LEON COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - A panel of Leon County residents met Thursday to discuss ideas to present to the commission to help them understand the public's point of view.
The citizen charter review committee proposed a motion that any future expenditures by Leon County towards the Community Redevopment Agency, or similar organizations, be made for public infrastructure only.
In other words, if public money is used, then whatever the money is used for should be owned by and accessible to public.
According to one member of the committee, Gordon Thames, the tax payers dollars should not go into private projects and the proposal would make a transparent and ethically clean process.
"It's not really meant as a criticism to any one individuals effort," said Thames, who is the president of Arbor Properties. "It's really meant more as how do we clean this up, how do we make it more transparent, how do we take the temptation to corruption out."
Thames adds, there is a higher chance for corruption when the tax payers dollars are put towards private infrastructure developments.
After a series of 10 meetings, the committee will make recommendations to the commission. Once city and county commissioners review the proposal, it will be added to the 2018 ballot for Leon County voters to decide how they want their tax dollars spent.
