Here's How You Can Help

Our group, The Concerned Citizens of Polk City, has already initiated the process of dissolving the City of Polk City in raising public awareness and involvement by starting this blog.  We have received overwhelming public support in our petition drive a few weeks ago and also in the public responding to our requests to contact our County Commissioners and asking them for their support. 

The State of Florida Statutes, the County and City ordinances outlines the process, which can sometimes be a lengthy one. The 2010 Florida Statutes, Title XII, Chapter 165.051 deals specifically with Dissolution Procedures of Municipalities.  It states:

(1)    The charter of any existing municipality may be revoked and the municipal corporation dissolved by either:

(a)   A special act of the Legislature; or

(b)    An ordinance of the governing body of the municipality, approved by a vote of the qualified voters. 

Which means that

(a)    The Florida Legislature may pass a special act repealing the enabling act of the municipality and any subsequent amendatory acts.  This method is subject to all requirements of law or rule applicable to the consideration and enactment of any special act.

(b)   The governing body of the city seeking dissolution may pass an ordinance dissolving the municipality, subject to the approval of the qualified voters in the affected area.

Some of our readers have been asking how they can help in the process.  We are working behind the scenes, but you can still be of tremendous help by now contacting your Florida State Legislatures.  Their job is to represent their citizens and listen to their concerns. 

Our Florida Representative District in #64 – Rep. Kelli Stargel

Or:         P. O. Box 2839                                  District Office: Suite 109

              Lakeland, FL 33808-2839                    2000 East Edgewood

                                                                        Lakeland, FL 33803-3639

                                                                        Phone (863) 614-9156

            Her legislative assistant is:  Rachel Barnes

            Her District Secretary is:  Chris Dowdy,  Phone (863) 614-9156

                                                            e-mail:  chris.dowdy@myfloridahouse.gov

                                                Capital Office:

                                                                        405 House Office Building

                                                                        402 South Monroe Street

                                                                        Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300

                                                                        Phone (850) 488-2270

To e-mail her go to www.flsenate.gov On left side, click on: Senators

                                                            Enter your zip-code+4, then find Kelli Stargel

                                                            Click on her name, and below her picture is

                                                            her e-mail link.  Fill out the required information

                                                            then click:  continue 

Our Florida Representative in District #65 – Rep. John Wood

                                                                        705 East Main Street

                                                                        Haines City, FL 33844-4226

                                                                        Phone (863) 419-3470

His legislative assistant is:  Hedy Weddington

            His District Secretary is:  Katherine Bell

                                                Capital Office:

                                                                        210 House Office Building

                                                                        402 South Monroe Street

                                                                        Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300

                                                                        Phone (850) 488-2721

To e-mail him go to www.flsenate.gov  On left side, click on Senators

                                                            Enter your zip-code+4, then find John Wood

                                                            Click on his name, and below his picture is

                                                            His e-mail link.  Fill out the required information

                                                            Then click:  continue

           

Our Florida State Senator in District #15 is:         Paula Dockery

                                                                        P. O. Box 2395

                                                                        Lakeland, FL 33806-2395

                                                                        Phone (863) 413-2900

                                                Capital Office:

                                                                        302 Senate Building

                                                                        404 South Monroe Street

                                                                        Tallahassee, FL 32399-1100

                                                                        Phone (850) 487-5040

                                                                        e-mail:dockery.paula.web@flsenate.gov

                                               

                                                                       

The Saga of Polk City

Everyone in Polk City has their own reasons for living in this peaceful, rural community.  Many have been born and raised here, some have moved here for it’s peaceful tranquility and slow pace of life to retire here.  There are also those who commute to Orlando, Lakeland or elsewhere but found Polk City a “nice place to come home to at the end of a busy day” and it was affordable living compared to living near their jobs.  When we moved here 10 years ago, we built a home in the outskirts of Polk City in the county.  We had to get our permits from Bartow and Lakeland, which was NOT an inconvenience at all.  Our roads were taken care of, our trash was picked up twice a week and the sheriff stopped and talked to us on occasions during his frequent patrols through our neighborhood.  We paid $13.00/month for our water bill,  $98.00/year for the trash pickup, which was included in our annual real estate tax bill.  The Town of Polk City (yes, then it was still called a TOWN) had all the little stores you would expect in a small rural town and the citizens were happy to be here. 

