Marden: Harvey Ward should resign

Letter to the editor
Representative Chuck Clemons is right in calling for Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward to resign. I echo Clemons’ statement, for the sake of the rest of the county.
Communities like Newberry, Alachua, and High Springs have been dealing for years with escapees fleeing from Gainesville because of the utter political malpractice coming from their Commission’s leadership or, I should say, lack thereof. The Great Gainesville Flight, as it should be called, is full of people trying to flee from record-high utility bills and rising crime rates. All laid at Ward’s leadership feet.
Adding to this, the monstrous $2,900,000 error in judgment not only calls for but demands his resignation. What was only rumored before is proven, at this point, given the latest May 11 memo from GRU CFO Claudia Rasnick. This added expense does nothing for the ratepayers. It does not buy one more transformer, meter, or bucket truck; it does not pay down debt or make one more needed repair. These additional expenses are purely caused by higher interest rates due to the delay in issuing the bonds.
The ripple effect does not stop in Alachua County, either. I spoke to County Manager Crosby in Gilchrist. His community is seeing the same Gainesville escapees, who can not even stomach an intra-county move. They just leave the county altogether.
Ward’s appearance at the Local Legislative Delegation Meeting at Santa Fe College on October 25, pronouncing, “The rest of the state relies on Gainesville” shows he is completely tone deaf. What arrogance. No, Mr. Hopefully-Soon-To-Be-Ex-Mayor Ward, nobody is relying on you; they are running from you. It is no wonder the bloated seven-person City of Gainesville Commission is so dysfunctional and the Joint Legislative Audit Committee has been riding them so hard.
Liberal progressivism, as practiced in Gainesville, has been disastrous. Just like socialism, eventually you run out of other people’s money. They ran out of that a long time ago. Now I hope Mayor Harvey Ward has run out of other people’s patience, too. I know the rest of the county and beyond has.
Resign, Mayor Ward. Resign.
Tim Marden, Newberry City Commissioner
The opinions expressed by letter or opinion writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AlachuaChronicle.com. Letters may be submitted to info@alachuachronicle.com and are published at the discretion of the editor.
All true.
Purposefully delaying the bond issuance and wasting $2.9 million was a transparently cynical political maneuver.
The goal was to try to poison the proverbial well and score points against the governor by claiming that his new GRU Authority–enacted to save taxpayers’ wallets from the greed and corruption of Gainesville City Commissioners–was actually somehow going to cost ratepayers even more than they pay now.
They were aided by the willing, unsophisticated rubes in various liberal propaganda outlets. Will Andrew Caplan, editor of the Gainesville Sun, retract his false statements and fake news?
Here is Little Andy blaming the $3 million on the GRU Authority, instead of Harvey Ward and the city commission (amplified by Nora “No Research” O’Neill):
https://twitter.com/AACaplan/status/1669486170147889156
I doubt Harvey Ward has the integrity to resign, but the people of Gainesville will hold a parade when he is thrown in prison for his crimes.
The hell with him resigning he should be investigated, charged if he did something wrong and kick out of Office
Boo hoo the escapees are going past Newberry to Gilchrist County. Seems those thousands of new subdivision lots you Newberry commissioners approved will go unsold. Too bad for the Newberry real estate sales force. Gonna go broke. This is the real reason you hate seeing folks fleeing to Gilchrist County.
What a childish comment. At least defend your mayor, lie if you have to.
Hardly. Your comments expose your lack of information. Stay in Gainesville and lie in the bed of thorns you have voted for.
What?! You just have a problem with comprehension or you are really that ignorant? SMH… you keep drinking that kool-aid
Don’t know if you’ve taken a tour around the county of late – probably not given your comment. There aren’t that many properties going unsold and despite your and other progressives’ demands, not exactly “affordable” for many.
You’re also not one of the progressive liberals I hate, just another that lacks common sense or any semblance of intelligence.
You’re comment just reinforces that belief.
Thank you Mr. Marden for you comments and service.
I concur.
You are entitled to your opinion, Tim, but YOUR city wasn’t under a microscope by an audit board that has been given mixed signals. Not even a month before the Barclays loan was delayed, in February, auditing board member Sen. Jason Brodeur warned Gainesville leaders to “not to take on any more debt”. Curious as to what you’d do if you were in Ward’s position? Not to mention the entire city was in the midst of a hostile takeover by Clemons, who didn’t even give voters a chance to weigh in on his plan to strip local control of GRU away.
If I was Ward, I would have acted like a dumbass and not listened to the attorney or the CPA. Instead, I would have listened to people like Eastman, Willits, and Poe.
