Start Over

If anything was demonstrated last week it was that when governments bargain, taxpayers seem the only losers.

During a regular meeting of the Port St. Joe City Commission and the subsequent public meeting about water lines to Overstreet it would have sounded as if elected officials were reading from two different playbooks.

They certainly weren't on the same page as far as little things like tap fees, costs to individual property owners, timeframes and the like.

All the things, say, property owners would wish to know about, would consider important.

The root problem, as it has been time and time again when it comes to the deal brokered to allow the city to annex WindMark Beach Phase II - the agreement itself, a mix of demands worthy of a kidnapper and more loopholes than a Wiffle ball.

This one is pretty easy - rip up the agreement.

It was brokered under different circumstances, on a greatly altered landscape.

There is no question that all parties have a vested interest in seeing water and sewer run to communities such as White City, Overstreet and Highland View.

Better for the environment, better for sustainability and better for the city, which envisions a day when it is a regional water supplier with its new surface-water treatment plant.

And better for the county commissioners who have been so diverted by this agreement that they have threatened court action on at least three occasions, or triple the number of calls to take county-wide voting into court.

There is also the reality that the WindMark build-out will not occur as originally imagined by those with green tinting their view, the development a taxation gold mine a bit more distant in the future.

The county and city should sit down at the table in a public workshop and hammer out a new agreement, taking into account the altered landscape, taking real stock of pressing needs as opposed to perks.

After all, in addition to large-view items such as water and sewer, the city was also asked to pony up money for various county departments due to the additional workload growth and WindMark would bring.

Given that the county has 150 percent more employees now as in 2000 when the population has remained flat and the economy stagnated, such requests seem unnecessary and counter-productive to the future of both county and city.

And elected officials for the city and county need to make the case for a re-drafted agreement and educate the public.

County commissioner Billy Traylor was in and out of last week's public hearing at Overstreet. Not a single city official was on hand to field questions and assist county administrator Don Butler, who seemed unsure himself about the technicalities.

Within this annexation agreement are substantive issues about managing growth in this county. They are important and demand deliberation and clear understanding of how to get from Point A to Point B.

So far, county and city officials don't even seem to be on the same map.