Baxley's blog

A brief tribute to Mothers, the world over.

Thank you, Mom, for all that you have done to help me turn out sort of normal.  You were the one who taught me that love and compassion make the world a better place, and that I should help spread both. 

You taught me it truly takes a bigger person to turn the other cheek than to seek vengeance.  WWJD.

You taught me that skinned knees and broken hearts are just a part of the real world, and the best thing to do is lick our wounds, get over it quickly, and move on.  Self-pity is self-defeat. 

You taught me how important it is to perservere, and that anything worth having is worth working hard for.  There is no such thing as a free lunch (unless of course you hit the Lotto, or a rich uncle remembers you in his will).

Growth and its consequences are a common topic here.  Fingers are pointed, blame is heaped, and characters are assaulted due to frustration from a county that seems to be consuming itself.

“No wonder Americans in the 1990s became increasingly alarmed at their deteriorating quality of life due to sprawl, congestion, overcrowded schools, lost open spaces and increasing restrictions on their individual liberty in order to handle the new population explosion!”  From www.numbersusa.com  The quote seemed as if it were written about current Clay County.  I have included it here to remind everyone that “our” problem is not just Clay County specific, but is happening all over the US and the World. There are two percentages associated with population - natural growth and overall growth. Natural growth represents the births and deaths in a country's population and does not take into account migration. The overall growth rate takes migration into account.

Well it has finally happened.  What has been for many months an enlightening and entertaining source of information has turned into a mess.

Great - we all know how to write a blog about nothing.  I told you guys this 5+2 deal is really not so important that we bring this lively blog site to a grinding halt with tons and tons of nonsense.  We get to vote on it in November - assuming the CTLA gets enough sigs to re-qualify.  Can we at least wait until then to beat each other up over some local government issue that - no matter what - will not cause the collapse of Clay County.

I needed a break anyway.  Now, thanks to blog-filibustering, I've got a good reason.  Later.

Or maybe I should say super-facial pet peeve.  It is . . . drum roll . . . plastic surgery.

I saw a story on some news show about Priscilla Presley's plastic surgery disaster.  Apparently she was allowing an unqualified physician to inject illegally obtained silicon into her face.  OOPS!!  Before and after photos were shown and it was just plain sad.  And this was obviously not her first time under the knife.

Priscilla Presley is, or I should say, was, a beautiful woman.  I can't understand why she would put herself through plastic surgery to try to be MORE beautiful.  To me, it just shows how insecure she is.  All the money in the world, famous, beautiful, but still, it's not enough.

To better understand the state of crime in our community, state and nation, I did some Googling.  I was surprised to see that crime is decreasing, not increasing. The numbers vary slightly from website to website, but the overall trend is consistent.

FL murder rate per 100K: ’72 – 12.7; ’85 – 11.4; ’95 – 7.3; ’05 – 5.0; ’06 – 6.2. US murder rate per 100K: ’25 – 8.3; ’45 – 5.7; ’75 – 9.9; ’85 – 8.4; ’95 – 8.7; ’04 – 5.9.  You can Google crime stats yourself to see the charts and graphs, but every site shows a consistent decline across the decades, with a slight bump up last year.  We can only guess if the bump up last year is the beginning of a different kind of trend.  Drug arrests are the exception with big increases in the number of arrests for drug offenses. For adults, the estimated number of drug abuse violations began at 322,300 in 1970 and increased, reaching 1,693,100 in 2006.

The CTLA is proposing a Charter Amendment that will eliminate the 5+2 BCC.  This blog is my response to some of the reasons they list for eliminating this forward thinking enhancement of the current 5 single district commission.

The population of Clay County does not justify additional commissioners.  There are 19 Charter Counties that can choose how many commissioners they want.  The other 48 non-Charter counties are limited by the Florida Constitution to either 5 or 7 commissioners.  Of the 19 Charter counties, the number of commissioners per county varies from as few as 5 (9 counties) to as many as 19 (Duval with 14 single district + 5 at-large).  The population of the Charter counties varies from as low as 62,000 in Columbia to 2.4 million in Dade (13 commissioners).  If it matters, the average population of the 19 counties is 712,960.  Divide that by the total number of commissioners in the 19 Charter counties (143) and you get 4,986 people per commissioner.  I know – what difference does that make?  That’s what I say about the whole “Clay is not big enough for a 5+2 plan” argument.  What difference does that make?  Not much of an argument to me.

http://news.jacksonville.com/justin/2008/02/23/officers-close-off-busy-103rd-street-for-investigation/

Well, first of all, congrats to me for figuring out how to C&P a link.  (I promise not to abuse my new skill.)  Second, it's not just the story itself that I found interesting, but the "blog" like comments posted after the story.  Marsha, you gotta read this.  Makes some of the blog-wars here at MCS seem like childs play.

The story, and the comments, are eye-opening.  I grew up in that neighborhood.  103rd was a 2-lane road that was travelled mostly by people heading back and forth to Cecil Field, and the locals who lived in the area.  It looked an awful lot like Middleburg back then.  Horses and cows, and open fields.  It doesn't look at all like Middleburg now.  More like the north end of Philips Highway.  It seems to be being taken over by thugs.  Terrorists?  I'll bet you I won't be caught anywhere near that place after dark.  No way., Comments

Mike,

Your question about the “power” of the Chair has had me thinking all day long.  Here’s my answer.

The “power” of the chair is probably the wrong word.  It implies a level of control that is overstated.  The power of the Chair is better described as influence.

All Boards have a Chair.  The Chair is seen as the “leader” of the Board by virtue of his or her position.  He or she typically runs the meeting, calling it to order, managing the agenda for the meeting, and calling for any votes that may occur.  The Chair has the responsibility to set the tone and pace of the meetings, and a good Chair can run a meeting, and a bad Chair can ruin a meeting.  We’ve all sat in meetings and wondered, “How did this person end up in that chair?”  By the same token, we’ve all seen people who have a natural ability to lead, and exert their “power” by using their ability to influence.

I was proud to be selected as 1 of 15 local citizens, 3 from each of the 5 County Commission Districts, to serve on the 2006 Charter Review Commission.  The CRC is required to be appointed every 4 years to Review the Charter and recommend any improvements it may deem appropriate.  Those recommendations are then forwarded to the BCC for a perfunctory vote and then sent to the citizens for approval or denial at the next election. 

One of the 3 ideas sent to the electorate, and approved by the electorate, was to add 2 at-large commissioners to the existing 5 single district commissioners.  One of the 2 would be elected as the 4-year Chairman of the BCC. 

"Spring has sprung, the grass has ris',  I wonder where the flowers is?"

Poor grammar aside, that little ditty pops into my head this time of year.  My Mom used to say that to us every year when spring would roll around.  Today's weather was great Chamber of Commerce weather (except in Clay County, that's usually a good thing ).  The early signs of spring are everywhere - bright green leaves budding out, pollen in the air, azaleas starting to bloom, beautiful blue skies.  MAN I LOVE FLORIDA!!