Letters
Letters to the editor
Highlands Today
Published: August 9, 2012
Be careful hiring next county administratorPublished: August 9, 2012
To the citizens of Highlands County, especially the property-tax-paying citizens: It is time to vote. Keep in mind the ones who voted to raise your taxes. If you don't know which ones they are email me at claggwe@comcast.net and I will let you know. They need some cushion to keep giving the top 10 percent of their staff big and multiple raises.
I see where they want to "freeze" new jobs, but they did not mention freezing job promotions. They did not mention freezing merit raises. It's the same ol' business: Keep the good ol' boys happy.
I propose a unique and more profitable-for-the-taxpayers plan for hiring a new administrator.
Advertise, interview and offer a reasonable wage, say, not over $125,000. There will be no contract and the first review will be in nine months. Severance pay will be predetermined by using "x" number of weeks pay for each month of service. Any person that is worth his pay and retaining the job does not need a contract.
We, the taxpayers, have paid out thousand of dollars to too many employees who have been terminated. Some mentioned Mr. Helms should have been receiving a gold watch instead of being fired. With all the money that was given to him to leave, he could buy a gold watch factory.
William E. Clagg
Lake Placid
Read between lines on campaign material
Not everyone with the most signs and slickest mailings are the best candidates. All the right-staged images are on Pigman's mailings: Pigman with children, Pigman in nature, Pigman as a doctor, Pigman in a military uniform.
Follow the trail of "Nature Coast Conservatives" behind the negative advertising against Pigman's one opponent, Randy Johnson, over a residence issue and you will find Big Gambling.
Big Gambling sees Highlands County, south of family-oriented Orlando, as the perfect place for a gambling Mecca, but must deceive conservative voters who would be against it.
Randy Johnson asked attendees at a recent Republican forum if Highlands wanted the sleazy pawn shops, vagrants and prostitution that would be permanent as profits are funneled elsewhere.
The postcard where Pigman is outdoors in a cowboy hat and hammer in hand has the phrase, "Aggressive Economic Development," suggesting a platform one with the environment, which is the very opposite of the moral blight gambling leads to in a community.
Then there is the postcard that is the most bothersome because it has all the right buzz words: "attracting good teachers"; "believing in children and parents"; "because your children deserve the best." Gambling is not a value that is "best" for our children.
The candidates that I judge to be most honestly in line with education are the ones who are on record as spending the most prudently on their campaigns. Roberta Peck as superintendent will be the best steward of school improvement and taxpayer money with Lewis for school board. Both offer the highest educational background.
Lewis's small pink signs may not have gotten much attention, but the fact she has stated that she would rather her school board salary of $373 an hour go to an actual full-time teacher, speaks volumes.
The question is, in this economically depressed period, will Republicans wake up and go to the polls to choose the best Republicans for leading Highlands County this primary or will they be swayed by expensive campaigns like Pigman's?
Jeffery Ellis
Sebring
Vote Obama out of office
This is an informative letter to all senior citizens on Medicare.
Mr. Obama has seen fit to take $500 billion from our Medicare funds that we, the people, have paid into this account every month that we have worked.
The latest news from Blue Cross Blue Shield says that starting in January 2013 we will be paying $120.20 each month for Medicare. In 2014, the payments will be $247 monthly.
Only Mr. Obama knows how he has spent these billions of dollars. What are we going to do when the funds are gone? Every word out of his mouth has been a lie. Do we need this person who has bankrupted our country elected again? When you go to the voting polls in November, take heed of Obama's spending and his goal to make us a socialist country.
Margaret Shaw
Avon Park