OneMann's blog

Mike,

I am curious about a statement you made on MCS:

"It didn't matter if citizens paid them $1 a year, 37K, or that obscene $60,000-plus they are currently receiving. Public service in return for their paychecks was not a concern, or certainly not a priority;"

I have a question for you: Given the "purity" of your intentions to run for a BCC seat, why haven’t you denounced any salary in favor of public service for the sake of servancy to Clay Countians? It would seem to be a no-brainer in terms of your actions being in line with your words.

The speculation is – and many people in the county seem to be in agreement – that you need this job. It comes across as more than just a little disingenuous that you’d accept a salary at all especially given your position on salaries, benefits and retirement to members of the BCC. In fact, members of CTLAC would be delighted if you denounced a salary, benefits and retirement.

They call him "Easy" according to his car dealership commercials, but that didn't fit earlier this week.

Ronnie Robinson didn't need his brother-in-law Ricky's help to bite a couple of butts at the County Commission's Policy and Rules Committee meeting Monday. After hearing Code Enforcement Director Bill Bodenweber question the patriotism of car dealers during a discussion about the county's sign ordinance, Robinson got hot.

He questioned Bodenweber's professionalism and accused him of harrassing certain businesses. That bite must have felt good, because then he took a chunk out of County Commissioner Doug Conkey.

Assuming I have the option on November's ballot, I'm going to vote in favor of eliminating the scheduled expansion of the Board of County Commissioners by two seats at-large.  The reasoning behind that decision is based not only in theory, but the practical evidence evidence offered by  comparing two County Commission races this year.

One is an at-large race, while the other is a district race.

Rob Bradley is running for the chairmanship, one of the at-large seats, and is unopposed. Didn't start out that way, though.  He wasn't even the first person to start running for the position.

Someone sent me an e-mail that referred to an argument often used against the current five-member County Commission, where each member is elected only by the voters of their district, and in favor of the planned expansion that will add to new members to the BCC, each of whom will be elected by voters from the entire county.

The e-mail cited arguments that make claims I've been referring to as the Single-Member Representation Myth.

Supporters of at-large elections say County Commissioners who are elected only by their district voters won't be concerned with issues facing Clay County residents who can't vote for them. That because they are elected only by the residents of their individual district, they have morphed into being only District Commissioners, not County Commissioners. That their duties and fields of concern have been cut to one-fifth of what they were when they were elected at-large.

Tomorrow is Earth Day, and there can't be any more beautiful places to celebrate than Spring Park in Green Cove Springs.  Fortunately, some folks have put together a celebration for you and all you have to do is show up between 1 and 5 p.m.

Take a frisbee or a good book and enjoy the spring and the maginificent view of the St. Johns River. Pack a picnic or buy some food - hot dogs, hamburgers, funnel cakes and a bake sale - from the Clay High School Band while you're there. And, since the band's gonna be there, you can probably figure out that music is going to be part of the fun.

Shortly before noon on Friday came word that there is a bomb scare at the State's Attorney's Office in Green Cove Springs.

Apparently a package that was x-rayed showed electrical wiring and otherwise resembled a bomb closely enough that the bomb squad has been called and on the way.

Folks with business at the Court House should probably plan on business taking longer than usual.

Michael S. Mann

michaelsmann@comcast.net

Apparently Clay County residents, and others in Northeast Florida, aren't the only people who see the potential danger in sucking a few hundred million gallons of water out of the St. Johns River. American Rivers thinks so, too.

That organization has named our river as one of the 10 Most Endangered Rivers in the United States.

Central Florida needs water to accommodate growth. A long-term solution is needed, and one that does not risk the St. Johns as the most convenient stop-gap measure.

The St. Johns River Water Management District has the authority to put a halt to the ill-conceived plan to syphon the river at its sources. The Florida Legislature can use its powers to stop this roll of the dice on our river's health and ecosystem. Neither, though, appear inclined to look into the future and say anything other than "Maybe 250 million gallons a day won't damage the river."

While some may resort to tactics from the seemier side of politics to inhibit open political discussions here on the MCS website, we shouldn't let things like multiple-blog-topic hijack attempts succeed in deterring our exchanges about the issues facing Clay County residents in 2008.

Voters shouldn't forget, and we shouldn't be prohibited from debating, the many separate issues that combine to present local voters with an extraordinary opportunity to make extraordinary change in their government. This year, voters will likely decide:

If they want one unopposed candidate to serve as chairman of the County Commission for four consecutive years;

There will be, given the historic success of signature petition drives by Citizens for Term Limits and Accountability Committee, a proposed Clay County Home Rule Charter Amendment on November's ballot that, if passed, will reverse a Charter Amendment voters adopted in 2006.

Two years ago, a Charter Review Commission met in public over the course of many months before proposing an Amendment that kept the five current County Commissioners who are each elected only by the residents of their individual districts, and add two Commissioners elected by the entire county. One of those new Commissioners would become Clay County's first four-year Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners. Passage of this year's proposed CTLAC admendment would keep things as they are, and eliminate those two at-large additions, and the four-year chairmanship, before they are established.

or, The Other Amendments 

Possible amendments to the Clay County Home Rule Charter, our local constitution, get discussed frequently here at MCS. No one, though, has brought up two proposed amendments making the petition-signing rounds, even though the petitions were initiated by Citizens for the Protection of Voters' Rights, a political action committee whose formation was announced on this website.

One of CPVR's proposals affects the formula used to determine County Commissioners' salaries, establishing equal pay for all Commissioners, including the new four-year chairman, assuming there is one after the election.