this city is a joke, run by a bunch of idiots, a year ago had "plump reserves" 3.9 MILLION extra, commissioner carson said " we have too much money sitting in savings accounts, we have more money than we will ever need." where did they spend all that in one year? he needs to go. along with all the other mismanaging idiots sitting on the commission.

heres a good idea, why don't you lower the millage rate again, save me a few dollars so more people can lose their jobs. as long as the commissioners get their expenditures increased and their full benefits of health care for a temporary position. how much time does a commissioner have to put in each week to get full health care on the taxpayers back. raise the millage rate and increase my services. $88,000 for books and publications budgeted for a library you want to reduce hours to. does any body else see whats going on here?

They could have kept the money for a CITY BRAND, and some of that money could have let people that keep us safe, keep their jobs. Fire Marshal Bill McElligott come on DUNEDIN!!!! Who will take his place???????? Someone has to take control of this!!!!!! Our city should look at the big picture. Our city gives benfits to the board members!!!!!! for a few hours a week or month!!! Something is wrong....... STOP THE FREE RIDES DUNEDIN, make them stand up and pay.... a lot of us do not have benfits and work!!!!!!!

I'm really sad to see that Fire Marshall Bill McElligott has been fired in such an unkind way given his 6 years of devotion to our city. Apparently he is the one employee out of five that are planned to go by Oct. 1st to be let go immediately. As I recall from the years of owning a business on Main St., Bill was always professional and thorough in his job and always expressed his appreciation of working in such a great little town. Yes, he was very strict when it came to life safety issues but doesn't that make you feel better knowing that your Fire Marshall is diligent in protecting us from calamity?! With the advent of Hurricane season why would we short the community of someone with his experience - politics at work? I'm proud to call Bill my friend and I'll miss him guarding our fire safety.

Newspaper Article – Playground contract approved – Dunedin – The Dunedin City Commission unanimously approved a contract on March 15 of $120,974 to Miracle Recreation Equipment Company to furnish and install playground equipment at Highlander park and Vanech recreation Complex.

I expect every one of us to take a serious look at the state of Dunedin NOW and make our voices heard in November!

But they can pay $75,000.00 to an out of town company for "re-branding" and a new logo that nearly everyone in town hates.

Hey BAD CHOICES and FEDUPWITHPOLITICS...You hit on right on the head!
But then again...glorified secretaries who make $30+ grand a year? and the payroll of commisioners etc.....SHAME SHAME!!!!

It's a very sad day in Dunedin when you read your Fire Marshall (and friend), Bill McElligott has been let go due to city budget cuts. What a nice slap in the face after a week of congratulations for our Firefighters, First Responders and EMS to be told you are no longer part of the team.

Thank you Mr. DiSprito and city commissioners for robbing the citizens of Dunedin. Yes, I am sure it is quite necessary for you to spend monies on such life-threatening issues like branding, having three city employees make sure downtown is spic and span each morning with the help of a golf cart and, of course, the funds to be spent moving the monument in Edgewater Park to accommodate two more cars. Yes, that sounds like fiscally sound spending to me!!

Beware, November will soon be hear and the voices of ALL voters will be heard from the sleepy, seaside town of Dunedin, FL to Washington, D.C.

Good luck, Bill and know that you will be missed!! And, THANK YOU for your six years of faithful service to ALL residents of Dunedin!

It appears that a City employee better be very careful about displeasing any powers that be, there are other long time employees that have been demoted and slipped out to pasture for unknown reasons without any pubilicity.

Rob DiSpirito is one of the most manipulative, devious, dishonest people I've ever met . Maybe that's what they learn in school but I feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with him and hopes to get an ethical, honest response. He is corrupting the relationship between elected officials and staff in order to advance his agenda, whatever that may be or whoever its coming from. Some more people at the top need to be fired, starting with him, and more in November. I'm disgusted with this town.

RE: Another example, of very very nice, but did we really really need it? Just because it is on sale, doesn't mean we need to get it, if it could save a job in the future. Spend Spend Spend - Highlander Spray Park Article dated 07/10/2009 - Dunedin commissioners debated whether to build the amenity during tough economic times, but in the end, the price was right. The city obtained a $200,000 state recreation grant and the Kiwanis Club of Dunedin chipped in another $50,000. The city's share was $150,000.

I worked for many years with Fire Marshal Bill McElliott as a Dunedin Volunteer Emergency Response Team (DVERT) member, Coordinator (chairman), and FEMA-Certified Professional CERT Trainer. Throughout my tenure, Bill was our mentor, making certain that we were properly instructed on CERT programs such as search and rescue, fire suppression, and crowd management. As he always pointed out, it was our onus to support first responders during a disaster by taking over the rote jobs such as telephone answering, removing debris from streets, and so on. He urged many of us to learn rules of communication, provided us with the necessary equipment. Many of us passed many of the same ICS courses that first responders take and many of us learned AED and CPR under his mentorship.

When we asked for limited liability coverage during catastrophes, Dunedin refused, despite Bill's pleas, this despite East Lake Fire District's umbrella for their CERT program. Because of this issue, DVERT lost many members, including its only two instructors, including my RN wife and me..

Bill Jean and I and I'm sure many past and present DVERT members thank you for your dedication to and support of Dunedin's phalanx of highly trained volunteers. I will always count you as a friend and colleague and I hope you will quickly find a better and more cooperative place to work.

Since the Fire Chief is retiring at the end of this year, why is it that the Fire Marshall was not promoted to become the new Fire Chief, especially since everyone including myself, thinks Bill McElligott is such an outstanding employee. If the leadership wishes to be trusted and respected they owe it to the taxpayers to tell the truth.

I am not familiar with the facts of this issue and never met Mr McElligott, but by all accounts sounds like an outstanding employee . I've had the pleasure of working with some really fine people in the parks dept, engineering dept, and planning dept. We've come through some really tough economic times and a lot of people have suffered and a lot of tough decisions have been made. One thing I think should be said in defense of the city manager is that it must be exhausting trying to please 5 different bosses, all of whom have very different points of view and different agendas. From what I understand, some of those viewpoints are pretty extreme and should be answered for in November. Having said that I think its apparent that trust is an issue right now with our local government and it's vitally important that all public officials , both elected and salaried, adhere to the highest levels of integrity and ethics in their words and actions, so that we the public can trust the decisions they make.

I know sincerely like to know what happened to Art Finn, he was the Director of Parks and Recreation and I believe he is now part time city arborist? He cared deeply about Dunedin. What happened to him?

Let's be honest about the real reason Bill McElligott was fired. It had nothing to do with the budget. That was just the nicest way to remove him from his position. Anyone that has had any dealings with Bill during his time as Dunedin Fire Marshal knows what an arrogant, self consumed, uncompromising individual he is. He was an embarrasement to the city of Dunedin. This is a wonderful town with very friendly residents that like to have a good time. This Fire Marshal's attitude at every city function was rude and abrasive. GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH!!!