Charter Review Committee Changes Vote
The Clearwater Charter Review Committee, last week showed it had listened to the people who spoke at a well-attended public hearing recently. After extensive discussion, the committee members voted, 5 to 3, to rescind their recommendation to remove the referendum requirement for sale, lease or other disposal land zoned recreation/open space. This reflected the fact that everyone who spoke at the public hearing had been opposed to their proposal. Several members quoted from the comments of the 25 citizens who spoke at the public hearing. Member Frank Dame referred to the comments by former City Commissioner Lee Regulski, especially his reference to how long and hard the people of Clearwater had worked to assemble their public lands. "These lands are precious," he quoted Regulski as saying, "and once they are gone, you can't take them back." In light of the way the public hearing was handled, with public input limited and few questions answered by the committee members, Dame asked that another public hearing be scheduled. According to City Attorney, Pam Akin, there would not be time for another public hearing before the Committee must present their recommendations to the City Council. In committee discussion, Member Joseph Harra indicated that he would put more reliance on the decisions of five elected officials because, "the citizens do not inform themselves. The land is better protected," he said, "by five council members responding to petitions, than by poorly informed or uninformed voters." Member William Blackwood echoed this, adding that Clearwater has a representative form of government with full time elected officials who "have the time to understand the issues." He added that the people were much less capable of making these kinds of decisions then the trained officials. Another committee member reminded Blackwood that Clearwater's Councilors are neither especially trained for the position, nor full time. Jay E. Polglaze, chairman of the committee, talked about the experts on city government who reported they had no referendum requirements in their city charters. "In Clearwater," said Polglaze, "we have protected it (public lands) so well that they have not been developed as they should. Our intention," he added, "was to enhance it, not give it away." Committee member Cathy Milam protested that the other speakers were referring to a perfect City Council and that this perfection, in her opinion, did not exist. "I'm afraid our Council does not have that trust you are speaking of." Committee member Elizabeth Drayer backed this up with the comment, "I have not talked to one person who thinks Sand Key and Clearwater Beach are what we want," she said. She added that the people who were at the public hearing were a small sampling of how dissatisfied the people of Clearwater have become. "They have not been able to inform decisions in the past," she concluded. Following the vote to return to the charter the referendum before sale or lease of open/space recreation land, the discussion turned to the recommendation that all reference to Coachman Park and the bayfront be removed from the Charter. Included in the recommendation for removal are the boat slips which were approved at the most recent city referendum. This would leave what happens on the bayfront limited only to the prohibition of sale or lease without a referendum. Once again members of the committee quoted comments at the public hearing and committee member William Wallace, who is a member of the Clearwater Historical Society, recited the history of Coachman Park. He told how, each time a portion of the land became available, the people urged the City Commission to purchase it. "Does anyone remember the seafood restaurant below the bluff?" he asked. "As soon as they could the city bought that. Then it bought the gasoline station on the corner of Osceola and Cleveland Street. They bought it back, later, from Maas Brothers." It was moved and seconded that the recommendation to remove all restrictions from Coachman Park be rescinded. The vote was a 4 to 4 and so the issue will be continued to the Committee's next meeting. After the vote, however, the City Attorney commented that the current zoning on Coachman Park is open space and city utilities, severely restricting any recreation activities that might be put there. This caught the attention of several of the members who asked the City Attorney to come to the next meeting with details on what would happen if they left everything else in place but added "recreation" to the permitted uses. Remembering that former City Commissioner Bill Jonson had spoken at the public hearing in favor of better historical preservation, the committee voted to recommend that the charter require the City Manager to provide regular reports on historical preservation in the city. City Attorney Pam Akin was requested to prepare wording for this recommendation and bring it to the next meeting for a vote. The Committee is also recommending an increase in Council terms of office from three to four years, and allowing them to vote themselves a raise which would be effective while they were still in office. The next meeting of the Charter Review Committee will be held on Thursday, September 27, at 2:30 p.m. on the second floor, north, of City Hall. Citizens may attend the meeting but public input is not allowed, unless the Committee agrees to hear the speaker. |