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Residents Gain Online Access To City Agendas, Reports

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 23, 2008

Items of interest at the July 14 city commission meeting and budget workshop included:

•City Manager David Sollenberger announced that city commission agendas, along with backup reports, are accessible via the Internet.

"Now, anyone in the community who wants to know what's going on can access the agenda," he told commissioners. Agendas are posted by Friday preceding the meetings, held the second and fourth Mondays monthly. The Web address is: www.plantcitygov .com.

Once there, click the "government" tab in the blue bar atop the page; then click "agendas and minutes," then "current City Commission agenda and reports." Click "2008" to select the latest entry.

•In discussing the budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, Sollenberger recommended that city employees receive a 3 percent salary raise, with a $1,500 cap. Under that formula, only workers earning more than $50,000 annually are affected by the cap.

Also during the budget workshop, Commissioner Mike Sparkman, endorsing the plan to deed the 1914 Plant City High School Community Center to the East Hillsborough Historical Society, said, "I'd like to see that happen."

The building is utilized and needed, and not all city funding should be eliminated, he added.

"I hate to see us eliminate funds completely," Sparkman said, suggesting budgeting approximately $30,000 annually toward upkeep of the 94-year-old brick building.

A successful motion at Monday's meeting will enable the city manager to include funding in the upcoming budget, City Attorney Ken Buchman said.

•The city will sell to the highest bidder within the next 60 days the three 14-passenger buses used by Plant City Transit before service was discontinued June 27.

"There are a couple churches that are interested," and possibly another bus service, Sollenberger said.

The bus service was terminated to save money.

•City police deployed additional officers on the Fourth of July to enforce fireworks restrictions. The Criminal Investigation Unit, Street Crimes Unit and the on-duty patrol squad handled 54 fireworks complaints from residents and investigated 24 additional cases they encountered during the period from 6 p.m. July 4 to 2 a.m. July 5.

No arrests were made for fireworks violations, but officers notified offenders they were in violation of city ordinance and ordered they cease.

•Code enforcement notices have been mailed to the owner of the former USA Grocers convenience store and gasoline station at Maryland Avenue and U.S. 92, citing the property as a public nuisance, Sollenberger and another city official said. The building's windows are covered with well-weathered plywood, weeds are growing through the cracked asphalt, and the metal cover plates have been stripped from the four gasoline pumps, which, when last in use, dispensed premium for $2.12 per gallon. The owner, DBR Lease Exchange, Encitas, Calif., has been notified via certified mail that the case goes before the city Code Enforcement Board next month, Sollenberger told commissioners.

•Commissioners unanimously voted to appoint the Rev. Tom Thoeni, pastor of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, to the city library board.

Thoeni will take over the seat vacated by Tom Sparkman, appointed in July 2005, who did not wish to serve a second three-year term.

Other applicants for the vacancy were Wendy S. Brown and David Miller.

George Wilkens

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