Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Judges rule landowners must pay for road upgrades
                             
Article Courtesy of The Ocala Star Banner
By Bill Thompson
Published August 8, 2012
Hundreds of Marion County property owners will have to pay up for road improvements they fought against — and for which some of them were even owed refunds.
In an unsigned but unanimous opinion issued Friday, a three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal ruled that the County Commission can collect a second time for paving projects completed under the county’s Municipal Services Benefits Unit, or MSBU, program.
The court, according to its four-page ruling, determined that the property owners who had demonstrated they were wrongfully assessed under the program still had to pay because they have somehow profited from the work — and because the state Constitution empowers the County Commission to make them pay again.
On Monday, Richard Bennett, a Coral Gables lawyer representing the landowners, said his clients were still considering their options.
County Attorney Guy Minter could not be reached for comment.
The ruling consolidated three separate lawsuits brought against the County Commission between 2007 and 2010.
In those cases, landowners in the Rainbow Springs and Lake Tropicana Ranchettes subdivisions near Dunnellon and the Timberwood community in the State Road 200 corridor maintained that the County Commission had failed to follow a 1985 state law that regulated how the projects were to proceed.
That law, which was repealed in 2010, stated that the county needed approval from at least 51 percent of all affected property owners.
That was gauged by a mail-in vote of the landowners along the roads to be paved.
Critics of the program alleged that the county staff had erred by tabulating the results.
County officials had acted outside the 1985 law, they argued, by relying on an internal 1996 policy that defined the majority as 50 percent plus one, or as 40 percent voting in favor of a paving project, with two-thirds of owners of improved lots voting yes.
In the three cases at issue, the County Commission voted to approve them after being told the results met the standard set by the county policy.
Critics maintained that support fell below the mandated threshold. In one instance, the tax was levied although just 17 percent of those affected voted for the project, based on the 1985 law.
In separate rulings, Circuit Judges Jack Singbush and Brian Lambert sided with the protesters.
Refunds were also ordered. The amounts in the three cases ranged from about $900 to almost $4,900.
But in 2009 the County Commission adopted an ordinance that said when the initial assessment is “annulled, vacated, or set aside” by a judge, the board may take “all steps necessary to impose a new assessment against any property” that benefitted from the paving project.
That policy establishing the second payments, called reassessments, was the subject of the opinion issued last week by the 5th DCA panel.
The appellate court upheld two Marion judges’ earlier rulings in favor of reassessments.
Those decisions “correctly determined that these cases are controlled by longstanding precedent upholding assessment or reassessment for completed public works projects that specially benefit those being assessed,” the opinion states.
The appeals panel cited several rulings from Florida, including a case involving the city of Ocala that was decided by the Florida Supreme Court in 1922, and cases from outside the state.
The appellate judges concluded that the protesting property owners “attempt to avoid application of this well-settled law by arguing that reassessment should be barred in this case because the county lacked ‘jurisdiction’ to build the improvements when the assessments were first made.”
“This argument ignores the broad scope of home rule powers granted to counties under the 1968 (Florida) Constitution and under general law,” their opinion says.
“Under the constitution and laws in effect at the time that these road improvements were constructed (between 2007 and 2009) the county enjoyed a broad grant of general power (or ‘jurisdiction’) to make road improvements and to impose special assessments based upon the benefits conferred by those improvements.”
Bennett, in an email, said he sees an opening for an appeal in this language.
“When the roads were constructed the special act had not been repealed. That didn’t happen until 2010,” Bennett said.
“The county home rule powers were restricted by special act requiring prior majority landowner approval in order for the county to make road improvements and impose special assessments.
“The opinion does not recognize that the proposals to assess for road improvements were not approved by a majority of landowners as required by the special act,” he added. “That’s why the original assessment was invalidated.”
Bennett said he was discussing with his clients whether to appeal to the 5th DCA’s full 10-judge panel.

Sunday, August 12, 2012



Where to put #44's picture.

president  #  44                      Where, oh where --  to put Obama's picture.  

George Washington, our nation's first president  and leader of the American  Revolution! 


Abe Lincoln,  honorable leader who pulled our nation through its darkest  time! 
Alexander Hamilton,  founding father, first Secretary of the Treasury and  leader of the constitutional  convention! 
Andrew Jackson, "Old Hickory " fought the British in New Orleans ! 


Ulysses  Grant, Union army general, led the North through the Civil  War!


Ben  Franklin, genius inventor, political theorist and leading  author of the Constitution. 



Finally, we have  someone to put on the food  stamp!!!

Obama's policies  have put more people on welfare than any president before  him, so this placement is most  appropriate.  
Unlike the Nobel  Peace Prize, for which he did nothing, this is an "honor"  he richly  deserves.



 
IN CASE YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS.  READ  CAREFULLY........... This is so "Unbelievable".....
In Houston, Texas
Harwin  Central Mall: The very first store that you come to when you walk from  the lobby of the building into the shopping area had this sign posted on  their door. The shop is run by Muslims.

Feel free to share this  with others.


In case you are not able to read the sign below,  it says, "We will  be closed on Friday, September 11, 2009 to commemorate the martyrdom of  Imam Ali"

 



Imam Ali flew one of the planes into the twin  towers.

Nice huh?
Try telling me we're not in  a Religious war!
THIS HAS NOT BEEN  AROUND....SO MAKE  SURE IT DOES!
   




 
PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE  YOU KNOW AND HAVE THEM DO THE SAME


 
When I was a kid, I couldn't  understand why Eisenhower was so  popular. Maybe this will explain  why.  General Eisenhower Warned  Us.[It is a matter of historythat when  the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General  Dwight  Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all   possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from  surrounding  villages to be ushered through the camps and even made  to bury the  dead.

He did this because he said in words to  this effect:

'Get  it all on record now - get the films -  get the witnesses - because somewhere  down the road of history  some bastard will get up and say that this never   happened.'

This week, the UK debated whether to remove The  Holocaust  from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the  Muslim population which  claims it never occurred. It is not  removed as yet. However, this is a  frightening portent of the fear  that is gripping the world and how easily each  country is giving  into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the  Second  World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial   chain, in memory of the, six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10  million  Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests Who were murdered,  raped, burned,  starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated'  while many in the world  looked the other way!

Now, more  than ever, with Iran , among others,  claiming the Holocaust to be  'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world  never  forgets.

[This e-mail is intended to reach  400 million people! Be a link in  the memorial chain and help  distribute this around the world.

How many  years will it be  before the attack on the World Trade Center
NEVER   HAPPENED',








Because it offends some  Muslim???


Do not just delete  this message; it will take  only a minute to pass this  along.


 

FREEDOM ISN'T  FREE...SOMEONE HAD TO PAY FOR  IT!