Those that chose to attend, or watch the November 6 th meeting of the Martin County Commission on Channel 20, were treated to an excellent lesson in local politics. There were two major subjects discussed, and how they were evaluated and adjudicated provide great insight into the issues and personalities “running” this County.

The first was a factual briefing by the County Administrator on the budget problems expected for the 2009 fiscal year. His staff had performed a preliminary evaluation of the property tax initiative recently crafted by the Florida Legislature and its impact on the County. The situation is not good. Assuming passage, they project there could be nearly $20 million in deficits next year. Even without passage it will probably be half that, and the Administration is already looking for Commission guidance on how to prioritize the pain. Should there be a 15% across the board cut? Should law enforcement and other Constitutional Officers be included? Should critical services be exempt? Obviously a frank public discussion was not going to be forthcoming on such a politically sensitive subject on short notice. The dialogue then proceeded to offering offsetting alternatives to give the Commissioners “options”.

This is where the situation reverted to “Martin County normal”. Two departments with large budgets are to hire consultants to evaluate their possible transition to fee based funding. If approved, Fire/EMS and Storm Water Management would be removed from the Ad Valorum (property) tax bill and added as a separate “fee”, similar to your garbage service. Effectively, this removes these items from the legislative restrictions, homestead laws and “save our homes” provisions, which significantly reduces the County’s budget shortfall. What it doesn’t do is force those organizations to reduce spending.

We appreciate the out of the box thinking and believe this could possibly be a good idea for Fire/EMS, but only if accompanied by significant reorganization and possibly combining with the Stuart Fire/EMS. However, we await more details and remain unconvinced that these are little more than a way around having to perform much needed reductions in spending.

The second issue was one that should have been a no-brainer. One of Martin County’s few private sector businesses with good, highly skilled jobs wanted to expand its facilities in accordance with a long-standing contract with the County. The company suffered damage during the 04-05 hurricanes and wanted to replace those facilities, plus expand by almost 50,000 sq feet of additional capacity and offices. This would provide significant short-term employment for our suffering construction industry plus long term employment opportunities and taxable revenues for our County.

Unfortunately, the company’s business is aircraft maintenance located at Witham Field, so straightforward discussion ceased and emotion and political posturing took over. In the public comment period speakers, most who live well away from Witham, spoke at length about the 1998 “illegal” 400+ foot runway extension, noise, aircraft safety and pollution. Others decried the company’s lease with the County, which is favorable for the company, at least on the surface. No one mentioned that the lease is for raw land, is indexed for inflation, was equitable at the time it was signed, and that the County eventually inherits the buildings free and clear. Only the lawyers and a few business leaders pointed out that the project has nothing to do with runway length, little if any impact on aircraft traffic or noise, meets all legal requirements, and is in accordance with a lease signed and reaffirmed by the County.

Some that spoke seemed bent on creating controversy and pointing fingers at individuals and issues that had nothing to do with the matter at hand. This included a former Commission candidate who far exceeded appropriate behavior with a severe personal attack on the Airport Administrator, mostly for items outside his sphere of responsibility.

The end result was a 3 – 2 vote that tabled the discussion for six months while a Commission representative negotiates runway length and other items irrelevant to this issue with the FAA. The most insightful comment came from dissenting Commissioner Doug Smith: …in six months we will be back in this same room, listening to the same people make the same arguments and nothing will be done. We agree!