Just last month, Raoul Lavin of the City’s budget office, provided the first glimpse of the 2014 budget. His presentation focused only on the General Fund, which finances core city services, and indicated an upcoming deficit of approximately $5 million. Yesterday, City Manager Anita Favors Thompson released her recommended 2014 (FY14) budget for review by […]
The Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Board finally voted to accept five broad policy goals, but not before frustration among some members boiled over. City Commissioner Scott Maddox, visibly frustrated, said, “it is hard for me to imagine a more confusing process. This is absurd and ridiculous! There have been six hours of meetings and we […]
The Leon County Sales Tax Committee met today to begin the tough task of deciding which projects will be considered for the approximately $500 million in funding if the sales tax referendum is passed by voters. The whittling down process began by identifying the projects that had unanimous support by the committee. The members unanimously […]
During the 17th meeting of the City’s Ethics Advisory Panel, on Monday June 10, the issue of oversight authority was front and center. The question of who an Ethics Officer would report to has been lingering over the meetings for the last few weeks. While the discussions had been cordial, it was obvious that a […]
The City’s Ethics Advisory panel voted today to recommend that the City Commission create a new Ethics Officer position. This position would be on the same level as the City Manager, City Attorney, City Auditor and the City Clerk and the responsibilities would be detailed in the Charter. This means that the position would have […]
The CRA Workshop, that was initiated by some Board member concerns about about the appropriate focus of the CRA, turned into a discussion about redevelopment projects for Frenchtown. And some Board members were clearly caught off guard. County Commissioner Kristin Dozier said that “I thought it would be a different process. We did not agree to […]
While the City’s Ethics Advisory Panel is set to recommend significant changes to ethics rules for elected officials with respect to financial disclosure, business conflicts, and training, the question of who will be responsible for implementing these new rules has yet to be resolved. During the Panel’s meeting on May 30th, scheduled to be its […]
The City’s Ethics Advisory Panel held a public hearing Wednesday night in the City Hall Chambers. But before the public meeting, the Panel took care of some unfinished business with regards to the structure of the oversight authority for a new ethics code. The focus of the Panel was a recommendation by Panel member Jaber […]
Over the last three years, the City and County Commissioners who sat on the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) have voted to spend approximately $10 million dollars associated with four major developments on and around Gaines Street. Together these developments will consist of 74,000 square feet of retail space, 1,400 parking places, and 1,400 residential beds. […]
Chairperson Martha Barnett said something at the City’s Ethics Advisory Panel that a number of citizens have known for a long time: “We need more transparency and accountability in this digital age.” With that, the members of the Panel spent over two hours reaching consensus on major changes to the current rules and laws that […]