Below is the video from the special called meeting of the Lee County Board of Commissioners from Thursday, Sept 10, 2009. The special guest was the new State Transportation Planning Director, Todd Long. As you can see from the introductions, every Lee County Commissioner was there, along with both State Representatives that represent Lee County (Ed Rynders and Bob Hanner), the State Senator for the county (John “Dick” Crosby), the Mayor of Leesburg (Jim Quinn Jr), ONE Leesburg City Councilman (Judy Powell), and two media representatives (Jana Barnello from WFXL and Carlton Fletcher from the Herald), and ONE candidate for Leesburg City Council (me) – among others.
Before we get into the video though, just let me note that some have said I made some people there uncomfortable due to the presence of the video camera – yet as you can see in the video, Jana also has hers. Furthermore, this was a public meeting, and the Lee County Website specifically stated “the public is invited to attend”. Honestly, there was only one non-elected and non-media person there, and she was the head of the committee to restore the Train Depot downtown. Therefore, my video (along with the PDF version of the document that you see referenced in it, which I will upload tomorrow) was the ONLY way the public will get a full and completely transparent view of what transpired at that meeting. I’m not even going to apologize for making the video – instead, I’m going to make this point blank statement: If it is a public meeting and I am there, from here on out you can expect my video camera to be with me. I will not bring it to campaign events or other meetings, but specifically where a City Commission or higher is concerned, I will do everything in my power to make sure that those who could not be there in person can still see exactly what transpired.
Again: transparency is a GOOD thing!
[Show me the videos already!]
