HNS WEEKEND---JULY 24-25, 2010
SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
ONE KILLED, SIX HURT IN ATV VS. SUV ACCIDENT IN RIDGE MANOR
An All Terrain Vehicle driver was killed and his passenger critically injured after the ATV hit the side of a Sport Utility Vehicle in a remote area of the Ridge Manor Estates subdivision. A Florida Highway Patrol report says the ATV was southbound on Goodstone Drive Saturday night when it traveled into the path of the SUV, which was heading east on Umbrella Rock Street. Troopers said the SUV overturned, and the driver and five passengers suffered minor injuries. The ATV driver was dead at the scene, and the ATV passenger was taken to Pasco Regional Hospital in Dade CIty. Troopers said neither had any identification. Driver of the SUV was identified as 24-year old Lauren Hinson of Webster. Troopers said she and four of the five passengers had minor injuries. Troopers said the crash remains under investigation.
DEPUTIES ARREST RAPE SUSPECT
An arrest affidavit released Saturday says a 43-year old Brooksville man has been charged with rape. The affidavit says David Anthony Galloway of 21403 Anderson Road was walking with a woman and a 17-year old female minor on Friday at the Lakewood Retreat in southeast Hernando County when he allegedly grabbed the minors' buttocks. After the minor told the older woman, Galloway allegedly forced the woman against a tree, removed her shorts and underwear, and began performing sex acts against her will while the minor watched. The victim reportedly threatened to hit Galloway and was able to return to the camp. The affidavit says Galloway was taken into custody at the sheriff's office in Brooksville and was booked into the Hernando County Jail where he was held with no bond.
BROOKSVILLE PARKS CHIEF ACCUSED OF DOMESTIC BATTERY
The Brooksville city Parks and Recreation Director was arrested early Saturday and charged with domestic battery and witness tampering. An arrest affidavit says 43-year old Michael Walker got in a verbal argument with his wife at their Tankersley Road home and allegedly grabbed her by the neck. The affidavit says Walker smashed a phone on the floor when she tried to call 9-1-1. The arresting deputy said Walker was taken into custody based on the broken phone, redness to the victim's neck and disarray in the home, which was all consistent with the victim's account.
HERNANDO NEWS SOURCE COMMENTARY
CANDIDATES MELTING ICE?
Perhaps we helped melt the ice...as we said here last week, a quick handshake offered by Jason Sager to his Republican primary opponent Rich Nugent was the only sign of collegiality between these two Congressional candidates. We noted we had been waiting to document that moment through two joint appearances and then missed it when it happened.
Well, what do you know! Wednesday night at the Central Pasco Republican Club, it was Nugent who offered a hand to Sager at the end of another debate, and we actually caught it on camera.
Then the two candidates looked in our direction and re-enacted the handshake for us.
These two, who one person said last week didn't seem to like each other, might be getting somewhere. After all, it was Ronald Reagan who warned his fellow party members not to speak ill of another Republican. And except for style and substance on constitutional arguments, the pair seem to be close on a lot of other issues, with relatively minor differences in strategy or emphasis in dealing with them.
In the Fifth Congressional District, with its heavy concentration of Republican and otherwise conservative voters, it's a pretty good bet one of these guys will be our next representative in the U.S House.
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CAMERAS, RED-LIGHT AND OTHERWISE
The Brooksville City Council voted 3-2 Monday night to go forward with selecting a new vendor to run the city's controversial red-light cameras. We understand the concerns of opponents who say it's just a revenue source or it violates due process to ticket the car instead of the driver or the cameras will cause more rear-end crashes than any T-bone collisions that might be prevented.
What probably makes the least sense are objections on privacy grounds. Hey, it's understandable that libertarians might be concerned about a more intrusive Big Brother government...most of us read 1984 at one point or another. But we may have past the point of legitimate concern, because in fact there are cameras all around us all the time.
Hernando County's traffic experts monitor dozens of cameras throughout the unincorporated area to keep traffic lights tuned to move cars through the busiest intersections. There are cameras throughout the Government Center and its parking lot, which have been used to put a number of people in jail for violating terms of probation, such as being with a significant other despite a court order to stay away. The cameras also record everyone entering and leaving the building. Government has been watching you and your actions for a long time.
Then there are the hundreds of private businesses with cameras to protect their economic interests, such as the ones that snap your picture every time you use an ATM, or go into a convenience store or big box store. We frequently run these pictures as part of our "Crooks on Camera" series whenever the sheriff's office passes them along so the public can help catch criminals.
So we'll wait to see what happens with the inevitable constitutional challenges to red-light camera rules, or to see if threatened boycotts of camera jurisdictions have any effect, or whether new accident data ends up supporting one side or the other of that debate. But we don't see much point in the 21st Centuy in complaining about the omnipresence of cameras watching almost every move that people make. In our view, we crossed that bridge some time ago.
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ROLL-UP, ANYONE?
So far two local taxing authorities have looked at the bleak revenue picture and chosen to increase millage rates. The City of Brooksville is looking at a 14 percent hike, while the Spring Hill Fire and Rescue District has decided to notify its taxpayers that the millage rate is going up a quarter-mill, to the legislative cap of 2.5 that voters will have their say on next month. In each case, the authority's governing board has decided that they want the wiggle room that allows them to keep working on budget cuts while trying to reassure most public employees that they're not headed for the unemployment rolls soon. (Although even with the hike, Spring Hill Fire is looking at laying off some administrative office staff.)
