Can Florida develop a

new revenue stream?

INSIDE:Issues For 2012

Why Can’t Florida Move Forward?

Politics Dirty Little Tricks.

What’s Citizen’s Up To?

How to get people back

to work!

What’s really up with

education reform?

Why home owners’

insurance costs so much.

Voter’s GuideNorth Pinellas District 65: Dunedin, Tarpon Springs, East Lake, Palm Harbor, Ozona, Crystal Beach, Countryside

Information You Need To Make An Informed Decision Election 2012

Compare Candidates

WWW.CARLZIMMERMANN.COM

Voters Will Choose Between Two Very Different Candidates The last time Peter Nehr and Carl Zimmermann faced each other was in the 2008 election. At the time Nehr had only been bankrupt once and was beginning to be sued by his creditors for again failing to pay his bills. Carl “Z” Zimmermann, a longtime Pinellas teacher at Countryside High School and six-time teacher of the year was then attacked with a $300,000 TV/radio campaign accusing Zimmermann of wanting a state income tax - something that is not only prohibited in the state constitution, but something Zimmermann is firmly against. Now Nehr has been bankrupt a second time (3/09) and left creditors holding the bag for nearly $500,000 of his debt. And if that were not bad enough, Nehr defied the stern advice of Sheriff Coats and opened an internet gambling cafe. Possibly the most arrogant and distasteful act happened in a political science class at USF when Nehr was finishing up his degree, as a man in his late 40’s or early 50’s. Nehr placed an American flag on the floor for people to walk on. He said he was demonstrating how free we are. In 2005 pictures of Nehr appeared in the Tampa Bay Times that he claims were to show his weight loss. According to sources close to him he was very worried when those pictures got out. But, then this past summer new pictures were released showing Nehr taking his own picture in a private bathroom in his underpants. He claims it too was to show his weight loss, but when asked by a reporter from channel 10 if he used it for online dating, he said, he couldn’t recall. (seriously, you can’t recall if you sent someone pictures of you in your underpants?) Carl Zimmermann is by contrast the complete opposite of Nehr. He is a family man married for the past 29 years to his only wife, Terry and they have successfully raised two adult children. He began his career in the fast-paced New York advertising world where he worked closely with business owners and CEO’s helping their businesses succeed. After moving to Palm Harbor 28 years ago, he worked with a community newspaper before becoming the TV Production/Broadcast Journalism teacher at Countryside High School in 1985. For years he ran a small, successful video production company and currently owns a car business. (all while teaching for the past 27 years) He brings to the table a plethora of business experience, communication skills and problem solving methods. He has never been sued, never defaulted on a bill, never declared bankruptcy and has never taken pictures of himself in any form of undress. He served as vice president of the North Pinellas Republican Club as well as the President of the North Pinellas Democratic club and has close friends active in both parties. He also has indepth solutions for the major issues facing Florida - all highlighted on the next two pages inside this paper. Two candidates, one easy choice - Carl “Z” Zimmermann.

Peter NehrBankrupt in 1991.

Eviction 1/2009,Eviction papers filed by River-walk of Tarpon Springs for non-payment.

Sued by Wells Fargo Bank for non-payment.

Sued by Advanta Bank Corp for non-payment.

Sued by SunTrust Bank for non-payment.

Bankrupt Again in March 2009.(leaving others stuck with his half a million dollar debt)

Opened up an Internet Gambling CafeIn 2009, Mr Nehr met with Sheriff Coats to discuss internet gambling cafes. The sheriff’s stand: They are gambling operations. They are illegal and there is no debate. Despite the Sheriff’s warning, Nehr opened one up and months later was forced to shut it down leaving a note on the win-dow implying he had moved operations to another county. Later, he sold the business to a 23 year-old girl who was then arrested on one count felony gambling and 45 counts of possessing gambling devices.

The Pictures.The picture to the right was

released by Mr. Nehr in 2005 which he claims was

to show his weight loss. The picture above in his

underpants was released this summer and Mr. Nehr told a Channel 10 reporter that he

can’t remember if he used it for on-line dating.

More pictures can be seen online by googling

Peter Nehr

Shocking!

As part of his presentation in a classroom at USF he placed an Ameri-can Flag on the ground for people to walk on.

