RE: [New post] TO COUNCILMAN FORD: ABANDON CYPRESS HEAD GOLF COURSE FINANCING
.
from: Ted Noftall
12:53 PM
to Hank
.
Excellent letter Hank, Thank you for taking the time to write as you did.
Bob Ford has been the moral conscience of the Port Orange Council for the past 4 years. If he has given up on full disclosure and transparency AS he did with the Halifax Paving bond reduction / contract extension sweetheart deal, AS he is doing with the Golf Course renovations deal, AND as he has told me he intends to do regarding further expenditures on the Reclaimed Lakes boondoggle then Port Orange residents are in for a rough ride until the 2016 elections.
AND while this criticism is primarily directed at Bob as well it should be there is plenty to go around. The other three on Council have been woefully inadequate in addressing known problems.
Don Burnette has not done or said or advocated for anything of substance in 4 years, beyond refurbishing a baseball field designed to accommodate lower age kids into a field to accommodate an age group that would benefit his son. Other than that his reason for seeking election in the first place appears to be getting re-elected.
Scott Stiltner has completely abandoned his Mr. No Nonsense campaign rhetoric of straightening out the mess that is Port Orange, in favor of pixy dust blinders that only focus on the happy days that are in store for Port Orange if we only give everything enough time.
Drew Bastian while one of the nicest guys you will ever meet has shown little interest in researching issues beyond the spin the administration has placed on those issues.
Which brings us back to Bob and I don’t know how the Mayor Green did it but he has him carrying his water on 3 of his signature projects …… to which I would simply ask Bob.
If these projects are good for all the citizens of Port Orange, WHY can’t they be advanced with full disclosure in a transparent manner ?
Ted Noftall
for responsible government – 2016
From: Henry Springer [mailto:poimages@outlook.com]
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2015 11:41 PM
.
To: amie chandley; Amie Hass; axl queen; Barbara Sipe; Bob Ford; bob pohlmann; Carla Ander; Connie; Corey Berman; Dianne Gardner; Don Burnette; Drew Bastian; FISCHSMOM@AOL.COM; Frank Jablonski; Hank Springer; Henry Springer; hrn; J Perry; januarymonday@cfl.rr.com; Joe Catterall; Joe Meeske; john graff; Julie Gunnlgaugsson; Justin Sandusky; Larry Smith; Laura Platt; Linda Aldrich; Linda Catterall; Mike Gardner; Muriel; nancy thomas; Newton White; Palmetto Pal; Pat Belus; Pat Nelan; reader; reedjr01@msn.com; Ted Noftall; Therese; Tim Johns
Subject: FW: [New post] TO COUNCILMAN FORD: ABANDON CYPRESS HEAD GOLF COURSE FINANCING
From Hank Springer
386 852 3178
poimages@outlook.com
www.popdradiolog.com
New post on Port Orange Police Radio Log
To Port Orange City Councilman Bob Ford
Posted to my readers on www.popdradiolog.com
From Hank Springer
Subject: Port Orange Golf Course aka Cypress Head Golf Course and several other entities.
Week after week citizens bring to the city council concerns about your intentions to loan about 1 million dollars, or to provide 1 million dollars to refurbish a failing golf course. It is clear to me that there are no definitive answers given to Port Orange citizens concerning the wisdom of spending more tax payers’ money on an adventure which is already in much debt.
One answer you Mr. Ford have given me is that the city needs to put out this money in order to retain the real estate value of the citizens in Cypress Head. Such a reasoning falls short considering that in no other community of Port Orange have you shown a concern for widespread city property devaluation.
I in Summer Trees have trouble dealing with your answer that I need as a tax payer to support a failing golf business because of Cypress Head’s possible property devaluation. Some years ago I purchased a $130,000 unit in Summer Trees which now is valued at $70,000, so to be clear about it, I am in envy of the special treatment given by you in considering the alleged plight of home owners in Cypress Head. I ride through the Cypress Head Community and those homes and real estate look luxurious to me and probably other tax payers in the city of Port Orange, and I see no reason to ask the city’s tax payers to provide a country clubhouse and golf course for the Cypress Head Golf Course.
