Article in Ledger on Sunday June 26th Paper

If you didn't catch this recent article "Profiling" former Acting City Manager Trudy Block, here is a link: Ex-Acting Manager Baptized by Fire in Polk City

Personally, as a comment posted on the previous blog article stated, reading that article this Sunday made my stomach sick and did insult me and the many other concerned individuals in this city that love this area and would like to continue to afford to live here.  When I received the calls from the reporter, Mr. Kevin Bouffard, to give my side of the story for this article, I refused to comment due to his obvious bias and his history of twisting my words and taking them out of context to make it appear that I said something that I did not.  I was not about to open that door again.  With the lawsuits Mrs. Block likes to threaten with, I figured I would be next no matter what I said regarding this article, if it was up to Kevin to translate.  By this statement in this above article, "Notably, given the encounter with Concerned Citizens, Block led a petition drive against the sewer expansion that collected 322 signatures representing 244 properties, nearly a quarter of Polk City residences.", obviously things Kevin writes have a bit of a slant.  First of all, many of the people who now are "Concerned Citizens" worked along side Mrs. Block making signs and collecting signatures to support this effort to stop the sewer expansion.  "Concerned Citizens" and this blog did not exist until mid-2010, when this effort to stop the sewer expansion in Sandy Pointe Subdivision occurred in November of 2009.  Many individuals in the city felt Mrs. Block supported many of their same views based on her stand during this anti-sewer campaign.  Once elected to her position unopposed, Mrs. Block is now supporting improvements of this same sewer system she tried to stop.  She gets very defensive any time this "fact" is brought up. 

Since all of this controversy started over the city debt, all the people of Concerned Citizens wanted was to ask the City Officials to give a fair look at what we were proposing as a possible solution to get the city out of debt.  When we spoke to officials at the county level to see what their opinion was on our suggestion, County Officials were the ones who suggested a special taxing district might be a solution, but they stated that there were many details that would need to be worked out between city and county officials before many of our questions could be answered.  On several occasions, we offered to work with City and County Officials to try to figure out possible solutions to the debt crisis here, but Mayor Joe LaCascia essentially stated that due to the legal status between the city and county over the misappropriated $500,000 in funds owed to the county for impact fees, the county officials were not willing to talk to them over the dissolution issue.  That was never confirmed and I highly doubt that is the whole truth, due to discussions that the county officials brought up during the public meetings that occurred in Lakeland in the mediation process about these misappropriated funds.  During these mediation meetings, County Officials were quite vocal about the fact that they believed the city was in financially over their head and adding to that debt, in their opinion, would only place undo burden on a small population of the county that couldn't support it.  They offered to take the "albatross" off Polk City's back by offering to take the Mt. Olive utility system back, but city officials did not want to consider that option because it would put them out of the utility business, the main source of revenue for the city over the recent years of miss-management.

The people of Polk City spoke and City Council Officials basically laughed in our faces and told us to show them the "facts."  We earnestly attempted to do so, but without the City Officials willing to consider dissolution as a viable solution to the still increasing debt, and not working with the County Officials to see what could really happen if the option where seriously considered, there were only so many "facts" to be had.  Behind the high dollar "Acting" City Attorney and his long list of connections who have conveniently worked together for well over a decade, Mrs. Block felt confident that as long as she had his stamp of approval, all is well.  Unfortunately, Mr. Cloud has a long list of casualties of small cities he has "helped" in the past that have ended up with deeper debt and sky-rocking taxes and utility fees, and a hefty legal bill to show for it.  How convenient is it that Mr. Cloud has a long list of experts he has worked side-by-side with in a long list of small cities with financial troubles?  He smells opportunity and has his experts, expertise which these small cities lack, to back up his plans with expensive official reports stating exactly what the city needs to forge forward with implementing costly utility improvements at the cost of the tax payers.  Easy pickings for a big payday, for both Mr. Cloud and his long line of experts.  How well did Mrs. Block investigate Mr. Cloud's background before signing us all up for these additional expenses?  Our Internet research showed plenty of questionable business practices in Mr. Cloud's past which we have highlighted in previous blog posts, but all the public heard from Mrs. Block was praise for him.  Why?  Other small cities such as Cedar Grove have successfully dissolved and the county worked with city officials through the transition.  The idea is not such a foreign concept, but it does rely on the city officials not letting their egos get in the way of seeing what other feasible options are out there, as well as greedy attorneys not making most of the important decisions on behalf of the inexperienced city officials.  At the cost of "saving the city" small businesses and property owners are left holding the bill when renters start running for the hills due to ever increasing expenses.  How in the big picture does that improve the city unless the main objective is only to have the most affluent people remaining, since they are the only ones who can continue to afford to live here?