Double-Crossed our Heroes.Voted AGAINST our Police Officers, Firefighters and Teachers, in favor of, dismantling one of the HEALTHIEST PENSION FUNDS in the country

Disgraced the American Flag

Does Peter Nehr Represent You?He does until you vote him out.

• 28 Years in Palm Harbor• 10 Year Private Sector

Advertising Executive in NYC!• Pinellas County Educator for

almost 30 years!• Six-time Teacher of the Year!

• 2003 Florida statewide Journalism Teacher of the Year!

• Small-Business owner for over 10 years!

• Faithfully married over 29 years!

Carl “Z” Zimmermann

Real Solutions for the devastatingproblems that hurt Floridians...

Property insurance • Job lossUtilities costs and

Poor performance in Schools!

The Problem: Florida has the highest rate of long term unemployment in the country according to Brookings’ Hamilton Project, which crunched Census data. And while that has improved some since the study was done in January, it is the area where we need to focus on to turn this economy around. Fifty three percent of the jobless were out of work longer than six months. And the longer you are out, the less job ready you are and the lower your confidence is to become re-employed. Many are forced to retire early putting an additional strain on a stressed social security system. Not to mention that if you don’t work, you can’t help in growing the economy.

The Solution: The Governor of Iowa recently rolled out a jobs program that involves labor, education, certification and business partnerships, that can be merged with current programs like WorkNet Pinellas. Here are some aspects: Florida currently has Workforce Florida that helps coordinate several incentives to businesses, (most of them Federal),to assist and encourage business to hire, but Iowa’s program goes much further and its mission is much more targeted. I quote: Number one: “People who collect unemployment...participate in ...internship opportunities as a way to build their skills while they look for a permanent job.” They are matched with firms looking to hire and willing to provide training. “The unemployed workers work at the participating company 24 hours a week for up to eight weeks while receiving their unemployment benefits.” In addition if they qualify for federal grants, the employer only pays half the salary and the grant pays the other half. Should the employer and the employee find a match, the person is hired and off of unemployment in a short eight weeks and possibly in a new career. “During the employee hiring and placement process, the National Career Readiness Certificate is (used as) an effective measure of

foundational skills.” Upon losing a job, every person interested would be given a skills test as an assessment of their own natural abilities and areas that they may boost. “The N.C. R. Certificate program certifies critical skills in applied mathmatics, locating information and reading for information. All three of these areas are critical to a successful STEM” (science, technology, engineering, mathmatics) workforce. Number two: More certification programs at local colleges like SPC or independent schools need to be promoted and developed that are aligned with current employment needs. Programs that offer certification in very short periods of time and can refocus quickly with the marketplace. These would not be long-term programs necessarily designed to be developed and kept for years, but instead quick, get-up-to-speed programs designed to take a group of people and get them re-employed in jobs that are available now. I understand not everybody wants to change careers. I also understand that many people that lose their jobs are highly skilled and may be the best in their field. None of this would ever be to force a person into a job they do not want. In other words, benefits would not be lost to the person that wishes to pursue their search in their own way. Instead, this is s service to redirect people to jobs they are suited for quickly. Years ago a person I know dearly was working as a clerk for a county. She tooka test that meaured aptitude and skills. The test indicated she might be very successful as a computer programmer, a field she never ever considered. She entered a training program and graduated a few months later doubling her salary. Being good at something is the fuel that drives your success, the success of the company, and the success of Florida. Losing a job is devastating. It is always taken personally and it takes a horrible toll on the person and ultimately the economy. Getting people back to work and keeping them employed will always dominate my thoughts in every decision I make.

