This article will give you an idea of what happened during last night's emergency meeting.
Polk City Votes to Make Defaulted Loan Payments to Keep Water System
Although the council refused to let the public speak in this meeting, many outraged citizens spoke out anyway. Attempting to make this payment to the county does not address one of the major issues the County Commissioners had with how Polk City is running the Mt. Olive Utility system. Mainly, the way the Polk City Utilities is treating the Polk County residents compared to how the rest of the county residents are treated in regards to their utility services. Per the Polk County Commissioners, part of the original Mt. Olive Utility deal in 2008 was that Polk City would agree to treat the Polk County residents fairly and equally to how the other Polk County residents are treated on other utility systems. In the live feed around time mark 2:07, Commissioners acknowledged that this is not happening. If the city officials are scraping the bottom of the barrel and cleaning out funds from the General Fund, City Impact Fees, and Water Funds to come up with this payment, how is the city possibly in any financial situation to lower water and sewer rates to bring relief to these customers any time in the near future? Where is the money going to come from for paying the $1,700 per week Utility Consultant from FGUA or even the day to day operations of the water system if that money is now being used to pay the county? How can the city officials say that the budget is balanced and the city is in better shape now than it was last year at this time? If this money was available in the budget all along and not needed for operations, why was this debt not paid on time to begin with? City Officials refused to answer these questions.
Here is the link again to our post with the info on the link to the Polk County Live Feed.
Live Video Feed from Sept 15th Polk County Commission Meeting
In the Sept 15th County meeting, Commissioners voted 5-0 to contact the Governors office and have him declare Polk City in a state of Financial Emergency if Polk City did not make this payment on Monday, the 20th. This declaration would put a stop to any further spending without the approval of the Governor's oversight committee. It would also put the loan renegotiations with SunTrust in jeopardy. The financial future of the city hinges on these deals.
As far as added legal fees regarding the take back of the Mt. Olive Utility System. If you watch the Polk County live feed from the Sept. 15th meeting, around the 2:33 mark of the video where the County Attorney requests permission to seek outside council on the take back of the system, Commissioner Reed asks the Attorney how much does he expect this to cost. The Attorney responded by saying that it all depends on how much the city decides to fight them. If Polk City Officials will just wake up and realize that maintaining operations of the Mt. Olive Utilities and keeping this city running by trying to fight for a lost cause and do what is right for the people, the city can stop throwing good money after bad and make this a much smoother and cheaper process for everyone involved.
The Ledger article singled out Council Member Don Kimsey as elected unopposed to council in April. When in fact, the only Council Member presently seated who was elected by the voters is Council Member Adorno. Even the Mayor, Vice Mayor / Acting City Manager, and Council Member Blethen never campaigned for office and also were appointed unopposed by the previous administration. The, "I don't knows," the, "We'll look into its," and the, "Give us more time to work it outs," will only get you so far. What happens if the city tax payers decide to wait until April to pay their tax bills? The city residents have serious concerns about the financial decisions currently being made by city officials by borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. In a household budget, if you start using the grocery money to pay your water and electric bills, there is a very good chance someone will be going hungry.
Where were the other election candidates? Where was this group during the previous administration? These citizens/neighbors volunteered to help. Where were you?
ReplyDeleteI choose to support these officials and give them the chance to repair previous years mistakes. I will listen to the data and to why they are making the decisions they are making. Then....I will decide when they are up for reelection if they should return.
I am finding this site very biased. You state that you were not allowed to speak at the Friday night meeting.(not unusual for a budget transfer meeting) You failed to mention that the public will be given time to speak at the meeting on Tuesday evening. You state that the councl is throwing good money after bad, yet where are your facts and figures coming from? Their pieces do not fit your puzzle.
This site is strongly tipping to one side. The information is not balanced. Being so, the information is no longer in my eyes useful in making a good decision.
Your assumption that you speak for city residents does not include me. Individual agendas seem to be facing.
I do not have the knowledge to really know about water and sewer systems and governing a city like Polk City. But I have watched government in Polk City since 1968 when I purchased land on the Green Pond Road, and later in 1988 purchased some commercial property and went into businss in Polk City. The City Administration has gone from the good old boy system to the Taj Mahal system. The new city hall is really nice but too much for Polk City. Half of it could be rented out now to bring in some cash. And we did not need a sewer system. A good part of Lakeland and surroundings is on septic tanks. I have some rentals in Polk City and when the tenants showed me their water bills I was sure there was a mistake. But no. Acting City Manager Ms. Block said at the county commission meeting that Polk City has many low income people. Polk City needs to set up a system to pay these water bills for low income people as the Agricultural and Labor Program, Inc does to pay for Electric Bills under the Low Income Energy Assistance Program.
