Columnists

Vince Long is slick. There’s really no other way to put it. How else to describe a guy who, in the span of 24 hours, somehow managed the announcement that his boss, Leon County Administrator Parwez Alam, was retiring, then got seven County Commissioners to unanimously vote to name him as the replacement, complete with [...]

The Real Power:  Neighborhood Control In part one of this two-part series, it was shown how our commissioners from both the City of Tallahassee and Leon County have allowed a private contractor, the Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation (TTHP), to take control of a public citizens’ advisory group, the Architectural Review Board (ARB).  Half the membership [...]

Citizens empower elected officials when they defer their knowledge, wisdom and expertise to public servants, government staff and other special interest groups. Representative government is successful when the body represents the collective views of those that they stand for. But when one wavers by interjecting his or her own values and beliefs into the decisions [...]

During 2011, the county commission will be taking another look at requiring more advanced septic tanks for southern Leon County.  In my view, the proposal before the county commission to require performance based treatment systems (PBTS) probably is not what we need and it is certainly not what the property owners want.  A performance based [...]

It’s high up there on the City Commission’s 2011 agenda, almost as important as job growth and expansion. It seems the city’s establishment is responding to the unrest and uncertainty in the Southside, and its about time. For years, this town has made half-hearted gestures toward the Southside, tolerating a condition of de facto segregation and [...]

“Perception is everything.  If you commit a crime, you should pay a penalty—especially if you are a public servant.” State of Florida Senator Fasano said. The past few months we have read about controversy over elected officials making mistakes, or mistakes involving personal gains.  Ethic’s issues of wrongdoings should be looked at with other actions [...]

There is no doubt that the south side of Tallahassee needs economic revitalization.

I have agreed for a long time that it makes perfect sense to move the current Fairgrounds to a new site and to redevelop the existing site on south Monroe Street .

Although it has been getting a lot of press lately, citizens wanting a say in how their tax dollars get spent is not a new concept. Every elementary school student is familiar with the phrase “No taxation without representation!” as the battle cry that accompanied our nation’s founding. To find a modern-day example of this principle in action, one needs to look no further than the local community, where a true example of participatory democracy can be found in the human services funding process.

If the City of Tallahassee is serious about trying to create a 18 hour downtown, having more elections would seem to be a great way to accomplish the goal. Too bad then, that Amendment 4 was soundly defeated. The so called “Hometown Democracy” Amendment would have required a vote every time a comp plan was amended, meaning more votes, and more importantly to the City, more election night parties.