Hewlett: Vote for Ross Ambrose in High Springs
October 29, 2023
Letter to the editor
What makes Ross Ambrose the perfect choice for the High Springs City Commission?
- Integrity: He researches the problems facing our community. Then he brings accurate facts to the table to ensure a workable solution. He does not present inaccurate information and is diligent in following policy.
- Cooperation: Ross is a good listener. He actively gathers information from the City Manager and Staff. He works with the Commission and community members to find solutions that fit our city.
- Innovation: Ross is one of the founders of the Heart of High Springs. This group is a charitable organization that supports culture, education, and economic growth. The vibrant, historical murals they encouraged have enhanced our downtown. Thus creating another reason to stop and shop here.
- Business: Ross is a successful business owner and brings his understanding and personal insights into supporting business in town. He has worked to enhance eco-tourism and to find ways to help businesses in our downtown area flourish.
- Education: Ross is definitely a leader in broadening children’s education. He has supported after-school and summer school projects for our children. He encourages the Good News Art Program, creating art classes for children of all ages. He also personally finances the very successful youth Robotics programs.
For these reasons and many others we will vote for Ross Ambrose for High Springs City Commission! We urge all voters in High Springs to come out and vote in the upcoming Nov. 7 election.
Tom and Linda Hewlett, High Springs
Ross Ambrose voted to raise property taxes in High Springs by 27%.
Ross Ambrose stated he has an interest is taken away property rights by forcing property owners to annex into High Springs.
https://alachuachronicle.com/high-springs-city-commission-votes-to-raise-property-tax-rate-by-27-percent-passes-2024-budget/
None of the bullet points above correlate with the description given for each. Except maybe business, but that’s a stretch. So the entire opinion piece is a confused word salad that doesn’t actually give one single good reason for keeping Ambrose at the table. Did he support Good News Art? For the children, you say? Makes sense, because they recently hosted a super-weird sexual exhibit. Probably one of the strangest and most obscene “art” exhibits this community has ever seen. Perfect for children, I guess.
Yes, I’ll concede that he does do his research and probably has some of the most clear and well-thought comments as anyone up there. So for that reason, hopefully the inverse goes for Gloria James, who does absolutely nothing. Same as Williams and Grunder who are always unprepared. But yet Ambrose controls them, somehow. Time for a change!
I would not even listen to valid alternatives to either not raise taxes or by just a few percentage points. Rushed the 27% tax increase to a vote. The other three have blindly followed his lead for three years. Every vote taken was 4-1 during his time. Voted in the 2,200 new homes without the roads being able to handle it nor an already 120% capacity school system.
We cannot continue to allow Ross Ambrose to stay on this Commission.
We do not want to be like Gainesville most citizens like High Springs to slow down and not make unwise decisions.
The “Wall Dogs murals” in High Springs destroyed the Historic attributes of this City. Ross removed the motion three times when the room was full of citizens saying no to this project. It finally passed when people realized the vote was over before they even arrived. When very few showed up, his Commission voted to allow it.
He voted in the 27% tax increase for City Residents. He stated we haven’t had a tax increase in a long time, and that’s not a justification. He refused to listen to another commissioner on how not to raise taxes plus not lay off staff or reduce services. His team of the other three keeps voting 4-1.
We cannot afford this form of blatant disregard to exist here. Do not vote for Ross Ambrose! Many other examples exist just ask your nneighbor.
High Springs city elections are usually low key affairs and rarely get much press coverage. Except this one obviously has some special interest group scared witless. I suspect the developer/real estate sales lobby. The Alachua paper says they rarely make local political endorsements but this week they considered it uber important to endorse Gloria James and Ross Ambrose. If the Alachua paper wants them so much, vote for them if you want unlimited development and urban sprawl. If you desire Tampa/Orlando bad urban planning, just move to Newberry or Alachua where they will give it to you as fast as possible. If you think High Springs should remain a lovely quaint little town, perhaps vote for Miller and Tapanes.
Uendorsement: It’s so pathetic the hypocrisy of this endorsement by the local paper.
Your right over target on your comment.
Toss Ross. He has only his interest at heart, not the citizens as evidenced by his voting record.
He seems like another developer-lover like Poe who gets all excited over the prospect of making his town more like a “big city” when that’s not what most people want at all. It was weird how the video cut off for the five minutes when Weitz was speaking about the budget. A lot of people must wish they could go back in time and ditch Poe before he caused so much grief and damage. Poe was also a little tinpot dictator who told everyone else what to do, of course. Look at Gainesville now and ask yourself if that’s what you want. Commissioners should come and go instead of becoming a piece of furniture like Hutch, for example.
Ambrose and Weitz usually come to the meetings prepared and ready to work. They have good questions and comments. But that alone doesn’t excuse either of them if they don’t have the best interests of the community at heart. With that pretext, we’ve seen Ambrose act as if he cares about the community, but he single handedly shoved the Wall Dogs murals down the throats of the citizens. Regardless of your opinion on the murals, the citizens showed up in force and said NO. Very few actual citizens spoke in favor of it. But since he controls the commissioners who are never prepared and never provide any useful input, it got approved despite his clear conflict of interest on the voting block.
The City Manager frequently praises Ambrose for his work, but she doesn’t do the same for Weitz. Why is that?
Remember, with the 27% tax increase, Ambrose lied to the people by saying “we have to approve a budget”. In reality, they didn’t because they would have just reverted to the previous budget. Weitz brought forward legitimate cost savings opportunities, which the commission (including Ambrose) scoffed at.
It’s pretty clear that Ambrose is the bully on the commission. He literally railroaded a former commissioner so that she would get booted in favor of his personal friend at the last election. And we should carefully recall what this new commissioner, Grunder, did when voting on their salaries. He stated that they shouldn’t get a raise. However, this proved he hadn’t even read the agenda item and was totally unprepared, because they weren’t even proposing to get a raise. Open mouth, insert foot! This kind of unpreparedness is due to Ambrose needing to maintain his voting power.
“The City Manager frequently praises Ambrose for his work”
This is a very disturbing statement. The city manager is an employee of the commission. It is not proper for the manager to “praise” her boss. Her job is to keep her opinions to herself and do what the commission tells her to do in a prompt and professional manner. Praising an elected official is a political act that the manager is not supposed to do.
On target with your City Manager’s comments. Our City Manager is a Ross Puppet. She is easily intimidated and stays in the sanctuary of her office. In her three years here, she still doesn’t know her way around our small town. With Ross’s bully tactics, she gave up fast. Now, she praises him for his support. The check and balance were compromised. Wall Dogs was a perfect example of what Linda had to endure; she is a fighter and not scared of Ross. So, off to the Brewery, Ross found the perfect playmate in Grunder. He learned to sit and roll over perfectly! Just watch the videos they put up. I quote in Ross’s introduction at the Brewery, “Wait to you get a load of Grunder he is a hoot”! Ross found the perfect man for his Commission.
People are fed up with the blatent spending by this city. It’s time to vote these incumbents out, and get some some fresh faces in there, who are willing to listen to the people. A 27% tax incease is a joke. Not like it’s ever going to go down . They just voted to make people poorer and force them out of their homes.