County Money Being Paid to City Of Defuniak

When I said they didn't know I meant they didn't know there wasn't a "inter local agreement". My understanding is they thought there was.

My point exactly !!!! How could they not know. All my sources on this have gone silent. Guess they are all building a firewall !

More like sun block. We need sunshine in our government. How about body cams for public employees and politicians?

Sounds like DeFunk needs an audit too...

Go back to when Mike Standley was City Manager for starters. Sara Bowers was finance director. I recall some type of brew ha ha years back with the council and Adkinson pushing to get Standley back in.

Hum...we shall see.

Ms. Banks from the WCTA spoke at the BCC meeting that the accounting firm hiring process currently used by the County should go out for RFP's. That NEEDED to happen when the GJ report came back and should probably have happened when Imfeld was the OMB!

The fact the County is remiss to hold anyone accountable for these financial failures is totally unacceptable and the taxpayers have ultimately paid the bill and will continue to do so in large part because of Imfeld and Jones shortcomings.

Something also tells me that earning an online Masters Degree doesn't necessarily make you the brightest tool in the shed and it obviously hasn't done the taxpayers much good either.

Me-maw always said that when the wind blows hard and birds all fly away at the same time, storms a comin'...

We will see...

I was going to give the county the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe it was destroyed when the Courthouse burned. But a quick Google search indicated that was way back when Eucheeanna was the county seat. Not counting the fire at the Courthouse in the early 1990's when smoke/water damage caused everyone to move out for a time.

But the fact is that, in 1914, you probably didn't have to have the documentation you are required to have today. I'm just amazed that nobody looked at it before now. Actually I'm not, but I'm trying to be nice .

This appears to be the beginning of the payments.



It appears that this is not the first time these payments have been an issue. In 1980 the issue was addressed in the City of DeFuniak Springs Commission meetings as follows:

Bob,

According to those documents it was a one time payment in full of $1900.00 so, why was it still being paid 101 years later?

That's the $644,000 over the last 10 years question

As reported in the DFS Herald-Breeze, the BCC will consider an inter-local agreement at the next BCC meeting to approve allocations from the Road and Bridge fund to the City of DFS covering a time period from 1915-2015. Sort of like closing the barn door after the horse ran out.

As reported in the DFS Herald-Breeze, the BCC will consider an inter-local agreement at the next BCC meeting to approve allocations from the Road and Bridge fund to the City of DFS covering a time period from 1915-2015. Sort of like closing the barn door after the horse ran out.

The legal ramifications of that are what?

I'm going to ask the question one more time too...what roads and bridges are we talking about here? The 2 main roads in and out of Defuniak Springs are 331 N/S and Hwy 90 E/W which are both State maintained highways! We have NO BRIDGES in Defuniak.

WTH are we paying for??

Based on this email from William Pennington to Bill Imfeld and Mark Davis they were aware of this issue earlier than I had known.

When I asked "who knew about this" only Commissioner Comander responded she had heard about it.

So, based on the Email in the post above, it looks like we now have LIARS among us... No surprise there.

Bob Hudson,

I've asked a couple times what roads/bridges the money was actually paying to "upkeep" but never got an answer. I still don't understand what the money was/is actually being used for so I asked a couple questions.

1,) What roads/bridges (we don't have any bridges inside Defuniak City limits) does this money maintain?
2.) What "county roads" which are inside the City of Defuniak is the County paying the City to maintain?

Short answer is, there are none!

The longer more convoluted explanation is that the City does provide services along "State" roadways which include; mowing of slopes, litter removal (inmate and/or probationary labor) edging (also inmate labor) and sweeping of parts of County roads including; Hwy 83, County Hwy 331, parts of Hwy 90, State Rd 8 (Mossey Head) and State Road 10 (also Mossey Head).

Fair nuff..I now understand what the money is actually being used for, or so I thought until I also discovered that the City of Defuniak Springs has a Memorandum of Agreement with the FDOT. The FDOT agreed to pay $47,909.72 from Oct. 2013 to Sept. 2014 and $28,657.04 for said services from Oct. 2014 to Sept. 2016 for a grand total of $76,566.76.

Now, I have more questions than answers!

How the hell could it cost $47,909.72 for 1 year and $28,657.04 for the following 2 years to cover the same territory?

If the FDOT is paying for these services why is the County also paying for them?

It appears there are 4 County Roads within the City Limits.

Co Road 280
Bruce Avenue
2nd Street
Walton Road

I will confirm with Public Works on Monday

It appears there are 4 County Roads within the City Limits.

Co Road 280
Bruce Avenue
2nd Street
Walton Road

I will confirm with Public Works on Monday

Thanks.

May also want to follow up with Sheriff Mike. If those are County roads, it may explain why WCSO officers often conduct traffic stops and other police activity there. They (WCSO) would have jurisdiction on those roads and thus, no push back from the local PD on their increased activity in town over the past few years.

It would also imply that others may have had knowledge of this money, using the referenced roads as the excuse to obtain it.

Perhaps we need another Grand Jury...?

May also want to follow up with Sheriff Mike. If those are County roads, it may explain why WCSO officers often conduct traffic stops and other police activity there. They (WCSO) would have jurisdiction on those roads and thus, no push back from the local PD on their increased activity in town over the past few years.

It would also imply that others may have had knowledge of this money, using the referenced roads as the excuse to obtain it.

Perhaps we need another Grand Jury...?

As far as aI know the sheriff has jurisdiction everywhere in the county. Not just certain roads. @John G Your constant posts denigrating the Sheriff are tiring.

May also want to follow up with Sheriff Mike. If those are County roads, it may explain why WCSO officers often conduct traffic stops and other police activity there. They (WCSO) would have jurisdiction on those roads and thus, no push back from the local PD on their increased activity in town over the past few years.

It would also imply that others may have had knowledge of this money, using the referenced roads as the excuse to obtain it.

Perhaps we need another Grand Jury...?

I don't understand the reference to the Sheriff's Office, they have concurrent jurisdiction on all roads in the county as does FHP for that matter. The PD officers only have jurisdiction outside the city limits if the Sheriff has granted them "deputy" status. The lack of an agreement all these years is bad enough on its face. There is no need to drag anyone else into it.

Oh not so fast you two...

Crime Stats translate into Grant Money.

More activity = $$$ (but need budget increase too).

WCSO making stops (multiple and on-going) inside city limits should go to DFS stat numbers. They don't...

Why spend patrol time in a city that has its own PD? Ask around, lots of folks ask the same thing in conversation.

Are they (dfs) not capable of providing good service?

I'm not arguing the jurisdiction piece, just pointing out that DFS apparently has 2x the law enforcement of all others based on this activity. Go pull stats for the roads mentioned.

How bout spend time on 98 in the AM near 393 and Public where its common to have someone pass you at over 60mph? Limits 45...

Jenski, don't read my posts if you are tired. Take a nap.

This isn't a north vs south thing. And grant money or the lack thereof has nothing to do with the 100 year misappropriation of funds. You only confuse and anger people when you try and tie things and people that are obviously off-subject into some sort of grand conspiracy theory. The underlying facts are bad enough in and of themselves.

Not trying to make a N vs S thing, just calling attention to a small detail.

How long does anyone think that city attorney up there knew about the $$$ and where's it all gone to?

Seems like anytime you reach down and turn over a rock...there's that name again...

The Road & Bridge Inter-Local agreement will be pulled from tomorrows meeting.
Administration felt that it requires more work.