The bottom line is that the tentative millage that has to be approved in July is just that---tentative. Florida law makes it mandatory to notify taxpayers of a proposed millage rate per the August TRIM notices advising of the date, time and place for public hearings, so citizens can speak their minds. But the same law makes it expensive and difficult, if not impossible, to raise the rate in September from the tentative millage on the TRIM notices. Thus, it only seems to make sense to us that higher rates be advertised, so that the flexibility to lower the rate with more cuts is available in September.
The biggest local governments will speak on proposed rates this week, with both commissioners and school board members meeting on Tuesday. County officials have proposed a balanced budget based on a one-third mill roll-up. School board members have another chance to consider an optional quarter-mill that could bring in about $2.2 million, which would pay for a lot of teachers that the district needs, thanks to the class size rules that go into effect this year.
A modest roll-up, or the optional quarter-mill for the School Board, is probably a good idea.
We know that it's not a popular position, and we would hope that more budget work would make it possible to see further reductions in September, but it seems to us that the safest course now is for the County and School Boards to plan for a millage increase, provided it's as modest as possible and would not mean actual hikes on the tax bill bottom line for most taxpayers. Then keep working and find a way to bring those rates down. That's what the September public hearings are for. And we suspect you'll have a lot more public involvement in those hearings if TRIM notices propose millage rate increases.
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Now here's a look back in reverse chronological order at a LOT of stories seen FIRST or ONLY in Hernando County this week at Hernando News Source.
FRIDAY
EIGHTEEN LAWYERS APPLY TO REPLACE JUDGE SPRINGSTEAD
Eighteen lawyers from throughout the five-county Fifth Judicial Circuit have applied to fill the judgeship that will become vacant when Judge Jack Springstead retires on November 30. Five of them are from Hernando County--- County Judge Don Scaglione, assistant county attorney Jeff Kirk, and private practice lawyers Steve Toner, Jr., Tim Beasley and Michael Lamberti. The other names on the list are from Citrus, Sumter, Lake and Marion Counties. They are Weldon Mark Burnette, Lawrence P. Cartelli, Thomas W. Cartwright, Heidi Davis, Mary P. Hatcher, Denise A. Dymond Lyn, David Mengers, John E. Napolitano, Jonathan Olson, Rhonda Raulerson Portwood, Milan “Bo” Samargya, Anthony Michael Tatti and Clifford A. Taylor.
The Florida Bar's Judicial Nominating Commission for the circuit is seeking comments on the applicants from the public and members of the Bar. Comments are due before August 10 to local commission chair Meredith Kirste at 803 East Dixie Avenue in Leesburg, 34748.
MIXSON NAME-CLEARING HEARING ON TUESDAY AGENDA
The name-clearing hearing that fired County Engineer Charles Mixson requested last March has been scheduled for Tuesday. Mixson's attorney Bruce Snow requested the hearing so that Mixson could rebut public charges by County Administrator David Hamilton in the January termination notice. Hamilton said Mixson had mismanaged projects such as the Hernando Beach dredge and often seemed more concerned with the interests of contractors than the public. The hearing has been postponed twice at Snow's request, but county lawyers said so far Snow has not asked for any change to next week's scheduled session. After the first two postponements of the hearing, Mixson filed an age discrimination claim against the county.
FASANO SAYS HIGH SPEED RAIL MEANS JOBS FOR HERNANDO RESIDENTS
State Senator Mike Fasano said Friday that he expects construction of a High Speed Rail line between Tampa and Orlando will create "tens of thousands of jobs." Fasano was speaking at the Brooksville Ridge Kiwanis breakfast meeting and said he anticipates that people from Hernando will be hired to build the rail system over a period of years. The Pasco Republican, who represents most of southwestern Hernando County, said the federal tax dollars that will go into the rail construction project are dollars that should be coming back to Florida to make up for Florida tax dollars that go to other states. He said that once Congress voted stimulus money, he thought that Florida should get its share, since otherwise 15 cents of every Floridian's federal tax dollar goes to other states.
Fasano also responded to a question about his future plans when his term-limited time in the Florida Senate ends in two years. Fasano had expressed disappointment at the last minute decision by Representative Ginny Brown-Waite to pull out of her re-election race, since he would have liked the chance to run for the seat. But he said Friday that he's got no firm plans for post-Florida public service, describing himself as a "plodder" rather than a planner.
AQUIFER LEVEL DROPPING, JULY RAINFALL RUNNING SHORT
Officials with the Southwest Florida Water Management District released the latest statistics on aquifer levels and rainfall, and the news is not encouraging for those who thought the four-year drought was over. According to the weekly figures, aquifer levels in the northern part of the district have fallen to levels below those at the same time last year. While still in the 0-3 normal range, this week's aquifer level of .93 is a 35 percent decrease from last month's level and is below the reading for the same time last year. Meanwhile, rainfall for the first three weeks of July is less than half the normal amount for the entire month, with only one week remaining.
