INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Board of County Commissioners says it’s as concerned as anyone about the health of the Indian River Lagoon, but members are not willing to perpetually fund a pricey new level of government to find a solution.
Commissioner Bob Solari has for months railed against what he describes as ill-conceived plans to morph the St. Johns River Water Management District’s Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program into its own agency. Solari opposes the fact that the move was staff-driven and that financial data has not been available explaining how much the new agency will cost or who will fund it.
So when a legal document representing a contract among all the counties along the lagoon came up for a vote on Tuesday, Solari did not miss the opportunity to once again raise his objections.
“The entire Indian River Board of County Commissioners understands that the Indian River Lagoon is imperiled,” Solari said.
“We can and we will return the lagoon to health,” he added, but pointed out that, as elected officials must also demand transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility.
Solari stated that, should Indian River County sign on as a partner with the new agency, that its opposing view on fiscal matters would be easily outvoted by the paid agency staffers who would sit on the board alongside elected officials. “Local control will be significantly eroded,” he said.
After getting no suitable response to his own public records requests for financial data, Solari tasked Budget Director Jason Brown to obtain and analyze the numbers. Brown told commissioners, “It was very hard to get good financial information,” he said, in relation to the cost of setting up and operating this new agency.
From the information he has been able to glean, Brown said it appeared to be an expenditure of $1 million public dollars for the sole purpose of getting more taxpayer money.
“As far as I can see, the whole thing has been an irrational process,” Solari said, noting that some initial funds were slated to come from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, but that there doesn’t seem to be a plan for funding recurring staff costs and other operating expenses. “We could be stuck with a bigger bureaucratic organization without any funding to take us forward.”
The plan, Solari said, was slapped together with little thought of the consequences. “The subcommittee that put this together spent less than six hours on this,” Solari said. “That was less time than Jackie (Solari, his wife) and I spent planning our summer vacation.”
That’s when the other commissioners began to chime in, saying that they were afraid that the new agency might have some ability to float bonds or to tax local residents, like a handful of other state and regional agencies that occupy a line on property tax bills and get their cut of the money.
“From the get-go I had similar concerns,” said Commissioner Peter O’Bryan. “It was presented to us that we have to do this now because the legislature is in session because we need to get the money. The red flag that comes up to me is, what projects are they trying to fund?”
O’Bryan said he felt that there’s some “hidden agenda” that’s not being shared with the public, but that when it is revealed, it’s bound to be very expensive.
Chairman Wesley Davis pointed out that the lagoon is “clearly so emotional to us all, the health of our waterways,” but that despite the high drama of the issue, a close eye must be kept on the employees of the state and federal agencies.
“I know how to get rid of an elected official, but how do you get rid of a bureaucrat who you don’t agree with? To me, that’s scary,” Davis said.
Davis brought up another hot issue, the All Aboard Florida train, which was agreed upon by a regional organization. Between the toes of these regional organizations headed by bigger, more politically powerful communities, Davis said, the Treasure Coast gets stepped on.
“The more I look into this regionalism, the more skeptical I become,” he said. “This is going to be bad for local control.”
As the discussion wound down, commissioners agreed not to sign the proposed interlocal agreement, but instead to send a letter back to those hoping to found the lagoon agency, asking them to address a few concerns.
First of all, county officials want to make sure that the new agency would not have any taxing ability or the ability to incur debt. Beyond having attorneys review that, commissioners had two specific requests:
The commission agreed that there should be some sort of sunset clause so the agency has a short-term mission and would be judged based upon its accomplishments as compared to measurable goals and objectives. Should there be a need to extend the mission beyond, say, five years, the agency would need to justify that.
It was also the consensus that the decision-makers in the agency should be a board of elected officials — not the paid agency staffers whose jobs may depend upon the approval of certain projects or the continuation of the agency.
“I believe we must save the lagoon,” Solari said. “But in order to save the lagoon, we do not have to weaken out representative democracy.”
If and when all the commissioners’ concerns are adequately addressed and good financial data is provided, the Board may again take up the matter of the interlocal agreement joining Indian River County to the new agency.
