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The Martin County

 

  Defender

 

– No. 58

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

– Other than the expressways and U.S. 1, what is the most heavily traveled road in Martin County?

 

 

 

 

According to the Florida Department of Transportation 2007 report, the highest AADT (Annual Average Daily Traffic) Two-Way vehicle count is for “SR714 /

 

 

 

 

Reflections on THE BRIDGE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s easy to switch political parties

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

135 SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

just off Colorado in Stuart. Their phone is 772-288-5637.

 

 

click on “Voter Info/Education,” then click on “Update Your Registration.” That gives you the Voter Application Form you need to change party. Click on the easy answers and “Preferred Party” (Republican in the example). That’s all there is to it. Remember, you can always switch back to your original party status after the primary.

 

 

 

 

In the General Election from Oct. 20 to Nov. 1, 2008, you can vote for any candidates in any party. The party switch for the Aug. 11-23 primary is just to help the best candidates get on the final ballot. That can be as important as voting in the general election.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Martin County

  Defender

The e-newsletter for aware citizens – No. 55

 

INSIDE STORY:  

The whole truth about how two Martin County Consensus entities came to be

 

In addition to editing this news and advocacy e-newsletter, I have been serving Martin County citizens with my non-advocacy Martin County Consensus. I have been focusing on the future with the intent of leaving the past behind. Unfortunately, some former associates have been spreading false information. So, reluctantly, I am pressed to break my silence by revealing the entire inside history so residents will be honestly informed.

 

PLANTING THE SEED: Late in 2006, Tom Fullman invited a number of slow-growth advocates to a series of informal meetings. The purpose was to organize an effort to control sprawl and to improve the quality of life in Martin County. We hacked out a list of 15 position summaries that included environmental protection, infrastructure concurrency, airport, and affordable housing, among others. A small leadership group emerged to implement these aims.

 

BIRTH OF “CONSENSUS” NAME: I conceived the name Martin County Consensus, and told others in the group that I planned to open a post office box and register the name to protect it.  On Jan. 12, 2007 I registered it with the Florida Department of State as a “fictitious name,” the legal terminology for such unincorporated businesses as, say, Acme Widgit Company.

 

THE CORPORATION IS FORMED: The group decided to incorporate as Martin County Consensus, Inc. The paperwork was completed on April 5, 2007, and I was designated in the Articles of Incorporation as the “Incorporator.”  The three-person initial Board of Directors included Bill Summers, Lynne Pine and me. Fullman was not included because it was presumed that he would be a District 1 commission candidate, and it would not look good. (Pine, a most principled person, later resigned because she saw the corporation functioning as an election vehicle for Fullman. For good reason, Fullman may not be a candidate.)

 

FIGHT OVER THE BYLAWS: The first hint of internal tensions came with the adoption of a set of bylaws, a set that would provide for a nine member board. I fought to have all directors elected by the members. Others in the group voted me down by insisting on a self-appointing, self-perpetuating board responsible only to themselves. I thought this elitist, a view not well received in the inner group.

 

The legally required certification of the bylaws was never completed, opening the current board to questioned legitimacy, but we plunged ahead. Currently, five of the earlier nine directors are no longer with Consensus, Inc. if we are to believe the filing with the state; or four are gone if we are to believe the website of Consensus, Inc.

 

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS: The final membership application form not only required applicants to pay a $25 fee, it also required them to answer if they “support all of the Position Summaries.”  On a case by case basis, those who did not affirm this loyalty oath type of inquiry could be rejected – and there was rejection. In 2007, there were only a few dozen members.

 

A STIFLING ATMOSPHERE EMERGES: By mid-2007, the original bonhomie and enthusiasm was waning. There was the imposition of a gag rule that was intended to prevent board members from repeating anything said or seen at a meeting, even if it had nothing to do with Consensus, Inc. or any individual. President Summers (Fullman was chairman, I was secretary) not only insisted that only he could talk to the press as official Consensus, Inc. representative – which was OK – but he said no one could talk to the press even unofficially. I was not about to give up my free speech rights. Also, I did not like the hateful comments flying around about political foes.

 

EXTERNAL ISSUES BREED DISCOMFORT. When, at a public meeting of the Martin County Commission, President Summers tore up an ad by Commissioner Valliere, advanced on the dais and threw the scraps down before her, some of us were concerned how that affected our image. Most of the Consensus, Inc. directors exhibited a feckless attitude about reaching out to support other allied groups, one of our key aims. For example, when a Jensen Beach group mounted a protest at the bridge and asked for Consensus, Inc. help, only one director appeared. Me.

