The truth may take you places you do not expect.

While you may not have thought soemthing to be true, the truth is always the truth. There is but one truth. Truth is not subjective or interpretive. Plain and simple, the truth is the truth.

When the path leads to a place that shines light and it reveals something other than what we believed to be the truth, well, then we have to come to nature with the new found truth.

During the recent Village of Indiantown campaign season there was a question as to the legitimacy of the then sitting Mayors residential qualifications. Many, including myself, indicated that we believed his claim of residency was illegal. The basis for this claim was that the address was zoned as a commercial building. Meaning you work there. You do not live there.

I and others asked both publicly and privately of the Mayor to clear the matter up. As it turned out the way the Mayor wanted to clear this up was to threaten me with legal action for asking the question. He was unwilling to subordinate his position that he was acting as a custodian for the owner and that an old overlay from prior zoning made it closer to legal.

So, instead of answering the question directly with fact, he chose to hide and say he does not live there. The real fact is that neither he nor the Village Staff knew if he could legally live there either.

This is where we began asking questions of Howard Brown and other Village staff members for information about the residency. I will be compiling the e-mail chain for review and posting so check back.

Needless to say, they were less than responsive. A question left with Howard from 6 Aug 20 was not responded to until we called one of the people associated in the e-mail chain on 3 SEP 20. The young lady was able to supply another link in the chain but was unwilling to help complete the chain that was close to the truth. Again, an unmotivated civil servant finding the request to be more than they want to deal with.

The chain of custody was then picked up and passed of to the Village Clerk who identified that she has but a mere copy of minutes and no detail. She said it was before her time. Best she could do I guess.

That opens a lot of other discussions we can have about how the public record is kept in the dark at the Village. Even they cannot find what they need when they need it.

So, the trail went cold. Until an anonymous contributor that had been seeing the exchange supplied TALK ABOUT MARTIN with the final set of documents that close this issue on Guyton Stones legal residency. Again, I will post the docs shortly.

So here was the original question:

Does the property that Guyton Stone claims as residence qualify as such?

Answer: Yes

As long as he is employed in the capacity of a custodian or watchman it can be used as quarters.

How is this possible?

When Indiantown was still a part of the County LDR codes it was designated as a Redevelopment Area. Also known as a CRA. A mixed-use designation was given to several property within the boundary known as the Indiantown CRA. In doing so it enabled for the domicile in question to be used.

But the Village is separate from the County now.

When the divorce took place, the Village decided to not renew the Indiantown CRA. The whole Village would have been a CRA in the case that they retained it and it was counterproductive. It was the right move to make.

There was still the issue of the Zoning Overlay though. If the County trashed the CRA without regard to the underlying LDR’s then everyone that had taken advantage of this mixed-use allowance would be left in a tight spot. So, the County carved that overlay from the CRA before chopping it off. They will remove the County overlay once the Village completes their LDR’s.

It would have been much easier if Staff at the Village would have not been combative and standoffish. All that did was create more suspicion. So, from now on can we all work towards the TRUTH for the sake of the TRUTH please.

There is a myriad of questions that rise from this. One is the lack of transparency and obvious lack of accountability within the Village staff. Another is how the overlay is intended to be dealt with now?

So, I guess the lesson learned here is when you are asked by citizens about something as serious as this topic, just tell the truth. If you do not know the truth say so. Then be willing to try and find it. Only in truth can we all find unity.

Editor – Talk About Martin – 2020