Council Meeting wrapup for 09/25/2006
The early parts of council meeting passed mostly uneventful. The city passed the ordinance related to the Super Target center, on Pine Island Road, and a pair of other small zone changes. Very little of interest, other than Mr. Rosado stopping, in the middle of one of the votes, to address the applicant, and advise them how to ‘ask their representative for help’ in the future. He then voted to deny that ordinance. The denial failed. He then voted to approve the ordinance, when it was moved to approve it.
The mayor asked to limit speakers to 2 minutes each, to prepare for the number of residents who attended to speak about the candidates for district 1.
Not a single individual spoke in favor of, or in opposition to, a single candidate. It seems residents had other things on their minds.
Mr. Maida again brought up his petition, about illegal immigration. He provided council with copies of death threats he has received. This is a chilling thought. Each of us has the right of petition, we hold The Freedom of speech. Any resident offering death threats to someone in opposition of their views is immoral, and unacceptable, in any way.
Mrs. Baron stood up, and cautioned the council about the changes being made to stormwater easements, and the removal of swales. She pointed to the very real possibility of pollution in our waters. Her opinion on this should be followed carefully. She spent over 20 years working in, or managing that department, prior to her retirement two years ago. The council will do well to continue to heed her advice.
The final two speakers did ask that the council vote along the lines of “the will of the people.” Hinting at the sentiment that the number two candidate in the previous election was the ‘runner up’ in the election.
Next, the Auditing plan for 07 was presented, with hints of things to come in 08 and 09. Because of my dissatisfaction with how the Auditor’s office is managed, I will admit my opinion may be slightly jaded. I do not feel Ms. Newman is providing a strong leadership there. She is going to have a ‘practice run’ in 08 to lead up to a real “QA Process” in 09. I am a firm believer in finding and fixing problems now. Waiting a full year for a dress rehearsal is preposterous. She should have simply budgeted a real QA this year, and dealt with the necessary repairs, after the process was completed. She did mention the Construction Contract Auditor who will be hired. This is a good move, and will ease problems in future UEP areas, because the audits will occur real time, with active data, rather than archived data.
A motion was granted for a 5 minute break, which took about 15 minutes.
After the break, the process of selecting Jim Jeffers’ replacement began. I will cover this separately, along with the incredible tirade that occurred during reports.
