Loading
Coffee Talk (Sara/Mana)
It's a new world
Twelfth Circuit Court Administrator Walt Smith is among those who object to a long-awaited report's conclusion that court records should be available on the Internet, as long as precautions to protect privacy are taken.
Smith and three other members of the Committee on Privacy and Court Records, appointed by the Florida Supreme Court, disagree with the majority's vote that the electronic age has changed how we live and court records should be available on the Internet.
The four contend the risks outweigh the benefits in a dissenting opinion written by 5th Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Jacqueline R. Griffin and joined by Smith, Tallahassee lawyer Kristin Adamson and Miami Circuit Judge Judith L. Kreeger. It is part of the report sent Aug. 15 to the court by committee chair Jon Mills, a University of Florida law professor and former House speaker.
The committee voted 11-4 for electronic access after nearly two years of debate over transparent government and individuals' rights to privacy. "No institution is immune from the transforming force of the digital age. We have entered a new world," states the report.
"The committee therefore approaches its task with a large measure of trepidation and urges all involved to move with care and thoughtfulness and to be mindful at each step that the lives and liberties of present and future Floridians may well depend on the ability of the judicial branch of Florida to navigate this historic transition," states the report.
In 2003, Justice Harry Lee Anstead ordered court clerks to stop the electronic release of certain records while the committee studied the problem and came up with a solution.
Roy's gets neighborly with Fleming's
Break out the pineapple, Outback Steakhouse has signed a contract for Roy's to lease about 7,000 square feet in the Fleming's building at 2001 Siesta Drive, Sarasota. Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar and Roy's, both of which are owned by Outback, will share a common wall.
"I think they are expecting to open in February," says Dr. Mark Kauffman, one of the building's owners. Roy's is a Hawaiian-fusion restaurant that Outback is expanding in a joint venture with chef Roy Yamaguchi.
With the Roy's deal in place and several additional tenants planned to move in before the end of the year, the building is fully leased. Other tenants in the building include: Sarasota County government, the Social Security Administration, the medical examiner, a plastic surgeon and a title company. For the past two years, the building has experienced vacancies. But earlier this year Kauffman and two others bought into the building's ownership. "I think it just took a little different approach," Kauffman says.
Another community bank
Is there really room for another bank in Fort Myers? Apparently so. A federally chartered bank is in the works, backed by a group that includes Fort Myers real estate developer Tom Cronin Sr.
They've enlisted Bruce Schultz to run it. Schultz is a 22-year banking veteran who recently resigned as president of SunTrust in Lee County.
Currently, 33 banks do business in Lee County, 19 of which are headquartered in Florida, according to the latest reports from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. But Schultz says more than half of the Lee County market is controlled by three large national banks, which he argues can't provide the proverbial high-touch service of a community bank.
The new bank will be called Southwest Capital Bank. Schultz said he hopes to get approval for a federal charter by the end of the year and open in the first quarter of 2006. The bank will market commercial loans to small to medium-sized closely held businesses.
In addition to Cronin, other local board members include Pat Heath of Wireless One; Tom Houlihan Jr., a general contractor and developer; Tom Kiesel, of the Kiesel Hughes & Johnston law firm; Gerald Laboda, an oral surgeon; Marvin Metheny of accounting firm Hughes, Snell & Co.; John Pollock, president of Oswald Trippe; Gary Tasman, a broker with VIP realty; home builder Jerry Wallace; Rob Wells Jr., owner of Cabbage Key; and Stephen Zellner, a doctor with Internal Medicine Associates of Lee County.
What impact fees?
Just days after homebuilders learned school impact fees would likely double, you'd think the Lee County Schools superintendent wouldn't want to face a hostile crowd. But James Browder III did just that, speaking before a group of real estate executives in Fort Myers.
"You probably want to choke me," he joked. But Browder came with a promise that should keep the building trades happy for at least the next decade: The school board plans to build 39 new schools in the next nine years. During the question-and-answer session that followed his talk, no one questioned Browder about impact fees.
Another warning
Pinellas Park bank analyst Richard X. Bove pooh-poohs affordability indices, which show skyrocketing home prices far outpacing tiny increases in personal income.
"Americans are willing to reallocate their assets from other forms of consumption to housing," the Punk Ziegel & Co. analyst writes in an Aug. 16 research report.
But Bove does fear a sudden housing burst, and it will come when mortgage defaults start to litter the economic landscape. With borrowers, lenders, regulators and the secondary mortgage markets all refusing to apply the brakes, Bove sees a day of reckoning not far off.
"Nuclear mortgages" is what Bove calls the ingredient that will end the run-up in housing prices and the profits of selected banks. Those, of course, are the loans that start out with monthly payments of $581. Only the homebuyers, if they were borrowing in saner times, should be paying twice that.
"This boom will end when a large number of lenders lose a great deal of money," says Bove. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the main purchasers of these nukes, will take the worst hits.
Your free article limit has been reached this month.
Subscribe now for unlimited digital access to our award-winning business news.
Join thousands of executives who rely on us for insights spanning Tampa Bay to Naples.
