Below are the comments I made during the Citizens Comments period of the June 2022 Council Meeting.
My Name is Richard Ray
I live at ——————-, I have been a JV resident for 45 years.
My family represents 4 generations currently living in JV.
With only 5 minutes to speak to you, I will focus my remarks on only a few of the issues JV residents are concerned about regarding the priorities established by the city council. I am not sure how many care what I have to say, but I am pretty sure many will care about your answers to some questions I will ask each of you to answer. Hopefully, the residents will hear your responses, those you provide, and those you choose to not answer.
- Why is the city council so opposed to letting the residents have a say with the major projects pushed forward by them, even to the point of rejecting the will of over 900 JV residents? Are you that afraid that the majority of the residents don’t agree with you or maybe you don’t even want them to know what you are doing until you have done it?
- Will anyone currently on the city council or previous members admit that the Village Center Project was a major failure that wasted over $400,000 taxpayer dollars? Will they admit that the information presented during the May 2021 Town Hall was mostly incorrect, very misleading, and actual lies told about other projects and their involvement? The details of that can be found at jvccc.org
- Why does the city council make decisions in a vacuum without researching an action that could affect many residents?
Example: To ticket cars in driveways at homes built on corner lots.
Why did the city council only change their decision when so many affected residents came forward to speak against your actions? - Why will the city council not disclose the true cost of the golf course instead of providing financial statements that don’t match with comments by the city in other documents?
Has any consideration been given to the possibility that our country is facing a recession that may also include many home foreclosures and home market values falling, even in JV?
That could happen during your golf course expansion project, leaving the taxpayers seeing huge property tax increases.
The expansion project will bring increases in daily operating costs regardless of any increase in revenue and the golf course will still only be 18 holes. Only so many hours are available for playing and each new tournament schedule will reduce the time available for smaller groups.
What is the plan to increase the revenue – increased number of playing hours? Increased playing fees?
Not to just break even with the increased operating expenses, but to pay off the new expansion costs –
Or is the plan for the taxpayers to eat those costs like we have been doing for the purchase of the golf course when the city council chose to do that without residents’ approval? - Where did the $20 million bond money come from that is shown in city reporting? Please tell the residents the details regarding this item.
- Will your names be added to the JV Hall of Shame?
Thank you.