Then everything changed with the housing boom nationwide.  Our town officials expected the same aggressive expansion that the rest of the nation was experiencing, and they needed to prepare for this building boom by preparing the necessary infrastructure like sewers, higher demand for water, better roads, a bigger city hall.  So they went into the sewer business when they purchased this problematic Mt. Olive sewer system.  Had the “housing bust” not occurred it might have been a good business plan. However, the city’s business plan did not include a back-up plan in case of an economic recession.  The enormous debt had been created, and no way to pay for it.  Money was squandered in legal battles with Auburndale and Fantasy of Flight.  The city officials had to find a way to finance this debt by aggressive, forceful annexation practices, raising taxes and finally skyrocketing water and sewer rates. 

In a very short time this little peaceful community was burdened with huge debts and no way to pay for it.  New City officials with expert business backgrounds but not experienced in running a city, stepped in confident that they can fix this mess IN TIME.  Maybe they can if they can lure businesses into town with a temporary partial waver on impact fees.  But why would a business be interested in coming to Polk City when it’s much cheaper for them to establish their business in Auburndale or outside city limits where overhead fees and taxes are MUCH lower?  Landlords are stuck with many empty rental properties because tenants can’t afford the high water/sewer bills.  They can live much cheaper in Auburndale, and have a higher standard of living. People planning to come to this area drawn to the new USF Polytechnic Campus which will be built in Auburndale, will also find that it’s too expensive to live in Polk City.

To preserve this unique town, it is imperative to lower the extremely high cost of living and the high cost of doing business here.  If this is not done, the existing businesses will disappear, one by one.  In recent history we lost the Polk City Pharmacy/Medicine Shoppe, the IGA grocery store, the donut shop, the movie rental store, the Sub Shop, the original beauty shop, the original flower shop, the Antique Store, a car repair shop, a small general store, the bait shop, and several restaurants have changed hands.  Woodman’s Realty closed its doors.  Most of the gas stations in town have changed hands several times. All new business owners are complaining about the high cost of doing business in this town. How long will our unique Feed Store be able to hang in there, and the Ace Hardware Store?  The empty storefronts speak for themselves.  Real Estate agents are not motivated so show Polk City properties due to our high taxes and fees.

One of Polk City’s residents spoke so eloquently towards the end of the “Business Plan for Polk City” meeting on Sept. 21.  She told the story of this old dresser she acquired in a yard sale and paid a couple of dollars for.  The top was distressed and warped, but it had good bones.  She worked hard at it, and placed a heavy aquarium on the top to force the top to straighten out.  Her hard work paid off and now it’s worth a lot more than what she paid for it.

It will be hard work, but we can also do this with the city by dissolving Polk City to stop further skyrocketing debt. Spreading out the debt over 25 – 35 years adds millions of dollars to the existing debt.  Lawsuits with Fantasy of Flight in a higher court, County litigation over the Mt. Olive sewer system, and the Cardinal Hill Sewer Plant, the Mt. Olive Shores North de-annexation process, are inevitable.  Unpaid county impact fees in excess of $500,000, plus the unpaid lease of $300,000 on the Cardinal Hill WT plant are still to be paid.  This lease expires in 2012.   Land purchase needed to utilize the Cardinal Hill WT plant to its full capacity will be very expensive.  The city coffers are depleted after the interest payment on the Mt. Olive ST plant debt in excess of $348,000 was paid to the county on 9/20/2010.  The Mt. Olive ST plant needs to be returned to the county, since that was the beginning of our downfall.

If we dissolve the city, no more debt will be created.  Prime real estate that the Polk City currently owns will be attractive to prospective buyers, due to our easy access to the interstate. The possibility exists that we will be able to keep our library.  Miami-Dade added a small millage rate to their assessment to pay for their library system. Working together with Dade County, they were able to dramatically improve and expand their libraries to award winning status.  Utility rates will be brought back to county levels, police coverage will be dramatically improved over the 1 police officer who now covers the city in a 40 hour shift, our roads will be fixed.  Local businesses will start making more profit with lower overhead costs, and we will still be able to preserve the small town atmosphere that we all love.  Neighbors will be less stressed over their high costs of living. It will still be called Polk City, and we will still be the same community with the same citizens who care for each other and are proud to call Polk City their hometown.  Polk City will still be on the map and our history will not change. 

2010-2011 Final Adopted Polk City Budget

For those of you who did not get a copy of this at the September 21st meeting:
You can single or double click to enlarge and/or print.

Letter to our City Leaders

You can e mail this to all your members and post to your blog

Dear Council, Mayor, and acting City Manager,      

            

Our city will change in name only; our citizens will not. The people of Polk city will still be friendly, and still say hello and wave as you pass their homes. They will still be there for a neighbor in need, and join together to fight for what is right. They will still have love and friendship for their fellow citizens, and gather for the good times so celebrated in a small city like ours. Just like Mayberry on the Andy Griffith Show, will still be ourselves.