ReplyDeleteDave Woodman
I find the Ledger article dated 9/18/2010 very biased. Either the Polk City officials are not telling the reporter the whole story, or he chooses to include his biased view.
ReplyDeleteWe are outraged county residents. We were at the EMERENCY Polk City Council meeting on Friday night. We were very upset that no citizen was allowed to speak. Our understanding is that citizens will be allowed to speak at the next council meeting. That is too late. We should have been able to have input to the council prior to paying the county the $348,772. Trudy Block discussed about how they were going to move funds from various accounts to pay the $348,772 owed the county. She further stated that the budget was in balance and included funds to pay the county. It seems to me if the budget was balanced you would not have to move funds from other accounts to make budgeted payments. She also stated that the 2011 budget was in balance and included funds to make all required payments. She failed to mention how or when they plan to repay the $515,000 in county impact funds that was used by the prior counsel to fund the day to day operations. We don’t live in the city but we are forced to get water and sewer from Polk City but have no right to vote on the city council members. If the 1200 people who reside outside of the city are removed from the Polk City water/sewer system there is no way Polk City can pay its debts. Take back the water/sewer system and/or dissolve Polk City.
ReplyDeleteso where is the state investigation? I think its high time to get to the bottom of this, and no over blown paychecks should be handed out, polk city has a problem and the citizens should not be the scapegoats for a politican's corruption, findout who did what ! a $500.000 house for a city offical is a bit much don't you think,while the rest of us scrimp by,
ReplyDeleteI was at the meeting and the reporter was not biased. He reported everything just as it happened in the meeting. The only thing he left out was the angry sound of all the citizens.
ReplyDeleteWhy was our City Attorney not at the emergency meeting to answer some of Councel Kimsey's questions? Why is it necessary for Polk City officials to retain Thomas Cloud, the Haines City city attorney, for advice in this matter? Maybe the city can cut expenses by firing our city attorney, since he's obviously not qualified to be of assistance to the city in this case.
ReplyDeleteThis comment is in reference to "Common's" post.
ReplyDeleteI will not utilize this site in order to trash talk or berate sincerely concerned citizens. I however will address your post. In it you ask where the facts and figures are coming from and reflect shock that citizens of Polk City are outraged by city officials refusal to let them speak out.
Here are MY facts and figures:
I pay over three thousand dollars a year in taxes part of which includes an additional tax hike to live within the city limits of Polk City.
I travel to nearby citys for at least 90 % of my errands. This is primarily because there is a very small business base in Polk City.
The roadways in my neighborhood are deplorable.
I have once a week trash pickup and pay twice what other nearby city's pay.
I am FORCED to pay very high water rates and milage rates.
I have been FORCED to endure tax increase after tax increase with absolutely no added amenities.
I can not move because like most American citizens I can not sell my home because of the housing market crash.
I am a civil servant who admittedly does not know much about politics. I do know that I feel that the city council's interests rest entirely with the city and not with the citizens.
I have one other point that I would like to relay. While I do not hold a political position, I do know that the monies utilized in government are that of the CITIZENS.
The council should be a representation of the people and their action's should reflect such. To this date I feel that they have failed in that endeavor.
So "Common" it is due to the frustrations of the CITIZENS that they were outraged that they could not be heard while the council spent ANOTHER $348,000 dollars of the CITIZENS tax dollars. What good will it do to be heard on Tuesday when the money will be spent Monday?
I commend those that are standing against the unrighteous actions of the council and offer them my sincere gratitude.
Sincerely,
J Perez
To Kenneth,
ReplyDeleteWhy did the Ledger not publish the transferred amounts and mention the accounts where the funds were transferred from to pay for the check of more than $340,000 to the county?
When you budget, you put money specifially for those purposes in specific account to be used when needed for those same purposes. If you're short in one account and cover the shortage by taking it out of another account, that means "borrowing from Peter to pay Paul". When Peter needs the money, will Paul have the money to pay him back? Just because Washington does it, that doesn't make it right!
Are you sure that dissolution will cost less than keeping the city?
ReplyDeleteWhere are the facts?
In response to Anonymous with questions regarding the fund transfer amounts.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why the amounts were not reported in the Ledger. Perhaps because we could not hear the actual amounts?
I agree with you about the budget and money being in categorys for budgeted items and I agree that the city is "borrowing from Peter to pay Paul". I never said it was right and I believe they will be in more trouble later on.
My point was about the reporter. He was not biased for the city or for the citizens. It was an angry crowd and he reported that.
I would rather have the water/sewer back in the counties hands, it did not cost me as much when they were running it.