MINUTES OF

POLK COUNTY CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION

FEBRUARY 19, 2002

Chairman Dan Costello, called the meeting of the Polk County Charter Review Commission to order at 7:00 p.m. in the Winter Haven City Hall.  Commissioner Lindsey led the prayer and Commissioner Hunt led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Ms. Swearengin called the roll.  All commissioners were present with the exception of Commissioners Gernert and Price who gave advance notification of their absences in accordance with the Commission’s Rules.

The Chairman said he would like the record to show the Commission had a quorum.

The Chairman said the first order of business was the approval of the minutes of February 5, 2002.  The Chairman said he understood Commissioner Strang had some minor changes, which he gave to Ms. Swearengin, and he asked if there were any further changes to the minutes?  There were no further changes. 

Commissioner Strang made a motion to approve the minutes of February 5, 2002, as corrected, and Commissioner Stoer seconded the motion.  The Chairman asked if there was further discussion?  There was none.  The motion carried.

The Chairman began the meeting by introducing himself to the audience, and he welcomed them to the first of the Commission’s three public hearings, which they would be conducting prior to their final report on April 3, 2002.  

He told the audience the Charter Review Commission was appointed under the authority of Article 8 of the Charter. There were thirteen commissioners appointed by the County Commission and the County Constitutional Officers. They were all unpaid volunteers. He asked the commissioners to introduce themselves to the audience. 

He told the audience that the Commission had been meeting since last April, taking testimony from a large number of individuals, which included elected officials and organizations, and debating the changes that the Commission thought should be proposed to the voters.  He asked them to keep in mind that the purpose of the Public Hearing was to give the citizens an opportunity to review those changes, and to let the Commission know what they thought.  Public hearings had been scheduled for March 5, 2002 in Haines City, at 7:00 p.m., and on March 19, 2002 at 7:00 p.m. in Lakeland. 

He reminded the audience no decisions would be made at that evening’s public hearing, and their comments along with the other comments, which would be received at two subsequent public hearings, would be reviewed by the commissioners before they completed their work.  They would be put in writing and distributed to the commissioners, so that when they met again they would give full consideration to their recommendations and comments. 

He said a total of eight amendments had been proposed. Five of the amendments could be classified as substantial in nature, and those were amendments one, two, three, seven, and eight, and three were technical in nature.  He reviewed the five amendments that were substantial in nature and briefly summarized them.  (Copy attached to the file copy of these minutes).

The Chairman asked Mr. Watts to explain the three amendments, which were technical in nature. 

Mr. Watts briefly summarized the three amendments, which were technical in nature, and those were four, five, and six.

The Chairman asked if there were observations or comments from the commissioners before opening the public hearing?  There were no comments.

The Chairman asked Mr. Spitzer to address the audience. 

Mr. Spitzer briefed the audience on the history and significance of county charter government in Florida. 

The Chairman opened the public hearing. 

Citizen’s Comments

Ms.Tracy Beebe, 2409 Lake Partridge Drive, East, Winter Haven, 33881

Ms. Beebe said her comments that evening were directed toward Amendment 3 (non-partisan elections for constitutional officers).  She was a lifelong citizen of Polk County, and a fourteen-year employee in county government, specifically the Clerk of Courts. 

She wanted to speak to them that evening about integrity and accountability, which was not governed by party lines. 

She believed people took pride in a job well done, and accountability leads them in the right direction, and as county employees they were held to high standards by a Clerk who placed the utmost importance on the services they provided.  They were guided by a mission, which directed them to maintain accurate records, provide excellent customer service, remain professional, and to do all of those things in compliance with laws, rules, and regulations that governed their office.  She said they took pride in the quality of service that they provided to the citizens of Polk County.

Over the last few years she had seen a trend, and the word accountability spread throughout the offices of the elected officials within the county.  She said she had seen the growth and positive changes in county government. 

She believed by continuing to hold the elected officials accountable, and if they in turn upheld the professionalism and integrity of their staff they would be able to give Polk County a reason to be proud of their government. 

The Chairman thanked Ms. Beebe for her comments.      

The Chairman invited Mr. Victor Mansfield to speak.

Mr. Victor Mansfield, 602 Julius T. Horney Drive, Lakeland, FL 

Mr. Mansfield said he was there to talk about the two big problems in government, power and money.  Power- who should make the decisions?  Money- how much should the citizens be taxed?

He asked first, should the Charter Review Commission and the County Commissioners make decisions against the will of the people?  Second, should those groups or the voters decide what the salaries of the employees in government should be, and that was taxes. 

