Petty Politics Prohibited

Now, maybe more than ever, is the time.

As oil gushes from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico and the county braces for what could be the mother of all manmade disasters, commissioners need to figure out how to get along, if only to facilitate the business of government.

They don’t have to join hands for dinner and sing Kumbaya, but the pettiness that has too often defined the relationship between county and the city of Port St. Joe, and too often gotten in the way of sensible, efficient governing, needs to be placed in a lockbox for another day, maybe decade.

A county commissioner got things started during a special meeting last week when he noted the city should have officials present, noted that the city had been invited. He urged the chairman of the Board of County Commissioners to express disappointment for the lack of a city presence at the meeting.

Meeting the following night, city commissioners, upon having similar remarks relayed by Police Chief David Barnes, somewhat shrugged the issue off, tossing in the Sunshine Law – a convenient crutch given the frequent hostility aimed at the state’s open meeting laws by local elected officials – and other factors to explain the lack of a commission presence.

But on this one, the county, at least in terms of facts, had it right; and yet still found the wrong way to express it.

That the city was not present at any meeting of the emergency management committee last Monday was both noticeable and unfortunate.

The city should have had at least a representative at a meeting that included the declaration of a local state of emergency as well as the initial formulation of a contingency plan to address the looming threat.

The city has as much dog in this hunt as the county and providing input on plans for boom operations in St. Joseph Bay would certainly seem worth the trouble for city officials to attend any meeting.

The fact that such a meeting includes county commissioners with whom city commissioners have not always had the warmest relationship is of far less import than the fact they are elected officials.

They are elected to serve the people. Staying away from the decision table on responding to the growing threat of oil inundation is tacitly abstaining from serving the best interests of the people who elected them.

And it is counterproductive on several levels.

For starters, the Sunshine Law is hardly a factor here. As with hurricane preparations, once the county declares a state of emergency, there is nothing to prohibit city commissioners, school board members or other elected officials from attending and participating in the series of special meetings the county has held.

Secondly, the work already put in by county emergency management staff is both laudable and deserving of full support and engagement from elected officials throughout the county.

Emergency management director Marshall Nelson and his team on the emergency management committee are to be strongly commended for their passion and foresight in addressing this situation on the ground long before it becomes an actual situation on the ground.

Mr. Nelson and his team have coordinated volunteer efforts on a host of fronts, solicited input from local fishermen and other stakeholders and dealt with the state and federal entities required under the Unified Command model being deployed to combat this crisis.

They have, in short, done this county, and the city, proud.

Their work should not be muddied or undermined by turf wars and bickering among elected officials, county or city.

Further, while the city may have been a bit tardy in joining the plan-hatching, the city, to its credit, readily jumped into the fray with its call blitz to alert consumers of the city’s water that a beach clean-up was to be held this past weekend.

County commissioners didn’t applaud that as loudly as noting the city’s absence at a meeting.

The clean-up itself is an example that county and city leaders should emulate, an effort that crossed city and even county lines in enlisting folks from as far away as Atlanta and some who had never even been to Cape San Blas or St. Joseph Peninsula to the cause.

To label that encouraging is an understatement.

Above all, this oil leak and its ramifications for Gulf County and surrounding areas is sufficient reason for commissioners from the county and Port St. Joe to bury the hatchet, to put aside flashpoints such as road bond disbursements, infrastructure pledges, annexation agreements and water rate studies for the overall good of the county.

There seems a near certainty that the county faces trying times ahead due to this oil leak and the incomprehensible lack of an emergency plan from anybody, the U.S. Coast Guard, British Petroleum, the federal government, anybody, to address an event the likes of which is soiling the Gulf of Mexico.

In the wake of a mill closing, the shuttering of Arizona Chemical, the collapse of the real estate market and property values, the county, and city are already teetering economically. The oil seemingly destined to arrive at some point in the future threatens much of what is left of the local economy, from fishing to tourism to the rebound of real estate.

This is serious stuff and a time for as much unity of purpose – and leadership – as possible.

An attorney put it well during a special meeting this past Monday. BP benefits, he said, by every moment government wastes in addressing impacts from the leak. Government stagnation is a gain for BP.

And each time the county and city grind axes over their petty differences scores one in the win column for BP.