Don't residents have a say when lives are at stake?

There are two important things Monroe County residents should know about the county's hurricane evacuation policy.

One, it is the linchpin of growth management in the Florida Keys. The county's ability to safely evacuate tourists and residents as life-threatening storms approach is the primary factor limiting the amount of development allowed to occur in the Keys.

Two, it is the equivalent of the levees in New Orleans. Any breakdown in the plan — such as a major highway accident or unanticipated changes of storm track, intensity or speed — and tens of thousands of people are put in peril. The stronger the storm, the greater the peril.

We mention these things because there has been a secret, behind-the-scenes effort to manipulate data in a way that makes it appear the county can more quickly evacuate the Keys. This effort only came to light this week because, in order gain the state's blessing for the manipulated evacuation policy, it had to be presented to the governor and state Cabinet (sitting as the state Administration Commission) in a public meeting in Tallahassee.

The citizens of Monroe County should be outraged. It is bad enough that the most important growth-management valve for Monroe County is being jimmied without their knowledge or input. But Monroe County government, which is supposed to act in the best interest of its citizens, has actually been working secretly in ways that put citizens' lives at risk.

We are dumbfounded by the behavior of County Administrator Tom Willi, who on Tuesday stood before the Administration Commission and misled the governor, telling him that the county's comprehensive land-use plan had been amended to incorporate an 18-hour evacuation time.

Here is how that discussion went, after Willi twice declared that an 18.1-hour evacuation time had been incorporated into the comp plan:

Gov. Bush: "You included the 18.1-hour evacuation time in your comp plan last year?"

Willi: "Yes sir."

Gov. Bush: "And there was a public hearing process where this idea was thoroughly vetted?"

Willi: "Yes sir."

Really?

Willi, with the help of DCA staff, has attempted to justify the manipulated data — and misstatements — with an incomplete and unapproved regional evacuation study by the South Florida Regional Planning Council. Several Planning Council board members were surprised and displeased to learn the study, which had been sent back to staff for additional work, was being used by DCA to bolster Willi's assertion that Monroe County could be evacuated in 18 hours.

The county apparently is focusing on one of eight scenarios in the unfinished study to get the desired results. However, that scenario considers Tavernier the destination, excludes 25 percent of the population (assuming they won't evacuate anyway), and doesn't include tourists and mobile-home residents based on the assumption that they already will have evacuated. This limited and best-case scenario appears to be the first time an 18-hour clearance time is mentioned in a public document.

The obfuscation cranked up a notch Wednesday with a memo from DCA attorney Richard Shine, who wrote: "As part of the ongoing update to the South Florida Regional Hurricane Evacuation Model Transportation Study, the input assumptions to the Miller Model [used to calculate clearance times] were updated to include the formal adoption of the phased hurricane evacuation of tourists and mobile homes. The resulting hurricane evacuation clearance time for the Miller Model with phased hurricane evacuation is now 18.1 hours."

On Thursday, Willi echoed that circuitous rationalization in an e-mail to County Commissioner Sylvia Murphy, who had questioned his statements to the governor.

All this backpedaling aside, the fact remains that the amendment approved last year in a public meeting clearly states the new "staged/phased" evacuation procedures enable the county "to achieve and maintain an overall 24-hour hurricane evacuation clearance time for the resident population."

And the fact remains that there has been no public discussion of an 18-hour clearance time, nor are we able to find that number reflected in any county ordinance or policy document.

As with a recent stealth attempt to fast-track dedesignation of the Keys as an Area of Critical State Concern, it appears that county officials hoped to take advantage of the commotion in Tallahassee — aides and staff members are scrambling to secure new positions under incoming Gov. Charlie Crist's administration — to slip in a critically important item under the public radar.

Monroe County government's behavior is unconscionable. Citizens not only deserve a voice in changes that affect their communities, their quality of life and their safety — they have a right to that voice. For too long, we've observed local governance by stealth and misrepresentation — evacuation, by the way, was not the only untruth uttered Tuesday in Tallahassee.

The County Commission, fretting about public distrust of local government in the Keys, has considered hiring a public relations professional to patch up its image. Commissioners and county bureaucrats could more readily accomplish that goal by cleaning up their acts.

— The Citizen