Recently, I attended the Treasure Coast League of Cities annual dinner. It is at that event where the new officers and board for the local League are sworn in. The dignitary performing the honors this year was none other than Florida League of Cities President Leo Longworth.

Leo is a long-serving public official from Bartow. After his hard work for that City, he has devoted his efforts to the League. His presidential theme this year for the Florida League of Cities is “We live local.”

What exactly is meant by that phrase?

For anyone who has read my blog, newsletter, or Facebook posts, you realize that I believe the closer government is to the people the more representative it will be of its citizens. Unfortunately, Tallahassee wants control to rest with the centralized state government. Every year, the Legislature attempts to pre-empt counties and cities from enacting local ordinances on things like zoning to taxation. Their argument is that they are protecting the public from mistakes that are made by local representatives.

That idea is flawed in its reasoning for a variety of reasons. If you don’t like what a city or county commissioner is doing, it is simple to vote someone new in at the next election. How does someone who lives in Martin County vote out the State Representative from Tampa or the Senator from Fort Walton Beach? Because if the legislature was in charge, then the state elected official that is the chairman of a committee with jurisdiction over an issue will decide. The chairman’s perceptions, experiences and viewpoints will prevail.

There may even be a more sinister reason. If control is kept in Tallahassee, then lobbyists will only have to deal with 160 elected officials instead of the thousands of locally elected county commissioners, town councilors and city council members. While it may be more efficient, it certainly is not more representative of the diversity of Florida’s 67 counties and 413 cities. Within Martin County, Ocean Breeze and Stuart are not alike. In St. Lucie County, Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie are not alike. And, in Indian River County, Sebastian and Vero Beach are not alike.

I don’t live in Tallahassee nor do I want the House Representative from Jacksonville making local rules for me. Stuart’s elected officials should oversee what height our buildings can be. Martin County’s BOCC has a better handle on where our Urban Services Boundary should be drawn than does the Senator from Pensacola.

Leo Longworth is correct when he says that we live local. That is where decisions affecting us should be made. If it isn’t unconstitutional, then the State of Florida should stay out of it. The power to govern should rest with the people as much as possible, and with their locally elected representatives.

Every citizen should be involved with this effort. Don’t let a faraway place populated with strangers take away your rights to the City and County that we want. “We live local.”