Weenies. That’s what I call ‘em. The St. Johns River Water Management District governing board, that is. It seemed like they could hardly wait to abdicate. Turn their power over to the staff.
Many charge that it’s the staff who make all the decisions, anyway, and that may be true. At the last meeting I attended, the board listened to heartfelt pleas from locals not to go through with the Yankee Lake project.
It was the senior staff they listened to. One of their attorneys was especially bossy.
It’s a shame. They’ve got some terrific, dedicated staff – geologists, hydrologists and engineers at the district – who are truly concerned about the environment.
Now, the board has turned over all their authority to the exec director and senior staff, at his discretion, because, they said, they are anticipating the passage of Senate Bill 2080. If the governor vetoes the bill, then the action is null and void, they said.
SB 2080 concentrates all the power to make decisions about water in Florida in the hands of five individuals, the execs of the five water management districts. Also, no more hearings, unless a developer denied his project asks for one.
How convenient for the developer.
More “keep the pesky public out.”
Don’t the board members realize their decision makes it sound like they support the bill? As I guess they do, while everyone from all the Central Florida Soil & Water Conservation Districts to County Chair Frank Bruno have written Gov. Crist, asking him to veto the hinky bill.
Weenies.
Tags: politics, public meetings, St. Johns River Water Management District
How kind of you to only call them weenies. I call them gutless wonders. I guess it’s easier to give up responsibility than fight to keep it.
I think it demonstrates how useless the water management districts are. They are enshrined in the Constitution, but there is nothing that requires us to feed them. For that matter, there is no compelling reason that we could not amend the constitution to get rid of them.
I think they are something of a historic artifact, like those old separate water fountains. They do not appear to have served any useful purpose at least in the past twenty years or so.
The action here merely shows that they are aware of their uselessness.