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Cool head prevails at productive meeting

Yankeetown's emergency financial board overcomes hints of chaos at a meeting to begin fixing the town's messy finances.

By ELENA LESLEY
Published August 2, 2006

YANKEETOWN - George Lambka arrived Monday with a tall ambition for this fractious hamlet - to keep a town meeting on track.

Despite the obstacles - a loose dog, a shouting match over portable toilets and accusations of mysteriously disappearing financial ledgers - he did just that.

Lambka, the chairman of Yankeetown's emergency financial board, fielded questions with a cool head and a touch of levity.

"The people here don't like things too stiff," he said. "But we did have some issues to confront."

Namely, Yankeetown's messy finances. No one can say how much money is going into and coming out of the town. Even the mayor doesn't know what's in the bank account.

"The way we're doing business now is with a stubby pencil and ledger," Lambka said.

It's the financial board's job to sort that out. Though they just got a start Monday by approving some initial emergency expenses, members plan further research.

When Gov. Jeb Bush declared the town in a "state of emergency" in July, he created the board to oversee the work of Mayor Joanne Johannesson and Yankeetown's two remaining council members.

The board will be dissolved after a special election Aug. 29 to fill the council's three empty seats.

Six of the seven-member board turned out for the first meeting: Lambka, a human resources consultant from Morriston; Edith McCrimmon, a retiree from Yankeetown; Burton Marshall of Tallahassee, who is a financial administrator with the Department of Financial Services; Yankeetown Mayor Joanne Johannesson; and Town Council members Dan Bowman and Glen Spetz.

Gregory Strong of Ponte Vedra Beach, a district director with the Department of Environmental Protection, was absent.

The meeting had a chaotic start, when a puppy burst through the doors of the Woman's Club and scampered through the crowd.

"I guess everybody has a dog in this fight," joked Lambka, as residents tried to lure the intruder outside.

After the disruption, Lambka got down to business.

What are the critical bills that need to be paid? he asked council members and townspeople.

Residents came forward with ideas - garbage pick-up, insurance - while Lambka, for the most part, listened patiently.

While the board couldn't address specific budget numbers, members did approve most of the allocations Johannesson had set out to keep the town running.

The main point of contention was bills owed to the town's resigned zoning official, Stanley Moore.

His first day in Yankeetown, Moore claimed he was threatened and turned in his resignation. But Johannesson persuaded him to continue working on zoning projects from his home in Inverness.

The bill for his services: more than $6,000.

"I don't think the council ever approved the unresigned Mr. Moore," said resident Ed Candela. Two days after quitting for health concerns, "his health got much better ... so he could work from home for thousands of dollars."

"If the man resigned, he's not due any pay," Lambka said. "We're going to have to dig into that one a little bit."

Though some residents brought up issues outside the budget, Lambka let them say their piece and used humor to calm rising tensions.

"The people in this town want to be heard," he said. "They're not getting the communication and participation from their officials that they want."

As generally happens during town meetings, residents shouted out when they couldn't hear Johannesson speaking.

"Microphone!" yelled audience members, urging the soft-spoken Johannesson to use the public address system.

"The PA system there is horrible," Lambka said. "That's going to have to change before the next meeting."

That's not the only thing.

Town government needs to run more efficiently and transparently, he said. The system for keeping records needs to be computerized.

And Town Hall's doors should be open to everyone, he said.

That led to the question of Town Hall's disputed bathroom facilities.

Paul Shearer, the town's fire chief, said he and other firefighters were no longer allowed to use Town Hall's bathroom. Johannesson explained that she was limiting traffic through the building since the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was concerned about records disappearing.

"Am I supposed to go out in the back yard at 2:30 in the morning?" asked Shearer who, along with other firefighters, often has to work overnight during storm season.

Though trees might have sufficed in the past, Shearer pointed out that there are now women in the department.

After much discussion, Lambka instructed town government to make arrangements for a portable toilet with the Fire Department.

At the meeting's end, residents from all sides of the debate streamed forward to thank board members for coming to help their town.

"Lambka wasn't stodgy or anything and he let everybody have their say," said Peggy Page, an Inglis resident who works in Yankeetown.

Resident Patricia Candela said she was grateful someone was intervening in the town's business, and she hoped "they'd be able to get things running again."

For his part, Lambka praised the diligence of the townspeople.

"It's obvious that you're keeping an eye on the town," he told residents.

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

[Last modified August 1, 2006, 22:34:49]