Save Local Government
Local government needs to be saved from local career politicians.
Pols will remain in office for as long as they can. The original concept of spending a few years performing your civic duty is no longer desired by the men and women who stay in office year after year and term after term. They never leave. And that is true from the federal to the local levels of government.
Only a change in the U.S. Constitution can make people like Chuck Grassley and Diane Feinstein step down. But on the local level, the state legislature can step in and require term limits. They did it just recently for school boards.
Take our current county commission. While no one has declared yet, I will bet dollars to donuts that the three incumbents up for re-election next year (Doug Smith, Ed Ciampi, and Harold Jenkins) will stand for re-election. There is a good chance that at least two will not even have token opposition. That is not the way it was supposed to be.
A county commissioner is paid a little less than $75,000 and has health and retirement benefits. They are allowed to have other employment and own businesses. How many would walk away from extra money? There are no set hours or prescribed duties except to show up at commission meetings. Though some work at it continuously and others not so much.
In my opinion, the main reason no one leaves is that being called commissioner is intoxicating. They begin to believe their own publicity. Some go into the office thinking they will stay for one term then it becomes a second and then by the third time, they have just a little more to accomplish before hanging it up. At the completion of their terms, Commissioners Smith and Heard will have been around for 6 terms. That is 24 years.
Most people won’t run against an incumbent. Incumbency has huge advantages from having established campaign contributors to name recognition. Martin County does not have a very large media market, so getting your name out there is difficult and therefore expensive. Commissioners become beholden to special interests, and special interests would rather support the devil they know over an unknown.
And this goes for municipalities also. Stuart commissioners are making over $23,000 a year plus medical and retirement benefits. Last year, two new commissioners were elected. One ran because a commissioner left the office voluntarily to move away from the area. The second incumbent was beaten by less than 100 votes because of his stance on a very controversial development project. These were unusual circumstances.
Being in government at this level should be looked upon in the same manner as serving on a nonprofit board. They should not be paid (Sewall’s Point, Ocean Breeze, and Jupiter Island commissioners currently do not receive any compensation) to provide volunteer leadership. There should be a stipend for expenses.
Being in an office should not be a career. No one should go in as a young person and come out as a senior citizen. It isn’t a job.
Only the legislature can fix term limits and determine what the county commissioners receive for salary and benefits. City charters can be amended for municipal office holders. Yet when the charter review committee for Stuart recommended 8-year term limits, the commissioners bumped it up to 12 years. They can’t help themselves.
The legislature needs to step in and correct this. Sure, some will claim preemption, but it isn’t. It is restoring democracy by taking away financial incentives and the power of incumbency. Let’s give back local elected office to the people. Otherwise, it never will be the government closest to the people.
