August 22, 2010 Karen Diebel, former Winter Park Vice Mayor and candidate for US House Seat in Florida District 24, believes in individual freedom, individual responsibility, smaller government, and financial restraint. I am a supporter. Craig Miller, an opponent of Diebel’s in the Republican primary for the District 24 US House seat, along with former and current Winter Park city commission members Margie Bridges and Beth Dillaha, believe in character assassination and personal vendettas. Miller mailed a letter to District 24 voters written by Bridges and Dillaha. The authors know this letter contains false and misleading claims about Diebel. The…
Author: Peter Weldon
More Wasted Time for Winter Park
August 12, 2010 Ms. Dillaha offered another one of her missives in today’s Winter Park/Maitland Observer: http://wpmobserver.com/WPMObserver/article.asp?ID=4319 What possible good can a city commissioner do by repeatedly, publicly, and falsely criticizing another member of the commission? (Answer: None. It can only do harm.) The continual “work sessions” called by Ms. Dillaha are meaningless efforts by one commissioner or set of commissioners to sway the opinion of other commissioners, not to get “work” done as she asserts. Each commissioner has the individual responsibility to do their home work, question city staff, establish their position on every issue and then vote. That’s…
Dillaha Needs to Stop the Nonsense
May 28, 2010 Dillaha is quoted in this week’s Winter Park/Maitland Observer as follows: But Commissioner Beth Dillaha railed against the idea of the city being on the hook to pay for a station and part of the system if dedicated funding for it were to disappear in the future. “You cannot tell a future sitting commission that you have to pay for these things,” Dillaha said. “You can’t do it. It’s the law.” Following the meeting Monday, she said that many of the supporters of the system and the current agreement were those who would benefit financially from SunRail,…
Just a Thought
SUBTITLE: When Reality Meets Righteous Nonsense May 28, 2010 Dear Mayor and Commissioners, I urge you to re-read the writings linked below in light of expected material reductions in assessed values recently provided by the Orange County Appraiser. Wes Hamil has already provided you with the estimated impact of these reductions on our 2010-11 operations as follows: ****************************************************************************************** From: Wes Hamil Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2010 11:34 AM To: Randy Knight; Michelle del Valle Subject: Property tax numbers We received our “best estimate” numbers from the Property Appraiser this morning. Our overall valuation decreased 10.4% while the valuation in the…
When Pigs Fly
May 26, 2010 Several people have asked me for a clarification of the 3 to 2 vote regarding commuter rail at the May 24 city commission meeting. Here it is: Three of our five commissioners thought it was a good idea to ask Orange County to allow Winter Park to leave the commuter rail system at any time for any reason without any financial obligations and instructed the city attorney and city manager to talk to Orange County about this idea. Regards, Pete Weldon
What is it you don’t understand?
May 20, 2010 Commissioner Dillaha has a letter in this week’s Winter Park/Maitland Observer that includes the same incendiary exaggerations I refuted earlier and that also includes this beauty: “Question those people who are berating my fellow commissioners and me for the audacity to look out for you, the taxpayers, by renegotiating this unilateral agreement with Orange County now. Ask yourself what motivates them to push for an “agreement-at-any-cost.” Investigate who is behind the YES YES Political Action Committee.” The meaning of the word “berate” is to “scold or criticize angrily.” I don’t know anyone who is doing that and…
SunRail Discussion, May 24, 2010
May 19, 2010 The Winter Park City Commission meeting of May 24, 2010 will be focused on discussing Dillaha’s objections to the commuter rail agreement with Orange County and the current city attorney’s concerns about possible “legal risks” with that agreement. The commission agreed on May 10th that any action taken at the May 24th meeting will be limited to possibly requesting amendments for Orange County’s consideration and that the subject of “termination” will not be discussed. NOTE AGAIN: A majority of the city commission agreed that the subject of “termination” will not be discussed. While we now know that…
Confirmation of Winter Park SunRail Realities
May 17, 2010 James Harrison, Director of Growth Management for Orange County, recently offered the points below which confirm my writings on the subject of Dillaha’s continued efforts to obstruct Winter Park’s participation in SunRail. ****************************************************** From: Jim.Harrison@ocfl.net [mailto:Jim.Harrison@ocfl.net] Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 4:11 PM 1. Although the City/County Agreement makes Winter Park responsible for the capital costs of constructing the station, those costs will be covered through a Federal grant and little if any cost will accrue to the City (unless the City “opts out” of the station after the money is spent). 2. FDOT is paying for…
SunRail Financial Realities
May 14, 2010 Commissioner Dillaha continually blusters about financial uncertainties involved in the city’s commuter rail agreement with Orange County. Having 35 years of financial management, executive leadership and investment management experience I share Ms. Dillaha’s fiscal conservatism. However, with regard to her dismissal of commuter rail, Ms. Dillaha repeatedly and consistently overstates the risks without addressing the opportunities and exaggerates the costs without addressing the benefits. The most meaningful risks and costs of SunRail for Winter Park arise from not participating. The following analysis relies in part on SunRail operating cost estimates from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)…
Irrelevant and False Objections to SunRail
After several years of attempting to obstruct SunRail, including a January 2009 effort to use her position on our city commission to terminate Winter Park’s commuter rail agreement with Orange County, Commissioner Dillaha has put her objections in writing. Her April 29, 2010 letter to the citizens of Winter Park contained the following objections, the italicized text numbered 1 through 9 below. My response follows each objection. Dillaha: 1) A weak and vague ability for the city to “opt-out” of the agreement beyond one 60-day window within 99 years. The statement above is false. The “opt out” is…