Saturday, September 18, 2010

Status of Questions About City Dissolution

Many of the questions that have posed to us, we have not yet been able to get definitive answers on.  Many of these answers cannot fully be answered at this point by any party because the daily decisions made by the county and city regarding major issues such as the Mt. Olive Utility System play a major impact in what happens in the overall picture.  Choices made by city officials regarding loan renegotiations, expenditures on projects such as the land purchase for the Cardinal Hill utility plant, continuing or delaying actions on sewer projects such as repairs needed to fix or reroute Mt. Olive sewer problems, consulting fees, outstanding payments to the county for back environmental impact fees, and how hard the city decides to fight existing and future legal issues all plays into this picture, just to mention a few. 

We understand some people may be frustrated with the lack of information on many of these issues.  You are not alone.  We too would like more information, but understand that this is a complicated issue that will take time and many legal minds to sort out.  The County Commissioners also acknowledged that they too would have to seek outside council to sort out many of the complex issues, which they voted to do so on Sept. 15th.  Despite the complexity, we as members of Concerned Citizens of Polk City are not ready to back down and let this discourage us.  We still believe that there are serious issues with the path the city is choosing to go down and we are attempting to put information out to the public to help shed light on issues when ever possible.

Angry - your comment post was sent more than once and ended up in the spam in-box.  Because of the duplicate posts, it was accidentally deleted.  Please resubmit your comment.  Thank you for voicing your opinion.

9 comments:

  1. Speaking of legal fees, how much is the city paying Mr. Cloud, the City Attorney of Haines City, they hired to assist in this matter? I know the fee was not mentioned at the Emergency Meeting on Friday, 9/17/10. According to my calculations, that means that two attorneys are now on retainer for the city, including the one in Orlando dealing with the WAC & SAC fee legality.

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  2. To the leaders of "Concerned Citizens of Polk City"

    Are you tired of the anger yet? This emotion wastes energy that could be used in a positive way by getting the facts of dissolution to the citizens.

    When will you stop shouting, making false accusations and misstatements, and acting inappropriately? Why not direct all of this energy towards working on getting the real facts on dissolution out to the Polk City Citizens?

    Where are the facts? Did you get a response from Polk County?

    When will you give the citizens of Polk City the facts about:
    1. the costs of dissolution to Polk City
    2. the risks of dissolution
    3. the pros and cons of dissolution
    4. the amount of the assessment
    5. what will be lost by moving to Polk County
    instead of just adding commentary to The Ledger articles.

    If these facts, and they should be confirmed facts, are presented and there is a clear case for dissolution, there would be no need to shout or perpetuate misstatements about the economic state of Polk City, or continue to bully citizens into believing you are telling the truth by the volume of your voice.

    The truth, when spoken quietly, is more powerful than a shout any day.

    Get the facts out there to your followers and you will not have to be angry or rude. You can enter into educated discussions with the City of Polk City on the advantages and disadvantages of keeping the City of Polk City.

    Getting the facts is hard work.

    Shouting out angry sound bites should be left to the reality shows.

    When there is an important decision to be made that could affect the wallets of Polk City citizens for the next 10-15 years, wouldn't it be better to have the facts instead of anger and misstatements?

    Is it possible that the cost of dissolution could be higher than keeping the city intact and working on the problem internally?

    Is it possible that Polk County will decide to spread the cost of the sewer debt across the residents left in Polk City by installing sewers in every neighborhood?

    If you cannot answer all the questions, can you document some assumptions and provide several scenarios on what might happen if the city dissolves?

    You must know something that makes you believe that dissolving the city is the right thing to do, what are the facts?

    The County Manager made it clear at the meeting on Wednesday that Polk County WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY DEBT from Polk City. What does that do to your previous assumptions and numbers?

    I am tired of the anger and bullying, the shouting and continuing misstatements, and am ready to move on if the leadership of Concerned Citizens of Polk City does not start providing the citizens with the confirmed facts of dissolution.

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  3. Make some assumptions on the right thing to do and post the numbers. Don't be paralyzed by the dynamic state of the current City situation.

    If you cannot do this, how can you be sure that the cost of dissolution will not be more than keeping the city?

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  4. There is a saying that liberals believe in freedom of speech as long as you agree with their point of view. Otherwise you only deserve to be shouted down.

    The first angry email following Friday night's emergency meeting declared "Council refused to let the public speak". Council had the floor for 30-40 minutes as they were being shouted down. Concerned Citizens have had this website, 2-3 shotgun emails per day, unfettered access to the media, county manager, county commissioners and 2 full days at Freedom Park while denying the Mayor the courtesy to distribute a pamphlet to get their message out.

    Friday night was an embarrassment. There is a growing group of Fed-Up-Citizens that are getting tired of the relentless criticism and undermining of the councils effort to manage the business of the city.

    The volunteer city manager is a fellow citizen and would benefit if the energy being used to fight her every move was used to work toward a common goal. There will be different opinions but there needs to be dialogue and respect.

    Fed-Up-Citizen

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  5. What is all this "Stop the anger said" and
    "anonymous said" and "Concerned Citizens of Polk City said". Dosn't anyone have names anymore.
    I'm going to put my two cents in from time to time but it will be signed. And yes lets keep this argument on an intelligent level because it's going to go on for awhile, and the ultimate result is important to anyone who lives in Polk City or pays taxes to Polk City or does business in Polk City.
    Dave Woodman

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  6. Could it be that the trust in the city government has been greatly reduced, and the people are afraid that they will be vulnerable when their identities have been revealed in such a public forum? That would really be a sad state of affairs. What ever is said here should not be taken on a personal level, but put in context of the whole picture.

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  7. Anonymous,
    I agree. There are many citizens that have questions and listen in silence for the answers. They follow protocol.
    Just curious as I have not seen this mentioned....have any of the organizers of this push visited city hall or posted a list of questions with answers or data they would like? I see a list for the county...is there a list for Polk City officials?
    As for personal attacks....are you kidding....mentioning the price of an officials home has NOTHING to do with this discussion! (This was allowed in a comment) Making assumptions and listing names when they are conjecture are not only damaging but hurtful. These are VOLUNTEERS, people. In your own ways you are both trying to make Polk City a great place to live.
    Step back and check out the faces. These are neighbors that once bid each other the time of day. You might want to sleep on it or better yet pray on it before it is said or written.

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  8. Dear Common,
    This blog is moderated to eliminate profanity and spam, not comments or personal opinions.

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  9. To Common, It is a FACT that you have posted at least 10 comments on this blog all dealing with the same issue of acusateons that false facts & misleeding information is given to P.C. residents by Concerned Citizens group. How do you know these facts are false and the information misleading? What do you base your statements on? If you have facts then why don't you share them with the rest of us, so we can deside which facts are right.

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