COMMENTARY

“Representatives must represent, and somehow we have to be able to discern what it is they really represent. US? Or is it something else? Their friends on Blue Cypress Lake? Their need for more power by destroying the cities within their borders? Selling their votes for future remuneration in political support, new jobs, favors for their family?”

LYNNE LARKIN 

The number of legal disputes being generated by members of our County Commission continues to grow. They’ve committed funds to waging battle against the City of Vero Beach in an epic gesture to prove something (we’re not sure what). They want to commit further millions to fighting the fast-trains through Florida, another effort which sounds so bold and noble yet which will prove only that we respect private property only when we wish to do so.

Now we’ve learned of their decision to fight the State, yet again, on attempts to return public land to public uses. Out at Blue Cypress Lake, residents have built stilt houses over state-owned water. They thus avoid permitting, taxes, and get to use public area for their sole benefit.

Bob Solari and Wesley Davis, along with other Commissioners, feel that these few trespassers are “the little guys” fighting the big government.  Let’s interject here what so many seem to miss: WE are the Big Government. Yes, that dreaded monster “Big Government” is not some distant beast created by aliens. Big Government = us, all of us. And like any big family, for we are the American family, there are disagreements.

So under the guise of that strained and misleading term, Solari and Davis wish to use our money to fight our own interests. US vs. BG.

Now, kudos to the county attorney’s department for advising them against this plan. The sound legal decision is to keep out of it, let the State weigh in on the public’s behalf. Let local attorneys wind up excuses and fake history (not to mention some hefty billable hours) in defense of stealing public property.

As with other controversies, the giants of journalism at Scripps suggest the impossible while advocating the bogus arguments. They want the county to both “extricate” itself from litigation at the same time be part of finding an unstated and ephemeral decision in “each party’s best interest.” And they all lived happily ever after. This didn’t appear in the “Fairy Tale” section of the local paper, nor in the Opinion pages, where wishy-washy non-opinions would be out of place.

The argument for small government, by the way, is supposed to be the high road, the more moral avenue. In reality, the smaller the government, the easier it is to manipulate, as is being proven daily here in Indian River County. Just a vote or two will send millions of dollars into a fight for “lower utility rates” even though that has already been proven a dead end. Or a few votes will send more of our dollars to fight on behalf of short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods, something harmful to the vast majority of taxpayers, including area hotels. Since we are also (surprise)] small government, we can change that small government more easily than its bigger cousin.

There is good and bad to both small government and big government. The trick is discovering the reality of what each might be doing in our name. Representatives must represent, and somehow we have to be able to discern what it is they really represent. US? Or is it something else? Their friends on Blue Cypress Lake? Their need for more power by destroying the cities within their borders? Selling their votes for future remuneration in political support, new jobs, favors for their family?

Big or small, our “family” needs attention, feeding, and training. And discipline. From time to time, discipline.