The Fair Still Has No Home Or Competent Leadership
I have learned to be patient when waiting for public records.
Florida has one of the most expansive laws that require governments and other semi-governmental bodies to produce records when asked. Unfortunately, what it doesn’t have is much of an enforcement mechanism. That is without spending money and time to enforce that right.
The last executive director of the Martin County Fair left after she claimed that irregularities were occurring. I put in a public records request to see the minutes and letters. Guess what? I am still waiting.
KC Ingram Mullens lasted about six months as the director. Whether she was the right choice to be responsible to move the fair has become irrelevant to the point. She resigned because of the Martin County Fair Board’s refusal to hire an attorney to sort through what she described as some shortcomings in their filings for grants and other matters.
The Fair Board has been trying for many years to move the fair from the current fairgrounds across from Witham Field to Indiantown. Year after year in a complete abrogation of their responsibilities as custodians of county owned land, the commission has allowed this to go on. In both the current location and the location in Indiantown, the land belongs to the county…which means to the taxpaying citizens.
And year after year, the commission goes through their little ritual of asking why there is no progress or movement and then gives the self-appointed Fair Board more time. Why would that board or anyone else take the commission seriously? Why is the commission so cavalier about giving the fairgrounds, a valuable county asset, to what seems like an incompetent bunch to manage?
We need to understand how Martin County has entrusted this self-perpetuating board with the exclusive right to run the Martin County Fair. If it is county property, then why doesn’t the county run it, maintain it, and manage it? I am asking as someone who wants the private sector to run things like the fair. Yet when the government subsidizes a private entity, that is not the free market.
The Martin County Fair is a ten-day event once a year. Why couldn’t the county’s park’s department just lease the space to this group of incompetents to hold their fair. The rest of the time, the county could develop the asset to benefit all the county residents.
Without a doubt, it is for the commission to stop the kabuki dance and take hold of the situation. All around us, there are county fairs. How come Martin County needs to have such drama accompanying theirs?
