(return to media page)Naples Daily News, November 30, 2007
Hometown Democracy finds opposition in Southwest FloridaBy LARRY HANNAN
A proposed state constitutional amendment called Hometown Democracy is drawing significant opposition from the political elite in Southwest Florida.
But supporters say the opposition of the political elite is a perfect example of why the proposed amendment desperately needs to be enacted.
Hometown Democracy would amend the state Constitution to require that all major land-use changes go before voters for approval. Now, county commissioners and city council members can make those changes, despite public sentiment.
Proponents say the proposal would give people the power to put a stop to the sort of overdevelopment that so many decry.
Opponents argue it will put complicated land-use decisions in the hands of an electorate ill-equipped to handle the intricacies of the law and will bog down the state’s economy.
Lesley Blackner, a Palm Beach attorney who specializes in environmental law, initiated Hometown Democracy. Blackner said she took this step because she has come to believe governments in Florida cater to developers, and fail to listen to the general public.
“We have government of the developer by the developer and for the developer,” Blackner said. “You talk to the average person, and they don’t think their government does anything to represent them.”
Blackner said she has attended meetings of local and state governments where dozens of people spoke out against a development. The government then approved the development over citizen objections.
“What that showed me is that it doesn’t matter what citizens said because the politicians view the builders as their true constituents,” Blackner said. “That’s where the money comes from.”
To get the issue on the November 2008 ballot, 611,009 petition signatures are required by Feb. 1. Earlier this week Blackner said her group had gotten about 500,000 signatures so far.
But some of those signatures may end up being revoked.
Hometown Democracy advocates are fighting in court against the new state law that allows citizens to revoke their signature on such petitions. Some claim the law was passed in the spring specifically to fight the Hometown Democracy initiative.
Two groups created to fight Hometown Democracy, Save Our Constitution and Floridians for Smarter Growth, are encouraging people to take back their signatures if they signed the Hometown Democracy petition.
Both sides in this battle are accusing each other of lying to the public in an effort to either get their signature on the petition, or remove their signature from the petition.
Earlier this week a judge ruled petitioners could take back their signatures. That decision is now being appealed.
Former state Rep. Carole Green is speaking against Hometown Democracy on behalf of Floridians for Smarter Growth, a group primarily financed by the Florida Chamber of Commerce. Green represented parts of Fort Myers and southern Lee County in the Florida House and is now a registered lobbyist with Capitol Strategies Consulting.
“People need to understand what this constitutional amendment will really do,” Green said. “If you have 35-40 amendments to a comprehensive plan people are going to have to vote on all of them.”
Many of those amendments are technical and hard for the average person to understand, Green said.
“Everyone is concerned about runaway growth but the message we are sending here is that we don’t trust our elected officials,” Green said. “If the voters feel their elected officials aren’t doing their job, they can vote them out of office.”
Mike Reagen, president of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, said putting every issue before the voters will make elected officials less accountable to the public.
“I think we need good, responsible public officials to make these decisions,” Reagen said.
When he lived in Missouri, he said, issues like whether a public park should be built had to go to voters. That created an industry of lobbyists and ad experts where the person or group who spent the most money tended to get what they wanted.
“We don’t have a democracy, we have a republic,” Reagen said. “I would like elected officials to educate themselves on issues and then decide what to do.”
One of the big financial supporters of Hometown Democracy has been the Sierra Club. Local environmental groups have stayed neutral so far. But they are paying attention to the issue.
“I think everybody sympathizes with Lesley Blackner,” said Brad Cornell, policy advocate for Collier County Audubon Society and Audubon of Florida. “There’s a lot of frustrations with big developments coming in with very little governmental control.”
Cornell said he also believes there could be unintended consequences if the amendment proposal passes, and conceded that putting long-range planning in the hands of voters could be problematic.
Nancy Payton, field representative for the Florida Wildlife Federation, said support for Hometown Democracy demonstrated the frustration many residents have over growth and development in Florida.
When a developer wants something approved in Collier County, it sometimes gets an hour to make a presentation to county commissioners.
But people who want to speak against the development are usually limited to three minutes.
“There is a lot of frustration over how business is done around here,” Payton said.
One of the few public officials in Southwest Florida favorable to Hometown Democracy is Collier Commissioner Fred Coyle. Coyle, a vocal critic of the state Legislature, said he believes the proposed amendment is the best way to fight back against the state taking power away from local governments.
“If this amendment had come up a few years ago I probably would have been opposed to it,” Coyle said. “ I think these decisions need to be made by local governments.”
“But with the state taking power away from local governments, Coyle has come to believe that this amendment is the only way local governments can properly manage growth without state interference.”
Coyle said Blackner is making a mistake criticizing local governments for being in the pocket of developers.
“If they presented this properly you could get the support of a lot of local governments that are sick of what the state is doing,” Coyle said.
While this issue has generated a lot of debate in areas such as Palm Beach and Jacksonville, it hasn’t gotten a lot of attention in Southwest Florida. Blackner, who spoke to the Golden Gate Civic Association earlier this week, conceded that she hasn’t gotten many petition signatures from this area.
“People in the Golden Gate Estates are upset about this road going in through their backyards,” Blackner said, referring to a planned extension of Vanderbilt Beach Road. “But they’ve been told there’s nothing they can do to stop it.”
That type of frustration is why she’s pushing this amendment, but it hasn’t translated into action in Southwest Florida yet, Blackner said.