here? Why were these boundaries of an old, well-established neighborhood later redefined? If LPNA released all the ballots, the answer would be clear, I'm sure...they probably didn't like the percentage of votes saying NO to their plan to rezone the neighborhood with restrictive covenants. Click on the blue link under the map for a larger version.	1985 Boundary Map of Lafayette Park Neighborhood--Large version
Feb. 2005	Completion of addition at 502 Beard Street	How the "ball got rolling" for Historical Designation.... This house, with it's huge rear plywood-box addition, became a lightning rod for all the fears about uncontrolled change in the neighborhood. However, under the heading of "Be careful what you ask for, because you might get it...", this house was later determined to have had a "proper" historic neighborhood addition, as it made no attempt to match the new to the old, which is all the current rage in historic preservation circles, as the "old" is not disfigured, diluted, damaged, or disguised. Thus, so-called historic preservation advocates throughout the neighborhood had to eat their words and swallow their pride and lie through their teeth and say, "That is exactly what we want." Ha ha!! Fortunately, they did not get their way--which is the ability to control others' choices to make them match their own.	502 Beard Street house, with huge 2-story "ugly" addition in back--:Larger Image
July 2005	LPNA Newsletter: In reaction to the addition at 502 Beard Street, (item above), historical designation is promoted for the first time by LPNA. It is the cover story on the newsletter for July 2005. Newsletter, unfortunately, provides opposite information from what the rezoning actually does. It lists 3 items which their version of "historic preservation designation" will do, and each is flat wrong. This is either through ignorance or mis-information campaign, as the realities of the rezoning are quite harsh. Newsletters are delivered only to neighborhood residences, not mailed out, so non-resident property owners are blindsided when they finally learn of the plans through newspaper notices three years later.	1. Additions to buildings and residences may notbe designed to be "consistent" with original design., per true historical designation guidelines. The object being to clearly distinguish the old from the new. (and with Historical Preservation Overlay rezoning, the guidelines become mandatory, costly, retroactive, restrictive covenants) This phrasing in the newsletter claiming such "consistency" is rooted in the fear of such items, above, as at 502 Beard Street. They still have a lot to learn, and are in the ignorant, "reaction" stage of response to 502 Beard Street addition. 2. Painting of previously unpainted masonry is prohibited (not "reviewed", as claimed). They're trying to soft-pedal the restrictions that will be put in place if the historic controls are adopted. 3. Review process requires professionally-prepared documentation, public ARB (Architectural Review Board) meeting advertising, public meetings, follow-up public meetings for changes required by the first ARB meetings. Allow six months for design, preparation and approval process for a modestly small project and a lot of $$. "ARB" means ARBitrary, in actual practice, as national guidelines leave much to local interpretation and adaptation to individual circumstances, and local codes don't iron out the problems....it's a real throw of the dice when you go to an ARB meeting for any kind of review.	LPNA Newsletter, July 2005
26 July 2005	Neighborhood Meeting RE: Historic District	This notice was delivered only to neighborhood residents--property owners not living in neighborhood were not informed in any way.	LPNA Notice of Meetings
Sept 2005 to April 2006	LPNA Newsletters and "first" vote (survey?): information needed. Who has copies they will share? A full record of every step would be helpful.	What we need: Summary of the meetings--with any formal decisions, mailing list of the first ballot (or "Survey"?), copies and results of the first ballot (or survey), newsletters...please help us fill in the gaps of the record. All activities of the LPNA left out non-resident property owners, except their effort to obtain and exercise control over their properties.	Records requested--got anything? Please help us uncover the truth. When did the "surveys" start being called "ballots"? After they were done?
5 May 2006	Final Ballot Form provided by LPNA--only to homesteaded property owners.	One resident's actual ballot shown--note his personal comments as to lack of information necessary to make an intelligent vote..... Also note wording of ballot: "pursue becoming an historic preservation district" does not say anything at all about rezoning with an historic preservation overlay, which means retroactive restrictive covenants being applied to every piece of property. "Historic preservation district" is the phrasing used throughout the process for registration (only) as an historic district, with cute signs, plaques on old houses, and registration with the National Register. This is a continuation of the soft-pedaling of the real facts and reality of historical control.	LPNA "final" survey ballot, as sent LPNA "final" survey ballot, highlighted
