Category Archives: City of Stuart

Quotations To Live By

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There is a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson that is especially apropos today. “The government you elect is the government you deserve.” This statement is true on the federal, state and local level.

I was in my twenties when President Nixon was in office and the Watergate scandal occurred. He was re-elected in 1972 by winning all but one state and had 520 electoral votes to Senator McGovern’s 17 electoral votes. Less than two years later, Nixon was forced to resign the presidency.

Joseph de Maistre, an 18th century French diplomat, wrote, “Every country has the government it deserves.”

As I look at Tallahassee, I see a legislature that is power hungry. The leadership is so interested in micromanaging and aggregating power in their own hands, that they ignore the will of the electorate. Yet the electorate continues to send back the same people who are ignoring their will. Can we not see the connection between blind loyalty to our political tribe and the legislators ignoring our desires?

Locally, we have elected bodies that preach fiscal responsibility and then spend tax dollars on projects that most taxpayers do not want. A failed water park instead of a municipal pool is what Martin County taxpayers are stuck pouring money into. Now they want to include a shiny new money-losing clubhouse instead of just a place for people to play golf. Yet the County doesn’t have the money to fix a road or build a fire house.

The City of Stuart in the last year passed a budget that depleted reserves by $2 million dollars, included a 55% raise for each commissioner, and spent $600,000 in early separation pay which was unbudgeted. The City Commission also approved a ballooning tree planting project downtown while not spending the money in neighborhoods in the CRA that need sewers and sidewalks. No need to mention the failed City Manager payoff or lawsuit coming down the pike.

Government on all levels is broken. We can blame elected officials, but who elected them. It is the voters that cast ballots to put them in office that must assume the ultimate responsibility. If we continue to elect people just because of political party or because they are nice, like our slightly fractured aunt, then the ineptitude continues. Walt Kelly had his comic strip character Pogo once utter, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Government doesn’t work because we as citizens have not done what we should. Complaining and watching cable news is not the answer. Get involved and make sure you elect the people who will do the work and understand what they are doing. Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”

Stuart Could Be today’s Pineland Prairie

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Knight Kiplinger’s Pineland Prairie has passed another hurdle to being fully approved and built. The entire new community is an example of New Urbanism. It will have walkability to stores and offices.  Housing of different sizes, styles and prices will be within close proximity to each other. Most of the land will be open. Mr. Kiplinger touts that younger people want to live in this environment. I can’t say anything bad about the project. I think it is a great and necessary idea.

Many of the characteristics that Mr. Kiplinger wants to create at Pineland Prairie already exist. The infrastructure, roads, and amenities are built. A vibrant restaurant scene exists. The largest employers of Martin County are located within its boundaries and it has everything from athletic fields to vest pocket neighborhood parks. It is the City of Stuart.

The problem lies not in what the City has but what it doesn’t. The City Commission has exhibited a lack of imagination and knowledge on how to capitalize on Stuart’s assets. Being the “Happiest Seaside Town” is one thing but being a city that has an economic and demographic future is quite another. For the past fifty years, Stuart has allowed Martin County to grow and prosper around the City but has done very little to enhance and maintain itself as the hub of the county.

As an example, at their last meeting, the City Commissioners voted to approve a lease with Mulligans for 20 years with a $2 million cancellation clause. This, in essence, locks up any possibility of having an enhanced Flagler Park, creating new economic opportunities and a more vibrant Downtown. The entire peninsula which is owned by the City will now be frozen in time due to the lack of basic real estate experience and a “good old boy” approach to governance. This 1960s mindset in a 21ST century environment will continue to hobble the City’s viability. It is too bad for the taxpayers, residents and commercial real estate owners within Stuart’s borders.

By tweaking zoning and land development codes, Stuart could immediately begin the process of implementing what Kiplinger wants to do in rural Palm City. The City has all the pieces necessary to attract younger people, new jobs and businesses. What we lack is a political establishment within the city that has the vision and the business acumen to see what Mr. Kiplinger, our young people, and most of the County Commissioners have seen.

I am all in favor of Pineland Prairie being allowed to exist and prosper. It will be a long-term asset to Martin County. It will not be sprawl but, rather, a self-contained community. When finally built and completed in twenty years, it will be a fantastic place to live in the future.