As for the utilities issue, the waste water plant has not turned a profit since Polk city took control of it. Furthermore, it has been a persistent drain on Polk City’s finances. This poor fiscal decision has triggered property taxes to rise to a level which will not permit future grown. By raising tax, water, and sewage rates, business who might have located here will probably be turned away, bringing some other city revenue. Polk City has some of the highest tax, water, and sewage rates in Florida. This fact alone will turn prospective home owners running in the other direction, causing valuable homes to sit vacant. Chiefly, a majority of Polk City’s residents will and do not support this purchase- it is bad business.

The city government has failed to notice the blatant red flags staring them in the face regarding not being financially fit for an undertaking such as the Mt. Olive Waste Water Plant. When one has to dip into funds not related to those allocated for the waste water plant, a red flag goes up. When said plant has not turned a profit since its purchase, and is in need of repair, another one flies up in the air. There is no customer, or tax, base to pay the bills for day to day expenses, and there are absolutely no funds allocated for repairs on the plant.

Monumentally, the city owed a defaulted payment to Polk County for its purchase for over two years. If we could afford the payments, why were we in default? Why was there an emergency meeting called to pay a bill? Why was the bill in default? The answer is simple: the city cannot afford the Waste Water Plant.

The tactic of robbing Peter to pay Paul is one the municipality is quite fond of. This method of paying bills is like a Ponzi scheme: it works great until everyone starts calling in their chips. Then the bottom falls out, and after everyone realizes you have no chips, you wind up in deep trouble. More trouble than what would have originally transpired if the correct measure had been taken in the first place. Ask yourself: is the city government prepared for when everyone decides to call in their chips?

I believe our new Mayor was quoted as saying, “we deserve what we have gotten”.

To that I say, “you’re wrong”. We have gotten a Council, Mayor, and acting City Manager which we do not deserve.

The Citizens of Polk City deserve a Council, Mayor, and acting City Manager that listens to the constituents they represent, to the will of the people. They deserve a governing body who conducts city business with utmost honor and integrity, fulfilling their office’s duties with a thoughtful ear towards the Citizen’s wishes.

The people have passionately voiced their will.

There was a petition drive to dissolve the city charter. Comments either online or in person have been pouring into inboxes and psyches. Do the right thing and listen to the wisdom of the Polk County commissioners and citizens.

We have spoken. Are you listening?

GIVE BACK THE MOUNT OLIVE WASTE WATER PLANT

Sincerely

 Mr. Robert W. Bersey, Polk City, FL

Current Financial Situation of Polk City

Following up on a request made during the City Meeting held on September 21st, 2010, a city resident contacted Pamela Lawson the city's Finance Administrator to get the remaining account balances following the large payment for $348,779.34 to Polk County on the Mt. Olive Utility System.  Ms. Lawson informed him that he would have to formally present his request.

He did as requested and this is the information he received:  Please click or double click to enlarge or print.

This statement clearly shows the 9/20/2010 transfers of $100,000 from the Impact Fees Account, $46,772.34 from the Water Fund, and $114,000 transfer from the General Fund, and the Total Debit of $348,779.34 out of the Sewer Fund for the check presented to the County for the payment on the Mt. Olive Utility System.

The balance of the these accounts on 9/21, after the transfers and the check was cut were: Sewer Fund $4,878.71,  Impact Fee Fund $289.10, Water Fund $10,221.31, General Fund $20,842.73.  This does not reflect the monies that were in float at the time these balances are reported.

This report also reflects the utility payments received to date, since the due date on the utility payments is September 25th,  and the offices are closed on Friday and the weekend, September 24th-26th.

Since these monies when collected are earmarked for specific purposes and the City of Polk City Muncipality Code Section 2-112 states:

Sec. 2-112.  Appropriations.

(a)   The tentative annual budget shall be submitted to the town council on or before the 65th day prior to the start of a new fiscal year.

(b)   The appropriation ordinance shall state in clear and precise terms that the budget is adopted by reference and is made a part of the ordinance, and that the amounts therein are appropriated for the purposes and accounts indicated.

(c)   The total of appropriations (proposed expenditures) shall not exceed the total of estimated revenues and other funds made available.

(d)   At any time during the fiscal year, the town manager may transfer all or any part of an unexpended appropriation balance from one account to another account or to several accounts within the same fund.

(Code 1991, § 17-5; Ord. No. 2001-03, § 5, 3-6-2001)

What are the City's plans to repay the appropriate funds the monies that were all transferred into the Sewer Fund to make this payment to the County?

