Clearwater City Council Tells David Miscavige to Piss Off

hi everyone my name is aaron and welcome back to my channel a couple weeks ago the clearwater city council told david miscavige to piss off in a pretty major way and i think we should talk about it this is the latest chapter in the story about a war david miscavige started with the city of clearwater back in 2017. in fact it's a war that miscavige started not just with the city of clearwater but also with the clearwater marine aquarium the world knows the clearwater marine aquarium through winter the dolphin the dolphin tale movies are about winter winter is a dolphin at the clearwater marine aquarium so miscavitch went to war with winter the dolphin and the city of clearwater so what was this all about i'll make this as quick as i can but basically most people watching this channel are probably familiar with the fact that scientology has this giant base that they call the flag land base located right in the heart of downtown clearwater one of the signature properties of the flagland base is the fort harrison hotel and just behind the fort harrison hotel is another hotel scientology owns called the oak cove so behind the fort harrison and next to the oak cove is another parcel of land that was owned by the clearwater marine aquarium now the aquarium isn't located in downtown clearwater they're located closer to clearwater beach but the aquarium had this property because they were considering relocating to downtown clearwater once it was clear that the plans to move the aquarium to downtown were not going to work uh the aquarium decided to sell this land and they went under contract to sell it to the city of clearwater for four million dollars in change david miscavige is a very paranoid little fellow and he does not consider it acceptable for anybody to develop something right next to the flagland base he considers that a security threat to the base he doesn't want anything built taller than the main flag land-based buildings he doesn't want anybody to be able to look down on those buildings and he just doesn't want non-scientology around the base and he'll do anything in his power to keep the development in downtown clearwater to the absolute bare minimum because he just doesn't have any use for non-scientologists around that base so the first thing the scavenge tried to do to prevent this lot from being sold to the city and therefore prevent it from being developed was to approach the clearwater marine aquarium directly the then ceo's name was david yates so he approached david david miscavige is approaching david yates and offered the aquarium as much as 15 million dollars for this lot and as i just said the aquarium was under contract to sell it to the city for like 4.25 million david yates declined to sell the property to miscavitch and to scientology it's not that he couldn't have used the 15 million dollars it's that david yates and the the aquarium has a long-standing history of partnership with the city of clearwater and this was prime real estate right on the bluff for those of you familiar with clearwater right on the bluff overlooking the water and he thought that for the good of this city this land needed to stay in the hands of the cities that the city could use this land for its own future development efforts or redevelopment efforts as the case may be once david yates refused to sell to miscavige miscavitch's next strategy was to basically go to the city and say hey city a city council council members and the mayor if you will back out of the contract to buy this property from david yates thereby forcing him to sell it to me miscavige scientology then let me show you all the wonderful things i will do for downtown clearwater at that time the clearwater city council basically refused to do what miscavidge was asking so the city council and the clearwater marine aquarium moved forward and closed this deal and sold this lot of land to the city of clearwater instead of two scientology once all of that went down and miscavity didn't get his way he went on the war path and started the latest chapter in his ongoing war with the city of clearwater and at that time this was back in 2017 started a war with the clearwater marine aquarium as well here's some of the information that was reported in the tampa bay times by tracy mcmanus back in 2017. tracy says the church of scientology has launched a statewide campaign blasting the ethics and financial practices of the clearwater marine aquarium a move that follows on the aquarium's recent decision not to sell the church a prized downtown property on monday the church delivered to the board a scathing seven-page letter and more than 250 pages of supporting documentation questioning the non-profit's economic impact and financial responsibility so miscavitch and the church of scientology were trying to call the clearwater marine aquarium onto the carpet for exaggerating their economic impact to the city of clearwater and accusing them of financial irresponsibility if that's not the pot calling the kettle black the formal complaint which was also sent to attorney general pam bondi state attorney general at that time sent to the state auditor general and sent to legislative leaders is not going unchallenged by the aquarium ceo david yates david yates is quoted as saying we want to be good neighbors to everybody but we do not intend to be bullied