Hernando County commissioners will hold a public hearing next Tuesday morning on a local ordinance to keep once-a-week lawn watering. The SWFWMD governing board voted to go back to twice-weekly watering last month, while county officials said they supported staying at once a week to reinforce the water conservation message they have been spreading during the drought.
ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDS OKAY FOR SHERIFF'S JAIL BUDGET
After 10 days of analysis of last year's CCA contract jail budget and the proposed sheriff's jail budget number of $10.9 million, County Administrator David Hamilton says he now "concurs with this number and recommends it." But Hamilton also says that "further reductions may occur based on continuing negotiations in the spirit of good faith and integrity" which led to the Interlocal Agreement pledging the sheriff to the same jail budget as last year.
Commissioners had spotted a discrepancy in the sheriff's numbers versus last year's budget and said they wanted an explanation. Sheriff Rich Nugent promised in the Interlocal Agreement that he would run the jail for the same amount as last year's CCA budget. But Nugent didn't include savings that commissioners anticipated from an ankle bracelet monitoring program they hoped would reduce the jail population. The program never got off the ground, and though some officials wanted to press for a lower amount, Hamilton's comments in an agenda memo to commissioners indicate that the controversy is apparently over.
ENGINEERING FIRM TO FILL STAFFING GAP AT COUNTY UTILITIES
Hernando County Utilities wants to spend almost $40,000 on outside engineering because a former staff engineer is now reported likely to remain as Public Works Director "for the foreseeable future." A memo to county commissioners for action at Tuesday's County Board meeting says HDR Engineering is needed to help the Utilities Department "on a temporary basis for multiple projects" and calls the work needed "due to Susan Goebel's continuing assignment as Interim Public Works Director." Goebel was a staff engineer in the Utilities Department when County Administrator David Hamilton named her to replace fired County Engineer Charles Mixson as head of Public Works.
The Utilities memo says the department has been given the go-ahead to advertise for hiring a replacement for Goebel's position and that HDR's services are needed through September while that hiring is in process.
COUNTY PARKS WORKERS JOBS SAVED WITH NEW FEES
As many as a dozen county Parks maintenance workers who faced layoffs because of funding cuts would be able to keep their jobs if a proposed fee schedule for park use is implemented. That's the message of a memo from Land Services Director Ron Pianta, who says in the report that fees would "minimize impacts to the park system and levels of service" and allow most of the park facilities previously targeted for closure to remain open.
The fee schedule would hike most buidling and pavillion rental fees by about one-third. Some athletic field uses that had no previous fees would now be charged on an hourly basis. Parking fees at Pine Island and rogers Park would go up to five dollars in season, and a new off-season charge of two dollars would begin. New five dollar fees would be charged for using coastal boat ramps. A one dollar parking fee would be charged at the Spring Hill dog park.
MILITARY GRANT PROGRAM RUNNING OUT OF MONEY
County officials say a budget fund that pays for grants to families of active military personnel on combat duty to help with property taxes is almost out of money. The county approved the program five years ago, and since then annual cost has fluctuated from a high of more than $12,000 in 2006 to a low of less than $5,000 the next year. Now Budget Director George Zoettlein says in a memo to the County Board that this year's $7,000 budget wasn't enough. Commissioners added $3,000 to the fund in March, but Zoettlein said two pending applications are being held for payment because they would put the fund over the revised $10,000 amount. He's asking commissioners to transfer another $3,000 from a separate fund that is running under budget. He says that would cover the pending applications and others expected before the end of the budget year in a little more than two months.
THURSDAY
NUGENT AND SAGER SQUARE OFF AGAIN, TALK ISSUES AND BUDGETS
Congressional candidates Rich Nugent and Jason Sager debated issues and budgets for an hour Wednesday night. Even though the latest debate was in central Pasco County, the Hernando sheriff's increasing budgets were a major point of contention. Moderator Tom Jackson posed the question of Nugent's operating budgets to the sheriff, and Nugent said the takeover of central dispatching and emergency management accounted for part of the increase. He noted that the last two budgets he submitted were each three percent lower than the previous year, a move he described as "being conservative." And he cited a 15 percent decline in the crime rate last year and a 6.5 percent drop in newly released figures for the first half of this year.
Sager responded that the sheriff's budgets have increased 67 percent over his two and a half terms, in a county with a population increase of 26 percent over the same period. He also criticized the sheriff over the County Jail, saying Nugent "convinced the county to take over the privately operated county jail," and he said the sheriff claimed a need for the takeover "because government can do it cheaper." Sager told the 200 or so at the Central Pasco Republican Club that the sheriff's transition plan would put 40 people out of work and using the savings to give the remaining employees $7,000 raises.
Nugent's response was to note that the jail contract had never been rebid and that there was no alternative when private operator CCA told the county it was walking away from the contract. He said the county asked the sheriff to come in and that he planned to operate the jail for the same amount of money as CCA got last year, with a hope to return as much as a half million dollars at the end of the year. He also noted that CCA allowed the county's multi-million dollar jail buildings to "fall apart."
Sager said then, "It's a jail, they're prisoners, put them in tents with pink underwear."
