Putting the power in people's hands

As international trends go, 2011 was the year ordinary people stood up and were counted seeking real sway over the governance of their lives.

From the Arab Spring to the Occupy Wall Street movement, events last year were hued in the color of the less fortunate, the dispossessed, hoping and acting to bring balance to the scales between governed and government, between the haves and have-nots.

While certainly not of equal value or import, 2012 should bring a renewed commitment by the county powers that be – the Board of County Commissioners – to bring more fairness and representation to the ordinary county voter.

Commissioners should be full speed ahead on county-wide voting.

The county does not possess a representative form of government.

When each voter has just a 20 percent say on the makeup of the board that guides their government, the BOCC, representative government can be counted absent.

When a county commissioner must answer to just 20 percent of the voting populace, must gain a majority of the vote from a population fragment of a mere 3,000 while the county population bulges over 15,000, that is not representative government.

When representation from county government is derived in stark contrast to the rest of the governmental structure – all voters in both cities have a say in every commission seat; each voter in the county votes for constitutional officers – full representative government remains elusive.

This is a fractured system that breeds competing agendas and missions, one that has led to questionable spending decisions and a sort of gridlock that seems to have permeated the BOCC the past year.

No better example was provided than a proposed RV ordinance.

Over several months commissioners held public workshops and meetings as they inched toward the drafting of an ordinance to restrict the use and deployment of RVs in the county.

Commissioners took a county-wide approach – but from a single-member posture.

While trying to craft an ordinance that was, effectively, a one-size fits all commissioners ignored the reality that this is not a homogenous county.

Commissioners on the south end, particularly the two representing much of the south end tourist corridor, were listening to their constituents while trying to get a handle on a plethora of RVs popping up in St. Joe Beach, Beacon Hill, St. Joseph Peninsula and Indian Pass.

As was stated by one of those commissioners repeatedly, there was a need to provide some protection in tourist areas of the county regarding how RVs were set up, what areas would be open to RVs long-term and how RVs were used.

That stance and goal, though, was not a fit for much of the rest of the county, particularly inland areas where RVs, motor homes, mobile homes, whatever the label, are a part of living in Gulf County and pretty much always have been.

Therefore the two commissioners on the county’s north end were hearing from their constituents that, hey, this RV ordinance seems an overstep by government.

And instead of seeking an ordinance that would address all concerns, all areas of the county, commissioners were undermined by their competing agendas – and the feedback from constituents that fed those agendas.

So it was no surprise that in the end, commissioners, with north end commissioners leading the charge, pulled the plug on the ordinance.

After months of meetings and the drafting of an ordinance, all at taxpayer expense, commissioners ended up passing on nothing but frustration.

From this corner, Commissioner Tan Smiley was correct upon taking office last year when he insisted that commissioners be judged by their actions, not the number of the district or who held the seat before.

Commissioner Ward McDaniel is not Billy Traylor, the man he replaced. Smiley is not Nathan Peters, Jr., the man he replaced when voters thought they were bringing political change in 2010.

But the system Traylor and Peters helped perpetuate for over two decades in office – a fact made clear by an attorney researching the viability of a legal fight for county-wide voting; who noted the delays on the issue by prior commissions – remains in 2011.

The faces, the ideas, the perspectives may have changed, but voters are not still not fully represented – with each voter allowed to vote on every BOCC seat – on the commission.

While a court fight would be dicey, the attorney said, it was not one to set aside. The key issue was voting trends in 2008. They changed dramatically between 2004 – when voters once again overwhelmingly supported county-wide representation – and 2008, as commissioners dithered.

The coming year offers an opportunity to change those dynamics.

Voting trends in 2012, as well as the end of redistricting, could alter the dynamics, the price tag, the potential for a winnable challenge, the odds of opposition to that challenge,

But no matter how it lines up the first domino that must fall is the BOCC putting the county in position for change, for returning full power to the voters of the county.

The price tag of a court fight can be handled if done judiciously, budgeting funds just as rainy day and contingency funds are created.

Commissioners could have taken taxpayer dollars expended last year on an RV ordinance that went nowhere, a EMS firing reversed after a series of public meetings and a dust-up over health insurance and TDC spending – both of which should have been addressed years ago – and provided a tidy nest egg to get court action moving.

Commissioners, though, whiffed on the chance to move ahead, as they have each year since 2004.

But if events of last year proved anything, the clock is ticking for those who would choose to restrict the power of the ordinary citizen and voter.