The Shape Of Things To Come?

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At some point, Stuart and Martin County will begin to reopen. Much of how we react to the lifting of restrictions will depend on when it occurs, what are the phases, and how others behave.

 

Governor DeSantis will need to be clear on what he is intending to do and accomplish. That will mean his orders will have to be written so that Floridians will clearly understand them. He will have to give some discretion to local governments to tailor his orders to local needs and sensibilities.

 

The ultimate arbiter of what happens will be the collective responses of individuals. Before the shutdown, we all had our own routines. For me, going back to mine will be different than for you going back to your routine. Even when everything opens, will people immediately resume their old patterns?

 

Some of us will not be returning to crowded golf courses at first. Others will be circumspect about frolicking on the beach or hitting balls at the tennis courts. Many, on the other hand, may be back golfing, swimming, and hitting balls as soon as possible. How many though will resume those activities with a little trepidation?

 

Before the time of corona, many of us would go out to lunch several times a week with others. Breaking bead with a person leads to a rapport that you cannot get any other way. This activity may resume very slowly. Going forward will we think this social and intimate lunch could be a breeding ground for the spread of the virus.

 

Two months ago, my wife and I would go out to dinner once or twice per week. Since the lock down that has been a thing of the past. The restaurant experience of being served by a competent professional who makes customers welcome is a big part of the charm. It was special as opposed to sitting at the kitchen table. Will we feel the same if the server is in gloves and mask?

 

Many enjoyed having friends over for dinner at our homes. Like many I would hope at some point to resume that. Every time there is a sneeze, or a cough will a little apprehension be felt at the table.

 

Except for our forays out for grocery shopping, many have kept close to home. My car has not needed a fill up for a month, and I still have more than half a tank. If you enjoyed travelling pre-pandemic how many have had to cancel plans?

 

I would go up north for business and to see family regularly. Sometimes, I flew twice a month to New York City. I treated JetBlue as a commuter line. I have not taken a flight since March 7th. And while I miss the family, I do not think I will be travelling as much for business going forward.

 

Other things will change for many of us. Will we visit retail stores less?  Have we become a little more use to the convenience of buying online? For many products you can do your shopping while watching television.  Does this drive another nail in mom and pop type stores’ demise?

 

Each of us will adjust our life as restrictions are lifted. I am assuming that as those restrictions are lifted, people will act rationally because the virus is still out there. If restrictions need to be re-imposed, then that will be a blow to our psyches. Open and closing businesses may create insurmountable challenges for many businesses ever being able to reopen after repeated shutdowns. That is just a fact. Confidence is shaky at best.

 

We had riots in the street over the Vietnam War. Over more than a dozen years, U.S. casualties for that conflict were less than 2 months of COVID-19. That experience profoundly changed how my generation saw our government and society. This will probably do the same for millennials and the generation still attending school.

 

This pandemic will have even more of an effect than any occurrence since the Great Depression. Our economy has not even begun to process all the ramifications. How many people will go back to work? How long will it take to achieve less than 3% unemployment again, if ever.

 

Our nation and the world are changed. Things we have taken for granted will be different. The restaurant and hospitality industry will be forever altered. More jobs will be automated so that there will be less human contact. Commercial real estate will undergo a transformation as working from home will become more common and social distancing a new norm.

 

H.G. Wells authored a book in 1933 tilled, The Shape of Things to Come. It is a work of science fiction regarding a pandemic, depression, and eternal war. Though fiction it predicted World War II and the carpet bombing of civilians in cities. What we are living through now many of us would think a year ago could never happen. That we would be protected in our cocoon.

 

Changes will occur because individuals will make decisions based on their experiences with the pandemic. It may take years to know and understand the lasting effects. One of the biggest changes will be that the baby boomers will finally cede power to those of Generation X and the Millennials. They will be the ones deciding what is important in our society and what is not. That is not a bad thing going forward.

The Greatest Of Sacrifices

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Americans love to say we are fighting an enemy. Presidents do it in order to mobilize the nation and boost their egos.

 

Johnson had a war on poverty and Nixon declared a war on cancer while, in both instances, they oversaw a real one in Vietnam. Reagan and Bush 41 had their wars on drugs and crime along with various armed conflicts in Beirut, Nicaragua, Kuwait, and tiny Grenada during their 12 years.

