The County Manager, most will agree, is a scoundrel. He does not play well with others, including the cities and Constitutional officers. Here’s what we have been hearing.

The current County Manager, after several meetings with all the Constitutional Officers this past Spring, told all the Officers to submit their budgets by June 1st and indicated they would receive what they submitted. A week ago, the current County Manager takes the dagger and plunges them all into the chest by sending back their budgets and telling them they will have an additional 10% insurance increase and they should pass that cost onto their employees. What a dirt bag.(our opinion) Now, the Officers are stuck having to run around looking for either an additional 15% funding from somewhere or cut another 10% to protect the health insurance. Nice.

This current County Manager has again stated he would NOT even consider any pay cuts to his upper echelon staff, and has told them he’d go down fighting for them. Meanwhile he’s looking to stick it to every employee below the $70k pay range, once again proving he’s not all there!

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This current County Manager has disregarded the requests of the County Chairman by not providing the requested salary study which an outside consultant was hired to do and who advised the Manager the study would NOT be completed until September! Anyone with the least bit of experience knows that the League of Florida Counties, as well as the League of Florida Cities, provides (at no cost to members) lists of positions, duties, and salaries from around the state, allowing members to compare their information with other countys with comparable sizes and amount of employees.

ANY fair Human Resources person knows this and is able to obtain the information within a week, no more than two. So, with the amount of time the current Manager has training here in Osceola County, why won’t the current Manager provide the Commission Chairman with the SIMPLE task of comparison salaries? Is he afraid the Commissioners will see what he’s NOT been doing and take charge of the County again? It’s certainly time for all of us to be rescued from this current Manager!

Suggestion. Many politicians and taxpayers have expressed their desire to see reform in our governments, and to consider some mergers amongst some departments and services. Why not have the Constitutional Officers, both cities, and the school board join with the county in seeking one insurance policy for all? This just might help save funds in ALL areas of government and even give the taxpayers a break! We know both cities would be available for the discussion, most likely the school board would as well.

The current County Manager has ignored local governments for the most part so perhaps he could explain his stand offish attitude to his superiors? No, not just the Commissioners, but to the taxpayers who are currently paying a salary to him that is far more than he, and his work product are worth!

This current County Manager is supposed to lead by example. He’s supposed to, and is expected to run the day to day operations of OUR county. This current County Manager has failed in both attempts. He’s been allowed to rain on our dollars, and he has failed very badly. The trust and good relations that was once built up between the county and cities is, once again, on very thin ice. The current Manager would rather just play General and to heck with building relationships and partnerships with others.

All we ask is WHEN will our County Commission finally act upon the insults he has given them each and every day, and at every Commission meeting when he and his upper staff show up so totally unprepared for whatever the discussion might be? It’s time Commissioners. Don’t allow the budget to get in the way of what is sorely needed. A change in management is urgently needed!

It has been gratifying to hear there are several GOOD candidates getting ready to line up for the District 1 school board chair, currently stuffed with Jay Wheeler. While Mr. Cortes has announced, we hear Tim Williams, a former school board member and all around good guy is considering jumping in. That’s what we need in Osceola is change for the better. Any others considering jumping in should feel free to write us with anything they’d like passed along here. Our goal is to make the school board better with the first step making sure Mr. Wheeler is rejected!

Monday will be a county commission meeting. Employees have not been enjoying their time off because of the way the current county manager does business.
It is rumored amongst the employees that he intends to release several employees immediately after the commission meeting. OUR County Commissioners can prevent this farce from occuring. We hope they will.

God Bless you all. Don’t forget to write us at Carlcrckt@yahoo.com if you have anything you’d like to share, or if you just want to tell us off. No matter, we’d love to hear from you!

Be healthy and please stay safe!