Most City Officials Are Not Crooks --They're Heroes!

One of the favorite claims made by supporters of Florida Constitutional Amendment 4 is that local politicians / officials cannot be trusted to enact land use changes in the best interests of the people.  For example, the "Frequently Asked Questions" page on the Hometown Democracy website states:

"The amendment will clean up the corrupt local politics of growth. Developers will no longer be able to buy off a simple majority of a city or county commission with their campaign IOU's. Example: three Palm Beach county commissioners were convicted regarding their corrupt land-use votes in exchange for secret payoffs from developers. There are lots more examples, and these are just the under-the-table deals that are discovered."

It goes without saying that dissatisfaction with career politicians (congressmen and senators) is at an all-time high, but when it comes to the folks who serve on the local commissions, councils and committees of Florida's cities and towns, I believe it is both factually and morally wrong for the Hometown Democracy crew to make such sweeping and general accusations of corruption and "under the table" dealings.

I believe Ms. Blackner and Hometown Democracy are wrong because their claims are debunked by the truth of what I have seen in my own community:

1. These officials are not crooks...they are heroes!  They are hardworking folks like you and me who are volunteering their time to serve in wholly (or mostly) unpaid positions, and the the only reward for the many hundreds of hours that they spend is the knowledge that their city or town is a better place because of their efforts.  They devote more time and energy to the betterment of their community in a single month than most folks spend in a lifetime.
2. Everyone has a voice in the political process, but few are willing to spend the time and energy to actually use it.  The average city commission meeting in St. Pete Beach is no different than the average commission or planning board meeting in every other city in Florida:  when the commissioners look out into the audience, all they see are rows of empty chairs, except for the ones filled by the same ten or twelve folks who attend every meeting.  The "average citizen" has never attended a single meeting of their city commission, or of their planning board.  I don't speak these truths intending to insult or demean the "average" citizen, far from it.  But Ms. Blackner and Hometown Democracy are wrong to say that Joe Sixpack has been denied a "seat at the table' when there are, in fact, plenty of empty chairs waiting to be filled. 
3. The average citizen has also never even tried to speak with their local/city commissioner.  Until recently, I was guilty of this myself.  Before I became involved, I never dreamed that my local officials would actually answer my phone calls and listen to what I had to say, but then, I had never actually tried.  Once I started, I was amazed to learn that not only were my local officials listening to me, I actually had a disproportionately influential voice because I was one of the few in my community who even tried to speak to them. 

Anyone who finds themselves persuaded by Amendment 4's supporters that they need to vote "Yes" on Amendment 4 to "give them a voice" or to "give them a seat at the table" should take a hard look in the mirror, and ask themselves "have I ever attended a planning board or commission meeting?  Have I ever spoken with my local commissioner about land use issues?"

If your answer to these questions is "No", then you can't vote in favor of Amendment 4 based on a belief that you have no voice, or that you don't have a seat at the table, because that is simply untrue: you do have a voice and a seat at the table, but you simply haven't spent the time and energy to use them. 

At this point, the Hometown Democracy supporters who follow this blog [ Hi Jill :) whasup George! ] may fume and say "what, are you saying there isn't a problem?  What else are the people supposed to do?  Do you expect us to just give up?"   And to these questions I would say Yes, of course there is a problem, but the problem is not that folks don't have a voice, and the answer to the problem is not a constitutional amendment like Amendment 4.   Do folks need to get energized and "take control" if they don't like the direction their leaders are taking their cities?  Absolutely!  But the answer is for folks to work to elect better officials, and to be more engaged with their officials. 

Believe it or not, this is what worked in St. Pete Beach in 2006.  Anti-development folks were opposed to the comp plan that the city had approved, and they repealed it in a city referendum vote.  They also elected two commissioners to the city commission.  Of course, that was the election where they also narrowly passed the city's Amendment 4-style rules, and that's what gets most of the attention in the tale of St. Pete Beach.  But aside from the A4 measure (which was overkill), the system actually worked in St. Pete Beach because the people were able to elect officials they wanted and were able to repeal comp plan changes that they opposed...there was no need for the more sweeping A4 rules that have caused so much trouble in St. Pete Beach.

Click Here to see more analysis of the flaws in Amendment 4 / Hometown Democracy, including "Why Comp Plans Should Not be on the Ballot" and "Why Amendment 4 Does Require Special Elections."