FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS NOV 7, 2021

Tom Campenni

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IN THIS EDITION OF THE NEWSLETTER

Polly and I attended the MartinArts Awards at the Lyric this week and, as usual, it was a talent-packed affair. Last Saturday, we also went to the Elliott and took in the “Highwaymen” exhibit, had lunch at the restaurant there and became patrons of the museum. My wife also attended an opening at the Palm Room, home of the Martin Artisan Guild. All in all, it was an artsy filled week but weeks like that are common in the county.

For Martin County is literally home to many artists. Our most renowned is Geoffrey Smith but he is far from the only one. For we are blessed to have not only painters and sculptors but a variety of visual, literary, and performing artists as well.

Thanks to Nancy Turrell for orchestrating another great evening showcasing our talent.

I also appeared on the KC Ingram Show this week for and hour. We spoke about everything Martin. If you do not listen to the show you are missing some great information. The link to this week’s is here

This week, we have two new contributors to Friends & Neighbors. The first is Marcela Camblor AICP who is a planner and architect. She has lived in Martin County for 24 years. Before opening her own firm more than a decade ago, she worked for the Treasure Coast Planning Council. She has designed projects here as well as throughout the state and nation.

I have been looking for someone with planning expertise to write for the newsletter because many people have misconceptions about how a development or building is conceived and then constructed. From parking to sidewalks, it needs to have form and function as they say in the trade.

Our second new contributor is Mike Mortell. Many of us know him as the Stuart city attorney. But before he held that position, he was in private civil practice for more than two decades. Mike’s column will not deal with city matters but general legal information.

We have Hafner, Pine and McChrystal as usual plus Carol Diez for United Way and Fletch for the Girls and Boys Clubs. There are columns from “Hobe Sound Loyal,” MCTA, County Administrator Taryn Kryzda, and our constitutional officials’ news. The newsletter would not be the newsletter without reporting on the county, school board and municipalities.

And remember to make sure your friends and neighbors sign up for their free edition. Have a happy and blessed Sunday.

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THIS WAS BAD CRISIS MANAGEMENT

I saw Ruth Pietruszewski, Martin County Tax Collector, twice in the past week while a crisis has engulfed her office computer system.

Martin County Tax Collector

The office systems have been hacked and perhaps ransomware has brought those systems to a crashing stand still. In today’s world, this can happen to any organization, and even the C.I.A. is not immune. Being hacked is not the point. How you trust and inform the public is.

About two years ago, Stuart’s systems were also compromised. Law enforcement and the F.B.I. were involved. The city manager, David Dyess, who has spent his entire life in law enforcement before becoming city manager, did not hide in his office. He was right out front giving enough information and being as candid as possible but careful not to compromise the ongoing investigation. It was textbook crisis management, and no one had to guess as to what steps the city was following.

City offices were not closed. In some cases, things were done with pen and paper in a pre-electronic way. Reporters were able to get in the doors and file stories. No one had to guess and fill in the blanks because the information people needed was not being hidden.

When I spoke to Ruth, I urged her to write something for the newsletter explaining what happened. There was no need to go into specifics of the investigation. She just needed to tell people when she thought service would be restored so they would again be able to renew their licenses and tags. She could have written that she did not know the exact timeline but that she would update them daily through Facebook, Stuart News, and the newsletter.

Many services the office performs are now operating. Now that November is here, people will be anxious to pay their tax bills. Fortunately, that part of the system seems to be working. I would imagine by the time you read this; things may be even back to normal.

I consider Ruth a friend. In my opinion, she has been very good at this job. We can do so many more things now through her office than ever before. When I had my carry permit renewed, it took no time at all. I have had nothing but praise for her professionalism except in this instance.

Pietruszewski is a constitutional officer with a huge responsibility. She collects every penny of revenue in fees and taxes that are generated. She owed it to the citizens of Martin County to be out front and visible. In this, she has failed.

This will be a blight on her outstanding record. Yet I still support her for the great job she has done in every other instance. I hope she has learned from this experience. If another crisis occurs, I urge her to speak to the press and the citizens that she represents and who elected her. Transparency is all important.

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WHERE SHOULD THE WATER GO?

The preliminary LOSUM plan was released by the Army Corps of Engineers, and it was not as good for the St. Lucie River as we had been led to believe.

The new LOSUM plan will be the guide for how the Corps will manage the lake during the next decade. Under the plan we thought they would institute, known as Alternate CC, a little over 60% less water would be released each year than is currently released. According to the plan proposed, up to 30 billion gallons can be sent down the St. Lucie each year.

St Lucie Lock Pinterest

While we need to remember that the proposed plan is better than what the current release schedule is, we still should not be happy with the proposal.

The river was never connected to the lake naturally. It was a man-made connection to further commerce about 100 years ago. The estuary is supposed to have very little freshwater, either clean or dirty, flowing into it. The river should be brackish with much higher salinity than at present.

In response to the new recommendations, comments from the east coast and those voiced at the River Coalition meeting were sent to the Corps, and they were anything but subtle. Perhaps the Corps heard our comments and will take them under advisement. They have pushed back the November 2^nd plan release date by two weeks to study more models. Hope does spring eternal.

Martin County and Stuart’s goal should be to have no releases at some future point as Mother Nature intended. That will not be an option until the reservoirs are completed and, more importantly, storage happens north of the lake. Lake “O” has been turned into a big reservoir storing agricultural and drinking water.

Until there are alternatives, releases will continue.

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DEFINING OUR VISION…PROTECTING OUR QUALITY OF LIFE

By Taryn G. Kryzda, CPM  County Administrator

There has been a great deal of misinformation circulated recently about proposed changes to the Martin County Comprehensive Growth Management Plan (Comp Plan). Here are the facts.

