Is the proposed Urban Services Boundary agreement legal?

Is the proposed Urban Services Boundary agreement legal? Or can the over 12,000 people that signed the petitions demand that it go forward to a vote as drafted?

Darned if I know -- it's a legal matter. But I do have a take on it based on my own experience. 

I'm collecting signatures to get on the November ballot. [Very well, thanks -- more than halfway there.] And when I'm done there will be 2,505 Sarasota County Voters who signed documents with the intent of putting my name on the ballot. 

I initiated the process, I've overseen it and I will benefit when my petition signatures are all in and accepted. [Yes, you can download them online at www.jono08.com]. 

But I cannot, for example, transfer those signatures to another candidate -- they are valid for me only and, in that sense, exclusively mine.

So what if I contract a [knock on wood] debilitating disease that forces me to reconsider? Can the 2,505 citizens that put me on the ballot force me to run? Nope. That's my call. 

So what about the Urban Service Boundary signatures? The proponents conceived it, drafted it, circulated it and got the necessary signatures. And just as I can't transfer my signatures, they can't somehow append the signatures they collected to some other similar measure. But, I would argue, they should be able to reconsider and withdraw, just as any candidate can.

Will that reasoning hold up in a legal challenge? Who knows, but it seems to me the people that initiate the ballot measure are the people that speak for it, not the signers.

We'll see how this shakes out, but it will be unfortunate if this historic agreement is derailed by legal hurdles that confound and contradict the wishes of the people who started the whole thing. 

And that outcome could have a more chilling effect on citizens interested in improving the County than concluding the function of the 12,000 signatures was to empower the initiators rather than to hamstring them. 

********

It is not at all clear to me if the following sentence is required or appropriate in this blog, but here is it anyway: Political advertisement paid for and approved by Jono Miller, Democrat for the Sarasota County Commission.

Please visit my website at www.jono08.com

Now We're Talkin'! Beyond the USB fight.

The above-the-fold headline in today's Sarasota Herald-Tribune announces a proposed settlement that could lead to replacing the impending vote on making Urban Service Boundary (USB) changes subject to voter approval. The centerpiece of proposed alternative would require a unanimous county commission vote for an USB change. 

Although I can quibble with some the facts as presented in the paper, this is big stuff and the people who negotiated it deserve a lot of credit for coming to the table to explore (and hammer out!) a workable alternative. And County Administrator Ley deserves credit for providing county support for the effort. He has a pretty good eye for seeing train wrecks ahead and encouraging engineers to apply brakes and look for other track. Commissioner Staub's involvement no doubt added impetus and a needed reality factor to the proceedings.

Was I involved? Nope. Not directly anyway, and that's probably a good thing. Inserting my presence into the matter would have added an un-needed and unhelpful political spin during this campaign season. 

Was I arguing for just such a solution? Yes. I felt both sides were not acting in the best long and short term interests of the County and I was letting people know about it. 

Near the beginning of the campaign, I had emailed one of the proponents of the voter approved USB changes: "Don't expect me to support a citizen referendum on Urban Service Boundary changes." 

And I had a recent meeting with a former head of  the Sarasota Chamber of Commerce in which I bemoaned the approaching confrontation and expenses both sides would incur. I also argued that recent efforts to fight measures such as the supermajority were so over the top that they were actually hurting the business community (when has telling voters THEY were engaged in a "power grab" been a good strategy?)

And while I didn't dream up a unanimous board vote as an alternative, I did suggest to the former Chamber head that a better outcome would be for the two sides to meet, pool their respective warchests for the upcoming media battle and decide to spend the money doing something they both could agree on that would improve the county. 

Some like to focus on the perceived polarization between factions in our community and, to be sure, there are some deep and substantive differences. But this breakthrough is extremely significant, not for the specifics alone, but also for the fact that one side could pick up a phone and call the other to ask if we Sarasotans couldn't do better. 

In these challenging economic times we need to pull together, expending more energy to agree on ways to protect our economy, neighborhoods and environment than on divisive contests that consume our community's energy, creativity, and dollars.

Kudos to all involved. 

Sarasota twice as good as the rest of the state

More than one experienced politics-savvy veteran has told me a candidate has only two tasks - to raise money and meet voters. I'm working on both, but I'll confess to feeding my need to learn about crucial issues facing the state and county. I have to believe being better informed DOES benefit the campaign.

I just returned from a two day conference on sustainable water in Gainesville and I was impressed with the near-reverence with which Sarasota County is regarded by many state water experts. This admiration stems from the fact that the average Floridian uses 170 gallons of water a day, whereas the Sarasotans supplied by the county now consume half that (86 gallons per person per day). Thus it is tempting to conclude that if everywhere was doing as well as we are, a lot of the perceived water crises and" wars" erupting around the state would be averted. In fact (can't lay my hands on it right now) columns have been written suggesting as much. 

There is general agreement that it is easier (cheaper) to save water than go find, store, treat and pump new water, but state funding has been biased against this approach. The State's Water Protection and Sustainability Trust Fund dollars cannot be spent on improving efficiency, demand reduction, avoided use, or any other euphemism for conservation. That's unfortunate, because it is far more cost effective. Some speakers were optimistic this might change in the next year or so, but until then be prepared for more pipe projects that will cost citizens far more than other approaches. 

