WAS THE ERROR SOE'S OR BCC'S IN PLACING WRONG PETITION ON BALLOT
The finger pointing will begin at the BCC Meeting on Tuesday at 4 pm. Yes they have called for that item to be placed on the agenda and to be heard at that time. It is my opinion that any effort for them to remove it from the ballot or not permit the voting on the petitions emerges as their decision, recall would be in order. The right of citizens being able to Petition was decided in 1789 for you history buffs when the Constitution was approved. Elected officials intentionally violating the Constitution violates their oath of office and is the basis for such action. I find it interesting that so many hands had their fingers on the transmission from the SOE before it was transmitted to the BCC. Correct me if I am wrong but both Rob Bradley and Attorney Scruby requested copies of the petitions from the SOE prior to being sent to the BCC. Could their fingers in the pie be the problem? Could the SOE attached the wrong one when it was sent? DUH it does not matter the point is someone did it and the CTLAC and the thousands who signed the petition should not bear responsibilty for someone elses mistake. Where is accountability??? Certainly not in our local government. I see Green Cove Springs is having their leadership problems in another blog. Is it endemic of what politics is about in this County. When there is a cost overrun has it occurred that maybe not enough was set aside at the beginning for those in need? Where did the excess go. If I am reading it right over 100k was spent on an outhouse. I appraised Adnan Kashoggi's executive DC8 years ago, he had gold fixtures in the bathroom on that aircraft and I do not think it cost 100k plus. What is happening locally is just a small picture of what has happened to America, me first, greedy attitudes have put our entire economic structure in danger. Weeks ago I stated we were in a Depression does anyone want to disagree? Dropping it to the local level decisions to commit the taxpayers money to projects that profit a few is similar what has created the collapse of Wall Street. I intend to be there and I hope all of you who want to preserve our Constitutional Rights will be there. I intend to get my 3 minutes worth and I hope you all do as well. Please Vote yes for all the CTLAC's petitions and demand that they be counted so at least we know the will of the people. Submitted by Politicalnewbie on Sat, 10/11/2008 - 9:18pm.
I don't know all the details here but I have a question...how were there 2 different versions of the petition in the first place?
Just curious =D Submitted by Angela on Sat, 10/11/2008 - 9:41pm.
The CTLAC submitted a petition. It was later amended and submitted for certification. The amended petition was fully certified by the SOE and circulated by the CTLAC. After the correct number of signatures were collected and verified on the amended petition. It was suppose to be submitted to the BCC for them to place it on the ballot. It appears someone in the SOE's office submitted the wrong petition to the BCC for placement on the ballot. That is not their only snafu coming out of that office lately.
Submitted by finder on Sun, 10/12/2008 - 6:33am.
Did this happen by accident or design? Did someone do 5 people a 'favor' by putting the wrong one on the ballot? I don't think we will ever know for sure. I do know it could cost us a pretty good chunk of change. There is a significant cost difference to the County as to when this amendment takes effect if it gets passed by the voters. The correct one says it takes effect immediately. Meaning that the 5 newly elected commissioners get paid $37K. The 'old' one that was never circulated doesn't specify that, which means they will get the % pay as set forth in the CRC amendment for the next full term if I'm reading things correctly. Will it get 'fixed' so that if the DCA says leave it on the ballot that the correct one gets voted on or implemented? Or is this going to be another incident where they fess up to their mistake but they're just oh so sorry that there is nothing we can do about it so the voter has to take the hit for it? Who knows? Political advertisement paid for and approved by, Mike Heemer, write-in, for Commission Chair.
Submitted by FredCatchpole on Sun, 10/12/2008 - 11:11am.
Mike, was it intentional, if you read and reread some of Roy's supporters blogs it appears that they always knew of the problems before submission. They must be psychic. Think about what I asked early in this blog, I asked to correct me if I was wrong that Bradley and Scuby had their hands on the petitions before submission by the SOE. I believe I recalled it from earlier blogs or correspondence that I saw. Could they have mixed it up? Too many hands with conflicts of interest medling in the business before submission leads to mistakes, planned or negligent it does not matter to them since only the voter and taxpayer are the losers. Readers on Tuesday you have an opportunity to express for the record your moral outrage of the mistakes that all branches of our local government has made. In your expression please make it clear that whatever the fall out is that the people get the right to vote on all the issues. Show up, reserve your three minutes speak your peace and demand that the Right to Petition is upheld. Sign in and let all know that you will be there to get your 3 minutes.
Submitted by FredCatchpole on Sun, 10/12/2008 - 1:43pm.
A review of the CRC minutes from 2005/2006 indicate gaps in the process. It further indicates that subcommittees worked on issues prior to the entire group meeting. Where are the notes/minutes from those subcommittee meetings. Were sunshine laws not followed? Subjects just appear to come up referring to prior actions/discussions that are not able to be found. Foot notes refer to discussions that there is no record to be found. Click of the April 17, 2006 minutes and you will not find them others from another date are substituted in their place. So what you say? Who served on the subcommittees, did others outside CRC participate without a record being made? Some actions appear to be self serving, and most of the last meetings seemed to focus on establishing the chair position and methods to employ to impede citizens initiatives. The records reflect that some public involvement was done a fellow name Jack Myers name appeared as making some recommendations. Were there others? In a draft, Cummings and Watts were even authorized to modify resolutions and amendments for the Charter to be reworded as long as they did not change the substance of the resolution. Is that all that was changed? Is it not odd that now Watts is using to his advantage to impede the Citizens Initiatives some of his slick wording. It is incumbant that the people who our forefathers empowered to be the boss of our elected officials reprise that responsibility and vote for the citizens initiatives. Checks and balances, our government is supposed to have them, however in today's environment it appears the only check on abuse of power available is citizens initiatives. Again Vote and demand an honest count.
Submitted by Angela on Sun, 10/12/2008 - 1:55pm.
I've looked for those minutes too and I haven't been able to locate them either. Submitted by alabayea on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 9:46am.
In order to get a answer about this, we decided to ask DOE. The question posed was if SOE puts wrong citizens initiative on ballot, is SOE responsible for errors and omissions? DOE 's reply said " The Supervisor of Elections is ultimately rsponsible for the information printed on the ballot". The question now is how is she going to correct it? People are talking about ...Here are the recent blog postings with the most comments. |
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All of these mistakes land right in the lap of the SOE's Office. Ms Kirkman can leave office proudly with the rest of the incompetent elected officials in the county.