Spend penny tax carefully or you won't get my vote
Published September 29, 2003
A few years back we were mulling over whether to renew the Penny for Pinellas sales tax (the state is taking 6 cents on just about every dollar we spend, and the county takes an additional cent). Just when the matter didn't look like a clear win, we were informed by our County Commission that, Oops! we've overspent the expiring Penny for Pinellas revenues. If the voters don't renew the sales tax, the money for the obligated infrastructure projects will have to come out of other taxes, which, of course, will have to be raised. Oh, and sorry, we promise we won't do it again.
So some of us, thinking we had elected a bunch of boobs and were paying the price for having done so, voted for the extension of the sales tax. Others, feeling manipulated and ill-served by a bunch of snake oil salesmen masquerading as commissioners, voted to extend the sales tax because there wasn't an acceptable alternative. After all, we needed the infrastructure work done, things like timing the traffic lights, road widening, etc.
But wait ... what's this about the commissioners needing to raise our gasoline tax by 6 cents a gallon to pay for infrastructure work like timing traffic lights and road widening? Why on earth is there a sudden need to increase the price of gas by 6 cents, or even 1 cent?
Have the boobs overspent the Penny for Pinellas again, or are the snake oil salesmen back at it? Given the airport expansion fiasco, I can't tell which it is at this point.
What I can tell is that I'm going to be listening to the campaigns at the next election. The first challenger who seems (we are talking about a would-be politician) to honestly and solemnly promise to spend only the money that comes in will get my vote. I'll not vote for someone who feels free to go rummaging around in my wallet for more money. I worked hard to earn it, and I need it. Therefore, no incumbent who votes to increase the price I pay for gas will ever get my vote.
Your paper mistakenly attributed the quote, "I think code enforcement has taken this Nazi approach" to my wife, Anita Nehr, when in fact those words were spoken by someone else. We called you and the next day you corrected the error by printing the fact that she indeed did not say those words. Even though my wife and I received some obnoxious and mean-spirited calls, we both felt that even though the paper made a mistake, it was corrected and that it would be over. I even wrote a memo to all Tarpon Springs city department heads informing them of the mistake so our city employees would not believe that my wife and I think of them as Nazis.
What an unpleasant surprise it was that when I opened my paper just four days later on Sept. 26, the same comment was once again attributed to my wife in an editorial (Code enforcement in Tarpon Springs puts shine on city). You also made a point of letting everyone know she is the wife of a city commissioner.
Let me try to correct this error so everyone, including your paper, gets it right. Neither Anita Nehr nor I ever made that comment, and we do not believe any of our city staff is acting like Nazis. Your paper, your reporter and your editor need to review the minutes and your notes once again to get this clear. In my opinion you owe my wife, Anita, both a personal apology and a public apology for the grief you have caused her.
On the positive side, I do agree with much of the rest of your editorial, although you did leave out some pertinent facts. Yes, the City Commission should review our ordinances. Yes, the city is looking much better than it used to look. Yes, there are some people who take advantage and ruin it for their neighbors. Yes, there should be reasonable fines.
What you didn't print is that many times there is spot enforcement. One person is given a citation for a specific violation and two or three people on the same street who obviously have the same violation are not. One business is given a sign violation whereas more than 50 other businesses in town are not.
The fines for the same violations are inconsistent and sometimes unconscionable. I have seen fines for having tall grass and weeds exceed thousands of dollars. I have seen fines for having a car on your property without a current tag exceed $10,000.
All of the residents who come to me with complaints about code enforcement want their city to be clean. But they also want fairness, uniformity and people to use common sense when applying our ordinances.
Our code enforcement allows for anonymous complaints, which in my opinion is a recipe for vindictiveness and revenge. Many of the violations cited have been there for years and years, and the code officers have driven past them many times. Then one neighbor gets angry with another neighbor and turns in an anonymous complaint, and this long-term violation, which has not been a problem for anyone, becomes a major problem, even though there may be no safety issue at all.
Even before this issue came to light in the paper, I had been discussing it with the city manager and plans were under way to have meetings to attempt to come to various resolutions and create a win-win for all involved. I am confident that if we all work together, use some common sense and educate our citizens on the benefits of compliance, we can come up with a plan to keep our city beautiful and our citizens happy.
Just two quick examples: Instead of fining our citizens thousands of dollars for tall grass, we could fix our ordinances so we can give the owners notice and then legally have this grass cut and bill the owners for the cost. The same could be done with trash and cars.
Repeat offenders would be treated more harshly. We could also ask our citizens to come to a well-advertised public hearing and give their suggestions for a solution that would work for all of us.
-- Peter Nehr, Tarpon Springs commissioner
[Last modified September 29, 2003, 02:04:24]