COUNTY PARKS WORKER ARRESTED, FIRED FOR GASOLINE THEFTS
A Hernando County Parks Department maintenance worker was cited by sheriff's deputies Wednesday for petty theft in connection with stolen gasoline, and county human resources staff confirmed that the suspect was terminated the same day. Sheriff's reports say 60-year old Gerlando "George" Caruana was seen on video surveillance filling a five gallon plastic container with gasoline from a county fuel tank in Delta Woods Park on two separate occasions. Parks supervisors installed the video after a tank measurement showed missing gas. When confronted with the video evidence, Caruana reportedly claimed he took the gas for a friend who needed it for a leaf blower but had no money.
County officials said Caruana was terminated from parks maintenance job on Wednesday.
ROWDEN BLASTS OPPONENT FOR "54-MINUTE WORKDAY"
Though Spring Hill State Representative Rob Schenck said beforehand he would vote against a constitutional amendment to ban oil drilling in state waters, his top Demoractic election opponent blasted him Thursday for "a 54-minute workday in Tallahassee ignoring the Gulf oil crisis." Diane Rowden said the incumbent legislator she hopes to unseat in November "is one of the poster boys for drilling off our coasts." Rowden called Schenck's actions in supporting the Republican-controlled House adjournment "a huge waste of taxpayer money and opportunity." She said when Schenck and fellow Republicans refused to debate the issue and agreed to "break for lunch without getting any work done," they left "Hernando County's seafood fishing and harvesting industries once again without a voice."
Schenck, whose office was asked to comment on Rowden's blast, said before the session that he was satisfied with statutory law that banned drilling in state waters and would not support a constitutional amendment to do what's already covered in law.
ROGERS PARK SWIMMING ADVISORY LIFTED
Come on in, the water's fine, according to the Hernando County Health Department announcement lifting a swimming advisory for coastal Hernando's Rogers Park. Signs went up at the park earlier this month after testing showed levels of fecal coliform bacteria higher than was considered safe. Health Department Environmental Manager Al Gray said Thursday that the latest test results now show the water quality along the Weeki Wachee River at rogers Park is now in the acceptable range, and the July 7 advisory has been rescinded.
HUMANE SOCIETY CHIEF SAYS CAT'S PASSING TELLS STORY
Nature Coast Humane Society Director Joanne Schoch announced Thursday that Chloe the cat died last week. Schoch said Chloe's story demonstrated how one person's love for a cat helped save many other felines.
Chloe was brought to the Society after her owner, Dorothy Huitfeldt, died. A veterinarian said the frail and incontinent elderly probably had only a few months to live. Because Huitfeldt was a Humane Society supporter and left the bulk of her estate to the Society's animal shelter, Schoch says the staff decided to care for the cat for the supposed short time she had left. That time turned into more than three years, when Chloe was given free reign over the shelter's cat cottage as "official greeter."
Schoch noted the pre-planning of Huitfeldt's estate made a big difference in the lives of animals passing through the shelter over the past three years. And she says the Society staff chipped in for cremation and an urn for Chloe, who is still in her favorite sunny spot on the cat cottage copy machine.
WEDNESDAY
NUGENT WINS FIRST BIG NEWSPAPER ENDORSEMENT
The Orlando Sentinel has become the first major newspaper to endorse a candidate in the Republican Congressional primary, and it's come down on the side of Hernando Sheriff Rich Nugent. The Sentinel serves Lake County communities on the eastern edge of the sprawling Fifth District.
An editorial Wednesday in the Sentinel says "Nugent is far more qualified than his GOP primary opponent...he at least has a realistic grasp on the issues he would face in Congress."
An announcement on the editorial from the Nugent campaign tactfully omits the editorial's comment on Nugent opponent Jason Sager. The paper's editorial board actually said: "[Nugent] speaks knowledgeably about taxes and energy policy, and he has dealt with the federal government in his position. Mr. Sager speaks far more authoritatively about sin than he does policy."
DREDGE STILL STALLED, BUT COUNTY GETS GOOD WORD FROM STATE
Though there's no dredging going on at the Hernando Beach channel, county officials announced Wednesday that one milestone on the road to getting the project going again has been reached. Interim Public Works Director Susan Goebel says the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has confirmed that the Hernando Beach Channel Dredge Permit Application submitted in January is now "complete." The state regulators' letter says action on the revised permit is required by October 1. Goebel said permit action will be followed by a 21-day period for the dredge contractor to re-mobilize equipment at the worksite in preparation for resuming the project.
The permit application was needed to modify the proposed spoil dewatering methods. The project was halted in January because of excessive silt discharge which violated the terms of the original permit.
Goebel said in a media release that "[w]e are happy to have completed the next step in the permitting process with FDEP, and we are confident that FDEP will expedite processing the permit."
ANALYSIS OF CLASS SIZE MANDATE PEGS LOCAL COST AT $4 MILLION
Hernando County School Board members are being told that compliance with new class size requirements will cost $4 million for the new school year. Constitutional class size reduction mandates take full effect this year. Voters will have a chance in November to revise the amendment, as local school officials around the state have complained about costs of reducing class size. Hernando officials told the board that putting full-time teachers in all classes to comply with requirements would mean almost 400 more teachers at a cost of more than $23 million. But the analysis made available Wednesday in advance of next week's workshop says local schools will include a number of strategies to keep down the cost of compliance, including some additional staff, extra class supplements, and use of long-term substitutes.