If the city is in the business of raising resale value of homes in one community such as Cypress Head, I ask you to consider the plight of Summer Trees West, where the developer Mr. Russell built a very, very, modest club house, one room, with no bathroom. You yourself Mr. Ford many years ago volunteered to build the Chamber of Commerce structure in a city Park, while no public rest rooms were provided for park visitors. The bathrooms to be used by visitors of the park are located in the Chamber of Commerce which you helped build, which the chamber of commerce pays the taxpayers for use of city land, a $10 per month rental fee.
Some groups and parties in the city are significantly catered to on tax payers’ money.
Mr. Ford, I understand you waged a hard campaign to be re-elected to the city council, and you deserve credit for winning and walking the communities to get votes for yourself. That is to be commended, however, I wonder if when you communicated or spoke to the Cypress Head community if you did not promise that if you got re-elected and received their votes you would vote yes on expending more tax payers’ money on the Cypress Head Country Club House for the benefit of the Cypress Head community. Someone told me when I was researching the special concern for the Cypress Head community that Summer Trees West had been provided bike trails by the city. I don’t think that had ever happened, and indeed if the city wants to spend tax payers’ money on city communities, Summer Trees West, a community for residents over 55, some with bladder needs, I point out does not have a bathroom in its dingy, small one room clubhouse.
Of course you can expect me to bring up the fact that in your consideration of needs of communities, you voted” no” to provide financial help for people over 62 yrs. old, who have lived in their homes for 20 years or more in Port Orange, and are in fear of fore closure. I compare your vote of “no” to that issue, albeit Port Orange residents had voted yes in a state election to provide such revenue from their taxes for the elderly in fear of losing their homes, to your concerns for the real estate value of the Cypress Head Community. Actually there is no comparison, it is a contrast.
In addition to your support for spending over a million dollars for the benefit of Cypress Head residents, you have allowed the city to conduct non publicized meetings with the residents of Cypress Head with city officials and Kemper Sports. At least one such meeting, you as Chairman of the Golf Board was not even invited to attend. But you did not protest. At another meeting, not disclosed or publicized to the general public, you did attend a meeting of Cypress Head residents, Kemper Sports, where other city council people were present in the audience, and you wrongly declared such a non-publicized meeting as a Golf Board meeting, when in fact it was no such thing.
I am led to believe that you are involved with something bigger going on than catering to golfers who do not come to play golf at the Cypress Head Golf Course, which should in all honesty be named the Port Orange City Golf Course.
In addition, just recently the City Manager of Port Orange revealed that not all the financial reports about the golf course are ready to be made public because there is evidence of discrepancies in the financial data for the golf course. Furthermore I point out, the city council has not yet formally voted on the issue of spending taxpayers’ money on the Cypress Head Golf Course, and yet plans have already been made to close the golf course from May 2015 to Nov. 2015 in order to renovate the golf course and clubhouse/restaurant with tax payer’s money. Along with such assumed conditions, the city is expected to pay for the salaries of Kemper Sports personnel who will be out of work between May and Nov. And yet these employees do not work for the city, but work for Kemper Sports and should get paid by Kemper Sports.
This is all too much to swallow. This reminds me of all that has gone wrong in the past years in many areas of financial accountability, data and records in the city of Port Orange. Seems like old times to me.
The whole endeavor is highly suspicious and I ask you to withdraw your support for spending more tax payers’ money on a losing golf course. Kemper Sports I understand already owes the city money for loans which had been taken out of the citizens’ water funds.
Where I am wrong you need to correct me. If you have other explanations for what is going on with this deal, let us all know about it.
By the way, I don’t think you explained why you did not call in the million dollar bond on Halifax Paving after it failed to meet the contract time limit but instead you granted them another extension on the contract. In this adventure you are playing a risky game of incurring millions of dollars’ worth of fines for city tax payers from the State Environmental Agency.
.
Hank Springer
POSTED 1134 PM 2 9 15 http://www.popdradiolog.com
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
admin | February 9, 2015 at 11:35 pm | Tags: Bob Ford, Port Orange City Golf Course | Categories: Port Orange City Council | URL: http://wp.me/p4jB8E-2×1