4 Reasons Florida Jobs, Unemployment

The Problem: Our education system has problems. It’s not a secret. Teachers agree with that. Despite the FCAT, remedial reading classes, rigorous curriculums, legislation that demands higher math classes, charter schools, vouchers, educational think tanks, and even threats of more or longer school days, things keep getting worse. Yet, all the think tanks and the legislature seems to come up with is to demand more, threaten repercussions, hold teachers accountable in artificial ways so they can be fired or to privatize education through charters, virtual school and private schools. The real problem is that the 170-year-old public school model that is used by public schools as well as most private schools, is obsolete and it’s time we reinvent it. We have been delivering education the same way since compulsory public education began in 1840. Students come to school to learn to read, write, add, subtract and become good citizens. The teacher lectures and the students listen. That was more than sufficient when people grew their own food and didn’t have to worry about selling their skills and talents in order to survive. But the world has changed. Today, we want everyone to go to college. If you can’t afford it, there are subsidies; if you work hard, there are scholarships. And if nothing else, there are loans. Yet only about 20 percent of the students who enter ninth grade will get a four-year degree. Only about 20 percent of them will work in the field they get their degree in. For the 80 percent of students who won’t get a four-year degree, what has high school prepared them for? The vast majority have no practical business experience. They don’t know the psychology of sales. They don’t know bookkeeping, manufacturing, nursing, mechanics, management, advertising, computer repairs, financial planning or just about any other field where someone can make a living. High school has prepared them to either go to college or go fish.The problem lies with the leaders of this state and this country that don’t understand education and are driven

by outside influence. Every teacher I know works hard and wants students to succeed. But, the system is broken. We need to take a fresh look at what we want to accomplish for our children, what will engage them in the process and what will help them succeed even if they don’t go to college. We still need to turn out ethical citizens who can read, write and do the math they need to be successful. To compete internationally we don’t need everyone to be the best engineer, or mathematician - only the cream of the crop. We need to prepare the rest for life. Rather than move all students that score less than average in reading to remedial classes, leaving them no room to take the electives, we need to use the electives that capture their interest to help improve their reading. The legislature believes mandating higher-level math courses will improve education: Yet, more than 90 percent of the people in this country will never use math beyond basic algebra. Half of those who do are engineers and scientists, who seem to innately seek out that information. The rest may have failed math in high school, but learn it on the job in weeks as tile layers, carpenters and builders. Why are they able to learn this knowledge on the job but not in class? Because “on the job” is applied education. It is wonderful to enjoy literature, to know how to figure out the height of a building by the length of the shadow it casts, or to understand action versus reaction, but it means so much more when it is applied in a meaningful way to the student.

The Solution: Align our goals and expectations to careers. Examine the business needs that exist in the area and use partnerships and internships more. Subjects like reading writing and math should be taught in a more intergrated way. Academies are working examples. There are engineering academies that require advanced math, bio engineering academies, agriculture academies, criminal justice academies, journalism academies, theatrical academies, etc. They use

Dear Florida Guardian, I am sorry to inform you your current Florida legislature has failed miserably.

SUBJECT: Property Insurance GRADE: COMMENTS: Doesn’t seem to grasp the subject. Shows little understanding on what has caused the problem. Copies all their answers from the insurance companies.

SUBJECT: Education GRADE: COMMENTS: Continually does everything in their power to discredit public education while funneling more money to private business. Doesn’t understand how to help improve education. Needs to do their homework.

SUBJECT: Unemployment GRADE: COMMENTS: Has the highest rate of long term unemployment in the country with 53% out of work for longer than six months. Their only solution seems to be to be to cut taxes for big business and hold their breath.

SUBJECT: Budget GRADE: COMMENTS: Brags about cutting taxes and “making sacrifices” to services, but the budget continues to grow and so do the perks to the biggest lobbying groups.

We Can Do Better and I will.

Report Card

Education

the students’ avocational interests to add meaning to the knowledge and skills they need. This works just as well for college-bound students as it does for the other 80 percent. They can sample a field and get the starter skills they need to enter the workforce in a career should they not succeed in college. However, as long as we keep holding schools acountable for tests like the FCAT and spend 28 to 40 days per year administering state mandated tests, we can never have the freedom or time to genuinely make the change. So the second part of the solution is to give public schools the same freedom many charter and private schools have. Allow them to petition to exempt out of the new restrictive and constricting standards and

evaluations to truly reinvent. It is amazing the results you get when you empower people to do it. That’s not to say there shouldn’t be ways to evaluate if students are learning and teachers are doing their job. It’s actually so simple a fifth grader could do it. Every course should start with a pretest to measure how much the student knows. The teacher then teaches from a defined curriculum of information and skills that the state deems necessary for that class, and then the students take a final post test measuring how much of the curriculum they have learned.It also measures the effectiveness of the teacher.It truly is that simple. Forget all the other noise out there.

