What can a city or, for that matter, a county commissioner actually accomplish regarding our rivers and environment? In my experience, an elected official at that level has very little influence. They can’t order the Lake Okeechobee flows to stop or a reservoir to be built.
What they do have is the “bully pulpit.” They can lobby at a state and federal level for funding and programs. They can write letters and articles in support of clean water policies.
If your local elected officials are only involved when they are up for election or when a crisis is occurring, then what they are committed to is being elected to office, not our environment. As voters we should be looking at the organizations they belonged to before the political bug bit. What were their environmental statements and donations? Did they write letters to the editor? Once in office, did they continue as a contributing member to the environmental cause or were they only seen for the photo-op and headline.
Declaring a “State of Emergency” for a city the size of Stuart is a grand gesture with no practical effect. It is a way for the Stuart City Commission to seem environmentally friendly but rather useless and void of any true meaning. If that is the extent of the Commission’s commitment, there is not much to these Commissioners.
When there are no looming environmental catastrophes, is the City proceeding with sewer to septic conversions? They need to be seeking grants and appropriations from Tallahassee for the money so that homeowners can affordably hook up. They should be advocating, and mandating homeowners hook up within several years. This would be a meaningful program.
As we prepare to cast our votes in August we need to look beyond the candidates’ statements during campaigns. Have they put their money where their mouths are? Have they worked for water causes when no one was looking? Who are their campaign contributors? Are unfamiliar PACs sending out mailers on their behalf?
These are the questions that need answers. Don’t be fooled by their garbled campaign rhetoric. It is easy to say I am for clean rivers. It is much harder to have done something to accomplish the task.