Addressing Concerns

Based on comments put on our blog over the past few days addressing our posts “Who’s Running Polk City”, our intent and reasoning behind these posts need to be clarified further.  From a business personnel perspective, any individual being considered for any position should be subject to a screening process that not only scrutinizes their qualifications, educational background prior to employment, but also integrity and ethics.  The findings we posted about both, City Clerk, Patricia Jackson, and the Mayor, Joe LaCascia were things we felt were very relevant.

 

The City Clerk, who has years of experience in both City Clerk and City Manager capacity in Eagle Lake and Mulberry, would be an obvious source of information to answer day-to-day questions our city officials might have.  Will she be considered to fill the City Manager position once Ms. Block steps down as Interim City Manager?  There may be a lot of things that Patricia Jackson did correctly to maintain her position over the years in Mulberry as City Clerk and then City Manager.  But the articles we cited in the previous post quote areas of concern in Patricia Jackson’s employment reviews done by her supervisors.  She may be a great City Clerk, but not necessarily qualified to be a City Manager.  The articles in the Ledger and News Chief regarding her performance as City Manager in Eagle Lake and Mulberry back this up.  To review these articles again, please read “Who’s Running Polk City” and the links are available there. 

In regards to our post on the Mayor’s background, the same logic and reasoning applies.  We obviously were not able to obtain detailed information on his employment history since he was not a public official, but the discovery of this lawsuit, whether found guilty or not guilty, we thought needed clarification.  Even if the plaintiff in this lawsuit had a grudge as his main motivation, for him to publicly and officially make such serious charges, he must have thought he had facts to support them.  For this man to go through the trouble of filing this lawsuit, he obviously had the perception that Mr. LaCascia was involved deeply enough in these questionable practices to be named specifically.  Whether or not he was actually guilty was left for the courts to decide.  We are simply bringing to light that this was out there and we are giving the Mayor an opportunity to clarify this to the public.  We are not making accusations, just bringing this to light, and it should have been questioned in a background check.

 We welcome any clarification that will shed more light on the information we have found on both City Clerk Jackson and Mayor LaCascia.  We are not accusing them of any wrongdoing in their current capacities with Polk City.  Considering Polk City’s past history, we are simply asking questions to prevent any future embarrassment. 

"Business Plan for Polk City" Meeting on Sept. 21st

By definition "A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals."

Last night's city meeting was a far cry from a Business Plan meeting.  It was more like a pre-planned sales pitch with planted audience members intended to sway the rest in attendance that the city's view points are more valid than those in opposition.  The public has still yet to be presented with CLEAR, DECISIVE, FACT BASED PLANS of how the city plans to get out of its current mess and be able to continue operations in the future.  If this had been a situation where a business was applying for a business loan, the presenting parties should be able to come up with FACTS and FIGURES, not just opinions and excuses, for the tough questions the bank would be asking.  The overly generalized examples with numbers not reflecting a true representation of how the average tax payer's bills are affected by the new millage rate in attempt to pacify the audience, in addition to the numerous "I don't know" and "we'll have to get back to you" responses would not look favorable in a business plan.  The blatant misstatements that the "Bills are Paid" repeated over and over did not reinforce the audience's confidence in the city's financial status, either.  It is common knowledge that the city stills owes the County over $500,000 for back environmental impact fees that the City collected since 2006 and never forwarded on to the County.  The City Officials are not denying this outstanding debt exists, but yet insist that the "Bills are Paid."  That does not compute!

The obvious favoritism to the Pro-city audience members asking questions was very unprofessional.   I understand that some of the questions presented last night may not have been easy to answer, but getting nasty, dodging ones that did not want to be answered, and admittedly skipping over issues on your own notes to avoid controversy does not instill confidence in the public that the right people are running the city.  The city has some tough issues, so the tough questions should be expected and answered, not avoided.

