St. Pete Beach and Florida Hometown Democracy / Amendment 4: Welcome to the Jungle

One of the biggest "hot button" issues in the Florida Hometown Amendment 4 debate is whether St. Pete Beach's contentious and litigious experience (some would say ordeal) with giving citizens a referendum vote on land use decisions is a fair and accurate example of why Amendment 4/Florida Hometown Democracy is a bad idea and should not be passed in November.

The No on 4 campaign argues that the "St. Pete Beach Experience" is a shining example of the evils of Hometown Democracy/Amendment 4 (see, for example, here, here), while the Yes on 4 campaign argues that the No on 4 folks are lying and that St. Pete Beach has absolutely nothing to do with Hometown Democracy (see, for example, here, here and here).  The St. Pete Beach situation has been covered in countless editorials, newspaper and TV news stories (often based on an incomplete, inaccurate understanding of the facts). It has also the subject of law review articles, and  Politifact even weighed in on the controversy, concluding that the SPB/A4 analogy is "Half True", but this was based on a strict factcheck of No on 4's overbroad and flawed claim that ALL of the St. Pete Beach lawsuits were relevant to the statewide Amendment 4 issue.

With all of this conflicting information floating around, what is the average Florida voter to believe?

As a resident of St. Pete Beach, I have lived with (and am still living through) the St. Pete Beach "experience". Having read many of the news articles, examined many of the pleadings, attended/observed public meetings and court hearings and spoken with residents, reporters, public officials and campaign operatives, I have come to believe that the BOTH the Yes on 4 campaign and the No on 4 campaign have massaged the facts/truth about the St. Pete Beach experience, and that both sides need to be held accountable for the claims that they make and the "facts" that they seek Florida voters to believe regarding Amendment 4.

In short, the "St. Pete Beach/Amendment 4" issue is a factual jungle, and there is a serious risk that Florida voters will get hopelessly lost in the dense tangle of factual and legal complexities that obscure the true relevance of SPB in the Amendment 4 debate.

 

I have created this blogpost as a sort of "Homepage" for what will be an ongoing examination of this issue.  This particular post will be a "dynamic" page, one that I will edit and update regularly with links to other blogposts that discuss a particular fact, issue, news story or other component part of this complex issue.

In the interests of full disclosure, I will say at this juncture that my examination of the facts has let me to believe that St. Pete Beach is in fact a good example of some serious problems with Hometown Democracy that may also impact other Floridians if Amendment 4 passes in November.  However, my examination of this issue is ongoing, and my goal isn't to tell folks HOW to vote, but rather to it is to help Floridians hack through the dense underbrush of this jungle and help them make up their own minds one way or the other will a clearer view of the truth.

 Links to other Posts:

Florida Hometown Democracy/Amendment 4 vs. St Pete Beach:

   Part 1:  Welcome to the Jungle  (This Post)

   Part 2:  Court Ruling Undermines Hometown Democracy Arguments (in progress)