Posted on 12/12/2008
12/12/08
I am happy to announce that City Council agreed with my request to keep the Enoch Davis utility payment window open for the thousands of customers each month who use it. Additionally, administration yesterday announced that they
were getting out of the contract with Amscot Financial to charge customers to pay their utility bills there. This is a double victory because it continues
a good service for the community and does not lead people in the doors of the
"legal loan sharks"!
12/5/08
This week citizens alerted me to the pending closure of the utility bill payment service at the Enoch Davis Center and the plan to promote citizens paying their utility bills at Amscot Financial. I thought this was a horrible idea and immediately requested City Council to move to stop and closure of the services at the Enoch Davis Center and end the dealings with legal loan sharks such as Amscot.
Payday lenders target those citizens who in a financial jam and offer VERY high interest rates on short term loans. This is exactly what is often called
predatory lending or what I call legal loan sharking. The typical payday borrower pays $793 for a $325 loan! See www.responsiblelending.org for additional details.
City Council has scheduled workshop on Dec. 16th at 3:00 PM to discuss stopping this relationship with Amscot. I am hopeful that the Council will
stand up to the loan sharks.
M
Posted on 12/05/2008
Dec 5th - Update - City Council approved the staffs draft ordinances to lower the maximum building heights on Al Lang, Mahaffey and future Dali Museum properties along the waterfront starting just north of the airport. This now goes to the Planning & Visioning Commission. It will have to come back to city council for public hearings before this is final. Currently, it is the FAA airport regulations that determine maximum building heights in this area
which is not way to zone in my opinion.
Sept.25th - Update.
The City Council met in workshop on Sept 25th to discuss the maximum building heights on the Al Lang, Mahaffey and future Dali Museum properties along the waterfront. Currently, the "height map" allowed buildings up to 300 feet for all these locations. Council directed staff to bring an ordinance to counci
in mid October with a 75' height for the Al Lang property and 125' for the other two frontwater properties. This is another victory to protect our waterfront.
July 2008.
City Council voted to direct staff to draft a zoning change to park zoning for
Al Lang Field on 7/10. This will provide a greater level of protection for our waterfront parks. I proposed allowing the citizens to vote on a similiar,
but stronger, measure a few weeks prior. That was voted down by Council. However, in light of the withdrawal of the Ray's proposal, the Council stepped up protect our waterfront this week!
Posted on 12/05/2008
City Council approved my proposal to televise debates between candidates for Mayor and City Council starting with next year's elections. It will be on the city channel and moderated by the League of Women Voters. As President of
CONA (Council of Neighborhood Associations), I twice attempted to get Council
to agreed to provide this opportunity to citizens. Both prior attempts failed.
Dec 4th - City Council Committees dates, times, places, agendas and backup
material are now on the City website. This was a request of mine because it is in committee where ideas to change things first have to go. Previously, none of these meetings were on the website so people did not even know when issues were coming up. Now, if you go the website and look under City Council and then go to meetings and agendas, you can get this information.
Posted on 12/05/2008
I introduced two items this week to promote landscaping with plants and ground covers that naturally grow in Florida. This grew out of the fact that we have used all the cheap water in the Tampa Bay area. All additional water is going to come from rivers which cost twice as much and ground water or the desalination plant which costs 3.5 times as much. The solution is to shift our landscaping codes to promote native and/or "Florida Friendly" plants and grounds.
Please contact your City Council members to educate them on these needed changes.
12/12/08
The City Council PS&I committee will take up this issue on January 15th.
The members are Jeff Danner, Leslie Curran, Herb Polson and Jim Kennedy.
Please encourage them to support the moves toward plants and covers that use
less water, fertilizer, pesticides and maintenance.
