Duval County City Council's last night of transparency and Meet the Sheriff

[FCTP]

 

CITY COUNCIL:  With millions of dollars being spent on social programs, the Duval County City Council has decided to stop filming the meetings for online or TV viewing for those who cannot attend the meetings.  So much for transparency.

 

As noted by one of our Community Leaders of the First Coast Tea Party:

 

“The city is more concerned about the children's commission, the human rights council and the journey program (which I understand did take a cut) than they are about actual city services and that in a word is wrong.  This can't continue.  The children's commission has been in existence for 17 years now, wields a HUGE budget, and nothing they are doing has improved the quality of the student in the school system (and I question just how much they really do, just how many children they really serve, and their impact per se and have it from a member of the commission and a past city council person they are "ripping off the taxpayer").  The journey program by Mayor Peyton's own admission is an unknown quantity with unknown results (he could not say with certainty it was successful), and the human rights commission is a duplicated service that is also run at the state level for the state of Florida residents use.  Does the city like wasting tax payer money?  Wouldn't the money we pay the human rights council be better spent on the library system or the police?”

Another big item that will be taken up by the City Council will be the Redistricting of our city.  So far the council members are leaning towards a gerrymandered Duval County to appease special interests instead of the desires of the people.  In a release yesterday by Matt Schellenberg’s office, it stated:

 

Matt will have approximately 50 of Matt’s maps to hand out at the City Council meeting.   

This map is based on the desires of the public (as noted at each of the five public hearings), as well as the original priorities of the Redistricting Committee (as referenced in the Committee minutes of May 10th, 2011).  It has very compact districts, it has minimum river crossings, it keeps the Argyle community together, keeps the Urban Core together, keeps Whitehouse in District 12, keeps Durkeeville together, and it recognizes communities of interest.  It is not based on the theory, as stated by Councilman Warren Jones, that there must be four, 60%+ minority districts, and that you must draw long and skinny, and meandering districts in order to obtain them. 

Read an opinion piece by Matt Schellenberg at http://jacksonville.com/opinion/letters-readers/2011-09-27/story/gu...

 

It’s going to be a big night at the Duval County City Council and we encourage you to attend in support of your desires – not those of special interests.  We have a group of tea party members attending tonight and if you are interested in attending and catching a ride, please contact our office at 683-3945.  We would love to have you join us and watch the fireworks together.  If you can’t be there in person, watch the fireworks online or on Channel 7 for the last time tonight too.  After tonight, you’ll have to trust the media to tell you what happened – and good luck with that!

 

Sheriff Town Hall:  Tomorrow night, Wednesday, September 28, we will host a Sheriff Town Hall with Sheriff Rutherford.  The news has been hot lately with the Sheriff going to bat for his department.  Our city government budget should fund safety and instead we spend our dollars funding commissions that are not accountable to anyone and have no metrics in place to determine if they are effective.   The Sheriff will be at the City Council tonight defending his department and tomorrow night you can ask him questions at our town hall.  It will be open mic night and your voice will be heard.  For more information go here:  http://www.fctpcommunity.org/events/grassroots-town-hall-with-sheri...

 

Someone once said, “Politics is always local.”   How true that statement is.  What happens here affects us even more than what happens in DC.  But right now – every politician seems “heck bent” on messing with our lives and demanding we pay for services we don’t want and we don’t need.   

 

We hope the City Council will do the right thing tonight and vote Yes on issues that government should be involved in and No on issues that should have nothing to do with taxpayer dollars. 

 

And remember, City Council, that money you spend tonight is OUR money.  Be wise.  Listen to your constituents and not special interests.  We the people have no patience for tomfoolery. 

 

[Patricia M. McBride]

Durwin, Perdue wanted congressional elections held off (you don't suppose the dems have figured out they are gonna lose it all, do you?).  She said then, it would give congress time to function on unemployment etc.  Heck, they can't even do their primary job and put a budget together or work on one which the house sent to the senate ages ago ........... but Harry the Reid threw it in a drawer.  Read the Purdue article this am and the real tell were the comments that followed the article as there were people who will absolutely consider it an attempt to finish over throwing the government and act accordingly!  The woman is a nut case!

[Daniel R. Carr]

 

Wish we could be there.  We are out of town until Friday.  Dan is still working out of town.  Hope you guys can get a good turnout.

[DURWIN WALTER DAVIS]

I've placed out there a strong potential that the Socialistic Dummyrats would try to dismiss the House and the Senate; habeas corpus, and declare martial law the day before the inauguration of the NEW CONSERVATIVE PRESIDENT; and declare a Dictatorship for Hussein Obama.  Well folks, here's their first salvo... 

Speaking to a Cary Rotary Club today, N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue suggested suspending Congressional elections for two years so that Congress can focus on economic recovery and not the next election.  “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that,” Perdue said. “You want people who don’t worry about the next election.”  P.S. Gov. Perdue is up for re-election in 1012!  Ya Wonder?!?  Ya Thinx?!?