The Charter Review Commission held a lot of meetings.  For the most part they went along with the status quo.  They could have put several important items on the ballot for 2002.  Several groups and individuals asked them to do so. 

The voters spoke loud and clear in the 2000 election.  Over seventy percent, which was far above two-thirds voted for term limits and cutting commissioners’ salaries in half.  He asked what part of that message didn’t they understand?  He said in the next election they would speak loudly again when given the opportunity.  He said the Commission did not decide for the voters, they decided against them, and in so doing they had incited a war, so the lines were drawn between them and the county commissioners and the “fat cat” politicians on one hand and the majority of the people of the County on the other hand. 

They were the majority, and their group was the minority, which was less than thirty percent.  He said he was sorry for those who voted for bigger government, and against the citizens, and he said they should repent.  He said he doubted they would change their minds, so they would fight them and all who opposed the will of the voters. 

The county had gotten along about the same with those “part-time” politicians, so they should not get “full-time” salaries.  If anything they needed less government, and not more.  Someone said that the country was in the greatest danger when Congress was in session.  Governor Bush said that the State Representatives and Senate had passed few laws that session.  He said that could be very good news. 

The 2000-year vote caught the “big spenders” off guard, so they then said, “you get what you pay for”. He said they didn’t get what they already paid for-good government, honest government, and “government in the sunshine”. 

He said honest men were too few, and would serve the people as they should, and professional politicians thought ordinary people were too dumb to know what was good for them.  They thought the voters made a big fat, stupid mistake cutting salaries, and so forth, and they insulted the majority of citizens in Polk County.  He said that ought to make most people mad enough to throw the rascals out. 

Dewey Smith, Russell Hancock, and Jerry Hughes had stood up and struck some early blows for right and against wrong.  He said they had just begun to fight, and they intended to win the fight.  He said the Commission could keep on opposing the will of the voters.  They expected that. 

He said they had the Florida Constitution as their ally.  It said, “all political power was inherent in the people”, it didn’t say “in the commissioners”, etc. 

He told them they were wrong to hinder them as they had done, and that was wicked.  (Copy attached to file copy of these minutes).

The Chairman thanked Mr. Mansfield for his comments, and invited Mr. Tim Steorts to speak.

Mr. Tim Steorts, 4740 Bar Road Trail, Lake Wales

He said he was there to speak on an issue the Commission had not proposed yet, and it was single-member districts. 

The Chairman said that was correct, and it was not on the Commission’s proposed list, although it had been discussed on several occasions, and certainly the Commission was attentive to what people had to say about it that evening, and the subsequent two public hearings. 

The Chairman said he should have reminded the members of the audience that although they had those proposals before them that they agreed upon, it didn’t mean that they couldn’t speak to others, because that list could either be enlarged or made smaller. The reason for having the public hearing was so they could listen to what they had say, and then make up their minds as to what they thought was the best course of action. 

Mr. Steorts said he thought that was the most important issue that needed to be considered for amendment to the Charter.  He said he spoke to the Commission last summer sometime, and he hadn’t been back until last week when the issue was brought up again, and he really hadn’t heard good arguments in favor of it, so he wanted to make a few himself. 

He said what they had then was an at-large system, and it was really a hold over from back in the days when there was a couple of hundred voters in the county, or maybe less – fifty voters sometimes. 

He was in favor of single-member districts whether they had five commissioners or seven or it could be five out of seven with two at large or it could go to seven commissioners.  He thought single-member districts provided visitation to different areas of the county.  He lived east of Lake Wales, and he asked why should someone who was in the Kathleen area be voting on his representative on the County Commission.  He also thought it would encourage more people to run for office because it wouldn’t be such a daunting task.  He was sure all of them knew what it was like to run countywide in that county.   It was a large county and one had to raise all kinds of money and buy hundreds or thousands of signs and on and on. 

He thought by going to single-member districts he thought more people would run, and it would also help with the cost of campaigns.   It was very expensive to run countywide, and it was a lot of wasted money as far as he was concerned, and it got spent on those campaigns and signs, and advertising and everything that went on, and he asked for the long run, why didn’t they make it cheaper to run for office?

He said one of the members last week mentioned that he would be concerned about losing his vote in a particular race, because he wanted to be able to vote in each race.  He said in using the example that there were three commissioners up for election, and one’s vote would only be one out of fifty thousand whereas if one was voting for somebody in their district their vote might be one out of ten thousand rather than three votes that were one out of fifty thousand, one would get their one vote, which was one out of ten thousand.

