- March 28, 2024
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As the Lee County Clerk of Court, Charlie Green challenged the amount of taxpayer money the county was spending on conservation land during the real estate bust.
Green spearheaded the scathing audits last year of a multimillion-dollar spending program called Conservation 20/20. The audits conducted by the clerk's office revealed that the county spent more money per acre buying conservation land during the bust when the market was dead than it did during the years leading up to and into the real estate boom.
Some election observers speculated that the audits led to the defeat of longtime Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah, an outspoken supporter of Conservation 20/20 even after the audits were published.
Newly elected Lee County Commissioner Larry Kiker, who defeated Judah in the Republican primary, appointed Green to the committee that oversees Conservation 20/20 at a meeting of the county commission on Jan. 15.
Green, now retired from his post as clerk of court, is sure to be an influential voice on how the county spends millions of taxpayer dollars on conservation land. For sure the program won't be as generous as it once was. His term expires in November 2014.