 

Clinton battled in Kosovo and won while he lost the battle for Health Care at home. Bush 43 and Obama had the war on terror domestically but did not defeat our enemies on the battlefields in the Middle East.

 

Trump also calls himself a wartime president not because our armed forces are still dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, but because of the battle every American at home is waging against COVID-19. The Presidents of the United States have had the country in a fighting war in one form or another since I was in grade school 60 years ago.

 

Is war the right term to describe anything but actual combat with an armed enemy? Poverty, drugs, cancer, crime, and inadequate healthcare may be destroying our society, but for the most part, they are internal and self-inflicted problems. Even terror is more an existential threat to the nation than an actual one. And during all these supposed wars, what have civilians been asked to sacrifice?

 

My father was too young to fight in World War II and my grandfathers were too old. Any sacrifices my parents and grandparents made were on the home front. Ration books were needed to buy gasoline, meat, and sugar. But these were the same people that had known hardship during the “Great Depression.” To this day, my mother hates parsnips and turnips because they were so much of her diet growing up.

 

During Vietnam, civilians weren’t asked to have meatless days or not drive their cars. It was pretty good on the home front for most Americans. That war would have continued much longer if it weren’t for the draft. At some point, forcing too many unwilling 19-year old boys to die for national pride is not sustainable.

 

After that conflict, a brilliant idea occurred to our politicians! Why not introduce an all-volunteer force with nobody forced to serve. That would eliminate most of us having to give up anything including our lives involuntarily for the country.  You no longer needed buy-in to have an endless war. And that premise has worked well ever since.

 

Interestingly, soldiers have been in an actual state of combat since 1941 and haven’t been in a declared war since 1945. The Congress gets to complain and take no responsibilities. While sending our men and women into harm’s way, our Presidents can ignore that fact when it is not convenient or embrace it when it is. In the meantime, they can declare war on all sorts of things including, currently, a virus.

 

Since civilians have not been asked to sacrifice anything for 75 years, we are not very good at it. In fact, while we have been in all these wars both real and rhetorical, we have demanded more government services while also demanding to pay less taxes. Our nation has nothing to show for any of this except a huge deficit and no victories.

 

In the war against the virus, we are asked to remain at home and limit our interaction with others. Besides toilet paper and hand sanitizer, our stores are stocked. There has been no income tax surcharge to defer some of the costs. If you are like me, your travel has been curtailed and a vacation has been cancelled. That is not much of a sacrifice.

 

We don’t do sacrifice well even when thousands of Americans are dying. The most burning question in this war is “Will I catch the virus or not. If I do will I be able to have adequate treatment and finally have a test to confirm the diagnosis?”

 

In Florida where I live, it seems the greatest sacrifice that many may be asked to make is not to play golf. The furor that has erupted reminds me of the protests of the 60s only with the affluent protesters having more gray hair. A few weeks without golf would seem to be too much of a sacrifice for our pampered civilians to make…even for their own health and that of their loved ones.

 

For you see we are in a battle. Not with guns and tanks but against a virus. Our economy has cratered. Many businesses will not reopen. Our children have missed school. People will be in debt perhaps lose their homes.

 

None of that is too much a price for victory. But here in Martin County, Florida, the great sacrifice of closed golf courses is too much to bear.

 

 

MCTV Should Belong To Everyone!

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GE Photo

There are 168 hours in a week. 24 hours in a day. 302,400 minutes in the average month. I think it is more than enough available time for MCTV to televise every meeting for every government in the County. In fact, each meeting could be repeated several times. So why isn’t what should be called the tax-payer-funded Martin County Citizens Channel doing so?

 

Much has to do with inertia…county government believing that since they have never done so, why should they do so now could be a prevalent thought. Another possibility is a more parochial one…the channel belongs to the government. In my mind, those are lame excuses. The County should do it because it is in the public’s interest to know what their governments are doing in their names. That was the concept of having government channels when franchise agreements with providers were signed in accordance with Section 611 of the Communications Act.

 

It is amazing how many people tune in to watch meetings. It is more than I would ever have expected. Not everyone can go to BOCC meetings but almost everyone can watch the re-airing later. Many of us do.

