Tavares, FL City Council meeting - invasion by Fruitland Park activist to discuss plastic straw ban.
Channel: FiscalRangersFlorida
Date: 2019-12-05

The Tavares, FL City Council met on Dec. 4, 2019, led by new Mayor Amanda Boggus, and listened to arguments from a well known, enthusiastic Fruitland Park activist, David Serdar, about banning plastic straws. They also discussed a new public input policy and a decision to fund the annual Folk Music festival whose leaders wanted to move from Eustis to Tavares due to better music venues.   There was lots of public input from Mr. Serdar and others (including this blogger) on various subjects, but sadly, none of the folk music artists played music.   

Spoiler alert - results of the meeting:

- The City Council voted to deny the request to ban plastic straws, fearing plastic cups would be next, and the cost of enforcement might be too high.  The city depends on drawing customers for entertainment events, and plastic cups are used by them while walking around the city.  (And, some Council members receive contributions from local restaurants and developers.)

- The public input policy was expanded to include requirements from a recent state law, but public input still will be limited to 3-minutes at the discretion of the Mayor.

- The leaders of the annual Folk Music Festival requested to move to Tavares from Eustis (after 22 years) because Tavares has more venues and restaurants for folk music groups to play in.  The City Council approved the request and the city will kick in $9,000 plus other hidden service costs to subsidize the annual event which will be next year.   (I think the City should start using "program budgeting" for programs that show the entire cost of an event or program, rather than burying costs like porta-potties, security, etc. among different department budgets.  We don't know the true cost of these events. )

- A contract with Covanta for waste disposal was extended and "is a good deal" according to staff.  

New Mayor Amanda Boggus did an excellent job at running the circus environment (you have to watch the video). Mr. Serdar brought a bouquet of flowers for Mayor Boggus. 

Video by Lake County, FL Fiscal Watchdog blogger Vance Jochim of FiscalRangers.com and the Fiscal Rangers GROUP "FiscalRangersLakeCounty".  
Short link to this video is: https://youtu.be/-77Iov0D7e8  
The length of the video is 1 hour, 40 min.   
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