Martin County Defender: No. 62

The Martin County

Defender

The e-newsletter for aware citizens – No. 62

District 81 primary for state representative

IT MATTERS BECAUSE LEGISLATORS TOO OFTEN THWART THE WILL OF RESIDENTS IN ORDER TO BENEFIT THEIR PAY-TO-PLAY SUPPORTERS

State Representative District 81 is shaped like a Gerrymandersaurus. The neck starts in Indiantown, the head is in Port St. Lucie, the nose is at Jensen Beach and Sewall’s Point, and the open jaw is at I-95 west of Palm City.

Stuart down to Tequesta and west are in uncontested District 82. It has no primary for Democrat Catherine Hilton and incumbent Republican William Snyder.

However, in District 81 both Republicans and Democrats face primaries. Here is a quick once-over of the candidates in District 81.

Republicans

Michael DiTerlizzi is the heavy favorite here …. unfortunately. He has name recognition and a campaign chest overflowing with large donations, totaling over $54,000 as of 3/31/08. His dominant contributors are from the real estate and development sector, plus attorneys who have appeared before him when he was sitting as a commissioner. The attorneys plead for zoning and Comp Plan changes to benefit their clients, and DiTerlizzi has usually been agreeable. The State House of Representatives is loaded with such reps (eg., they turned down DCA Secretary Tom Pelham’s plea for even a minimal Citizen’s Bill of Rights because the developer-business interests did not want it). Do we need to send one more of that brand to Tallahassee?

Jeff Gorman has a campaign bank account as thin as a supermodel. He does not answer written questions, so we don’t know much about him.

Danny “Dr. J” Jazarevic is a surgeon living in Stuart. He has a highly respected history of army and public service. Unfortunately he has a thin campaign bank account at this date. Still he is a better candidate than DiTerlizzi.

Democrats

Bill Ramos, a Jensen Beach resident who works in Martin County, is the people’s candidate. He ran previously for state rep, and lost, but not by much. His campaign treasury of about $9,000 as of 3/31/08 is made up almost entirely of small contributions, typically $10 or $50, from ordinary local citizens - not the smart money boys. People are anxious to have their voices heard in Tallahassee, heard over the deafening whispers of overpaid lobbyists. Ramos deserves our votes.

Adam Fetterman, a politically well-connected personal injury lawyer, is the lawyer’s candidate. Much of the more than $72,000 contributed to his campaign by 3/31/08 has come from other lawyers in $500 gobs, very little of it from Martin County. Big bucks from Palm Beach and Broward Counties. He lists his address as Port St. Lucie to qualify in District 81, but an online address search indicates he really lives in Palm Beach County. Lawyer-representative inspired liability and other laws often burden ordinary citizens and businesses. Let’s not add to that mess by sending Fetterman to the legislature.

Green Party candidate Kristina Wright is also running. FYI: Presidential candidate of the Green Party is expected to be hatred-filled former US rep Cynthia McKinney.

NOTE: The next candidate campaign report, covering contributions to 7/18/08, is due on 7/25/08.

Party change deadline is approaching

July 28 is the last day to change your party affiliation in order to vote in the primary. In DEFENDER Issues 60 and 61, we showed how easy it is to switch temporarily from Independent or Democrat to Republican. It’s worth doing for this primary election. Any voting questions, call the Supervisor of Elections at (772) 288-5637. They are very helpful. It’s not that I don’t like Democrats - on the contrary I plan to vote for Democrats Bill Ramos and Martha Bennett in the general election.

However, one Republican candidate in Commission District 1 (Henry Copeland) and one in District 5 (Ian Pollack) have the best chance to win against developer-funded opponents. They have the widest backing. Their victories would get the Commission off the bad track of eroding our wonderful Comp Plan, allowing monstrous warehouses next to homes, and promoting rural clustering to benefit developers and large landowners, while citizens pick up the extra infrastructure tax burden.

Victories by Copeland and Pollack will allow county government to focus on quality of life issues that affect all residents. Let’s not split the good-guy vote as we did so self-destructively four years ago. This is a subtle hint to two good, but not likely to win, candidates: Hockey and Born.

NO MORE 2004

Economic times are not good, but panic giveaways will make the problem worse

Many folks have been hard hit by the economic slowdown, including a home foreclosure and declining businesses owned by people close to me. It’s a painful national problem. One little county can not turn it around instantly any more than one person on a beach can hold back the tide. Certainly shifting the financial burden to present residents to bring in new business is not the answer. And giving away the protections that have made Martin County such a desirable place to live is surely not a solution.

Shouting jobs-jobs-jobs as justification to Browardize Martin is worse than foolish. Developer-influenced Commissioner Michael DiTerlizzi has even stated on the record that jobs are more important than pollution! Cough cough. This is a time that slow-growth and fast-growth advocates should be working together cooperatively to help present residents and businesses, while preserving our quality of life.

CRITICIZING MARTIN’S ECONOMY IS BS

It is tempting to some to make it sound like Martin County is a basket case in order to convince us that we should adopt changes that benefit their own self interest. Don’t be misled. Martin County has the highest wages in Florida for counties our size, and the highest on the Treasure Coast. We have lower unemployment (5.6%) than St. Lucie County (7.6%) and Indian River County (7.2%). We have one of the best school systems in the entire state. Our crime rate is low, and western sprawl has (so far) been avoided.

Furthermore, manufacturing jobs in Martin are higher, as a percentage of all jobs, than St. Lucie and Palm Beach Counties, as well as higher than the state average. And our tax millage rate of 13.5892 is a better business attractor than the 19.2848 in fast-growth St. Lucie County (plus 4.2625 for the City of Port St. Lucie - for a total 23.5473 that is 73% higher than Martin County).

The clincher is the recent finding by business-oriented Forbes magazine, which studied every county in the U.S. with more than 65,000 population. It found that Martin County is the 11^th best county in the nation to raise a family! The only other Florida county to be listed is Sarasota in19th place. Why the heck would some people want to change our growth/economic model from one of the best in the nation? Well maybe we do know why. Wink wink.

So it would be wise to ignore those who badmouth Martin’s economy for their own purposes. Instead of pushing a selfish agenda of change, let’s come together in a constructive way to find how we can do, at least something, to make matters better without ruining our future.

3 commissioners drive down home values

Rocky Point resident Jay Honan reports that a potential homebuyer in Connecticut wants to speak to him about the effect of a giant Hinckley warehouse to be built next to neighborhood homes. Will this drive down those home sale prices? You can bet the farm it will. We can thank Commissioners Smith, DiTerlizzi and Weberman for this financial disaster. They voted to approve the warehouse even though a mountain of evidence showed that they shouldn’t. Why did they do so? You get one gue$$.

IT’S ABOUT ETHICS AND BUILDER-DEVELOPER CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

Can we learn from another county?

Loudon County, VA supervisors have voted overwhelmingly to bar themselves from accepting campaign contributions from builders and others with proposals before their board. It is part of a broad effort to restore public confidence in a body that some have viewed as too close to the development community, according to a Washington Post report.

Loudon Supervisor Lori Waters (R) said it was a necessary step even though it would put incumbents at a disadvantage when running for reelection against challengers without such limitations.

All in favor of such a rule for Martin County, please raise your hands.

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Al Forman, Editor 7/14/08

Box 1828, Palm City, FL 34991

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