C.O.N.A. of South Pinellas County

Planning New Goals For The New Year

Feb 17, 2004

CONA Newsletter, February, 2004

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Neighbors,

As neighborhood activists, we have been helped in recent years by two important national events. One, cities are making a comeback across America. From baby boomers to first time homebuyers, people are rediscovering the pleasures of living in or near the city centers. Two, the lowest interest rates in 40 years and many first time home buyer programs have resulted in a housing boom unaffected by recession. Locally, neighborhood leaders have succeeded in getting city governments to help fix problems in our neighborhoods. With that background, CONA met in January and talked about adopting a "Neighborhood Agenda". Happily, over 40 leaders brainstormed and roughed out the list of changes, programs and/or policies that we need to
take our neighborhoods forward.

The list is in the minutes in this newsletter. There seems to be a broad consensus on the issues, external and internal, that we need to address. We will begin implementing the internal changes over the next few months.

Generally, the need is to involve more people, clarify our agenda, use technology to speed the flow of information, get to know each other, to share our successes and have some fun along the way.

The external needs revolve around the need to get the city and county governments to place a higher priority on fixing problems. Frankly, we are tired of hearing the reasons for missing the target on codes, cops, repair and maintenance of city infrastructure, and quality of life issues. We intend to have a series of meetings in a round table format with all the parties necessary to make the changes needed. Our hope is to end meetings with concrete progress on some of the tough issues.

Clearly, neighborhood leaders need to speak up to get our agenda higher on the list. We need to be clear, allies of those who are prepared to make a difference. Kind words are not enough. It is time for action. We intend to speak up before budgets are brought forward.

It should be a fun year.
Karl Nurse
CONA President


PARTNERSHIP NOTES
Neighborhood Partnership Office

Susan P. Ajoc, AICP, Director
Neighborhood Partnership Program
City of St. Petersburg
P.O. Box 2842 St. Petersburg, FL 33731-2842
Phone: (727) 892-5141 Fax: (727) 893-5323
Email: Susan.Ajoc@stpete.org

Attention newsletter editors: Help create a newsletter editors network. Please contact the Neighborhood Partnership Department at 892-5141 or nghdpart@stpete.org with your name, e-mail address, phone number, address and the name of your neighborhood publication.

Neighborhood Partnership Awards: Watch your mailbox for nomination forms for Website of the Year, Newsletter of the Year, Neighborly Neighbor, Best Neighborhood Project, and Up & Coming Neighborhood.

Neighborhood Cleanup in 2004? Be sure to schedule your neighborhood cleanup with Regenia Wade, Neighborhood Partnership Coordinator, at 893-7885. Cleanups calendar is scheduled through July 2004.


FIGHTING MEDICARE FRAUD
By Shelly Schwartz

Did you know that nationally the annual estimate for Medicare losses due to error, waste, fraud and abuse is $12 BILLION?
If that fact bothers you ?….good!
As taxpayers and beneficiaries, this costs us real money: increased premiums, co-payments and deductibles: and a decrease in services which Medicare and Medicaid can cover.

Good neighbors need to know how to spot and report these drains on the economy and help maintain viable efficient and effective health care in the Nation.

At our next meeting, Shelly Schwartz, a volunteer with the Senior Medicare & Medicaid Patrol Project (SMMPP), will tell us how we can help.

The basic Project goals are to:
Educate individuals on Medicare and Medicaid error, waste, fraud and abuse;
Recruit, train and retain volunteers who will help us educate individuals on Medicare and Medicaid error, waste, fraud and abuse; and,
Assist individuals by reviewing their accounts and report any suspected error, waste, fraud or abuse.

Our goal is that this discussion will result in a more in depth presentation at your neighborhood meeting in the near future. To arrange for a presentation please call Maureen Hatt, Project Assistant, SMMPP @ (727) 570-9696 ext 252


RIVIERA BAY CIVIC ASSOCIATION

By David Hoover
President, RBCA

On January 27th, we had a very successful election/canal dredging meeting. All but one of our board members has re-enlisted and a new volunteer has taken his place. Right now in our neighborhood, getting our canals dredged is the hot topic. We've already had our canals surveyed, the city's assessments have been mailed out to the affected residents, and some of them voiced their concerns at the meeting. Mike Connors, St Pete's Storm water Engineer, and Councilman John Bryan, offered their recommendations and proposals and we are continuing to progress nicely in this very lengthy process. Any suggestions from other neighborhoods that have gone through this already would be appreciated. My email is daybugme2@yahoo.com.