I guess you have forgotten Ward’s promise to make MAJOR cuts in the city budget when he was forced to reduce the GRU theft to less than their revenue, for the first time in years (19 million). He made up for it by increasing property tax 27%.
RC, since you brought it up many of us are unclear about this 27% property tax increase.
This is because Florida has an Assessment Cap which limits the tax rate increase to no more than 3% for homestead property (occupied by owner full time) and 10% for non-homestead property than the previous assessment per the Save Our Homes (SOH) state constitution amendment.
Can you, or anyone else, clear this up? Which is true?
Thanks in advance.
Please tell me Common Sense, when is issuing more debt a good decision to get out of debt? History didn’t start yesterday. Why was the audit board involved to begin with? We’ve never had that issue in Newberry. We have had clean audit for years. Gainesville can’t even have a competent audit in the first place. And what is mixed signal about “don’t take on anymore debt.”
Tim Martin’s understanding of how a local government should work is a valuable asset to our County.
His expertise has resulted in questioning several practices and explanations given in the local High Springs races for two City Commission seats on November 7th.
When Commissioner Marden becomes involved, it would benefit everyone to listen carefully. Huge shoutout to the Chronicle and Tim Marden.
Excellent letter. Thank you Tim Marden
The appeal for Mayor Ward to resign is misdirected.
The Democratic Party, in this case, has a political and social responsibility to advance its platforms and positions with ‘clean hands.’ To disagree with the opposition on platforms and positions is one thing, but to deny wrongdoing only when it’s directed at the other side is a problem for Democrats who still think of themselves as proponents of equality.
US Congressman Bowman (D-NY) entered a guilty plea for the triggering of a fire alarm in the capitol building. He did so after a couple weeks trying to explain what we saw on video isn’t what happened. But, he did finally admit his guilt only after counseled by Democratic Party leaders it was the only move he had.
Mayor Ward is not going to resign on the demands of political adversaries. He could resign if local Democrat Party members do what’s in the interest of Gainesville and encourage him to do so.
There is an opportunity here for Gainesville’s political leadership to demonstrate it can police its own when there is overwhelming evidence of malfeasance.
The appeal for Mayor Ward’s resignation should be directed at Gainesville’s Democrats.
I call on Commissioner Tim Marden to resign and move to Trenton.
Are you guys just that ignorant… I call on Jazzman to resign and move the hell up north! Resign what I don’t know but y’all are throwing that resign word around like some other be who just learned a new word… 😂😂😂
Someone not some other
That Girl, dollars to donuts I’ve been here longer than you, so maybe you should move.
Other than that, how do you take seriously calls for a Gainesville elected leader to resign by bozos who don’t live there and apparently prefer Trenton anyway. I get it. Ward will never be elected in Newberry and Clemons, Perry, this clown, and DeSantis will never be elected in Gainesville. All is right with the world after all.
So under your watch the city has spiralled further into the sewer? Don’t know if I would be proud to declare that.
When I first mover to Gainesville, 40 years ago, I thought I had found home, was I ever mistaken, I cannot believe how repugnant this county has become,
Gene, it might be all the other new residents who joined you and exploded the population and attendant problems, not only in Gainesville, but in it’s bedroom communities to the west. Not pointing fingers, because most of us came from someplace else – I’ve been here off and on for a combined 54 years, in Florida for 64. Population pressures create opportunities and problems. It’s not the town.
Thank you for publishing this piece. It is really is such a disservice to the rest of the County. As far as I am concerned Gainesville gets what they voted for and need to sleep in that bed but, the ripple affect is like a cancer to our County and beyond.
Poor you. Move to Trenton. Newberry is a depressed ex-farming and lime rock mining community without Gainesville, and would have similar demographics to Trenton.
You speak of these small towns as if they’re a negative. These smaller outer cities are full of community and provide something Gainesville lost a long time ago through the many years of poor leadership, and corrupt collusion amongst the big entities and the local government. While growth and money are important to run a city, they aren’t the only large factors to concern ourselves with. Gainesville has lost sight of what really matters, and that’s the community that supports it. By choosing to only look at it from one viewpoint they lost the big picture, and it shows. I was born and raised in Gainesville, and I used to love my hometown, I am one of the escapees trying to find a place to call home that resembles what Gainesville used to be and have found Newberry to be an excellent place to live. Now I avoid Gainesville like the plague and every time I go through it’s quite depressing to see how much they have let the culture and community die there. Say what you want about the towns out here, but they’re growing and thriving, and I, as a citizen, feel like I have an impact and am heard by my local government and other community members, another thing Gainesville has lost.