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Lake City News
Index
• 2024-2023
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Lake City News 2024
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Dec. 4, 2024
11:55
am | 4 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – After almost three long hours
of Monday’s December 2 Council meeting, Trustee
James Carter brought up the elephant in the
room: the police barrier cutting off access to
the City Clerk, City Manager, and Council
members. Mr. Carter, along with just about
everyone in Lake City, does not like it.
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December 2, 2024
3:15
am | 2 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
Lake City Management claims giving employees
a four-day workweek is a measure to assist
employment and lessen turnover. Tonight in
City Hall, City Management will make its
case.
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June 6, 2024 7:45
am
LAKE CITY, FL – Monday night, soon after the
kick-off of the bimonthly Council meeting,
Deputy City Clerk Michelle Cannon was recognized
for becoming a Certified Municipal Clerk, which
is not an easy road to hoe.
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June 4, 2024
10:00 pm | 5 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
City Manager Don Rosenthal's first
Council meeting went smoothly – until it
didn't. On the City's docket were
appointments to the Planning and Zoning
Board (P&Z), one of the most important
positions in any municipal government.
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June 3, 2024
11:50 am | 2 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – After years of turmoil,
tonight, Lake City begins a new chapter with new
City Manager Don Rosenthal. Mr. Rosenthal comes
to Lake City with a real education from real
schools, with an undergraduate degree from
Loyola University and an MBA from Regis
University.
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As the Contract
Took Its Final Form With Mr. Rosenthal,
Councilman Ricky Jernigan Demanded Transparency
May 22, 2024
6:45 pm | 5 min read
LAKE
CITY, FL – LC City Manager search is
finally over. After just under three
years of searching, the City Council
hashed out the final details of its
contract with Don Rosenthal, former
Assistant County Administrator [manager]
for Pasco County.
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May 20, 2024
8:15 am | 3 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
This evening, the City Council has on
its docket the new City Manager
contract. Not having learned from the
recent and
still under investigation Paul Dyal
contract debacle, the Council
is being asked to recognize an
involuntary servitude clause again.
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May 10, 2024
1:40 pm | 6 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
Former LC City Manager Paul Dyal’s $1/4
million illegally paid severance package
is a gift that keeps on giving. On
Monday night, May 6, the City Council
and the City Clerk, hobbled by
unfamiliarity with the City Rules of
Procedure and a Mayor who had lost touch
with the operation of the meeting, were
left grasping in both discussion and
motion-making.
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May 6, 2024
3:30 pm | 9 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
Another chapter in the saga of resigned
LC City Manager Paul Dyal will play out
tonight in City Hall, as the City
Council decides how to proceed with the
questionable and thought to be illegal
severance payout of its last City
Manager – Mr. Dyal.
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April 27, 2024
09:45 am | 6 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
After a grueling search that has realistically
gone on since January 2022, Lake City has a new
City Manager. Yesterday afternoon, in a
unanimous vote, former Assistant Pasco County
Administrator Don Rosenthal was named Lake
City’s next City Manager.
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April 25, 2024
07:30 am | 2 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
Friday afternoon, April 26, 2024, the
City Manager candidates will be
answering questions presented to them by
the Council members. The Council members
will alternate with questions prepared
by HR Director BillyJo Bible.
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April 24, 2024
01:30 pm
LAKE CITY, FL –
As the Lake City City Manager search shifts into
its last two days, keeping up with the final
schedule may, at times, be confusing. The
schedule has been revised five times in the past
month, and the month is not over.
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April 24, 2024
07:30 am | 3 min readLAKE CITY, FL –
The bizarre antics of a City Council that has
become the admitted laughing stock of Florida –
and beyond – continues today with a guided tour
of the two final candidates by retired prison
guard and City Councilman Ricky Jernigan: the
itinerary – a mystery.
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March 27, 2024
3:45 pm | 2 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
The Lake City City Manager race is now down to
two finalists: Lake City Police Chief Gerald
Butler and former Pasco Assistant County
Administrator
Don Rosenthal.