With foresight, imagination and will, Stuart could be the Pineland Prairie of today instead of the City of yesterday.

Governmental Boards Need to Know Their Limits

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I’ve noticed a troubling trend with our local governments. It is that members do not understand the scope, mission and authority of the boards, councils and commissions they serve on. The reason it is troubling is that, when the individual members don’t perform within the boundaries of their statutory authority, citizens may not get a fair hearing. Whether appointed or elected to boards, individuals must understand the scope of their authority and the purpose the board was created.

At the last meeting of the Zoning and Appeals Board in Stuart, a matter came before it that had to do with a lot split into two single-family home lots. Once split the lots would not conform with the existing code. The owner of the new homes intends to lease them once they are built. The controversy for some neighbors was that the new homes would have rear buildings. They feared they would be rented as apartments thus creating a four-family multiple dwelling. There is no Stuart ordinance preventing the rental of homes. The applicant and staff had already added language to the development order that would make it, if not impossible, harder to rent those back buildings as individual units. If they were, it would be a matter for Code Enforcement and, ultimately, a Magistrate.

While most of the discussion was about this fear of rental and of ancillary units, it should have been immaterial to the Board’s decision. Their responsibility is not whether those units would be rented but whether the lot split was justified under the regulations. The zoning of that lot is for a single-family home. By splitting the lot that has the right to have a single-family home, you are creating two lots that will be non-conforming.

It is not within the Board’s authority to decide whether rental units are being created. The structures being built are within code. The important matter before the Board was whether by not granting the lot split would there be a hardship. I contend that the answer is no, there is no hardship. A perfectly adequate single-family home could be constructed on the existing lot without splitting it into two lots to create two homes.

A “hardship” is not defined as an inability to maximize an investment. Otherwise every lot in Stuart could have an apartment house or office building on it. A “hardship” would be, if the entire original lot would have been only 56 feet wide, while a 60 feet wide minimum was necessary. In that case, then a home would not have been able to be built and a variance would be needed. In that instance it should be granted.

In this case, the Board has exceeded its authority. I agree that this type of housing with ancillary units are desirable for the City. The way to achieve this would be for staff to write a change in the code to allow these units and the City Commission could then vote in favor of doing so. By the Zoning and Appeals Board doing this in an ad hoc manner, it creates the necessity for every property owner to make an appeal in order to have the same outcome.

While the Board may have acted improperly in this case, I don’t believe it was done maliciously or intentionally. What happens is that board members, including commissioners, do not receive the necessary training to fulfill their duties. Education by staff and outside facilitators should be continuous and ongoing. Every meeting should have an agenda item to help in accomplishing just this. When you serve on a board it is more than just showing up. Too bad citizens don’t insist that this occurs.

Where Are Stuart’s Citizens

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When things die, they can do so slowly and imperceptibly at first. Not only living things perish, so too do cities. Usually it is because their original purpose for being ceases, then they refuse to adapt and adopt new ones. Sometimes it is bad government that leads to the downfall, sometimes it is the hubris of the citizens that refuse to believe that civic death can occur, sometimes it is both.

Barely 6 months ago, a new City Manager came to Stuart. Since that time, most senior staff people have left. Two more departed this week – the Development Director and City Clerk. Could all these employees have been so incompetent that their new boss needed for them to go? Well, he didn’t fire them they just didn’t want to work for him any longer.

Chaos is a sign of incompetence. Stuart’s City Hall is in chaos. While all this turmoil continues to occur, where is the City Manager? Well, this past week he floated in and out of the place. I believe he didn’t even bother to show up for two of the days. Now I understand that he is on vacation until May 5th.

Where is the City Commission during this meltdown? They are nowhere to be seen. They too float in and out of the building. Most of them barely understand the agenda and what is before them. If they did, they couldn’t possibly approve a lease on Monday that will in effect lock up the City Hall peninsula for the next twenty years? Could they approve a lease that gives the tenant $2 million dollars if change were to occur?

