People Over Politics

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS

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1/21/11:

As you know, the Florida Legislature passed SB 550 in 2010 requiring mandatory septic tank inspections every five years. The Florida Department of Health (DOH) estimated that inspections would cost $150 to $200 each with replacement costs for failing systems estimated at $5,000 to $7,000. DOH estimated that 10 percent of Florida's 2.6 million septic tanks are failing.

Senate Bill 2A was passed by the Legislature on Nov. 16 which would delay implementation from January 1 to July 1, 2011. The bill went to Gov. Rick Scott’s desk this month; it went into effect on Wednesday, January 19.

Several bills have already been filed for 2011 that would modify this inspection requirement.

Regards,
Arlene Smith

3/19:

1. What To Do If You Have Not Received a Census Form or Have Received a
Form with an Incorrect Address

If you haven't received a form, wait until April 12 to allow time for
it to arrive. Millions of census forms are still on their way to
households across the country.
Before calling to request a form, we ask that you wait until April 12
to allow sufficient time for the questionnaire to be delivered to your
address.
If you still have not received your form by April 12, then you may
contact one of our 2010 Census Toll-free help lines.
English: 1-866-872-6868
Chinese: 1-866-935-2010
Korean: 1-866-955-2010
Russian: 1-866-965-2010
Spanish: 1-866-928-2010
Vietnamese: 1-866-945-2010
TDD (Telephone Display Device for the hearing impaired):
1-866-783-2010
Puerto Rico (in English): 1-866-939-2010
Puerto Rico (in Spanish): 1-866-929-2010

You can also complete a Be Counted questionnaire if you have not
received your form. Beginning March 19 through April 19, Be Counted
questionnaires will be available in public locations, such as libraries,
within your community and at Questionnaire Assistance Centers where
census workers will be available to answer questions. Beginning March
18, these locations will be posted on 2010Census.gov.

If your form has the wrong city name or ZIP code, the actual location
of your address has been verified for accuracy and assigns your data to
the correct geographic area
The address on your census form or advance letter may not list the city
name you identify with or are used to seeing on your mail. This is a
result of an efficiency cost-saving measure that streamlines how the
forms are sorted and delivered to you by the U.S. Postal Service.
However, it will NOT affect which city, town or block your
household’s responses will be assigned to. Contained in the
barcodes on your form is information about the correct geographic
location to which your housing unit belongs. This geographic
information was verified last year by census workers who physically
located each housing unit on the ground and assigned the housing units a
“geocode” using special census maps and GPS coordinates.

In addition, the Census Bureau provided local governments an
opportunity to review and provide feedback on the address list we
developed for their municipality through the Local Update of Census
Addresses or LUCA Program. Most municipal officials verified that the
Census Bureau accurately coded each house to the proper municipality,
regardless of the address used by the U.S. Postal Service for delivering
the mail.

Please fill out the form for your entire household to make sure that
your city, town or block is accurately counted. If you received an
advance letter or census form that lists the wrong house number and
street name, a census worker will follow-up with you at a later time If
you have not yet answered the form, you may write “wrong
address” on the front of the envelope, and leaving the questions
blank, you may return the envelope by mail. A census worker will
follow-up with you at a later time.

If you have already answered questions on the form but have not mailed
it, you may discard it in a way that is comfortable for you so that your
personal information is not made known to the public. A census worker
will follow-up with you at a later time. If you have already completed
the form and mailed it back, a census worker may follow-up with you at a
later time in order to double check that all addresses are counted in
the census.

If your city or area did not receive census forms, they are either on
their way or census workers will come in May through July to conduct the
census in person
Millions of census forms are still on their way. The forms for your
area may be among them. If we are unable to deliver forms to your area
by mail for operational reasons, we will send census workers to conduct
the census face-to-face beginning in May.

Read the 2010 Census Blog , connect with Census on Facebook , Twitter
and YouTube to get more tips, or visit the 2010 Census site .

We Can't Move Forward Until You Mail It Back!
-30-

2. Census Bureau to open 42 assistance centers and

22 pick-up sites in Volusia County March 19

The U.S. Census Bureau will open 42 census Questionnaire Assistance
Centers and 22 questionnaire pick-up sites in Volusia County from March
19 through April 19.

The Questionnaire Assistance Centers will be staffed by employees who
speak English, and 17 centers will have bilingual or multilingual staff.
The staff will be available to help residents fill out their forms.
During each location’s normal business hours, residents also may pick
up and complete a census questionnaire if they did not receive one.