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March 20, 2024
9:35 am | 7 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – The latest Lake City City
Manager search took another confusing step on
Monday night when, out of the blue, the City
Clerk provided the City Council with a tentative
timetable and interview schedule for the three
City Manager candidates.
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March 16, 2024
2:30 pm | 4 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – On September 13, 2023,
Sylvester Warren III filed a complaint with the
Florida Commission on Ethics against City Clerk
Audrey Sikes. The events surrounding this
complaint began in June 2023. On March 13, 2024,
the Ethics Commission dismissed Mr. Warren's
complaint.
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March 5, 2024
3:45 pm | 4 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
The latest Lake City City Manager Search
continued last night in City Hall. No one was
particularly prepared, though it was the third
City Manager search since 2018. However, without
any direction, HR Director BillyJo Bible advised
the Council that she had prepared questions and
a ranking scheme for the City Manager finalists.
The City Clerk also reminded the Mayor and
informed the Council of some of the past
procedures.
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Feb. 28, 2024
1:25 pm | 3 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
Monday night in City Hall, James Carter
took the Oath of Office and became the
City Councilman for District 13 until
the upcoming fall election cycle. It is
unclear how City Council meetings'
deterioration and armed camp setting
affected other potential candidates. Mr.
Carter had some ideas.
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Use the information in this story to
rate the candidates
Feb. 17, 2024
8:30 am | 5 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
The latest Lake City City Manager search
continues on Tuesday evening, with HR Director
BilllieJo Bible scheduled to make a presentation
to the Council. Ms. Bible will review the
application review process. The Council will
decide where to go from there.
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Feb. 6, 2024
8:55 am | 2 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
Last night in City Hall, one might have wondered
if the Mossad had a wrap on the Lake City City
Manager applications. The HR Manager released
nine more applications on Monday afternoon,
making a total of twenty-two applicants. Not one
word was mentioned by the Council members, the
Mayor, or the Interim City Manager regarding the
City Manager search.
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Mayor Witt
did not add a discussion about the City Manager
Search for Monday night's Council meeting.
February 4, 2024
11:30 am | 3 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
The multiyear Lake City City Manager saga
continues. Leveling out the over two years of
former City Manager Paul Dyal's intrigue,
turmoil, lawsuits, scandals, financial
glad-handing, brain drain, and city management
determined by loyalty rather than experience and
qualifications will be a big job for Lake City’s
next City Manager.
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Mayor Witt's
comments do not jive with the facts.
January 5, 2024
12:05 pm | 3 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – Tuesday evening’s January 2,
2024, City Council meeting was notable in that,
once again, Lake City Mayor Stephen Witt kept
vital information from the public and the City
Council. City Attorney Todd Kennon resigned
earlier in the day and was notified
simultaneously with City Clerk Audrey Sikes and
Interim City Manager Dee Johnson.
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Dyal Severance Issue tipped
over the apple cart
Jan. 2, 2024
6:55 pm | 6 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – At approximately 1 pm this
afternoon, City Attorney Todd Kennon submitted
his resignation as City Attorney giving his
sixty day required City notice. This evening at
the City Council – Mums the Word.
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Dec. 29, 2023
12:45 pm | 3 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – As Wednesday evening’s City
Council meeting drew to a close, City Councilman
Todd Sampson announced that he would "not be
filling out Form 6." To avoid being fined by the
Florida Ethics Commission, Mr. Sampson handed
the City Clerk his letter of resignation
effective December 30, 2023.
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Dec. 27, 2023
12:35 pm | 3 min read
LAKE
CITY, FL – Get ready, after the Rocky
Ford zoning issues are resolved in City
Hall this evening, the hinky Lake City
Dyal 12th hour pay raise issues,
followed by the Dyal severance issue,
will be front and center before the City
Council.
