Tavares, FL - Monday, May 21, 2012
by Vance Jochim
Tomorrow's 9am May 22 meeting of the Lake County Board meeting could be boring, or outrageous?
It is a combined meeting, with the regular Board meeting agenda HERE, and a separate Zoning meeting in the middle of it, which has it's own Zoning issues agenda HERE.
But, here is our analysis of some agenda items that might need more research or be contentious:
Tab 3 - Naming of a Dept. of Justice Grant Coordinator - A skim of the initial "consent agenda" items didn't provide any major surprises, although consent agenda item Tab 3 is about a grant, and any grant makes me nervous, because it could include requirements that affect private property rights, long term spending problems, etc. We would NOT even know about this grant except the Florida FDLE requires the County assign a coordinator for it via the County administration. In this case, the issue is to authorize a PROBATION specialist to be a GRANT coordinator for a "Justice Assistance Grant". The Board is not approving a grant yet, just a coordinator to get ideas and then submit a grant application which would be approved later. Anytime the staff tries to ignore the fiscal impact and not specify it in the agenda description, I look for a boondoggle. So, you have to open the agenda request document to find the grant to be "coordinated" is $113,436 to be distributed to "units of government within Lake County". Hot bananas. FREE money. AND, you have to open a second document (kudos to staff for at least posting the attachments, so they aren't hiding the grant, just the amount to be given out or reasons...). Neither the agenda text or the agenda request document mention the funds are REALLY from the US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) and our buddy Eric Holder. So, you know any strings in the "grants" may be against the public interest. Remember, this is on the consent agenda so the Board wasn't planning to discuss this in public.
The attached notification letter says that:
"FDLE (Florida Dept of Law Enforcement) has set aside $113,000 for use by all units of government within Lake County. ...the funds can be used by local units (what units, they don't say...) of government to support a broad range of activities to prevent and control crime and to improve the criminal justice system. The program announcement includes information from DOJ relating to "several areas of national focus" (i.e. what Eric Holder and Obama want...)."
"As a condition of participation (ok, that means there is a ball and chain) in this program, the units of government in each county must reach a consensus concerning the expenditure of these funds." (Note, read our separate page HERE on consensus building techniques used by the left to push through Agenda 21 and other objectives without a VOTE by affected citizens.)
They go on and say "This consensus must include the projects to be implemented as well as the agency responsible for such implementation".
The second attachment is only a form to designate the local coordiantor.
NOWHERE ARE THE GRANT REQUIREMENTS SPECIFIED... SO JUST WHAT IS THIS GRANT? SOMETHING IS WRONG HERE, AND WE WILL MONITOR IT AND REPORT BACK LATER. WHY WOULD THE BOARD APPROVE A COORDINATOR AND LEGWORK TO "DEVELOP A CONSENSUS" WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING WHAT THE PURPOSE OF THE GRANT WAS, OR WHO THE RECIPIENT GOVERNMENT UNITS WERE???
Tab 9 - Proclamation for "Tobacco-Free Parks Month" - The Board is being asked to approve a proclamation designating June as "Tobacco-Free Parks Month". We need to know if Commissioner Sean Parks is tobacco free or not? (:-))
Tab 10 - Approves under the consent agenda to change position titles and delete the "Public Lands Manager position". So, we spent $30-million in bonds to by a bunch of public lands, only let people use four of them (ie. the four that were opened after Commissioner Leslie Campione asked why none were open or had facilities). My numbers may be off, but who is watching our $30-million investment? (They are adding a park ranger, so maybe he will do it).
Tab 23 - Traffic Study for North Hancock Road in South County - if you are interested in the results after public meetings, etc then watch this presentation. As usual with presentations, they don't provide any early handouts, etc. but you should be able to find the resulting Powerpoint attached to Tab 23 AFTER the meeting. Here is the only description from the agenda request document:
"The Board of County Commissioners,on Sept 20, 2011 requested that the Department of Public Works evaluate the N. Hancock Road Corridor for traffic safety issues. The study on N. Hancock Road begins at SR 50 and ends at Turkey Farm Road. A public meeting was held on March 19th with residents and interested parties at the Cooper Memorial Library in Clermont. Public comment was received and will be incorporated into the final document. The Board of County Commissioners will receive the study results and evaluation by the Public Works Engineering Division."
Tab 24 - A public hearing on distributing $74,000 in impact fees for libraries to Mount Dora, Minneola and Howey. Remember, the County waived transportation and school impact fees, but not library impact fees (or parks). Both of those are much smaller than roads and schools.
REZONING PUBLIC HEARINGS are AFTER tab 24, so click here for the separate agenda to see if any subjects are of interest - so expect a break, then the zoning issues, then back to TAB 25. We told you about this agenda last week.
- Zoning Tab 4 & 5 - Comp Plan Amendments
- Zoning Tab 6 - hearing on the Magrone Property
- Zoning Tab 7 - the controversial rezoning of the former Long & Scott private airport into a public airport which is being fought by neighbors and also environmentalists in the nearby Lake Apopka area due to possibility of bird strikes. It ain't easy being a property owner and trying to get rezoning if the greenies get involved.
RETURN to normal Board agenda:
Tab 25 - Presentation by the St. Johns River Water management district - This is about the District's LAND GRAB where they own 600,000 acres of land in 18 counties, which might be over, and this presentation appears to be the result of requirements from Gov. Scott's office. Lake County staff did NOT provide any details, but you can find them on the St. John's website HERE: http://www.floridaswater.com/landassessment/
These are the guys who shut off water flow to Lakes Dora, Eustis, Harris, etc. But, they are presenting on a different subject. Following AGenda 21, they have used taxpayer funds and over 35 years have amassed a collection of "public lands" and will describe what they have and a project to "assess" what to do with the lands. (kinda like Lake County's public lands... not much is accessible by the public, which is an objective of UN Agenda 21 facilitated by the American Planner's Association. Their goal is to convert as much land as possible to government ownership (communism - for the collective) and restrict human access to people migrate to government run transit villages...)
So, watch this presentation, and get mad when you see how much land has been removed from the tax rolls and whether humans can even access it. No details were attached to the agenda, such as a list of affected lands. If you are interested in how taxpayer funded lands owned by the St. John's Water District are managed, come to the meeting or watch the video, and provide public input. Who knows, an endangered lizard might talk.
AND, since the Lake County staff would not provide any details, we found updated details on their "2012 public land assessment" on the St. Johns website HERE: http://www.floridaswater.com/landassessment/ It says "the district OWNS 600,000 acres of land in it's 18-county service area." They are examining every acre to determine "the need for conservation purposes." "Sometimes the District may have bought "acreage that has minimal water resource value". READ the website page - there is a PUBLIC COMMENT FORM
It appears one of the reasons for this "assessment" is that Florida loosened land use regulations last year (thanks to Gov. Scott) and they were probably told to actuall review and manage the land they had and examine alternatives. So, we could have a McDonald's on the Dora Canal???
Tab 26 - More on the Long & Scott Aviation Growth Center - go to this page to see the attachments. I did not read them at time of publishing this. http://www.lakecountyfl.gov/AgendaDocPop/connect.aspx?ParentTrackingNumber=6526
I have nothing else at this time, but the St. John's presentation and the Long & Scott Aviation Center issues should be doozies... I may add something else in the morning.
vj