He said having said that, and he wasn’t a good speaker and didn’t make arguments very well, proportional voting may actually be a better system.  He said he knew that the Commission knew what it was, but he would try to explain it for everyone else there.  He said proportional voting was if they went to seven commissioners, and perhaps four of them were up for election that year, then everybody would get four votes.  They could vote one vote in each race or they could vote three votes in one race, and one in another race or two in another one, or all four on one candidate if they wanted, and that would give different constituencies in the county the ability to back a candidate, and maybe a representative in the county.  He asked what it would hurt to have constituents in the county have one member on the county commission?  He said they would be running the county, but they would at least have a voice, and they would feel like they had a voice, and sometimes there was no one he liked in office, but there was four races, and in one of those races he really didn’t want to vote for either person, but he just choose the lesser of two evils.  

The Chairman said he understood Mr. Steorts favored either single-member districts all or a mixed system, and he asked if that was correct?

Mr. Steorts said if they had five commissioners all five should be single-member districts or if they went to seven commissioners, five of the seven should be single-member districts.

The Chairman thanked Mr. Steorts for his comments.

The Chairman invited Ms. Tammi Crichton to speak. 

Ms. Tammi Sharon Crichton, 4900 Cypress Gardens Road, Apt. #58, Winter Haven, FL 

Ms. Crichton began by saying she was a resident of Winter Haven, and a citizen of Polk County, and she was currently employed by the Polk County Clerk of the Court, and her husband was a Deputy with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Her husband and she had a mutual concern in the changes that were being presented to the citizens of the county.

Regarding Amendment Two (increase in salary for county commissioners) she said she would like to see the County Commissioners’ salaries raised, and would like to see that on the ballot.  In addition she said she noticed through the minutes of the previous meetings, the following issues being discussed. The elected officials were governed by laws, rules, and regulations that told them what to do and how to do it, and those officials were educated professionals who put their own leadership styles into the roles that they were charged by the citizens who placed them there, and if the citizens were not pleased with the elected official they could vote to remove that official once every four years.  The County was currently progressing forward with a strong county government, and she asked why were they moving backward?  It was her belief that Polk County had a wonderful government at that time.

Her husband and she both came from a county, being Pinellas County where term limits were recently put into place.  The current Clerk of the Court had been in office since 1987, and that was twenty years of extremely effective quality public service, and she said she had to wonder if term limits would have been set earlier in her career if that would have progressed and moved as effectively as it had.  She asked them to please keep in mind that even though she was effective for twenty years and still was, the citizens had the right to remove her every four years if they saw fit, but they chose not to. 

It was her belief by imposing term limits the right was taken away from the citizens.  Why would they consider taking that right away, and why would they jeopardize the high quality leadership that the county currently had, if they cut their salaries? 

It was her opinion that it boiled down to, why were they trying to fix something that was not broken? 

The Chairman thanked Ms. Crichton for her comments.

The Chairman invited Bridget Kennedy Hull to speak.

Bridget Kennedy Hull, 28 Brevard Drive SE, Winter Haven, FL

Ms. Hull said she was very pleased to see all five proposed amendments, and she would like to speak to two of them. 

It was her feeling that the county would be better represented by increasing the number of county commissioners from five to seven, and she was extremely pleased that they were beginning to raise county commissioners’ salaries. She thought the voters made a big fat mistake, and she was glad to see that change. 

She said she was going to speak to an issue that was probably somewhere in the middle of the book (the book of minutes of past meetings), that the Chairman held up.  She had been reviewing the minutes, and she would like to speak to some of the things that had been talked about previously. 

As a ten-year resident of Polk County, she was very concerned with the direction that the county was moving in.  She voted against cutting the salaries of the commissioners, and she was totally against cutting the salaries of the constitutional officers. 

The constitutional officers held truly administrative positions, and they were responsible for a vast number of employees and tremendously complex duties.  As an employee of the Clerk’s office she understood that the Clerk had the responsibility of auditing the Board of County Commissioners, and it would be an obvious conflict of interest to have that position report to the Board. Just as importantly, however, was the need for all of the constitutional officers to remain independent of a reporting relationship to the Board in order to maintain a county where decisions from those important agencies were made with objectivity and fairness, and in an environment where citizens did not have to question any possible conflicts of interest or reporting relationships.

She pointed out that at the Clerk’s Office they took their business very seriously including the commitment they had made to the citizens of Polk County through their Mission Statement, which asked each of them to provide customer service with accuracy, competence, professionalism, and compassion in accordance with the laws, rules, and regulations of the State of Florida.  She said their customers rated their office’s level of service at ninety-six percent excellent or satisfactory in 2001. 