The Comp Plan is not being gutted.

We are not eliminating vital protections. Protections remain in place.

There is no proposal to remove policies from the Comp Plan that have made Martin County what it is today. What is proposed to be removed is the differing language in Chapter 2 added nearly 30 years after the original Comp Plan was adopted.

In 2021, the Florida Legislature passed HB 59 and on June 29, 2021, Governor DeSantis signed into law what is now codified as Section 163.3177, Florida Statutes. This law requires each local government to adopt a property rights element into its comprehensive plan and consider private property rights in local decision making.

In 2021, the Florida Legislature passed HB 421 and on June 29, 2021, Governor DeSantis signed into law an amendment to the Bert J. Harris, Jr. Private Property Rights Protection Act. The law broadened the definition of “action of a government entity” to include adopting or enforcing any ordinance, resolution, regulation, rule, or policy.

On November 16, the Martin County Board of County Commissioners will meet and discuss incorporating the legislatively mandated property rights element into our Comp Plan and changes to Chapters 1 and 2 necessitated by the Legislature’s actions in 2021. This will be the 3^rd publicly noticed hearing to discuss these changes. Residents are invited to come to the meeting and participate in this public process.

The Comp Plan was adopted in 1982. It is the long-term plan for Martin County, defining its vision and providing policies protecting our quality of life. The policies in the Plan are what allow us to protect our environment and maintain orderly and balanced growth. Having consistent language throughout the Comp Plan is critical in legally defending those policies and keeping the protections that are so vitally important to every Martin County resident.

When an amendment to the Comp Plan is proposed, especially the addition of a new chapter, staff reviews other chapters of the Plan for consistency with the amendment and for consistency with Florida Statutes. As a result of that review, changes were proposed for Chapter 1 (Preamble) and Chapter 2 (Overall Goals and Definitions.) In that review, staff noted that language from Chapter 2 differed from language in other chapters of the Comp Plan.

The language contained in the current version of Chapter 2 is not what created Martin County’s vision and is not what protects our vision for the future. That language was adopted in 2013 and did not become effective until 2016.

Our intention is, and always will be, to implement sound planning practices that put Martin County in the best position to defend these principles and policies that have defined Martin County’s vision for decades. The addition of the Chapter 19 Property Rights Element brings Martin County into compliance with one of the 2021 changes to state law by the Florida Legislature by including the statement that “private property rights shall be considered in local decision making.” The amendment to the Bert J. Harris, Jr. Private Property Rights Act expands the ability for property owners to challenge local government land use decisions. These changes by the Legislature send a clear message to each local government about local decision making.

Considering the added emphasis, the Florida Legislature is placing on property rights, staff recommended removing text from Chapter 2 that may be problematic. Some policies can only be fully understood if the reader knows to look in both Chapter 2 and another chapter of the Comp Plan. Then the reader must interpret which language is the most restrictive. This lack of clarity may result in a challenge asserting that private property rights have not been considered. The lack of clarity weakens the county’s Comp Plan and increases the likelihood of challenges against Martin County’s long-loved protections.

It’s not as simple as just adding the property rights element. We must be vigilant in safeguarding the protections provided in our Comp Plan. We must make it legally defensible. We must protect our taxpayers from costly legal proceedings that could arise. We owe that to our residents.

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NON-PROFIT PERSPECTIVE

By Carol Howaart-Diez

United Way of Martin County President-CEO

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for our community officially launched on October 22^nd.

Once again, United Way of Martin County is proud to partner with the Martin County Board of County Commissioners by assisting with the Community Assistance Program. This program will focus on funding creative and innovative programs that are geared toward mitigating the negative social and economic impacts of COVID-19 experienced by Martin County residents in communities most disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

All Martin County nonprofit organizations can apply for assistance in the following areas as per the federal requirements of ARPA:

• Assistance for programs including job training, for individuals who want and are available for work, including those who have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months or who are employed part-time but who want and are available for full-time work.

• Assistance for efforts to accelerate rehiring and address barriers to employment including childcare, transportation, and back-to-work incentives.

• Assistance that addresses health disparities and social determinants of health.

• Assistance that addresses educational disparities exacerbated by COVID-19.

• Assistance that addresses mental health exacerbated by COVID-19. Must deliver evidence-based psychotherapy.

• Assistance, including programs with supportive housing and services, for individuals experiencing homelessness.

To give you a comparison, when United Way assisted the Martin County Board of County Commissioners last year with the CARES Act funding, the federal government had fewer restrictions on the use of the dollars as the nation overall was coping with the pandemic and immediate assistance was needed to keep families healthy and strong.

From August – December of 2020, United Way and its partners were able to assist by distributing $4.2 million to the community to help individuals and families with rent/mortgage/utility assistance, procure food to stock our nonprofit organizations’ food pantries, and fund mental health services.

ARPA funding comes with many more restrictions and requires measurable objectives for the recipient organizations.  In my humble opinion, these dollars have the opportunity to change the trajectory of our community.  This round of federal funding is giving our community the chance to tackle its most daunting social crises, post-pandemic, and create positive systematic change in Martin County.

We are proud to work on this project.  Stay tuned, as I will continue to keep everyone updated on the programs that receive assistance.

To learn more on how to apply for ARPA Funding, please go to https://www.martin.fl.us/ARPA.

As always, if you have questions or need more information about United Way of Martin County or the ARPA funding process, please feel free to reach out to me at work, 772-283-4800, via email, chdiez@unitedwaymartin.org or our website, www.unitedwaymartin.org.

