Melbourne Council, District 3

Each Council Member on the Melbourne City Council apperantly represents a specific district making up a part of the city… however they are elected by the whole city, not just those people in their district, but they have to live in the district. I think. It doesn’t make sense to me. You should only be able to vote for the council person from your district… at least I think so. But that isn’t how it is, so lets look at all of these…

For the record, I am in District 5, which is not on the ballot at all this year… apperantly there was only one candidate, Cheryl Palmer, who ran unopposed, and therefore automatically won and that seat is not appearing on the ballot. There is something wrong with that… I hate unopposed elections. Oh well!

Although that is apperantly better than one of the other districts, where Cliff Cook vacated the seat and NOBODY ran for the open seat… So they will be holding a special election in February to put someone in.

Anyway, the candidates for District 3 are:

* Lynne Flora
* Cleave Frink
* Kathy Meehan
* R. Richard Ott
* Merrill Robertson
* Manuel Rodriguez

Once again, I couldn’t find anybody with a campaign website. People! Get with it!!!

I did however find a couple articles from Florida Today that are relevant. One on the large number of candidates running for Melbourne City council this year, and one specifically with profiles on all the candidates in the District 3 race. Since it is the most complete information I could find, this will be my main source of info for this race.

Ott is out. He didn’t answer their basic questions. (“Why are you running? How are you qualified? What are your key issues?”) Robertson is for VoTech schools. Rodriguez is for youth sports programs. Flora wants more flights to the Melbourne airport.

Frink and Meehan seem to address a broader range of issues, both seem to have a good deal of community involvement in their past. Looking at their pitches though, Frink seems to be a bit too self assured for my taste. Meehan seemed more reasoned and moderate.

My vote: Kathy Meehan