To the victor…

PETER O’CONNOR

Guest Columnist

opinion@lbknews.com

Almost three years ago a meeting was held here on the key that discussed taking back the Town Commission. I wasn’t invited. The meeting was to begin “the fix” in the state of the Town Commission. The group assembled then has been somewhat successful. That’s fine. What I want to explore is one set of results in taking back, or taking over, any political body. Bear with me, friends and neighbors.

First let’s look at our Town Charter. Among lots of things that charter calls for our commission-manager form of government. That commission…shall consist of seven electors and…shall be the governing body of the town. Article II deals with the Town Commission specifically. In Sec. 3 it dictates the nomination; character of service…provided all nominations and elections shall be conducted on a nonpartisan basis without regard for a designation of the political party affiliation of any nominee on any nominating petition or ballot. I’ve read this many times. It is the way we conduct elections here. So far, so good. The charter is, in my view, weak in this regard. Like so many proscriptions it says what cannot be done. It leaves the actual practice unsaid. I suspect that the members of the commission may be behaving like a group, maybe even like a party. Let’s see.

“A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions. Parties often espouse an expressed ideology or vision bolstered by a written platform with specific goals, forming a coalition among disparate interests” (Wikipedia). This is what the partisan in nonpartisan seeks to avoid.

Consider also: “In the politics of the United States, a spoil system (also known as a patronage system) is a practice where a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its voters as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party — as opposed to a system of awarding offices on the basis of some measure of merit independent of political activity. The term was derived from the phrase “to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy” by New York Sen. William L. Marcy, referring to the victory of the Jackson Democrats in the election of 1828. Similar spoils systems are common in other nations that traditionally have been based on tribal organization or other kinship groups and localism in general” (Wikipedia).

I hope that you are still with me. We have a group that publically proclaimed a political goal. We have a local government charter that proclaims itself to be nonpartisan. We’ve defined the political party. Finally we’ve looked very briefly at a spoils system.

To “take back the commission” sounds like the beginnings of a power takeover. This takeover might just include the ‘spoils’ it gives out, maybe even to friends. You can decide.

Consider: in a relatively short time the current commission has impacted the following long-term Longboat Key team players:

Town manager – forced to resign, replaced without meaningful search.

Planning director – forced to resign, position advertised, not yet filled.

Information technology director – performance criticized publicly.

Police chief – publicly embarrassed, position weakened.

Fire chief – position threatened as consolidation openly rumored.

 

Consultants/contractors: The Town Commission has moved or is moving to place new contracts worth big money in these fields:

Auditor – firm replaced

Comprehensive Plan & Code Consultant – The piece de resistance, Urban Planning Institute of Washington, D.C., almost “engaged” to “revise” the current zoning codes and Comprehensive Plan. As usual, no competition.

Coastal engineer – State of long-term engineer, CP&E, as yet unknown. Some townies of dubious qualifications think they could do it better.

Another plumb! Maybe ‘the’ plumb!

 

Developers:

First and foremost is the Longboat Key Club & Resort of course. In this case the spoil might just be the town.

Whitney Beach Plaza hotel boutique, seven stories plus or minus, mixed use – height restriction? Charade/Charrette underway to define this need and public support. Negotiations have been long underway after campaign promise in 2010.

Colony – Who knows? Apparently these parties are on their own.

Cell tower(s) – Who knows again? Another 2010 campaign promise?

 

Public Positions: it is already easy in the Florida system for an elected commission to control all its appointed boards. It does. Only the compliant need apply. We have lost in this first term two outstanding professional members of our Planning & Zoning Board. Watch for more cleansing.

We now see a dearth of candidates for the commission itself. These seats are spoils themselves.

A few months ago I wrote here about my previous hometown. In that piece I told of one local weekly newspaper, the Tineytown Gazette. It lives on in that tiny town. We too are a small town, maybe seeking to be bigger — at least in the minds of our “leaders.” I prefer to describe these as “managers.” It takes a bit of size to take ourselves this seriously. I suggest that we all should do just that.