Alachua Voter Guide

In the short time I have been campaigning, it has become abundantly clear that even the non-partisan school board race is very political and that it seems to be an act of political suicide if one chooses to support a candidate with ideas rather than one that is part of the political system. School Board elections should be about the students, not about the politics.
A close look at the financial disclosure of one candidate shows huge contributions from unions across the State. This tells me that his union buddies and their agendas will take preference over what is best for the students of Alachua County. If it takes a candidate 40 years of working in the school system to realize that he can best help students by serving on the Board, then I say he has an agenda. Maybe he wants to be the board, not serve on the board. Or maybe he want to be superintendent?? Maybe have a school or two named after him?? To elect a teachers’ union president who fought with past school boards only for monies for teachers, is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. I was recently told that I only wanted to serve on the School Board to collect the $38,000 a year salary. I am the only candidate in District 3 who, if elected, would have to step down from a job he loves to work longer hours for less pay. I am the only candidate in District 3 who has experience as a businessman, a parent, and as a teacher. I am the only one in District 3 who can say “I proudly served in the United States Army.” As a member of the School Board, I would not be afraid to vote to make the necessary cuts at the top rather than look for more taxes. I would not be afraid to vote to get rid of ineffective teachers. I would not be afraid to vote to outsource services if is best for our school district. I am an independent voice for the students of Alachua County.

Dear fellow Americans, It is my regret to inform you that there have been several occurrences on the campaign trail the last few months. I have had multiple anonymous reports to DCF about alleged child abuse; all of which have been found categorically untrue. I have had dozens of yard signs stolen / vandalized. I have heard there are 2 to 3 people going around to my supporters telling them very strange stories of wife/child abuse. And worst yet I have had 2 instances of brake fluid being drained from the family car in an apparent attempt to cause physical harm to my entire family. These are terrible and unexpected consequences of running for public office. What I cannot figure out is why the local news media refuses to run any stories on the above. Furthermore local law enforcement has not taken this very serious. I have now had to place my wife and 5 young children in a safe house outside of town until this election has passed.
Why is this not all over the 6 o’clock news?
Why must we endure this for a simple school board race?
What does it take to get local media coverage?
Is not attempted murder of a local candidate and family enough for news?
Jodi

To my fellow Alachua County Citizen,

With great pleasure and humility, I announce my candidacy for the Alachua County Soil and Water Conservation District, Seat 4. I look forward to serving you in this capacity, and striving to implement responsible, accountable measures to ensure the conservation of our precious county resources.

I am a first-year Law Student at the University of Florida. I graduated in May from UF with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Classical History. It is my intent in life to be a public servant. I would like to be a new breed of politician: an accountable, accessible, and responsible guardian of the citizens’ money. I believe in the importance of the free markets, the power of the individual, and the necessity of technological innovation.

I have worked as a Loaned Executive for the United Way of North Central Florida, and am a strong advocate of non-profit charity within the community. I own my own non-profit political newsmagazine, the Florida Frontier. My specialization in my work with United Way and the Florida Frontier is in grant applications.

I have attended every Soil and Water Conservation District meeting since I decided to run in March, and will continue to attend every meeting to acclimate myself to the required responsibilities of a Soil and Water Conservation District member.

The Alachua County Soil and Water Conservation District is currently predominantly funded by the sale of zoning maps. However, money exists from the state and federal level in the form of grants, a resource which we currently under-utilize. I intend to devote my abilities in applying for grants to improve the funding of our Conservation District to accomplish more within our county.

If you own land in Alachua County, this election is important to you. The State of Florida and large government entities are constantly adding large, blanket regulations to land and resource use without heeding local needs or concerns. If elected to be your conservation district representative, I would work to voice the district’s specialized needs to the state and amongst the countless agencies created to oversee resource usage in the county. I believe that the conservation district should be operated with a focus on localized, accountable programs; constantly striving to be as mindful of the will of the citizens as they are of the conservation of the county’s resources.