 

What has really brought this to the forefront is the shutting down of public meetings in the time of COVID-19. Different boards have tried and done their best, but it has resulted in limited public input. The “public square” has been cordoned off. Zoom has been used in the breach, but it is nothing like a real face to face meeting.

 

And when a citizen can’t be there, televised meetings are the next best thing. Body language, which sometimes conveys more than words, helps identify where someone stands on an issue. C-Span has been going strong for the past 40 years showing unedited content of Congress and our national government. There is the Florida Channel which does much the same for Tallahassee. MCTV should serve the same function for Martin County.

 

MCTV production costs are paid for through the County’s General Fund. Whether you live in unincorporated Martin County, Stuart, Indiantown or the other municipalities, every taxpayer is contributing. The intention of the station was never to be the lone mouthpiece to showcase how staff views things. It was to inform the public on all government.

 

There would be added expense for sure. Most of it should be borne by the general fund and some by the governmental entities based on population. Currently, the only other governmental entity that broadcasts a meeting is the School Board. That meeting is not shown live but rather a couple of days later. I would imagine that is because closed captioning must be inserted.

 

The School Board is charged a premium. It is against the concept of sunshine and open government.

 

The station should operate much as C-Span does and not as a propaganda arm of Martin County government. Today, we have the capability of making sure that citizens have the knowledge of what is being done in their names, televised meetings are as much a part of government as other departments.

 

The County Commission should get behind this effort and spearhead it. The other governments and their boards should also be lobbying to see this occur. I hear from many board members that they are committed to transparency. Having televised government meetings for every board in Martin County would be a way to show their commitment to that principle.

What Is A Leader?

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What is the role of a leader when the nation and the world is in a crisis? During times of upheaval, people look toward someone to provide answers, solutions, and comfort. Currently, none of those things are coming from anyone in Washington. The administration is proving itself ineptly incompetent and worse.

 

As the legislative branch, Congress can pass laws but cannot instill confidence. The limited trust that the American people did have in their representatives has become even less with the purported antics like Senators Burr, Feinstein, Inhofe, and Loeffler using confidential government briefings held in January and February to determine what stocks to buy and sell rather than proposing legislation to address what they knew was coming to our shores.

 

Governors have shown some strong leadership skills. For example, Andrew Cuomo has handled the situation well. I have not agreed or been a fan of his policies but in this instance, he has shown what real leadership is supposed to be. Other examples are Governors DeWine of Ohio, Newsom in California and to a lesser extent DeSantis in Florida have taken appropriate action in their states to protect citizens.

 

In many parts of the country, local government is led by an elected mayor or county executive. They have authority to act decisively. We don’t have that here. There is no one individual for us to rally around. A commission or council are legislative. Even during press conferences with the mayor or chair speaking, he/she can only state an agreed upon policy.

 

That doesn’t mean the figurehead can’t provide solace to an anxious public. Real leadership is expressed in gestures and deeds. With this pandemic, the wartime analogy being used is a flawed one. There is not an enemy to defeat but rather a situation to endure and survive while creating solutions to immediate problems along the way. This threat is existential rather than responding to aggression by a nation or a race.

 

Leaders make us believe in ourselves. They do not lie and sugarcoat the difficulties that we face. Leaders demonstrate a path to follow usually by example. People want to be led inspirationally. The use of fears, lies and innuendo will not do during moments of uncertainty. Leaders inspire the best in us and never the worst.

 

Leadership demands accountability and responsibility. To be a leader means you make decisions. FDR led this nation through the turmoil of the Depression and World War II. A quote of his that epitomizes those tenets is this: “Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.”

 

Leaders fail sometimes. Their continuing success is measured by the people still trusting in their ultimate ability to inspire hope and give us confidence to endure. You cannot be a leader and do nothing. The one common trait of all great leaders is being an inspiration to those being led. Leaders show up when others do not.

 

As we, the American people, look to the future, we do so with dread. Many Americans will be out of work for months. Others will lose their businesses. Some of us will die. This will be no short-term crisis but one that will last for weeks and probably months.

