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It's now official: No dissent allowed
The majority
bloc of the Monroe County Commission has now officially codified its
unwritten rule that dissent has no place in the realm of public policy
in the Keys.
The bloc of
Mayor Sonny McCoy and commissioners Dixie Spehar and Murray Nelson did
so Wednesday by removing Debbie Harrison from the county's Land
Authority Advisory Board and replacing her with John Dolan-Heitlinger.
Both are qualified to serve on the panel,
Harrison due to her environmental expertise through her work with the
World Wildlife Fund, Dolan-Heitlinger through his financial expertise as
president of Keys Federal Credit Union.
But two years ago, Spehar appointed
Harrison to
the advisory panel. She was good enough then, but apparently isn't
anymore.
Spehar says it's
simply because the panel must now focus on housing issues rather than
land conservation, and says Dolan-Heitlinger brings more to the table on
the former.
We say that's hogwash and one needn't be a
first-year civics student to see. Removing
Harrison and other
actions by the commission's majority bloc is all about stifling opposing
voices and viewpoints.
Even people who don't closely follow the news
know that Nelson has continually publicly rebuked
Harrison for many
ills this county faces, saying her environmental bent goes against all
efforts to increase the stock of workforce housing.
Nelson did
something this week that likely made him retch in private - he admitted
he was wrong when making statements that Harrison was directly
responsible for aiding a lawsuit over endangered species, development
and flood insurance that has all but put a stop to new construction in
Monroe County.
This isn't really about
Harrison's removal,
of course, because an advisory panel is just that, a group that makes
recommendations. In this case, it's about the Land Authority board,
which happens to be the County Commission.
But the puzzle comes together so crisply when one
adds the other pieces, such as when the holy trio of Spehar, McCoy and
Nelson shot down not one, but two of Commissioner George Neugent's
choices to sit on another county advisory panel, the Planning
Commission. Neugent is on the outside with Commissioner David Rice.
Of late, the term
“Gang of Three” has been heard more and more throughout the county. It's
not a term of endearment. Because only bullies belong to gangs, and it's
apparent that bullying is acceptable to the majority of the County
Commission at the expense of all other voices.
Quite a signal to send in a place that calls
itself “one human family.” |