She believed the County’s present system worked and needed no changing.  She wanted to thank the Commission for its time, and she said she knew it couldn’t be easy, and it was appreciated, and she again wanted to put her vote in for the five proposed amendments to be placed on the ballot.

The Chairman thanked Ms. Hull for her comments.

The Chairman invited Mr. Dewey Smith to speak.

Mr. Dewey Smith

Mr. Smith said since those proceedings began several months ago, every single person they talked to other than this committee, had told them they were wasting their time.  They said the politicians appointed the Charter Review Commission, and they were going to do what the politicians wanted, and not what the people wanted, and that was just the way it had turned out. 

They had spent ten times the amount of hours traveling to the Commission’s meetings, and talking to people all over the county asking them what they the people wanted, on the ballot more than any of them on that Commission had. 

They presented the Charter Review Commission with over 2,700 petitions, and that was an excellent survey signed by the citizens from all over the county.  They asked the Commission to conduct its own survey and they refused.  He asked what was wrong with finding out what the people wanted?  He said the Home Rule Charter Committee and the citizens told them they wanted to bring all of the county elected officials under the Charter, and they told them they wanted term limits for all of the officers, and to reduce their salaries by fifty percent, and to reduce the signature requirements that the Charter then had in order to place an amendment on the ballot.  He said some on that Committee even had the audacity to say that it should be hard for a citizen to place amendments on the ballot. 

He thought it was preordained from the beginning that Dan Costello would be Chairman, and Commissioner Masters would be Vice Chairman.  He asked what was the first thing that Commissioner Masters did?  He said he jumped in with both feet to get the supermajority rule just like he did on the first Charter, knowing it would favor the so called constitutional officers and hamstring that committee, and he said he had succeeded. 

He said the Chairman the previous week made the asinine statement their proposal didn’t meet muster.  He asked whose muster was he talking about?  He said he was sorry that Commissioner Gernert wasn’t there that evening, but he would say it anyway.  Last week Commissioner Gernert had to get some more brownie points in, and at the very last meeting he had to talk about the poor county commissioners weren’t making enough money, and he wanted to raise their salaries back up, and he said he thought he insulted 114,000 people. 

He said all they had asked the Commission from day one was to put those issues on the ballot, and to let the people vote.  He asked were they afraid of the people?  He answered yes they were.  They were afraid the people would not vote the way politicians wanted them to vote, just like the vote in November 2000, when the people of Polk County spoke loud and clear, and told the politicians and the elite establishment, “they wanted their government back”, and they did that with 114,000 votes to forty-three.  He said that was 20,000 more votes than George Bush got, yet to them it meant nothing.  He said with the exception of two or three on that committee, the rest of them should hang their head in shame for putting nothing on the ballot, except what the politicians wanted, and he said in the words of one of the most honorable men that ever served as President of the United States, Harry S. Truman, when he addressed the Congress in 1948, and he hoped those words would hang around their necks for the rest of their life, and that was “the do nothing, go to hell, Charter Review Commission of Polk County”.    

The Chairman thanked Mr. Smith for his comments.

The Chairman invited Mr. Butch Rahman to speak.

Mr. Butch Rahman, 1008 South Lake Marion Drive, Winter Haven

Mr. Rahman said he was there that evening to express his support for the current organizational structure of the Sheriff, Property Appraiser, Tax Collector, Clerk of the Court, and the Supervisor of Elections for Polk County. 

He believed the current structure of those constitutional officers best provided the critical checks and balances needed for the people of Polk County.  He wanted the voting majority heard when electing the constitutional officers, and upon their election he wanted those officers to run their offices as they saw fit. He said they the people would hold them accountable every four years. 

The current structure certainly allowed the Board of County Commissioners and the Constitutional Officers to work together, and it correctly fell short of giving too much control by one elected body over another. 

It was his feeling regarding salary reductions and limiting terms, that by slashing salaries and limiting experience through term limits would not prepare the county for the challenges ahead, and to think that would somehow improve Polk County, was illogical, and there was no better time than then to understand the need for quality leadership.  He felt cutting salaries in half and limiting terms in the long run was a bad idea for Polk County.  He said they had all heard and seen it before, and one got what they paid for. He said he would support raising the recently slashed salaries of the County Commissioners. 

