"Mingea's Law"

$$$ ka - ching $$$

A majority of the City of Winter Springs Code Enforcement Board recently fined a working-class homeowner $2,500 for a violation of the City's now-infamous Arbor Ordinance, affectionately called by some in this City as "Mingea's Law". Now the question is, will the City of Winter Springs fine Centex for the same type violation, for the 344 extra trees Centex cut down on its Wagner Curve property?

If so, that would be 344 trees multiplied by $2,500, or $860,000.00. KA-CHING !!

Yup, Centex just LOVES dropping that much money in fines for every project it does (which if Centex were smart, it would never build in this City again ). Why should the City care anymore about Centex than it did about that poor working class homeowner who will probably have to get a second mortgage to pay that $2,500 fine ?

The relationship between City Hall and developers is equally, if not more frosty, than the relationship between City Hall and its citizens. It's too bad citizens and developers just couldn't divorce City Hall by citing City Manager McLemore as a home wrecker. He confiscated $2,500 of that homeowner's budget !

Whoops ----- forgot, he doesn't do anything he could be blamed for ----- as far as a decision. He leaves that up to his highly-paid consultants for advice, and HIS Commission to pass!

Now, what does City Hall do with the $860,000 windfall, or let's call it "tree fall " that it should collect? First, McLemore can head back to the Bahamas for a nice VA-KAY with a big chunk of change to spare. While McLemore scooters in the Bahamas, City Forester Michael Mingea can wield even more unsupervised power on the unsuspecting public to collect more fines.

Oh, let's not forget Parks Director Chuck Pula. He wants to buy all the recreational swamp land in the City he can get from developers for $33,000, to add to all the other recreational swamp land the City owns, but can't use. Or, maybe the Public Works Department will get a piece of the action so it can start building its Lake Jesup reclamation plant, because our City Manager has not revealed to citizens that his expansionist plan has left this city with little future potable resources, but with a water supply full of saltwater intrusion.

Why else does the City have to move one of its water wells to Trotwood Park? Oh, and let's forget about the Fire and Police Departments getting any piece of the action. We know how the City Manager feels about those two departments. He won't even give the firemen a contract ----- ( hasn't for over two years ).

Wait! There's a big black hole in this windfall --- oops --- tree fall. The City will probably net absolutely ZERO from this Centex tree fiasco. Yes! For all of McLemore's wheeling and dealing to advance his expansionist plan in our City, it is more than likely that the City will be put into the RED once again. First, the $860,000 will be offset by all those thousands of dollars in "tree credits " the City Commission (upon staff's recommendation) GAVE AWAY to Centex in its developer's agreement. Then add in all the other developer incentive perks that citizens are not supposed to know about. WHOA, let's not forget the City Attorney's fee for drafting and litigating the code enforcement action against Centex. That will probably add up to $50,000 or more by the time it is finished --- (the going rate for litigating anything in this City ,including $50.00 dollar dog barking fines).

So, when you get done doing the math, does it come as any surprise that the Citizens of Winter Springs are going to be once again left holding the bag? Why doesn't City Manager McLemore know how to use basic math, and stop spending all our tax dollars by coming up with new ways to calculate his devious expansionist plan?