Carol Howaart-Diez’s opinions are her own and may not reflect Friends & Neighbors viewpoint.

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PINE’S PONDERING

By Tom Pine

The Winn Dixie in downtown Jensen Beach recently had a grand reopening, the interior has been completely upgraded with all new coolers, shelving and lighting. It now looks brand new inside and out. Winn Dixie also added a liquor store to the mix and a first for downtown Jensen Beach, we now have an auto parts store, Carquest Auto Parts is also in the shopping plaza.

For any Martin County residents who moved here because of our open spaces and a strong Comprehensive Growth Management Plan I would strongly encourage you to attend a demonstration on November 16, 2021, at the Martin County Administration Center on 2401 SE. Monetary Road, Stuart Fl. It will start at 8:00 AM one hour before the scheduled commission meeting at 9:00 AM. Then you are encouraged to speak up during public commits.

Who exactly do our commissioners work for, as it stands right now the average taxpayer of Martin County is dead last. The special interests are number one.

Next up The Good Ole Boys and the Pay To Play Crowd, they are followed by the Big Money Boys, many of these are the same people. In Martin County it’s always about the money. And for an added bonus, Jensen’s commissioner uses the law to rig the election by closing the August primary preventing half the voters from casting a ballot.

As it stands now at the November 16^th meeting four commissioners will vote to delete all the objectives and policies in Chapter 2 except the four-story height limit and the 15-unit-per-acre density limit.

Chapter 2 sets out the overall goals and important objectives and policies that make it possible to achieve those goals:

Enhance And Protect The Quality Of Life For Martin County Residents,
Ensure Conservation Of Our National Resources,
Promote Orderly And Balanced Economic Growth That Protects The Quality Of Life In Martin County,
Practice Prudent Fiscal Management.

These are meaningless promises without specific mandatory policies that actually achieve these goals

The four commissioners that appear to be moving to eliminate almost all of Chapter 2 of the Comp Plan like to hide behind Staff. Staff recommended it so it must be the right thing to do. Staff works for the commissioners they do not work for the general public.

It was Staff that recommended the illegal extension of runway 12/30 at Whitman Field to the Martin County Commissioners. The part of the presentation that clinched the five to zero vote was an outdated photo that showed only woods west of runway 12/30. I was one of thirty-one families that lived in that neighborhood and bought the last house available about 28 years before the illegal expansion. It was a thriving middle-class neighborhood.

At least two commissioners knew exactly what was going on then and I believe the same is true today. They know exactly what the real outcome will be down the road.

Google, Martin County TV and watch the video of October 5, 2021. Staff sounds a little like the old Abbott and Costello routine, “Who’s on First.”

There are several large tracts of land out west that were bought by potential developers a few years ago that now operate as sod farms, just waiting for a crack in the wall.

Truth To Power

Tom Pine’s opinions are his own and may not reflect Friends & Neighbors viewpoint.

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McCHRYSTAL’S MEANDERINGS

By Frank McChrystal

It’s all relative.  Yes indeed, that Einstein fellow was pretty bright.  His theory of relativity helps explain the citizen’s complacency in the debate over how much and how fast Martin County should grow.

If you moved here in the past fifteen years, fleeing the congested third world nations of Dade and Broward; Martin still feels like Shangri-La.  Your new laid-back community is just fine, and you feel no real urgency to get involved with the growth issue.  You may have fought the good fight against high density down south, and got your butt kicked.  You just want to enjoy your lifestyle up here in your new idyllic community.

You’ve learned that fighting big developer money is a losing game and when the time comes, you’ll simply move on to greener pastures.  You love your new community, but not enough to fight for it.  Complacency works fine.

If you have lived here since the early 1970s, your view is very different.  The real Shangri-La you fondly remember is gone forever.  You fought the good fight and lost miserably and now it feels like there is nothing left worth fighting for.  Complacency is the only thing left in the tank.

US 1 is a complete disaster; soon to be a parking lot.  The once sleepy Witham Field has been turned into a noisy air pollution machine.  It’s now a pit stop for the globalist elites; thanks to the illegal 460′ illegal runway 12/30 extension of 1998.  The four-story apartment “projects” popping up in the ever-expanding City of Stuart is a radical change that feels like the final nail in the coffin for your once awesome hometown.  Maybe it’s time to think about greener pastures.

We must all snap out of the doldrums.  It’s all relative.  There is always something worth fighting for!  There are people who want to turn the City of Stuart into Hong Kong. They view it as natural order and inevitable.  And there’s lots of money to be made in the process.  So, things can get much worse….in a hurry.

We must shake off complacency.  We can figure out US 1.  We can keep Witham at bay and not let jet traffic increase any further. About 33% of the land on airport property has businesses and county operations that do not put jets in the sky.  We must convince out leaders to keep it that way.  We must let our city leaders know how we feel about the four story “projects” that are radically changing Stuart.  No mas!!

As flawed as we are compared to yesteryear; my recent travels have shown me there are no greener pastures.  There are legitimate reasons why everyone wants to live here.  Rise up and let your local leaders know it is not our duty to accommodate them.

Frank McChrystal’s opinions are his own and may not reflect Friends & Neighbors viewpoint.

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PLANNER’S PERSPECTIVE

By Marcela Camblor

Right Sizing Parking

It’s a classical complaint and possibly the most voiced concern when it comes to proposed new development: “Not enough parking.”

Since the invention of the automobile, planning around how to park cars has distinctly shaped the design, environment, and economy of our cities. We have become accustomed to expect free parking right next to our every destination: our office desk, our restaurant table, every shopping stop, and our bed at night.