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Dec. 20, 2023
2:55 pm | 6 min read
LAKE
CITY, FL – Resigned City Manager Paul
Dyal hit the jackpot as Lake City
financial oversight careens out of
control. Ex-City Manager Dyal
voluntarily resigned from his position
as City Manager nine months after being
hired at $3,000 a week and was then kept
on the City payroll as if he was
terminated and entitled to severance
pay.
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Dec. 5, 2023
5:00 pm | 6 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
Once again, Lake City is looking for a
City Manager. Baenziger search firm
nixed; City HR will do the search.
Recently resigned City Manager can apply
if he wants to.
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November 21, 2022
11:10 am
LAKE
CITY, FL – LAKE CITY, FL – Lake City
Interim City Manager Paul Dyal, in 2018
and again in 2022, had his heart in
Alaska. Did he and Mayor Steve Witt
level with the City Council and the
public in the City’s search for a new
City Manager?
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Nov. 15, 2023
2:00 am | 3 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – Last Wednesday afternoon, in a
meeting lasting a little over three minutes,
Lake City Police Department Patrol Officers to
Sergeants received a $9,500 raise, bringing them
up to parity with the Sheriff's Office. The
starting pay for a Patrol Officer, retroactive
to October, is now $45,000.
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October 3, 2023
5:45 am | 2 min read
LAKE
CITY, FL – Last night in City Hall, it
took 26 seconds for the City Council to
accept City Manager Paul Dyal's
resignation. While Mr. Dyal's
resignation should have become effective
30 days from his resignation letter
(September 19, 2023).
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Sept. 19, 2023
8:40 pm | 1 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – Lake City City Manager Paul
Dyal notified the City today: "Based on my
contract terms, I am offering one (1) month
notice of my separation." Mr. Dyal was appointed
City Manager on January 3, 2023.
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September 11, 2023
3:50 pm
LAKE CITY, FL – Forward thinking by the
County 5 enabled it to arrange for
FEMA help in the
post-hurricane Idalia cleanup. Follow-up action
by Columbia County management will allow for
Lake City to be included in the FEMA
reimbursement plan. However, there is a caveat.
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Sept. 8, 2023
7:30 am | 6 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – It was a rough Tuesday
evening in City Hall as, once again, Mayor
Stephen Witt lost control of a City Council
meeting, allowing outbursts from the audience,
folk just walking up to the microphone to speak,
and racist name-calling.
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June 22, 2023
11:50 am | 11 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – Tuesday night in City Hall, some of Lake
City’s festering problems bobbed to the surface.
Issues with the City Attorney permeated much of
the governance discussion. The City Clerk got
caught up by blindly following the bogus advice
of the City Attorney, while the City Manager,
who recently said he and his assistant were in
training, mainly received a free pass.
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June 20, 2023
2:50 pm | 4 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – Tonight, the public is
bracing for another Lake City popcorn
extravaganza, the kind of entertainment that
Lake City – Columbia County residents and
Floridians have come to expect from a City
Council that goes over the edge, pays no
attention to its most basic rules of decorum and
is officiated by a Mayor who is constantly
bullied or under attack by a former drug kingpin
and community activist who at times seems to be
running the meetings and recently has begun
instructing the Mayor how to vote.
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June 7, 2023
11:30 pm | 9 min read
LAKE CITY, FL –
Monday evening’s June 5 City Council
meeting had the Council acting on a
resolution to remove community activist
and businessman Sylvester Warren from
his recent appointment to the City
Planning & Zoning Board. The issue was
not complicated: the Florida
Constitution, Article 6, section 4 is
clear: (a) No person convicted of a
felony...shall be qualified to vote or
hold office until restoration of civil
rights...
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June 5, 2023 3:50
pm | 5 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – Tonight, turmoil continues in
Lake City as the City Council will be asked to
remove community activist and businessman
Sylvester Warren from his recent appointment to
the City's Planning & Zoning Board.
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May 4, 2023 8:01
am | 2 min readLAKE CITY, FL – As Monday’s City Council
meeting was drawing to a close, the $2 mil
federally funded Richardson Community Center
Improvement Grant came front and center,
yielding another Lake City dysfunction surprise.