In the Sept. 15th Polk County Board of Commissioners meeting, several of the Commissioners with far more experience than the current City Officials, expressed clear skepticism of how Polk City could possibly pay down the mountain of debt and continue operations considering the small tax base and limited revenue sources available to them, while still being fair to the residents and providing necessary services.  If these proven experts are questioning the City Officials about how this could possibly be done, the public's concern over these same issues is certainly justified.  The public deserves DETAILS, FACTS, and SOLID PLANS not GENERALIZATIONS.  Repeatedly the Vice Mayor/Acting City Manager speaks of cost cutting measures the city has taken as a means to be able to continue operations, mainly citing the 3 reductions in staff.  The former City's Public Works Director was making $49,608 annually, as quoted in the August 24th Ledger Article.  To our knowledge it was not disclosed what the other two positions, assuming clerical, were getting paid annually, so we will use a ballpark figure of $25,000 each, just to estimate.  With these 3 three salaries combined it would have cost the city roughly $99,608 for the year, or $1,915.53 broken down per week.  The new expert contracted Utility consultant from FGUA was needed immediately to replace the former Public Works Director at the cost of $1,700 per week.  This works out to only roughly a small $200 per week savings.  Even with additional spending plans back tabled for now, where does the city plan to come up with the next payment of over $100,000 due in February for the next loan installment due to the County on the Mt. Olive Utility System, the money for repayment of the $500,000+ in overdue impact fees (even if allowed to repay in an installment plan with interest) and be able to maintain current operations, payroll, and other regular bills coming in when the tax base is so small?  The public would like more details since this math does not add up!

Prior to attending the meeting last night, when the updated agenda was sent out via e-mail, we actually had high hopes that the City Officials would actually be presenting HARD FACTS, ACTUAL NUMBERS, and CLEAR ACTION PLANS to resolve the many issues facing the city.  We came ready to listen to some SOLUTIONS.  We left the meeting feeling set up, and still asking the same questions we had prior to arriving.  What a disappointment!  It was business as usual.

New Ledger Article about Sept. 21st City Meetings

Polk City Council Approves Increase in Tax Rate

Update on Mayor's Story

During last night's city meeting on Sept. 21st, it was announced that on Monday, Sept. 20th, Mayor Joe LaCascia experienced some chest pains while at City Hall and was admitted to the hospital.  The timing of the article we posted earlier on Sept. 21st, the day after the Mayor's admittance to the hospital, was unfortunate.  This information of the Mayor's health condition was not public knowledge until announced at the meeting later that evening.  We wish the Mayor a speedy recovery.

Looking at the 2nd link posted in yesterday's article, detailed information of the case is only available with a subscription to the service, but this was found on the link,"Judge Michael A Ponsor: MEMORANDUM AND ORDER entered. As Follows: Defendants Motion to Dismiss (Dkt. No. 27 ) is hereby ALLOWED. This case may now be closed. It is So Ordered."

In attempt to get further explanation of the accusations and outcome of the lawsuit mentioned in the previous post, this additional information was found:
Victory for the District Mass. Attorney General Orders Compliance by Prudential Committee with Mass. Low Bid Laws

By posting the first article, we are NOT ACCUSING THE MAYOR OF WRONG DOING.  This is not intended to be an "Assassination of Character" as stated my Vice Mayor/Acting City Manager Trudy Block.  We are simply looking for facts and posting what we found.  In our opinion, just being PERCEIVED as being a key figure in obviously questionable practices does ask us to question issues of character and ethics.  Especially with Polk City's history of questionable ethics of previous City Officials, it should be expected that new City Officials would be subject to thorough background checks to prevent future tarnishing of the city's image.

If additional information is found, please post a link in your comments.

Who is Running Polk City? The Mayor's Story

What did the Mayor, Joe LaCascia, do before taking the position of Mayor of Polk City?

He states on his Facebook page that he has "a lifetime of insurance and risk management."  Went to Hofstra University, class of 1960, and Hempstead Highschool, class of 1956.  Facebook Profile

Before moving to Polk City, Mr. LaCascia lived in Becket, Massachusetts.  He was the Becket Woods Community Association, Roads and Maintenance District, Chairman & Treasurer.  The Mayor's wife Barbara was also the District Clerk there.  Here's a link to the "about" page from Beckett Woods Community Association web page: www.becketwoods.com

This is the picture of the Mayor everyone in Polk City sees...

Dig a little deeper and you will find this:

He personally is accused of the following charges in a Springfield, Massachusetts lawsuit filed by Michael Elbery:
Count I:  Nomination obstruction - violation of the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause
Count II:  More Equal Protection Clause Violations - Election Proxies Rigged
Count III:  8/31/08 Election Rigged - causing illegal tax 
Count IV:  Violation of 1st Amendment Rights and retaliation for exercising 1st Amendment free speech rights
Count V:  Concealment of District (Becket Woods) records - Cover-up conspiracy denying access to the courts.  Violation of the 14th Amendment
Count VI:  District Municipal  liability under s. 1983
Count VII:  Conspiracy to violate constitutional rights - District Prudential Committee
Count VIII:  Conversion, Embezzlement, Fraud, Conspiracy, and no compliance with Mass.C.30B - Low Bid Laws all in violation of the 14th Amendment which is due process right in property
County IX:  Federal RICO violations - conspiracy.  Mail fraud, wire fraud, unauthorized sale of District common lands.  Mail Fraud: The defendants since the inception of the district on a quarterly annual period, have been using the U.S. Mail to embezzle District tax revenues (defrauding District owners) to pay taxes on lots they claim are owned by the association.  All Elections were done by mail.


