Scientology leader met with Clearwater council members and now wants a vote
We’ve been talking to Mark Bunker about the latest in Clearwater, Florida, where Wise Beard Man served as a city council member and vice mayor.
Bunker reminded us that in 2022 when he was still on the council, he found out that Scientology leader David Miscavige wanted to meet individually with the council members (well, except for Mark), because he wanted to sway them about his plans for downtown. (Bunker said as much, which you can see in the video below.)
Miscavige wanted those meetings to be one-on-one, Bunker said, because Miscavige knew that he couldn’t meet the council as a group without it being an official government meeting that would trigger laws about public disclosure.
By meeting with them individually, neither Miscavige nor the council members would have to tell the public (i.e., nosy news reporters) what was said.
Anyway, we’ve learned now that such one-on-one meetings did occur.
“They happened a couple of months ago,” Bunker tells us. “He is pitching the same project he did in 2017. He’s telling the city council members, ‘Trust me, I’m going to come through with these big plans for an entertainment center,’ the same thing he’s been talking about for years. But, in the meantime, what he wants from them is this street.”
Bunker is referring to S. Garden Avenue, behind the Flag Building, which Scientology wants the council to close so the church can use it to build L. Ron Hubbard Hall. In the map below, we’ve outlined the street Scientology wants shut down in red.
And what is Scientology willing to give in return for this vote? Not a thing, Bunker says.
When Bunker was on the council, he pointed out time after time that if the city wanted Miscavige to develop the properties he’s been sitting on, it was important to get him to make the first move and stop giving him concessions.
But now, in a vote tomorrow night, Bunker expects the council members to give Miscavige what he wants, the “vacation” of Garden Avenue, for nothing in return except for Miscavige’s repeated promises about developing the many parcels he’s been keeping vacant.
Mark tells us he’ll be at that council meeting tomorrow night, he’ll be speaking, and he’ll be getting us a video report of what goes down.
“Through my four years on the council I had one message I tried to make clear,” he says. “If we’re making a deal with Miscavige, he has to come through first. Even at the time, I never thought the city would heed that warning.
“Miscavige can’t be trusted. That much is clear. What is less clear is how does the city deal with an insanely wealthy enterprise led by a tiny dictator who sends people under his command to something like the Hole?
“At least Miscavige is now being honest that to pull off the project he pitched to the city in 2017, he had to personally control all the downtown property. It’s not just individual members of Scientology who purchased the buildings and left them sit empty. It has been a plan orchestrated by Miscavige right from the beginning.
“The loss of the block long street of Garden Avenue is not going to hurt Clearwater. Building a large hall and museum to Hubbard is really what will damage the city. Nobody has ever said, ‘it is a shame Clearwater is not more closely associated with the name L. Ron Hubbard.’
“It sounds like Miscavige pitched the same 2017 project to the individual council members as he did back then. At that time, one lone Councilmember refused to meet with Miscavige. I am not aware of anyone refusing this time.
“That council ultimately predicted the people of Clearwater would not come to a downtown controlled by Scientology. We shall see if they were right…but only if Miscavige actually comes through with his ‘part of the bargain.’”
Thank you, Mark, Once again, we encourage you to subscribe to Bunker’s YouTube channel, and buckle your seats.
For now, take a look again at this meeting in 2022 when Bunker predicted what was going to happen, and tried to get the city to wake up to Scientology’s dishonest dealings…
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For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:
Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea
Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time
Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology
Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain
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Davy Miscavige is the comic strip Peanuts Lucy van Pelt who always pulls the football away from Charlie Brown. Clearwater has to stop being Charlie Brown.