Please take a second to explore my website. I have included information about the Conservation District, the duties of those who hold the office, and some ideas I have to improve our operation.

I hope to have your vote in November. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please email me at griffinswcd4@gmail.com. I thank you for your time and support.

Why You Should Care

It may be easy to assume that the Soil and Water conservation district has no effect on your life, but in reality it carries considerable significance in the operation and lifestyle of every Alachua county citizen.

If you own land in Alachua County, this election should be important to you.

The conservation districts were written into Florida Law in 1937, at a time when there was little or no effort to preserve or protect Florida’s natural resources.

For over sixty-five years, the conservation districts have worked to restore and conserve local resources, as well as address significant national problems in water quality, erosion issues, and flood and other natural disaster damage.

As a citizen of both Alachua County and the state of Florida, you are faced with a multitude of regulations and areas of government oversight in the use of your private land. The State has itself become a major land owner, and now has management responsibilities for over a million acres of land. The Conservation District is a board of individuals designed to communicate between the citizen and the government, and ensure the citizen retains a say in which regulations and practices are implemented to conserve soil, water, and other natural resources.

The state and local governments have commissioned a multitude of groups and entities to oversee resource conservation. Another important task of the conservation district member is to serve as a partner and liaison between the daunting number of agencies all designed to perform the same task.

Remember, vote Bryan GRIFFIN for Alachua County Soil and Water District 4

by Chris Smiley Candidate for School Board District 5

After the business coalition forum was over I was disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to bring up the issue of school uniforms especially after I witnessed the passion against new taxes from commission candidates and guests.  The school board recently mandated a uniform policy for all k-12 schools.  This policy is far worse than a tax though because not only is it putting an undue financial burden on families, it restricts freedom of speech and expression.

The policy was founded on misconceptions and false premises. The research (including studies from the Journal of Educational Research and a 4 year tracking study by the Miami-Dade school district) shows that uniforms do not lessen dress code violations, nor do they have a positive affect on attendance, behavior, performance, or substance use.  The main ‘issue’ as claimed by board members really comes down to enforcement of dress code standards already in place.

Some people say that uniforms aren’t that bad but for a public policy to be enacted that takes away rights, there has to be an overwhelming good to justify it.  In the case of uniforms there is none.  In fact there is no rational reason to have uniforms (and a million reasons against them but I’ll keep this post short).

In tough economic times parents will now have to buy a new wardrobe for their kids.  (Don’t believe the farce that uniforms save money, no student wears uniforms outside of school.  That means that the cost of uniforms is in addition to whatever regular clothes they buy.)

I couldn’t believe that the new policy was passed or that it was even brought up when there are pressing fundamental issues with education that actually affect performance in schools. (see my website)

There has been significant opposition to uniforms.  All 7 high school principals wrote a letter to the board urging them to not pass the policy and to let them continue to enforce the dress code already in place.  There have been a couple of protests already and a number of groups have been formed; legal action is anticipated.  Whether you have children or not we all need to fight injustice and I urge all of you to email the board, to join one of the groups via facebook, or to connect with parents and dissenters (you can email me at chris.smiley@gmx.com).

Elected or not I will continue to work to reverse this policy.

My website- Fleducationreform.com

Letter from principals-  http://notopolos.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/copy-of-the-letter-sent-to-school-board-from-alachua-county-school-principals/

All candidates are running county-wide. All Alachua County voters can vote.

This is just a simple web poll on the school board candidates. Please check out their web sites listed on the 2010 candidates’ page and then take the poll! Then pass it around to your friends! It’s almost like a real election…

This poll is over. Thanks to the few who participated…just like our real elections.

( if you are happy with paying high taxes and enjoy a stagnant economy then ignore this)

As I near the deadline to qualify for the County Commission District 2 race , I , Walt Boyer, am left wondering if our Conservative voters are just going to sit back and watch as the Liberal majority maintain the stranglehold on our local governments that they have had for years. I am wondering how long will you sit back and allow your taxes to skyrocket just to fund projects that will only benifit the few. How long will you sit back and watch as businesses choose to become established in the surrounding counties instead of Alachua County because the regulations of our County are so unfreindly to business. How long will you sit back and do nothing knowing that your opinions or concerns are going unheeded.

