5 Minutes Each?

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Fall is certainly getting close. A couple of days below 75 degrees is a nice change from the constant 90+ degree weather. I certainly enjoy running in cooler weather... so hopefully it sticks around a bit.

Today, we are going to talk about a Citrus County ordinance that is broken and needs to be fixed.

It is the ordinance that outlines public participation at meetings. It is under Section 2-49.

Specifically we are going to look at the following text. The bold portion below is what we will focus on.

 Individuals who represent a legally formed organization registered with the State of Florida shall be permitted five minutes during public input or public hearings to discuss matters related to the purposes for which the legal organization was formed. All other individuals shall be permitted three minutes. Each individual representing an organization shall file written authorization with the clerk to the board indicating that the organization has appointed such individual to speak on its behalf. The authorization must be signed by the organization's president or secretary. The authorization will be effective for one year unless amended or revoked by the organization.

Seems simple enough. If there is an organization that is registered with the state, that organization gets 5 mins to speak. They can provide names of people who are authorized to speak for that organization. Speakers must keep to topics for which that organization was formed.

For instance, I have an organization (This Citrus Insider, LLC) that is legally registered in the state of Florida, as a LLC. According to the ordinance, that counts. My organization was created to discuss Citrus County and various politics, topics, etc. I have sent a letter to the county stating that I can speak on behalf of the organization. I can now get 5 mins at the meetings to speak on topics surrounding Citrus County, which is what my organization was formed for.

I had a letter for my photography business and spoke about the sales tax with that, since that may impact my business. But I cannot get up and talk about a new water line in Homosassa. That does not impact my business.

So what is the issue?

Well.. this ordinance has been broken and we may see it go off the rails.

At the last meeting, members from Pine Ridge were each given 5 mins to speak on behalf of Pine Ridge Property Owners Association. You see, they just got up, said they had a letter on file to speak (they are named on the same letter) and the chair allowed them 5 mins.

That is not necessarily wrong and I am not necessarily blaming Finegan for this. Read the ordinance again. The way it is worded does allow these speakers to all speak for 5 mins.

"Individuals who represent a legally formed organization... shall be permitted 5 mins."

Them speaking for 5 mins meets the letter of the law. They represent a legally formed organization. They are listed on the letter.

Historically, the board has taken the stance that the organization gets 5 mins and individuals can speak for them if they are listed on a letter.

But that is not what the text of the ordinance says. The chair did not object to it at the meeting and granted 5 mins for each.

Pandora's box is official opened and not sure it can be closed anytime soon. I have a feeling when there is a contentious issue, say Betz Farm, we will see this happen again. The door has been opened and not sure the board can close it now without changing the ordinance. If they try it, the organization can argue due process issues and potential 1st Amendment issues.

The rules have to be applied equally and the board allowing Pine Ridge to have multiple people speak now means they likely have to allow other organizations to do the same thing, until they change the ordinance.

So now... the blueprint is set. If you want longer to speak on an issue, register a LLC with the state and send in a letter to the county indicating who you want to be able to speak for the organization.

"Save Citrus County" or something like that would give the organization a broad topic which can apply to just about anything.

I have a feeling we are going to see a change here soon. It is one of those things that they never thought to fix until it was broken. Well... now it is broken.

My suggestion for the change is simple.

"Legally formed organizations can address the board for 5 mins... they can file a letter to indicate which individuals are authorized to speak for the organization".

That will narrow it down to the organization... not individuals who represent organizations. Then that organization gets the 5 mins they were allowed previously.

I could make the argument to limit them to 3 mins, like individuals. Not sure why they need 5 mins, but not a hill I will die on. If anything, make it non-profits get 5 mins and all organizations get 3.

Another thing. The organization gets 5 mins. Just because an individual speaks for an organization does not mean they lose their right to speak as an individual. This allows someone, like myself, to speak for 5 mins for the organization and then get back up and speak for 3 mins as an individual. Pine Ridge did this at the last meeting as well.

Now, something else specific to quasi-judicial hearings.... which is what these land hearings fall under.

Under Ordinance Section 2-54, the following is listed.

This is a bit different than the one above. This covers ONLY quasi-judicial proceedings.

But the thing I want to point out here... This ordinance does not say the organization has to be registered legally with the state. It also says "groups" but provides no definition of what a group is. I can argue 3 people sitting in the room can form a "group" and thus, get 5 mins at the microphone.

More importantly, there is no requirement to have a letter on file. The ordinance covering quasi-judicial proceedings does not mention the letter requirement. Therefore, any organization, whether legally formed or otherwise, and any group... whatever someone calls a group... can get 5 mins to speak during a quasi-judicial hearing... and like before, it does not limit it to one person per organization.

I have a feeling some of these next meetings are going to be fun. It will take about a month to change the ordinances. Imagine 20 people "representing" and organization and getting to speak for 5 mins instead of the regular 3 mins. That is an extra 40 mins of commenting.

Also, keep this in mind. The ordinance would not be able to limit a person from representing multiple organizations. I would argue the board has no ability to do that as it would violate the 1st Amendment as well.

This means that someone can create 5 LLC's, send a letter to the county indicating they can speak for that organization... and then getting 5 mins to represent each one.

Yup... the ordinances are broken and things are about to get wild. Let's see how long it takes them to make the changes.