Should have been in chicken and warm donuts!

Pave our roads, as promised!

Got to figure that Coletta got the word before things hit the fan. The guys to dumb to figure things out otherwise.

Ahhhh. Lies, Lies, and more Lies! The State needs to conduct a full investigation. I just read the statute, it is a clear misdemeanor (criminal) violation and it is by a Public Official. I'm sure if it were the Candidate, Coletta would muscle-in to have him disqualified from the race. Alonso receives 90% of his poor contributions from the residents and business owners out in the district. Not from the rich getting richer from the poor outside the area. Then, there is this? How can anyone compete? The worse part of the article is how arrogant he replies to the NDN Article by saying "Another contributor made the same mistake, and Coletta took the same actions. But Coletta’s going to let his opponent and others go looking for that one" Thats him, that's Coletta! That's Just Wrong and not what we need to see in the County Commission.

PIE on your FACE you are wrong, again.

That is not marals and ethics, that's Public Corruption.

His snub remarks won't help him either.

hey chickendog whats wrong with our limestone roads? hahaha Well mine WAS paved but now its more brittle than a senior with osteoporosis. Thanks Jim Coletta!

Vote the bumb out, vote all the bumbs out. Every district, every congressman, every elected official we have local, state, federal.

Clean house regardless of party. They are the problemsolvers that have gotten us in the mess we are in as a nation.

It is time to send a message to all poloticians.
We want people that represent we the people, not special interests.

Just my .02 cents on the matter.

Bob Alonso is good people.

Mr. Coletta, what did you say about the county e-mail scandal, in which people were terminated?

Ms. Hazel, thank you for bringing on the complaint. Many would have never noticed it. You did the right thing and only those who cannot accept the truth or deal in honesty will have a problem with it. We on the other hand salute your actions and we know that God will reward you for this. I was taken back by how many people who don't live in the district, or are from out of the county and in many cases the entire state contribute to Coletta's Campaign Fund, yet less than 30% are residents in his own district. Compared to Alonso who seems to have 90% contributions from the district residents and businesess only. Though very poor compared to Coletta's campiagn balance you have got to give Alonso credit for what he has accomplished with little money. I guess knocking on every door, talking to the people and meeting groups not only helps but also sends a strong message.

On behalf of the honest citizens in our district and those of us who work in the county THANK YOU!

smug !!!

Let's look at all of his mistakes and VOTE HIM OUT !!!!

Chickdog...did you watch as Commissioner Coletta fought to keep funding for the roads??? I did. He fought the good fight any number of times. He got the funding but as budgets were cut this funding was vacated by the Commission!

He can't pave the roads himself and if the rest of the Commission does not support this measure, then it is NOT Commissioner Coletta you need to complain about. Go after Coyle, Halas, and the others.

Commissioner Coletta is not a bad person, he is not perfect, but he is someone who really does care about his district. I believe that he would give you the shirt off your back.
Alonso may be a good guy, too, but I don't think he has what it takes to be a Commissioner. Even if he retired from CCSO, he would find the position pretty overwhelming.

If you have not attended a Commission meeting, I urge you to do this. You need to look at the book that all the Commission gets before each and every meeting. This book is available for review in the hall adjacent to the Board meeting room during the meetings.

You can download a PDF of the agenda, too and watch the meetings online at your convenience.

I have met all but one of the Commissioners. While each has their own foibles and perspectives, I find all to be sincere in trying to the best thing for the citizens. Obviously, we may not agree with what they think is best in this representative democracy. Certainly, nothing wrong with choosing another to fill this position, however, do it while having some true insight versus piling on. Piling on is a foul in football and should be in politics as well.

Did I vote for him? I voted as soon as I received my mail in ballot.

Has anyone seen the letter and "returned" check??????...Hmmmmmm

You can go to Jim Coletta's web site http://www.jimcoletta.com and review the documents that support his statement that he returned the check and notified the Elections Office. It's all there for your review.

One of the reasons I support Jim Coletta is that he believes in living up to both the letter and the spirit of the election laws. I am no lawyer, and, of course, the Election Commission has the last word, but sending back the contribution and reporting it is the proper way to deal with that issue. It's done by candidates all over the country running for every kind of office, including the presidency, and for a whole lot more than $250 on each side of the political spectrum.

I wished that the Naples Daily News would have looked at the records and researched the issue before writing this non-story.

geek87

The so called documents should have been sent to the Supervisor of Elections Office as Coletta himself told the Naples Daily News, not just post something of similiar spectrum on his personal campaign website.
He lied to the Naples Daily News and that is not their fault. Actually I'm glad he did susch stupidity this way the NDN Editorial Board will realize what huge mistake they made by endorsing a lier, and dishonest person contrary to the people's choice, decisions, and request. I will do everything possible to see to it that the State follows through with their investigations in this case even if it meand that Mr. Mudd fires me too.

I'm too old and too tired to continue to put up with this mafioso liar!

The deadline for the next report to the Supervisor of Election is August 22, 2008. See, you might have just gotten a preview, nothing sinister about it.

This non-issue is all that's left of Coletta's opposition, that showed no substance on any issue.

1. why did he take the excess check in the first place? Coletta has prepared and signed the reports himself. Kinda hard not to see he received more than allowed.
2. why did it take so long...almost 3 months..for Coletta to return the excess amount? Was it after he was told that others knew about it....