Here's the link to the actual court filing:
Springfield Civil Action #3:09-cv-30076

Elbery v. Beckt Woods Road and Maintenance District et al

New News Chief Article about County Commission Meeting on Sept 15th

County to resume wastewater treatment for Polk City

Who is Running Polk City?

With the lack of political experience in Polk City's current Mayor and Vice-Mayor/Acting City Manager, who are these city officials turning to for guidance?  Is it the current City Clerk, Patricia Jackson, who has previous City Manager experience in Mulberry and Eagle Lake?  Was a thorough employment background investigation done on Ms. Jackson before the previous city administration hired her? 

This was pretty easy for us to find.  Google found some pretty interesting reading.


Mulberry Manager Gets Generally Good Review

Mulberry's Manager Gets Qualified Praise

Eagle Lake city manager contract in final stages

City Manager's Evaluation Subpar

Official's Job Threatened

City manager said she knew motion would be filed against her

Eagle Lake Dismisses Manager Jackson

Eagle Lake manager loses battle, job

Jackson plans appeal after commission vote

Ex-Eagle Lake manager will get severance

Eagle Lake decides on partial compensation for Jackson

Eagle Lake has $22,000 water bill from Bartow

City of Williston, FL Meeting Minutes from September 30, 2008

Polk City Picks Clerk For Interim

Jackson Named Interim Polk City Clerk

Community Development Block Grant

In recent meetings, the City Officials have been working on getting a Community Development Block Grant.  A New Fair Housing ordinance was approved in the August 10th meeting for the city's charter in preparation to qualify for this grant.  What is this grant for and who qualifies for this grant?

Only the most impoverished areas of this city will qualify for this grant.  What is this 100% FREE grant money planning to be used for?  This grant money will be used for expanding the existing sewer system into the poorest areas of the city to pay for connections of these houses to the City Utility sewer system.  These most impoverished areas will get a FREE hook up to the sewer system.  Other areas that don't qualify for this grant will be required to pay out of pocket for connection charges to the sewer system when the city plans to connect their areas in the future.

What is wrong with FREE?  Aren't there normally strings that go along with FREE?  Of Course there is!  The city officials think this is GREAT because they can get 100% FREE money what will not increase the city debt.  Not only will it not increase the city debt, it will also generate more revenue for the city by increasing the sewer customer base to spread expenses over more people bringing the costs down to everyone.  It's a win, win!!

What about the other side of the coin?  The poorest people in the city getting these FREE hook ups will not continue to get FREE money to pay for the bills that the city will be sending them for using the sewer services.  Who will pay for that?  These people have a hard enough time paying their current bills and after they are connected for FREE, they will have another bill for sewer that will charge them anywhere between 200%-400% more that other Polk County rates for similar services depending on their usage.  Is this FAIR?  We think not!  How are these people supposed to come up with this additional money for this sewer bill?  They will be forced to either cut back on other basic necessities such as food, clothing, water, electric, medicine, health/dental care, etc. because many of these people can barely afford these necessities now.

Is the city really in the business of protecting the welfare of the city residents, both rich and poor?  Or is the city really in the SEWER business?

How out of Balance are Polk City Utility Rates?

One of the issues that Polk County Commissioners had at their September 15th meeting was how the Polk County Residents reliant on Polk City Utilities for water and or sewer were being charged much more than other Polk County Residents getting their utility services from other providers.  Per the Polk County Commissioners, one of the stipulations of the Mt. Olive Utility deal in 2008 was that Polk City would need to treat these customers just as fairly as other residents within other areas of Polk County receiving similar services.  Obviously, that has not been happening.  Below is a table detailing how equal amounts of water and sewer compare apples to apples between current Polk City Utility rates and Polk County Utility rates.  These rates were taken from actual rate charts from Polk County Utilities using the new rates effective October 1st, 2010, reflecting a 5% increase.  The Polk City Utility rates came from actual rate charts with the effective date of July 25, 2010. Water rate comparisons are on the top.  Sewer rates are on the bottom.  For customers on both water and sewer, these figures would need to be added together to get the total fees charged. 