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May 3, 2023
8:05 pm | 4 min read
LAKE CITY, FL – Monday’s City Council meeting
had a previously added agenda item for the
Council to discuss co-locating Growth Management
and Building related employees in the newly
County purchased Lake City Reporter building
after renovations are completed.
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April 21, 2023
06:15 am | 5 min read
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – On Tuesday
evening, April 18, the Columbia County 5
(the County Commission) and the Lake
City City Council sat down for the first
time in fourteen months to discuss the
Richardson Community Center. Ill
feelings between the County and the City
over the downtown Lake City community
center had been festering for some time.
The local community, about two hundred
strong, attended the joint meeting.
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April 18, 2023
1:30 pm
LAKE CITY, FL – The helter-skelter world of
Lake City was on full display yesterday evening.
Mayor Witt forgot to ask for the approval of the
evening's agenda, and a tabled item regarding
City building inspections mystically appeared on
the evening’s regular agenda. There was no
explanation from City Management regarding how
these items were inserted on the agenda, no one
asked, but City Manager Paul Dyal was involved.
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April 6, 2023
07:30 am
LAKE CITY, FL – Yesterday evening in City
Hall, the City Council did not buckle under to
the extortion threat of an antebellum era County
Commission (the County 5) which had previously
failed to recognize the unique needs of the Lake
City’s Richardson Community Center or the people
that it serves.
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March 24, 2023
3:40 pm
LAKE CITY, FL – Monday’s City Council meeting
once again had the City pondering its
relationship with Columbia County, this time
about building ‘officialdom’: or, who is going
to inspect construction projects in Lake City.
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March 8, 2023
10:20 pm
LAKE CITY, FL – Mayor Stephen Witt once was a
model for presiding over open and respectful
meetings. Those are now bygone days. Mayor Witt
has allowed the City’s once-model meetings to
deteriorate into free-for-alls and vile
exchanges between the City Council and community
activist Sylvester Warren.
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March 6, 2023
12:30 pm
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Controversial Lake City
City Manager Paul Dyal appeared before the
County 5 (Commission) last Thursday morning to
do damage control after unilaterally canceling
an interlocal agreement between the City and
County without legal authority.
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March 5, 2023
02:00 pm
LAKE CITY, FL – Lake City’s religious leaders
have finally awoken from the dead. Shootings –
Crime – Drugs, an inept City Council, and a
Mayor who has turned his back on Lake City
dysfunction have made Lake City one of the most
dangerous cities in America, with a reputation
that has spread from Florida to Alaska.
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January 24, 2023
03:39 am
LAKE CITY, FL – Last Tuesday evening, January
17, one of the biggest sweetheart deals in the
history of Florida went down in Lake City City
Hall. Negotiations between Lake City and HAECO
(Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company), which
began approximately 18 months ago, ended with
all but one of the City Council clueless about
the fair market value of its airport.
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A college degree: Now you see it - now you
don't.
January 19, 2023
3:15 pm
LAKE CITY, FL – The unraveling of Lake City
continued at the tail end of Tuesday's
drama-filled City Council meeting. Buried at the
bottom of the agenda was the undated rewrite of
the Assistant City Manager job description.
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January 5, 2023
09:50 am
LAKE CITY, FL – Tuesday evening in City Hall,
there was only one lone voice asking questions
and looking for answers in the final stampede to
hire former City Utility Director Paul Dyal as
Lake City’s permanent City Manager: Councilman
Todd Sampson.
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January 3, 2023
2:10 pm
LAKE CITY, FL – Controversial City Manager
Paul Dyal and his contract, now three of them,
is once again front and center on tonight’s City
Council agenda. Newly installed Councilman Ricky
Jernigan has negotiated the final version.
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Lake City Reaching for the
Lowest Common Denominator: Lowers Requirements
for Assistant City Manager, 4-1
