Letters to the editor

Correction, and nostaliga

As much as I’d be very proud to be a business ethics instructor at Rollins College, my ties to the college are limited to B.A. and M.B.A. degrees, induction into The Rollins Circle of Algernon Sydney Scholars as a student, and 39 years as a volunteer for the college.

By the time you read this, you will have already had an opportunity to attend the seventh annual James Gamble Rogers II Colloquium on Historic Preservation. Some of you may recall my Observer article entitled, “Why I Care So Much About Winter Park,” which detailed my first trip to Rollins preceded by a stop at our cousin’s home on Webster Avenue. For many decades, our cousins, The Sherwood Foleys, owned and operated The Seminole Hotel located adjacent to their home known as The Tappan House, which is a Gamble Rogers masterpiece that you may have toured during The Colloquium on Historic Preservation. I spent many happy hours there as a Rollins student.

• Will Graves

• Winter Park

Leary's eye-opening statements

Recently, developer Dan Bellows proposed to the Winter Park City Commission a plan for his Ravaudage development a so-called “Interlocal” agreement, which would return to his development 50 percent of all taxes collected by the city for the next 30 years. Mayor Ken Bradley pronounced the plan dead on arrival, as well he should.

In one of the most asinine statements I have ever heard from a public official, Commissioner Steven Leary opined, “50 percent of something is better than 100 percent of nothing. If it doesn’t get developed, it’s going to be an eyesore and contribute nothing to the tax rolls.” This sounds like a grocery store buy-one-get-one free deal! Guess who would pick up the other 50 percent of the costs – the rest of Winter Park taxpayers. Doesn’t the full taxation on a property represent the cost of providing city services to that property? Maybe the deal should then include providing just 50 percent of all city services, i.e. putting out one of every two fires or answering every other call to law enforcement.

Next, he said, “If it doesn’t get developed ….” Is it reasonable to believe that absolutely nothing would be built on these 73 acres over the next 30 years? Mr. Bellows got his Community Development District, similar to what many other communities have approved. Let his development stand on its own two feet. If it is a viable endeavor, and I have every reason to believe that Mr. Bellows and his financial backers have confidence that it is, it neither needs nor deserves an extravagant handout from the city.

If reasoning such as this is the best that Mr. Leary has to offer, the citizens of Winter Park can only hope for the next election to get here before this commissioner can do any more damage to our city.

Richard Rudy

Winter Park

100 S. Virginia Avenue

407-484-1952

A good campaign

When someone does something good, something nice, something that makes a difference in your life, you naturally want to praise that person. That is what I would like to do for my friend Renée Stein Charlan. I want to acknowledge Renée for her efforts in running for a seat on Maitland City Council. Running a campaign is a lot like hosting an event, and this lady is the hostess of the mostess! All aspects of her campaign were clearly thought out, with her message carefully crafted and beautifully executed. Her grace and style exemplified all things positive and true.

There are lessons to learn from experiencing defeat, and your getting up and moving forward is quite admirable. Thank you Renée for your efforts in all you do in our community.

June Flowers, Maitland resident

Public official campaigning

The recent concerns and criticisms being voiced about Maitland Council members publicly supporting or campaigning for a particular candidate running for office is a bit baffling to me. First, every public official in Maitland is a U.S. citizen who has the right to participate in our political process. I don’t recall that upon becoming an elected official also required each council member to check his or her citizenship and First Amendment rights at the door of City Hall. These rights were secured by our forefathers and enshrined in our Constitution. Second, every council member is also a Maitland resident and taxpayer who is just as concerned as everyone else of who is elected to our city council.

I understand and agree that it is improper for elected officials to use any of the resources of their elected offices to campaign for others such as using city funds, city stationary, business cards, identifying city clothing or campaign on city time. As long as we are campaigning as citizens and taxpayers of Maitland, we are merely exercising our citizen and First Amendment rights. That is all we were doing.

I was shocked and very disappointed in fellow council member Bev Reponen using the press to publicly air criticisms and personal disapproval of her fellow council members for doing the same thing she was doing – campaigning for her candidate of choice. The only difference that I could see was that she was supporting a different candidate, which she had every right to do. We all encouraged and helped our candidates to run, went door to door for our respective candidates and stood at the corner of Horatio and 17-92 waving at passing cars. The only difference was that the other council members were waving signs. She was standing next to her candidate of choice who was waving a sign. Although she was not waving a sign, she was, however, also waving at the passing cars. In addition, on Election Day, she helped her candidate of choice hand out pizza at the city hall voting location encouraging citizens to vote for her candidate. No other council members did that.

Like every Maitland taxpayer, whether I’m serving as Mayor or not, I intend on exercising my citizenship rights by voting and sometimes campaigning for the person or people I believe will best serve our city. My only hope is more Maitland citizens will do the same, substantially increasing March’s 18.6 percent voter turnout in future elections.

Now that the election is over we need to, all come together, put this issue behind us and move our city forward for the betterment of all Maitland residents.

Howard Schieferdecker

Citizen and Mayor of Maitland