The Filibuster.

Happy Monday.. As of this writing (6:54am) we are about 34hrs and 6 mins away from the Betz Farm hearing tomorrow. It is at 5pm for those interested in attending... NOT at 1pm. That is the regular meeting.

We had a great turnout on Saturday for the workshop. About 50 or so people showed up for the two hour presentation about Betz Farm. If you missed it, here are the slides from it so you can see what we talked about. The video is also on my Citrus Insider Facebook Page

If you want to talk about Betz Farm and make a public comment during that hearing, make sure to get there a bit early. I am willing to bet there will be enough people to have at least one overflow room. You will be able to watch the meeting on the TV but not be in the main chambers. You will still be able to give public comment as they as for people from that room to come down for comment, so you will not miss anything. Some people, like me, prefer to be in the main room.

It will be fun.

But today, we are going to talk about the 1pm meeting.

First, here is the full agenda.

As you can see, it is a BIG one. 23 main agenda items, but several additional items. Expect the 1pm meeting to go pretty much until the 5pm Betz Farm meeting. There is a lot to talk about.

Which brings me to this idea. I spoke about it briefly Saturday and have been getting a few messages about it, so figured I would address it this morning since it is public now.

I have been speaking with several people recently who are unhappy with how local government, particularly the commissioners, are doing things. The discussions took to a "How can we protest" type conversation.

Now, anyone can stand outside the courthouse with signs... or near the entrance where the commissioners enter if they want them to see the protest, but does that have an effect? They see it, but can just walk by.

What if there was a way to really make a statement?

Well there is... it is the filibuster.

You see, this is popular in Congress. Someone (or several people) make long speeches on the floor during debate so the debate never closes. If debate never closes, the vote never happens.

Strom Thurmond has the record for the longest filibuster in 1957 with 24 hrs and 18mins of non-stop speaking. He was protesting the Civil Rights Act. Recently, Corey Booker has a speech for 25hrs and 4 mins in 2025. This was largely in protest to everything in the senate and not to slow a single bill like a traditional filibuster.

So it has long been a thing in politics. Don't like the way something is happening... make meetings drag out.

So I floated the idea to those people and they decided they wanted to do similar.

How? They cannot just get up there and talk for 25 hours at a BOCC meeting... so how will a filibuster work?

Open to the public.

You see, the county has an ordinance. It is section 2-49. It dictates how public input works at commission meetings. State law requires that the public have an opportunity to be heard. But this really only covers agenda items and the ability to address the board before a vote is made on a motion.

Many counties implement the ability for the public to engage with commissioners and talk about anything they want related to the county, so long as it is county related. Cannot get up and talk about Congress for instance... or the president.. or anything outside the control of the county.

Citrus has implemented that. The ordinance states:

"Public comment on any concern under the jurisdiction of the board or on any proposition to be considered by the board shall be heard as an agenda item at each meeting of the board prior to the beginning of the regular business of the meeting and prior to the board taking any action on the concern or matter."

Before ANY regular business happens, the public has the right to speak to the commissioners about ANYTHING. The very first item on the agenda.

Recently, they have been doing time certain items that come before that and I would argue that violates the county ordinance... but it is just an ordinance and not a state law, right? eye roll.

Then it says:

"Public comment shall also be heard on a main motion that has been discussed by members of the board."

People get the opportunity to speak on motions before the final vote.

So plenty of opportunity to speak to commissioners. That was the intent of the ordinance. Give the people the ability to speak multiple times if they wanted.

Enter the filibuster.

Since Open to the Public is supposed to be before ANY county business, what happens if 60 people get up to speak about anything related to the county? The meeting cannot continue until that agenda item is over.

60 people... 3 mins each... 180 minutes of public comments... then the meeting can start.

Usually, the public comment portion starts around 1:30pm unless there is a time certain item to bump that back.

3 hours of open to the public puts the start of the regular agenda at 4:30pm or so.

Usually, that is not an issue. However, Tuesday is Betz Farm at 5pm. The regular meeting generally stops at 5pm if they did not finish and then starts after the 5pm is over.

If the regular meeting starts at 4:30pm, they only have 30 minutes to finish the entire agenda before Betz. Betz will be 5+ hours long most likely. Then they go back to finish the regular agenda.

With such a large agenda, it will take every bit of 4 hours to do the regular meeting. So they would have roughly 3+ hours AFTER the Betz hearing finishes to finish the regular agenda.

In other words.... it will be a long night.

PLUS... if someone wanted, they can speak about every single agenda item before the vote on that item. Add 3 to 5 mins each for that. Now we are talking another 1 hour or so if someone talks about every agenda item.

That is how a filibuster will work at a commission meeting. Members of the public just get up at the public portion of the meeting and speak and speak and speak, delaying the regular agenda of the board.

Petty? Sure. Legal? Absolutely.

Can it be stopped? I would argue "no". The ordinance is clear. Open to the public happens BEFORE the regular meeting. In theory, they can move agenda items around and move open to the public back to the end of the meeting...

but that will 1) violate the ordinance and 2) make a bunch of people upset.

Can you imagine the outcry from the public if the board decides to delay the public portion of the meeting because they do not want to wait a few more hours? They are paid very well for the work that they do. They only have 1 requirement... show up for meetings... twice per month. That is it.

Obviously, they do more than that, but showing up for meetings is the basic requirement (even then, some miss meetings here and there).

$80k a year salary.... $40k or so in retirement contributions... Free healthcare... all paid by you, the tax payer.

And they are afraid to stay late, maybe really late, because it is an inconvenience? Really?

Well... what about staff? Steve Howard is required to be there. Denise Lyn is required to be there. The clerk's office is required to have someone there. That is it. No one else needs to be there. Senior staff is generally in the room, but nothing requires them to be there.

As I recall, former administrator Randy Oliver, answered most commissioner's questions about the county issues. He rarely had staff at the microphone to address questions about projects and whatnot.... because he knew the answers and knew what was going on.

Steve Howard routinely marches out senior staff members to address things... I assume he knows the answers, but maybe he doesnt.... but I assume he doesnt want to be on the spot with answering the questions.

In any case, senior staff is not required to be there... but they will be and this will also make them stay late.... but they are also highly paid for the most part and can sit through one meeting that runs late.

Can the commissioners do anything else to stop this? They could recess the meeting. Anyone can make that motion and go into recess... then bring it back for the Betz hearing... then recess it again until some future date and time.

But again, that will upset the public that is there to speak to them.

That is about it. Even if they moved the public portion of the meeting to the end, nothing stops 30 people from speaking on every agenda item vote, so long as the conversation covers only that agenda item. 90 minutes per agenda item. 25 agenda items.. do the math on that. It is a LOOONNNNGGGG time... and they can do nothing to stop those comments at that time.

Point is, there is nothing that can be done if people want to do a filibuster. It is part of the job and our rights as citizens... free speech and all of that.

And before anyone says anything about restricting that speech... You cannot argue that we have free speech and then get mad when it is used. It applies equally to everyone. Everyone has the same opportunity to be heard. You do not have to like it, which is fine, but that is the purpose of the 1st Amendment to begin with.

Government is very limited in how they can restrict that.

So if you have something you want to say to your government officials, come around 1:30 and let your voice be heard.

See you all tomorrow... I have a feeling it will be a VERY long day!