Sept 2006	LPNA Newsletter includes mention of first "ballot", with mention of 567 property owners, presumably including the portions of the neighborhood later "thrown out"--see boundary map listed at "1985", above.	Newsletters are delivered only to residents living in neighborhood and tenants--whoever happens to be at the door when the newsletter is stuck there. Claim of 300 respondents to 567 ballots mailed. Still, property owners not residing in neighborhood did not receive ballots, surveys or notification of any kind. Also, multiple property owners were denied votes for all but their homesteaded property (See Bob Davis letter 1-Sept-2008, below) Were ballot/survey recipients perhaps non-invested tenants? What were response totals? What was total of "yes" responses to become registered as a historic district? (Please see editor's May 27, 2009 update letter at bottom of timeline...) Do you, like most, respond differently to a "survey" as opposed to a binding "ballot", which can affect your property rights forever? There is a good reason that the LPNA has kept all the ballots secret...if they were released, the answers to a lot of questions would be evident.	LPNA Newsletter, September 2006
Dec. 2006	LPNA Newsletter	Reference, again, to the soon-to-be-discarded "original 1985 architectural survey" of neighborhood. (see 1985 map, above) Too many "NO" votes on north and west sides, and Marion Avenue? Probably.	LPNA Newsletter, December 2006
April 2007	LPNA Newsletter	Not delivered to non-homesteaded property owners. Read language--- First mention of Historic overlay zoning, with no explanation or elaboration. Maybe they're pretending no one will notice the word "zoning".... SPECIAL NOTE: voting was based upon original 1985 historic survey, with 567 properties. See chart, at "1985", above. What happened to all the "NO " votes around the perimeter? They are not shown. Presumably, LPNA shaved the votes and area of survey off to create a false district with an altered percentage/ majority of "votes."	LPNA Newsletter, April 2007
Oct 2007	LPNA Newsletter Historic update story promises "posting" of Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation survey of evaluation for historic characteristics (presumably "contributing versus non-cntributing?")	Posting of neighborhood historic survey information never occurred. In fact, the survey never actually occurred, if you judge by the survey sheets provided with the final application. They were mostly blank forms filled out with one or two word answers in in two or three places on a two page form by a creative writing student working on a word processor without ever going outside to look at the houses. Sample survey sheets provided in separate HPO timeline, coming soon, with genuine ridiculous details for your enjoyment.	LPNA Newsletter, October 2007
Dec. 2007	LPNA Newsletter	No mention of historic survey....or historic designation.	LPNA Newsletter, December 2007
29 Feb 2008	Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation (Michael Wing) letter to Farr Miller:	Reports an inability to find the "balloting totals" for the LPNA ballots. Note the time period here: The NEW numbers for the ballots have not yet been made public (see below). The OLD numbers are getting kind of dusty. Maybe the ballot totals are not there to be found, because they haven't yet decided to shave off the North, West and East sides of the neighborhood....an action that will substantially alter the percentages they can come out with in public as a "mandate". This will coincide with their major redefinition of public interest in historic designation as being a public call for Historic Preservation Overlay Resoning. (HPO)	Letter from MIchael Wing, Executive Director of the Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation, February 29, 2008, to Ms. Farr Miller, indicating he has no idea where the ballots are
April 2008	LPNA Newsletter	No additional information. Reinforcement that process is for a "district", not rezoning.	LPNA Newsletter of April 2008 LPNA Newsletter of April 2008--Page 3
15July2008	NEW boundary map released with ARB public notice. Application complete and in hands of ARB. Notice of Public Hearing for ARB meeting to take place 6 August 2008	Poof! In one fell swoop, a lot of NO votes were probably discarded to improve the percentage of YES votes, and the East, West and North boundaries of Lafayette Park were pulled in, abandoning 100+/- properties. The ones on the West and North sides were really lucky they didn't have to put up with any more of this ordeal. East side (Marion Street) got pulled back in on a subsequent application which didn't even pretend to have support from the property owners being rezoned behind their backs.	Boundary Map included in ARB Public Notice which shows Re-defined Lafayette Park Boundaries ARB Public Notice of Meeting to Review Application Submitted by Lafayette Park Neighborhood Association & Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation
July 21, 2008	Bob Davis request to LPNA (Jim Pfost) for verification and record of authority to represent residents of entire enighborhood in application.	No reply received by Bob Davis from LPNA or Jim Pfost.	Bob Davis' email to LPNA (Jim Pfost) requesting documentation of where he assumed authority to represent whole neighborhood
