Dick Vaughn asked during a joint meeting last week of three Villages Community Developments Districts why there was so much animosity in Sumter County government.

Vaughn is a VCDD supervisor and president of the Sumter County Republican Club of The Villages.

At that same meeting in The Villages, Nick Jones, another VCDD supervisor, talked about what he thought he heard during an earlier Sumter meeting on funding roadside maintenance in the retirement community as the "us vs. them" mentality of county commissioners.

Tapes of that meeting, however, reveal none of that contrarian discourse Jones had berated in The Villages meeting.

Jones, in a letter he wrote and read to fellow supervisors, referred to The Villages as Sumter's "contented cash cow" and advised county officials not to turn it into a "raging bull."

More simply put, Jones' message to Sumter County officials was: You don't play with fire; you better not mess with The Villages.

Later, Jones, always the gentleman, urged fellow supervisors to take the "high road" in The Villages' governments disputes with the county over costs for road maintenance.

One supervisor, in an off-color moment early in that joint meeting, warned that voters in The Villages would send disagreeable county commissioners back to "hillbilly heaven" if they insisted on talking tough on sensitive issues.

The most recent sensitive issue that has gotten supervisors and some county commissioners and officials hot under the collar is how much the county should pay The Villages for roadside maintenance.

The Villages' brass said the county should pay $26,498.71 per mile per year. The county, however, said the number should be $3,231.55. That's how much the county spends to maintain other roadsides.

Tommy Hurst, Sumter's interim public works director, won't budge on the issue. It's $3,231.55 or nothing, he said.

After all, officials of Lady Lake, Lake County and Marion County have told Sumter County that they don't pay The Villages to maintain roadsides.

But, asserts Villages Center Community Development District Administrator Pete Wahl, there's other "revenue sources" in those areas. Yes, Sumter officials respond, it's called higher assessment fees for higher levels of service.

Supervisors - like Jones - and others in The Villages talk about how much the retirement community contributes to the county. They point to the community's hefty property-tax roll as evidence of how grateful those on the outside the rural bumpkins should be for the upscale retirement community's existence.

They neglect to consider the full story of how the county collects its revenue and where it spends its money.

Property taxes only account for about a quarter of the county's total budget. So the math goes something like this: If, for example, 75 percent of the county's property taxes comes from The Villages, then the retirement community's homeowners in reality contribute less than 17 percent to the county's budget - a significant amount, but still not the whopping figure many officials of The Villages tout as justification for special entitlements (such as much higher fees for road maintenance).

Back to Vaughn's question: Why the animosity?

The answer can be summed up in two words: Roberts and Chandler. The names are anathema in the developer's newspaper.

Jim Roberts and Joey Chandler are Sumter County Commissioners. Both are Republicans, just like most of the residents in The Villages. Roberts, a high school history teacher, used to chair Sumter County's Republican Party. And Chandler, a religious man, switched to the GOP several years ago for moral and social reasons.

Both Roberts and Chandler are fiscal conservatives. What makes them so "animosity-ridden" is they like to ask questions during commission meetings. They like to cross-examine. They want to know exactly how county money is spent. That sums up their political philosophy in a nutshell.

Roberts and Chandler would fit in well with the other GOPers in The Villages. But during county commission meetings they have committed what opinion-makers in The Villages deem unpardonable acts: They have challenged numerous development proposals.

Roberts and Chandler led the charge to nix development of apartment complexes adjacent to The Villages - an effort that earned them high praise among the community's residents who attended those meetings.

Roberts pushed for construction of a public library in The Villages, yet the former Illinoisan is somehow blamed for trying to kill the project. Roberts' sin: He insisted the development comply with terms in the development's expansion agreement approved in 2002. It was right there in writing, Roberts argued.

Roberts also insisted the development build several fire stations in The Villages, not one large station, as was planned. That too was in writing in the development agreement. Roberts reasoned more stations would provide better coverage for residents of The Villages. It was an issue of safety and responsibility, he insisted.

Roberts and Chandler are tired and a little cynical. They say their wives, children and friends are angry, hurt and confused. Roberts and Chandler say they wish they could get a fair shake in the retirement community's media for their attempts at helping residents of The Villages and the rest of the county.

Roberts and Chandler have said they regularly compare coverage of their commission meetings and county events in other, independent newspapers - there are five. Basically, they say, the coverage is similar. And has always been.

However, the version residents of The Villages get in their own community newspaper is starkly different. And the villains in those stories are somehow almost always the infamous duo of Roberts and Chandler. Even crude editorial cartoons maliciously portray the two commissioners as scheming together to undermine the desires of residents of The Villages.

Sometimes the two commissioners laugh, they say. And sometimes they get angry. Most of the time, they're frustrated. But their frustration and anger is not directed at residents of The Villages. It is directed at the community's talking heads, the ones who are supposed to inform the residents in a responsible and accurate manner.

An axiom comes frequently to Roberts' mind, he says: A lie told frequently enough is soon accepted as truth.

An honest and thorough analysis of the voting records of Roberts and Chandler reveals two county commissioners who have showed the most interest compared to their colleagues in looking out for the needs of all Sumter County residents.

It is not "animosity" or an "us vs. them" mentality that motivates Roberts and Chandler. It is an unwillingness to succumb to a barrage of what they see as on-going distortions of their positions, views and voting records.

If Vaughn and others want to see their county united, perhaps they should listen more closely to the two county commissioners who are too often blamed for its "divisiveness." And the best way to do that is to attend commission workshops and meetings regularly, rather than reading about them the next day.

They might be surprised.