It is time to make a stand and elect a person that has no special interest group affiliations and can openly and honestly represent the voice of the citizens of Alachua County. I encourage you to visit WWW.VOTEFORWALT.COM for more info on me or call 352-356-VOTE with any county concerns. I believe that in order to represent, you have to be in touch with how the citizens for whom you serve are feeling so I will always have an “open door” policy for anyone to voice concern or ideas on how to make our County better.  So are you ready to step up and invest in a candidate that will pick the current budget apart line by line and make those responsible for the wasteful spending accountable to you the voter, that will invite clean industries and manufacterers to our County to ease unemployment and bring in more revenue, that will ease the regulations for small businesses to help stimulate our economy.We only have till June 14 and I know with your help our voice can be heard again. I need campaign donations to qualify and then we can work on presence in our communities

Just remember to make it a point to vote in November. Many Americans have given their lives to assure you have the freedom to do just that . Dont let your friends stay home, push everyone you know to register and vote.

My name is Ozzy Angulo and I’ll be running for City of Gainesville Commissioner, District 3.

I appreciate the opportunity to be able to post on the Alachua Voter Guide.

I look forward to being able to revisit many of the residents I met when I ran as a candidate for the 2010 City of Gainesville Mayoral Elections.

I’m excited about being able to speak with my neighbors about ideas that will help us move in a positive direction forward.

In today’s G’ville Sun there was an interesting article about our current cold temperatures. Essentially it said that we’re breaking records that were set back in ‘99 for cold. It is also interesting to note that global temperature increases began to level off in ‘98 and have decended since then. Which, of course, is why the Al Gore disciples (and ALL members of our City Commission) dropped the phrase global warming and embraced the term climate change. But………we’re still going to get a tree burning power plan in G’ville.

I read with interest the ideas in the G’ville Sun For a better community in 2010 and will bet the ‘ideas’ have either been written by an elected official or by a writer at the G’ville Sun who has probably been at that ‘job’ for life. Let’s take a look at the ideas and, while we’re at it, I’ll add a few:
G’ville Sun – Reduce the district’s unacceptably low dropout rate: Will require the School Board to form better working partnerships with the city, county, and community nonprofit organizations.
Me – Would be nice but it is doubtful this strategy will work. What must happen (and will not, I might add) is that one must create disincentives for teenagers having children and babies born out of wedlock. In years past our parents and the society provided the ‘disincentives’ for out of wedlock births by, at the very least, disapproving of this behavior. Unfortunately and sadly, some now applaud this behavior. If elected officials don’t have the guts to do this (and they don’t), at least don’t offer incentives for out of wedlock births. Remember what Pavlov taught us. You do that and you’ll decrease the dropout rate. If you don’t do that, you will be spinning your wheels as you have been for 4 decades.

G’ville Sun - Renewed emphasis on early childhood development-education: The entire community should rally around the United Way’s “Success by Six” initiative.
Me: See #1.

G’ville Sun - Make progress on homeless services: Build the long-promised “One-Stop” service center.
Me: “Build it and they will come.” Absurd idea. Let them live with the Commissioners who are pushing this idea (Jack Donovan, Rodney Long, and Craig Lowe).

Gville Sun - Unify vital public services: Separate city-county police and fire departments are wasteful, inefficient and unnecessary.
Me: Another bad idea. Cities are responsible for police and fire protection and for protecting their citizens; not counties. Besides, all you’re really advocating is absorption of GPD with ASO. You really think Waldo, High Springs, or Alachua are remotely interested in giving up protecting their residents. Get real.

