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Kaydence

Beach Fanatic
Jan 19, 2017
1,415
1,124
Florida
Using $30 thousand dollars of Walton County Taxpayer money.

Article by Alicia Leonard Page 12 - A today's Defuniak Herald.

No Quorum so no vote taken.


Chris Mitchell Defuniak Springs Grant Manager was on hand to explain what the NON Profit organization to get Defuniak included in the Main Street Program would entail and what is needed to get off the ground with the City Council's blessing.

Earlier in the week he met with Mayor Bob Campbell, Bruce Naylor (local business owner) and other staff.

The proposed budget a mere $75 thousand dollars for the first year if it can gain approval from City Council and support from the private sector.

Mitchell then went on to tell the members he was planning to approach the Walton County BCC at the next meeting asking for the BCC to invest in the start up cost with funding of $30 thousand dollars.

A VAST MAJORITY of the entire budget would be carved out for the INDIVIDUAL hired as the executive director with a base salary of $40 thousand dollars and required benefits for a grand total of $47 thousand dollars.
 

Kaydence

Beach Fanatic
Jan 19, 2017
1,415
1,124
Florida
Here are Dianne Pickett's ideas for downtown revitalization
 

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  • Pickett Letter.pdf
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Kaydence

Beach Fanatic
Jan 19, 2017
1,415
1,124
Florida
I have a better suggestion....If the County has $30 thousand dollars to throw around for some start up pipe dream to revitalize Downtown Defuniak, throw the money at the Sheriff's office to update NWCFR so that people actually considering bringing a business or even moving to Defuniak/NoWal feel adequately protected if their home or business catches fire.

Work on infrastructure... yes there are still DIRT roads in the City of Defuniak.

Rather than closing PUBLIC STREETS and marking roads for skating and picnic lunches on Main Street, build a skating rink that will not only generate tax revenues but brings new business here. Rather than a big screen TV on main street build a movie theater so our kids don't have to drive to SoWal or Ft. Walton Beach to watch a movie. Dancing in the streets? If you wanna shuffle your partner around a dance room floor build a dance hall! Generate revenue, create new jobs!

All you folks screaming about visions, forward thinking etc...your ideas are almost as antiquated as you are. People absolutely don't come here to visit prehistoric structures and old dilapidated buildings that their filthy rich owners have failed to maintain and now expect the City to fix with $75 thousand dollars (just for starters) of Walton County taxpayer money. They come for the beaches, the food, the entertainment and the atmosphere that's been created in SoWal and unless this City really starts brainstorming about what's best for the entire City and not just the historic district and downtown Defuniak that's not likely to change anytime soon.

Ms. Pickett, you always tell people you have more money than you know what to do with...well darlin, let me help you spend some of it! I have some great ideas and they are a hell of a lot more forward thinking than anything you've come up with and it actually means living in the 21st century. WIN WIN! :):):):) :D
 

Alicia Leonard

SoWal Insider
Using $30 thousand dollars of Walton County Taxpayer money.

Article by Alicia Leonard Page 12 - A today's Defuniak Herald.

No Quorum so no vote taken.


Chris Mitchell Defuniak Springs Grant Manager was on hand to explain what the NON Profit organization to get Defuniak included in the Main Street Program would entail and what is needed to get off the ground with the City Council's blessing.

Earlier in the week he met with Mayor Bob Campbell, Bruce Naylor (local business owner) and other staff.

The proposed budget a mere $75 thousand dollars for the first year if it can gain approval from City Council and support from the private sector.

Mitchell then went on to tell the members he was planning to approach the Walton County BCC at the next meeting asking for the BCC to invest in the start up cost with funding of $30 thousand dollars.

A VAST MAJORITY of the entire budget would be carved out for the INDIVIDUAL hired as the executive director with a base salary of $40 thousand dollars and required benefits for a grand total of $47 thousand dollars.

Needing your slant so bad you alter our work.No. Mere is not a part of this sentence.
The proposed budget a mere $75 thousand dollars for the first year if it can gain approval from City Council and support from the private sector. Shoddy my ass. The Herald Breeze must be republished in its full and unaltered form or removed from the site.
 
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Kaydence

Beach Fanatic
Jan 19, 2017
1,415
1,124
Florida
Using $30 thousand dollars of Walton County Taxpayer money.

Article by Alicia Leonard Page 12 - A today's Defuniak Herald.

No Quorum so no vote taken.


