Charlie Brown's teacher at Cory Lake Isles?

The Cory Lake Isles taxing district board, the target of much ire and disgust from some of the community's residents, held another meeting this morning which was filled with, well, ire and disgust.

Residents continued to read every word in every document and to pepper the board with questions, which often were not answered to their satisfaction.

Repeated questions from resident Kerri Ringhof apparently ticked off CDD supervisor Suzanne Manzi so much, she lectured Ringhof, comparing her to a 2-year-old child.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, while Ringhof asked about such things as security, policy and budget, Manzi moved her left hand like she was operating a handpuppet and made loud sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher: Bwoah bwoah bwoah bwoah bwoah bwoah.

Manzi then muttered under her breath to developer Gene Thomason, prompting Ringhof to ask her to please say whatever she had to say in the public forum, for the record. Manzi would not look at Ringhof or acknowledge her.

While CDD board attorney Mark Straley attempted to answer Ringhof's questions, Manzi continued to mutter to Thomason. That prompted Ringhof to say: "Excuse me, Suzanne, it's very rude to be speaking while someone else is speaking."

Again, Manzi, a senior vice president for a lecture agency specializing in political and business leadership, continued to ignore Ringhof.

There were surprises.

Newly-appointed supervisor Madeline Backes, whom many residents believed was handpicked by Thomason, raised questions that residents publicly thanked her for. She questioned wording in contracts that seemed to be a conflict of interest and announced that she would be meeting with district manager John Daguirda next week to review financial documents.

"It's lke a breath of fresh air," resident Michele Shaw told Backus.

In other news, Daguirda said a clerical error in his office caused a $13,500 mistake that residents caught during the last CDD meeting. Someone cut a $13,507.50 check out to Playpower LT on March 14 for playground equipment that was supposed to have been given to the community as part of a "developer giveback" -- one of the last contributions to Cory Lake Isles from Thomason.

"Corrective action has been taken," Daguirda said.

Comments

Is this really an old fashioned morality play- where everyone on one side (the elected CDD board, the board’s professional management, the board's well-respected attorney ) wear black hats and everyone on the other side ( a VERY FEW residents) sport sparkling white ones?

Pretty unlikely.

A gentle suggestion to this reporter: report the news, loose the "red letter words" and don't try to write the Guiding Light al la New Tampa.

A professional reporter- for your own paper- found plenty or reason to challenge this noblesse oblige obsessed developer but never sunk into “he said, she said” inanity.

Reality is seldom as clear-cut as this portrait would suggest.

[Ryan]

I agree with comment above. Some real reporting--not biased opinions--by this reporter would be a "refreshing" change.

[Bruce]

It is always unfortunate when a reporter gets too asociated with her/his sources.

So... ummm.. there ISN'T a group of people in CLI who are suing and complaining all the time??

Probably a lot valid complaints too…

It is just too bad that the majority who are working to fix the situation are not recognized for their work and instead demonized because it is easier to tune into the bunch that is “complaining all the time” than to drill under a complex situation.

Plenty of valid complaints but it's a great place to live. Like the comment about can't all be black hats and all sparkling white ones. Problem with these articles is this reporter only interviews or reports on the white hats--who happen to be the very people filing lawsuits. Interesting.

[Richard Heruska]

I wonder how much POSITIVE news has been shared with local news writers like Dong-Phuong Nguyen? Although I know that Cory Lake has a particularly HIGH number of articles (many don't shed such a positive light on our community as a whole) in relation to other local communities, I don't know if I can hold Mrs. Nguyen responsible for all of the articles as I would believe its her job to report the local news. In "our" (I'm a resident of Cory Lake) case, she is probably given a lot of news about certain battles between some residents and the developer. Mrs. Nguyen, would you be open to writing about some recent news (All of the new playgrounds as an example) in Cory Lake that aren't about the developer, lawsuit, etc?

[Phuong Nguyen]

Please feel free to give me a call at (813)269-5312 or email me at nguyen@sptimes.com. Thanks, Phuong

[Kathy]

By the time I'm posting, this story is old but I've not seen it before, so others may look as well. It is so obvious that the negative comments, posted anonymously, are from the Supervisors and their friends (or themselves making multiple postings) who have no other defense and who don't have the courage to use their own names. I have seen these people in action, and they are just plain disgusting.

[Concerned Homeowner]

it appears the bafoons mentioned in the article were so embarrassed by the own actions, that they are going after the reporter now. Everything the reporter mentioned in the report actually happened. And then some. Everything will change in November when they are finally booted out of office and their opinions will officially become irrelevant.