NEIGHBORHOOD PARTNERSHIP MATCHING GRANTS FY 05

Neighborhood Partnership Matching Grant Applications have been mailed
to all the neighborhood and business associations.

Workshop Dates: All workshops will be held in City Hall, Room
100. There will be two general workshops and three special topic
workshops.

Wednesday, March 3, 2004 @ 1:00 p.m. (general)
Wednesday, March 3, 2004 @ 6:00 p.m. (general)
Wednesday, March 10, 2004 @ 1:00 p.m. (signs & lighting)
Wednesday, March 1-0, 2004 @ 6:00 p.m. (signs & lighting)
Tuesday, March 16, 2004 @ 1:00 p.m. (neighborhood plans)
Tuesday, March 16, 2004 @ 6:00 p.m. (neighborhood plans)
Wednesday, March 24, 2004 @ 1:00 p.m. (landscaping)
Wednesday, March 24, 2004 @ 6:00 p.m. (landscaping)
Monday, July 26, 2004 @ 1:00 p.m. (general)
Monday, July 26, 2004 @ 6:00 p.m. (general)

Deadline: Must be received by Friday, no later than 5:00 p.m.,
September 3, 2004.

WHAT: "Call Before You Dig Month?”
The goal of this educational campaign is to build awareness and educate all excavators, including homeowners, about four simple steps designed to promote safe-digging: 1) Call (800) 432-4770 two full business days before digging; 2) Wait for utility companies to locate and mark their buried utilities with color-coded paint, flags or stakes; 3) Protect the marks during excavation; and 4) Dig safely using extreme caution when digging within 24-inches of the locate marks.

WHEN: April 1 ?– 30, 2004


PINEY POINT UPDATE
Penny Flaherty
President, Broadwater Civic Association

As you may know, in August 2003 the St. Petersburg City Council changed a long-standing ordinance to allow the taking of wastewater from outside the city services area.
The plan and purpose behind this little-publicized change was to be able to conduct a twenty-week experiment on the properties of five South St. Pete neighborhoods by mixing our reclaimed water with treated industrial wastewater trucked over the Skyway from the now defunct Piney Point Phosphate Plant in Manatee Co.

The stated reason for wanting to take the water from Piney Point was to help avoid an environmental disaster, which may occur in Tampa Bay if the toxic water were to overflow its confines.

Residents from Broadwater, Bayway Isles and other affected neighborhoods did much research and formed a group of concerned citizens. Their plan was and is to improve the City Council and Mayor?’s awareness of all the possible ramifications of doing such a ?“test?” on a group of citizens without the approval of the affected parties. The residents suggested at the August City Council meeting that a task force be formed to include leaders of these neighborhoods in the fact finding and decision making process.

With considerable pressure from residents, including continued letter writing to the City Council, local media and City and State agencies such as the DEP, the Governor?’s office and conservation groups, a Piney Point Task Force was formed in late October. The task force has met three times, asked excellent questions, toured the Piney Point site, and requested many pertinent documents regarding toxins, chemicals and heavy metals that may be in this water. The task force is helping the city to make a more educated decision on the taking of this water. Water Resources Director, Patty Anderson, the staff at the Southwest Water Treatment site near Eckerd College, the DEP officials and the operators at the Piney Point facility have all been very helpful in this process.

The city is concerned (and rightfully so) about the risk of damage to property and our environment as the result of moving hundreds of trucks across the Skyway to the Eckerd wastewater plant. City leaders are requiring that the Piney Point receiver (and/or the wastewater trucking company) indemnify the City against any damages. Legal hurdles on that agreement have held up subsequent approval of a trucking permit by City Council.

Meantime, the need for St. Pete to accept this wastewater has lessened as the DEP has had more success in lowering the levels of the toxic wastewater in the gypsum stacks.
Disposal of the wastewater in the Gulf, treatment and release of water into Bishop?’s Harbor, and evaporation are much more effective at mitigating the risk of an environmental catastrophe [see attached chart]. It is questionable whether the City will pursue their ill-conceived plan to ?“test?” the dispersal of industrial wastewater on the residential properties of its citizens.

Neighborhoods should and must get involved in any situations that impact their residents, either negatively or positively. We should all be proud to say that we encouraged and worked with our city administrators on the wonderful projects they accomplish while also helping to rein in the plans on those projects that are not in our neighborhood?’s best interest.