We are designing cities for cars. We are planning space to move cars, space to wait for cars, and space to hold cars while they wait for their drivers to come back. But with increasing environmental and water quality issues, and declining housing attainability and availability, do our communities actually need more parking?

After the surge in car ownership post WWII, minimum parking standards were established, without much data and generally geared to worst-case scenarios (e.g. Black Friday shopping crowds, post-Christmas day sales, etc.) Minimum standards mandate all development to include off-street parking (that means to park the car of every potential user within the boundaries of the proposed development.) Minimum standards also assume everyone living or visiting any development will do so by car.

This approach raises real estate prices, brings more cars into cities, increases air pollution and carbon emissions, decreases connectivity and walkability, negatively impacts water quality, and hinders the viability of public transportation. It subordinates form and density to the needs of the car. It suggests that we can’t accommodate more people unless we accommodate all their potential cars. Minimum standards with ironically maximum impacts, have also contributed to the misconception that everyone prefers to drive everywhere, alone.

But is it a driving preference? Or is it that readily available, free parking, and poorly designed, sprawling development have made driving the only possible form of travel? If all drivers had to pay for their own parking, or parking was less available, would fewer people “prefer” to drive everywhere? If relatively close-by destinations were not separated from one another by vast seas of parking, would people walk from one to the next? If we focused on shaded, walkable infrastructure and truly safe bike lanes, would more people choose alternate means of mobility?

The notion of minimum parking standards also implies that the free market applies to everything except the ability to decide how much parking is needed. As Donald Shoup, parking expert and author of The High Cost of Free Parking described it “America has become a strange place. In the country that proved capitalism the winning governance model, we let planners tell us exactly how much parking is needed at every type of residence or business and take it as gospel.” Shoup suggests we let the market decide how much parking to provide, just as the market decides on, pretty much, everything else.

Today, parking takes up about one-third of the developed land area in the U.S. Nationwide, there are an estimated eight parking spaces for every car.  Even though interest in car ownership nationwide is decreasing, and nationally there are multiple efforts underway to reduce or eliminate parking, we still need cars to get around our region.

The goal for us should not be to eliminate parking, but to right-size it. It is not just a matter of accommodating more people and projects with less room for cars, but to focus on how to make room for a growing population with less need for cars. Right-sizing parking involves planning for interconnected development. It also requires eliminating the “one size fits all” parking approach.

The use of simple technology such as shared-parking rental apps (Craiglist, Pavemint, and Curbflip for people looking to rent unused parking spaces), or more complex ones like autonomous vehicles, are vastly expanding parking solutions. Policies including dynamic parking pricing, unbundling cost of parking from monthly rent, parking sensors, parking reservation systems, parking apps, commuter incentives, etc., are effectively allowing local governments to move away from the minimum parking standard approach.

Right-sizing parking can be a contentious proposal, nonetheless a doable one. It is a process that requires investment in data, coordination, sharing of existing parking resources, and trust in the free market. It also requires a shift of focus from strictly counting parking spaces, to ensuring every project becomes a piece of a whole, connected, walkable, sustainable, more livable, and less car-dependent puzzle.

Marcela Cambior’s opinions are her own and may not reflect Friends & Neighbors viewpoint.

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HAFNER’S CORNER

By David Hafner

May God Bless our Veterans

Veterans Day got its start November 11, 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson sent his “Address to Fellow-Countrymen.”

On June 4, 1926, an official holiday was made when Congress enacted a resolution that President Calvin Coolidge issued naming the holiday Armistice Day. In 1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law changing the holiday to Veterans Day and it has been celebrated with parades, letters, and visiting with veterans on November 11^th each year since.

In Martin County evidence of our appreciation of the dedication and sacrifice from our military veterans is well seen county wide. With Memorial Park, Veterans Memorial Bridge, the veterans’ associations and services, and, of course, the Veterans Day Parade in Downtown Stuart at 10am, November 11^th.

Agriculture also saves a place for our veterans who are trying to find their way back into civilian life. Farmers by and large are a patriotic group and would be honored to have a veteran on their farm- if they are not themselves a veteran. With a structured regimen and goals to be accomplished, farm life is a great option for our returning service men and women.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recognizes the value veterans can bring to agriculture and it has developed a website specifically for helping veterans to enter the agriculture industry. On the website veterans can find employment opportunities where military experiences can directly translate to USDA jobs. They can find education assistance in the fields of Plant Science, Food Science, Sustainable Biomaterials, Water Resources Science and Engineering, Precision Agriculture, and Veterinary Medicine. And there are paths to entrepreneurship, including loans and incentives, to help veterans get their start in an agriculture related field.

All this information- and more- can be found at https://www.usda.gov/our-agency/initiatives/veterans.

If you ate today thank a farmer if you ate in peace thank a veteran. Thank you, veterans, you are appreciated.

David Hafner’s opinions are his own and may not reflect Friends & Neighbors viewpoint.

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THE LAW EXPLAINED

By Michael Mortell Esq.

Everyone has a personal story or anecdote pertaining to the Covid Pandemic and how it impacted their community.

A common story is “the eviction moratorium.”  Sometimes it is a landlord stating that the government-imposed regulation that interfered with their right to enter contracts was unconstitutional.  Sometimes the story comes from a tenant while he or she is describing the unfortunate series of events that started with the pandemic closing all the businesses and resulted in a loss of employment.

On August 26, 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the moratorium had put the applicants, along with millions of landlords across the country, at risk of irreparable harm by depriving them of rent payments with no guarantee of eventual recovery.  Immediately following the ruling, an onslaught of eviction proceedings was expected – which in turn would create a significant increase in rental inventory following the evictions.

