Opinion: County board must focus on critical issues

Opinion: County board must focus on critical issues



Special to The Record
Publication Date: 03/22/09


St. Johns County Commissioner Mark Miner's effort Tuesday to strip Commissioner Chair Cyndi Stevenson of her leadership post played itself out in the right place, in a public meeting.

"Madam chair, nothing personal...you are great commissioner and a great person but I am not sure you are doing an excellent job as chair," he said. "The chair serves at the pleasure of the board and works as the direction of the board and not vice versa and it is vice versa right now."

This is how public meetings should work. Officials on the same board cannot talk to each other outside a meeting on the public's business, including commissioner conduct.

How ironic that this happened during national Sunshine Week, an awareness campaign to alert the public to its right to open government. Access to open government is guaranteed in Florida's constitution and state statutes.

Miner criticized Stevenson for promoting bike paths, while meeting with state officials recently. They are not on the county's legislative agenda.

He said he'd heard that at a regional meeting, she was not supportive of the commission's goal of improving West Augustine's infrastructure.

He said she had outsiders lobby him to gain support for her dissatisfaction with the commission's office manager.

Stevenson said she heard about the bike paths money on her way to Tallahassee so she asked about it.

On West Augustine, she said she did not say she wasn't supportive but that the city needed to do its part, too.

She did not comment directly on criticism of staff but said she has heard in the past comments about how commissioners did this or said that. She later noted that people tend to say things to pit commissioners against each other and the subsequent open discussion is one of the "devils of the Sunshine Law," an unfortunate analogy in our view.

The vote on Miner's motion to get a new chair failed, 3-2.

Stevenson later told The Record she did not try to get a staff member fired, and that she supports open government.

We've always known Stevenson to be a cheerleader for the county. But commission chairs have to careful to define when they are speaking for the commission and when it is their personal view.

Commissioners Ron Sanchez and Philip Mays stayed above the fray. We applaud them for that. Sanchez, the board's vice chair, had the most to gain, the chairmanship. He said, after the vote, commissioners should be respectful, unified and professional in working on behalf of the citizens.

We agree.

This is a critical time for the County Commission. The herd of elephants already in the room ignites enough negativity: the multi-million dollar budget crisis brought on by less property tax revenue resulting from lower property values, threats of more state-mandated tax reductions, and public criticism of commission-authorized future land developments.

Miner and Stevenson said they are moving forward. We hope so. Internal disagreements among commissioners cannot overshadow the county's business.


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