He told the Commission they had an important task ahead, and not to dwell upon short-term ideas, but to look for long term solutions.  He said so far they had stayed away from short-term ideas.  He said he loved Polk County, and he wanted it to be the best possible place for his children to grow up in, and then for his children to maybe raise their families there one day.  He asked them to focus their energies on the truly important issues such as education, economic development, transportation, and positive use of the reclaimed phosphate lands, and he felt that would make a long-term positive difference for Polk County.

The Chairman thanked Mr. Rahman for his comments.

The Chairman invited Mr. Don Brown to speak. 

Mr. Don Brown, 609 West Memorial Blvd., Lakeland, FL

Mr. Brown said he came to the Commission that evening speaking for the Lakeland Branch NAACP, and also as the fourth Vice President of the Florida State Conference of NAACP branches.  He said he came to them at their last meeting and indicated to them that they were very much in favor of single-member districts.  He said that continued to be their stand, and they were going to pursue it by any means necessary. 

Secondly, he wanted to address the Polk County Efficiency Committee, and he would like to see a member of the NAACP be placed on that Efficiency Committee, because they were the ones, which basically pricked the moral conscience of the county when one didn’t do what was right.  He said he could say for a fact that going back to the single-member district that he had people come to him and indicate that they had incumbents say to them that they didn’t need the “black vote” in their particular district because other people were going to keep them in office.  He said if they had to proceed on a course where they had to get into litigation, which he didn’t feel would be necessary, they would do that, and everywhere across the country when they had gone in for single-member districts, the courts realized when there was an at -large means election, their votes were actually diluted, and they couldn’t even elect the person of their choice, and that was wrong.  They were guaranteed that their vote should and must count, and that was not the case when there was an at-large election, and when they wanted a particular person to represent them.  He said they needed to look at that very carefully, and do the right thing. 

He said he apologized personally for some of the comments that he had heard that evening, and everyone as he had indicated at the last meeting had an agenda, and they needed to face up to that fact, and they needed to realize that all of them were going to answer to someone, and someone was instrumental in putting them where they were, and they needed to face that reality, and when they began to accept the realities as they were, then people would begin to accept some of the things they presented, but not to come and say they were not representing any particular person that may have appointed them.  He said they appointed them because they wanted them to echo what they wanted, and there was nothing wrong with that, but not to play games with him, and not to play games with themselves or with the electorate of Polk County.  He said they wanted certain things on the ballot, and if they had chosen not to do it, and if they had to go to the ballot they would do that to prove another point, and that was they could not overlook them, because they were the ones that were responsible for them being there indirectly because they elected the county commissioners, and not to disregard them because they were there to stay. 

The Chairman said he had a question for Mr. Brown, and he asked when he mentioned the NAACP representative if he was referring to the Nominating Committee? 

Mr. Brown answered yes, and furthermore he would like to see the NAACP represented on anything that had to do with the effectiveness of the county forever more.  He said they weren’t going anywhere.  He said the organizations that the Charter Review Commission said should be there, might fall by the way side, but as long as blood flowed in the veins of people in that country there was going to be injustice, and disenfranchisement, so therefore, his organization was always going to be around.

The Chairman thanked Mr. Brown for his comments. 

The Chairman invited Mr. Paul Cate to speak.  

Mr. Paul Cate, 650 North Lake Howard Drive, Winter Haven

Mr. Cate said that he first wanted to say that it seemed like old home week for him.  He said he had been on both sides of that fence for a number of years, and he said he thought some of them knew him for that, and it was good to get back.

He said he came there that evening particularly to commend them for the dedication and effort that all of them were committed to the assignment that they accepted a year ago, which was not an easy job.  He said he followed their frustrations and their progress.  He said the citizens of Polk County would never fully appreciate what they were doing for the benefit of all of them.  He said he wanted to especially congratulate them for their astuteness in the selection of their chairman leader, Dr. Dan Costello.  He said he had watched him in operation, and he orchestrated a set of rules and regulations to guide their meetings, and at those meetings, held for the purpose of receiving input form the citizens, he was especially mindful of giving everyone time to express their views even to the point at times of seeming to be over indulgent of the violations of speakers time limits and adherence to relevancy of the subject. He said their Chairman extended to everyone a degree of patience and tolerance he had seldom seen, and when that process ended no one should be able to say that they weren’t given every opportunity to voice their opinions and wishes. 