Then nothing happened.  There was no onslaught of evictions.  There was no increase in available inventory.  Maybe the landlords recognized that the tenants were willing to pay rent and there was no upside to filing the evictions.  Maybe many of the tenants on the Treasure Coast actually paid the rent during the pandemic/endemic.

Or it could be that the part time landlords that make up a significant amount of the inventory are not proficient in the eviction process and their tenants don’t understand it either.  As a result, there may have been some vacancies created without the courts and those vacancies may have been relet to the huge population moving south as part of the Great Resignation?

Either as a tenant or now an owner have I when a tenant or anyone I rented to ever took the time to read the lease. The lease is one of the most important documents a person will sign There is no one universal lease.

Most tenants think of the lease as a form and don’t think they can make changes.  Read the lease and if there is language that is not fair, put a line through it and tell the Landlord you want to take it out.  If you provide a good explanation, it is probable that the Landlord has never had someone suggest a change before and they will likely agree.  More importantly, you need to know the terms and understand what is in the document.  You can be sure that the landlord knows what the lease says.

Most tenants don’t realize the number of resources available to assist them pertaining to landlord-tenant relationships.  There are hundreds of websites and community agencies that will provide information and sometimes even money. In addition, many attorneys will answer questions for no charge over the telephone.  In Florida, Residential Evictions are regulated by Florida Statute Section 83.

The Landlord must strictly comply with the notice requirements and is not allowed to accept rent after giving the notice or the process must start over.  That includes partial payments.  In many cases, a landlord will provide the proper notice to the tenant that payment must occur within three business days (not including weekends or legal holidays), or a formal eviction will begin.

Then, the tenant will offer the Landlord half of the rent and the balance next Tuesday.  The landlord has bills to pay so he or she accepts the payment.  When Tuesday arrives, there is no more money.  In that case, the original notice posted by the landlord is no longer valid and the entire process must start again.

In addition, landlords don’t understand the amount of time necessary to perfect an eviction.  First, the tenant must be late with the rent.  If so, the landlord can post the Three-Day Notice Letter (Florida Statute 83.56(3)) which requires the entire balance due to be paid within three business days – not counting the day it was posted.  If the letter is posted on Thursday, then Friday is day one, Monday is day two and Tuesday is day three.  As a result, the landlord cannot legally file for eviction until Wednesday.

If the landlord does file on Wednesday, the lawsuit must be given to a private process server or the sheriff for service on the tenant.  This can take up to a week.  Once the tenant is served with the lawsuit, the summons provides five (5) more days for the tenant to pay the outstanding rent into the Court Registry if the tenant is going to contest the eviction.

Once the time frame passes, the landlord must file a Motion with the Court to review the case if the tenant did not pay the rent.  This normally results in a hearing being scheduled within the next 5 to 10 days.  If the tenant fails to pay the rent, then the judge will enter an order that provides the tenant with 24-48 hours to vacate, or a “writ of possession” will be entered.

The landlord must pay an additional fee for the writ of possession, and it too must be served by the sheriff’s office. It generally takes 4 days after the hearing.  If it falls on a weekend, then it is carried over until Monday.  As a result, from the time the landlord provides the three-day notice until the actual possession is returned to the landlord generally takes at least 3 weeks when everything goes perfectly.

If at any time during the process, the landlord accepts a partial payment and the tenant can prove it, the court will dismiss the eviction and start the entire process from the beginning.  Most people believe the landlord-tenant relationship is relatively simple and evicting a non-paying tenant is uncomplicated. That is not the case. There are many other technical requirements in the statute that protect both the tenant and the landlord.

If you find yourself in a contested eviction, at minimum you should call an attorney to get advice.  In addition, there are websites that provide assistance.  There is a website called TurboCourt.com that is merged with the Florida County Clerk’s offices and for a small fee (less than $15.00) asks a series of questions and then prepares all the documents necessary to file a proper eviction.  If you have a landlord or tenant question, my advice would be to contact the Florida Bar referral service or ask a friend for the name of a landlord- tenant attorney.

With the demand for housing continuing to increase, it is likely that the pressures on landlords and tenants will increase as well.

Michael Mortell’s opinions are his own and may not reflect Friends & Neighbors viewpoint.

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FLETCH’S PERSPECTIVE

By Keith Fletcher CEO & President of

Boys & Girls Clubs of Martin County

Forget the Oscars, Emmys, and Golden Globes. The awards ceremonies of actual consequence are getting underway at Boys & Girls Clubs of Martin County (BGCMC).

Our annual Youth of the Year award—a Boys & Girls Club tradition dating back to 1947—celebrates the achievements of teen leaders at clubs across the country, graduating to local, regional, state, and national levels.

Applicants must embody strong commitments to the core values emphasized and instilled at every club—leadership, good citizenship, service to others, academic excellence, and healthy lifestyles.

One of the many joys of my job in seeing club members enter this contest. Seeing their growth, knowing the obstacles so many of them must overcome, getting an even clearer hint of their unbounding potential—all of it inspires every member of the BGCMC family.

Consider our 2021 Martin County winner, Mariyah Smith, who made it through the first round of more than 75 regional competitors.

“(Boys & Girls Clubs of Martin County) gave me the confidence to put myself out there,” she says, recalling themes from her acceptance speech in winning the countywide Youth of the Year recognition. “It gave me a chance to see different cultures in our community and gain a new perspective.”

When she graduated from South Fork High, Mariyah earned her nursing certification. The 18-year-old from Hobe Sound is now studying at Bethune Cookman College to become a nurse anesthesiologist.