 

INTERNAL IMPROPRIETIES: We were fighting hard against the Valliere Rural Cluster Amendment. After board member Dave Shore received a letter from Jim Valliere that his commissioner wife’s support of the WAAM airport position (Shore is president of WAAM) would be jeopardized, he kept quiet about clustering. Perhaps some will think that there is no problem there. Shore resigned from the board, but still kept sitting in on the board meetings as if there had been no resignation. He was able to do this because Summers and Fullman kept the resignation secret from the rest of the board! The three of them did not like it when I told them how outrageous  and improper that failure to inform was. How could they be trusted again?

 

COORDINATION SLOWLY VANISHING: Toward the end of 2007, another person, not a board member, and I arranged for Florida Hometown Democracy co-author Leslie Blackner to be the speaker at one of our forums. Summers said he would arrange a press conference, and did not need my help despite my extensive  experience with press conferences. Summers set it up. Nobody came. I did the newspaper ad, extensive online promotion, flyers, etc., and we packed in a full house at the Blake Library on Dec.3.

 

THE FINAL BLOW: Early in 2008, the proposed FAA agreement for Witham Field became a public issue. Independent of Consensus, Inc., I did a survey of Martin County residents to learn resident attitudes toward the agreement. When Shore found out about it, he insisted I not publish it. As a lifetime journalist, I believed that the public had a right to know the survey results, and refused to spike the piece.

 

Shore contacted Summers, who called for a special meeting at his house, not the attorney office we usually meet in. When I asked Summers what the purpose of the meeting was, he said he did not have to tell me. So within the week that I sent out survey questionnaires, and before anyone knew the results because they had not yet been compiled, Fullman, Summers and Shore rammed through my removal by a slim majority because I did not obey Shore’s demand to suppress the report. If they had wanted to concoct a barely credible excuse, they could have waited until the report was completed.

 

SINCE THAT DAY: In the half year since the successful Hometown Democracy forum, the only thing of note that Consensus, Inc. has done is a lunch at which a U.S. attorney said that if we have evidence of corruption, to give it to him. There is nothing there that illuminates Martin County’s daily concerns. Consensus, Inc. used to reach out to everyone, but the posted invitation stated that the lunch was being held “at an undisclosed location,” and that attendance was “by invitation only.”

 

LOOKING AHEAD: It is more in sadness than anger that I look back on the unfulfilled potential and decline of Consensus, Inc. Condemnation of their board is not all-inclusive. There have been some very competent and ethical people, like Paul Shidel and Jay Honan, with whom I have been proud to work.

 

There is a sense of relief though because it was stifling for me to have to contend regularly with the antics and petty tyranny of a political cell. I look forward to serving the people of Martin County with my Consensus, whose stated mission is “To promote the free exchange of ideas and opinions.”  Currently our efforts are directed toward impartial, non-lobbying surveys that reveal to all residents what our neighbors are thinking about important county related issues. No one else, certainly not Consensus, Inc., is doing that.

 

Separate and apart from the information Consensus will provide, the Martin County Defender will continue to deliver to several thousand of your computers the no-nonsense informed advocacy and news that have served readers for the past 54 issues.

 

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Mark your calendars

 

That indomitable organization that fights to preserve our environment, the Martin County Conservation Alliance, will be sponsoring two candidate debates at the Blake Library at 6:00 pm:

 

Monday, July 21, 2008 – Candidates for county commission, Districts 1, 3 and 5.

 

Monday, August 11, 2008 – Candidates for two House of Representative districts.

 

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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                                  5/19/08

 

Readers may post, forward and distribute this issue of Defender without limit

 

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The Martin County

  Defender

The e-newsletter for aware citizens – No. 54

 

CRA Developers 1 – Motorists 0

 

COMMISSION APPROVAL OF TCEA EXEMPTION WILL CREATE MORE TRAFFIC JAMS

 

To understand this story fully, let’s look at a few definitions:

“Concurrency” is one of the guiding legal principles for achieving growth that does not ruin our quality of life. Concurrency requires that for any development to be approved, the public infrastructure needed to support that development must be in place or scheduled to be in place when the development occurs.

“Level Of Service” or LOS, is a measure of when the required public service is concurrent. This story relates to automobile traffic, so there are numbers, like cars per hour, that define the LOS. Reducing the LOS, or exceeding the traffic load,  means that there are more cars than the road was supposed to handle.

