Attorney Tom Cloud and his staff did a good job of citing examples of municipalities in Florida who were unsuccessful in dissolving by a vote of the people when the city responded to our Petition. What is not mentioned is the former city of Cedar Grove, Florida. Eerily similar stories of corruption, out of control debt, lack of city services, and City Officials not listening to the will of the people were exactly what was going on in Cedar Grove. A former Mayor of the City even did jail time for his crimes there. A group of concerned city residents attempted twice to dissolve the city by petition under the same state statutes 165.051, as we did here. Both attempts were shot down for various reasons, but similar to ours, the petitions accomplished a lot in giving the people a voice to let the City Officials know where the people stood on the issue of dissolving the city and the public's approval rating of how the city was being run into the ground. Essentially, the city choose to ignore the public's wishes and continued down the same path of corruption.
A few years later when 3 of the city council seats were up for election, three individuals, unknown to each other at the time, agreed to run for the open seats with the intention to shut down the city. They ran on the issue that they would listen to the will of the people and were successfully elected. The 3 individuals, Janet Beier, Tony Brannen, and Mary Ann Gardner, were dubbed as the "Gang of Three" by the public. Here is a link to Janet A. Beier's campaign site from when she ran for office: Janet A. Beier I personally spoke with Ms. Beier regarding what happened in Cedar Grove and how they were successful. She was very helpful and informative. She said they were just average people trying to stop the corruption in their small town, but the only way they could put a stop to it there was by getting elected into the Council seats and proposing an ordinance to dissolve the city, themselves. After assuming their positions, the "Gang of Three" did not waste any time proposing and approving this ordinance, with a vote of 3 to 2, to dissolve the city. It went to a vote of the people at the general election later that year. The people voted to approve the ordinance and 30 days later, the city was dissolved. This was the first time in Florida history that a city was dissolved by a vote of the people. "The dissolution ordinance took effect at 8:00 AM on 22 October 2008, at which time the police department was disbanded and all assets became the property of the Bay County Commission." (quoted from the Wikipedia article cited below) I wonder if Polk County realized the significance of the October 22nd date when they set the recent deadline for the City on the past due Impact Fees. Maybe this is some sort of foreshadowing and possible poetic justice! Ms. Beier said it was not an easy process and she received a lot of heat for what she did, but she did not regret any part of their actions. She still lives in the same area she did at the time of all this and is very happy to be living in unincorporated Bay County.
Here are several links about Cedar Grove, Florida.
Cedar Grove, Florida on Wikipedia
Details of Cedar Grove dissolution emerge (see VIDEOS)
Town of Cedar Grove is No More
Bay County takes control of Cedar Grove streets
www.city-data.com - Cedar Grove, Florida
Cedar Grove Dissolution Dilemma
Cedar Grove Election Results
Last nights meeting another disappointment.
ReplyDeleteThis mayor and Temp. city manager, are bent on continuing to put the city in further debt. They pass resolutions with little or no information to what they call restructured debt. Why can't they write up what they are doing with figures , terms , interest rates, not just throwing out figures, amounts, and different terms. If they are negotiating terms, then put them out there. One minute they say $350K and then they say get an additional 1 million because its such a great deal and rate. then they say they are not sure if the bank will give it to them. Oh its just house keeping. Council Adorno says , they will just get the 1million and have it just in case. I've never seen a government that had money, and didn't use it. Especially one in such financial stress as this city. No one can figure out what they are doing???? How can the city be in good shape as the city manager says when we are continuing to borrow, and owe the county over $500K of money the citizens have already paid once????
I'm no math major but I do live on a budget. If you have $10 and a bill for $3. and you pay it you only have $7 for the rest of your bills. If you borrow another $3 you are back to $10. but you still owe the $3 you borrowed. You need the money to pay that back. If you don't have enough income, you are eventually going to get behind. This city does not have enough income, so how can we keep buying, and borrowing no matter how low the interest rate, and increased length of time. You need the income to pay it!!!!!!!!!
They continue to over rule and keep kicking the can down the road. Is this not what the last council did and got us into over 10 million in debt, without the revenue to pay it. They say Bad debt, good debt. doesn't matter you still owe it.
Retirement in Polk City in not turning out well.
Ann Huke
ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO PAY TAXES IN 2011. THEY ARE COUNTING ON THIS MONEY TO HELP KEEP THE CITY AFLOAT. I SAY LET THE SHIP SINK FASTER. TRUDY AND JOE HAVE CHAMPAIGN TASTE BUT BEER MONEY.
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