Q: Can you give some background on the recent closure of the Mickler\u2019s Beach parking lot?<\/b><\/p>\n
A: We had a number of homeowners come to us with a request to allow them to use county property, Mickler\u2019s parking lot \u2014 only a portion of it and only for a limited period of time. (The homeowners have approval from the State of Florida to do their renourishment project and they are spending their own money on it.) This is a routine request that we receive regularly from private citizens. On Oct. 1, the Board of County Commissioners gave permission to use a portion of the Mickler\u2019s Beach parking lot.\u00a0<\/span>At some point, our staff changed the agreement with the homeowners and the entire parking lot ended up being shut down. This signed contract was not the one the commissioners approved; we were very clear that we would only approve the contract if it didn\u2019t impact residents and was for a limited period of time. We are looking into how this happened. We, the commissioners, are accountable to the voters and the staff is accountable to us.<\/span><\/p>\n Q: So what is happening now?<\/b><\/p>\n A: We\u2019ve now spent two weeks trying to undo this and it\u2019s still not resolved [as of interview date of Nov. 14.] This is very disappointing to me. The beach cannot be inaccessible to a majority of our residents. We plan to discuss this internally \u2014 how and why it happened and how to insure that it doesn\u2019t happen again.\u00a0\u00a0(Editor’s Note: The Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously\u00a0on Nov. 19 to end County Administrator Michael Wanchik’s contract due to “lack of confidence.”)<\/span><\/p>\n Q: Can you shed some light on how the commission is handling the $15 million budget surplus?<\/b><\/p>\n