The City Commission has done nothing. Not one of them deserve to be re-elected as the people’s voice. A strong manager/weak commission form of government is the worst form imaginable. The only possible way this type of government works is if the Commission does what they are supposed to do. This Commission has not.

In the past 6 months, Stuart has lost a significant amount of talent. Sometimes a new broom needs to sweep out the past. In this case, that did not need to happen. The City is now bereft of managerial depth that may be destructive to our present and future. Taxes will be affected going forward. You can’t spend the amount of money that this manager has on employee buyouts and not continue to draw down reserves or raise taxes.

Where are the supposed civic associations? Politically, the Chamber of Commerce wrote off Stuart a long time ago. Our population is so small that we cannot sway an election. Stuart is impotent in the county or statewide. Main Street’s and the Downtown Business Association’s members are beholden to the Manager and Commission so that their individual projects move forward. They aren’t making waves because of their need to maintain good relations with City Hall. Our press has been missing in action for years now. Is there any wonder that fewer and fewer people bother to subscribe?

Most citizens don’t want to be involved. They just want things to stay as they are. Well my fellow citizens, things don’t just stay as they are. Each and every action has consequences. If you don’t hold Commissioners responsible, you end up with irresponsible Commissioners. If you have a head of government that is so uninformed and uninvolved, then you have a mass exodus of competent employees. Things don’t stay the same. They can’t, no matter how much we would like them to be the same. But things can be managed to achieve the best possible outcomes.

The citizens of Stuart need to stand up and sweep the current Commission out of office. It doesn’t matter whether they are nice, it doesn’t matter if they are your friends. Commissioners are not there to be your best friend but to be your economic protector and stalwart. They are not there to rattle on from the dais with inane speeches. In two or five or ten years from now, when taxes are high and economic development is completely gone, it will be too late.

 

 

Godot & The Commission

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The Stuart City Commission has become a re-active body instead of pro-active one. What I mean by that statement is that the Commission is not looking to shape the City’s future.  By simply waiting for something to happen, the City stagnates instead of progressing. Any growth becomes an amalgam of disparate projects without any theme. Without planning for the future, a cohesive vision is not accomplished. So, the Commission does nothing and waits. But what are they waiting for?

This is the 65th anniversary of Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot. The two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for Godot to make an appearance. They inhabit a nihilistic world of gloom. Both Estragon and Vladimir keep saying that they will leave but then they wait because they believe Godot will come — but always tomorrow.

The City of Stuart is more than a decade older than Martin County. When the County was formed, Stuart was where the overwhelming majority of the people lived, worked and shopped. Nearly a century later the County has grown exponentially but not the City. The City’s population is a little over 10% of Martin County’s total population today. The amount of sales tax revenue, gas tax revenue and other appropriations the City receives are based on that proportionately diminished base. Yet, like Vladimir, the City Commission waits.

Pineland Prairie will probably be approved by the County to develop in Palm City. It is a good project. Once fully built out it will have more residents than the City of Stuart. It comprises thousands of acres, yet the plan calls for cluster development. In effect, it will create a city surrounded by open land. Pineland Prairie is innovative. Yet, like Estragon, the City Commision waits.

Our City Commission is averse to workshops on planning for the City’s future. For the last year that I was on the Commission, I worked with staff to have neighborhood meetings to find out what residents thought was important. Unfortunately, the City Manager decided that he didn’t want to know what was on the minds of the people of Stuart. So now Stuart waits.

Stuart’s Godot may come and give the Commission guidance. The present City Commission won’t find a plan on its own. So, the Commission waits. While Vladimir and Estragon waited, they spoke to each other. The City Commission doesn’t do even that. The play’s characters cared about what Godot would say when he appeared. I don’t believe this current City Commission cares at all.

Stuart’s Very Own Masque

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As a kid I remember reading Edgar Alan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.” In the story, a medieval country was suffering the plague.  Prospero, the ruler of the land, invited a thousand lords and ladies to a masque (another name for a costume party) in his castle.

Prospero thought the elite of the land could stay locked in the castle and wait out the pestilence. An intruder dressed in black, the grim reaper, makes an appearance running through the halls while Prospero calls on his guests to stop him. No one does because of fear. Finally, Prospero grabs hold and immediately dies. The death that the lords and ladies tried to avoid was now in their midst and their fates were revealed in their eyes.