Another big problem the public had with how Mrs. Block operated under her temporary term as Acting City Manager was the manor in which she retained both this temporary position, as well as her original position as City Vice-Mayor, simultaneously.  In essence, she was proposing ideas as the City Manager, then voting to approve her own proposals as Vice-Mayor, an obvious conflict of interest.  The letter that supposedly gave her permission from the state to do this, per Mr. Cloud, did not clearly provide permission.  It merely restated verbiage, or lack thereof, from the City's Charter leaving it open to interpretation.  Ethically, Mrs. Block should have temporarily stepped down from her position as Vice-Mayor while holding the Acting City Manager position, especially considering the length of this temporary position lasted nearly a year.  Rather than doing this, she gloated and smirked to the audience each time she voted as Vice-Mayor to extend her own term as Acting City Manager. 

As time has gone on, Mrs. Block has continually embellished on what Concerned Citizens has stood for and what actions we have taken.  This quote from the article, "The anger and name-­calling is just unbusinesslike. If you've got a good reason, my mind can be changed. If you call me names, that doesn't help," said Block."  I don't know what names she is referring to other than some of the comments from individuals who have posted their opinions on our blog in frustration to what is going on here with the city.  We have allowed no profanity to be posted on this blog, but we have allowed the public an outlet to voice their opinions, which many times is not permitted in an official city forum.  If Mrs. Block doesn't like the opposing opinions we have stated in the articles we have written or the un-edited comments every day people post in response, that doesn't qualify as the hosts of this blog calling her names.

It is ironic that Mrs. Block, of all people, makes these statements, considering people in the neighborhood in which both Mrs. Block and I live have made "angry" comments towards me personally about what I have supposedly stated on this blog, and that I should be ashamed of myself. Even to the extent of knocking on my door at 8 o'clock at night just to give me a piece of their mind, and not allow me to defend myself.  When I ask if they have ever personally read the blog, the answer is that they don't want to and they have heard all about it.  I wonder who is doing the name calling and twisting the "facts" when she is not officially on the record in city meetings?  If Mrs. Block is so open-minded, professional, compassionate, and shows respect for opposing views, how does she justify her little victory dance during the March, 2011, annual HOA meeting in this subdivision as out-going President when her preferred candidate for President was elected by a very small margin over myself? Beginning with Mrs. Block's tenure as former HOA President, as well as holding her position with the city, she has been successful in pitting neighbor against neighbor and people who once were friends will now not even speak to one another.  The warm welcoming southern hospitality what used to exist in this neighborhood, has been tainted and may never fully recover.  I, as well as other Concerned Citizens, have always only tried to seek the truth, ask the tough questions, and provide the people of Polk City with the other side of the story, rather than keeping the people of Polk City in the dark about what got us in this deep hole of debt in the first place, and possibly what we can do to get out of it.  The false accusations made by Mrs. Block during official city meetings that members of Concerned Citizens have been confronting people in the city parking lot to intimidate them from coming to the meetings??? are another example of the twisted bad mouthing that has been going on.  The more times false statements like this are made and repeated to slander my reputation doesn't make them true!  If statements like this are made to try to intimidate us from speaking with people in the parking lot who approach us, this strategy doesn't seem to be working.  She has also tried to shut us down by making inaccurate, and once again embellished, complaints to the Florida Election Commission to intimidate and threaten us as well.  If these charges were based upon "facts" maybe she would have been successful.  Obviously she was not.  We have only encouraged people to attend the meetings to stay informed, speak up for what they believe in, stand up for what is right, and asked that the City Officials make decisions that represent the will of the majority of the people in this city, instead of just a few.  If that is so unbusinesslike, then I guess I am guilty as charged.  If Mrs. Block is such a professional and courteous person, why does she get so nasty or cry when her ideas are legitimately publicly challenged, even to the point where she disrespects her co-council member, Don Kimsey, at official city meetings.

Hopefully, Mrs. Block will get her fill of tooting her own horn soon enough.  Where I come from, the people who are humble and do things because it is the right thing to do, and not to get the pat on the back and make sure everyone hears about it, are the ones who are the most respected in the long run.

Lisa B. Shifflett