County Commission Tuesday

It is County Commission Tuesday, so we will spend today going over some agenda items.

I keep getting asked when I am addressing the $39m that our CFO called out as waste in the budget. It is coming. I have not had a chance to sit down for a few hours to pour over the numbers yet.

I will say that today will be a test for Chairwoman Diana Finegan. I know commissioners are eager to discuss these findings, but as I mentioned last week, this item is NOT on the agenda. They are NOT supposed to have a full discussion about it if it is not on the agenda.

They can answer citizen's questions if they are asked during the public portion of the meeting, but they cannot go deep into a board discussion or give direction, aside from asking it to be on the next agenda. Bring it back on a future agenda to have those conversations.

Let's see how Finegan navigates this. As chair, she has the ability to stop the discussion for non-agenda items.

As mentioned last week, this is a horrible time for Sheriff Vincent to come asking the county for more money for pay raises for deputies and staff. No one that I have seen is suggesting they do not need the raises. The study shows we are not paying as high of wages as surrounding counties. However, commissioners are still reeling from last Tuesday. I assume there will be some good discussion on what to do with this, but ultimately I see them approving it... but not without some in the public wanting cuts elsewhere to offset it. I expect a commissioner to make that suggestion as well.

Speaking of the Sheriff... he added an agenda item to talk about the press conference yesterday. I presume this is in relation to the Federal investigation on the jail and employees sneaking in contraband.

One interesting thing I heard after this and what may only get louder. Several people have been saying it is time for the county to take back management of the jail.

Will be interesting to see the numbers, but I doubt the county can do it cheaper. Remember, once those employees become government employees, their cost increases due to benefits. I presume that salaries wouod not be as high either, so perhaps that helps offset it.

I expect this discussion to heat up a bit

The feasibility study for the sales tax that Trust for Public Lands did is being presented tomorrow. Something interesting... there is no backup for this item. It just says they will provide an analysis, but do not provide anything for the public to look at.

I am going to look at the numbers they got vs what the Chamber and myself got in our own surveys. I want to see how close ours were to theirs. The surveys that the Chamber and I did were not statistically valid. They did not get the proper survey demographics.

The one the Trust for Public lands has done is statistically valid. Let's see how close they are.

The Chamber survey showed 59.1% approving, 28.3% disapproving and 12.6% undecided.

My survey showed 54.6% approving and 45.4% disapproving.

Commissioners will then decide their path forward. Will they push for this in 2026 or wait for 2028? We still do not know what Tallahassee is doing with property tax reform, but good luck pushing a sales tax increase while the state is putting property taxes on the agenda.

Parks and Recreation sports - Commissioner Bays is bringing forward an item to discuss how sports fields are reserved and other policy items regarding them. I have heard recently that leagues are starting to have issues reserving space and question who gets priority over the limited space that exists.

Vacation Rentals - Bays is also bringing forward an item to require short term rentals to register in the county and it appears she wants to create some ordinances surrounding them. I assume something sparked this (upset neighbor most likely), so maybe we find out why this is coming out of the blue.

She is looking to create an ordinance to regulate things like parking, noise, signs, etc. I would think most of that is in the Land Development Code, but interested in hearing what she brings with all of this and why.

Animal shelter donations - A couple weeks ago when they approved the animal shelter, Bays said she wanted to make a non-profit and she would donate the first $1000 to it. Sounds great in theory, but this is government. How many people trust the government these days with their money?

Not too many.

While I understand that these donated funds would only be allowed to be used for the animal shelter (if earmarked as such), no one trusts the government to do that. Aside from that, donating directly to the county government will make that a public record. I would imagine many would-be donors would not want their name or the amount they donated as public information.

Which is why non-profits are usually best for this type of thing. Why re-invent the wheel. Get a non-profit involved. In fact, there already is one. Forgive me for not remembering the name, but there is a Citrus County non-profit tied to the animal shelter. Why not encourage donations to go there?

Renaming Pirates Cove - Not sure what Kinnard is thinking other than trying to recognize WREC for their donation to get the Pirates Cove property. But creating a name selection committee... to change the name of the park to something else, while still requiring "Pirates Cove" to be in the name seems like a waste of time.

So not giving it much space here.

The last thing on the agenda is the leachate issue in Sumter County where they want to pump the waste into the ground 3,000 feet deep.

I wrote about it Friday, so no need to dive back in to that. I do not expect to see anyone object to doing the letter.

That is it for today.. See you at the meeting!