[DURWIN WALTER DAVIS]

The public librairy issue defined and answered itself.  Our FREE PUBLIC SCHOOL children's grades are reprehensible.  Liberals point out USING STATISTICS THAT ARE SKEWED, students of SOME failing schools are showing vast improvements of .2% above last years statewide failing marks.  So obviously FREE PUBLIC LIBRARIES are not an advantage to them.  Bums and moochers are using them as places to spend daylight times which have bathroom facilities for body functions such as bathing.  There are computers that provide opportunity for games and porn.  On occassion, out of town I've had to rely on public library facilities, but I guarantee I had to wait off a list while the bums and moochers rotated themselves on the list.  What did it matter to them?  They certainly wouldn't waste their time looking for a job!  Not even on the computer!  To use the library, if we keep them, is to have a TSA styled, two pictured I.D., complete with a pat down, before entering the library.  If the socialists want to continue to drain the TAXPAYER, make it more FEMA/HSA GOVERNMENT RUN-ORIENTED.  its a good way to start training the next generation. 

[Butch Holman]

I agree with CJ.

!/3 of the city budget. 50 new Police Officers. Let me think here. Oh, wait. It's coming to me. Ding!

50 more PENSIONS!

And Victoria, I share your pain. I have been laid off for over two years.

Oh, wait. I should go apply at the Sheriff's Office!

[DURWIN WALTER DAVIS]

This is soooo easily explained; Duval County/Jaxsonville got the government it deserved.  We successfully helped place an admitted moocher for mayor and a latrine cleaner from the jail as sheriff.  The smart ones move to the outlying counties and commute, especially the government workers; city, state, a federal.  They leave Duval County to remain a moocher's city/paradise.  The slavery issue is evident stealing money from the worker and giving to the moocher.  Congratulations.

[Patricia M. McBride]

The thing is guys, no cuts to social services which are the bells and whistles of the budget.  The only cut they made was to journey for 25% while leaving children's and human rights as requested.  These programs should have either seen similiar cuts or equal cuts or the total for cuts should have been equally divided among them.  That is the part I am angry about.  We keep cutting services to the taxpayer while leaving these social services along to keep right on spending on their over the top programs.  The more I read on the COJ Children's commission site, the more I want to barf.  Children are assets?   Really?  I thought they were children and human beings not bank accounts or property (assets) or maybe to them they are property.  They are raising people's children and telling the parents how they want these little assets raised and we are paying for it.

 

[CJ]

The Sheriffs budget is 1/3 of our City operating budget over $349 million and that about an annual amount.

The sheriff currently has a request for a Federal Grant for 50 new police officers with benefits. That Fed money is tax payers money. After the Grant runs out it is the local taxpayers that will have to carry that load for ever on.

The Fed. Grant has not been approved but the sheriff wants the city to support the Grant amount until the Fed's come through with the money but by his own admission there is no guarantee he will get a portion or any of the money he requested. This amount is 2.2 million of the "cuts" that he says he needs to lay police off over. These police are not even hired but he he says he has to lay them off.

Part of the Sheriffs cuts are many positions that have been empty for 2 years or more. Positions that are obviously not needed to protect the public.

All of these positions mentioned and the sheriff is whining about dont even exist to "cut"

the other $2.2 million is a percentage of their budget that is just and fair!

 

R

[CJ]

The cuts are fair

The $8 million in Indirect cost allocation is an amount that keeps going higher and higher. This amount is used to feather their caps even more because the more the City keeps pouring into that account the more they get to leverage that money for Grants. It has almost quadrupled in 5 years. This fund is.... the more they get the more they want. This is just one example I have mentioned as to where the library can cut costs as opposed to cutting days which is meant to get the biggest public out cry. The Board is to blame not the Council.

 time the Sheriff gets interviewed his number go up about how many people have to be laid off?

After the Sheriff said he already lowered his budget before Council got a hold of it, To Crescimbeni's credit he said " so if the city says it wants a budget of 2 billion then halves that, does that mean they saved 1 billion? Thats what the Sheriff did! Gave a hypothetical number lowered that and said he already sacrificed.
Palease!!
The cuts are fair

[Robert G. Deardorff]

STOP FOREIGN AID!

Perhaps there is another way to think about budgets for cities and towns --- in Florida?

Didn't I read that we GAVE 3.7-billion to Egypt; GAVE 11-billion to Pakistan, and GAVE Libyan router of Muammar Qaddafi untold billions. Please let me get this straight, so we are now wanting basic money to pay for necessitates of our cities and towns?

I propose our Mayor with the entire county counsel complain to the Federal Government to STOP foreign aid. Quickly, I see how even our own State and Federal leaders have betrayed all Floridians.