Some items catching my eye on tommorow's City Commission agenda

Tomorrow is the second regular City Commission meeting for March. I've highlighted some topics on the agenda that captured my attention. The first, of course, is Commissioner Jennings - our self-described anarchist - leading the Pledge of Allegiance. This comes around every four regular meetings and it's always entertaining to hear her start the pledge - usually the first three words - and then try and look nonchalant as she fails to finish what she started. Sometimes she chimes in again at "...and liberty and justice for all..", but not all the time. Must be according to her mood. Or, on meetings such as these, she may just show up a little bit after the meeting begins to avoid the spectacle. Whatever...

I am sure that John Szerdi's presentation will be interesting related to Green construction techniques. It will be a good follow up to our tour of the EcoCentre two Friday's ago. This is an area that we have great common ground in the city, and the nation, for that matter. Something to "build upon" perhaps...

The next item that interested me is the ability to pay our utility bills by setting up an automatic payment program (already available, but now to be encouraged through an incentive) and the future ability to pay your bill on-line!

From the back-up:


This helps lead the way to other alternatives to pay your utility bills, besides waiting in that terrible line that flows out on to Lake Avenue. Remember, information that I gathered at the retreat said that the window will be eliminated in May - Yeah! Think of all the greenhouse gases we will be saving by eliminating the cars idling as they wait to pay their electric bills.

The next item that is of interest is the one that funds a transportation engineer. I find it interesting in that this seems like more a common, recurring item that would be a regular staple on most city commission agendas. This is especially true with the item concerning the improvement of the Worthmore crossing at the FEC tracks. This one item signals to me that we finally have an administration that is reacting to what actually needs to be done in the city. I remember when I was campaigning that it seemed like money was flying out the windows at City Hall and I wasn't far from the truth - as it turns out. But it seems to me that routine things like this were either ignored, or that Mock Roos was sure to get its tentacles on something and then it becomes a major bond issue or some such. I found this a refreshing change. But, I think it comes at the hands of Mr. Bates - not Mr. Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin is hard to find in his office, doesn't answer e-mails and can't be reached by phone. Why are we spending money on someone who isn't there and someone else is doing all the work? Film at eleven...

Then expect major protestations from those opposed to the FPL plant. These will be the same people that laid it all on the line a couple of weeks ago in front of the new gas-fired FPL plant. So, when city staff says this is a "win-win" situation to provide waste water for cooling for the new FPL plant, the dynamics should be interesting.

The drama continues...

By the way, you can always click on the link to the City's website (found on the right hand side of the blog) and get the back-up materials yourselves - something that I strongly encourage.