Eminent domain bill advances
City residents given 30 seconds to talk
Posted: February 2, 2012 - 12:00am
By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
A long, grueling bus ride to Tallahassee early Wednesday morning by St. Augustine residents aiming to testify against House Bill 1037 — giving eminent domain to Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind — was for naught as the bill passed 12-6.
Melinda Rakoncay, a Nelmar Terrace resident and opponent of the bill, said the group was told HB 1037 would be heard at 8 a.m. However, it wasn’t heard until 2 p.m.
When the committee began running out of time, Chairwoman Dorothy L. Hukill, R-Port Orange, limited anyone speaking on HB 1037 to 30 seconds each, not the three minutes other public speakers had been given all day.
“It was all set up,” Rakoncay said. “It was all orchestrated. To maneuver us like that to the end of the meeting and then gavel us down was a conscious effort. It’s underhanded.”
A House tape of the sequence shows clearly how some Nelmar residents, such as Lisa Lloyd, former Mayor George Gardner and Celeste Carr, were cut off in mid-sentence by Hukill and hustled off the podium.
HB 1037’s sponsor, state Rep. Douglas Broxson, a Republican representing parts of Escambia, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties, dismissed worries about unwarranted expansion by FSDB.
“The school has to have (growth) in its five-year plan, and there’s no mention of any expansion in its five-year plan,” Broxson said.
Some members seemed uncomfortable giving a school with a history of expansion the power to take people’s homes, and one asked if the bill contained any exemptions for historic districts or historic properties.
Broxson seemed uncertain, then said, “The school is very sensitive to where they are located in St. Augustine. The school does not plan for expansion. (This bill) doesn’t say the school has to use (eminent domain). It’s just another tool in the toolbox.”
State Rep. Bill Proctor, R-St. Augustine, explained how property prices escalated when the school tried to buy all the homes on Alfred and Genoply streets.
“I ran for the Legislature in 2003 on this issue,” Proctor said. “If we wanted to move our transportation center, for instance, we don’t want to pay inflated prices for the property.”
His repeated statement: “Give me one logical reason why a school for the severely disabled children should not have eminent domain.”
Rakoncay said it was “bizarre” for Proctor to ask that question and not allow anyone time to answer it.
St. Augustine City Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline said the latest version of HB 1037 removed any requirement for the school to cooperate with the city government, which has cited FSDB for multiple zoning and code violations.
“They gave the school these far-reaching powers but also reduced the checks and balances that go with those powers,” she said. “I’m not sure where (the bill) will go from here. Things are not quite right with this.”
Fullerwood resident Gina Burrell told the committee, “Our residents feel insecure about their homes.”
State Rep. Ronald “Doc” Renuart, R-Ponte Vedra Beach, strongly opposed the bill, saying the Legislature should not be the place where disputes between the City of St. Augustine and FSDB are resolved.
Rakoncay said some of the ammunition for eminent domain came from the “ginned-up” incident reports from the FSDB campus police, which five times wrote reports about one neighbor walking by, stopping teens in the neighborhood they deemed “suspicious” and even stopping cars they’d often seen parked at nearby homes.
Not one person was ever arrested.
No firearms or violent incidents were reported, but the school used multiple trivial incident reports reviewed and approved by FSDB Police Chief Jerry Chandlee as a reason to call an emergency meeting Friday and make a show of approving a fence to protect threatened students, Rakoncay said.
HB 1037 is opposed by the Neighborhood Council of St. Augustine, Citizens for the Preservation of St. Augustine and the St. Augustine City Commission, which passed a resolution calling for its defeat.
“This is not a divided city over this issue,” Rakoncay said. “They say they want to use it in the future, but it’s like a cocked gun pointed at your head. You don’t know when the trigger will be pulled.”
