The Campaign Issue

As two county commissioners again abstained last week from a vote pertaining to the Deepwater Horizon oil leak, they underscored the need for county voters to have their county back.

All of it.

As it is, voters in Gulf County have one-fifth of the county and given that commissioners have clearly demonstrated their conflicted agendas in recent weeks, voters have only one assurance open to them when it comes to having a voice in the county’s future – a vote on all five seats on the Board of County Commissioners.

Leave aside the yawning questions concerning the actions of commissioners in response to this oil leak.

Leave aside the legal agreement to sue British Petroleum that was rescinded a week later on a 2-0 vote because three commissioners or their relatives were directly employed under BP’s response to the leak.

Leave aside the perception of commissioners appearing to perceive the oil leak as a money-maker, and how their decision pertaining to legal action against BP may compromise future litigation the county may need to undertake to recoup damages.

And put aside the perception that one commissioner and his 25-foot river skiff somehow reached the front of the line in the Vessels of Opportunity program that anecdotal evidence clearly shows was not an opportunity for all, particularly out of work fishermen across the region.

Instead, examine the current state of county government and how that may be impacted by the oil spill.

County commissioners last week expressed deep concern about the budget process ahead of them. Property values are estimated to drop by the same 24 percent or so that values dropped last year, nearly a quarter of the ad valorem revenue wiped out.

There will be cuts, there will be jobs lost and there will be sacrifices.

And that is not taking into account the economic fallout from the Deepwater Horizon incident.

While oil has not appeared on Gulf County shores – the Tourist Development Council’s campaign of the “Coast is Clear” continues to hold water – there is little doubt that the question is more “when” than “if.”

And the economic impacts to small businesses, restaurants, vacation rental companies could be significant, particularly when considering that the bulk of property and sales taxes collected in the county are collected on the south end, in Districts 3 and 5, in close proximity to the beaches.

The ripple effect could be even more dramatic.

Last week the Gulf County School Board speculated that they are likely to see the trend of declining enrollment continue as families are forced out of the county due to job losses from the oil leak.

The county’s population has remained nearly static over the last decade but that could significantly change given the approach of oil and the potential loss of jobs and paychecks in its wake.

Trying times lay ahead, not only now as a region is effectively held hostage by BP and its disaster in the gulf, but also in the future as the impacts from the leak become reality on our beaches and pristine ecosystems.

All of which cries out for a united voice, a united front out of county government.

Instead, we are a county divided, by fault lines real and imagined.

Those fault lines trace back to a 1982 federal decree which imposed single-member districts on the county as a way of ensuring minority representation.

The reality is that those lines now represent a canard. Tax Collector Shirley Jenkins, an African-American, has been elected twice – once unopposed – on a county-wide basis as single-member districts apply only to county commissioners and school board members.

The City of Port St. Joe, where all voters cast ballots on all seats, has elected an African-American to a commission seat.

The imaginary fault lines exist in the budget itself, a product of five individuals seeking to slice the pie equally five ways.

During the go-go years of the real estate market this helped balloon the budget by 148 percent over a five-year period. Commissioners have labored since to cut away the fat with the elephant in the room the concept of cutting equally across five districts and five agendas.

These fault lines are even found in simple communication as two commissioners do not use e-mail. They are found in current votes concerning the oil leak that have two or three commissioners unable to participate due to conflicts.

In the final analysis, as much as the region is held hostage to an oil leak the county is held hostage to an antiquated governing system and an immovable three-vote block that thrives despite voters’ overwhelming approval of bidding goodbye to single-member districts and pledges by commissioners to take county-wide all the way to the Supreme Court or resign their seats should they stand in the way.

There has scarcely been a more appropriate time for unity, for coming together to survive the days, weeks and years ahead without self-serving political maneuvering.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, it is time for commissioners to knock down the walls that artificially divide us.

County-wide voting is the single most significant issue in the local election campaign ahead. Only commissioners seem not to understand that reality.