The analysis also noted that last year's student data showed 20 Hernando schools were out of compliance with the new requirements, and that without changes the district could be penalized more than $3.2 million. School Board members will review the analysis at a workshop next Tuesday afternoon.
SCHOOL COMMITTEE HAS PLAN FOR PERFORMANCE-BASED EVALUATIONS
Hernando school district officials are asking the School Board to approve a plan for evaluating teachers using student achievement. Officials say state mandates require performance appraisals of teachers and school-based
administrators to be "primarily based on" student performance. The state requirements are also part of the federal Race to the Top funding program.
An evaluation committee of teachers' union members, administrators and district staff will present their ideas next Tuesday at a School Board workshop. The plan calls for a new evaluation form for instructional personnel. Along with that, student performance data for teachers will be collected for research purposes only in the coming school year and would not be considered in the final evaluation. Once officials are sure that the process for collecting data works and everyone is familiar with the process, teacher evaluation for the 2011-2012 school year would be based on student performance data.
Evaluation forms have also been created for school-based and district administrators with a new goal-setting process. Student performance data would be the main focus for their evaluation this year. Officials say the board also needs a contractor to develop a system to collect and analyze the data required for teacher evaluation.
PAIR CHARGED WITH GRAND THEFT, DEALING STOLEN SEWING MACHINE
Sheriff's deputies say two men are jailed Wednesday on charges of dealing a $1,000 sewing machine and selling it for $100. According to reports and arrest affidavits, the machine was taken from the Spring Hill home of Philip John Guptail's mother. Richard Arthur Reiter of Smithfield Lane in Brooksville allegedly acted as a broker with a friend who owned a sewing shop in the sale of the machine. The 30-year old Guptail and the 27-year old Reiter were charged with grand theft and dealing in stolen property when they were booked into the Hernando County Jail on Tuesday.
FACEBOOK PAGE PROMOTES NAME CHANGE FOR BROOKSVILLE
A local man who describes himself as an "activist, raconteur and music industry weasel" has started a Facebook page called "Change the name of Brooksville, Fl to something a little less racist." Justin Lollie's profile picture for the page shows South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks caning Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate. Sumner, a pre-Civil War abolitionist, had offended Brooks with an anti-slavery speech, so Brooks beat him unconscious on the floor of the Senate, nearly killing him. Lollie makes a statement and asks a question on the page, "Brooksville was named for a Civil War-era pro-slavery congressman who beat the hell out of an anti-slavery congressman on the floor of Congress with his cane. Doesn't that just make your heart swell with pride?"
Lollie describes the page's mission as convincing the Brooksville City Council to rename the city, "or at least denounce the brutal, racist history that inspired the original name change" from the original Melendez. He says there are a number of renaming options, but "what shouldn't be an option is forcing future generations of Brooksville natives to carry the shame of being from a town named after a violent, racist thug."
So far, Lollie's Rename Brooksville page has two friends.
TUESDAY
ACCUSED BANK ROBBER COPS PLEA MOMENTS BEFORE TRIAL
A 38-year old man accused of bank robbery pleaded guilty moments before his Hernando County Circuit Court trial was scheduled to start Tuesday. The plea deal calls for a seven and a half year prison term for Andre Franklin. He's already served almost two years in jail awaiting trial.
Franklin was one of three men involved in two bank robberies in October 2008. The trio attempted a robbery in Hillsborough County and then came to Hernando where they held up the Brannen Bank branch on Cortez Blvd. Franklin was unhappy that he was not offered the same plea deal that the co-defendants got, including a three-year prison sentence. But prosecutors said they could not make that offer, because it turned out the deal was a mistake as being below sentencing guidelines.
Franklin and his attorney Grady Irvin agreed to the seven and a half year deal while a jury panel waited in another room in the courthouse for jury selection to begin. Franklin faced a sentence of up to 20 years on two counts, one for principal to robbery and the other for conspiracy, and that sentence could have been doubled to 40 years, had he been found guilty in a trial.
CONVICTED CHILD ABUSER HAS MOTION TO RECONSIDER SENTENCE DENIED
A woman convicted four years ago of child abuse and failure to appear for trial had her bid for a re-sentencing denied Tuesday by Circuit Judge Jack Springstead. Lori Allain, who was charged for withholding food from foster children in her care, says she shouldn't have been charged for failing to appear and received an additional prison sentence for it. She's already serving a 25-year term on the abuse charges.
She argued with Springstead about whether she had notice that the courthouse was closing due to a hurricane emergency on the day she was supposed to be in court. When Springstead convened the next day, Allain and her husband Arthur, who was also charged in the case, were nowhere to be found. They were later arrested in New Jersey and brought back to Florida to begin prison sentences.
Springstead showed patience as Allain, who was representing herself, tried to show with phone bills that she had been in contact with her lawyer and tried to find out when she was supposed to be in court. But his patience wore thin as Allain interrupted him several times to dispute what the judge called the relevant facts. Meanwhile, the lawyers who represented her and her husband listened from the back of the courtroom, and one offered his view of the phone bill dispute. The Allains have claimed that the two private attorneys provided ineffective counsel.
In the end Springstead denied Allain's motion to reconsider the sentence and listened calmly as she repeatted bias changes she's made before against the judge. Springstead also declined to enter an expedited order to have her transported back to prison. When she sought the special treatment to start work on an appeal of the case, the judge told her she would go through the regular process instead.
TENTATIVE CITY MILLAGE RATE UP 14 PERCENT FOR TRIM NOTICES
Brooksville City Council members decided better safe than sorry Monday night and voted for a tentative millage rate of 8.0, up nearly one mill from last year. The rate is subject to reduction when the city holds its September budget hearings and votes on a final millage rate. The TRIM notices to taxpayers go out in August, and taxing authorities set a preliminary rate that can be lowered later. The motion for the higher roll-up rate was made by Vice-Mayor Richard Lewis, and only Mayor Lara Bradburn voted no. The so-called roll-up rate is the rate that would generate the same amount of revenue as last year. Declining property values have put local governments in some budget holes, and Brooksville joins the Spring Hill Fire Board iin voting to put a higher mill rate on the preliminary TRIM notices to reserve the power to lower it later if they can fill those budget holes in other ways.
DRUZBICK STILL MAKING UP HIS MIND ABOUT ROLL-UP VOTE
County Board chairman John Druzbick said Tuesday he still hasn't decided what to do about a possible vote for a roll-up in county tax millage. Druzbick said in a radio interview that he is still waiting to hear what ideas his fellow commissioners have for trimming the county spending plan before he makes up his mind. He said he's looking at furloughs and other salary-saving ideas to keep 29 county workers on the public payroll. One concept he said he wants to explore is requiring employees to contribute something to the nearly $700 per month county subsidy for health insurance that is currently in effect. And Druzbiick said he's also waiting to hear from staff exactly how much those health insurance premiums will increase this year.
The county is facing a $1.2 million general fund budget shortfall. A one-third roll-up could bring in another $2 million in revenue and eliminate layoff possibilities. Two of five commissioners have said they will not vote for a millage roll-up, even though staff officials reported that declining property values would mean that even with a modest roll-up, three-quarters of all taxpayers would still see a lower county tax bill.
JAIL BUDGET DISCREPANCY CLARIFIED BUT CONCERNS REMAIN
County officials say they're still concerned that the proposed jail budget submitted by Sheriff Rich Nugent is inconsistent with an interlocal agreement pledging to hold the line on costs. They say they've discovered that a discrepancy spotted in last week's County Board meeting was caused by a budget assumption that proved incorrect, but the agreement still commits the sheriff to the same amount budgeted for last year.
The pact calls for the sheriff to run the Hernando County Jail with the same budget as private operator CCA for the past budget year. But commissioners spotted what looked to be almost a half-million dollar increase when reviewing budget documents and asked for an explanation. Budget Director George Zoettlein said after review that the discrepancy, which actually totaled $380,000, resulted from an incorrect assumption in last year's budget. The sheriff figured his budget based on the same CCA per day prisoner costs as used in last year's calculation. The county's jail budget was $380,000 less because officials had assumed a cost savings from implementing an ankle monitoring system which was expected to lower the jail population. But that program is still being reviewed and was never put into effect. Nugent has vowed to use the ankle monitoring once it's signed off on by Hernando's judges as a legal substitute for jail time.
Despite the clarification of the discrepancy, county staff say they will press for strict adherence to the sheriff's commitment in the agreement.
BROOKSVILLE BEAUTIFICATION AWARD GOES TO SHERIFF
Hernando Sheriff Rich Nugent was honored Monday night by the Brooksville City Council with a beautification award for the new sheriff's substation and community center on Martin Luther King Blvd. Nugent was joined by County Commissioner Rose Rocco, the chair of the south Brooksville Community Initiatives Team, in accepting the city's honors, along with Mayor Lara Bradburn and Beautification Committee chair Sally Sperling.
Ironically, the community center was closed Monday, with yellow crime-scene tape blocking the entrances. Nugent and city Public Works chief Dick Radacky said a mishap during a sewer line inspection had backed up wastewater into the facility. Radacky said the sheriff's substation was the only sewer customer affected by the problem.
CITY APPROVES CDBG GRANT APP OVER COMMUNITY CONCERNS
The city of Brooksville will apply for a $750,000 state block grant for new water lines and sidewalks in south Brooksville, despite a complaint that there was not enough input from residents of the community.
Community activist Richard Howell said the fast pace of the last-minute application didn't allow affected residents to review the plans for the money. He also accused the city of speeding through a public hearing process designed to ensure that input.
Mayor Lara Bradburn told Howell that Monday's night's formal hearing provided the opportunity for that input, but Howell complained that neither he nor other community residents had a chance to go over the application. The deadline for submitting the request is this week, and city Community Development Director Bill Geiger said engineering estimates just in showed the money might not pay for the full list of south Brooksville projects being planned.
Geiger was given the go-ahead to revise the application as necessary to keep the projects within the estimated costs. They told him to make new water lines the top priority, to improve fire flows in the community. The planned sidewalks along Martin Luther King Blvd. and Main Street could also be funded later by state transportation grants.
Some in the community have raised concerns about whether the city's late entry in the block grant competition could undercut a similar application from the county for other south Brooksville projects. That request was in the works for three months before the announcement of Brooksville's grant plans two weeks ago.
MONDAY
BROOKSVILLE RED-LIGHT CAMERAS WILL GO LIVE AGAIN
The Brooksville City Council voted 3-2 Monday night to restart its red-light camera fines as soon as four bids are evaluated and a new vendor selected. The vote came after a long debate with an endlessly looping video of a violent rear-end collision playing in the background. Police chief George Turner and Sergeant Jeff Brough presented their case for cameras with a presentation showing a 35 percent decrease in intersection accidents that they tied to camera enforcement of ordinance fines against red light runners. They also said they expect to net about $350,000 a year in revenue from fines when cameras go up at more intersections under a new state law that splits revenue among the state, local governments and camera vendors.
Council members Joe Bernardini and Richard Lewis voted to halt the camera program, but they were out-voted by Mayor Lara Bradburn and council members Joe Johnston and Frankie Burnett. Bradburn said again that the issue was safety, not money, despite protests from citizen speakers who said accidents were down because people aren't coming to Brooksville because of the cameras, that increasing yellow light times would have the same safety effect, and that studies show increases in rear-end collisions. All the while the video that ended the police presentation continued to run, showing a speeding Mercedes slamming into the rear of two cars stopped in the outside northbound lane of Broad Street at Martin Luther King Blvd.
CONTRACTOR BALKS AT FIXING BOAT LIFT, SAYS STRUCTURE COMPROMISED
County Administrator David Hamilton got a first hand look Monday at the Hernando Beach Boat Lift after the president of the group that operates the lift told him a contractor said the structure needed to be fixed before he could start work on rehabbing the lift mechanism. Don Bowers told Hamilton at the Coastal Hernando Initiatives Program meeting that delays in fixing the ailing boat lift have been frustrating dozens of boat owners in Hernando Beach South. Because of a 27-year old court order, the boat lift is the subdivision's only means of accessing the Gulf.
Hamilton and Bowers looked at the steel supports that hold the lift mechanism and confirmed that several are so badly out of plumb as to be plainly visible to the naked eye. Bowers also pointed out that the metal on the bottom of the boat cradle is scratching deep indentations in the concrete dam that separates the salt water canals of Hernando Beach from the brackish water in the south subdivision.
Hamilton said he would look into the situation with the contractor, who was supposed to have finished work by now but instead is refusing to sign the contract until a structural engineer confirms what to do about the lift supports. The boat lift is a county benefit unit, paid for by assessments on Hernando Beach South tax bills but operated under contract by Bowers' group.
C.H.I.P. REVIEWS DATA ON COASTAL PROJECT PRIORITIES
Water access and transportation needs are the two top priorities off Hernando coastal residents, according to a compilation of responses to a citizen survey at a visioning meeting last month. The Coastal Hernando Initiatives Program, better known as C.H.I.P., got a first look at the data Monday morning. The C.H.I.P. committee, chaired by Commissioner Rose Rocco, was told that the water access issues include not only the stalled channel dredge project, but also access problems for Hernando Beach South residents, who have concerns about an aging boat lift and a low bridge that keeps larger craft from getting to the Gulf.
Transportation priorities were topped by calls to widen Shoal Line Blvd. and for bike paths and sidewalks in the Hernando Beach area. C.H.I.P. team members will review the data and develop timelines for seeking project funding. They hope to have a progress report at the next community meeting in October.
SAGER PICKS UP ON NUGENT=SCOZZAFAVA MEME
In a media release headlined "Friends of Nugent, the Incumbents and Washington Elites," the Jason Sager campaign has followed up on opponent Rich Nugent's campaign finance report. The quarterly report showed nine contributions from Political Action Committees headed by current members of Congress. Of those nine, seven also contributed to the unsuccessful special election campaign of accused Republican "liberal" Dede Scozzafava last year.
Sager's release said that most of the "Leadership PACs" supporting Nugent also contributed to Scozzafava's campaign. Sager is quoted in the release as saying "[i]t appears that the Washington Elite think they know better than the good citizens of District 5 and are attempting to select our next Congressional representative for us."
Nugent said Monday night that he's proud of the 390 individuals who have donated about $86,000 to his campaign for Congress. He said many of those contributions were too small to require listing in the quarterly report he filed last week with the Federal Elections Commission. Nugent reacted after being told about an analysis of the report that showed parallels with the New York Congresswoman condemned by Republican opponents as too liberal in a special election last year.
The analysis by a member of the Restore the Constitution organization was posted at the Free Republic web site. The analysis shows that more than half of Nugent's contributions from political action committees came from PAC's headed by current members of Congress. Of those nine PAC donations, ranging from $1,000 to $5000, seven of the same PAC's contributed at least $1,000 to Dede Scozzafava, the Republican who was painted as too liberal when running in a special election in upstate New York last year.
The campaign finance reports for Nugent and his primary opponent for a congressional seat, Jason Sager, were released on the Federal Elections Commission website last week. They showed that Nugent had collected $145,000 in contributions during the April through June reporting period, compared to only $23,000 for Sager.
TRANSPORTATION PLANNERS SET PUBLIC HEARING ON WORK PROGRAM
Spending watchdogs may want to mark their calendars for next Tuesday afternoon. That's when county commissioners and the Brooksville mayor sitting as the Metropolitan Planning Organization hold a public hearing on a five-year transportation plan. In addition to the usual projects, such as advance right-of-way acquisition for County Line Road widening, the plan's fine print includes some eye openers for residents concerned with future budgets.
Page 79 of the agenda made public Monday lists five years of spending on a fixed-route transit system which totals more than three million dollars between now and 2015. And page 75 describes expenditures of $235,000 in the 2011 budget year for designing a trailhead facility in the Cypress Lake Preserve and $240,000 two years later to construct an access drive, parking, restroom, picnic pavillion and kiosk. The preserve is land in Ridge Manor that was acquired mostly with sensitive lands money.
Most of the rest of the agenda package is previously reported bad news, with actual construction on County Line Road and Cortez Boulevard between Mariner and the Parkway not included in the five-year program. Most of Cortez between U.S. 19 and Brooksville would get only resurfacing between now and 2015.
Sheriff Rich Nugent has asked his supporters to help him send a message of support to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. The Fifth District Congressional candidate says he wants that message to say that Floridians are behind Brewer and the people of Arizona "for standing firm on the important issue of immigration."
In an e-mail, Nugent says his campaign has set a goal of collecting 10,000 signatures voicing support for the Arizona immigration law and "sending a message to the Obama administration." Nugent says the lawsuit against the immigration check statute "is another in a long line of wrong decisions" by the Democrats.
Nugent says website visitors can sign the petition and then review his stand on immigration. He says he plans to ask for website input on other issues in the coming months, including the oil spill, the deficit and the economy.
DPW COMPOUND CLEAN-UP DELAYED FOR NEW PLANS
Interim Hernando Public Works Director Susan Goebel says clean-up of the DPW compound in south Brooksville has been delayed while a new engineer is hired to develop a revised Remedial Action Plan, or RAP. The
original contract with Creative Environmental Solutions to develop a
remedial action plan was finished two months ago, but Goebel says she wasn't satisfied with the plan's proposed fencing of the property with periodic monitoring of the soil.
The County has requested a time extension from state regulators that would put an October 7 deadline on submission of a revised plan to the Department of Environmental Regulation. Goebel said the new plan would be more consistent with the ongoing revitalization efforts for the south Brooksville community. A county media release says the revised RAP would offer greater land use opportunities for the site such as passive recreation.
Goebel said “The clean-up of the former Public Works compound is a high priority for the County, and we are steadily moving toward a resolution that will satisfy state requirements and the residents in the community."
COUNTY MOVING FORWARD WITH ODOR CONTROL FOR SMELLY SEWER PLANT
County officials say they can now get started on some steps to cut down on the odors from the Spring Hill Wastewater Treatment Plant. The oldest plant on the county system is due for replacement in three years. Until then commissioners are hoping that spending utility revenue on a new chemical filtering process and removal of sediment at the plant itself will make a big difference in odors that waft over the Commercial Way Wal-Mart and, depending on wind, all the way to Hernando Beach.
Using another county's contract for the sediment removal should get the process started quickly, according to Utilities Director Joe Stapf. The chemical process for the Quality Drive lift station is from a sole-source supplier, but Stapf says he's familiar with the product from using it in Michigan. Together, the two steps to odor control will cost county utilities rate-payers about $400,000. When in place by early fall, Stapf says the two "stop-gap" measures are expected to provide some relief until the wastewater can be routed to a newer plant at the Airport as a permanent solution.
Millage Roll Up - I don't believe that any honest representative of the taxpayers will go for a roll up. The surprise that the local schools don't need a roll up because of monies saved in the prior budget year is a methodology that Pinellas County Schools used too. Surprise - no furloughs necessary in Pinellas because guess what? They have money left over from prior year too. How come the financial officers and School Boards didn't know this? I suspect that they did all along. The local BOCC, especially the newly elected members didn't run on platforms of raising millage rates. That would include Adkins, Stabins and Druzbick. Real cutting of salaries and benefit packages has not happened and needs to for the current and future financial health of Hernando County. Raises for any government employee today should not happen either.
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As I said be for Nugent only says for the most part what Jason Sager has been saying for over A year
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While privacy is not my issue with the cameras I can do a better job of explaining the concern. Justice Louis Brandeis referred to the right of privacy as our "right to be let alone." It is not the right of our government to give a private company ANY information such as Registration, Address, and Location for that private company to store or perhaps sell. To other private individuals investigating us. We aren't talking about police cameras monitoring locations for purpose of solving a crime here. We are talking about the government in cahoots with a private corporation. Then there is also the prevailing concern that the government has become too invasive. They regulate EVERYTHING we do as private individuals. You can not name one thing that you do that is not in someway dictated, legislated or regulated. The Constitution is about limiting the power of government. The revolutionaries that secured our independence from far away England would never have stood for even a 10th of the government we have today, and neither should we.
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If the red light cameras are about safety, why was the yellow time shortened to 3.5 seconds at Chapman St. when most non-camera intersections in the county are 4 seconds or more?
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