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Yankeetown is offered help

Gov. Jeb Bush has arranged for Inglis and Williston to give consultative assistance to the troubled town.

By ELENA LESLEY
Published June 30, 2006

YANKEETOWN - Gov. Jeb Bush has answered the town's cries for help.

Bush has arranged for the Florida League of Cities in general - and the cities of Inglis and Williston in particular - to provide legal, financial and administrative consultative services to Yankeetown.

In addition, Levy County and the clerk of the circuit court for Levy have agreed to provide administrative personnel, including payroll employees.

The goal is to assist town officials as they try to "stabilize good governance," deputy general counsel Nathan Adams wrote Wednesday in a letter to the Yankeetown town attorney.

"I think his response was very appropriate, given the circumstances," Mayor Joanne Johannesson said. "The town needs to continue doing business."

The letter goes on to say that the governor hopes the Town Council will be able to reach a quorum at its regularly scheduled meeting Monday.

As part of the fallout from the controversy over a proposed resort hotel, two of five council members have resigned. Three are needed to reach a quorum.

Although one of the three, Dan Bowman, offered a verbal resignation at the town's last meeting, Johannesson said he has rescinded that statement.

If the council cannot fulfill its obligations, "the governor will have no choice but to consider suspending from office any member for 'malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, habitual drunkenness, incompetence, or permanent inability to perform official duties," the deputy general counsel wrote.

He will also "declare a state of financial emergency if the council refuses or fails to undertake its public responsibilities, and/or to appoint members to the town council board."

The governor's message is clear, Johannesson said.

"He pretty much said there better be a quorum," she said. "No more games."

But those fighting the proposed resort development say it would be easier to get a quorum if the meeting agenda included only the mundane tasks of running the town, not controversial issues surrounding the development.

"If the mayor kept it to simple things, the meeting would go forward," said Michael Peters, a Branford resident who is buying property in Yankeetown. "But she has her own agenda."

At the last Town Council meeting, Johannesson said that the town should confront all pending issues during its meetings, not just those involving daily governance.

Wednesday's letter was a response to a letter sent Monday from Town Attorney Kenneth Warnstadt to the governor's office. The move came after the council was unable to achieve a quorum for the third time in recent history.

In his letter, Warnstadt wrote that the town was unable to conduct business.

"I needed help, so I requested it," Johannesson said.

Elena Lesley can be reached at 564-3627 or elesley@sptimes.com.

[Last modified June 29, 2006, 23:38:28]