“Community Redevelopment Area (CRA)” is a selected area in which some normal development and zoning rules are changed to allow greater density and intensity, thereby encouraging development. Tax gains are plowed back into the CRA. Originally, the concept was to revive blighted areas. Then it was broadened to include older neighborhoods in decline, or in need of revitalization. In each CRA, there is a Neighborhood Advisory Committee (NAC) appointed by the commission to represent the CRA residents. Often NACs are dominated by pro-developer people who own businesses and property in the CRA.

We admire CRA goals. It was good to hear NAC chairmen and Countywide Committee director Jeff Oris discuss the following subjects at their 4/30/08 meeting: sewer lines; landscaping; parking spaces; sidewalks, building improvement, cleanup; road resurfacing; stormwater retention; and affordable housing. Such urban infill  upgrades that revitalize neighborhoods make much more sense than rural clusters or extending utilities beyond the primary urban services boundary.

HOWEVER …..

….. when CRA development objectives over-ride quality of life considerations for residents both in and out of the CRA, it’s time to say STOP!

What happens when the traffic load on roadways in the CRA is greater than the LOS allowed? Common sense would tell you that you can keep building if you cut back on development density or the type of development. However, that would not please the developers enjoying more accommodating rules in the CRA. So, as the old joke goes, you don’t have to raise the bridge; just lower the river.

In essence, that is the kind of thinking that the Martin County Commission did on April 29, 2008. They approved a “TCEA” – Transportation Concurrency Exception Area comp plan amendment (CPA #08-11) for the 800-acre Port Salerno CRA. This essentially wipes out concurrency requirements for road LOS, taking a limit off the maximum amount of homes, stores and factories that can be built in the CRA. And there is no sunset or time limit on this abandonment of sensible transportation planning.

They put a little lipstick on that pig, with vague requirements about monitoring, seeking alternative transportation modes, and identifying traffic issues at some future date. However, TCEA still means traffic jams. So the greater opportunities for developers in the CRA is bought at the price of reduced quality of life for drivers. To Commissioner Valliere, who voted for TCEA along with DiTerlizzi, Smith and Weberman, “It’s a sacrifice we all have to make.” Really!

DiTerlizzi demonstrated his sympathy for the motorists stuck in traffic when he said: “If you don’t want to sit in traffic, then don’t go downtown.” But what about the many residents who must pass through downtown? There are about 16,000 vehicles on Dixie Highway passing through Port Salerno every day. Not only will even greater traffic caused by development be a Port Salerno bottleneck, but it will adversely impact feeder roads inside and outside the CRA.

Commissioner Heard, who voted against the TCEA, pointed out several serious shortcomings with this CPA. A couple of them were addressed by modifying the proposal, but most were ignored. Why these flaws were not recognized by county staff, the consultant or the other commissioners is a puzzle worth pondering.

THE TRAFFIC MESS GOES COUNTYWIDE

If the traffic problem were limited to Port Salerno, it would be bad enough. However, based on Florida Statute 163, Part III, the Martin County Commission set up the Countywide Community Redevelopment Plan years ago with the Commissioners sitting as the CRA Board. Seven older neighborhoods were designated as suitable for redevelopment: Port Salerno, Jensen Beach, Hobe Sound, Rio, Golden Gate, Old Palm City and Indiantown.

The county staff report notes that “within the County’s seven CRAs, staff noted that the roads were physically or policy constrained similar to SE Dixie Highway.” So we can expect some or all of the other CRAs to come up with TCEA proposals, causing traffic jams all across the county. Before too long the score will be:

CRA Developers 7 – Motorists 0

 

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_{CofC activities not Rose-y in Jensen Beach}

Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce Exec Director Ron Rose sent an e-mail to members concerning your editor’s recent Martin County Consensus poll of 1,500 county residents. Poll results were published in the Stuart News (“Citizen report card flunks County Commission”) on 4/24/08, and in Defender issue No. 53. By design or accident, Mr. Rose failed to send his memo to certain CofC members who oppose Commissioner Doug Smith.

Without a shred of evidence, Mr. Rose erroneously claimed that “the sample does not appear to be representative of the opinions held by Martin County voters at large and may have been skewed to reflect the group’s political agenda.” In addition, Mr. Rose asked members to report to him if they had received our Consensus questionnaire.

To be helpful in case few members responded to his request, I made the following offer to Mr. Rose because his members were fully represented in the poll sample: “If you let me know the e-mails who report that they received my questionnaire, I will give you a batch of addresses of your members who received them, but did not report it to you.”

Mr. Rose has not yet responded to my offer.

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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                                  5/3/08

 

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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