The Be Counted, or questionnaire pick-up, sites will have boxes where
residents may pick up a census form if they did not receive one in the
mail. Staff will not be available to provide assistance at these sites.

The site list is attached and also is available at
www.volusiacounts.org.

Residents began receiving their census questionnaires Tuesday. They are
required to return them by April 1. If they don’t return their
questionnaire, they will receive a replacement in April. In May, June
and July, census workers will visit the homes of people who did not
respond.

For more information about the 2010 Census, please visit
www.2010census.gov.
-30-

2/2:

VOLUSIA COUNTY COMMUNITY INFORMATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 1, 2010

Republican ‘census’ form should not be confused
with U.S. Census Bureau questionnaire

The Republic National Committee has mailed “2010 Congressional
District Census” forms to members of the Republican Party. The
four-page form asks 37 questions about domestic issues and national
defense.

Some Volusia County residents have reported that they believed these
were the official U.S. Census Bureau questionnaires.

The U.S. Census Bureau will mail census questionnaires to every
household in the United States March 15. Residents are required to
return them by April 1. The questionnaires ask 10 questions and will
take about 10 minutes to complete.

For more information about the 2010 Census, please visit
www.2010census.gov.

For information about the public awareness campaign being launched by
Volusia County’s Complete Count Committee, please visit
www.volusiacounts.org or www.volusiacuenta.org or contact Betty
Holness at (386) 736-5920, ext. 2603, or Pat Kuehn at (386) 822-5062,
ext. 2934.

CENSUS 2010

You will not receive a 2010 US Census form until March of 2010. No one
will come to your door if you complete the form and mail it back to the
2010 US Census office on or before April1, 2010. If you did not
complete the form for your address, here are some things to be aware of.

*1. Census workers will carry a badge, a hand held device, a Census
Bureau canvas bag, and a confidentiality notice. MAKE SURE TO ASK THEM
FOR THEIR BADGE AND IDENTIFICATION /BEFORE/ TALKING TO THEM!*

*2. Census workers will NOT ask for social security numbers, bank
account numbers, credit card numbers, or any specific account information!*

*3. Census workers will NOT solicit for donations - do not give anyone
any money!*

*4. Census Workers will NOT contact you by email - do not respond to
anyone claiming to be with the US Census by email!*

*5. Don't invite them into your homes!
*

Web sites that deal with Census information in more
detail.

They are www.2010.census.gov

www.volusiacounts.org

and
www.volusiacuenta.org

12/27/08:

IMMEDIATE RELEASE TO THE PRESS:

On December 18th, in a 4 to 3 ruling, the Florida Supreme Court narrowly approved a proposed constitutional amendment for placement on the 2010 ballot that discriminates against the First Amendment rights of Florida active duty military and National Guard who are deployed out of state. The amendment also discriminates against disabled, housebound Florida voters. If approved by 60% of the electorate, the provision will become part of the Florida Constitution.

The proposed constitutional amendment is sponsored by Floridians for Smarter Growth, a political action committee backed by the Florida Chamber of Commerce. The admitted aim of the Chamber-backed petition is to derail and defeat the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment which will automatically allow votes on changes to local growth plans.

The Chamber-backed amendment only allows a citizen vote on changes to a local growth plan after completion of an onerous process requiring 10% of voters to physically go to the local supervisor of elections’ office and sign a petition within 60 days. In effect, the process is designed to, and will make it next to impossible to actually achieve the right to vote on growth plan changes approved by local city and county commissions.

Stunningly, the Chamber-backed amendment effectively bans the participation of many thousands of active duty military and National Guard deployed out of state. For example, Florida voters deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan will be barred from participation because they cannot physically get to the supervisor of election’s office back home. Florida voters serving at sea in the Navy will likewise be excluded. An army soldier and his wife stationed in Korea will be left voiceless. A wounded soldier convalescing at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington , DC will be excluded.

Similarly, unknown numbers of housebound and hospitalized Florida voters will be banned by the Chamber’s bizarre process.

Florida Supreme Court Justice Lewis wrote a powerful dissent that identifies some of the extraordinary difficulties many Floridians will face just trying to sign a petition, but the entire Florida Supreme Court completely overlooked the absolute bar the Chamber-backed amendment establishes for thousands of deployed military, National Guard and disabled Florida voters. Further, the opinion ignores the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which protects the voting rights of our overseas military. The devastating irony of the Chamber-backed amendment should not be lost on anyone: our deployed men and women in uniform are denied participation in the very democracy they serve to protect and defend.