 

When we are confronted with a crisis like this, it is so important that we pick our leaders wisely. We cannot afford the luxury any longer of having slogans substitute for competence. By the time this pandemic is over, the United States and the rest of the world will have fundamentally changed in many ways.  Hopefully, our leadership will have learned from the mistakes made and will be better prepared to deal with the next crisis.

 

As they fled from bondage in Egypt, the ancient Israelites followed Moses and his brother, Aaron. While Moses was on Mount Sinai, it was Aaron who told his people to worship the golden calf. If the Israelites had rejected the truth of Moses for the sophistry of Aaron, history would have been different. Ultimately, Moses with the Law from God led the people to the promised land.  Perhaps our national leaders will soon embrace a more Moses-like attitude in their approach to COVID 19.

THE END OF AN ERA???

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It is no secret that print newspapers are at death’s door.

 

Some papers, such as The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, are alive and well. These are national papers despite their parochial names. They continue to have readership growth, especially their online editions. Many older people grew up reading at least one or two papers a day. If you commuted to school or work by public transportation, newspapers were in the hands of 80% of the riders. Perhaps this is part of the explanation for why these few papers thrive.

 

Fifty years ago, there were no cable news stations. Local TV news was 30 minutes followed by 30 minutes of network broadcasts of world and national reports.  Back then, reading a newspaper was the best way to find out what was going on in your town. I remember having several daily newspapers in our home as a kid.

 

Even today, I read two or three papers every day. I watch cable news, occasionally PBS and, only when a hurricane is approaching, local TV. One of the papers I do read is Stuart News. For the past several years, I have received only the digital version, and I read it everyday wherever I happen to be.

 

Our world has changed with social and digital media. Most Americans just don’t spend the money to buy a local newspaper any longer. An old law that legal notices should be published for the public’s information is an antiquated idea. I don’t know about you, but the first thing I do for information regarding Stuart or Martin County government is go on their websites.

 

Those websites are my first stop if I want to know whether there is a meeting or not. I can find the entire meeting agenda and most of the backup for the items. In the newspaper, all that is published is what is required by statute. The website is free and while I like and support newspapers, I don’t think taxpayers should subsidize them. Requiring publication of meeting, legal, and all government notices in the classifieds is something whose time has passed.

 

I find it ironic that newspaper companies have and continue to lobby hard for this subsidy. They are usually champions against government waste. When was the last time any of us looked to the Stuart News to find out about an upcoming meeting? In the age of Facebook and Twitter, email notifications and websites, I would choose many other options before going through the classifieds.

 

Government websites could be mandated by statute to have special sections to make it easy for the public to find notices. There is still a small segment of the population that can’t or won’t use the internet, but those individuals are becoming fewer and fewer. We shouldn’t burden taxpayers with subsidizing a medium that they no longer find relevant in their daily lives.  It is too bad that something that I personally love has become so irrelevant.

 

Children, Height and Stuart

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Recently, Stuart has apparently offended several communities on its municipal borders.

 

In both instances, developers have proposals to build multi-family projects on vacant land. Both are located on major thoroughfares. What they are attempting to do is bring new housing to the City that actually looks like it belongs in an urban setting. It’s the kind of housing everyone claims we need until it is next to your home.

 

The first is on East Ocean Blvd nestled next to Kingswood which is in the City. Kingswood is an over age 55 community. Their residents are apparently deathly afraid of having families with children living next to them. At the last LPA meeting on February 20, Kingswood resident after resident voiced concerns regarding the proximity that they would have to the greatest evil they can imagine which, apparently, are kids.

 

Perhaps this is an outgrowth of an increasingly selfish society. Just imagine if these same individuals were objecting to new neighbors based on race, ethnicity, religion, or a myriad of other unacceptable reasons. How about if a developer wanted to build an over-55 community in the middle of a family neighborhood, and the kids objected to grandma and grandpa moving in.

 

The second project is fronting Federal Highway off Harrison Street in South Stuart. The developer wants to build 7 four-story buildings on 13.9 acres consisting of 280 apartments with amenities. There are single family homes in a development known as Springtree surrounding the proposed site to the rear. They are objecting because of traffic, density and the height of the buildings. At least they are not worried about the characteristics of the new occupants.

