What Staff “Forgot”

With minimal editing, the following was copied with permission from an email sent by Davenport Concerned Citizens (DCC) on January 5, 2017. To view my response to DCC, go to my 1/22/17 post, “Notes from a Disgruntled Absentee Voter.”

RESIDENTS OF THE CITY OF DAVENPORT

Hope you all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to better 2017.

Today we are announcing that the city is once again, asking you to vote on Charter Changes at the end of this month, January 31st.

The city has announced they would mail you a copy of the Sample Ballot a week before the vote.  It will be late because they forgot to put it in your water bill.

To get a copy of the 11 Proposed Amendments with our recommendations in both English and Spanish, please write to us at the Davenport Concerned Citizens email.

The image below shows our reasoning for those recommendations to provide you with insight for our conclusions.

Additional blank copies are available at MyDavenport.org, en español es a MyDavenport.org.

It is odd that our city went for over 35 years without changes to our Charter [the city Constitution] until 2009 when the mayor at that time wanted the Charter changed to protect “his” city manager with a super majority removal vote.  This was to stop the commission from removing a city manager by a 3-2 vote plurality – as is done with other commission employees such as the attorney & city clerk.

In 2013, you, the citizens rose up through a Petition drive and undid that provision and banned sewer service to the old parts of town to subsidize the developers.

While there are a couple items necessary to update to Florida Law, many we recommend you to vote no.  Along with a few yes votes as we are able to recommend.

It is important you pass this on to your Facebook friends and neighbors to get the word out.

By keeping this low-key, the city is working to keep this vote limited to a few “in the know” voters as they did in 2009 when only 105 votes were cast.

That’s why you probably haven’t heard about this until now.

Don’t let that happen again.  Be a good citizen – Visit a neighbor – Get the word out.

See you on voting day January 31st.

We have not heard whether there will be absentee ballots on this city election – so you must vote in person to be sure.

Again, be a great citizen  – Pass it ON….

Be sure and contact us if you have ANY questions.

Thank you

Executive Committee

Davenport Concerned Citizens
PO Box 2791
Davenport, Florida 33837