Editorial
COMMUNITY VOICES SHOULD BE HEARD
St. Augustine Record, Saturday, April 26, 2003
The St. Johns County Civic Association Roundtable has
been in existence for years and has a strong network of
neighborhood and community associations that meet monthly
to hear local officials and community leaders talk about
the county issues.
While it does not have official standing as an office of
county government, the expertise of roundtable members is
sought from county officials especially during the annual
budget review.
It is also well known around county government that the
opinions of the Roundtable are key in the mix of community
commentary.
COMMUNITY’S VOICE: COUNTY
ROUNDTABLE
Provides Opportunities for Interaction
St. Augustine Record, Sunday, November 5, 2000
By Margo C. Pope, Senior Writer
On the second Monday of any month, the parking lot at the
St. Johns County Public Library begins to fill well before
opening time.
What might appear to be a large group of library patrons
lining up for the latest best sellers is actually a group
armed with notebooks and questions.
They come primarily from the county’s northwest, northeast
and southeast sections where civic associations and homeowners
groups abound.
They move quickly to take their seats in the library conference
room.
By 9 a.m., the monthly meeting of the St. Johns County Civic
Association Roundtable is ready to start.
Most of the 38 homeowners and civic associations within
the roundtable membership are represented in the room.
In recent months, School Superintendent Hugh Balboni, the
pros and cons of proposed mega-development Nocatee, the
city’s department of historic preservation and tourism
have been programs presented to the group.
The county’s annual budget is a recurring theme as
is the community law enforcement.
In the 15 years the Roundtable has been meeting, it has
built rapport between officials of county government and
representatives of thousands of residents countywide.
“It really is the community’s voice”,
said County Commissioner Vice Chairwoman Mary Kohnke. She
is a former Roundtable chairwoman and has been a member
since 1986.
Kohnke said the Roundtable membership provides what she
believes is the broadest base of county residents in any
one group.
“The county has benefited from many of the members
having expertise in business and industry who have been
able to advise the county and the commission,” she
said.
The Roundtable’s standing has increased in recent
years with the county administration. The county annually
invites the Roundtable to participate in reviewing county
departmen’t budget presentations.
John Dinsmore, budget committee member, said the county
administrative staff and the Roundtable budget committee
have a successful partnership.
Community’s Voice: County Roundtable
(continued)
Joe Vonasek, the county’s budget officer,
concurs. He says the Roundtable’s budget representatives
do their homework and come prepared for the hearings with
the staff.
He said the Roundtable representatives asked a key question
a year ago that led to a change in budgeting for certain
funds.
“They were looking at the TDC (Tourist Development
Council) budget and asked why they were not charged any
administrative overhead.”, Vonasek said.
He said the staff looked into the question and found that
the county was not charging administrative costs back to
the TDC for the handling of items related to the TDC which
manages the bed tax proceeds.
Now, an annual administrative services fee is added to the
TDC as an expenditure.
George Jacunski, present chairman, has been a member for
three years. He is representing the Southeast Anastasia
Island Communities Association. His involvement with the
Roundtable began when the southeast island group was going
through the visioning process.
Jacunski takes his pitch about the Roundtable on the road
frequently to civic groups and others. He encourages them
to get involved either through their civic or homeowners
associations, or by attending the monthly Roundtable meetings.
Jacunski, too, sees the Roundtable’s strongest asset
as its representation of a broad base of the community’s
residents.
He said the Roundtable, too, plays a significant role in
who represents the community on county board appointed committees.
A member of the organization is assigned to monitor all
vacancies on local public boards. That member then ensures
that the Roundtable representatives get out the word on
vacancies back to the associations so members can apply
for respective positions.
When Sacha Martin was new to St. Johns County a little more
than three years ago, she heard about the Roundtable at
a meeting of the North Shores Improvement Association.
Harold Baker, one of the founders of the Roundtable in 1984,
was talking about its next meeting.
“I went up and asked him ‘what’s a Roundtable’?”
and he invited me to the next meeting,” Martin said.
He first meeting was at the county’s newly opened
Emergency Operations Center. She was not yet a member but
went as a member of the public in the audience.
However, a short time later, when the chair asked if someone
count take notes, Martin volunteered. She became the group’s
secretary and holds that position today.
But she was not a full fledged member until a year later
when her homeowners association, Villages of Vilano, approved
joining the organization and naming her as its representative.
The Roundtable, she said, has helped her get acquainted
with people throughout St. Johns County that share a common
goal: betterment of the county.
It also has helped get her and others more involved in local
government through the Roundtable programs.
Against a changing tide, the group has tried to remain apolitical.
Dinsmore, who represents the Orangedale Community Association
and has been a member for about a dozen years, admits that’s
hard today.
Many people, he said, want the Roundtable to take specific
stands. TO do so, he believes, would require every organization
to be polled as to its stand on a specific issue.
Because not all associations meet on the same schedule,
that many not be possible. However, Dinsmore said, the fact
that the group does not take specific stands does not dampen
the enthusiasm for it among government leaders.
That’s because, he said, they know that Roundtable
members study issues thoroughly.
The Roundtable’s meetings are open to the public.
It meets Nov. 13 at 9 a.m. at the St. Johns County Public
Library. The speaker will be Bruce Lucker, chief operating
officer for the World Golf Hall of Fame and chief executive
officer of the World Golf Associates.
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