at the same time everything they wrote is either false or completely out of context or inflammatory the church's move came two business days after the clearwater city council voted unanimously to buy a 1.4 acre vacant property from the aquarium the 4.25 million dollar sale closed the next day and keep in mind all this information is from a few years ago the aquarium which is in the midst of a fundraising campaign for a 50 million dollar renovation of its facility on island estates rejected the church's 15 million dollar offer for the property three weeks earlier in favor of selling to the city so get that david yates he was in the middle of having to raise 50 million dollars to do a whole renovation of the aquarium by the way those renovations are now completed and even though he needed to raise 50 million he turned down 15 million from scientology just to do the right thing and keep this property in the hands of the city someone might say well god he he lost out on at least 10 million dollars of pure profit from from miscavigno what actually happened is the community was so glad to see david stand up and take on scientology and not be bullied by miscavige that it resulted in tens of millions of dollars of donations to the clearwater marine aquarium what david unintentionally proved back in 2017 is that standing up to scientology not being afraid to call them out on bad behavior not being afraid to put miscavige in his place is the absolute best thing any politician or community leader could do in clearwater and not just in clearwater i'm sure this would translate to national politics you know the senator or the representative who leads the effort to demand the irs review scientology's tax exempt status is going to be a folk hero donations are going to flow into their re-election campaigns like you could never imagine and i don't mean to get too far ahead of myself here so here's some other quotes from the article the commission chair janet long said scientology's effort was uh too little too late and a clear retaliation by the church for the city buying land that the church coveted that's how the scientologists operate janet long said it's very clear coming on the heels of the city council vote that their noses are out of joint and they're upset about it and they're trying to intimidate county government oh janet long with some strong language um let's see david yates said that the sale of the aquarium's land to the city was a show of commitment to a long-standing partnership rather than an affront to the church the church's reaction was unwarranted so taking this letter to the pinellas county commissioners wasn't the only thing miscavige tried to do he went on an all-out assault against david yates in the aquarium tried to get their funding cut at the city level the county level the state level tried to interfere with the fundraising practices put out an entire i i hope i don't have this wrong and then one of their freedom magazines they put out some entire publication slandering david yates slandering um the the aquarium tried to get him fired from his job you know the typical overblown reaction i guess it would be libel not slander but anyway the typical overblown reaction that we've come to expect from the church of scientology scientology also initiated a boycott of all non-scientologist-owned businesses in downtown clearwater to try to punish the city of clearwater for not allowing it to procure this land so they initiated this boycott that didn't really accomplish much because there aren't enough scientologists in clearwater for a boycott to really mean anything um and then uh miscavige cut off all communication with the city for the next two years no communication whatsoever and then what miscavige did was to organize a buying spree of all available properties in downtown clearwater in the the core downtown business district and then some um he organized uh through church entities and just public scientologists for about a hundred properties to be purchased for roughly a hundred million dollars in cash many of those properties weren't even on the market uh many of these properties um were purchased for two three four times uh the market value all cash uh really as a way to punish the city and get leverage over the city so that um maybe they would be a little more amenable to having a conversation about letting miscavige acquire this aquarium lot in fact one of the last things miscavitch did say to either the city manager or the city attorney is you know i think we're going to bide our time and we're going to wait for the new new council to be seated and we're going to see if maybe they're more friendly in talks with us about this lot well by the time the new city council was seated mark bunker was on that city council and needless to say that council was not more friendly to miscavitch as far as conversations on acquiring that property but miscavit's true to form was not willing to give up so he uh popped his head out of the little hole he'd been hiding in and he opened up uh communication with the city and opened up a line of um a line of discussion about maybe doing a property swap these discussions were going on between miscavitch and some of the city staff at the same time that the city of clearwater was getting ready to send out an rfp nationwide to develop these three huge lots that it owns on the waterfront one of which is the aquarium