Tavares, FL 32778 - Dec. 14, 2011
We described in our Monday blog posting about several subjects to be discussed at the offsite, somewhat secret workshop of the Lake County Board of County Commissioners that was held Tuesday at Camp Challenge, just east of Sorrento.
The meeting was important because several issues affecting long range decisions on budgets, taxes and other issues were discussed.
1. Public Input now allowed - First, Kudos to Commissioner Leslie Campione, who is now the new Chair of the Board. She reversed a prior policy of limiting public input to allowing public input for EACH agenda item, a first for the County, but common at the Lake County School District. We have been lobbying for that improvement for at least 3 years. Previous Board Chairs Jennifer Hill and Welton Cadwell severely limited public input and normally would NOT have allowed ANY public input at a workshop like this. As a result of Campione's new policy, many attendees, including residents of the Sorrento - Mounty Plymouth area (where the meeting was held), this author, leaders from Mt. Dora & the League of Cities, were able to provide feedback on specific issues, which I believe improved the credibility of the Board.
2. Sean Parks Snarky Emails Issue - Commissioner Sean Parks, at the end of the meeting, announced an apology and that he took "full responsibility" for the usage of a fake email address to post many negative comments about people (including this author and two Commissioners) on the Orlando Sentinel website. Read below who was still upset in Lauren Ritchie's columns. Chair Leslie Campione asked that the issue now be closed, and I will do so here, since disclosure of Park's actions was a "lessons learned" situation. But, some other parties might not let it go. If you haven't read about this issue, read columnist Lauren Ritchie's columns HERE, or Jimmy Conner's blog (see link below) or our earlier blog posting HERE.
See the articles below for more info...
Local Media Reports on the Board Meeting
You can read our pre-meeting analysis HERE.
You can read the Daily Commercial article HERE.
You can read the Orlando Sentinel Lake section HERE.
HERE is Lauren Ritchie's Dec. 15 column on the Sean Parks email issue - there are also at least three prior columns on the issue also.
You can SEE the Channel 9 Orlando video HERE.
Here is a link to Commissioner Jimmy Conner's blog with some recent posts about issues
And, below you can read our analysis:
