Martin County Defender - No 70
September 15th, 2008
The Martin County
Defender
The e-newsletter for aware citizens – No. 70
PARAPHRASING SENATOR JOE LIEBERMAN:
“County matters more than party!”
A strong two-party system provides stability nationally. However, in local matters, political parties do not play such an important role. After all, what social, cultural, economic and philosophical differences are there about fixing a pothole? That is why many communities across the nation have made elections non-partisan.
Rather than voting for a local candidate just because of his or her party label, it makes better sense to vote for the person on the basis of record, character and qualifications, as well as position on issues. The worst reasons to vote for a candidate are the non-binding promises to do this and improve that.
When we vote for one of the 100 senators and 435 congressional representatives, we are voting for 0.019% of the legislative body. When we vote for a county commissioner, we are voting for 20% of that body. So it pays to focus on the individual at election time.
After considerable thought and examination, I have chosen the candidates in Commission Districts 1 and 3 whom I’ll vote for. It was not an easily made choice, because the race is not between an angel and a devil. It’s between well-intentioned individuals - not necessarily equally desirable individuals - vying for both the power and the opportunity to serve.
DISTRICT 1 CHOICE
In District 1, I will vote for Joan Wilcox , a long time Republican running as a No Party Affiliation (NPA) candidate. The primary reason for this decision is that the county is desperately in need of experienced financial management experience. Her credentials in this regard are far superior to those of her opponents.
Ms. Wilcox has a fair chance to win if the almost 50% of Republicans who voted in the primary for Copeland (Wilcox and Copeland positions on issues are essentially the same) are joined by more of the 21% of voters who are Independents. Furthermore, realistic Democrats who recognize that the Democratic candidate has little chance to win, may wish to vote for Wilcox rather than split the vote to allow the fast-growth, pro-cluster incumbent to be re-elected. Only Wilcox has a chance to win against Smith.
DISTRICT 3 CHOICE
In District 3, I will vote for Martha Bennett, a Democrat. The main reason is that line-in-the-sand issue: The Valliere Rural Cluster Amendment. Bennett will work to rescind it, while her opponent will support it.
Ms. Bennett has a fair chance to win if she can gain the votes, not only of Democrats and Independents, but those same Republicans who supported Copeland in District 1.
ELECTION CONSEQUENCES
Unlike the Primary Election, the November General Election is open. Any voter can vote for any candidate, irrespective of party affiliation or lack thereof. A vote for Wilcox and Bennett is a vote for change. Why do we need change? Well, consider what the present Commission has caused or failed to anticipate: The closing of parks; the reduced library hours; the staff layoffs; negatively impacted residential neighborhoods; the eroded Comp Plan; and developers poised to sprawl into western county as soon as the real estate market turns up. Change for the better is vitally needed ….. and it’s achievable if we recognize that “County matters more than party.”
GRIM IRONY DEPARTMENT: Some pro-Fullman slow growth advocates did not raise a finger to increase the vote foo Henry Copeland when he could have beaten Smith (Copeland lost the Republican District 1 Commission primary by only 188 votes). Now they are hand-wringing, crying because they can’t muster enough support for their candidate. Well, boo hoo!
Nasty shenanigans by Commission majority
Lovely Peck Lake Park would be closed for want of $10,000/yr to operate it. The park is located in District 4, represented by Sarah Heard. All commissioners have a reserve, funded by a district tax. How to spend this reserve is at the commissioner’s discretion, subject to Commission approval. Heard has retained almost $2 million.
So some people, including a Stuart News scribbler and Commissioner Weberman, more or less accused Heard of unreasonably withholding the money that would keep the park open. Here’s what really happened previously: To embarrass Heard, Commissioners DiTerlizzi, Weberman and Valliere initially prevented her reserve money from being spent on two other District 4 parks. Their hollow argument was that she wouldn’t be the district commissioner forever. Yep, it’s the same bunch that does not let Heard rotate to the chairmanship.
This story still has a good ending in spite of the political shenanigans. Finally, because of adverse publicity, the Commission voted to allow Heard to allot $20,000 to keep the Peck Lake Park running for the next two years. Separately, instead of using her district reserve as a tool for political influence, Heard has allocated $200,000 for work on an apartment building to house 40 homeless and working poor women, and up to 80 homeless children.
Is 2% the magic number for growth?
Mr. H, one of our critical but friendly readers, has been asking me some reasonable questions: Why are we always urging slower growth? Isn’t our recent 2% annual rate slow enough? Do I have some other growth rate in mind? And implied: Why not be more receptive to faster development? Here is our answer:
Perhaps you think a 2% growth rate should immunize fast growthers from criticism. Not so. Broward once had a low growth rate. The issue is what are influential fast growth forces poised to do if we give them the opportunity. We’ve seen the home building overstock in anticipation of faster growth. We’ve seen public utilities going west to accommodate developers. We’ve seen clustering to induce sprawl and higher taxpayer infrastructure cost. We’ve seen reduced Level of Service traffic to accommodate more construction. We’ve seen zoning and land use regs changed to benefit you-know-who. We’ve seen residential neighborhoods punished for being close to where industry wants to build. We’ve seen commissioners saying yes yes yes to the Comp Plan eroding growth machine that feeds their campaign treasuries.
If you want to stave off the damage of an impending hurricane, you don’t start taking action when the winds hit. You start as soon as you see the direction the storm is heading. Our Comp Plan provides for the kind of growth that will not ruin our quality of life, whatever the growth percentage.
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Al
Al Forman, Editor 9//13/08
The Martin County Defender is published and Copyright 2008 by WordsmithAmerica, Box 1828, Palm City, FL 34991. All rights reserved. No part of this issue may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for public or private use, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. NOTICE: All correspondence not bearing legal copyright notice which is sent to the Defender or its editor is subject to being edited and published.
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