Light-up McIntosh December 15
Light-up McIntosh will begin at the Civic Center at 6:30 p.m. The event will host Santa Clause and an area choir from six local churches will sing.
07.15.06 -- ARTICLE: Wright resigns town council due to personal, political reasons
Saturday, July 15, 2006
McINTOSH – Town Council President Danaya Wright resigned Thursday night to a stunned council and passed her gavel to Vice President Joe Phillips.
“I’ve decided to resign tonight,” Wright said. “Not because of the recall petition. It was a very difficult decision because I don’t like to quit when I have made a commitment but I have simply don’t have the time or the energy to devote to the problems that exist in this town.”
Another reason for leaving she said was personal, stating that she and her partner are expecting another child and that her job at the University of Florida has suffered due to the time she’s put into being on McIntosh’s Town Council, as the Chair of the UF Faculty Senate and as a UF trustee.
While she did not lay out who was "immoral, unethical and illegal" in the meeting – stating that everyone knows them already – she did describe a bevy of them she's witnessed. She also spoke to rumors and allegations made against her in recent months.
Wright said that while she still had the floor, she defended herself against allegations brought against her in the petition.
The first allegation she spoke to was not taping a 6 hour workshop meeting. She said that minutes were prepared and voted on and no one had objected to them.
Later in the meeting, when Joe Phillips brought up articles written in this blog saying that minutes were voted on for that meeting, former council member Charlsie Stott said they were not available in the office the following week. In fact, the first set of minutes made available were one page resembling an agenda did not reflect of the meeting. This reporter did protest the minutes to Wright and asked her to provide another set of minutes of the workshop in the pressence of town clerk Julie Mussleman.The second allegation was that she called an emergency meeting to purchase a lawn mower for the town at least a year ago. She stated that broken lawn mowers in town required this and that two previous council members Charslie Stott and Howard Walkup did not attend the emergency meeting.
The third allegation was that Wright violated the Sunshine law in e-mail communication. She said no one had made a public request for her e-mail or any other council member’s email that she knew of and she could not speak to allegation since she did not know what she was being accused of doing and when she supposedly wrote such e-mails.
[Clarification--editor's note added July 16: E-mail conversations came to light late last fall. This was confirmed by this reporter in a conversation with Eunice Smith in a phone interview and an interview with Mayor Marsha Strange. I am sorry if this was unclear.]
The fourth allegation was that she violated the town’s Land Development Code by appointing the Board of Adjustment to approve site plans. She said she did not see how the council appointing other members to do work that previous councils took on themselves was a violation when the language of the town ordinance said they could appointment an administrator and others to this task.
Wright has more than a year left in her term so the current council will have to appoint a new council member. Then between 60 days and 90 days the town will have a special election for a new council member to replace Wright.
posted by Cher @ 11:03 AM,
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Editor
Editor and Publisher:
I'm Cher From McIntosh, FL I'm a graduate student at the University of Florida working on a master's degree in Mass Communication. While I was finishing my undergrad degree in journalism last year, I reported on McIntosh, Fla. for an in-depth reporting class. I figured that the reporting and the public record files should go somewhere people can access them. Reporters don't report to keep the information they find to themselves. Some of that reporting is included here in a forum that allows response. McIntosh suffers because with no news coverage, the local government and the rumor mill have too much potential to run rampant over residents. I moved to McIntosh in the fall of 1999. My profile
About This Blog
The primary purpose of this blog is to accurately reflect what happens in town public meetings and dispel rumors. I record the meetings and make them available for download. One of the goals of this blog is to offer residents a place to voice opinions. The comments, views and opinions expressed there are not necessarily those of the editor.
