District 1, 3 & 5 Seats Up for Grabs
John Meeks – District 1
Mike Joyner – District 3
Matt Brooks – District 5
In the Spirit of the 2020 election, taxpayers of Levy County are looking for That Special Someone to run our county. Nothing on my wish list will cause an increase in the budget. THE FOLLOWING ARE SUGGESTIONS TO BENEFIT LEVY COUNTY AND COULD BE INCLUDED IN QUESTIONS TO NEW PERSONS RUNNING FOR OFFICE:
1. Reduce the current $116 landfill assessment to $50 & reinstate the tipping fees for commercial haulers to pay for all their loads. At this time commercial haulers do not pay dumping/tipping fees for residential garbage.
2. Open satellite transfer stations on weekends. The main landfill is closed on Sundays. Most taxpayers clean up clean up on weekends which could reduce illegal dumping if stations were open on Sundays.
3. Open Animal Control on Saturdays for the taxpayers’ convenience, not the current 8-4, M-F. Florida Statute 823.151 gives written policies and procedures to ensure that every reasonable effort is made by agencies to quickly and reliably return owned animals to their owners. I’ve been told this is a “gray area” and not enforceable. Animals have to be attended to on weekends, so why not have the shelter opened to the public on Saturdays. (For more info see Spotlight story “Is It Possible Animal Services Could Open Saturdays, or Not?” Dated September 10, 2019).
4. Animal Control can add more volunteers. New kennels, per Commissioner Rooks, were to be completed in December 2019. No new information provided in January commission meetings on the status of new kennels.
5. Have the full-time veterinarian perform more spay/neuter procedures than the current 18 feral cats per month for the Trap/Neuter/Release program.
6. Increase the county’s spay/neuter programs & procedures in order to decrease the number of unwanted animals BY Using pro-active policies rather than the current reactive policies.
7. Decrease the current 3-day waiting period after spay/neuters and allow immediate pickup which would increase the number of dogs spayed/neutered and lower the cost to animal control for holding the animals.
8. Follow FL Statute 823.15 requiring monthly shelter reports which it has been in existence since 2013. In August 2017, BoCC approved purchase of a $5,030 animal shelter reporting software (Shelter Pro) but no regular, comprehensive reports have ever been presented at BoCC meetings using this software, only skimpy numbers in an Excel type spreadsheet with bare bones summary information only and not produced on a regular basis.
9. Explore the option of a 20-year-and-out retirement plan with the option of the DROP program? The current retirement plan for county employees is 30 years.
10. The county commission explore more options to keep employee health insurance costs down instead of relying on Public Risk Management (PRM) as they have for the last 20 years with Florida Blue as the only option.
11. Roads did not make my list because after attending years of commission meetings, people complaining that our roads are in bad shape (as in every other county), I know that paving and upkeep of roads is incredibly costly. I don’t see how the county can do much more than what they have been doing. I have to take a series of dirt roads to get to my house. I bought the property knowing the roads were dirt (no lime rock), I will be dead and gone before my roads get paved but I don’t mind, roads are so sandy with ravines where the water flows in heavy rains but on the up side, I never worry about anyone speeding!
NOTE: I will be running polls on the above issues. But to be clear, with no misunderstandings, this WILL NOT be a scientific poll; it will be more like a community message board for those of us interested in local government to convey a message to any politician that will listen. So please don’t beat me up over a simple FB poll, just trying to get a feel for what the taxpayers want and expect. Most folks cannot attend meetings and many of the council and board members read this public FB page, so we should take this opportunity to let the powers that be know what we expect from them.
Annual salary for Levy Commissioner is $35,310 + retirement + insurance & more.
For those of you not familiar with the ins and outs of running for office, Tammy Jones, Supervisor of Elections, has a very informative website for those interested in the running for office. Go to http://www.votelevy.com/ for candidate information. Supervisor of Elections provides classes for those interested and want to know more.
Sincerely,
Linda Cooper
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Supervisor of Elections also has a tab that has the list of candidates that have thrown their hat in the ring; https://www.votelevy.gov/Candidate-Information/2020-Local-Candidates
