Good stewardship lacking
To the editor:
What do you expect from your county commissioners?
Leaving aside personal traits such as morality and ethically, I do not think it is unreasonable for us to expect them to be transparent as called for by law and good stewards of YOUR money as should be expected by you.
The Board of County Commissioners meeting which just took place on Aug. 4, paints a very different picture.
First, let me state that I think Conservation 20/20 is a very good program if used properly. If using it properly means keeping the fund replenished as voted on by you and as by law, they have failed miserably. If using it properly means good stewardship of your money, they have failed miserably.
At the meeting they approved the purchase of land on Pine Island and at 10301 Palm Beach Boulevard.
The land on Palm Beach Boulevard is surrounded on three sides by the Orange River Preserve which makes it a prime candidate for Conservation 20/20. The problem I see is that they are willing to $141,428.87 per acre for this property today while only four years ago they purchased land for this preserve for $29,017.85 per acre. While we have experienced inflation over the past four years, it does not come close to approaching the nearly 400% inflation seen here.
They purchased two different properties on Pine Island. One, that consists of two parcels, has a Stringfellow Road address for the front lot and no access for the rear lot. They showed appraisals for both of these lots. For the front one, they paid the lowest appraised price. For the rear one they paid almost double the highest appraised price.
The other lot purchased is off Stringfellow Road without any access or street address. It is not next to any conservation land. This seems to be taking advantage of county largess to move a piece of property which appears to be unsaleable.
Why the fuss? They paid $40,000 per acre for one and $50,000 per acre for the other. There is a piece of property on Stringfellow Road, right next to one of these properties, which is listed for sale at $26,315 per acre. This does not fit any definition of good stewardship that I know of.
Along with the POOR stewardship of YOUR money as shown here, all of these questions were posed to all of the commissioners before the meeting, and no responses were forthcoming. That falls under a lack of transparency.
Maybe you should ask the commissioners why these properties were chosen.
Norman Cannon
Fort Myers