Welcome to the First Coast Tea Party
EMAIL SENT TO CITY COUNCIL AND MAYOR THIS MORNING
TO: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS - 10/12/10
Our server may blow up today. Why? People are not happy and the inbox is filled with many concerns from the headlines this morning.
Why?
This story…
and this story
The City Council just raised taxes again after all the other new fees were levied on the tax payers. We question why we are spending money on projects like these after so many city services cost us more now.
How can you justify this? How can you really look people in the eyes and tell them you can do a better job of spending their money instead of them?
You will accuse us of being back woods people and not understanding how the arts are important to building a city. We enjoy the arts and if the arts organizations in town managed their own finances and held their own fundraisers, the people who support them would fund them. Should we spend over $2 million funding projects for the arts? Is that the job of the city? And we would like to see a spreadsheet showing the amounts awarded to these organizations in the last 5 years. Have those amounts increased or decreased?
The next story – To spend more than $1 Million for a study to see whether minority and women owned business are receiving fair consideration for government contracts that would take approximately 18 months to complete is OUT OF LINE. And, the lowest bidder was for $1 million LESS. We question why that determination was made.
Let me remind you how someone from the city office called the TU and challenged my contract with JEA which was for $90,000 and took 3 years to complete. They also said – “Ask her if she is a hypocrite for doing this?”
My answer: No. This work ended with a valuable document – The JEA Board Governance Manual - which will be used for years to come to ensure the board works under a governance structure which had not been in place before now.
Here are a few questions regarding the Study on minority contracts:
1) Do we need this study? Who thought we did and why are we seeking bids on this question?
2) Are we being abused price-wise by these contractors for the study and can they really justify the costs of their bids?
3) Could a spreadsheet in Excel be created showing all the city contract work awarded with a column titled “Minority or Women Contract.” That column could then be checked if the contract was awarded. Try a spreadsheet first before you spend over a million dollars to discover the same answer.
4) The highest bidder was awarded the contract and that makes no sense and it smells really bad.
We are requesting that the questions noted in this email are answered by you as well as these others:
How much money and how many contracts were awarded for “studies” in this year’s budget? To whom?
How much did we spend and how many contracts did we spend last year on “studies?” To whom?
A simple Excel spreadsheet will work just fine to answer these two questions.
The people of Jacksonville are watching how the money is spent. When you increase taxes and fees – you must expect that to happen. Especially when our unemployment is at a record high, homes are upside down and people are saving pennies to pay their bills.
It’s the duty of each citizen to ask questions and raise concerns when money seems to be wasted and this ladies and gentlemen smells like waste to many.
If you have any questions about our questions, please let us know. We would love to hear from you by Monday, October 25th and if that is not possible, please let us know when you can answer these questions. The people are waiting for an explanation.
As you scratch your head and wonder why the people are asking so many questions, I thought you might enjoy the following article from US News and World Report. Here’s an excerpt and the link to the article. These are the people of the First Coast Tea Party and we have grave concerns about our future. Do not discount them or us. We love our city and we will voice our concerns.
Richard Nixon popularized the idea that there existed in America a “silent majority” at odds with the values and vision of the leftist radicals who put the nation through a period of prolonged social upheaval back in the 1960s.
Today the “silent majority” is silent no more. As seen in the Tea Party movement the middle class, on whose shoulders the heavy burden of the nation’s economic health and well-being fall, are beginning to rise up.
They are not social outliers. They are leaders in their communities. They are the kind of people de Tocqueville would have seen as the glue keeping the country from breaking apart. After decades of being taxed and regulated and spent into hard times, seeing their futures and their childrens’ futures put out to sea on an ocean of red ink, watching their economic liberty and their ability to pursue happiness erode, they are fighting back.
Views: 30
Comment
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Comment by Jason Fischer on October 13, 2010 at 10:03am
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Patricia,
It's an open meeting to all. The fact that the meeting is in his district is just icing on the cake. Also if your interested I think Congressman Crenshaw will be there as updating people on his efforts in DC
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Comment by Patricia M. McBride on October 13, 2010 at 8:51am
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Have you seen this one on Pelosi?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCMpFslZIYk
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Comment by Dawn Holder on October 13, 2010 at 7:42am
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Debbie,
I had wanted to say more about the Human Rights commission issue but words failed me. I think that your statement sums it up.
Dawn
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Comment by Debbie G on October 13, 2010 at 7:20am
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It is up to us "We The People" to get our local/state representatives weaned from the federal "cocaine" of grants, funds, and subsidies accompanied by a myriad of federal strings that are slowly strangling states' sovereignty and states' rights.
Sprint to November; Marathon for the rest of our lives
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Comment by FCTP on October 13, 2010 at 6:12am
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Hi all: Does this video remind you of our City?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5aJAyBp_S8&feature=player_embedded
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thank you so much Dawn. Great information. Seems to be pretty much everything they are doing is for children (or that is the story line at least). If you never went to a concert, I wonder how many children actually do go to them? I suspect not many. Given the cuts in things provided by the schools, this does seem sort of over the top. Certainly athletic programs and many other after school programs would seem more important than the symphony. Maybe we need to ask for the schedule of events for children and the number of children in attendance? Since they are justifying this by using the children of Jacksonville (once again :).)
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I discussed the Arts Grant funding with Corrigan of District 14. My notes are in the post about meeting Corrigan started by K. obrien.
I don't think that these items are going to go away. The group think, within the administration, appears to be that these are "essential to the quality of life".
I suggested that they be self funded; to live or die based on their value to the community; just like any other business.
The symphony was brought up, by me. The councilman felt that they Symphony was of value because of the performances given to public school children. I told him that they are providing an education service, then that should come out of the budget of the school board. Just a side, I never went to a free concert when I was in school. It was always a voluntary field trip. The expense to bus the children, the additional liability of transporting children to a non essential event, and the fact that much better orchestras and even operas are available via dvd and PBS, make this a non starter for me.
I asked why the Human Rights Commission funding could not be slashed. I asked if there was some sort of mandate. The gist of what I was told was that, the city gets $25 million (if memory serves me correctly) for low income housing from the Federal government provided, they have a Human Rights Commission. So, in my terms, they are spending about a million to get $25 million dollars.
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Comment by tamara stephenson on October 12, 2010 at 4:05pm
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Great job! Thank you for all you do!
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Comment by Charles D White on October 12, 2010 at 3:58pm
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Councilman Bill Bishop will be the guest on Just Speak Up now heard daily on AM600 from Noon to 1PM
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I sure hope you all have sent them a letter. I sent a bruiser earlier today and included the new program being funded for the Children's Commission as well as the items mentioned in Billie's letter. I have also repeated my thank you for the no votes on the increased taxes and this year's budget indicating that these folks were looking out for the people they represent and taking into consideration the economic situation. We need to swamp them with letters when they do stuff like this. I think it's great you are going to Webb's meeting Jason. I hope you can get neighbors or friends down that way to go as well. He is not my councilman, but hope people from his district start letting him know they aren't too happy with his big spending ways.
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904-392-7475
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