“I’ve just always wanted to help people,” she says. “And I wanted a good life for myself. And I knew (through this profession) I could secure a better, stable base for me and my future family.”

Mariyah’s mom, Lane Jackson, originally questioned if BGCMC was the right place for her daughter.

“I used to be hesitant about sending my kids there,” Lane recalls. “I thought it was a free for all. But I started to see structure in the way Mariyah would act. The club would take trips and she would learn things that you would necessarily take from me being her parent, but she would from them.”

Today, Mariyah’s younger sisters—Mia, 16, and Brooke, 8—attend the Hobe Sound club, where Mia loves learning the hospitality business in our culinary program.

“It’s awesome,” says Lane. “I feel like we’re really spoiled.”

Funny, but we’re the ones who feel like we’re spoiled by getting to spend time with so many amazing kids and witness how they flourish.

Whether standout past Youth of the Year winners like Mariyah and the coming class of contestants, or kids who more quietly but surely share their nature and talents, we cherish the chance to see them shine—and love what their bright future holds for all of us.

Keith Fletcher’s opinions are his own and may not reflect Friends & Neighbors viewpoint.

12

Martin County Taxpayers Association

MCTA HAS A QUESTION

The MCTA has a question for the Board of County Commissioners. Why does the county operate the two cafés at the beaches and is looking for a private operator to run the clubhouse at the revamped golf course?

We are not advocating for the government becoming more involved in private enterprise. On the contrary, we want them to do less of it. MCTA believes that Martin County has lost all sense of what the function of government should be. Our elected officials have yet to be concerned with how far they have strayed from their basic public
mission.

The BOCC and staff argued that the cafés were not being maintained by the private operators. It is true that neither operator maintained the properties. However, the responsibilities of each party were clearly spelled out in the leases or operating agreements.

When that happens there are remedies. The county could have forced the vendors to live up to the terms of the agreements or seek to remove them. It does not mean that the county needed to take over operation of the facilities. That would be analogous to a property owner in the private sector operating a restaurant because the last tenant in the space did not follow the terms of his lease.

Government should only perform those functions that the private sector refuses to perform or cannot. Operating cafés, snack bars, and clubhouses are things private businesses do better than a government bureaucrat or a county commissioner.

Unfortunately for the taxpayers of Martin County, far too often commissioners believe they have the right to use public dollars as they please. They become too involved in operations and stray from their primary responsibility of policy. Senior staff have every right to tell commissioners to stay in their lane and not interfere with the operational
side. In the past few years, we have seen an erosion of this principle.

In the budgeting process, we have just witnessed what happens when commissioners are more interested in being department heads than managing the funds entrusted to them. If the BOCC was paying more attention to the bottom-line throughout the budgeting process, cuts from line items would not be made at the last minute to forestall super majority commission votes.

Martin County has a tendency not to hold commissioners accountable for their fiscal actions when voting. This reinforces their invincibility factor and allows them to think they can spend more tax dollars on a non-governmental mission without repercussions.

13 

HOBE SOUND LOYAL

LOXA-LUCIE HEADWATERS INITIATIVE

An innovative and ambitious plan christened the Loxa-Lucie Headwaters Initiative, to create a permanently protected ecological corridor in south Martin County between the Loxahatchee and St. Lucie rivers, has achieved a significant milestone with the purchase of its first 138 acres of land along Bridge Road in Hobe Sound.

This two-mile long stretch of land fronts the north side of Bridge Road and extends east and west from Powerline Avenue. Its purchase is cause for celebration. It forms the essential keystone of the long-term vision for conservation of a landscape spanning nearly 70,000 acres, between and including Jonathan Dickinson State Park and the Atlantic Ridge Preserve State Park.

The Loxa-Lucie Initiative’s purpose is to protect adjacent properties from future development by either acquisition or the establishment of conservation easements. The objective is to create a permanent wildlife buffer and ecological corridor connecting the two state parks. Very importantly, acquisition of this first parcel will help improve water quality in the South Fork of the St. Lucie River. It will aid in restoring the historic sheet-flow of fresh water that once moved from the Atlantic Ridge to the federally designated Loxahatchee Wild and Scenic River to the south.

Just as important, the Initiative’s continuing acquisition results will provide a permanent conservation buffer along Bridge Road. This will help to protect the familiar character and quality of life of Hobe Sound and South Martin County by limiting future development along the corridor.

Historically, this land mass, called the Atlantic Ridge Ecosystem, was recognized by the State as the critical component in the preservation of the Loxahatchee Watershed and the South Fork of the St. Lucie River. It was included in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program’s (CERP) Indian River Lagoon South Project. The necessity to preserve the remaining lands that are part of these important watersheds is greater than ever. Saltwater intrusion issues in the Loxahatchee, higher demand for potable fresh water, an increase in development pressure and rising real estate values are all driving this urgency.

As the Steering Committee for the Loxa-Lucie Initiative continues its campaign to generate funds for additional land acquisition, it has also taken its message to Tallahassee to boost the ranking of the Atlantic Ridge Ecosystem project on the Florida Forever list.

The Loxa-Lucie Headwaters Initiative is a collaboration among three non-profit 501.c.3 environmental groups. Specifically the Guardians of Martin County, the Treasured Lands Foundation and The Conservation Fund. The Initiative has generated widespread and growing support among citizens, community groups, businesses, and government entities. This includes the Martin County Board of County Commissioners, with Commissioner Harold Jenkins committing $50,000 in his District funds. The Initiative will not only benefit our natural lands, wildlife, and water quality, but also preserve our small-town character for all those who call this area home for future generations.

We have made an exception this one time to our policy of printing columns under an alias. 

