Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/243343
Sarasota News Leader January 17, 2014 OPINION Page 89 "The Lee County Charter may be amended its citizens. Logic would dictate that those to provide for the nonpartisan election of same people would also look favorably upon a proposal to strip hyper-partisan control county commission members. … from vital county elective offices. This office and the courts have considered the issue of non-partisan elections on several Alas, it was not to be. The groups which were occasions. In Attorney General's Opinion organizing for this change have already con79-106 the question was whether a special ceded that it likely will not be on the ballot in act could be passed providing for the non- 2014, meaning yet another slate of candidates partisan election of county officers or county satisfactory only to developers and radical commissioners. In the response to this rightists probably will be those elected to inquiry it was noted that Article III, section important county offices this year, including 11(a)(1), of the Florida Constitution pro- two new county commissioners. vides that '[t]here shall be no special law or With all of the concerns voiced in the past general law of local application pertaining year over proposed changes to the county's to . . . [the] election, jurisdiction or duties 2050 Plan, protection of environmentally senof officers, except officers of municipali- sitive lands, ensuring developers pay for the ties, chartered counties, special districts infrastructure costs of new developments or local governmental agencies.'" [emphasis and preserving the optimal quality of life for applied] Sarasota County residents, the single issue of However, for some unknown reason, the PAC much greater concern was the transformation that wanted to open our elections has been of county offices to nonpartisan. hamstrung by uncertainty and bad advice. The net effect is that, after many months, nothing has been done to put this vital initiative before the voters. Without thoughtful, public-spirited citizens standing for office, able to win election without pandering to the moneyed interests of developers or the demented demands of the Ideally, signatures should have been gathered Radical Right, the county is doomed to elect yet more sycophants in the pockets of the and certified so the matter could have been wealthy land developers or, worse, beholden voted on March 25, when county voters will to a radical, inhumane right-wing agenda. decide on the continuation of a special tax for the school district. That roughly two-thirds It is time for the great rational majority of votof voters overwhelmingly support this extra ers in Sarasota County to rise up and make tax every four years is a clear indication that known their desire for free and fair elections the county is not in the thrall of special inter- in our county. It is time to organize a petition ests or right-wing crazies. On the contrary, campaign to place a charter amendment on thoughtful and responsible people are casting the ballot to end the oligarchy we have strugtheir ballots for the benefit of the county and gled with for so long. %