Lawmakers come to town

Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.

Unlike the moderately attended legislative delegation hearings of recent years, last week’s was a full-house affair, with both the state legislators and members of the public pumped up for the occasion.ac
Heading the delegation on Monday, Jan. 30, was State Representative Jason Shoaf, accompanied by State Senator Corey Simon and State Representative Allison Tant.
The affair began with brief introductions by each of the lawmakers, followed by the listing of their committee assignments and identification of their key staff members, before the hearing proper began.
In typical fashion, the lawmakers first called on locally elected officials to address the panel with their concerns and issues, before opening the proceeding to the general public.
The local officials’ requests, as is usually the case, mostly focused on funding requests, either for general government operations or for specific projects. Or these officials expressed particular needs or concerns, pressed for specific pieces of legislation, or commended the lawmakers for their previous assistance.
The citizens likewise expressed concerns or made funding requests, only theirs were more varied, the topics ranging from digital currency to Chinese corporations.
County officials’ requests largely focused on continued funding for broadband expansion, road improvement programs, and the A-Building’s restoration.
They also asked for money to put a roof over the horse arena so as to allow for events in all-weather conditions; and if possible, they asked for funding to construct an agricultural center, a longtime goal of officials here.
Sheriff Mac McNeill asked the legislators for any help that they could provide to help push across the finish line a funding request that his department has made to install new, more compatible antennas to better serve the newly installed state-of-the-art radio communication system.
He also, along with Cricket Edward in his department, Police Chief Fred Mosley, and Fire Rescue Chief Derrick Burrus, urged the legislators to support House Bill 291, which aims to recognize 911 telecommunicators, i.e. dispatchers, as first responders with the applicable benefits.
School Superintendent Eydie Tricquet thanked the lawmakers for last year’s appropriation of $5 million to help the district get back on it feet after five years of being operated by a charter school, as well as being under the oversight of the Florida Department of Education.
She also expressed opposition to vouchers, which she said were killing public education. She asked that if more vouchers were to be granted, that a limitation be placed on them.
Public Defender Jessica Yeary, whose Second Judicial District includes Jefferson County, asked for funding to hire more attorneys. She said that both hers and the state attorney’s office were lacking in adequate resources.
She also encouraged the legislators to put more money into workforce development as a way to train inmates and reduce recidivism. The three lawmakers agreed with Yeary, expressing the view that the state couldn’t simply keep warehousing people and tossing them back out into society absent any training or skills.
Mayor Gloria Cox underscored the city’s needs for affordable housing, economic development and workforce development, and she encouraged the lawmakers to help in these areas in any way possible.
Vice Mayor Julie Conley in turn presented the city’s formal list of requests. These included funding for upgrade of the lift stations along U.S. 19, replacement of fire hydrants, and the repair and renovation of the city hall building.
She also touched on the need for additional state funding to repair and resurface city streets, a matter that Councilman Troy Avera expanded on, calling for more frequent influxes of state funding for road improvement projects.
He also spoke against proposed legislation that would penalize municipalities that used funds from their proprietary accounts to finance other operations. For small cities like Monticello with limited budgets, such a restriction would be devastating, Avera said.
Councilman George Evans underscored the city’s limited resources and encouraged the legislators to do anything they could to tweak the funding, saying such would be appreciated.
Chief Mosley reminded the lawmakers that police officers were part of the law-enforcement community and deserved consideration in future salary increases and bonuses. He was referring to a bill in last year’s session that raised salaries and provided bonuses for deputies and other law enforcement officers but excluded police.
Kaitlynn Culpepper, with Tri-County Electric Cooperative, gave an update of the effort to expand broadband across the region and asked the legsiators to help her company secure state grants to facilitate the process.
Paula Carroll, director of Jefferon County Emergency Management, asked for possible funding for the purchase of a 50K generator to equip a special needs shelter being created here. She also asked for funding to house persons displaced from their homes because of fire and other disasters.
The several citizens who addressed the legsilative panel touched on a variety of issues and concerns. These included a warning against investing state funding in Chinese corporations, which the speaker called part of a trillion dollar scam; appeals for funding to help the homeless and food deprived; a warning about the potential harm of digital currency; and a call for assistnce to establish a youth center here, among other topics.