This is the same sheet that was handed out to the public at the petition signing on Sept. 11th & 12th.  Keep in mind these are IN CITY rates, so the issues sited here about the Mt. Olive Utility system when speaking of OUTSIDE CITY LIMIT customers is even worse since these customers have an additional 25% upcharge added to these rates listed here.

Response to Concerns from Acting City Manager / Vice-Mayor Block

Although you have been hiding in our blog under various names, such as Common, Stop the Anger, and now anonymous, your identity has been pretty obvious by your comments.  Your accusations on other blogs such as the Ledger blog about us screening comments and selecting only the ones we want to post are unfounded.  We realized that many individuals were receiving error messages from blogger due to the default settings on blogger requiring a blogger ID to post comments.  In attempts to fix this issue we found out how to open the blog up to everyone including anonymous comments, but opted to require moderation on comments to prevent profanity and other spam from littering the blog.  This is normal blog protocol and the same protocol exercised on the Ledger blog that you like so much.

Regarding the facts behind our opinions on dissolving the city, the information we have gathered to date on this issue is found throughout this blog and was also handed out and explained at the petition signing in the park that you chose not to attend.  We try to add to this information daily to keep the public informed.  Instead of baiting us to open mouth, insert foot so you can pick our arguments apart, why don’t the city officials provide the public with updated information regarding current city debt figures and allow the public to ask questions during meetings instead of hiding behind a perceived veil of secrecy?  Try being proactive on this matter instead of reactive and the people will respond in kind.  On our blog, why don’t you post reasons and financial numbers in favor of keeping the city?  We have tried to find them and honestly can’t find any strong enough reasons to change our minds.

In regards to the outbursts in the Friday night’s meeting, those comments were from many outraged and frustrated citizens trying to get answers to questions and concerns the City Council refused to entertain.  If the City Council let the people speak, maybe the public would not be so frustrated and feel that the outbursts were their only way to be heard.  The constitution protects the public’s freedom of speech.  The gathering at the park, running our blog, answering media questions, and requesting that the public contact government officials about how they feel the city is being run are just the way we have chosen to express ourselves.  You too can start your own blog for free at www.blogger.com.  It is available to everyone and very user friendly.  This same freedom of speech can be exercised by city officials to keep the public informed of what is going on and answering the public’s questions when asked instead of hiding behind procedures and misquoting Sunshine Law saying that they are not able to discuss some of these issues with the public.  The Mayor misquoted the Sunshine Law to a few residents right in front of me during the petition signing as a reason not to answer their legitimate questions.  The Sunshine Law is in place to keep public officials from discussing issues amongst themselves without the public’s knowledge in order to maintain transparent government, not the opposite.

Absolutely no efforts were made to prevent the Mayor Joe LaCascia from passing out any literature.  If you would have taken the time to show up to the park yourself, you would have seen what happened.  Two of your volunteers were at the park bright and early Saturday morning with your literature to hand out to the public.  We did not discourage this at all.  After we spoke with your volunteers about the thinking behind our point of view, and the fact that most of the public were just handing the literature right back to them, they decided that they no longer wanted to pass out this literature and handed it to the Mayor shortly after he arrived.  People who showed up to the petition signing had concerns that this literature was produced using tax payer dollars without their consent, which is illegal.  Those are the facts about why your literature did not get handed out as you had planned at our petition signing.

We feel there has been dialog and respect from our group.  As far as working towards a common goal, why not try listening to the majority of the people and find a peaceful and less costly way to dissolve the city instead of hiring legal council to fight multiple groups costing the tax payers even more money and trying to keep the city running like “business as usual.”  If the city is so financially sound, why did an “emergency” meeting have to be called to discuss how to pay a bill that was two years overdue?  According to state statute 120.525 “emergency” meetings are reserved only for instances when an agency finds that an immediate danger to the public health, safety, or welfare requires immediate action.  How to pay an overdue bill in attempts to prevent the Governor from being notified to declare a financial state of emergency, which will in essence put a stop to all city spending and require the city to come up with a plan to get out of its financial hole, does not fall under that “emergency” definition, nor does it give the public confidence that the city is as financially sound as you say.

If there are so many others, as you say, that feel the same way you do about saving the city and all the good it stands for, they are free to express themselves on our blog just like everyone else.  I have not seen many other pro-city comments other than yours.

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.

Utility Customers Getting a Bad Deal

This letter was a comment sent to us by a Polk County Resident who wishes to remain anonymous.