CONA BOARD OF DIRECTOR?’S MEETING MINUTES

The Sunshine Multi-Service Center January 21, 2004

President Karl Nurse called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance To Our Flag.
?˜ Karl invited all of our attendees to introduce themselves and to identify their neighborhood affiliations.
?˜ After reporting that he had received many phone calls requesting an opportunity to address our meeting, the President explained that our agenda tonight focuses solely on the issue of future goals for our neighborhoods.
?˜ Calling for corrections or additions to our December Minutes, there were none.
?— Moved, (Steele/O?’Dell), to approve Minutes as published. [Approved]
?˜ Susan Ajoc, (Neighborhood Partnership Office), made several comment about their matching grant program:
- Grant application for FY 2005 will soon be available, printed or as on-line download, allowing 7 months for preparation before the September deadline.
- Preparation workshops will be offered beginning in March.
- 20-point bonus scores will be awarded for early applications, (2 months).
- With a longer preparation cycle Susan expects more applications and will apply for greater funding to meet the demand.
- We were reminded that `03 grants must be completed before `05 applications will be accepted.
- There will be expanded inter-department letters of commitment to support grant applications that cross responsibility domains.
?˜ Karl invited Past President Brent Fisher to come forward for the award of a plaque expressing the appreciation of his service to CONA.
?˜ We heard a report that the proposed new city code on rental properties will require inside inspections if numerous exterior violations are noted.
?˜ Cathy Wilson, (Greater Woodlawn), reported on our 2004 Leadership Class.
?˜ Our Treasurer reported a current balance of $1,262.10. She noted that all neighborhoods that have belonged to CONA in the last 5 years are being invoiced for 2004. [Dick Oliver offered to call all who failed to respond.].
?˜ The President then invited suggestions from the floor of ideas that would help our members to promote their associations. He copied these on a drawing board.
-?¨ It was suggested that we devote 5 minutes, at our meeting s each month for brief presentations of neighborhood projects that have proven successful.
- Experienced CONA members can help new associations avoid steep learning curves as they develop.
- Neighborhood Open House Tours have proven very effective money raising tools for our members.
- Steve Plice, (Jungle Terrace), has established a website for our CONA Newsletter which is linked to our Neighborhoodlink.com site.
- North Downtown relies on e-mail for communication and their newsletter.
- We should press the city to hire more Codes Inspectors, but we should also participate in more city committee volunteer activities, (e.g. Boards).
- Codes inspectors should be more alert to handicapped provisions.
- More definition is needed in overlapping department responsibilities.
- We should plan more Town Meetings that would focus on single issues.
- CONA should strive for more diversity in our membership.
- Susan Ajoc promised that more Neighborhood Summit Meetings are planned to encourage sharing of problem solutions. These will include neighborhood awards recognition and opportunities to network with a variety of city department heads.
- The transportation needs of the community were discussed, focusing on PSTA.
- CONA should have an early opportunity to study the budget proposals of the city prior to public hearings.
- CONA and our member organizations should frequently invite our County Commissioners to attend our meetings.
- CONA should seek participation in the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council.
- CONA should have closer liaison with the police unions and try to convey awareness of police problems to our City Council.
- We should seek clearer definitions of the role of CPO?’s in our S.P.P.D.
- CONA should support the administrative integration goals of the Pinellas Assembly. [Susan Ajoc challenged the countywide traffic light coordination plans.]
- CONA should play a greater role in developing plans for our recreation facilities.
- CONA needs to publish a Mission Statement, defining our significance that can be copied on our member organization newsletters.
- Trash handling, pickup access and recycling were cited as common neighborhood problems with our Sanitation Department.
- Front yard parking problems at night illustrated the jurisdictional conflicts between Police and Codes. We were urged to insist on ?“Control Numbers?” when reporting parking violations in order to expedite follow-up.
- Our CONA website FAX facility has been proven effective. It should be used more frequently to manifest our member?’s support for issues under consideration by our government leaders.
- More neighborhood leaders should be participating in our CONA Listbot.
- Neighborhood associations should be more involved with city and private charity programs for the homeless population. We were told the S.P.P.D. does not arrest for vagrancy violations.
- The city will confiscate residual ?“Snipe Signs?” only when residents call in to complain.
- Karl Nurse responds to panhandlers with job offers. Some are ?“Professional?”, not truly needy.
- CONA Shuffle Board parties at the courts next door might be an effective way to promote membership growth and social interaction.
- The city should add a link to our CONA website on their www.stpete.org.
?˜ President Karl Nurse promised that our Executive Committee would compile the ideas developed in this meeting and identify the most important issues that will be the focus of our CONA activity in the coming year.

Our meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Conrad Weiser, Secretary