Letter: How many times must we vote 'no'?

Letter: How many times must we vote 'no'?



Fred Green
Crescent Beach
Publication Date: 10/24/08


Editor: Since the law was passed in 1968 giving St. Johns County the choice of home rule or adopting charter government, residents have not been keen on changing something that works as well as home rule has.

As a member of the County Commission in the 1960s, I well recall that it was unanimously decided at that time to adopt home rule. We believed that charter government gave the board more power than needed while home rule gave the people a stronger voice in governmental decisions. I still maintain giving the commission more power would not mean better government.

It was no real surprise to me that voters said "no" to charter government when it was proposed in a referendum in the August primary election. What did come as a surprise was the inability of three of the five commissioners to accept "no'' as the response from voters and put the issue back on the general election ballot.

I was equally surprised they could possibly think voters needed to be better educated about charter government. This controversial subject has been around, hashed and re-hashed, for 30 years. The more than $28,000 in postage the commission estimated as the cost of sending educational information to voters is a ridiculous waste of taxpayers' money and what I see as the first step in determination by three public officials to try and ram something down our throats. The majority of voters do not want charter. How many more times do we have to vote "no'' to convince commissioners "no'' is what we mean?

Fred Green

Crescent Beach


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