 

Humans are programmed to hate change. Change to our daily routine. Change to our diet. And definitely change to our surroundings. If it was a vacant piece of land when we moved here, then it should remain as such even though the current location of my house or condo was once a vacant piece of real estate.

 

If you live within the City of Stuart, on its borders or within the Urban Services Boundary, those vacant lots next to you are going to be developed at some point in the near or far future. Those strip centers that are now nearly empty are going to be re-purposed or demolished to make way for something new and probably bigger.

 

You cannot claim to care about our waterways and then object when vacant land in cities, CRAs, and within the Urban Services Boundary are built upon. The alternative is sprawl. The alternative is more and more congestion on our roadways. The alternative is more concrete and less open space in the western part of the county.

 

Single family homes are expensive to build and then to own. Realistically, fewer and fewer of us can afford or want to live in these homes. During the Springtree presentation at the City, a picture was shown of a four-story condo, The Edgewater, on St Lucie Crescent in Stuart which also happens to be my neighborhood.

 

This condominium is surrounded by townhouses, single-family homes, rental apartment buildings, and an office building. My mother-in-law lived at that building for thirty years. My wife and I had an apartment there as our Stuart home for 10 years. For the past 15 years, we have lived in a single-family home that we built less than 500 feet from that building. There are no setbacks or trees to hide the site and certainly not a 350-foot preserve and 50-foot additional planted setback as is planned for the development near Springtree. It is a cohesive, friendly, diverse neighborhood where everyone, for the most part, gets along with each other.

 

There really is no sustainable path forward if we continue with the Florida sprawl. Young people can’t afford to spend $500,000 to buy a home. Most people can’t afford those prices. Slowly, we are pricing ourselves out of affordable, workforce, and middle-income housing in Martin County. This is the legacy of NIMBY. Most Martin residents’ visions are nothing should be built, but if something does have to be, make it a single-family sprawl development. Oh, and no children or neighbors, please.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOR WHOM DO YOU PULL THE LEVER

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When we go to the polls, we make choices. The hardest ones are not about whether a Democrat or a Republican is the better choice. To me, the most perplexing votes are when I am asked to choose between a candidate that has government experience and one that does not.

 

How much does experience matter in elective office? I think it depends on what type of position we are voting to elect. Like any new job, once elected there is a learning curve if you have never worked or served in government before. Government does not operate as the private sector does.

 

Government shouldn’t work as a private business because public money is being expended. There needs to be more safeguards and more hoops to jump through. Bureaucracy is created to do just that.

 

I am more than willing to vote for an inexperienced person to represent me in local government or in the state legislature. Most people who initially run for these positions have the best interests of their communities as their reasons for running. There are seasoned staff employees to explain the intricacies of government to them once elected.

 

I am quite leery of voting for someone with no public track record for an executive office. There is a big difference between “shaking things up” and destroying the system, and knowing the difference is much harder for a neophyte.

 

You need to have the ability to do two things in an executive position.The first is to be able to take advice. The elected executive must be a confident enough leader to surround himself with the very best people he can find. The second is to know your own strengths and weaknesses. Any individual that has been successful has an ego. You need to know how to keep it in check.

 

The last type of elected official is the technical position such as Clerk of the Court, Tax Collector, Sheriff or Property Appraiser. In most places, these positions are not elected ones. Except for sheriff, these are departments within other governments. Those department heads are appointed. They are apolitical and technocratic.

 

Florida has a long tradition of electing these officials. We also had a long tradition of electing our school superintendents. Other places elect chief executives to run local government. We don’t do that here. Is one way better than the other?

 

For those technical offices, the person I vote for must have experience in the field. By running, they are applying for a job and I am one of the deciders on whom to hire. These positions are important. I don’t want my sheriff to be the guy that was an accountant before he was elected.

 

If we are going to insist that we choose a person to run a technical department of government by popular vote, we need to look at his/her resume. You need to have both relevant technical knowledge as well as executive experience. If you make the campaign a popularity contest instead of a job interview, you may not get the best person in that job.

 

Depending on the position, a voter can take different factors into consideration. For county commission, experience isn’t as important as judgement. A connection with the voter is important. A county commissioner or a state senator is a representative of the people that elected him.

