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The TC Palm, August 4, 2008

Robert Minsky: Are you up to speed on overlay zoning variances?

By Bob Minsky, contributing columnist

Florida Hometown Democracy is a political gimmick posing as a legitimate savior of democracy. I call it a gimmick because it abandons reality in lieu of theory.

Democracy is based on the active participation of the people to determine self-rule. Our Constitution guarantees it. The authority of the people to exercise their power is unquestioned and inalienable, and there are many ways for the people to accomplish this.

One way is to elect officials to represent their concerns and interests within a body of government charged with the responsibility to administer the affairs of a specific area, whether it is national, state, county or city. The other way is to abolish the authority of our elected officials and have the people vote on the issues, instead of their elected representatives, and that is what is being promoted by the advocates of FHD.

A recent column by Kenric Ward of the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers opinion staff (�Voters can bring politicians to heel,� July 25 ) is a classic example of journalistic sheep-herding.

As he has done in the past, his presentation promotes the FHD as the ultimate bastion of the democratic process. I beg to offer my argument against the FHD.

The FHD proposes to require all comprehensive plan amendments to be subjected to a voter referendum. It is hard to argue that the current process is not as pure as the driven snow, or that politics does not sometimes subvert the integrity of the system. In those cases it is not a failure of the system, it is a failure of the people we elected to operate the system.

There are two main reasons for those Failures � greed and voter apathy.

The failures caused by greed are self-explanatory. The failures caused by voter apathy give officials the arrogance to abrogate their responsibilities in the belief voters don�t care or aren�t aware of what is going on.

For the most part, most officials involved with the planning process and
comprehensive plan amendments are professional, dedicated people who diligently study all the aspects of the amendment and provide the elected officials with the knowledge and documentation they need to make an informed decision. The system is only as good as the people who run it.

The FHD is completely void of any and all requirements to educate the decision
makers � voters � or to give them any understanding of the issue at hand. There is no requirement to subject the proposed amendment to the scrutiny of the law, or to consider the impact it might have on neighborhoods, traffic, community resources, utilities, school capacity and the host of other issues that are now required by law.

Remember: The voters will be able to vote for or against the amendment. A developer will be able to bypass all the checks and balances currently in place and appeal just to the voter and for the most part can hide all the problems his development might harbor. Will the average voter know what to look for or what the law requires? I sincerely doubt it.

Someday I wish all the people who think this is such a great idea would come to city hall and look at all the documentation and investigation that is involved with a comprehensive amendment. Then try to imagine the majority of voters taking the time to study them, no less paying to buy copies.

FHD claims to change the comprehensive plan approval process. It does not claim to improve it.

Democracy is best served by a citizenry that gives due notice that they are involved, watching and will not tolerate any breach of integrity.

Minsky is the retired former mayor of Port St. Lucie. His term expired in 2006.