Amy Tidd Letter

This is a Paid Political Advertisement. Paid for and approved by Linda McKinney 6025 Keystone Ave. Port St. John, FL 32927 Independent of any group, organization, or committee.

Amy Tidd decided to make me "bring it on" Thursday, Oct. 23rd (2008), when she decided to lie about me on the Bill Mick Live show. She said that I had opposed Fay Park, the Community Center and the I-95 overpass. Well, kinda'. Read my response to Maureen Rupe's Happenings article and you will see that the REASON I opposed the Fay Park/Community Center referendum is because I thought that we needed a west connector more than we needed another park. Tidd chose not to mention that part. And how can I be in opposition to something I wrote to Happenings about in 1996 saying I would rather have the west connector than the park and the comm. center? What a moron. So, since Tidd decided to play down and dirty with lying, I am choosing to tell the truth about her. I am posting every one of my old PSJ Incorporation pages. I hope she enjoys what happens to her election hopes now.

Let's start with how I responded to Tidd's letter threatening to sue me: My Response. Now wasn't that fun?

Then let's go to An Amy Tidd Quote.

I suppose next would have to be, since you were so good at the budget, Budget Reality.

More later today.

The year: 2002.
The issue: PSJ incorporation.
The SPONSORS: Port St. John For Tomorrow (PSJ4T); comprised of Maureen Rupe, Mary Tees, Carmine Ferraro (who later resigned), Amy Tidd, Randy Rodriguez (who later resigned) and several others.

During the PSJ Incorporation days, I posted correct information about the State Statutes, County Ordinances, and the Feasibility Study and the comments of the Five Reviewing Committees in Tallahassee and what they had to say about the Study. I also posted other information refuting what the PSJ4T people were publishing. Apparently that didn't sit too well with a few PSJ4T folks because they started threatening to sue me. Of the five main characters in the organization, three threatened to sue: Carmine Ferraro, Maureen Rupe (twice) and Amy Tidd. Amy's now running for State Representative for District 30 and I thought it would be fun to post the letter she sent me during that time. So, below you will find just that.

Remember, these are Amy Tidd's words. Exactly how she wrote them and exactly how she spelled them. I changed nothing. If you would be interested in how I responded, read my response. Write to me with comments. And, so, without further delay, here is Amy Tidd's letter. Enjoy.

Okay, ONE EXCEPTION: I have to point out my favorite "Tiddism". I do so with bold typeface. Get ready to split your britches. It's so funny!

Dear Linda McKinney,

Thank you for answering my call to you concerning inaccuracies within your website. First of all I want to start out by saying that except for our committee, you seem to be the person who has put the most time into studying this important issue that we need to decide in November. However, since you have not been involved with the process, you have reached many inaccurate conclusions in your research. If you had called or asked our input earlier these could have been pointed out. However, you chose to publish them without asking PSJFT about them. Two days ago, I read your Common Sense Article on the website. The past article "The Truth" contained many inaccuracies. However I did not reply because other members of PSJFT said they were going to. When I read your "Common Sense" however, I am forced to reply. Not only have you put in many inaccuracies to make your point, you have committed libel against me. In the taxes section, you said that the budget is put together (prepared) by someone who has an Associate Degree from BCC.

My name is the only one listed as preparer. If you had called me or done any research you would have found out that I have a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science, awarded With Distinction, from the University of Rhode Island, and that I work for BCC as an instructor. I have never attended BCC as a student. As you have called my mathematics education into question, I took classes in Calculus with Analytical Geometry, Algebra and Trig, Accounting, American Politics, American Legal System, Legislative Procedure, and Public Administration. With one stroke of your pen you attempted to invalidate two years of my life that I spent studying government. This was done to discredit me, and the PSJFT budget that I worked very hard to prepare, and I consider your statement about my credentials to be libelous. I request a public apology be posted on your web site by October 5th, and "The Truth" and: Common Sense" pulled off of your web site until corrections are made. Libel is a serious issue, and my reputation is important to me. Not only the issue of incorporation is affected by your actions, but my future career opportunities.

Now on to the inaccuracies in your web site. These are just some of them. I will start with "the truth" When you say that all the registered voters of Hardeeville, Frontenac, Delespine, and Williams Point plus half of the voters of PSJ vote against the incorporation it would still pass, simple math shows that to be a majority, half plus about 600 votes would make it fail.

   In The first truth, you tell people to look at the Study Analysis sent from the Florida House of Representatives dated Jan 03, 2001. You would know if you had asked us that this article was sent to David Laney and PSJFT also so the problems with the charter and the study could be addressed. UCF and PSJFT worked very hard to address all the issues and sent back a corrected study and charter. Please contact UCF- David Laney, and Carmine Ferraro to find out how the issues were addressed. For instance you say that the study does not meet the requirement of the name and address of three persons submitting the proposal. The amended study did have the name of three people including Carmine Ferarro. You need to take all the parts about this Study Analysis off of your web site until you get the amended Charter and Study and read them thoroughly. The Legislature would not have passed the bill unanimously until all the issues were settled.