Florida Hometown Democracy will file a motion for rehearing to ask the Court to reconsider the real world consequences of this unprecedented and disastrous decision.

The backers of Hometown Democracy hope Floridians will unite in outrage over the Chamber-backed amendment and the Court’s ruling. They urge supporters to call and email Ryan Houck, Executive Director of Smarter Growth and Mark Wilson, CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, to let them know that their petition shows utter contempt for our military, National Guard and the disabled, and to tell them to admit their error, apologize to our troops and withdraw this dishonorable petition.

Mark Wilson: tel (850-521-1200) email: MarkWilson@flchamber.com

Ryan Houck: tel (407-442-0832) Email: RHouck@Florida2010.org

Supporters are encouraged to call and email Governor Crist and let him know that his two recent Florida Supreme Court appointees signed on to the unacceptable majority ruling.

Gov. Crist: tel (850-488-7146) Email: Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com

Our troops deserve better than the enshrinement of this hypocritical subterfuge in the Florida Constitution. They and all Floridians deserve better.

For more information contact Florida Hometown Democracy at flhometown@yahoo.com.

11/30:

The Volusia County Sheriff's Office is cautioning citizens to be aware of telephone scammers who try to bilk senior citizens out of thousands of dollars. The ploy that is being reported to local law enforcement agencies lately is a variation of an old sick relative scam. The scammer tries to convince the victim that a relative is in trouble and needs money wired to him or her right away. These latest scam attempts claim that the supposed relative is in a Canadian jail.

The best way to avoid this and similar con jobs is to be aware of the ploy and be skeptical.

One recent case was reported to the Sheriff's Office on Monday.

Fortunately, the scam's target didn't fall for the fake story and didn't lose any money. He said that he got a call from someone claiming to be with the Toronto Police Department. Supposedly, the Deltona man's grandson had been arrested for DUI in Canada and needed about $4,000 for bond. The caller wanted the local man to obtain a Money Gram and send it to Canada. However, the scammers lost out when their target decided to track down his grandson on his own and confirmed that he was trouble-free in California.

A similar case was reported earlier in the month in DeBary. This time, though, the victim sent $3,000 to Canada to help a grandson in trouble with the law. But it was later discovered that the grandson was safe and sound in Orlando and had never been to Canada. There are plenty of other stories scammers have used in the past, such as a relative in trouble with bookies for gambling debt or the original story of a sick relative needing to pay medical bills. But the core of the scam is a supposed relative in need.

It's believed that the scammers target senior citizens because they are typically trusting, might be easy to confuse, and even hearing problems can play right into the scammer's hands. The crook doesn't have to know the victim's relative's name; a convincing story and just saying "grandma" a few times is all that's needed. The scammer also pressures the victim to send the money right away, and sometimes asks the victim to keep the transaction secret.

Here are some tips to help citizens not become a victim:

! Don’t volunteer pertinent information to the caller, such as your grandchild's name. Instead, ask the caller to supply the name.

However, the scammer may already have the name, address and age of the relative, so ask the caller for some nugget of information only the two of you would know in order to confirm the identity.

! If you are still suspicious, ask to call them back. Ignore the caller's demands to send money right away. Then track down the relative on your own. As seen in the above two cases, the relative was home where they should be.

! Call your local law enforcement as soon as you feel that something is not right. Collect names and phone numbers from the caller, but don't give the caller any of your information.

! Help out your friends, relatives and neighbors by sharing this public safety message with them. Oftentimes, just being aware of the scam ahead of time can help potential victims see right through it.

There are many other scams beside this phone scam that pop up frequently during the holidays. E-mails asking for bank account numbers, passwords or Social Security numbers are part of what are called "phishing scams." Scammers also take advantage of people buying holiday gifts on the Internet by setting up fake websites and fraudulent services with the sole purpose of collecting your personal identity and financial information.

Here are some additional safety tips to keep in mind during holiday

shopping:

! Shop with Internet merchants you know and trust.

! Shop from your home computer. Dont use a public computer.

! Read the web site's privacy policy before making a transaction.

! Make sure that the web site you're dealing with uses a secure server.

! Be wary if you're asked to supply personal information that's not needed to make the purchase. For instance, your date of birth, mother's maiden name, Social Security or bank account numbers generally arent needed to conduct a business transaction over the Internet.

! Pay with a credit card and keep all electronic receipts and records of your purchases to compare with your credit card statement.

! Never send credit card or personal information by e-mail.

! Never share your password with anyone.

Alan Williamson

City of DeBary

Safety Coordinator

(386) 668-3820

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