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| Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava was there for Miami. |
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| Commissioner Xavier Suarez was on the phone listening. I know because I was texting him. |
Dispute ResolutionThey have been cut off at the knees. I don't know why they meet anymore. Maybe I am too much of a pessimist but why is PLANNING out of their name?
The Council's Regional Dispute Resolution Process (RDRP) was adopted in response to the requirements of Chapter 186.509, Florida Statutes. The RDRP is designed to reconcile differences in planning, growth management, and other matters among local governments, regional agencies, and private interests. The RDRP endeavors to be a flexible process that will clearly identify and resolve problems as early as possible; utilize procedures in a low-to-high cost sequence, allow flexibility, provide for the appropriate involvement of affected parties, and provide as much process certainty as possible.
Their job was reviewing Comprehensive Development Master Plans and you could go there to see them. You didn't have to go to the cities or Tallahassee.
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| Eric Draper |
The dreaded Eric Draper form Audubon did a presentation on Amendment 1 and the problems Environmentalists are facing. He did a pretty good job on the need for the money to be spent as we voted for in the Amendment, like the sugar land we had a contract to buy for restoration.
The land was supposed to be environmental land. Thomas Teets of the South Florida Water Management District had just finished saying we need more land for Everglades Restoration. She didn't understand a lick. I said in comments: You should all care that your constituents were betrayed that is the issue not upkeep. If you start using money for upkeep you will end up paying for soccer fields and other stuff. That is what they are already doing with the money in Tallahassee-- buying rice farms or something like that. I told them the big picture is that the money is not going towards what we voted for. The issue is not what to do with the land that we spend the money on.
5 comments:
Rick Scott has done so much damage to this state, but recall which governor triggered the start of changes to the authority of the RPC: it was Lawton Chiles. Jeb kicked the RPC's shins as hard as he dared, and Crist was indifferent. Then comes along Rick Scott and just takes a chainsaw to the agency's mission. For that, thank you GOP voters.
Thank you for reporting this. We don't need people from the Governor who are that are part his bizarro thought process involved with any of our issues anymore.
We need to get all these extra people out of the equation. It's no longer accepting to not understand the issues. Your going to a meeting. Do a ten minute Google search. If you don't and your still playing stupid then we know your only job was to memorize talking points.
The Council's planning function has been gutted by the Governor and the Florida legislature. The State has done away with most of the SFRPC's role in growth management review, reducing it to a commentary role for the most part. And now the legislature did away with DRIs meaning that the whole regional impact review is dead.
Despite the constant battering by Tallahassee (ironically the legislature has funded them year-over-year, just to have the $ vetoed by the Governor), the council has been instrumental in some significant regional planning efforts. Most notably they headed up the 7-county sustainability plan for the east coast. They've been very involved in climate change planning and emergency management planning, and have an under-appreciated small business loan program that has provided capital for quite a few businesses over the years.
The agency is looking to morph its mission to more of a regional transportation planning role and position itself as a resource for economic development for small and mid-sized companies. I'm sure they'd like to go back to having a meatier role in land planning, but the political climate downright hostile toward that.
Daniella is an appointee to the council. she pressed the water management people to admit that more storage was needed close to the lake.
There was some board member who complained about not having funding from the state for maintaining their beaches, just funding for purchasing land and improvements. that is a strange thing to complain about; you get the money to buy the car, but complain you have to pay for the gas?
besides, i think draper pointed out that the programs that should have been funded by amendment 1 included small grants to cities that help with the maintenance.
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