 

A sheriff or other constitutional officers are technocrats that enforce existing statutes. They need to have executive experience and knowledge in the field we are entrusting them with overseeing. Electing someone without those attributes is bad public policy and ultimately bad for the taxpayer.

 

OPUS….PREVIEW FROM THIS WEEK’S FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS!!!

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In the last newsletter, I wrote about the tumult in Martin County High School’s OPUS program. The parents and students had rapidly become disillusioned with the program when the new choral director was hired for this school year. Director Kylie Lowe was under internal investigation at the time that the parents and students spoke at the last board meeting. She was subsequently terminated during her one-year probationary period.

If Ms. Lowe was inadequate, it was for the best that she be immediately terminated. It probably means that this year’s seniors will have lost their final year to participate in the program. There is always an adjustment period when programs have new leaders. This seems to be more than that. The District did not perform its due diligence when selecting this person. Parents stated that her only qualification was that she was a graduate of Belmont College and an OPUS alumna. If that is true, when will Martin County begin to see that being born here is not a qualification for having a job here?

 

Local Government & Affordable Housing

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The Stuart City Commission will have a workshop devoted to the topic of housing next week.

 

I hope the Commission does not meander down a predictable path. Will that old chestnut of what to do about affordable housing be brought up? If it is then the entire workshop will be for naught.

 

For some very basic reasons, the City has little it can do to provide more of that type of housing. The physical size of the City is limited. The amount of property available to erect new buildings is minuscule. Florida’s building code, which is a very good one, results in a more expensive product than 20 years ago. The City itself does not have the funds to subsidize rents. While the City’s impact fees can be lessened a bit, those of the County and School Board can add thousands of dollars to the cost of new development.

 

What the City can do is change its zoning and LDRs especially in the urban downtown area and, more broadly, within most of the CRA. One change could be to eliminate new individual townhouses and single-family homes in those areas. That may seem radical to some, but more and more municipalities and states are taking that approach. In the rest of Stuart, all new construction (including for single-family homes) would be required to have an ancillary apartment. There would be no requirement that it be rented. Over time, small units would be available even if only for resident’s children to occupy while starting out.

 

Another change could be to stop basing decisions on the outmoded concept of density. Stuart has setback and height restrictions which guide the overall building measurement within the parcel’s envelope. Counting the number of units that a project can have is senseless. If the code allows a property owner to build 15 units per acre, it currently does not dictate whether those units are studios, one bedroom, or three bedrooms. The density calculation, then, is meaningless. Common sense dictates there will be more people occupying a three-bedroom unit than a one bedroom.

 

Within the downtown area, and the CRA in general, we should stop requiring so many parking spaces per unit. This artificially limits the number of housing units than can be built. The market will determine what amenities are needed to sell or rent a unit. Parking is an amenity. If a buyer or tenant considers it important, then the developer will have that cost and use in his determination of price just as he does granite counter tops or a powder room.

 

There is a misconception in Stuart that there is no affordable housing. If that were true, then why do more than 60% of dwellings within the City pay no real estate tax and only a small fire fee? If an owner pays no tax, then the cost of his property is quite low.

 

Presently, much of the City’s housing stock is considered obsolete. It is old and has lived its useful life. You can buy units for $100,000. This is about as affordable as it gets. It is true those units need work. But mortgages and carrying charges can be $1000.00 a month.

 

Stuart needs to encourage housing period. Supply will quell demand. New units make older units cheaper.

 

There will still be people who will never find units they can afford. This is an American societal problem rather than a Martin County or Stuart problem. The national and state governments need to address this. Localities will never have the funds to build enough units to satisfy this demand.

 

And lastly, the Commission should not be influenced by people who do not live within Stuart’s boundaries. They may have the best intentions, but their input is secondary to that of the people paying taxes, and I do mean paying taxes to the City. There will always be those who will say I can’t find anything to buy or rent within the City. What they really mean to say is that they can’t find a single-family home or apartment with four bedrooms, a pool, new baths, and new kitchen appliances on an acre of property for $275,000 or $1000 per month rent.

 

AIR SHOW BAILOUT

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At a recent past meeting, I agreed that then-Chair Ciampi and the rest of the Commission showed restraint in not rushing to decide the fate of the Salerno Seafood Festival for 2021. It was a prudent decision. There was no such restraint at this meeting regarding the Air Show ask.