He said thus far they had addressed and disposed of many issues while assembling those to be on the ballot.  He said to date, they had rejected one issue which he believed should be readdressed, and that was the matter of single-member districts.  He said, as they knew, when the country’s founding fathers laid the foundation for the nation’s democracy they addressed the issue of representation, and for the U.S. House of Representatives membership was determined by population of the country.  The population of each state determined the percent of total members of the House that would represent that state.  Each state then divided itself into the number of geographical areas of equal population that it took to equal its given number of representatives, and the voters living in each of those geographical areas elects from its own population a person to represent such area in the U.S. House, and that concept and procedure was used by states in selecting their representatives for State Legislators.  Simply stated that concept of representation was called election by single-member districts, as they all knew it.  The concept of single-member districts could be used and was used to elect representatives below the state level.  As they knew, many Florida counties elected commissioners that way and more were converting to it, and not less, and in fact, that day he learned that a couple of counties had converted since 1998 to the single-member district concept, Broward and Pinellas.

He said when he was interested in what was going on at the first Charter Commission meetings those two were at-large counties. 

He asked why should Polk County consider election by single-member district?  He answered basically because it was fairer and most equitable than their present completely at-large concept, and more specifically they had a unique example in Polk County’s population.  Polk County’s population was not distributed equally by geographical area, and he asked so where was the center of Polk County’s population?  A few years ago he had a reason and an opportunity to seek the answer to that question.  He said it was his rough-cut conclusion that it was in the northwest quadrant of Polk County, the center of the population.   He said the country’s founding fathers seemed to know what they were doing over two hundred years ago, and single-member representation had outlasted the at-large system for a long time, so before they dismissed entirely the issue of single-member districts he asked that they give the voters of Polk County a chance to decide for themselves what kind of system seemed of interest to them, and obviously that meant all of the voters of Polk County too.

Commissioner McLaughlin asked Mr. Cate if he had an opinion on a mixed system of five districts perhaps, and two at-large?

Mr. Cate answered he had no strong preference, but single-member districts should be the basis in his opinion, and more of the commissioners should be elected from single-member districts, and he had no objection to having a couple at-large. 

The Chairman said it was then 8:05 p.m., and without objection, the Commission would recess for fifteen minutes.  There were no objections. 

The Commission reconvened at 8:20 p.m.

The Chairman invited Mr. Tom Macy to speak.

Mr. Tom Macy, 925 Lake Elbert Park, Northeast, Winter Haven, Florida 33881

He began by saying that he wanted to commend the Commission on its work, which was sometimes unappreciated, but he wanted them to know that the concerned citizens of the county were watching their work, and they appreciated their efforts. 

He said he wanted to ask a few questions without them having to answer because he could see by the thickness of Commissioner Nunnallee’s notebook that it had probably already been discussed, but he asked how could non-partisan change the department heads, the Tax Collector, and the other areas and how could it be helping any problem that they had with the county, and what problem would be solved by making them non-partisan?  He said he also wanted to mention about single-member districts.  He said Mr. Cate did a good job of mentioning that, and it wasn’t brought up that only wealthy candidates could run statewide, and he said that was a daunting task to run countywide for County Commission.  He said it was a huge area, and he had been covering it on a voluntary basis doing some volunteer work for the Code Enforcement Department, and it was a huge county to get and influence voters and what not, and they wouldn’t ask except for a minute having the state representatives from their area run statewide, and he asked so why should they have their individual districts handled countywide?  He said they didn’t really represent their districts in that case. 

He said the power of the County Commission concerned him with the direction they were headed.  He said they were placing in the hands of the county commissioners more and more decisions, and they were asking them to take less pay according to the last revised commission that was voted on, and he asked what about checks and balances?  He said they had a Clerk that did his area of expertise and made recommendations and the Tax Collector who had a huge job to do, and he asked how having their duties and their responsibilities diminished could assist their job?  He said they had to consider checks and balances, and they had on a federal level, and why shouldn’t they have it on a county level?

He said he hoped they were not considering term limits because they did have term limits, and every election was a term limit decision. 

He said they were sitting in a county, which unfortunately in the past had been rural from its history, and it was no longer rural as it was pointed out that evening, with the center of the county being in the suburbs of Lakeland.  He said they had a conservative financial situation where people were retired, and if they asked he was sure any ballot issue to go before the people regarding that process would be resoundingly voted down, and unfortunately they didn’t take into consideration that the future of the county and state was in the students, so they had to listen to some of the intemperate presentations regarding the tax complainers, and if Mr. Smith and his group had it their way, they would be carrying side arms and would be headed for Afghanistan.  He said to be realistic, they were not talking about just politicians, but they were the county’s leaders, and the people gave them responsibility and there was such a thing as responsibility, and we couldn’t have everyone watering their lawn when the water was disappearing, and we had to have somebody take over, and he said if it was voted on, he was sure Mr. Smith, and his people would say use all of the water.  He asked the Commission not to forget their responsibility, and not to forget to fix it so that wealthy candidates weren’t the only ones that could run for a county office.