You might not be aware that Citizen’s Insurance cannot raise your rates by more than 10%. Tell that to the numerous homeowners that recently saw their mitigation inspection discounts disappear. Or the condominium complexes that have seen their rates more than double. I know of one that went from $70,000 per year to $180,000. Why is this happening and how do they get away with it? Governor Scott wants to purge policies from Citizen’s. His thinking apparently is if it’s too expensive at Citizen’s, people

will go to private companies. The problem is private companies don’t want them. In order to spur competition we need to first have viable suitors ready. They’re not. So to get around the 10% cap, all Citizen’s has to show is that there has been a change in the status of the insured. The condominium complex I mentioned hasn’t done anything to change its status, but an inspector recently came in and found wood attached to the metal roof on the third floor. This has been there since original construction in the mid-eighties, but it

was enough. In addition, Citizen’s is now requiring considerably more paperwork of the independent agents and rejecting many of their mitigation reports. They are also requiring the agents submit all paperwork within 7 days instead of 25. Why? The burden has increased so significantly that some are considering getting out of the business entirely. Another example of a misguided attempt to fix the problem that will instead make matters worst.

Pol. Adv. paid for and approved by Carl Zimmermann, Democrat, for Florida House, Dist. 65

Is Citizen’s New Policy: Charge More, Insure Less? Can you contribute? Visit my Website: www.carlzimmermann.com

Please Be Prepared For the Lies and Dirty Tricks

Property Insurance Budget

In 2008 I ran against Peter Nehr and got 49% of the vote. And despite being a Democrat in the most Republican district in the state, I would have won, except:. About one month before election day a $300,000.00 TV and radio campaign was launched against me claiming I supported a state income tax (a lie), that I thought taxes should be raised (also a lie), and that I wanted new government entitlement programs, another lie). Sounds absurd, right? Who would even believe something that absurd. But people did. And it turned the election. In addition, the day before election day

an automated “robo” call went out that was designed to hang up on everybody that answered their phone and then call them back several times and do the same thing each time. They chose the telephone number of my cell phone to be displayed on caller I.D. People began calling me irate thinking that I was calling them and hanging up. For hours my phone rang off the hook with angry callers. I couldn’t explain to them that this was a political prank designed to have voters angry at me. I filed a complaint with the sheriff’s office, but lost the election. So, I ask that you be prepared for more

of the same. I was able to scramble and do a few last minute things to try and answer the attacks, but too little and too late. That’s the way they plan it. And to set the record straight, I do not support a state income tax and never have. Nor do I support raising taxes. In fact, unlike my opponent who raised taxes through increased fees for everything from driver’s licenses to registration tags to how much you have to pay for public records, I want to reduce fees. And I do not want any new entitlements. To read the truth behind any lie he may hit me with, visit my website.

The Problem: Florida currently has a budget that hovers just under $70 billion. Most of that comes from sales tax. While property tax is another source, a lot of that goes back to the local government. Florida’s number one source for sales tax is tourism and we need to protect that. The state of Alaska, which some might argue is on the opposite side of destination places to live compared to Florida, currently receives over 90% of their revenue from land leases. In fact, rather than getting their revenue from the people, they pay their citizens a dividend. They also currently have a surplus of $12 billion dollars to do other things. And next year, the reserves will be replenished. Their money comes from land leases and while I’m not suggesting we allow drilling, (remember our number one source of revenue is tourism), we do need to refocus our thoughts on how the state collects money - without placing an additional burden on its citizens (unlike road toll leasing and expansion of gambling proposals which would cost Floridians more).

The Solution: Since NASA has taken a step back at Cape Canaveral and private space exploration has begun, we should become the center of the universe for private space exploration. Recently the first private mission successfully took off from there and that company is looking to expand. However, a massive cottage industry is in the process of starting and everyone of them should be near Cape Canaveral. And we shouldn’t have to give away the farm with tax breaks to attract them. Business goes where it is best for them, not where it is cheapest. If that were the case, everyone would be in Iowa. Instead, many choose New York, the most expensive real estate. Not to mention we have nearly 9000 highly experienced space workers ready to be hired. Every region of Florida has something special to offer. Tampa Bay is one of the leading bio-engineering centers in the country. Florida needs to market these areas and aggressively help them grow.

Can’t Move Forward

Dear Florida Guardian, I am sorry to inform you your current Florida legislature has failed miserably.