14

CONSTITUTIONAL CORNER

Here is where we will post notices from our constitutional officers:

And from our Supervisor of Elections:

From Our Property Appraiser:

From Our Tax Collector:

From Our Clerk Of The Court:

IF YOU ARE NOT A SUBSCRIBER DO SO FOR FREE HERE

Our first letter is from Kate Probasco regarding the BDB:

Tom, 

In your own words, Friends & Neighbors wants to inform you about what happens in Martin County’s governments.

Too often the public never finds out about important issues until the decisions have been made. If you read this newsletter you will know what the County, Stuart, the School Board, and the other municipalities are doing in your name. Remember they are spending your tax dollars. Is it the way you want your money spent?

There never seems to be enough money to be spent on things/ services/ programs that are needed, have been asked for, or could be beneficial to the community.  I just read about the Career/Training center coming to the airport.  I know that has been discussed for many years and always the main reason for not having it was a funding source.  This is just one of many needs in the community. 

I know where $450K can come from… Do the taxpayers know what the BDB actually does with their money?  I know you have written about the BDB before and it seems to fall on deaf ears, regarding the BOCC.   The BDBMC is known for “piggy backing” on the efforts of others.  Thinking that if the logo is added to the program or advertising, that people will think they actually had something to do with it.   Now I am all for partnership among organizations, that is how things get done but if it was actually looked into, the other organization is actually doing all the work.   

I see that Ms. Goodrich has provided some content in your newsletter. Most recently about the annual luncheon to recognize businesses. I bet if you ask her about those businesses without a notebook in front of her, she couldn’t tell you much. Ask her about any other business in Martin County and it would be the same. And ask a business about Ms. Goodrich and they wouldn’t have much to say because they probably have never met her. 

Ms. Goodrich only does to benefit her and/or make her look productive. After two years in the position she still does not live in this county.  She now calls PSL home, having sold her home in Coral Springs in July. (with that salary, I’m certain she could afford a home in Martin County) People need to ask what is being done and then question the answer that they receive. How did that come about?  What is the ROI? Who does it benefit? How does it benefit? Who else is involved?… The BDBMC has not been productive in quite a few years and even with a new ED and “new perspective” the organization is as lame as ever. This organization either needs to be taken over by the county and run accordingly or reduce its funding and tell the ED what she needs to be doing rather than the ED telling the county what she thinks is necessary and fits within her “Scope of Work”   

Again, if you do not live here, how do you know? 

Our next letter is from Oscar Torres:

Hello Tom.

Good morning.

I assume that you saw the article in the paper last week about the two lesson plans that was removed by the school district one day before they were to be used.

The first attachment is the newspaper article.

The second attachment are the 2 articles removed. To think that the likes of Stacy Abrams, who defrauded the Georgia voters of a fair 2020 election and the racist and socialist group BLM almost made it to our 5^th graders is scary.

I also included the replacement lesson plans.

I Have added a link to see both HERE

Joanne Collins writes about “Bidenville”:

Welcome to Bidenville, Del Rio Texas, United States of America’, a community of over 15,000 illegal Haitians. These Haitians are not refugees! We know this because many identification cards were strewn on the other side of the border, indicating they had been living in other countries such as Chille, Bazil and elsewhere. In other words, they had refugee status in other countries.

Where are these approximately 15,000 illegal Haitians today?

What we have been told, is 1,400 have been flown back to Haiti and 3,206 are in removal proceedings. No, they are not being removed. Under title 42, they are requested to report to an ICE OFFICE or check in within a 60-day period.  It is really a release not a removal procedure. The residents of Bidenville will soon be bussed or flown to El Paso, Tucson, Arizona, or the Rio Grande for debarkation to other cities throughout the country. WE may even welcome them to Florida. Many Haitians will go to a destination of their choice with our taxpayers dollars.

Are you vaccinated? We don’t know if they are either. Do you wear a mask? Do they have to wear a mask? We do not know anything about their health. Measles, Flu or maybe covid. How about smallpox, polio, or Whooping cough. When will the government allow the children to be in school with your children, how will this affect the educational system? And especially your children. Where will they live? How will they provide for their families? Who will pay for this?

The news media is now looking to see how many times President Joe Biden has visited the border. And in fact, has he ever been to the border. HE has been in Washington 48 years. All he knows is that the media insists on showing videos of the truth and this is not a good photo op.

Wake up people! This is our country. It does not belong to the squad. It does not belong to Joe Biden or the Democrat party. This country belongs to WE THE PEOPLE. We pledge the flag to The United States of America and to the Republic. We are Americans. We have a constitution. We are to be a country of law and order. What has happened? We must rid America of communism, socialism and Marxism NOW!

Holly Hoover from Sewall’s Point:

Good Morning Tom,

Something happened yesterday that gave me pause and reminded me of something you said, and I am trying to reconcile the statements. It is the statement of yours about buying a substandard house.

A man was walking down the street told me that he was part of a 100 person group of retirees in Sewalls Point that are intent on controlling what they want.

He did this by telling me that they had gone to the meetings several times to get satisfaction on issues that were prejudicial or which favored certain Commissioners. He said all changed when the Town first hired a Town Manager.

He then proceeded to tell me that his group controls this Town completely now.

WOW!

He then asked what the yard drains were for in the yards on the west of Sewalls Point Road behind the curb. And before I could answer he said they must be bubble-ups.

I stopped what I was about to say and asked him why he thought that. He said well all the rain from River Road probably. I was stunned that he thought that was OK and then asked whether he thought the lower properties should be impounded and forced to take that runoff. He immediately said how smart he was to buy on River Road and that everyone downstream were just not smart.