This allegory is based on the 14th century bubonic plague, better known as the Black Death, that killed half of Europe’s population. It shows the futility of hiding from the inevitable. It also illustrates that the elites are not immune just because they are elite. Then and now it proves that we must all pull together to be successful.

Stuart, I fear has been caught in Prospero’s predicament. The plague has entered City Hall and you can no longer lock it out. One by one, City senior staff are leaving. The Fire Chief was first. Then a Battalion Chief, the City Manager’s assistant and the Building Official. The Special Assistant to the City Manager was next, followed by the Director of Public Works. Who knows who will be next.

The City Commission can no longer pretend that City Hall is immune. It is now too late to lock the doors to keep the pestilence from infecting a once competent work force. They, like Prospero’s lords and ladies, invited the carrier into their midst and then did nothing. They danced and pretended that everything was fine…but look deeply in the commissioners’ eyes to see whether the reality has set in. Perhaps they hear a faint beating heart – that’s a Poe story for another day.

The Press & Local Government

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Martin County has a problem. While there are large financial and procedural problems both within the City and County governments, what I am concerned about is much more fundamental. It is simply a lack of press coverage on what those governments are actually doing. Without unbiased reporting, citizens have no idea what their governments are doing in their names.

How can citizens possibly be able to keep tabs on their elected officials if they have no idea what is going on? Sure, we have public meetings, but public meetings do no good if the public has no knowledge of what goes on in those meetings. While at least the City of Stuart’s meetings are held in the evening, Martin County Commission meetings are strictly held in the daytime, precluding most people with a job from attending.

The City’s meetings are streamed and can also be watched later online while the County’s meetings can be seen on MC-20. This is not as helpful as it may seem. What I have discovered is that the best way to keep something secret is to give people too much information without context. Until recent years, that context was provided by the local press.  Our current local press corps has failed us miserably in this respect.

While we have very talented opinion writers in the local newspaper, they are not reporters. They give us their opinions with a certain slant. It is valuable and good reading, but it is not a substitute for the good old-fashioned reporting of “who, what, when, where and why” when writing a news story to inform the public. TV journalism is not relevant in Martin County unless it is to report the sensational. Radio has no news component in local reporting at all.

I can’t blame TC Palm/Treasure Coast Newspapers or any television station for no longer being journalistic in the traditional sense. Perhaps it is too much to ask for any one news source to inform the public. The public has turned away from these conventional sources and want their news from social media. But social media has its limitations for a number of reasons, including the lack of verification of the facts.

I have painted a grim picture. But all the “Sunshine” in the world doesn’t help if no one is watching what government is doing. We have become an electorate of opinions absent the facts. It is a place where our prejudices and suppositions cloud our informed decision-making.  So, we re-elect incumbents without knowing their actual records and votes.

This is ultimately not good for local self-government nor for our democracy. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to Charles Yancey in 1816:

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.”

 

Leadership

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I was in Orlando the last few days participating in a class offered by FLC University, an affiliate of the Florida League of Cities. The purpose of the course for government officials is to make us better leaders. It was very interesting and gave me insight on not only my leadership abilities and style but also how to spot traits in others, including their motivations. It was worth the time to attend.

However, I am not a leader in the conventional sense. Neither I nor any member of the City Commission has any real authority to affect the City’s everyday operations. This sentiment was echoed by the dedicated elected officials who took the class with me. Commissioners don’t have a portfolio or a department that we oversee. We have limited ability to do more than speak with the city manager. This is not the classical definition of a leader. This is not how you would normally accomplish things.

So where does an elected official derive his or her leadership from? The simple answer is from the citizens we represent. Once elected, I stand in for the voters and residents of Stuart. I can express leadership by being the representative of the voters and residents. When speaking to the city manager or staff, I speak for you.

No one commissioner has authority in the traditional sense. The Commission has the authority to vote to appoint the manager but not much else. It is no secret that I believe that the strong manager/weak commission form of government is not accountable to the voters. I think it is the antithesis of what our democracy is all about. Our leaders in the public sector must derive their legitimacy from the people. That can only be done by the people choosing their leaders. It is hard to be a leader without the carrot or stick.