SUBJECT: Property Insurance GRADE: COMMENTS: Doesn’t seem to grasp the subject. Shows little understanding on what has caused the problem. Copies all their answers from the insurance companies.

SUBJECT: Education GRADE: COMMENTS: Continually does everything in their power to discredit public education while funneling more money to private business. Doesn’t understand how to help improve education. Needs to do their homework.

SUBJECT: Unemployment GRADE: COMMENTS: Has the highest rate of long term unemployment in the country with 53% out of work for longer than six months. Their only solution seems to be to be to cut taxes for big business and hold their breath.

SUBJECT: Budget GRADE: COMMENTS: Brags about cutting taxes and “making sacrifices” to services, but the budget continues to grow and so do the perks to the biggest lobbying groups.

We Can Do Better and I will.

Report Card

F

F

F

F

the students’ avocational interests to add meaning to the knowledge and skills they need. This works just as well for college-bound students as it does for the other 80 percent. They can sample a field and get the starter skills they need to enter the workforce in a career should they not succeed in college. However, as long as we keep holding schools acountable for tests like the FCAT and spend 28 to 40 days per year administering state mandated tests, we can never have the freedom or time to genuinely make the change. So the second part of the solution is to give public schools the same freedom many charter and private schools have. Allow them to petition to exempt out of the new restrictive and constricting standards and

evaluations to truly reinvent. It is amazing the results you get when you empower people to do it. That’s not to say there shouldn’t be ways to evaluate if students are learning and teachers are doing their job. It’s actually so simple a fifth grader could do it. Every course should start with a pretest to measure how much the student knows. The teacher then teaches from a defined curriculum of information and skills that the state deems necessary for that class, and then the students take a final post test measuring how much of the curriculum they have learned.It also measures the effectiveness of the teacher.It truly is that simple. Forget all the other noise out there.

The Problem: Remember when homeowner’s insurance was under $300 per year? Now it’s more than my property tax. So, what happened? If you said hurricane Andrew, you’re wrong. Many people believe it was Andrew and other hurricanes that caused the steep rise in rates and slashing of coverage. While they contributed, it was something else that set it in motion -sinkholes. Beginning in 1981 insurance companies have been required by law to cover damage caused by sinkholes. The idea was sound, but the consequences were unexpected. At that time most of the companies selling insurance in Florida were national companies - respectable companies with a long history - Allstate, State Farm, Metroplolitan, etc. They all based the language used in their policies on the language used by ISO, (Insurance Service Office), in New Jersey. But when Florida mandated sinkhole coverage, it changed the risk model and made it different than the product they were selling in other states - thereby making it difficult to assign a risk model. Sometime after that the insurance companies began thinking about separating themselves from their “riskier” Florida properties and came up with the idea of creating separate Florida companies known as “pup” companies. They would carry the same name as the parent company, but protect the parent company from the risk. This was denied by Florida because by doing so, the rates in Florida would be based on the much smaller pool of just Floridians instead of the whole country which would cause rates to go up. And then Florida was hit by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, a category 5 storm that destroyed Homestead. Insurance companies took a major hit and decided that Florida was too risky to continue doing business in unless they could separate their Florida risk from the national risk. In what some say was the last resort, Florida agreed in 1996 to allow the “pup” companies to begin. And the rates began to rise. Because we have less people (than the whole country) paying

in to cover the losses (the pool), the rates would have to rise. Many smaller companies simply left Florida. Others got out of property insurance. At first it didn’t seem too bad. Most people had no idea why their company was now called State Farm Florida or Allstate Florida. But as the rates continued to rise, and the fear of more hurricanes threatened, and the number of sinkhole claims kept climbing, insurance companies purged their higher risk properties leaving many people with no company that would insure them. That paved the way for Citizen’s Insurance. Originally it was known as the insurer of last resort. But with options for many being non-existent, Citizen’s grew. At first their rates were required to be higher than every other company so as not to compete. Eventually, that was dropped and Citizen’s grew into the largest company. Insurance company’s protect their assets by buying reinsurance. They literally purchase insurance to cover themselves against the losses they are insuring you for. If they get hit with big losses, reinsurance covers them. Once they became “pup” companies, they could buy reinsurance from the parent company and effectively funnel all their profits to the parent company as payment for reinsurance. When Charlie Christ became governor he realized that the high cost of reinsurance was driving up rates so he pushed for a law that Florida would sell reinsurance cheaper and that all companies had to buy reinsurance from Florida. There were two problems with this: Florida didn’t have the funds to cover a large loss - thereby exposing all of us to footing the bill through special assessments if that happened - and second, it didn’t require the companies to drop the reinsurance with their parent company. As a result, the cost to companies went up and they asked for rate increases of up to 42%. On one hand they were protecting themselves. On the other hand they were playing a shell game.In 2006, in an attempt to create competition, the legislature passed SB1980. That allowed virtually anybody with a minimum amount

