Vince Long Is Where He Wants To Be

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 […]

Billion-Dollar Theft Planned by City?

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 Can Help Too

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 […]

County Considering Advanced Septic Tanks

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 […]

Ethics are Good for Free Enterprise and Private Property Rights

“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 […]

Fairgrounds Redevelopment Needs a Plan

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 .

So now what?

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.

Village Square: 2010 Citizen’s Election Season Survival Guide

Tired of low-rent political advertisements that make you hurl objects at the television set? Bored with the finger-pointing, whining, squabbling, temper tantrums and gotcha games? Got indigestion from one too many robocall from Bill Clinton or John McCain during dinner? Perhaps all this has you looking for the “none of the above” box at the voting booth.