But we do not have that system so I must work within the current one. So, as your elected official, the leadership I show is derived through you. I have only the moral authority that you have provided by your vote. I am your leader for as long as I have your support. My effectiveness for you demands that I have that support. Without it, I have a title but no authority. And, I think you know by now, I didn’t want to be elected to have an empty title.  The reason I ran for Commission was so that I could be your voice in setting policy for the City and to ensure accountability to you rather than to the special interests that often prevail when no one is watching out for the citizens.

Citizen Apathy

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So, another week has passed. FBI probes, indictments, mass shootings and sex and infidelity scandals are what greet us morning, noon and night. Our government in Washington can’t seem to pass legislation. Our President can’t stop the tweets. And Tallahassee is trying to run every Floridian’s life in the name of giving the individual freedom. This is the state of the nation.

Being a citizen means more than just coming to the polls and voting at election time. Throughout their terms, elected officials need to have citizen participation on an ongoing basis. As one of those elected officials, I need that input to do my job. Residents, taxpayers and voters must be active and informed for our system of government to work.

When I am on the dais, I will always see City staff in the audience. There will be lawyers and planners representing applicants waiting their turn before the Commission. Perhaps a neighbor or two that may be affected by the proposed projects. And, as usual, two or three citizens, the same citizens that attend meeting after meeting. This is not acceptable. In order to make sure that our Commission acts for the benefit of the entire City, more residents need to know what is going on.

We need citizens to be there even when a project will not directly affect them. We need citizens to be there to make sure that a “favored” friend is not voted an undue advantage. We need citizens there to make sure that nothing is slipped by without, at the least, a voice to sound the alarm and remember. We need citizens because otherwise we will have a government that is not accountable to the people.

It is true that the farther government is from the people the less responsive it is to the people. Congress and the Legislature know that and that is why they have made government less and less accountable by taking away or pre-empting local control. But even local government only stays accountable by having citizens involved. You can’t be in Washington or Tallahassee on a weekly basis. You can be at City Hall.

Little Corruptions

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On Thursday, February 15th another school massacre occurred. A deranged kid with a gun took 17 lives. The dead were school children and teachers. Most of those lives were extinguished before they had begun.

We have grown accustomed to these incidents. The playbook has been written. There will be tinges of sadness followed by outrage then the political hyperbole about gun control. We will hear that this is not the time to discuss what to do while relatives and loved ones are grieving. And, of course, that old chestnut of “If there were more good people with guns…” There is always an excuse but never any concrete action to curb the violence.

So much of how America operates is dysfunctional. We are a selfish society polarized by politics and inflamed by people with ulterior motives. All of which occurs for the enrichment of the few at the expense of the many. We have become a country that is corrupt. We have not yet become a nation where bribes are expected in order to have our telephones installed. Rather we are more and more morally corrupted by our elites playing on our emotions and beliefs for their own sinister purposes.

Nothing is accomplished by our government of any substance. The perception is now more important than the actual reality. As a society we no longer believe it is wrong that the playing field is not fair. It is alright for those who know the right people to benefit at the public expense. Those very few now manipulate government on all levels for their benefit. The majority no longer counts except as backdrop.

From our educational system to our political system to our financial system, it is now all rigged to enhance those fortunate few. They have cynically taken over the levers of power as their own. They use any means necessary to enhance their positions. They have no core beliefs or principles. There is only the pursuit of power and riches.

So the little corruptions continue. Rational thought and the art of compromise no longer matter in the nation’s public life and is true in our personal ones as well. We believe some of the lies told and shut our eyes and pretend that we do for the rest. This is the America we inhabit where truths are far from self-evident and government is not for all the people.

In the not too distant past, America’s politicians and leaders would never have stood by while these massacres happened. A common sense for the common good would have prevailed. But not today! No, in the name of power and greed Americans, especially our youngest, will continue to die. It is more important that the connected few keep the false feuds going between the American people in the name of political discourse. Then those connected can amass even more money and power. These little corruptions are eating away at the fiber of our nation and ultimately will destroy it.