of money to become an insurance company. One of the first was Royal Palm Insurance started by former senator Burt Lockwood. On its first day of business Royal Palm opened up by assuming 115,894 policies from Allstate (and another 120,000 a few months later) for a total net billing of $513,547,000 by the end of 2007. This was such a windfall business that 25 companies were in business within two years. And the former senator is on the board at least two. While the start up companies do fill a gap, they tend to be very small operations. (The joke was they had an answering machine and a fax.) They are not only likely to go bankrupt in the event of a big storm, they have little to no claims adjusters making state dependant on adjusters from State Farm to carry most of that weight.

The Solution: Competition usually brings down prices, but we need strong compa-nies that have capital behind them and those companies are only found out of state. Florida is the fourth largest state in the country so the market is desireable. The risk just needs to be more definable. Insur-ance companies work using mod-els and the two risks that present problems for them are sinkhole and wind. In 2008 I stressed the need to remove sinkhole from the basic policy, but not to take it away and leave people unprotected. Instead, to combine it with wind and expand the wind pool state-wide. If we do that now we can support it with the nearly 12 billion dollars the CAT (catestrophic fund) has combined with the surplus Citizen’s has. The remaining policy is a standard ISO model policy and outside compa-nies would flood the market. However, Florida should only allow national (parent) companies to sell these thereby ending the need for “pup” companies. And finally, Florida should get out of the reinsurance business, a venture none of us can afford.

Pol. Adv. paid for and approved by Carl Zimmermann, Democrat, for Florida House, Dist. 65

Can you contribute? Visit my Website: www.carlzimmermann.com

I’m a teacher, leader, business owner, a husband, a dad

and your neighbor for 27 years

Teacher of the Year - Six Times•

State Journalism Teacher of the Year, 2003•

27 Years Teaching TV/Journalism/Film•

carlzimmermanncampaign@yahoo.comPol. Adv. paid for and approved by Carl Zimmermann, Democrat, for Florida House, Dist. 65

Recommended by The Tampa Tribune in 2008•

Recommended by The St. Petersburg Times, 2008•

Award Winning Screenplay Writer•

10 Years With New York Ad Agencies•

We raised our own kids with a very simple motto: The most important thing in life is to be a good person. And I live by that. As a teacher, it has always been most important to me that I have a positive influence in the lives of my students. Have I taught them what my course requires? Always. Countless former students now work in the business including my own daughter, a reporter/anchor for the CBS affiliate in Sioux City, Iowa. But sticking by my students, believing in them and understanding that they will make mistakes is what they thank me for later. My life has given me a wide berth of experience. I worked in the New York advertising world for 10 years and helped over 100 businesses

find success. As a copywriter my job was to identify the consumer benefit for whatever I was hired to promote. As an account executive it was to find creative solutions to corporate problems - to think outside the box. That type of thinking is one of the core differences between me and many other people that seek to represent you in solving the problems we face in Florida. Take a careful look at many of the so-called solutions in the past and they are always driven by one thing -how is the group they are representing going to profit more. And the group is rarely the people of Florida. My client will be you. My solutions are always for the people. Not that the corporate entities aren’t given a fair shake, of

course they must be. But at the end of the day, we need to find real solutions that solve the problems. I’ve been through some tough times in my life, I nearly died at age nine from a silver-dollar size hole in my head from a construction accident, my parents divorced when I was thirteen and I had colon cancer at 39. And yet, I am thankful for every one of those experiences. Who we were defines who we are. I have been responsible, steady, dependable and innovative. I have won the backing of the major newspapers in the past because I come up with solutions. Give me a shot at solving the ones we face now. Twenty nine years ago my wife gave me a shot and that has worked out great.