This is just another example of how what is better for the environment also happens to be the most fiscally conservative.

More on the Ed Smith Stadium Situation

Sarasota Herald Tribune Political columnist and blogger Jeremy Wallace featured my take on the baseball stadium in a recent blog of his. Here's an excerpt:

County commission candidate Jono Miller isn’t about to use Tuesday’s stadium vote against incumbent Paul Mercier, a Republican.

“I don’t think we’re that far apart,” Miller, a Democrat, said of where he and Mercier stand on the idea of making one last effort to keep the Cincinnati Reds’ spring training in Sarasota.

Miller said he doesn’t like the idea of the Reds shopping around for the best deal, but still believes it would be hard to let the area’s long history with spring training go away. On his website, Miller has a statement in which he says “losing industries with such public connection and accessibility is, I believe, more damaging to our communities than losing comparable enterprises that are virtually invisible.”

If you want to know more about my position scroll down to the copy of the email I sent to the County Commissioners. 

Bottom line: If you were hoping to distinguish between Paul Mercier and myself based on this issue, you'll have to look further. While it may be tempting to adopt positions opposite Paul just to heighten the differences between us, I can't go there. By the time we get to the election the differences will be clear enough. 

If I were a Commissioner #1: Beach Parking

This morning the County Commission heard a presentation on the possibility of going to a system of paid parking at our beaches, something many neighboring counties (but not Manatee) apparently do. Some Commissioners are committed to free parking, while others want to explore the idea of having beach users help pay for beach management. 

From my perspective, they seemed to get bogged down in who would get free or reduced parking and who would pay full freight. This led to a discussion of how to determine who would get the preferred rate -- would they have to live here, or own property here or pay taxes here, or what? And how would they establish their status?  I pictured a rather bureaucratic system of checking everyone's credentials -- a process that seems awfully cumbersome and top down to me.

Here's what I would propose (if a majority wanted to try this at all): Create a tiered system of parking (starting experimentally at Siesta Beach) that would allow beach users, and not the county, to determine how much they wanted to pay. This wouldn't be an honor system with a cup, but (possibly) three zones of parking, each with different rates.

The spaces closest to the road would be free - always. A middle section would have modest parking fees and the spaces closest to the beach would be "premium" spots that might go for several bucks an hour. Beachgoers would sort themselves out according to their willingness to trade walking for paying. If people had a lot of gear or were willing to pay for convenience, they could go for the premium spaces. If people needed free parking they could go off-peak (avoid the busiest times) or wait until someone left in the no-pay section. And most people would be charged a modest amount.

At first this would be a big experiment and would probably take some fine tuning to adjust the relative size of each rate category, but once calibrated it could generate as much revenue as a one-rate-fits-all blanket fee or a two tiered (resident/non-resident) system that involved elaborate means of determining who qualified for the best rate. 

Is this a great idea? I'm not sure. It may have some hidden flaws. But it is a different idea, one that gives people choices rather than making the county choose amongst us and it is an idea none of the current commissioners brought up this morning. 

And that's one reason I think I would strengthen the County Commission team -- introducing new ideas. If my ideas have merit then others will pick up on them and move forward, if not the other four will have no trouble telling me thanks, but no thanks. 

POSTSCRIPT  MAY 29 2008

I haven't changed a word of the blog above from January. This week (in May) the Board of County Commissioners voted to not move forward with beach parking fees at this time. That's fine with me. My blog was attempting to suggest an alternative HOW to approach beach parking fees, not WHETHER to. I hope it was clear from the third paragraph "(if a majority wanted to try this at all)" that I was looking for some consensus position; and that was if two commissioners were insistent about maintaining free parking that there might be a way to do that and collect fees. 

Radical idea: try a two party system!

Here's a novel idea:

"You might prefer just to vote only for candidates who take a pledge to do the best they can to hold down costs, and then kick them out after four years if they fail to meet your standard.

I point out, with no ulterior motive, this is easier to do if you have a strong two-party system."

That's part of a Waldo Profitt column. Makes you wonder why Sarasota County hasn't tried that approach for 42 years. 

Ed Smith Stadium

I sent the following E-Mail to Sarasota County Commissioners on January 21, the day the Sarasota Herald Tribune ran an Editorial about Ed Smith Stadium.

Commissioners: 

I noticed the Sarasota Herald Tribune article encouraging everyone to take another shot at the Ed Smith Stadium deal couldn't bring itself to mention the county share (only that it would be $4 million less than the previous approach).  And I lament the fact that so many professional teams tend to comparison shop, looking for deals, rather than making a commitment to a community and sticking with it.

My philosophy is that one antidote to sprawl and the general homogenization of our community is that, whenever possible, we should try to save what is unique and special about Sarasota County. That guides my thinking on ESLOC and led to the idea of the Neighborhood Parks program. I understand that a County commitment to the latest Ed Smith Stadium proposals will mean other initiatives will not be funded, but I think this stripped down version is worth pursuing. I'm not sure Spring Training is as central to Sarasota's identity as the Ringling Winter Quarters were to Venice, but losing industries with such public connection and accessibility is, I believe, more damaging to our communities than losing comparable enterprises that are virtually invisible. 

Sincerely

Jono Miller