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Letter to the editor

Memo on litter bugs volunteer group

Political rivalries crop up as a commissioner's memo besmirching Keep Citrus County Beautiful circulates widely.

By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published May 5, 2005

In an e-mail she wrote complaining about litter, County Commissioner Joyce Valentino criticized a nonprofit community group that counts other government officials, including another county commissioner, as members of its board of directors.

Valentino's comments came in an April 22 memo to County Administrator Richard Wesch. The first-term commissioner wrote that she had received many complaints about litter throughout the county. She went on to list some of the things she's working on and ideas to correct the problems.

But she also took a shot at Keep Citrus County Beautiful, a nonprofit organization founded earlier this decade.

"I also would like to know what "Keep Citrus Beautiful' is doing other than removing trash from empty lots and getting press for the wonderful job they are Not doing," Valentino wrote. "I am not impressed, and are they involved in other programs such as the adopt a highway program?"

Wesch forwarded the e-mail to some county staffers, asking them to research Valentino's complaints and respond to her. Eventually, the memo landed in the hands of Susan Metcalfe, solid waste management director.

Metcalfe explained some of the problems the county has had with litter, and said she would forward questions concerning Keep Citrus County Beautiful to its president, Mike Colbert.

Colbert was disappointed by Valentino's comments.

"I think the whole thing does nobody any good, really," Colbert said during an interview Wednesday. "Our whole mission of Keep Citrus has been real positive, and this is the first negative thing to come out of it. We're a bunch of volunteers, and we're not reinventing the wheel."

Colbert listed the group's accomplishments, which included participation in an April 30 cleanup in Inverness. The group provided 100 trash bags, vests and trash "grabbers" for volunteers. It also persuaded the county's central landfill to waive dumping fees for the project. A similar event about a month ago in Beverly Hills produced 8 tons of trash or junk, Colbert said.

The group typically holds eight to 10 cleanup events annually, supplies antilitter and environmental literature and speakers to schools, and is working on brochures that will go out to county contractors and builders reminding them to clean their sites.

On Thursday, Valentino took back her comments about the group.

"I don't have a problem with them," she said. "I was just venting."

Valentino said criticism in the Citrus County Chronicle's "Sound Off" section, which publishes anonymous messages, pushed her to fire off the memo. Some messages said Valentino and fellow Commissioner Gary Bartell have not been doing a good job reducing the amount of litter in the county.

The messages said former Commissioner Josh Wooten - one of Keep Citrus' founding members - would have done a better job.

Valentino beat Wooten in November's general election. But she said her comments about the organization had nothing to do with Wooten and were not politically motivated.

Bartell, Crystal River City Council member Jim Farley and Inverness City Council member John Sullivan are members of Keep Citrus' board of directors.

Valentino said she sent the e-mail memo to Wesch as private correspondence, seeking his advice on some antilitter projects she is working on. Valentino said she didn't expect the memo to be forwarded to department heads and eventually to the public - even though Florida's public records laws allows the public to read almost all commissioners' dispatches.

From now on, Valentino said, she plans to stick to oral communication with staff members. She said she felt burned and unfairly politically targeted by the incident.

"They'll never hit paper in my office," Valentino said about future messages. "They'll stay off my computer, and I won't bother sending memos. I'll just do it. That's my job."

Justin George can be reached at 352 860-7309 or jgeorge@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 5, 2005, 01:26:13]