- April 20, 2024
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Dear Editor:
There are numerous people running for the open seat for Palm Coast District 2 City Council. Some have been in the race for several months, some have shown themselves only in the last couple weeks. I have an issue with someone that shows up at the last minute with a supposed long list of endorsements.
The important thing is that the new District 2 council rep be someone who will stand up for residents and not be a tool of developers (as happens too often in the City Council nowadays). They also need to end the 20-year neglect of city traffic control that drives everyone, residents and businesses alike, batty. Getting traffic lights synchronized is not rocket science; it just requires the right priority.
No matter the credentials of the folks running now, only one has been in the trenches to fight the attempts at over-development of established neighborhoods and Palm Harbor Golf Course. That person is Dennis McDonald. See our website at protectpalmcoast.com.
As the residents around Palm Harbor Golf Course, Matanzas Woods, and the proposed “New City” in Flagler Beach will testify, these development fights are tough and dirty, and we need someone to be our rep who is not afraid to fight for us. Dennis McDonald is that person. Your Nov. 3 will have a big effect on many neighborhoods.
Mike McGuire
Palm Coast
Editor’s Note: For the latest on the city’s traffic-control improvements, visit shorturl.at/djnqA.
Dear Editor:
We have been witnessing the turmoil and dollars spent at City Hall over the past year. Careers ruined, severance pay paid by taxpayer dollars, and attorneys hired from out of town to "investigate" all the back room conspiracies. Mayor Milissa Holland, employed by a local software company, used her own position to solicit business using city of Palm Coast email. The FBI has interviewed employees. The compliance officer had been terminated after he retired because he allegedly blew the whistle to the Daytona Beach News-Journal. How convenient!
Then we have Alan Lowe, an outsider who has had his own legal difficulties and marched to a different drummer 27 years ago. And as of the past few weeks, Mr. Lowe has been under fire politically with negative TV ads, radio and printed materials proclaiming him to be another wacky-doodle. However, he did survive a testy primary and has shown to be someone who might be able to breath a volume of fresh air into City Hall and stop the massacre of career employees whose only crime was to perform their job.
I guess it comes down to lesser of two evils. However, I found it interesting as to the difference between the candidates as to their political contributions: Holland, $42,000; Lowe $19K. Holland's contributors were mostly high dollar developers. Lowe contributed almost $12,000 of his own money. It makes me wonder which candidate will devote more to the people of Palm Coast or to "special interests.”
Let's get back to treating people with dignity and respect while upholding ourselves accountable to the citizens of Palm Coast.
Phil Youtz
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
Those who oppose Amendment 2 fail to mention to the voters that Amendment 2 asks voters to approve a minimum wage move to $10 an hour now and gradually move it to $15 within the next six years. So, it is actually asking for a $1.44 an hour wage increase now. The minimum wage in Florida is currently $8.56 per hour, which is less than $1,400 per month. The average cost of an apartment in Flagler County is over $1,000 per month; food costs are out of sight, and many are struggling with the devastating issues surrounding COVID-19.
Go to any grocery store, fast food restaurant, convenience store, and the hundreds of other businesses with minimum wage workers in this state. A vast majority of these workers are not high school kids looking for some extra money; these are women and men trying to support themselves and their children with dignity. We decry people on food stamps and Medicaid, yet we refuse to pay them a wage that allows them to do anything else to survive.
A recent Pew Research Center study found that two-thirds of Americans favor a $15 federal minimum wage. In a country where we can afford to give millionaires, billionaires, and huge corporations vast amounts of money in tax breaks; surely, we can afford lifting the minimum wage of hard-working Floridians a mere $1.44 cents an hour now; and gradually provide for small incremental future increases.
The concept of a “beginner’s wage” alternative is not on the ballot this year. Those who support a “beginner’s wage” should do the hard work required to put that suggestion on the next ballot because it isn’t on this one. Please vote yes on Amendment 2.
Joan Buback
Palm Coast