30 July,2008	LPNA (Jim Pfost) letter to Mike Hines Re: ballot process used by LPNA	See item for Dec 11, 2009: By his own later, public admission, 30+% of Non-Homesteaded property owners were left out. In this letter, he claims all property owners were contacted, and claims privilege to prevent anyone from seeing the ballots or mailing list. (Please see editor's May 27, 2009 update letter at bottom of timeline...)	Letter: LPNA (Jim Pfost) to Mike Hines
5Aug, 2008	Jim Pfost (Pres of LPNA) certifies ballot totals as "True and Accurate"	A "true and accurate" rework of numbers with the "NO" votes thrown out along with a few streets, perhaps? See item for date Sept 2006 Newsletter, above. Suddenly, the 567 voting ballots becomes 478 ballots. Lessons from banana republic press' hot new bestseller: "Novice's Guide To Dictatorship And Crooked Elections" apparently being studied by LPNA board. Sadly, truth and integrity are no longer any part of LPNA process. This begins the public display of "anything goes" period, which was previously kept fairly low-key.	Jim Pfost's signed certification on survey totals that "ballot" was true and accurate votes and totals
6 Aug 2008	ARB meeting, Brokaw McDougal House	All hell breaks loose. Truth, Integrity of Process, Property Rights, Citizen Rights, and much, much more get sorely trampled.	See forthcoming HPO timeline chart for details. We're working to get it out as soon as possible.
1Sept, 2008 11 Sept 2008	Bob Davis letter to City Attorney Jim English re LPNA process and vote method Answered by Senior Assistant City Attorney Linda Hudson	This letter from Mr. Bob Davis helps clarify and substantiate the non-participation of non-homesteaded properties in the LPNA voting process...he was only allowed one vote for his home, and his other properties were left out of the voting process. Please see editor's May 27, 2009 update letter at bottom of timeline...) Answered by Senior Assistant City Attorney for the City of Tallahassee Linda Hudson--basically she said it was not a city concern what LPNA did with their votes...even though the city got "on board" and promoted the vote heavily as one of the city attorney's justification for overriding many objections to the process illegalities. This letter has substantial significance for the positions taken (and those not taken) and expressed by its author. It's worth reading and considering in detail for the insight into the application of legal arguments towards very selected portions of the city's code without looking at the whole. Take special note who was copied with the letter and who had no business being copied! See our future HPO timeline for discussion on the development of City's radically partisan attitude in this issue. We would appreciate feedback on this from our readers.	Bob Davis' letter of September 1, 2008 to city Attorney Jim English regarding the LPNA process and vote Senior Assistant City Attorney Linda Hudson's Reply to Mr. Bob Davis, September 11, 2008.
Dec 2008	LPNA Newsletter with History Preservation Update: Contains the NEW BALLOT NUMBER of ballots sent out: 475. Also mentions public reviews by Architectural Review Board.	Maybe if you repeat something often enough it will be accepted as true, LPNA? Secrecy and concealment dominate the process. So-called "Public Reviews by the Architectural Review Board" failed to have legal notifications sent to every property owner. Illegal applications with non-official substitute Owner Awareness forms and lack of legal standing by applicants accepted by ARB and City Attorney in rush to sweep problems under the rug and create rezoned historic District without approval of victimized property owners.	LPNA Newsletter December 2008
11 Dec, 2008	Jim Pfost publicly confirms that LPNA vote did not include any property owners other than homesteaded property owners (error report)	30%+ of property owners are not homesteaded. They own 110 parcels of the total of 475 parcels in the revised, re-defined boundary area. (Update-new information-May 27, 2009: See editor's letter at bottom of this timeline...)	LPNA public statement that only homesteaded property owners got to participate
January 2009	LPNA's newsletter: Lafayette Park Historic Preservation	Another published reaffirmation as truth of the funny numbers of votes in the LPNA ballot	Lafayette Park Historic Preservation Flyer
18 Feb 2009	City Commissioner Debbie Lightsey asks for LPNA votes and mailing list...	Finally! Commissioner Lightsey decides to look at what is being presented as facts. What will she be handed? Update: A personal review of the material in City Hall shows that Commissioner Lightsey received only the doctored version of the vote outcome: the votes from the revised-boundary area and no mailing list. The true votes and mailing list were apparently withheld.	LPNA email to deliver their ballots to Debbie Lightsey
19 Feb-2009	Letter to Tallahassee City Commisssion and Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Commission RE: LPNA inaccurate voting claims and voting information	Clear complaint that Planning Department Staff is giving too much credence and legitimacy to a so-called vote by LPNA which is secret for no responsible reason.	LPNA Vote Defects Letter To City Commission & Planning Commission

