April 2008
FLORIDA HOMETOWN DEMOCRACY:
SABOTAGED BY THE BUILDERS & LEGISLATURE
SABOTAGED BY THE BUILDERS & LEGISLATURE
Fair Count Denied by the Legislature, the Governor & the Secretary of State
After four years of effort and nearly $1.5 million dollars, the Florida Hometown Democracy ballot amendment was denied placement on the November 2008 ballot. Despite collecting and submitting 814,000 signatures by the February 1, 2008 deadline, the Secretary of State, Kurt Browning, only credited 564,558 signatures of the registered voters who signed the petitions.
In our follow-up we learned that a number of signatures were rejected erroneously. Some signatures were rejected because the signer was no longer an "active" voter, some because a signing date or a birth date was written by day, month and year as common in Latin cultures. Some petitions were not reviewed at all. Adding to this undercount was the computer problem in the Secretary of State's office that was known for several months and that was not counting petitions accurately.
"Those who cast the votes decide
nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." ---Josef
Stalin
We still have no explanation for why the Secretary of State's office stopped posting our petition count on the state web site that gave us tallies by county and by congressional district three weeks before the submission deadline.
The part the Florida legislature played in thwarting our effort to give people the final vote on comprehensive land use changes affecting their community was to pass legislation to provide stumbling blocks.
At the behest of the building industry, the legislature passed, and Governor Charlie Crist signed, two bills that are an affront to any democratic process for citizen initiatives. One bill was to deny petitioning in shopping areas unless permission was granted, not clearly constitutional. Another bill allowed opponents of a petition (FHD being the target of their concern) to get the names and addresses of our signers and send them mailings to revoke their signatures. That recision bill also provided that any constitutional amendment petition could only be signed by going into an elections office. That statute is on appeal.
The signer of the recision letter, former House Speaker John Thrasher, told lies about FHD saying it would harm the environment of Florida. Thrasher, by the way, works for a lobbying group that represents some of Florida's biggest developers. This group ironically calls itself the Save Our Constitution coalition. They have claimed they obtained 18,000 FHD signers to rescind.
FLORIDA SMART GROWTH PETITION
Another building industry, chamber of commerce-backed group called themselves Florida Smart Growth and started a petition effort to compete with FHD for the services of paid petition collectors driving up the price from $1.25 per signature to $2. The gatherers in some places claimed they were the "good guys with the green petition", others misrepresented the objective of the Smart Growth petition. That petition was never submitted to the Florida Supreme Court at 10% of the collected signatures needed to obtain a ruling on the clarity of the ballot language and that it concerned only one issue.
Making it to the ballot was not their objective. Swamping the county election offices to hinder the review of FHD petitions was the game.
And it worked in some counties. Some offices refused to review signatures submitted after Jan. 1, others reviewed right up to the Feb. 1 date.
Sarasota County had a very long list for rejection reasons, much more demanding than those listed in the state statutes.
IMPLICATIONS OF NOT MAKING THE NOVEMBER 2008 BALLOT
Although petition signatures remain valid for four years after the date of signing, saving them for the November 2010 ballot is like climbing another mountain. The number of signatures required for that ballot will be based on a percentage of the voter turn out in this November's elections, anticipated to be a record high number. In two years time a great many more sprawling developments can be pushed through, and our opponents will have collected a much bigger war chest to oppose our petition.
We must find the funds to file litigation to challenge the state's denial of our right to an equal vote. Lesley Blackner, President of Florida Hometown Democracy and an attorney, says there are a number of court decisions giving a petition signature the same constitutional protections as a vote. FSP is working on outreach to solicit those funds. We hope FSP members will help.
SARASOTA PETITIONS ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN GROWTH CONTROLS
Wade Matthews, an FSP Director, has been instrumental and active in two citizen initiatives in Sarasota County to change the county charter to
(1) retain Sarasota County land use regulations on land annexed to a municipality unless prior agreement was reached between municipality and County on changes and (2) require a super majority (four of five commissioners) to increase the density or intensity of development. Both measures were approved by the voters last year.
Another citizen initiative by the Sarasota organization, Citizens for Sensible Growth, of which Wade is a Director, has been certified as having enough valid petitions signed (about 12,000) to place on the ballot a Charter amendment to require a popular vote to move the Urban Services Boundary (USB) East into presently mostly agricultural and native habitat lands.
Due to some weaknesses in the ballot proposal, a compromise text approved by the citizens group and representatives of the builders, will now go to a special election ballot on May 6th. If that vote fails, the original text will be on a regular election ballot in August. Both texts require a unanimous vote of the Sarasota County Commission to extend the USB.
