It's election time!
The proliferation of yard signs tells us, once again, the elections are upon us for the Mayor of Mount Dora and an at-large seat. Voting day is November 8th, so I thought it instructive for our local readers to give some background on the candidates and the issues.
All elections can be important, but this one actually will be, as our city is at a crossroads. A lot of time and money has been spent on the Visioning process, and the final plan is a great step forward for the town - we may not be able to afford some of the most interesting bits, but at least we will have a way forward if, and only if, the Mayor and the City Council backs the vision for our future and implements the plan. One thing most of the hundreds of residents who participated in this process agree on is that our downtown is looking a little tired - it needs investment in infrastructure from both Government and the business owners, and we will need good leadership from our Council to make this happen.
Of course the easiest thing to do is to do nothing - save money, cut [or not raise] taxes, cut back services - this is an option, but this will mean continuing the stagnation and ignoring the Vision plan because nothing, nothing will happen without investment.
The smarter way is to raise the millage [tax rate] back to the rollback rate and start the implementation of the Vision plan.
So the choices are somewhat clear as you will see from the candidates positions. At the end of this email there are two articles from the local media with one of the contentious issues, cost cutting, highlighted - there is no question Mount Dora needs to intelligently reduce some of it's costs of operation in this economically troubled time, but there is a disagreement brewing on how to do it - with an axe, or a scalpel.
Worth a read......
There are two contested races.....
Mayor
Three candidates - Randy Wiseman, Robert Thielhelm and Joseph Scurlock
Randy Wiseman
Owns a gym on old 441, served on the School Board and has some plainly stated positions - his words.....
- "Analyze all ordinances and fee charges, and eliminate those which are unnecessarily hampering business. Wiseman says he will strive to make Mount Dora pro-business.
- As a trained facilitator, Wiseman will impose, on all City of Mount Dora departments, a new philosophy, which treats business and property owners in the manner in which they deserve. He wants city employees to be pro-service and more business friendly."
These quotes are from his interview with the "Right Side of the Lake", a Lake County conservative blog, and it's interesting to read the full text, including his attacks on the other two candidates. I've not heard this kind of vitriol in Mount Dora politics before.
Relevant to your decision whether to vote for him or not might be this article from the Orlando Sentinel - Wiseman sued the School Board last year, saying he was harassed in his job as a school custodian by a co-worker because he was disabled.
And this is Wiseman's website.
So if you really believe the type of person we need for Mount Dora is one who will slash services, rule the City Departments with an iron fist and cut your taxes, this is your man.
Robert "Bob" Thielhelm.
I searched "The Google" and didn't find much other than his official bio from the City. He is an engineer, and has had some interesting jobs including working for Aramco, the Saudi Arabian oil company.
So I asked someone who knows him for an opinion on how he would handle the Mayor's job.....quote:
"He's an engineer by trade and has always studied issues very carefully before developing well-reasoned positions, taking into account opinions and facts presented by others which he might not have considered. I've always found Bob to be personable, collegial, smart, and very reasonable. He's paid his dues in his service to date and knows the area very well. I do find it amusing that blog posts have criticized Bob for supporting an increase in the tax millage rate. While I haven't spoken to Bob about this, my guess is that he believes that we should maintain our current services as best we can and -- because he understands multiplication -- felt that the millage rate needed to be bumped up to compensate for the drop in assessed property values and tax returns. He also probably understands that because the City only represents about 25% of our tax bill, any increase in the City millage rate is diluted by the other items (mostly schools) that make up our taxes. So if Mount Dora increases taxes 5%, it's only a 1.25% rise in your overall tax bill.
Not surprisingly, I'm supporting Bob."
Joe Scurlock
The best website of any local candidate yet seen [with the best music], however he doesn't come across like a person interested in leading the discussion on how to solve the problems of Mount Dora. And noone I talked to knew who he was, or why he would be a serious candidate for Mayor. And then there's his job.....foreclosures......
But for a guy you would like to have a beer with....cool.
At-Large Council seat
Two candidates - Michael Tedder and Don Stuart
Michael Tedder
Michael served on the City Council from 2006 to 2009, and was by all accounts a sensible and responsible member of the board. He felt strongly about the waterfront development plan, and worked on "rails to trails" in that time.