Subject: Utility Customers Getting a Bad Deal

 

The notice for the final budget meeting for Polk City said that comments will be allowed by Polk City taxpaying residents only.  Of course, only Polk City residents are allowed to vote for the elected officials of Polk City. The utility customers who live outside the city have no voice in the operation of the utilities since the utilities are currently owned and controlled by the city.

To quote a Ledger article from September 15th, which appears to be a quote from Trudy Block, "The loss of the Mount Olive plant would mean the loss of 1,165 water customers and 887 sewer customers, which would reduce the city's income."  Apparently Polk City wants the utility customers to help pay Polk City obligations.  Some of those obligations were utility expenses, others have nothing to do with the utilities.  Why should the utilities customers help pay for anything except utility expenses?  Why should only Polk City

residents have a say in the operation of the utilities?

To add to this inequity, utility customers who are not Polk City residents are to be charged 25% more for their utilities than the residents. 

The water and sewage operations need to be completely separate from Polk City government.  Turning the ownership and operation of these utilities over to Polk County seems to be the best way to accomplish this.  All utility customers will then have an equal voice in the operation of the utility.

If the County were to take ownership of the utilities, all expenses and income generated by the utilities would belong to the County.  Why would Polk City object to this unless they are planning for utility income to exceed the expenses, and they plan to use the difference to pay for the operation of Polk City?

The next step should be to un-incorporate the City to do away with the cost and incompetent management by this government unit.  It appears to be a needless level of bureaucracy which the tax payers cannot afford.

Signed,

Anonymous

The County Officials Need to Hear From the People AGAIN

Our last e-mail campaign to let the County Commissioners know what the people felt about the Mt. Olive Utility decision was very effective.  The City Officials' latest decision to scrape up the funds for this payment in HOPES that the County Commissioners will accept it and change their minds about pursuing the actions to take back the Mt. Olive Utility System is NOT A DONE DEAL.  Other conditions of the original deal are still not being met since no solid plans have been presented to show how the city will reduce utility fees in a timely manner to reasonable levels so the county residents are being treated the same no matter who is their utility provider.  This was a major concern of the County Commissioners and needs to be addressed.

In off the record discussions after the Emergency City meeting was adjourned on September 17th, Mayor Joe LaCascia stated that the city will be very cash poor following this fund transfer and payment to the county until the Ad Valorem taxes start coming in.  $114,000 from the General Fund, $100,000 from the City Impact Fee Fund, and $46,772.34 from the Water Fund will be transferred into the required fund in order to write the check for $348,772 to the County on Monday.  How will the city continue day-to-day operations after this money is paid?  More than likely city's plan is to have the tax payers pay their ad valorem taxes by November to qualify for the small discount.  If the individuals who can afford it decide to pay their tax bill by the April 30th, 2011, deadline, 7 months later, which they have every right to do without penalty, where will the city's finances be then?  The Interim City Manager states that the budget is balanced.  The budget is only as good as the paper it is written on.  Actual cash flow pays the bills when they are due.  If the money doesn't hit their bank accounts like they hope, the budget is not balanced and the city is in REAL financial trouble.

Please contact and email the County Commissioners, County Manager, and County Attorney regarding the acceptance of this payment.  At least the county officials have shown that they care about what happens to the residents in this area and listen to the people.  I'm not sure the same can be said about all of the current City Officials.  This is not a game to be won or lost or fought to the death.  This is a serious decision that needs to be made in the best interest of the people these County and City Officials are supposed to represent.  The City is planning to present this check to the County on Monday.  Please let your voices be heard before that time!!  Commissioner Smith and Johnson both have parts of the area in question falling in their districts, but each commissioner has a say in this decision.  Please let ALL know how you feel on this issue.

Below are the email addresses for you to contact the County Officials:

Email District 1 Commissioner - Bob English (Chairman): bobenglish@polk-county.net
Bob English Phone: 863-534-6450

Email District 2 Commissioner - Randy Wilkinson:   randywilkinson@polk-county.net
Randy Wilkinson Phone: 863-534-6434

Email District 3 Commissioner - Ed Smith:    Ed.Smith@polk-county.net
Edwin V. Smith Phone:  863-534-6050

Email District 4 Commissioner - Jean Reed:    jeanreed@polk-county.net
Jean S. Reed Phone: 863-534-6422

Email District 5 Commissioner - Sam Johnson:    samjohnson@polk-county.net
Sam Johnson Phone: 863-534-6049

Email County Manager - Michael Herr: michaelherr@polk-county.net
Michael Herr Phone: (863) 534-6444

Email County Attorney - Michael Craig: michaelcraig@polk-county.net

LET THE VOICES OF THE PEOPLE BE HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR!!!!