Sembler construction projects

12-06-05 Straight founder Mel Sembler lobbies Republican commissioners and wins another rezoning request--this one in Seminole Our STORY perm link ....RELATED STORIES: Sembler has a history of getting elected officials to vote his way against the advice of their own staffs Our STORY Sembler contributions to local elected officials Our STORY

12-13-05 Lingering ethical issues over Sembler's rezoning request in Seminole Our STORY perm link

updated: 12-24-05 A persistent foul odor: Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves shopping center This project has smelled from the beginning and now it is learned that Sembler has donated at least $5000 to state Representative Randy Johnson's (R-Celebration) campaign on Aug. 11, 2005.

Winter Garden, Florida is about six miles from Orlando. When Sembler Company tried to build a $100 million open air shopping mall the citizens who live out there formed an organization to stop it. See www.stopfowler.com.

There came a point when there was a vacancy on the city commission and it looked like a 2 - 2 tie for and against Sembler's proposal. It was up to the governor to select the tiebreaker. The governor, Jeb Bush, is in Mel Sembler's pockets. In fact Jeb Bush, his wife Columba, and his Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings are on the advisory board for Mel Sembler's charity the Drug Free America Foundation. DFAF is an unindicted criminal activity back when it operated under the name of Straight, Inc. Straight was guilty of all sorts of crimes from criminal child abuse and extortion to fraud. It has left a trail of over 40 suicides by former clients.

The governor tried to appoint a good Republican to the Winter Garden commission but it was learned that this man had lied on his application about being a high school graduate. Sembler opened a web page to let local residents sound off, but the group Stop Fowler reported that some of the individuals who wrote in appeared to be nonexistent!

In 2005, state Representative Randy Johnson (R-Celebration) introduced an Infrastructure Funding Bill for roads, schools and water facilities authorizing funds of $8.25 billion over 10 years. As a compromise for the bill the Florida Senate dropped its insistence on letting county commissioners increase taxes for new roads and schools without referendums, and accepted the House's insistence to bar the state Department of Community Affairs from reviewing land-use changes for projects on rural areas less than 20 acres. As part of the bill developers would have to pay a share on development costs for projects from which they will benefit. When the Johnson Bill passed on May 6, 2005 Rep. Johnson said, "People are going to see mass infusion of infrastructure repair and widening on their roads.'' See Smart Growth Online. [In 1984 a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia found that Straight had falsely imprisoned Fred Collins and ordered Straight to pay him $220,000. Shortly there after Sembler's neighbor Rep. Robert Melby introduced legislation that would allow parents to order their kids into Straight with the force of a court order.]

Thanks to the Johnson Bill Sembler Company had to pay its share of $9 million to widen State Road 50 for his Fowler Mall. Almost immediately Sembler came up with his $ 9 million. Now we have learned that on Aug. 11, 2005, over three months after the passage of the Johnson Bill, Sembler made ten $500 contributions to Johnson's reelection from the following organizations:

All of these organizations are tied to 5858 Central Ave. in St. Petersburg, Fl. where Sembler is headquartered. For example, Mel Sembler's son Greg is president of TSCPR WG Partnership # 1 and TSCPR WG Partnership # 2, and Sembler CEO Craig Sher is the registered agent for Big Four Investments. Why would Sembler support someone who just cost him $ 9 million. Or did he?

12-28-05 SHOP IN THE BOX: Sembler's Gas Light Mall opposed in Atlanta link

The people don't want the center. It will cost $55 million to widen the road. Sembler will build a $100 million shopping center and the people will have to come up with $46 million. The Johnson Bill will provide billions for highway construction. Already the state department of transportation made available about $28 million for right-of-way acquisition along S.R. 50. The state highway commission oversees the department of transportation and Sembler's neighbor James W. Holton chairs the commission. Holton is also on the board of directors of Sembler's DFAF.

The taxpayers will have to pay for the new police officers required to patrol his mall. They will have to find $ 900K for a fire truck with a ladder tall enough to reach the mall's tall buildings. Sembler will levy CDD bonds that homeowners will have to cover to provide for additional sewage and water pipes.

Mel Sembler is incorrigible. Short of bringing up his bizarre civil suit to reclaim his discarded penis pump, it's next to impossible to embarrass the man. But you can embarrass those that sell you out for his money. You can speak to them when you run into them at a restaurant. You can vote to kick them out of office. Sembler is going to make his millions. But he needs to leave a trail of "has been" politicians the same as he has led a trail of dead bodies from Straight, to show future politicians there will be a price paid for selling out for money.

12-29-05 Sembler plan for Safety Harbor, FL. will interfere with eagles' nest story

12-22-05 Sembler's BayWalk demonstration in St. Petersburg, Florida (Pinellas County) 08/13/05. The protest included members from St. Pete for Peace, St. Pete Food Not Bombs, the Pinellas Progressives, the Uhurus, the African People's Solidarity Party, the Green Party, the folks from Democracy for America, the Save America Coalition and Veterans for Peace.

The Sembler name has become a liability for Sembler Company. Michael Moore's film Farenheit 9/11 is an attendance record setter for documentaries. The film examines the Bush administration's failure to pursue the Saudi connection after 9/11 noting that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis and Saudi money had funded Al Qaeda. It questions Bush's "leap" into Iraq. Farenheit 9/11 was the number 1 box office hit for the week of June 26 - 27, 2004. Within a week it was showing or planned to be showed in four Hillsborough County theaters, plus one in Oldsmar and one in Sarasota County. [Sembler Company is based in Pinellas County, Florida and these are neighboring counties.] Pinellas County Parkside Theater 16 in Pinellas Park and Beach Theatre in St. Pete Beach had plans to show it. But Baywalk 20, the theater in Sembler's Baywalk Shopping Center in St. Petersburg, was not showing it. All Americans are mad as hell about the 9/11 terror attacks. Everybody wants justice done and everybody wants protection from future attacks. But many are suspicious of the Bush family ties to Saudi oil and to Dick Cheney's former ties to Haliburton that is making billions off the Iraqi War. Many are questioning why so many Americans are dying in Iraq. They are curious about the Bush lie to push the country into war involving Iraq supposedly buying uranium from Niger and the story unfolding out of the US embassy in Italy under Mel Sembler's watch. Now Mel Sembler is in charge of raising the defense fund for Scooter Libby. Is Sembler covering his own butt? Many of Mel Sembler's neighbors look at him with disdain as the quintessential Republican businessman, buying politicians, harming the environment, robbing the public treasury, getting Americans killed while he basks in luxury. The local politicians (who are in are in Sembler's pockets) once tried to sell the public sidewalks around BayWalk to Sembler so he could keep protesters away, but that drew the ACLU into the foray. For now Sembler is using temporary bicycle racks to coral the protesters.

Uhurus call Sembler a racist

Uhuru protest Sembler supermarket deal in Midtown