I spoke with Michael, and he is in favour of implementing what we can afford of the Visioning plan, and he made a point of mentioning he attended almost all of the meetings and gave his input in the Visioning process.
He believes we should put the millage back to the rollback rate so we can maintain the services we enjoy in Mount Dora. He also made the excellent point that because of Florida's budget crisis there is minimal funding coming from either the County or the State, so Mount Dora is on it's own....he said we need to look for efficiencies but the real solution is to attract businesses and create new revenue.
Don Stuart
I spoke at length with Don, a semi-retired real estate agent, and he is a fiscal conservative, pro business and OK with the taxes being put back to the rollback rate. He ran a small business in Key West for 20 years, so he has first hand experience in what makes a small tourist town tick.
He was on the Steering Committee for the Visioning process until he declared for the council seat, and is in favour of cautious implementation of the parts of the plan that will benefit businesses.
He doesn't approve of drastic cuts in infrastructure, and said he agreed with Wood and Eppich on some of their fiscal positions, but not all of them because of his experience running a small business.
He also said we need to focus on getting locals to visit the downtown area more.
Unopposed candidates
This is the city website listing the candidates and their addresses. There are five positions vacant, and you will note three of the candidates are running unopposed.
District 1 - Highland St. and #46 area - Ryan Donovan, who was on the council 2002 to 2005, will be elected. By all accounts he will make a reasonable and sensible council member.
District 2 - Country Club of Mount Dora - Bob Maraio, who served on the council 2002 to 2006 will be elected. In the past he was supportive of the City Manager and did not try to step in and interfere in the running of the City Departments, which has been tempting to some of the council members recently.
District 4 - North Dora and Loch Leven area - Denny Wood will be reelected for his second two year term.
Background articles
For some background I am attaching two interesting articles from the local media. The first is an column by Lauren Ritchie from the Orlando Sentinel, with some comments from the outgoing Mayor Melissa DeMarco. The column spells out the fork in the road we are at now.....
The notion that Mount Dora is suffering financially is laughable. Its tax roll — the value of all its properties put together — dropped by 18 percent since the peak in 2007. That's among the lowest of drops in Lake. Compare it to Mascotte, where the tax roll plummeted by half in those four years, sending the city into a financial tailspin.
Consider that the value of Mount Dora properties is still 21 percent higher than in 2005, the tax year before the boom hit. Population increased only 8 percent during that time. Throw in inflation of about 10 percent for those years, and the city still isn't facing any catastrophe.
So, what's going on in Mount Dora?
Two things are driving the current fuss.
First, Mount Dora is the teenager with the iPhone and zippy little car. It never really has had to worry about money. The focus has always been on providing services to residents and boosting its reputation. And that's where outgoing Mayor Melissa DeMarco is trying to keep it.
The city, she said, has only two real choices. It can consider itself in "triage mode," in which it cuts every service to the bare minimum. Or it can begin to follow the vision laid out by residents in a long series of community meetings focused on the future of Mount Dora and what it should be.
Another article which might be of interest is the "Right Side of the Lake" interview with Tom Eppich, a Council member who is resigning, who positioned himself as a strong fiscal conservative on the Council.
If you read his interview make sure you look at the comments underneath, which are evenly split with support for Eppich and debunking his points one by one, surprising in a right wing blog..
All I can say, reading this piece and not knowing him, is that he seems to be an angry person......
“Mount Dora’s city management operates for the benefit of city employees instead of the citizens,” said Tom Eppich, a first term At-Large Mount Dora Councilman, describing the dysfunction in Mount Dora city government. Eppich went further in his criticism saying, “Important things that matter, the City Manager Michael Quinn sides with the employees,” and “he wanted to raise the millage rate to [ 6 percent].”
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We spoke with Councilman Eppich, who was very frustrated, and said Mount Dora’s City Government is under an economic delusion and does not accept the harsh economic realities.
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Councilman Eppich’s criticism of the Mount Dora Police Department and Chief Randall Scoggins is probably his harshest, even accusing the Chief Scoggins of intimidation after he spoke out for budget cuts in the department.
And one final note - unusually enough in this age of anonymous corporate SuperPACs and pressure groups with generic names, all political contributions to any of the above candidates is public record, so if you are interested now or in the future you can visit the Clerks office at Mount Dora City Hall and see who gave funds to these candidates....
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