Patrons of the arts and culture prevailed against calls to dissolve or merge key appointed committees and boards dealing with some of the finer things of life at a packed Volusia County Council meeting March 5.
“It’s really encouraging. I’m glad you’re paying attention,” County Chair Jeff Brower said, as he looked out over the audience.
The two-hour-plus drama ended with the survival of the Cultural Council and the continued separation of the Volusia Forever and the Volusia ECHO committees. The county will continue to give from the county government’s general fund approximately $612,000 each year to 30 qualifying organizations. The grants may be used for operating expenses.
The council opted to retain the Environmental and Natural Resources Advisory Committee — often referred to as “ENRAC,” for short — but it deferred discussion about eliminating the Animal Control Board and the Library Advisory Board. The idea of combining or abolishing appointed boards is an expense-saving measure floated by the County Council as officials begin work on the 2024-25 budget.
“I believe that a strong democracy requires citizen participation,” Melissa Lammers told the County Council. “The role of an advisory committee is not to make decisions. That’s your job.”
The only panel that the County Council agreed to dissolve is the Code Enforcement Board. This board is not an advisory body, but rather it has authority to impose fines on property owners who violate the county’s building, zoning and property-use ordinances.
“I’m not happy with the Code Enforcement Board process,” County Chair Brower said.
An ordinance to abolish the Code Board will be presented to the County Council at a later date. The alleged violations of the county’s building and zoning ordinances now being handled by the board will be transferred to a special magistrate for rulings.
As for Volusia ECHO and Volusia Forever, former Volusia County Council Member and current ECHO Advisory Committee Chair Pat Northey said she was “particularly concerned” that the latter two panels may be combined.
“Please keep these boards separate,” she added. “Kill this agenda item!”
Volusia Forever is the county’s program of purchasing environmentally sensitive land or acquiring conservation easements. By contrast, Volusia ECHO denotes the program of purchasing or developing assets or properties that may be classified as environmental, cultural, historical or outdoor-recreational. Both the Volusia ECHO and the Volusia Forever programs are voter-approved programs.
Funding for each of the programs comes from a special add-on property tax of 1/5 mill, or 20 cents per $1,000 of taxable value. The two 20-year programs first appeared as separate referendums in the 2000 general election, and they were renewed by majorities of the county’s voters in the 2020 general election.
Each of the programs has an advisory committee appointed by the County Council. Each of the advisory committees makes recommendations on policies and future purchases or acquisitions to the County Council.
DeBary Mayor Karen Chasez voiced support for the popular pair of programs, and the status quo of them as distinct and separate.
“These are two different skill sets,” she told the County Council.
Chasez also said it is difficult “trying to get people with a broad background and knowledge” of ECHO and Forever to serve on the committees.
Speaker after speaker urged county leaders to leave intact the annual grants for local groups that promote and preserve artistic, cultural, historical and educational programs and activities that touch the lives of others.
“If we don’t get the grant, … we will have to raise our ticket prices across the board,” Kathleen Thompson said, regarding the Daytona Playhouse, an ECHO-funded project.
Jason Volo, of DeLand, and his daughter, Summer, appeared to support the Athens Theatre, also ECHO-funded, and its programs for children.
“Many children are not in traditional sports, and this is their passion,” Jason Volo said.
“If it weren’t for Athens Theatre, I would not have the courage to stand up here and address you today,” Summer Volo said.
Cultural Council Member Lloyd Bowers urged the County Council to provide more direction for his panel.
“We are way behind the eight ball for the second year in a row … in reviewing the grant applications,” he told the County Council. “We need you to give us some guidance today.”
Cultural Council Chair George Pappas called for no end of the program.
“Some of your smaller organizations — they won’t have the money to have an event,” he said.
When the public hearing ended, the County Council made no attempt to shut down the Cultural Council.
“I think cultural arts is a critical part of our community,” Council Member Don Dempsey said.
More discussion about the future of the boards and committees appointed by the County Council may be coming forward. One board that may get attention is the Historic Preservation Board. However, a memorandum on the possible demise of advisory boards noted the elimination of that panel would result in the loss of the county’s historic district and “other benefits such as access to grants and review of proposed National Historic Register applications.”
Volusia County now has a total of 30 appointed boards.
Here are my thoughts about what Volusia County’s leaders should be doing….
1. Ensuring County Government is operated in the most Effective, Efficient, and Fiscally Conservative manner possible while delivering those functions that are CORE COUNTY GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSIBILITIES..
2. Creating and Advocating for Tax Policies that are Fair and Equitable for all and not taking more than is necessary to ensure those CORE GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES are handled well.
3. Public Safety should always be at the top of the list (Police, Fire, EMS, Corrections, Medical Examiner, Courts, and Emergency Management).
4. Building and Maintaining a sound and efficient Multimodal Transportation System.
5. Building and Maintaining a sound Infrastructure that delivers the Vital Services and Protections that are required for a thriving community.
6. Building and Maintaining County Government owned Facilities.
7. Maintaining County Government owned Properties.
8. Building and Maintaining Parks and Sports Facilities for the Publics’ Use, not for private endeavors.
9. Protecting our Water and Environment.
10. Ensuring Sound Growth Policies and Practices are implemented and followed.
11. Ensuring the ECHO and FOREVER programs are properly administered according to the rules and ensuring decisions are NOT based on personal feelings or relationships.
What County Government SHOULD NOT be doing is FORCING money out of the pockets of struggling hard working people and their families and then giving what has been taken to so-called non-profits of the County Council’s choosing. It is NOT the responsibility of County Government to make our charitable giving decisions for us. There are better ways to help fund Cultural and Social programs that do not include the forcible taking of money from individuals and families that may be harmed by what is taken from them.
The County and Cities should work to help strengthen UnitedWay https://www.unitedwayvfc.org/ and make UnitedWay the lead agency that vets supports social welfare nonprofits through donations that we VOLUNTARILY give as we wish and as we can. Understanding there are some state and federal funds that must be obtained and administered through the County and Cities. However, just because state and federal funds may be offered does not mean they should be accepted, there are often requirements that bring along unintended consequences that makes the acceptance of certain funding more harmful than good.
Instead of taking our money from us BY FORCE and then making it their responsibility to handout what was taken out to the various cultural/arts groups, the County, Cities, and Cultural/Arts groups should consider a different model, perhaps something like what the group that is highlighted here https://unitedartscfl.org/ is doing. Government should not be involved and the government should not be making our charitable giving decisions for us.
Our County’s Government should NOT take our money from us by FORCE and give it to private individuals or corporations for any reason.
We must always remember, taxation is the FORCIBLE TAKING OF OUR MONEY with the threat of the loss of one’s home and/or property and at times even imprisonment. This taking should never be taken lightly and it is wrong for anyone to ask government leaders to take more money from their neighbors to fund anything that is outside of a governments’ CORE GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES, especially when those who are doing the asking will be minimally impacted themselves. A MOB of people advocating for THEFT of other people’s money does not justify the THEFT.
In Volusia County we need more World Class and less HalfAxx coming from our County and Cities. We need them to focus on their CORE GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES.
When a community’s governmental entities do their CORE GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES WELL we all thrive together.