SOON	COMPLETE HPO TIMELINE	FULL EXPOSURE FROM BEGINNING TO END OF THE HPO DEBACLE	DOCUMENTS WILL INCLUDE EVERYTHING WE CAN FIND RELATING TO WHAT HAPPENED.

A Regrettable Error Discovered

In our story on the LPNA votes, I've made much of the fact that
non-homesteaded property owners were left entirely out of the process and
not allowed to vote in the survey held back in May of 2006.

On Tuesday, after the Memorial Day holiday, I was able to finally view the
ballots which LPNA has, to date, refused to divulge to anyone, with one
exception....City Commissioner Debbie Lightsey told the president of LPNA
to bring the ballots in for her to see, on February 18, and he complied...
...to the extent that only those ballots included in the "new" district were provided
and none of the ballots from the "thrown out" part of entire district or the ballot mailing list
was provided.

I learned of this delivery of the votes to Commissioner Lightsey through a
lucky search on a Florida Chapter 119 Public Records Request of the City of
Tallahassee, wherein one of the emails concerning the ballot delivery was
released in my request. It was subsequently determined that the copy of the
ballots provided to the City was, ipso facto, a Public Record. My request to
see them was honored.

In viewing the ballots I discovered something quite surprising! I had actually
voted in the survey conducted by LPNA! I did not recall it at all, after the
two and a half years which elapsed between the time the ballot arrived in
May 2006 and was sent back out, and the discovery in late 2008 that a
rezoning process had been initiated on my property in Lafayette Park.

Within a few weeks after my discovery of the re-zoning application, I was
informed directly, and vehemently, by LPNA President Jim Pfost that as a
non-homesteaded property owner I was not allowed to "vote." As I had
received no newsletters or meeting invitations nor any other information on
the process, I simply did not doubt that he told the truth and failed to recall a
piece of mail from years before.

In my anger over the outrageous acts by the Lafayette Park Neighborhood
Association, the Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation, the Architectural
Review Board and the Tallahassee City Attorney's office which accepted,
encouraged and processed two profoundly defective applications to rezone
my property and that of my neighbors without their advice and consent, the
incident of a non-binding survey so far in the past was lost.

The very tiny Lafayette Park Neighborhood Association has done a lot of
harm to all the neighborhood and property owners of Lafayette Park. The
articles in this website make that perfectly clear. But a portion of the record
needs to be set straight: non-homesteaded property owners were allowed to
vote in the survey. The survey is still terribly flawed by the subsequent
shaving of large areas from the neighborhood, by the mis-information
provided to residents concerning the outcome, by the secrecy still
surrounding the complete mailing of ballots, and much more. But I must put
down the club I used so handily--that of the pre-selection of allowable voters.
I regret the error. I hope it will not cause anyone to think that the LPNA is
any the better or more acceptable in their behavior than before the discovery
of the error--they are not.

Mark Daniel
May 27, 2009

WELCOME! An Online Newsletter of Proud Property Owners, dedicated to preserving our property rights and our neighborhood from the arbitrary dictates of others.	Newsletter Contact: TallyMark@Rocketmail.com June 1, 2009 1938: Superman Arrives to Save the World: Issue # 1 March & April photo theme: Doorways of Lafayette Park! Enjoy the pictures, chosen at random. Our next theme: we're working on it, in between breaking news.