The CTLA is proposing a Charter Amendment that will eliminate the 5+2 BCC. This blog is my response to some of the reasons they list for eliminating this forward thinking enhancement of the current 5 single district commission.
The population of Clay County does not justify additional commissioners. There are 19 Charter Counties that can choose how many commissioners they want. The other 48 non-Charter counties are limited by the Florida Constitution to either 5 or 7 commissioners. Of the 19 Charter counties, the number of commissioners per county varies from as few as 5 (9 counties) to as many as 19 (Duval with 14 single district + 5 at-large). The population of the Charter counties varies from as low as 62,000 in Columbia to 2.4 million in Dade (13 commissioners). If it matters, the average population of the 19 counties is 712,960. Divide that by the total number of commissioners in the 19 Charter counties (143) and you get 4,986 people per commissioner. I know – what difference does that make? That’s what I say about the whole “Clay is not big enough for a 5+2 plan” argument. What difference does that make? Not much of an argument to me.
At-large commissioners will live in the same district as the single-district commissioners. So? They have to live somewhere, and if the county is divided into 5 single-member districts, it is only logical that the at-large commissioners will live in a district. So does the County Manager. So does the Sheriff. So does the School Board Superintendent. The “worst case” scenario that causes the CTLA to lose sleep at night is that the 2 at-large commissioners come from the same district, or, shudder the thought, are next door neighbors. It is even suggested by the CTLA that the 2 at-large and a single-district commissioner could all be next door neighbors. WHAT?!? I’m doing my best to control my inner sarcastic adolescent, but I have to say this is a pretty weak argument for or against anything. Let me get this straight. 3 people who all live next door to each other get together and decide they will run for the BCC (funded by evil lobbyists I’m sure), and they will take over Clay County and commit all sorts of mischief and mayhem. I say again, WHAT?!? There are 6 of 19 counties that have a mixed BCC (7 with at-large, 6 with single-district). I haven’t bothered to see how many commissioners are next door neighbors, but it goes without saying that some of the at-large commissioners live in the same district as some of the single-district folks. The only way to prevent that, is have them live outside of the county. Now THAT could be a problem.
Because I have already prattled on longer than I should have, I will close this session. November is a long way away, and I’m already tired of this subject.
I prefer arguments like “I just don’t want 2 more commissioners,” or “This is just a bad idea,” to some of the ones put out by the CTLA. Somehow, somewhere, some people have the idea that there are statistics or numbers that can be used to argue either for or against this plan. I don’t buy it. Numbers can be manipulated to say anything. To me, this is much more of a gut feeling type of thing. You either want access to an at-large commissioner, or you are happy having a vote for 1 commissioner only. You either want some one to be held accountable for leading this county, or you are happy having our BCC leader changed annually, and selected by his/her peers who will get their own shot at “leading” in a few months. No statistics needed.