Chris Mitchell Defuniak Springs Grant Manager was on hand to explain what the NON Profit organization to get Defuniak included in the Main Street Program would entail and what is needed to get off the ground with the City Council's blessing.



Earlier in the week he met with Mayor Bob Campbell, Bruce Naylor (local business owner) and other staff.

The proposed budget a mere $75 thousand dollars for the first year if it can gain approval from City Council and support from the private sector.

Mitchell then went on to tell the members he was planning to approach the Walton County BCC at the next meeting asking for the BCC to invest in the start up cost with funding of $30 thousand dollars.

A VAST MAJORITY of the entire budget would be carved out for the INDIVIDUAL hired as the executive director with a base salary of $40 thousand dollars and required benefits for a grand total of $47 thousand dollars.

Needing your slant so bad you alter our work.No. Mere is not a part of this sentence.
The proposed budget a mere $75 thousand dollars for the first year if it can gain approval from City Council and support from the private sector. Shoddy my ass. The Herald Breeze must be republished in its full and unaltered form or removed from the site.


Umm Alicia, I wasn't quoting the article. I simply stated who wrote it, took a few lines from the original story (source quoted) and I used the word "mere". I should have used "outrageous". My apologies.
 

Kaydence

Beach Fanatic
Jan 19, 2017
1,415
1,124
Florida
Let me splain something else....The City of Defuniak Springs is a Council - Manager form of government that was adopted umpteen years ago. The mayor has no day-to-day administrative duties, those are vested in the city manager who is responsible for implementing policies established by the council. In most council-manager cities, the Mayor is in city hall on an irregular basis and is involved very little in routine operational matters. The only time the Mayor actually votes on anything is in the event of a tie.

So to date, the Mayor has drug an ex county commissioner and a Warden from DOC to a council meeting to try and convince the Council to hire both. Why would we want an ex-commissioner who was responsible for the lost/missing or never collected 2 million dollars of taxpayer money as the City finance director? Plan thwarted! Thank goodness.

I'm not going to mention that silly pig roast that Ms. Pickett is now withholding the funds for from the City, saying they aren't getting the money until they hire a finance director and a city manager. Umm, she doesn't make the rules either.

The problems the City is experiencing currently is because neither of them seem to know their place. They aren't running the show. That's the Council - Manager's job.

I won't even call you out about the misquote regarding what the mayor actually said when moving his office was discussed either but I will say, the actual minutes of the meeting don't lie.
 

Kaydence

Beach Fanatic
Jan 19, 2017
1,415
1,124
Florida
P.S. I also won't call you out for the article (Whose space is it anyway?)

Actually, the entire building belongs to the City of Defuniak. The Mayor pays no rent, he is there on an irregular basis and is involved very little in routine operational matters.

It makes sense to most rational people that the Mayor would not need the largest office in the building and to make the employees who do conduct the day to day operations of the City more productive/functional and allow the City Manager to have the space needed to deal with the volume of employees and others he deals with on a day to day basis, it just made fiscal sense to move them around.

It was not a grand conspiracy theory to thwart the Mayor and its unfortunate that the City Manager had to go to the City Attorney to get him to issue a directive to the Mayor (in writing) that the offices would be moved around and the Council voted unanimously to do so. The size of his office doesn't diminish what he could accomplish if he was actually trying to work with the Council and not against them.

You assuredly have an agenda and it shows.
 
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Alicia Leonard

SoWal Insider
Umm Alicia, I wasn't quoting the article. I simply stated who wrote it, took a few lines from the original story (source quoted) and I used the word "mere". I should have used "outrageous". My apologies.

-Let me splain something to you. You post my work in prices with the paper's name and mine and chunks of my work that you have altered. And they were more than a few. No, not your material, not yours to butcher and leave,
Let me plain something else, as you noted yesterday most of the other news outlets would not give you the time of day , and I've given you much more than that trying to help with your materials and issues on publication in person and on the phone. But what I got for that was a response talking about me like a piece of crap, which is a direct reflection on the people that I work with and a shoddy piece of crap at that
I was taking over editing you for Bruce next week. No way in hell. So don't ever replicate our material in any form without express permission of my publisher because that is his material. And if anyone ever has questions about a meeting, you guys can listen to the audio online.
Everyone calls you crazy, and not in a fun way and I tried to be nice. Nice just left. Don't call me at my office or contact me in any other way. Anything that is written after in anger can go to my publisher who has told me I can walk away And my complaint will go to to the mods if you harass me or insult me on the boards. Otherwise, see ya at the meetings and kiss my ass. Splain that,
 
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