Pablo Sologaistoa, one of the eight people who initiated the petition that got the strong mayor issue on the Lakeland election ballot, says he no longer supports the initiative and will vote against it.More
Is it just me, or does it look like anchor Jen Leigh, a Lakeland native, chokes up a bit at the end of Merissa Merino’s report?
Skip ahead to 13:00 to see the start of the debate. Saturday night’s two-hour debate was hosted by LkldTV and sponsored by Bella Viságe. It was moderated by Brian Dockery. Panelists promoting a Lakeland strong mayor were FSC political science professor Bruce Anderson and consultant Matt Doster. Panelists urging a vote against the strong-mayor charter were former City Manager Gene Strickland and former City Attorney Joe Mawhinney.
Polk County increases the amount of its subsidy to the city of Lakeland for fire services near city limits under a five-year agreement approved by the City Commission Monday. Commissioner Justin Troller voted against the deal, saying the county still isn’t paying enough.
With city elections nearly four months away, the campaign to change Lakeland’s city government to a strong-mayor system has amassed $231,193, by far the largest war chest in any Lakeland election campaign ever. Read on to see how each of the 15 announced candidates for city office are financing their races and who the biggest donors are.More
Commissioners decided this morning that the property tax rate for 2018 won’t go higher than the 5.56 millage rate set in 2015. The city will still get a bump in revenue because of rising taxable values.
Thanks to Michael Maguire and Lakeland District 8 for capturing highlights of this morning’s 1 a.m. radio appearance by four candidates for mayor of Lakeland. Christopher Diaz, James Green and Bill Mutz joined Patrick Jones on his heavy-metal show on WMNF community radio.
ALSO: View a photo from the studio | Read Ledger coverage
A Florida Southern student who’s running for mayor learned that professors are correct when they warn to watch what you post on social media. The Ledger reports that after James A. Green announced he’s running for mayor, people started posting screenshots of his Facebook posts (private to most people) that express contempt for liberals, Democrats, transgender people and those who denounce racism. Green, who has since deleted two Twitter profiles, told the newspaper those posts were written during the heat of last year’s election campaign and don’t reflect his current views.
When the city of Lakeland communications staff overhauled the city website for the first time in 10 years, they set out to make it easer for users to find information and navigate the site on mobile devices. More