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yathink
seeing how state funds are used then place it on a ballot &
By yathink | 02/02/12 - 06:10 am
let the citizenry decide... it is my understanding only the government can maintain eminent domain and that authority cannot be legislated to other state agencies at will !!! proctor is an ask who is retiring,, that's why the push now... bet they're sorry they voted for him now !!!the courts will overturn anything the legislature decides contrary to law...>>>yathink
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yathink
as for public comment being 30 seconds, they have already given
By yathink | 02/02/12 - 06:16 am
grounds for overturning any legislative decision,,,by denying full public comment... shouldn't have told them you were coming folks... yes it was orchestrated to stifle you... that is what the NAZIS did,, then they took you out to concentration camps,,, if they didn't shoot you outright !!! so we have government by FACIST tactics !!! see the republicans didn't steal enough of your money during the years leading up to the redession,,, so now they will attempt to steal your houses... they want another Wall st. insider in the white house to help them steal what they overlooked the first time !!!>>>yathink
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mortinyahoo
Proctor's Folly
By mortinyahoo | 02/02/12 - 07:02 am
Proctor says he ran on this issue? On giving FSDB eminent domain power? Really? We elected Proctor so he could pass an eminent domain bill at the end of his term?
Pfft.
No.
Not even FSDB will come out in the public and say they want eminent domain.
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me
mortinyahoo
By me | 02/02/12 - 07:29 am
"We elected Proctor so he could pass an eminent domain bill at the end of his term?"
No, "we" elected Proctor because there was an R after his name.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair
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bill leary
Not for naught
By bill leary | 02/02/12 - 08:09 am
Guinta is wrong in saying the trip by this group of citizens was "for naught.". Yes, as expected, the bill passed this House Committee, but those opposed to this legislation found new support and have created even more doubt in Tallahassee regarding the wisdom of its becoming law. More importantly, the outrageous manner in which our citizens were mistreated is but further evidence of the arrogance behind this bill. These citizens are to be congratulated and I am extremely proud of them. By their mistreatment, our resolve is strengthened to bring these matters back to St. Augustine for resolution where they belong.
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willhe
Resistance is
By willhe | 02/02/12 - 08:33 am
Resistance is Futile!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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me
Mr. Leary
By me | 02/02/12 - 09:00 am
While I hope you are correct, I do not hold out much hope. The wishes of the citizens do not seem to carry much sway in Tallahassee these days.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair
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St. Augustinian
Lord Proctor
By St. Augustinian | 02/02/12 - 09:47 am
This is exactly the kind of thing about which we, as citizens, should be leery: government using its power to usurp the rights of its citizenry. Rep. Bill Proctor has nothing to lose by pushing this type of legislation at this point in his political career, so he is wielding the political capital he has built up to ram this down the throats of the city of St. Augustine and the very people that elected him to office. I wish we could get 100 people to go to Tallahassee to speak out against this heavy handed political move! The city could compromise some on the issue with FSDB, but it feels like Lord Proctor is trying to punish them for not having done so yet. Eminent domain has its place for things like roads that need to be put in or expanded, but the rights of private property ownership should be made very difficult to take away. Not to mention the fact that all of the property taken in the future will come off the tax rolls, burdening the tax-paying community even further. It is funny how they orchestrate these bills and the hearing they have for them. Proctor says he ran on this issue, but he is not even the sponsor of House Bill 1037! He recruited Rep. Broxson to sponsor it, whose office is over 375 miles from the school. I would bet he never once attended any St. Augustine P&Z meeting. Also, the way they schedule meeting and then move them with very little notice and then run out of time for the common citizens to speak against issues like this is ridiculous. And if you think that things like that are not done purposefully, then you are just plain naive. Now, people that are not directly affected need not be silent about an issue like this, since precedence makes it that much easier to do it the next time, when it may come to your neighborhood. If a legislator from Milton, Florida, can sponsor a bill impacting a small part of our community, then our community as a whole should speak out against such a measure.
If you think you can or you think you can't, you are right - Henry Ford
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astralweeks
So, basically, these
By astralweeks | 02/02/12 - 09:43 am
So, basically, these politicians are against private property rights.
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GermanMinorcan
Re: "astralweeks"
By GermanMinorcan | 02/02/12 - 12:17 pm
"So, basically, these politicians are against private property rights."
That is, as long as it does not involve their private property rights!
SJA Grad '81
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