The Chairman thanked Mr. Macy for his comments. 

The Chairman invited Mr. Jerry Carter to speak.

Mr. Jerry Carter

Mr. Carter said he admired the commissioners’ commitment, and their devotion because he knew the sacrifices they had to go through to attend those timely meetings, and he knew their families had to sacrifice a lot. 

He said regarding seven commissioners, it was currently hard for five commissioners to get along much less seven, and he asked would the public benefit be offset by the cost to bring on two new commissioners plus all the support staff that it was going to create?   It was a major expansion in government, and he knew there were a couple of members of the Commission that had the forced opportunity at various times of the year to have to go before the County Commission on various business, and it would increase the amount of time that was spent down there because there would be five members debating an issue, and if it went to seven, there would be seven members debating an issue, and it was going to increase the meeting time for the County Commission and everything else. 

Regarding party affiliation for non-partisan county commission races, it seemed to him that party affiliation spoke volumes, and if one truly wanted to be a non-partisan then perhaps they should be a department head or in county operations, and that would take them completely out of the political spectrum. 

He said they knew that party affiliation a lot of times described a person’s beliefs and their background, and it also described their ideas on how and why government should be provided, and some tended to be for less government, and for others by their party affiliation tended to be for more government, and if all candidates had similar beliefs in operating the government there would only be one party, but they all knew in America that was not the case, and they definitely had a strong two party system, and there was a reason for that, and he said he would ask that they keep any elected official as a partisan race. 

In his opinion, Amendment 5 was for the extraordinary majority of the Board of County Commissioners, and he asked each of them if they were prepared to take the power from the people, and transfer it to the County Commission, because that was basically what they were doing?  Instead of letting the people vote on an issue they were going to let five or seven members of the County Commission decide that issue.  He said currently they might be able to agree with what the current county commissioners came up with, but in twenty years from then, would that be the case? Would they all be in agreement with what the commissioners wanted to vote on as the majority decision?  He said he didn’t think so, because there were too many unknowns. 

The Chairman thanked Mr. Carter for his comments. 

The Chairman invited Mr. Allan Arbuthnot to speak.

Mr. Allan Arbuthnot, Lake Lowry Road, Lake Alfred

Mr. Arbuthnot said he had watched the Charter Commission and sometimes it had run pretty smoothly, but it still didn’t listen to the people.  He said the people voted to reduce the salary of the county commissioners, and they did it for good reason and for good cause.  He said they weren’t getting what they were paying for when they were being paid higher salaries, and they were still not getting what they were paying for, because they were still not doing the job properly, and he said he didn’t think they were going to do the job properly until they paid attention to what people were talking about. 

He said they cut their salaries for good reason, and he didn’t know about some of the other people, but he did know that was a factor with the county commissioners.  He said he had talked with the county commissioners and he had taken problems, and pictures of problems on the roadway to them.  He said he gave Neil Combee some pictures of a road north of Auburndale where they were putting an apron on the side, and it was being put in haphazardly with various widths and heights, and it didn’t match the side of the road, and it made it dangerous for people who were riding bicycles.  He said the county was throwing money away when they did that, and he took those pictures and showed them to Neil Combee in a County Commission meeting, and he blew it off, and it was his feeling that he didn’t particularly want to see the pictures, and he didn’t want to know about it, and his only comment was to talk to his assistant.  He asked if Commissioner Combee was getting paid $67,000 or $70,000 per year, or whatever it was, then couldn’t he at least take the time to look at the picture, and then go to his staff and talk to them about it, and see why they weren’t doing the job properly?  He said the people weren’t getting what they paid for.  He said they were paying the man to take care of problems like that, and that was his job, and to take what the people told him, and to go to his own staff, and take care of it, and it was not up to the people to have to go to his staff.  He said the people still weren’t getting their money’s worth. 

He said the Commission was insulting the voters when they voted to raise the county commissioners’ salaries, and the voters knew what they were talking about, and they still knew what they were talking about, and he didn’t think that they would be able to get the amendment passed that they were putting out there for them to vote on at that time, and he thought they were wasting their time, their breath, and the people’s money.

The Chairman thanked Mr. Arbuthnot for his comments.

The Chairman invited Ms. Marlene Duffy Young to speak.

