The "lost" post

A mild criticism of the City of Lakeland's recent action on the City Facebook page CityofLakelandTN was apparently deleted shortly after the comment was made. The following comment was made on Facebook, as a comment to an entry on future city meetings:

Nick wrote: "Interesting to see that the parks board and natural resources boards are combined again. I guess out of nessecity since the entire parks department and natural resources departments were either fired or made miserable enough to quit."

The comment concerned the recent consolidation of the Park and Recreation Board and  the Natural Resources Board and the possible reasons for consolidation.  No obscene words etc. were used.

As a general rule, if comments are allowed an organization using public funds to operate a web page, Facebook page etc. must allow critical comments as well as positive comments.

The comment was observed on Tuesday, March 25, 2014 and deleted (along with the original post by the City of Lakeland) by Wednesday, March 26, 2014.

We will monitor the Facebook page to see if future comments of any type are deleted and advise!

New Lakeland Welcome signs

New Lakeland "Welcome" signs.  (I wonder if this complies with the Lakeland Sign Ordinance.)

The signs had a baby!  (Actually babies, not shown are signs on the other side and elsewhere in the area.)  Talk about litter!

"No Service City" hits home

(Facebook entry):

When will the little playground behind city hall be reopened? I have a seriously sad toddler on my hands now that it's getting warm and the playground that we can walk to is unusable. We can't even go for walks there because the bathrooms have been locked.

Comments:

This is the playground that was the subject (among others) of an independent Report.  The City Hall Part proposal was presented  at a Board of Commissioners (BOC) meeting and it was noted safety and other improvements were needed.  Instead of approving the $70,000 needed to continue to provide one of the most popular parks in Lakeland, it was described (by the mayor) as "underutilized" and it was decided not to spend the money to make it safe, but to tear down part of it with city workers.  It was difficult to determine exactly what was decided on this, but obviously there was a decision not to make the needed improvements to maintain this popular park.

 Read the report on City parks here and see other safety and other improvements recommended by the independent report.

Other "no service city" decisions including turning down a $1.2 million dollar grant to provide bike and pedestrian trails down Davies Plantation (from Highway 64 to the I-40 Bridge) which would have service several thousand Lakeland residents directly and eliminate a major safety hazard for bikers and walkers in Lakeland.  

Recently, the "Lakeland Outdoors" was canceled, and Arbor Day and the non-renewal of Tree City were not even mentioned.

New Lakeland Street Art

New Lakeland Street Art.  This "art" has been here since December, 2013.  Quite a sculpture!

"Open Records" -"Frivolous Requests"?

· The BOC placed on the consent agenda for first reading of an ordinance addressing how Lakeland will comply with requirements of the state’s Open Records law. The ordinance will match the practice already proscribed by BOC resolution. City Attorney Chris Patterson said the measure is cautionary based on issues that have arisen in other Tennessee cities. He said the ordinance is necessary to protect the City against frivolous records requests that can be a time drain on City staff members. The City must acknowledge public records requests within seven days and must make requested records available within 30 days, but can charge a fee for copying and staff research.

It seems that the objective would be to emphasize how residents may review "their" records rather than put up "protections" about "frivolous record requests". (Who decides what is "frivolous"?)

There are very strict Tennessee Laws that protects residents rights to government Open Records.  Hopefully the new Ordinance will expedite this rather than emphasize "protection" against so called "frivolous record requests".  

A good link to the Open Meeting Act is here.

New "Lakeland Spring Flower"

A new "Lakeland Spring Flower" was spotted (actually there were three of them, called the "Ashley Furniture Store going out of business sale"