I asked him if he has seen the sandbags even at some RIver Road homes and if he knew that only undeveloped property can discharge downstream without retention and conveyance provisions and that a government cant take property for public use. He said that as far as he is concerned that its just too bad. He was all for taking property from stupid people.

He said explicitly that he does not care if the road project floods the lower homes. Yes to me while I am standing in front of my property. He said it would not surprise him if the structures do bubble up with inflows into them from the water backing up,

He is right about that as the exfiltration system is ridiculous and all of it is designed to destroy the lower properties.

A property a few lots down now becomes marsh conditions and among many other things

Some of the Commissioners including Frank Fender and Campo did not want to harm. Others did and the Town staff just does the bidding however course and inappropriate.

The worst thing is that I am now convinced that there are hundreds of folks in Sewalls Point who think they have the right to take from others.

I am asking you again to not work against the Constitution of the US, not against proper regulation and engineering and not to personally say someone who buys a substandard home deserves what they get.

All codes and conditions are constantly changing. To say we should punish those who do not buy a current home is ludicrous. That same home sooner than later be out of current compliance and require something.

I appeal to you to be intelligent, kind professional and ethical about all your statements.Otherwise you breed the same kind of selfish and obstructive attitudes as I encountered in front of my home on the new road which did nothing more than elevate a problem in the way it was executed.

ANd I realize this is an uphill battle with you but if you dont move a little uphill, Sewalls Point will try to flood you out right

Walter Deemer reports on the River Coalition:

The main topic of discussion was this week’s revision by the Army Corps Of Engineers’ to their July version of their Lake Okeechobee System Operations Manual (LOSOM), which will guide their management of the lake for the next ten-plus years. They have been busy tweaking and optimizing the July proposal, and issued eight revised plans earlier this week. Unfortunately, the eight revisions all negatively impact St. Lucie; the biggest problem is that while the July proposal reduced the discharges to the St. Lucie by 62%, to 72 acre/feet, the eight modified plans increase them to 117-164 acre/feet.

The Corps of Engineers defended their modifications by telling us that the Seminole Tribe and EAA agricultural interests to the south of the lake had raised big concerns with regard to their water supply. In addition, the Corps is trying to reduce the volume of stressful discharges to the west in response to concerns from stakeholders in that area. Part of this effort, as reflected in the eight revisions, will involve holding water in the lake as long as possible, which means they will be maintaining the lake at higher levels than they do now.

The Corps reassured us that even with the higher level of discharges to the east that there would have been no discharges to the St. Lucie in 25-35 of the past 51 years and that discharges to the east would have occurred only 4.3%-9.0% of the time during those other 16-26 years. The Executive Director of the South Florida Water Management District was also very supportive of the Corps’ modifications and stated they would have prevented the Lost Summers of 2005 and 2016.

Local folks were not buying it. One pointed out that holding the lake levels higher than originally proposed would, indeed, ensure a higher water supply for those south of the lake – but would also carry a higher risk of discharges with it. Several were also concerned with the last -minute shift in emphasis in favor of stakeholders south and west of the lake at the cost of higher discharges to the St. Lucie (which, as Charles Grande pointed out, is the one stakeholder that does not receive a single benefit from the water from Lake Okeechobee). And a spokesman for Congressman Mast told us that he opposed all eight of the proposed revisions since all eight were more harmful to the St. Lucie Estuary than the original plan. Mast wants the Corps to strike a better balance between the effects on the Caloosahatchee River and the St. Lucie Estuary than the eight revised plans do.

So the battle goes on even as the three-year process nears the finish line. Whatever we end up with, it was agreed, will be better than what we have now – but will be far from ideal as far as the St. Lucie Estuary is concerned.   

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They Don’t Get It

Schools have become the new focal point for the culture wars. That would not be possible if school boards, and administrators did not have deaf ears to their communities.

At one time, this disconnect would only exist in big city school districts. These are the boards, and their commissioners, superintendents, or chancellors that would tolerate little parent involvement. Organizing bake sales or volunteering in the office was acceptable. But when parents got involved in pedagogical discussions or challenging curriculum, the disdain the “experts” had for parents butting in where they did not belong was obvious.

Public education in those big city districts was big business and too many hands in the pot was never welcomed when money was at stake. As time has gone on, that same attitude has seeped down as routine budgets for school districts like ours are now in the hundreds of millions of dollars. That allows for administration to hire district personnel and grow their empires.

This can result in parents being left out of the equation. When people are disenfranchised, then radicalism can take hold. In the current environment, fringe elements are now seizing the side of the people versus the school experts. It is not going to turn out well.

Most parents have very little problem with their kids’ reading a variety of different books with a variety of viewpoints. They are not looking to censor anyone. What they are looking for is a seat at the table in determination of what is appropriate. When parents are kept in the dark, it is easy for them to believe that things like Critical Race Theory are taught in their schools. (I defy anyone to show me any district in the U.S. where it is taught.)

CRT has now become a code word for teaching or discussing race in the schools. Some would like to see no discussion of race in the classroom. In Texas, it has gone so far as the requirement to have various points of view on the Holocaust. I did not realize that killing millions of human beings because of religion was an acceptable view. This is what happens when there is not community buy in as part of the discussion on curriculum.

School boards were meant to be members of the community that represent the people. They were not meant to be former teachers and administrators. That is just playing into the perception that the deck is rigged.

This issue is not going away. When parents and their concerns are ignored, it opens the door to more and more school board candidates with fringe agendas running. If those on the fringes are elected, the political fights we see in other areas will be in the schools. Is that what we want?