Ms. Marlene Duffy Young, 301 Lake Pansy Road, Winter Haven

Ms. Young said she had kept an arm’s length from their efforts, and from most political activities for about a year or so, and what she knew was just by reading what she had in the paper.  She said she had heard reports of folks who had followed much more closely than she their efforts, and she said she did want to commend and thank them for their efforts in doing that, and she said she would be willing to propose that they cut their salaries in half, or cut them one hundred percent, and they would still get the high quality work that they had produced to them, because they were there because of their sense of civic responsibility and their caring and concern about the county, and that was reflected in the effort that they were making. 

She said she also felt compelled after listening to Mr. Arbuthnot to stand up and defend her good friend, Neil Combee, because she remembered the very same issue that he brought to Neil, and he brought it to the entire County Commission.  She said he didn’t sweep it under the rug, and he brought it to the Commission in a public meeting and demanded an account and a report from staff that the Commission subsequently reviewed, so she said she would say that Commissioner Combee was certainly earning his salary. 

She said she thought that the proposals that the Commission had made by and large were very conservative, and were very good, and would be largely supported.

She said having listened to some of the remarks about single-member districts she must tell them that she was a convert on that particular subject, and probably up until fairly recently she was an opponent of single-member districts believing that they engendered a certain parochialism and that people would look at the narrower interests rather than the broader interests, however, having run in many countywide elections, and they had a very large county, and it was difficult and it was expensive, and furthermore, even when one was elected the voters didn’t connect to their commissioner, and they by and large didn’t know who their district representative was, and that was not all that meaningful, but she thought there would be much greater identity of a district county commissioner with the constituents of that district.  Furthermore, she believed that county as large as it was, had very distinct characteristics geographically, and if one went to northeast Polk County as one well knew, it had a different demographic and it had a different characteristic, and it had a different land form, and type of development from the west part of the county or certainly Frostproof, the south part of the county.  She said she thought there was a distinctiveness within those regions that could be better represented through single-member districts, and for the occasional parochial vote that might come up within a given district, the balance of the commissioners would certainly take care of that interest.

She said no matter who she had worked with and no matter what their party affiliation was over the years, the county commissioners she had worked with had all been conscientious, and they had genuinely tried to represent the broader interests of the county.  She said she had been so impressed with the high caliber of individuals who had offered themselves to the county commission, and that was a great concern of hers when the salary was cut, that they would not be able to continue to attract the high caliber candidates that they had seen, and still saw then on the County Commission, and she said she would also tell them that was not a part-time job, and she thought most of them knew that, and they had a sense of just what that job alone had entailed in terms of their time and effort, and that was a microcosm of the spectrum of issues that a County Commissioner must deal with, and it was very complex and demanding if they were going to do a good job. 

She thanked the Commission for the opportunity to speak to them, and she said she appreciated the work that they had done. 

The Chairman thanked Ms. Young for her comments. 

The Chairman invited Mr. Sam Cardinale to speak.

Mr. Sam Cardinale, 16 Lake Drive, Winter Haven, FL

Mr. Cardinale said he was the Executive Director of the State Attorney’s Office of Florida, and was a former reporter.  He said he was there on behalf of Mr. Hill who sent his greetings and his apologies for not being able to make that evening’s meeting, because of a previous engagement. 

He said what Mr. Hill wanted him to convey that evening was their support for the constitutional officers, Joe Tedder, Marsha Fox, Laurie Edwards, Richard Weiss and Sheriff Crow.  He said they knew that term limits and salary reductions were currently not on the table for consideration, but they believed any efforts to bring that back would be a big problem for Polk County residents, and also to take away the independence of those constitutional officers they felt would also be harmful.  He said the constitutional officers were highly educated, qualified people, who were trained to do their jobs, and just to have them aboard was a big plus for Polk County residents.  To reduce pay and the term limits would hurt the opportunity to have and keep qualified people.  He said they had heard it there that evening many times that one got what they paid for, and as it seemed and as it had been proven, if one was pennywise many times it turned out to be pound foolish.  He said to take away the individual constitutional officers would reduce their efficiency they believed, and would vote them down in bureaucracy, and it was something that Polk County residents couldn’t live with. 

The Chairman thanked Mr. Cardinale for his comments. 

The Chairman said that completed the speakers, and the Commission was down to other business.  The Chairman asked if there was any other business to come before the Commission?  There was none. 

The Chairman said without objection, the meeting would stand adjourned.  There were no objections.  The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Cynthia Swearengin