G’ville Sun - Improve transit: Advance a bus rapid transit initiative for west Gainesville. Get legislative approval for RTS transit fee for Santa Fe College students.
Me: Not a bad idea but be careful about dedicating rapid transit lanes because the city, by ordinance, cannot expand a road beyond 4 lanes, therefore, if you dedicate a lane to bus rapid transit on a 4 lane facility, you’re going to have one less lane for cars. Be careful what you ask for.

G’ville Sun - Insist on a meaningful clean-up of Koppers Superfund site: The remediation plan recommended by the EPA is totally inadequate.
Me: Totally agree for many reasons but mostly because it threatens out city’s water supply.  I thought Senator Nelson was going to help on this but he was clearly just blowing hot air several years ago.

G’ville Sun - County charter reform: We urge vigorous citizen participation in this once-in-a-decade opportunity to make county government more accountable to the taxpayers.
Me: Yes but that’s like barking up a tree. History is the best predictor of the future so I’d suggest looking at our history. Additionally, I’d suggest having the G’ville Sun release the figures, once again, on reader responses to this question and compare it to the recommendations of the Charter group when published.

G’ville Sun - Strengthen the town-gown partnership: Collaborate on the future of the old Shands at AGH site. Support development of the eastside UF campus.
Me: I’ve been suggesting that for years and, in fact, it is happening.

G’ville Sun - Protect our water: Clean-up southeast Alachua County’s impaired water bodies and Gainesville’s stressed urban creeks.
Me: Duh. Goodness, that suggestion took a great deal of thought.

G’ville Sun - Economic development: Time to write a new strategic plan for sustainable job creation.
Me: No, no, and no! If the writer had a clue about the psyche of an entrepreneur they would know that government does NOT have to write a strategic ‘plan’ to help business. That is, unless the ‘plan’ is to reduce government influence in economic development. The word is REDUCE not EXPAND government’s role. Please, please, please understand that people who either own their own businesses or want to start their own business have a fire burning in their belly to do just that. In other words, the desire is ALREADY there! By far the best thing government can do is create an environment in which the fire can be stoked. There is very, very little government does, plans, or enacts that does that. In fact, what government typically does is throw a large bucket of water on the fire.
As an entrepreneur who has started two successful businesses and a former City Commissioner, I promise you, I know what I’m talking about. I have even offered, as a Commissioner, solutions to this endemic problem but they have been ignore which, I suppose is not surprising since none of them have any experience in the private sector. Look at it this way, if you want to know about starting, sustaining, or building a business, you’re probably going to be more successful if you talk to someone who has actually done it.  Have any of your local elected officials done that?  The answer is a resounding, NO! It would be the high of insanity to ask these folks.

Here are a few of my suggestions for improving the community in 2010:

1. STOP THE TREE BURNING POWER PLANT IMMEDIATELY. It is WAY to expensive and will result in continued massive increases in utility rates.

2. Offer (the operative word here is ‘offer’ not mandate) solar electric power generation for ALL residences and office buildings in Alachua County right now. If the owner agrees, attach cost of units to the property. This way if the property sells the remaining cost of the PV Array will transfer to the new owner.

3. Cut GRU’s transfer to the city by $5 million dollars and reduce the electric rates to all city residents by a commensurate amount. At least have the discussion.  Offer the same to residents living outside the city IF they wish to annex into the city.

4. Change the City Charter and return to 5 Commissioners instead of 7. We can’t afford 7 for many reasons.

5. Cut the pay for Commissioners in half. No retirement and no healthcare (I can hear the squeals already).

6. Move the City elections to November. No elections in the Spring. This will save money as well as increase the paltry turnout (10.78% of registered voters in the last Mayoral election).

7. Eliminate the $500,000.00 dollar per year City Communications office…it didn’t exist when I was on the City Commission. I can think of a few more but this is likely too long already.

I’d say that would be a good start for 2010 and I didn’t have to go to 10.   I guarentee you my 7 will provide more improvement in our community than the Sun’s 10.  Somehow, someway, we’ve got to stop this nonsense.