 

During public comment as part of an orchestrated campaign, a parade of Air Show board members and their supporters had no problem asking for $150,000 from County Government. This money was to book acts for the November 2020 show. For almost every speaker, the tag line was that the show must go on! My question is why does it have to go on and secondarily is it the government’s responsibility to make sure that it does?

 

Missi Campbell, director of the Palm City Chamber, stated it had a positive effect on children based on her previous career as an educator. Skylar Gorman, the executive director of the Air Show, exclaimed that the Air Show must go on because it was going to celebrate its 30th birthday…just like her. Gorman went on to say that it takes an entire year to plan. She referred to the show as a business, and of course the show must go on!

 

There is a voucher exchange program so that those who bought tickets to last year’s cancelled shows could redeem them for 2020. That is nice, but even if only 30% of the ticket holders do so, how is that income going to be made up in the future? Will there be another ask of the County?

 

Amy Bottigel, the president of the Air Show Board, stated that there were fundraising events planned but nothing definite yet. She and a few others had just come back from the air show convention in Vegas and had spent 3 days commiserating with their fellow air show national members. She admits that if they can’t promise that there will be a show, their sponsors will go on to support other nonprofits.

 

Chuck Cleaver, the treasurer, stated the show has a $2.5 million-dollar economic impact on the County. The Air Show costs $1,050,000 to produce. It contributed $33,000 to charity from the proceeds in 2018. The links below are the presentations that I received from the County with those facts and figures.

 

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A1287a029-11ca-4854-ac8d-92d34529cc34

 

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A4e543b95-d961-40db-8eba-fe1bb03ba111

 

Nick Blount, a board member, stated that cancelling due to an accident and then torrential rain was a first. Blount is right that the tragic air accident and death of a pilot the day before the show was a first. The rains that cancelled the other two days were also a first.

 

Some may ask why there was no “rain insurance?” Cleaver explained that the cost would have been $30,000 to $60,000. He went on to say that because you typically need to pick an exact time to measure the rain, the insurance company wouldn’t have paid in this instance anyway. Other supporters spoke and it all came down to the show must go on!

 

Ciampi was excited to support the show. It is a community event and a community responsibility. Perhaps it is a community responsibility, but is it a governmental one? Smith was just as enthusiastic to spend taxpayer dollars to support this business. It adds to the community’s quality of life and has that $2.5 million economic impact. To put that amount into perspective, according to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Gross Domestic Product of Martin County was $6,946,903,000 in 2018.

 

The ask from the Air Show was $150,000. This public comment period was not a surprise. For at least the last few weeks, there were discussions held by the Air Show with all the Commissioners individually. There were not 3 Commissioner votes to take the amount from the ad valorem. Pressure was placed on staff to find the money elsewhere. That led to once again raiding the Commissioners’ new slush fund, the Airport Enterprise Fund. Remember that was also tapped a few weeks back to pay the customs’ fees for the Bahama rebuilding.

 

Is it legal? The answer is yes. But that wasn’t the intention when the fund was established. I would contend that the enterprise funds be used to enhance the airport and businesses located at the airport or that could be located there in the future. If the Commission wants funds to have a lasting impact, then spending money that pays for a few rental cars and gives a couple thousand to favored charities is not the way to proceed.

 

Commissioners Jenkins and Hetherington supported the expenditure but not as enthusiastically as Ciampi and Smith. Heard asked Cleaver if there were any firm commitments from sponsors. He responded that nothing was concrete yet. She explored the idea of the County giving matching dollars. But there were no dollars to match.

 

The words were echoed by the speakers that the Air Show was a business and that the show must go on! But why? Businesses and shows close all the time. Should the government keep the Air Show in business? $2.5 million is a pittance in Martin County’s economy and nothing when compared with the entire Treasure Coast’s GDP. And as far as charitable donations are concerned, if you spend a $1 million to give away $30,000, that can only be described charitably as ill-advised.

 

A motion was made by Ciampi seconded by Smith to give the Air Show $150,000. It passed 4-1 with Heard dissenting. I agree with Commissioner Heard in this case. The business should close, and the show need not go on.