Oh Well.......

geek

Anything after July 28th is called "After The Fact".

d5stealth: Judge and Jury without charges, a trial and that silly thing called due process? Wow, your prowess is pretty impressive. I wonder if you would consider forensic accounting as a career and look over the books of all candidates running. One individual told me she gave a candidate a check for $1,000.
I don't know if this is true. But as you are good at finding out information and making conclusions, you may want to review all contributions to all candidates to make sure they haven't made an accounting error.

Just a thoughtful suggestion.

Coletta took on that responsibility when he decided to run for office...and....prepare and sign the reports himself!
And, it is not as if he has thousands of checks or that there is more than 1 James Wheatley who contributed.. Lots of excuses, no accountability.

Coletta has posted a copy of the memo he said to have sent to the Elections Office, to Jenny Edwards. Now here's more fudging the cake....the letter is dated August 21, 2008. Ilene Stackel of NDN posted this story on the evening of August 20, 2008. By then she had already spoken to Coletta and he said (as I quote the article by Ms. Stackel)“We also sent a letter to the elections office.”

In fact that was not true, the letter was never fabricated until the next day. That means that Coletta was untruthful to Ms. Stackel who ended-up writing an untrue statement in her article. Is he Nuts? Does he not realize that NDN is the only friend he has? OK, I can't wait to see what is NDN, and Ms. Stackel are going to do about this one. I would say, we will stand-by for a follow-up story, but given the past issues I highly doubt it.

Another Coletta Geeting-away with lies episode.

another lie by Coletta is his signed statement regarding the returned contribution to Wheatley..The form signed by Coletta states right at the top that it "..applies only to contributions received by the candidate or committee, but returned to the contributor before being deposited in the campaign account." Coletta contradicts that in his letter where he states that he deposited both checks...

Okay...which one is true..and...but for someone reporting it..would Coletta ever have come clean??

I saw the contribution refund report today, the date on the report he stated to have discovered the excess contributions received and when he stated to have refunded the money does not match what he said in his late letter, nor does the amount of money he said to have refunded match. This guy is insain! How far does he think he can get? Is he laughing at the system here? GET HIM OUT OF THE COMMISSION SEAT NOW! He is blatently lying, insulting.

When Joe Foster got hit with this same type of campaign violation a couple of years ago he didn't lie or try to cover-up his violation alike Coletta has, yet he was found in violation and was fined. You would think that Coletta would at the very least get the same, though he should be sanctioned stronger due to his continuos lies and attempt to conceal them. That should be considered as progerssing violation. Someone need to call the state on this guy. UNBELEIVABLE!!!!

OK...let me get this straight now that I am done spending the whole afternoon on the computer researching public records including the Supervisor of Elections website.
Commissioner Coletta is the subject of a complaint sent to the Elections Divion in Tallahassee. The Naples Daily News reporter, Ilene Stackel contacts him about the complaint before she writes the story and posts it on the NDN website on Wednesday, August 20th night. Coletta states that he cought the violation which was accepting too much Campaign Contributions from one person, a clear violation. He further said that he wrote a letter to the Elections Office advising them about it. The letter, is dated August 21, 2008 which is the day after the story was posted by NDN. That means that when he told the reporter that he sent a letter, there was no letter at the time. In his letter which is part of the Campaign Treasurer's Report F3, Coletta wrote that he refunded the $250.00 over contributed which he admitts to accepting, to the contributor on August 7, 2008. The refund check written by Coletta is dated 7/7/08. The Contribution Refund Report he submitted with the letter states that he discovered the excess contribution on 08/11/08 and he refunded the money to the campaing contributor on 08/11/08 which would be the same day he said to have discovered it on the report which contradicts what he stated in the letter. On the Contribution Refund Report Coletta stated that he refunded $150.00 total. This also contradicts the letter. According to the complaint the excessive contribution was $250.00, if he only returned $150.00 of it then he still has $100.00 of the violation money and that further extends his violation. The letters and reports which are evidence of fraud are signed and attested to by him, therefore he has committed purgery. Oh, it gets better, there were also two other same type violations, one was from the Mayor of Everglades City's wife, and the other from a big wig corporation in New York. He has two seperate letters each for the additional violation but he failed to submitt the Campaign Contribution Refunds for each violation so there is no official record showing that the monies were refunded to the contributors, and when.
Well, here are some questions to ponder;
1) Is the NDN Reporter, Stackel going to follow-up with the conflicts to her story and advise the public the truth?
2) Why does the NDN editorial Board insist in Endorsing, and now recomending Coletta in the Primary Election?
Naples Daily News staff, if you decide to take this message away so that no-one reads it, at least make sure that you forward a copy to the reporter Satckel, and the Editorial Board so they know that they are about to receive egg on their faces from Coletta.
Thank You.

Reading is a fundamental skill, but the understanding is actually what counts.

The campaign reports are simple enough. Let me help you out.

The refund check of $250 to James Weatley is mentioned under the expenses under #13,

Miss Garland’s refund check is also listed under expenses on the report: #37
and Brenda Hamilton’s is listed under #5
Again, look under "Itemized expenditures"

The mentioned $ 150 was a check sent back “before being deposited in the campaign account”, as it states on the form.

There is a lot to learn before working and walking among grown ups.

Of course, the NDN endorses Commissioner Coletta, there is no other serious candidate for Commissioner District 5.

Qed.

It's obvious the State seems to agree with the complaint instead of this cheezee explanations. This will be the least of worries. Jsut wait.