Ronnie Robinson 'Uneasy'

They call him "Easy" according to his car dealership commercials, but that didn't fit earlier this week.

Ronnie Robinson didn't need his brother-in-law Ricky's help to bite a couple of butts at the County Commission's Policy and Rules Committee meeting Monday. After hearing Code Enforcement Director Bill Bodenweber question the patriotism of car dealers during a discussion about the county's sign ordinance, Robinson got hot.

He questioned Bodenweber's professionalism and accused him of harrassing certain businesses. That bite must have felt good, because then he took a chunk out of County Commissioner Doug Conkey.

Robinson said Conkey, the chairman of the Committee, was the only County Commissioner who had ever refused to step into his office and discuss the issues Robinson felt were important. He cited the time he wanted to talk about the sign ordinance with Conkey and the Commissioner told him to "talk to the Chamber of Commerce."

During the meeting's discussion on flashing message signs, Bodenweber cited statistics about whether or not flashing signs with messages creates a traffic hazard.

County Commissioner Harold Rutledge pointed out that the statistics Bodenweber used had been supplied by someone with a financial interest in the county's decision. Instead of relying on information like that, he asked, why wasn't the county staff developing its own independent information?

Not trusting information from a special interest?

That concept nearly stunned Bodenweber, who, like many in Clay County government, acts like info doens't need to be accepted with the common sense of recognizing its source's perspective. Statistics that help determine issues in Clay County are often supplied by those with something to gain. Part of professionalizing local government should be an independence from that type of single-source, biased statistical information.

This and That:

- In the wake of her third and final acquittal, Christy Fitzgerald has back salary that's been held in escrow since her 2005 arrest and suspension. The cost of District 1 representation on the County Commission comes out to more than $10,000 a month in salary alone, or roughly $345 a day (every day, even holidays and weekends). For a part-time job. ...

- Last week's Folio Weekly had a story about Christy's return. It must have been good, because everywhere I tried to pick one up, all I found was an empty rack.  Still haven't read it. ...

- Now that poker tables are set up in the Orange Park Kennel Club, the Town Council has decided the Legislature's lobbyist-driven ability to change the rules for local gambling isn't such a good idea after all. Maybe it's that bill in Tallahassee that would allow slot machine at all the state's racetracks that has the Council considering an ordinance to close the casino door it already opened last year with Kennel Club poker. ...

- The Florida Legislature included $8 million for a health sciences building on the St. Augustine campus of St. Johns River Community College. They were probably gonna put it here, then realized they'd used up all the good local names for buildings on the Center for the Arts. ...

- The T-U's Wednesday editorial about state education funding called Florida the Next Mississippi. Let's see, force teachers to abandon their educational skills to train students to take standardized tests in order to prove the school district's claim to a dwindling source of revenue at a time of rising costs. Yep, sounds like a recipe for the Next Mississippi to me. ...

- There's another delay in the Outer Beltway, this time as they determine how to figure out property taxes along the 46-mile route. How 'bout we use this new delay to make sure the Beltway doesn't become just another road developers will use to access land for new subdivisions. ...

- Follow-up on someone's blog about a possible ordinance requiring cat owners to keep their felines on leashes. There's a lot going on inside county government concerning animal control, but that's not one of the changes that will come about. ...

- Remember to sign a petition for choice on CTLAC's 5/2 amendment.  http://24.23.126.8/

Michael S. Mann

michaelsmann@comcast.net