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Stew Lilker’s

Columbia County Observer

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County Commission News

County Jettisons Lake City Committees
Com DuPree decrees "No County participation"

Commission Chairman Jody DuPreeAt the Thursday, December 16th Columbia County Commission meeting, newly elected County Commission Chairman, Jody DuPree, decreed that County Commissioners will "no longer serve on any City [of] Lake City committees." Lake City is the County seat and known throughout Florida as the capitol of Columbia County. Com Stephen Bailey moved the appointments and non appointments and the rest of the Commission voted along in lockstep. (photo: Jody DuPree)

Violating the County Charter once again by not having all back up material available to the public before the meeting, the Commission bulldozed through the committee appointments, with Chairman DuPree apparently invoking the Feagle "feel like it principle." Unlike in other counties, there is no procedure which establishes the rules for committee appointments.

It is unknown how Com DuPree made his decisions. So far, they appear to have been made the well known Columbia County way, under the cover of darkness.

The following is an abbreviated transcript of the "Board Appointments" section of the County Commission meeting. The acoustics in the auditorium that the homeless County Commission uses as its meeting room have been atrocious for years and the Commission has insured that its recordings followed along in the same vein. This coupled with the strange affected dialect of the Chairman, makes comprehension of many sentences impossible without translation.

Chairman DuPree: You'll also notice if you look at the coach sheet - it says - that - we've eliminated the appointments of the City of Lake City Utility Committee, the Downtown Neighborhood Development Committee, and the Beautification Committee. These appointments were in name only and we had no authority on them. So that's the appointments. I'm gonna ask the Board to make a motion and pass ~ unintelligible ~.  

Com Frisina: I have a question before we do. I happen to be on the Beautification Committee and I do have voting rights.

(The Chairman blows off Com Frisina)

Chairman DuPree: OK

Com Frisina: And I just wanna ~ unintelligible ~ taken off.

Chairman DuPree:  Not exactly the only reason, but one.

Com Frisina:  Right

Com Bailey:  I didn't think any of their committees had voting rights ~ unintelligible ~.

Chairman DuPree: They don't. But they did change the thing one time in the city...

(Some chatter between Commissioners DuPree and Bailey about the City Utility Committee)

Com Frisina: Did you get the information on the Beautification Committee?

 Chairman DuPree: No - the point we were - that after tonight we won't serve on any City [of] Lake City committees. So it didn't really matter about all of them, it was just the ones that the Commission served on ~ unintelligible ~ serve on.

Com Frisina: So even and joint committees?

Chairman DuPree:  That's correct.

Com Frisina: ~ unintelligible ~ dropped out of it?

Chairman DuPree: The only ones that we would stay on is the ones ~ unintelligible ~ to be a part.

Newly elected Dist. II Commissioner DePratter sat quietly on the side lines giving no indication on which committees he preferred to serve.

It was business as usual at the good old boy Columbia County Commission.

This work by the Columbia County Observer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

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