Congratulations to Wade and all the volunteers who gave so much effort to protecting their county from the abusive practices of unrestricted sprawl.
"I believe in the Initiative and Referendum which should be used not to destroy representative government but to correct it whenever it becomes misrepresentative." ---President Woodrow Wilson
POPULATION & ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION -- IGNORED ISSUES IN FLORIDA
Director Wade Matthews made a presentation to
some seventy people at the Unitarian Universalist Church
in March on the topic of sustainable population. He also teamed
up with FSP Advisor David Caulkett to address a well attended
forum on immigration and population.
Wade focused on the negative results of immigration induced population growth while David emphasized the negative social and economic impacts. Other panel members included a Miami legislator and a university professor.
These outings helped to underscore the run-up to the Florida legislative session where six bills dealing with illegal immigration have been filed. By the end of March, all five bills were being held up from committee hearings and our e-mail outreach to FSP members have asked for calls and faxes to House Speaker Rubio and to schedule these bills in appropriate committees. A review of these bills is below.
SIX BILLS FILED IN FLORIDA ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Floridians for Immigration Enforcement (FLIMEN) with assistance from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), state Minutemen groups and the Citizens of Dade United headed by Enos Schera have been pushing six bills that were introduced in this year's legislative session. FLIMEN is led by FSP member Marsha Curry and FSP Advisor David Caulkett.
A BRIEF REVIEW
HB 73 - Would require state and local government contractors
to E-verify employees (modeled on an Oklahoma bill but does not
require E-verify of private contractors as Arizona now requires.
HB 159 - Requires E-verify by state and local government contractors. Requires agencies and political subdivisions of state to verify lawful presence for receiving local public benefits or federal public benefits administered by a state agency or political subdivision.
HB 571 - Requires law enforcement officers to report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) suspected illegal aliens arrested, detained, or convicted of a felony; requires co-operation with federal officials enforcing federal immigration laws.
HB 577 - Requires reclassification of felony or misdemeanor for second or subsequent offense by an illegal alien after deportation; provides for severity ranking; defines "illegal or undocumented alien"; requires Department of Corrections (DOC) to transfer illegals to ICE upon completion of sentence; provides for DOC transfer of illegals voluntarily choosing to return to country of origin.
HB 821 - Requires E-verify, requires law enforce- ment officers to report unlawfully present felons to ICE; seeks federal reimbursement, requires proof of legality to obtain Florida benefits, prohibits illegal alien hiring halls and prohibits sanctuary cities.
HB 107 - Deals with human smuggling; has best chance of being heard in committee.
Time is running out for committee hearings. If not scheduled by April 4th, the bills are lost.
LITIGATION IN FEDERAL COURT NEEDED TO SALVAGE FHD PETITION
Along with Florida Sierra and other state organizations as well as local groups, Florida Hometown Democracy traveled a long way to collect 814,000 signatures of Florida registered voters. We have every reason to believe we legitimately would be on the November 2008 ballot if the State and the county elections offices gave us a fair review and count.
We believe we will be successful in winning our cause if we are able to file suit in federal court to have a ruling on whether or not we were denied the constitutional protection that all votes be treated equally.
To enable large donations to fund a lawsuit, FSP has agreed to make the FHD Legal Fund a project of FSP so that contributions can be tax deductible. Checks can be made out to FSP, earmarked for FHD Legal Fund and mailed to P.O. Box 2641, Cross City, FL 32628.
NATIONAL SIERRA SCORES A BLOODY COUP;
27 OFFICERS AND CHAIRS FIRED
On March 25th the Sierra Club voted to suspend the Florida Chapter for four years and fired twenty-seven elected officers and committee chairs. Acting on unspecified charges by unidentified Sierra members, national played a charade of collecting information on the charges and taking responses.
In spite of detailed correspondence from Florida Chapter leaders and three conference calls open to all 33,000 + Sierra members in Florida, national voted to drop the guillotine. Six of the eighteen local groups voted for the suspension. Majority rule does not pertain when the national board wants to repress and take control of the Florida Chapter.
National has appointed a three person Steering Committee that will take over and direct the operations of the Chapter. All financial accounts were frozen; all Listservs, such as the Florida Sprawl Listserv, are shut down. That List facilitated communication with the FHD volunteers on petition work.
Some state leaders believe Florida Sierra's opposition to the Clorox endorsement by national played a part in the suspension. Others believe the large financial support and volunteer network of the Florida Chapter backing Hometown Democracy riled national. Filling the coffers motivates national and they may have done a devil's deal with Florida's building industry and Chambers of Commerce. They sold out the Sierra Population Policy to a California millionaire and fudged national board elections so, not so hard to believe.