INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Board of County Commissioners had hoped to meet with their counterparts from Martin and St. Lucie counties to discuss common concerns regarding the proposed All Aboard Florida high-speed rail project, but attorneys advise against it.
All three counties have questioned whether or not detrimental impacts to Treasure Coast communities have been fully taken into account by All Aboard Florida and the Federal Rail Administration. Among the concerns are public safety, impacts to residential neighborhoods, traffic impacts and potential costs to local governments for infrastructure improvements and safety equipment.
Getting together to discuss those common objections would seem like the most efficient way to move forward, commissioners said last week. However, Florida’s government in the sunshine law outlines very strict rules about elected bodies meeting outside their political jurisdictions, and those rules are even tighter for county boards than city boards.
The meeting would have taken place in Fort Pierce, so it wouldn’t have been a problem for the St. Lucie County Commission, but Martin and Indian River would have had to cross county lines to participate.
Commissioner Peter O’Bryan had suggested that the meeting could be broadcast on local television, live-streamed on the internet and that the County could also provide free bus transportation from the County Administration Complex in Vero for anyone who wanted to attend.
But even those accommodations would have left county officials open to a challenge from All Aboard Florida or someone on the project’s behalf.
County Attorney Dylan Reingold said he consulted with the Martin County Attorney and also with Pat Gleason, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Sunshine law specialist, and was advised to err on the side of caution.
“The quote that I took out of it was, ‘Your risks outweigh your benefits’,” Reingold told the Board on Tuesday.
Instead, each county will send staff members to meet and Commissioner Bob Solari was designated to represent the Board at the meeting. If only one commissioner attends, there won’t be the risk of violating state law.
Reingold said the County could also possibly utilize a regional organization as a venue where the topic of All-Aboard Florida could be brought up for discussion.
Indian River County has retained the Tallahassee law firm of Nabors Giblin and Nickerson to fight the train project, and Reingold said St. Lucie County has done the same. At a previous meeting commissioners had discussed the possibility of cost savings if attorneys were working on an area of mutual concern of the three counties.
No date was given for the next meeting of the staff with officials from the other counties, but Reingold said it would be soon.
