Fog of Governing

Tonight there are a couple of items on the agenda for the City of Kissimmee Commission meeting that will probably receive little attention if things go as normal. The commission has a long standing tradition of resisting the temptation of asking questions (at least of any relevance) during commission meetings. One of the goals of the commission is to keep meetings short, as not to intrude into Access Osceola prime time, and another is to keep from looking silly by asking a question that might confuse other commissioners.

The first item of little importance is the discussion of Goals and Objectives for all of the city departments. For this item, the commission will adopt its typical cheerleading roll in an attempt to avoid asking any questions that my be construed as governing. Just in case the commission is so inclined to slip a question or two in between hand clapping sessions, here are a couple. Why is Toho Water Authority spending money on billboard advertising for their utility? Are there other competitive water authorities in the area that we are not aware of? Could we lower the stormwater fee if they were to cut out advertising?

The second item that has even less significance is the discussion on budget cuts for the city's public information office, better known as Access Osceola. We know many of the defenders of the status-quo will say that Access Osceola is separate from the public information office, to which we would point to the backup (commission script) which paints a contrary picture. The listed goals for the PIO as stated in the discussion item above this one reads as follows, "Goal 2: Continue efforts to improve programming and increase viewership." Under these goals they list their objectives to make sure that Access Osceola improves. "Objective 1: Explore Closed Captioning, Objective 3: Heighten Advertising to promote channel, Objective 4: Incorporate logo bug on channel." Logo Bug?? The community is saved! Maybe the logo could be the picture of a fountain? If nothing else, we have an idea where you could cut the budget of the Public Information Office and also reduce the responsibility level in that department. And if that is too hard of a discussion item, explain to us why you are going to cut out advertising about what the city is doing in favor of advertising for Access Osceola?

Of course we know the big issue that will be discussed tonight is the All-America City budget that started as almost nothing, but once again has jumped to $15,000.00. We just hope that these other issues we've mentioned do not get in the way of such serious issues as the bus seating chart on the way to Tampa, and which group gets to go to Busch Gardens first. We hope that real governing does not get in the way of such important taxpayer topics.