By R. Kenneth Bluh
Proposed Florida Constitutional Amendment 4, known as "The Growth Amendment," is a complex issue requiring voters to decide how much control they wish to take back from their government. To vote for the amendment is to say that we do not trust the very people we elect to act on our behalf. To vote against the amendment seems to say that we don't want to control the future development of our state.
This is what we call a conundrum.
Florida Hometown Democracy started collecting voters' signatures in 1996, petitioning the state to place its amendment on the ballot. This amendment, in essence, states that all city and county comprehensive land use plans shall be approved or rejected by the voters of the community in which the proposed change is to take affect.
Democracy in action - it sounds good. But could it work? Are we like the Greek state of old where hundreds of citizens gathered in the public square and voted on an issue? Presidential elections in the U.S. have a hard time getting 60 to 65 percent of the registered voters into voting booths to select their next president. Off year elections run about 10 to 15 percent less than presidential races.
To me, the basic question is why do we distrust the very people we elected to make our political decisions for us? If we trusted the candidate or even more the official in office asking us to return them, why would we want to take away the authority we gave them in the first place?
If they are incompetent then we should not elect them to office. We should not return them to office if they are running for reelection, and remove them from office by recall if we find them incompetent or corrupt.
How many voters would turn out on a Tuesday to vote on extending the Urban Development Boundary (UDB) so that a new Walmart could be built on four acres on the edge of town? I guarantee, not many! How many registered voters have the time to study the complexity of a comprehensive land use change? I am suggesting that few have the time, the energy or the background to study the issue and make an intelligent decision on how to vote.
We have a process in place to determine the value of a change in the use of our land. The county has an entire department that studies the issues and makes recommendations to the elected officials we placed in office to vote on the subject.
Historically, I can say that the county's Planning Department's evaluations of recent proposed land use plan changes have been thorough, accurate and correct. The problem lies with the elected officials, the ones we voted into office who frequently make bad decisions.
Our Miami-Dade County commissioners vote on the issue of land use change. They study the recommendations of the Planning Department. They get input from the state. They consider the issue and vote. The question is: Do they vote on the merits of the issue or do they vote based upon the desires of those that want to see the use of land in our county changed?
We must trust the elected officials we placed in office to do the right thing or we must replace them when they come up for reelection. Better we vote on whom we place in office than to vote on the issues that come before them.