lot so at the same time that the city is about to send out these rfps or one rfp for three different lots or three different rfps i don't know exactly how it's structured at the same time that the city of clearwater is doing that miscavige is dragging his feet on this conversation about a possible land swap so because these conversations with miscavige had not been concluded the language in the rfp about the aquarium lot was going to include language saying that this property may still be subject to a land swap and if you understand how rfps work and how much time and money it takes to actually submit a proposal for an rfp you can imagine that a developer might be more reluctant to put in the work on a proposal if the language says oh yeah by the way we're still thinking of just doing a trade and this property might not even be in play i mean it damages the level of interest that clearwater is going to get from developers nationwide in response to this rfp and that is absolutely what miscavige's intention was all along everything that's happening right now between david miscavige and the city of clearwater with respect to this property is a continuation of the strategy miscavige had in mind three years ago so as of a few weeks ago miscavige still thought he was in this fight executing his strategy to acquire this land from the city of clearwater to prevent and prohibit development around his base and the clearwater city council stepped up and said not so fast little fella the clearwater city council said definitively the window miscavige had to do a swap is over if he was serious about doing a deal he could have done a deal any time in the last three years and they said we think it's time for you to take a timeout in fact why don't you go over there and sit in the corner for a little bit this is an issue i was personally very interested in so i did go to this council meeting and anybody can speak on any topic at a council meeting for three minutes and that's what i did here's what i had to say hi everyone it's a pleasure to see each of you i'm aaron smith levin i live at 1615 harvard street and i do have a couple thoughts about the rfp language indicating that the cma lot is still subject to a land swap first off if it is possible to do a deal with miscarriage that would be a net gain for the city financially and strategically i would 100 support such a deal but as far as these current talks with miscavige assuming there are current talks happening i think we have to acknowledge that considering his motivations he is going to stretch these talks out for as long as the city allows him to stretch it out before he pounces it is in miscavita's interest to create uncertainty about how the city is going to move forward with development on the bluff over the next seven months that uncertainty buys him a lot of time and it harms the city's rfp him driving his feet thus far has caused the city to include language in the rfp that is all but guaranteed to have a negative impact on the amount of interest we're going to get from developers nationwide that is not a coincidence it's part of the intention so i believe would be in the city's best interest to not only remove the language from the rfp but specifically state clearly the miscavige's window to do this deal closes on january 11th when the rfp gets published um if we are to consider miscavige's intentions miscavige is against any development that brings more non-scientologists to the area it's only because non-scientologists in this area don't help scientology you cannot get into scientology at the flag land base many people don't understand this you can get into scientology in tampa you can go a few miles down the road and get into scientology in bel air you cannot join scientology in downtown clearwater non-scientologists are just considered a security threat to the flag land base and believe me i know i spent years living and working on the flag land base when i was still in scientology now you know the city council gets criticized sometimes and even the staff for not doing enough to stand up to scientology and i know the vast majority of that criticism is unfair and unwarranted and i think what we're discussing here is something solid and positive that the city can do not only to protect his own interests in uh with respect to the quality of this rfp but to limit miscavige's ability to interfere with future development plans because that is the goal delaying and interfering is the goal and i think i think we all know that um thank you that's all thank you and here's what council member mark bunker had to say councilmember bunker i'd like to agree with a council member hamilton on the language about the land swap i i think we definitely do need to know are we going to do a land swap with the church of scientology which is the one that we've primarily been talking about you know we should know that before we send this out they've had more than three years now to come up with a plan and to negotiate a miss cabbage said back in 2017 when he stopped talking to us that uh he would wait for the next council but we're here and we want to move on you would think by now he'd have some idea of what he wants and what he'll give us we have the unique problem in this city of having scientology that has blocked many of the people who might have been interested in in uh putting in a proposal but i think it's also very