IN YOUR CORNER

by the Martin County Taxpayers' Association 09/12/99

The Martin County Stormwater Management Program (SMP) is large enough to get any taxpayer's attention. The expense is projected to be $46 million over ten years. Heavy rainfall and flooding in 1994 and 1995 triggered interest in a program to assure proper drainage, and Federal clean water requirements demanded such a program. Funding was first proposed to be by assessment of affected property owners, but this program was ended, for no good reason, and countywide ad valorem taxes now furnish the money.

Stormwater control is required of every county in Florida and every county must include it in their comprehensive plan. The results must be the same everywhere--compliance with the clean water standards. With a plan that applies to everyone and results that must all meet the same standards, you would expect the various municipalities to attack the problem in about the same way, but Martin County is different.

Martin County has created a department-sized bureaucracy to operate the SMP. Staffing includes twenty-three present employees currently engaged in maintaining ditches and swales, and twelve full-time additions, including five engineers. The bureaucracy currently has a temporary director, but a full-time manager is scheduled to be hired. Since bureaucracies seem to take on a life of their own once created, we wonder how long this one will last. So far, this team has managed to do a number of studies.

In contrast to the county program is the Stormwater Utility of the City of Stuart. This group began operations in 1994 and funds its $350,000 yearly budget by billing monthly those properties impacting drainage. Staffing for this function consists of three people, essentially maintenance personnel, with all technical, professional, and construction activities handled by consultants. Existing city personnel have absorbed administrative functions and have been very successful in obtaining grants to pay for a majority of the expense to date. They have about thirty projects planned and are well on the way to completing several of them.

Martin County has thirty-five employees identified for Stormwater Management. St. Lucie County has four, the City of Stuart has three, and Indian River County has none. We know that these other entities have people doing SWP work, but executive duties have simply been absorbed. In addition, other governments successfully solicit grant money using in-house personnel, while Martin County has hired a consultant who to date has been less successful than the City of Stuart.

Our yearly Stormwater Management budget is four times the $1.2 million stormwater budget for St. Lucie County, which is larger in area and population. They must, by Federal law, accomplish the same task. We would like to see a whole lot of justification for the taxes we are paying to support this program. The program is necessary and worth while, but it does not have to be gold plated. Maybe the Martin County way is not the best way all the time.

We have posed the following questions to the Martin County Stormwater Management people:
Can they justify the need for separate and additional administrative and skilled staff, and is the present organization effective?
What is our program's efficiency in terms of amount spent on studies versus the number of projects in process or completed? In short, have we translated studies into action or do we suffer paralysis by analysis?
Why do we have both staff work and consultant work, and is any use made of available information for other sources?
What is our ratio of local tax money to grant money, and are we paying for projects with ad valorem money when state and district money may be available?
Martin County professes to adhere to a higher standard, but does it? Is water quality now improving?
We hope to bring you answers to these questions in the near future, it is your money we are discussing.

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Martin County has been designed a "sustainable community". The National Center for Sustainability states, "Wetlands are among the most productive of all natural landscapes. They….constitute a means for controlling floods and erosion and provide valuable recreation and open spaces. Thus the function…..of wetlands must be protected. However, all wetlands are not of equal ecological function and value. And the needs of the nation's growing population for housing, transportation and other infrastructure requires that we accommodate physical growth…..in our communities. Sound public policy requires recognition of the values of economic and physical development, as well as environmental protection. Thus, on matters involving physical development in wetland areas, a balance must be achieved among social, economic, and environmental impacts and values."

The commission majority has take the stand that not a tree, bush, bird, or beast can be disturbed. The give lip service to the sustainable program, let us see them honor all of it.


W e encourage your comments, criticisms, ideas, or any questions about how your taxes work; call or fax 288-0474 or write to us at PO Box 741, Stuart, FL 34995 or e-mail us at admin@mctaxpayers.org or visit our WEB site, mctaxpayers.org.