An elected official’s first charge is to safeguard the residents of the city. The crime rate is one of the measures we look at to gauge our success. Our crime rate has consistently dropped over the last several years. But, when I see headlines like... Read More

What does it look like to reopen a city? Honestly? Great question. Lots of people are using the word “unprecedented” these days and with good reason. None of us have ever had to deal with a crisis of this magnitude.  And yet, life has to... Read More

It is hard to believe I have finished my first year serving on the Bartow City Commission. Time flies when you are having fun, I guess. ? I have really enjoyed the opportunity to serve in this capacity. Some of the aspects I thought I... Read More

Recently an article appeared in The Ledger that identified Bartow as Polk County’s new crime “hot spot”. While the facts represented in the story are accurate (we have had a recent uptick, especially in property crimes), the article doesn’t tell all of the story. In... Read More

The legislative session in Florida has not even begun and city leaders are already having to defend our right to local self government. If you have spent any time around one of Bartow’s City Commissioners, you have undoubtably heard us talk about the importance of... Read More