Stopped Clocks

Let’s put this time zone question to bed.

Nothing is going to change in the county, regardless the results of a non-binding referendum next year.

The referendum will ask voters a two-part question, in short whether the county should unify under Eastern Time or whether it should be unified under Central Time.

However, once that little exercise is complete, though, that will be it and the clocks around the county will remain set as they are because, simply, the status quo is what the Board of County Commissioners favor.

History is a perfect guide and though he probably was making a separate point, Commissioner Bill Williams provided the directional arrow for any doubting Thomases out there during a commission meeting last week.

As Mr. Williams noted, there is nothing wrong with commissioners hearing the voice of the people.

Even when that voice is disregarded as with the 2004 referendum on county-wide voting that found that voters overwhelmingly supported an end to single-member districts while commissioners – ah, not so much.

Some perspective is in order.

Matt Bullard, the government and economics teacher at Wewahitchka High School whose class got the uproar started with a petition drive for unifying under Central Time, should be applauded by all those who bemoan the disappearance of basic civics instruction in public schools.

What Mr. Bullard set out to do, with no hidden agenda that can be discerned though many have nailed one to him, was teach his students about the process of petitioning the government.

This a fundamental lesson in American civics, of the process within a democratic Republic for citizens to petition its government for redress.

This was part of an overarching theme of his curriculum of looking through history at the ways, and the reasons, that the citizenry has taken steps to jolt government awake or highlight a particular grievance.

This was part of a lesson plan that reached centuries.

That Mr. Bullard could somehow provide a practical application, a hands-on demonstration of how that process might work in today’s political climate is a tribute to him and his students, who literally seemed to take the petition and run with it.

This is the kind of educational atmosphere that fosters those “A” schools, improving test scores and recognition as a high-performing district that Gulf County Schools has rightly earned.

If the one-mill operating levy for schools passed earlier this year by voters was about anything, it was maintaining that quality of education.

To question Mr. Bullard’s motives, to question his ethics or teaching style, to question anything about what is a class assignment made translatable for today’s students, well, that is to miss the point.

So commissioners were correct and justified in accepting the petitions, whether or not they have questions about the validity of signatures, and putting the question before voters, as was requested by Mr. Bullard and his students.

That commissioners subtly changed the fundamental question – which is on par with questioning the signatures – to transform a single question into an even more polarizing one in that it would, if carried out according to voters’ wishes, force a time zone on one section of the county or the other simply provides Mr. Bullard with another lesson plan.

Because the only winners in a polarized county are commissioners, as has been amply demonstrated since the 2004 vote on county-wide voting, which in the ensuing five years has led to flip-flops, false statements, sideshows and stops and starts signifying nothing.

There is no such thing as a binding referendum: commissioners, as they have proved since 2004, will do what they want as they desire.

To assert that it is a good thing to hear from the voters is disingenuous and hypocritical when commissioners have demonstrated they will cast their votes – or do nothing – as long as it furthers their agenda, voters be darned.

That was underscored once again several weeks ago when city and county commissioners met in a workshop to discuss the proposed expansion of the Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency into the neighborhood known as North Port St. Joe.

Commissioners present, city and county, agreed that it was time to end the concept of a “north” and “south” Port St. Joe, that it was all one Port St. Joe and should be henceforth.

Three county commissioners seconded that emotion, including the board chair whose name is on the federal lawsuit that created single-member districts.

But while there was unanimous – at least at that table on that day – agreement that the boundaries dividing Port St. Joe should fall, the irony that the county remains divided, polarized, by boundaries fostered by county commissioners who hold tight to the philosophy of “my” district seemed apparent only to those whose jobs do not hinge on those dividing lines.

Divided city? Not okay. Divided county? Okay.

At a time when solidarity and unity of community seems a prerequisite in facing this ever-challenging world, county commissioners unapologetically see beauty in division.

They can talk all they want about traveling to one another’s district, about looking at the county as a whole, at hearing the voice of the people, but until commissioners heed the will of the people etched boldly in 2004 all those words are smoke and mirrors.

As we all learned at a young age and not necessarily in a classroom – actions speak louder than words.