Sailfish City - Stuart Florida Community Site

Stuart Maintstreet is hosting the 9th Annual Antique Show at the Flagler Recreation center in Downtown Stuart, March 15th & 16th from 9:00AM to 5:00PM, call 772-220-4600 for details.

Stuart Mainstreet and the Lyric Theatre present the musical “A Salute to the Irish” by the Stuart Concert Band on Monday, March 17th at 7:00PM, call 772-220-1942 for show details.

Florida’s sandhill cranes are a threatened species that are found in inland shallow freshwater marshes, prairies, pastures and farmlands.  Sandhill cranes are usually seen in small family groups or pairs.

 Florida’s sandhill population is year round but the number of sandhill cranes in Florida increases in the winter as the Northern migratory sandhills come down.  The Florida sandhills are more rare than their Northern cousins, but are not considered endangered like other Southern Sandhill populations, including Mississippi and Cuban sandhills.

This particular family of Sandhills was spotted just yesterday afternoon in a Stuart development known as Martin’s Crossing.  This area has shallow water and preservation areas that are the natural habitat for these large birds.  The cranes wade in the water but do not fish like other water birds, they instead eat things such as seeds, tubers, lizards, frogs and crayfish to name a few.

 Like their endangered cousins the whooping cranes, these large birds live longer than most bird species, some living up to 20 years.

The Martin County

  Defender

The e-newsletter for aware citizens – No. 47

Time to adopt charter government

in Martin County

Ø   What is it?

Ø   Why do we need it?

Ø   Who has it?

Ø   How do we get it?

WHAT IS CHARTER GOVERNMENT?

Charter government allows Florida counties to establish True Home Rule. It gives the Board of County Commissioners greater independence from the Florida Legislature. At the same time, it empowers voters to have a greater say in how their counties operate. Charters, which function like a County Constitution, provide initiative procedures that allow voters to create and amend local laws. Charters also provide voters with a process to recall county commissioners. The charter for each county is customized to carry out the governmental needs and desires of that county, consistent with state law.

WHY DO WE NEED IT?

The citizens of Florida have been disenfranchised by the nonfeasance and connivance of officials throughout the state. [See “Anti-Democracy Officials Beat Hometown Democracy” below.]

The citizens of Martin County have been disenfranchised by the arrogant determination of three commissioners – Valliere, Smith and DiTerlizzi – to defy the public will because they have the power to do so. We refer to their refusal to allow even a non-binding referendum on the radical change instituted by the Valliere Rural Cluster Amendment to our Comprehensive Plan – a refusal that suits the developer interests that fund their political campaigns.

The City of Stuart, roiled by a bitter controversy over fluoridation, settled the issue by referendum. Even though polls, supported by thousands of citizen letters, e-mails, phone calls and personal appearances before county boards, prove that the great majority of residents oppose western clustering, the bare 3-to-2 majority on the County Commission refuses to listen to the voices of those who elected them.

In a charter government, the voters would have the final say. The issue is greater than just clusters, however. Other issues will come up in the coming years, and we should trust the collective wisdom of the people over that of indebted politicians.

WHO HAS CHARTERS?

There are 19 charter counties in Florida. Collectively, these counties are home to more than 75% of the state’s residents. They range from Columbia County, with 61,466 residents in 2006, to Miami-Dade with 2,422,075.

The charters are not cookie cutter products. Each is tailored to what that county wants. Some affect the status of constitutional officers; most do not. Some make certain elections non-partisan. Some provide for recall, others do not. Comparing two nearby counties, for example, indicates a few differences. In Brevard, an ordinance can be proposed by petition of 5% of voters; in Palm Beach it’s 7%. If the commission does not approve, the proposal goes to referendum.

HOW DO WE GET A CHARTER?

It ain’t easy!

To adopt a charter form of government requires approval of a majority of voters. To get to that point, pro-charter advocates have difficult obstacles to overcome. First, a Charter Commission must be established via one of two possible routes. Either the County Commission may appoint such a body by resolution, or it may be required by the petition of 15% of the county’s voters.

Martin County has 48,679 Republican voters, 27,294 Democrats, and 19,941 other. So 15% of the 95,914 total would require petitions by 14,387 voters. Or else it would require the courage and foresight of elected commissioners to trust residents enough to give up some power to them. That rules out the present commission.

After the Charter Commission studies what is best for the county, it submits a charter draft to the County Commission, which must then call a special election. If approved, the charter can be amended only by the voters. If the voters disapprove, no new referendum may be held for two years.

Two questions worth asking commission candidates in 2008

1 – Will you vote to appoint a Charter Commission if elected?

2 – Will you vote to rescind the Valliere Rural Cluster Amendment if elected?

Anti-democracy officials beat

Hometown Democracy

Some 814,000 Florida residents signed petitions to put the Hometown Democracy Constitutional Amendment on the ballot. The State Division of Elections will not update their website to show how many valid petitions were submitted before the Feb. 1, 2008 deadline until it has certifications from the 67 Supervisors of Elections with the latest counts. There are no plans to ask for those certifications anytime soon.

Florida is virtually the only state where the deadline for filing petitions is the same as the date that they have to be certified. Some petitions were counted as late as Feb. 1, while others submitted as early as Jan. 2 were not counted. The legislature created a signature revocation process that the state made retroactive for 150 days. It directed that revocation petitions be counted first.

It’s time to muck out the political stable.

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For a free subscription to The Martin County Defender, send request with “Subscribe” in the subject line to:

mc-defender@comcast.net

Comments and requests to unsubscribe may be sent to this same address.

Al

Al Forman, Editor                                  3/11/08

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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