COMMENTARY

“Like your Committee, the Board members of the SBPOA are volunteers, but in our case, we have no professional or financial interest in the recommendations made here.” – George Lamborn, President, South Beach Property Owners Association.

MILT THOMAS

This past Thursday, the Short Term Rental Advisory Committee held its final meeting, discussing occupancy requirements and putting the final touches on its recommendations to the County Commissions. The meeting was attended by several high-ranking county officials: County Administrator Joe Baird, County Attorney Dylan Reingold, County Commissioners Peter O’Bryan and Joe Flescher and County Budget Director Jason Brown.

There was also a sheriff’s deputy in attendance in case of any “violence” against Committee Chairman Glenn Powell. The presence of a deputy refers to the previously reported incident after last month’s committee meeting when Chairman Powell and this reporter were talking and Dr. Conway stepped up to take exception to Powell’s handling of the meeting and the committee in general. (See: Transient boarding house committee holding contentious meetings) The one minute incident resulted in claims of “assault” lodged by Powell and reiterated by Commissioner Solari on local radio.

As it turned out, strike force was not needed. Whether it was the presence a law officer or the committee had been advised to be especially careful about reacting to or cutting off comments by Mssrs. Conway and Carter Taylor (David Hunter was not present), the meeting had few contentious moments. George Lamborn, president of the South Beach Property Owners Association sat with fellow board members Conway and Taylor and added a statement of his own regarding the legitimacy of this pro-rental committee.

The fact that no other media covered this committee (except for an interview of Powell in 32963) is surprising given its importance to the community as a whole and other factors that would normally become front page news. Here are the points that citizens of unincorporated Indian River County should be concerned about:

1. Short term rentals are commercial enterprises (businesses) that are allowed to operate in purely residential neighborhoods. While home businesses are common, they are typically confined within the household by long term homeowners. Short term renters have no vested interest in their lodging and neighbors any more than if they were staying in a motel.

2. The presence of a short term rental in a residential neighborhood, especially one where home values exceed $200,000, might go unnoticed, but what if there are five on your block, all occupied by transient visitors, not stable homeowners?

3. The county once had an ordinance restricting short term rentals to commercial areas, but commissioners voted to drop that requirement in 2012.

4. Although this is a zoning issue, the Solari-led county commission voted to create a committee to develop suggested regulations.

5. The committee was chaired by a short term rental business owner, a vocal advocate for his business. There was no corresponding vocal advocate on the committee for the vast majority of residential homeowners who are not in that business.

6. Advocates for homeowners not in the short term rental business were often interrupted, cut off, or their input to the proceedings ignored and even, at times, laughed at, usually from members of the pro-rental audience.

7. Public records requests in the last month revealed several instances of email correspondence between committee members relating to the proceedings, a violation of the Florida Sunshine Laws.

8. In a related issue, members of the South Beach Property Owners Association board of directors who apparently are not supportive of SBPOA President Lamborn and others fighting short term rentals in residential neighborhoods, tried in an unauthorized meeting to remove him from the board. Lamborn has since filed suit against those individuals, which includes committee member Dr. Robert DeWaters and alternate George Bryant.

Toward the end of this, the final committee meeting, Chairman Powell, was almost gleeful at what his committee has accomplished and thanked all the participants, adding that he has been “…the punching bag figuratively and almost literally…” referring to the phantom assault he and Commissioner Solari presented to the public as fact.

The true test of whether Indian River County residential homeowners are considered in a final decision about regulations comes next. The committee’s recommendations will probably be presented to the county commission on April 19 for review. Commissioner Solari is an outspoken advocate of smaller government with fewer regulations as were committee members Glenn Heran and Joel Molinari.

The three representatives, members of the South Beach Property Owners and Indian River Neighborhood Association boards of directors, hope they will get a fair hearing when the subject finally goes to the body that should have considered it in the first place, the Planning & Zoning Commission.

But even if they do, the final decision on regulations rests with the Solari-led county commission.

Following is the statement read to the STVRAC by South Beach Property Owners Association President, George Lamborn:

 

Mr. Chairman, and members of this Committee, my name is George Lamborn. I am the President of The South Beach Property Owners Association. I have a two-minute statement that I would like to read without interruption from the Chair.

SBPOA was formed almost twenty-five years ago to safeguard the interests of individual property owners and residents of the South Barrier island, unincorporated Indian River County.

The organization I represent is the “Community” part of the “Community Conversation” that the Board of County Commissioners wanted from this Committee.

The South Beach Property Owners Association, the Indian River Neighborhood Association, and the North Beach Civic Association represent the interests of the 99% of property owners who own their properties for nothing more than the quiet enjoyment of a residence, and whose quality of life, and property value, is at risk from commercialization of neighborhoods.

Like your Committee, the Board members of the SBPOA are volunteers, but in our case, we have no professional or financial interest in the recommendations made here.

We donate our personal time to study the issues, follow the proceedings of this Committee, and hopefully, are given a chance exercise our right to speak freely to the issues in this public hearing.  

Although I have not been able to attend these meetings in person, I have followed this Committee very closely. I have sent our representatives, who, along with IRNA and North Beach Civic organizations have attended and each and every Committee meeting.

Since this is the last meeting, I wish to summarize the South Beach Property Owners Association’s view of these proceedings with these concluding remarks.

• I am disappointed to note that there has been very little in the way of dialogue between our Community organizations, representing the width and breadth of this County, and your appointed Committee.

• The representatives that we have sent to talk with you have not been treated with due respect

I have chaired a committee or two during my career on Wall Street. One of them was called the Futures Industry Association.  

• The Chair of this Committee is incapable of rendering impartial rulings due to his personal conflict of interest as a vacation rental operator, and as a long-time advocate of the industry.
• In many cases, recommendations have been made in the absence of needed information. SBPOA and IRNA have attempted to share data and analysis with you, and you have expressed no interest in our research and findings.
• Our analysis and recommendations seem to have had little, or no impact on this Committee whatsoever.

Did we, the Public get what we were promised from this Committee? In short, I must conclude the answer is a categorical ‘No.’

No matter what the Legislature has done, or what the County Commission will do, this issue will not go away because it involves a taking of property rights – of quiet enjoyment—from the 99% to benefit the 1%.

And that math does not portend well for what you have done here.

In the words of Gandhi: “First they ignore you, … then they laugh at you, … then they fight you, then you win.”

George D. F. Lamborn, President, March 17, 2016