important uh that we send a message to scientology give us an answer now or we're moving on and we're doing this because we don't need scientology to make the downtown prosper and we shouldn't allow them to get in our way we just need to keep letting the people know that there's no worries about coming down here scientology as as mr mayor you've said they're not going to kidnap you they're also not going to be trying to recruit you if we come down and reclaim the downtown and shop and dine downtown it's the last thing that david miscavige wants we can just by coming and having fun and enjoying the downtown make a real change and here's what council member hoyt hamilton had to say um my approach on this part of the this language i think this ought to be taken out we've talked about land swap we've heard land swap you know but nothing has ever come of it while this rfp is on the market land swap should be off the table in my book the opportunity to discuss and provide us with an opportunity to consider a land swap has been there for how many years and it has not happened we're putting this out to the development community all over the country i don't think there should be any opportunity for a land swap to come forward while this rfp is on the market i would personally like to see this language taken out i wouldn't like to see land swap anywhere in this rfp we've got to provide something that that that really sparks their interest and when you're putting in something that says well you know they've talked about a land swap and that might still come forward why am i going to even put my effort into it 200 rfps that i've got on my desk so um you know that's why i think along this line i think this language needs to come out totally and here's the city council unanimously voting to correct the language in the rfp and to basically thomas scavich to piss off i will make a motion that all reference to land swap be deleted from the rfp that'll that means that as of 8 45 tonight entertaining of a land swap opportunity will not take place until this rfp process has run its course any questions got a second second all in favor aye opposed unanimous so there you have it i thought that was a wonderful thing i guarantee you that was not a good night for miscavige that was not a good night for the osa staff members here at the flagland base miscavitch has these crazy expectations that people give a damn what he thinks or has to say in clearwater and the truth is the politicians the elected leaders uh are definitely starting to understand that scientology may have a lot of money they may have a lot of property they do not have any political influence other than what they can purchase through lobbyists and lawyers mark bunker's election last year to the city council proved that scientology can only get about 600 people to the polls scientology wants people to believe that they control some voting block in clearwater of like 15 000 members 15 000 is the number scientology says for how many scientologists live in clearwater nothing could be further from the truth uh in all of tampa bay that includes st pete uh clearwater tampa um palm harbor danita and largo maybe there's 4 000 scientologists at the flag land base maybe there's 1 500 2 000 people maybe but most of those people can't vote they're foreign nationals they're hearing religious visas they're not registered they literally only got 600 people to the polls to vote against mark bunker it's really pathetic and even though their presence in clearwater has an impact just by virtue of their presence it has an impact of making people think twice sometimes about coming to clearwater they don't actually have influence i'm talking about the kind of influence that allows them to get something done i think some people are confused into thinking scientology has more influence than they do in clearwater because they buy up all these properties but buying properties is not influence nobody can stop somebody from buying a property i mean do you get what i'm saying it doesn't take influence to purchase properties especially when you're doing it secretly through llcs and lawyers and some public scientologists only time will tell us what miscavige's next tantrum will be he did recently reveal to the public scientologists here in clearwater that they're looking to build a new advanced organization here in clearwater in scientology an advanced organization is one that delivers the ot levels currently here in clearwater uh the sandcastle hotel down by the water is the advanced organization that's where the ot levels are delivered uh miscavige is talking about building a new advanced org and turning the sand castle hotel into strictly a hotel as opposed to also an advanced org so i am sure something relating to the new advanced org will be part of miscavitch's next tantrum but uh we won't know until we uh hear it from him i guess all right everyone thank you for watching i'll talk to you again soon bye okay if you want to see my rock and roll songs click quiet on this hotel [Music] [Music] if six squads or not subscribe right here

Channel: Growing Up In Scientology

Views: 535,796

Rating: 4.9429803 out of 5

Keywords: aaron smith-levin, mark bunker, clearwater, david miscavige, scientology, city council, frank hibbard, hoyt hamilton

Id: qtcGSEZAeMY

Length: 21min 34sec (1294 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 11 2021