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Instant payoff is bad reason to override a commitment

I understand and support the reasoning behind the practice of imposing impact fees on new construction in Hernando County, and I support the need to increase those fees as the costs of providing new and additional services to new residents/businesses increase.

I am, however, disgusted that county officials recently reneged (retroactively) on their long-standing policy of allowing property owners to prepay an impact fee. This policy was publicly promulgated by both the Planning Department and the Permit/Zoning Office, especially during the recent discussions of impact fee increases. This option was held out to residents as a practical method of saving on skyrocketing building costs, if only they acted prudently and prior to the impending increases.

The discussion of impact fee increases (including public hearings) dragged on for months, and numerous fees were prepaid during this period. I prepaid the fee for a single-family home on a small piece of property on which my family has faithfully paid property taxes for more than 60 years.

Then, only two weeks prior to the commission's final vote on the impact fee increases, the Planning Department floated the idea of eliminating the prepayment option. Legal and fiscal arguments were presented by the county staff in support of the change. Before there was time for residents to react and provide input regarding this new development, the measure was included in the larger ordinance and voted into law.

Even assuming that the reasoning behind eliminating the prepayment of impact fees is valid (and it may very well be), I feel strongly that it was an unconscionable injustice to retroactively invalidate the benefit that a small percentage of property owners had chosen to pursue. I believe that a legal, moral and ethical mistake was made in the rush to enhance an otherwise valid source of additional revenue for the county.

I would hope this small (but important) aspect of the new ordinance could be revisited, and that those citizens who prepaid their impact fees prior to the approval of fee increases would be "grandfathered in" at their prepaid rates without punitive timetables or the inappropriate pressures of other new restrictions.

Certainly, Hernando County can concede a few dollars of "instant" revenue to honor its prior commitment to residents.

Tellone was a bad choice from the beginning

Wendy Tellone is by far the worst choice for superintendent of our school system. As a child, I attended West Hernando Middle School and Springstead High School. Tellone was an administrator at both of these fine schools.

I was not the best of students in my day, and I was in trouble a lot. There was one time, in particular, that she told my parents and me that I was a lost cause and that I would never make anything of myself. Is that the attitude of a senior school administrator who supposedly cares so much about children and their educational needs? Is this what an administrator or future superintendent of schools should tell a parent?

I think the School Board made a huge mistake in extending her contract. I am a staff sergeant with 12 years active duty in the U.S. Army. I am a component repair supervisor for some of the most technologically advanced aircrafts on the face of the planet. I am working on an associate's degree in business administration. If it were not for phenomenal teachers like Vicki Eng and Harry Wilson and their encouragement and support, Tellone may have been right.

To the School Board, please, for the sake of our children, do not keep Tellone as superintendent any longer than necessary. Although I an not physically in Hernando County, I am still a registered voter and hold residency in Spring Hill and plan to return after my military service. I hope to see my children attend a Tellone-free school zone.

New slogan for Brooksville already has been found

Re: City's allure hard to put into words, June 5 Times.

In reading the article about the effort being made by Brooksville and the University of South Florida to study the area to create a slogan to be used in advertising, I believe the search is over.

While the efforts of USF students will undoubtedly be a great learning experience in marketing, I would be in favor of using a quote from your very article. Local historian Bob Martinez was quoted as saying Brooksville is "where the old South meets the new Florida."

What more needs to be said? This slogan embodies the allure of history with the modernization of the here and now.

[Last modified June 9, 2005, 01:18:10]