Second, please read the PSJFT budget again. You need to understand that there is a 10% contingency included, plus a surplus of $234,547. It also does not add in the fire MSTU that would be part of the cities tax base although not included in city advalorum taxes, as it will pay for the fire protection as it is now funded. Please call me if you have any question on the budget and I will give you my sources although they are listed already on the budget itself. As to your statement that we never reworked our figures with the Range Riders, I have also attached a copy of Dick Simmons' Email where he suggested that we send it to Palm Coast's Manager Richard Kelton. We did send it to him, and when we went up and met with him he discussed the figures with us. He also gave us a copy of their 2001-2002 budget, which is only $13 million revenue and expenses. It does add in a 7 million dollar grant they just received to buy conservation land, making the total budget 20 million. If we are a city we could also get millions in grant money to improve our standard of living. After this meeting, however, we wished more verification so we also had our budget analyzed by a resident of PSJ who works with the City of Rockledge in Planning. He gave us feedback and agreed with our budget, only taking issue with about $200,000 in expenses, but giving us other revenues that we had not planned on which balanced out the extra expenses he informed us about. If you want to talk to him ask me and I will give you his information. We worked very hard to get the best information for the residents of PSJ and asked the other side to do the same, which they refused. As you know, this is very complicated and complex work, which I feel, should have been included in the original study by UCF, but since they did not do it then it was up to the people to find out the info. We will probably only get this one chance to vote to become a town, since Titusville has annexed down to King's Highway and the state requires a 2 mile buffer. We would also need to have a new study done, and is the county going to pay again? I'm sure they will not. We get this one chance so we need to get all the facts and vote right.

Finally, concerning the tax increase, in order to get the state revenue sharing, all cities that wish to take part have to tax at a 3.0 millage. This is the reason that the budget and study included a .5 mil increase on taxes. You state that we said it would be a $19.50 tax increase and then changed our minds to $25.00. Tax millage depends on your assessed value, so the exact figure cannot be reached without a tax bill for each individual property. The budget gives an example of an $80,000 house being assessed a raise of $19.50 to show how it is calculated. Some will pay less, some will pay more. Use your tax bill and the formula in the budget to calculate the tax. Remember without the .5 mil increase, we as a town would not get millions in state funds. As you have calculated that we will only raise $242,500 from the .5 mil, this is a great deal from the state. We pay all the taxes now except the .5 mil, they are just sent to the county and we have to go down and beg for them back.

You also quote me of speaking for impact fees on August 28, 2001. Just so you understand, impact fees are paid by new construction so that existing houses (you the taxpayer) will not have to absorb the cost of the infrastructure like roads and schools for the new residents. Yes I feel that the existing residents should not have their taxes raises to pay for new developments like Vierra, but that impact fees should be paid by the new construction. Do you want to pay for these new houses's impacts? This is what impact fees do and I would go again and argue for them and you should too.

In "Common Sense" you say that no one has elected PSJFT. No-one also has elected the Civic League. These two political action committees were formed to address the incorporation issue. However you need to look at the people involved. I have been elected twice in a general election as a member of the Advisory Board. The people of PSJ elected me to speak for them as I have. They have put their trust in other and me people on the advisory board and so I have tried to keep PSJ a great place to live. [my bolding] If elected people do not speak for the people then they can be voted out of office. That is the American way. Ask yourself; out of the people on both sides, who has PSJ elected to speak for them?

The answer can be found in the Advisory Board, which you tried to abolish. How could any citizen, without attending any of our meetings, which when we attended took time away from our families, try to take away PSJ voice in its Advisory Board? It was formed because the County Zoning Board was making decisions that were not what the residents of PSJ wanted, and we did not want to keep going down to Vierra every time an issue came up. It gave our community a local zoning forum; just ask anyone who has come to our meetings. We have had issues where over 100 people came to express their opinion. This is an important resource to our community and I resent the fact that you tried to abolish it. The part where you say that we had three zoning and planning meeting without turning in records of minutes, if you had attended any of these meeting you would know that the county zoning department took these minutes and were responsible for them. Go ask them where the minutes are. You continue to get your facts wrong, and I hope it is just because you did not attend any of the meetings where we have been fighting to keep PSJ a great place to live. The last time I attended a meeting and saw you there, you were opposing the MSTU to build our community center and sports complex, and buy Fay Lake. Do you still think that they should have not been built? The fact is that we have been working for the community because we care. We encourage any citizen to do the same.

There are many other inaccuracies, but I will choose at this time to only mention these. If you can amend your website to reflect these points and publicly apologize on your website to me, then I will not proceed further at this time with the action I have begun against you. [Amy's bolding and underline.] I admire your enthusiasm for your viewpoint and hope that it can be used in the future to better our community. We need everyone involved to keep PSJ a great place to live.

Sincerely,

Amy Tidd

Read My Response here.

This is a Paid Political Advertisement. Paid for and approved by Linda McKinney 6025 Keystone Ave. Port St. John, FL 32927 Independent of any group, organization, or committee.