By D. L. Norris
Anyone with a public education that pre-dates 1981 should know from their civics classes just how important the separation of powers are to our form of government. They are essential to the rule of law and keep all three branches of power in check by preventing the concentration of power into one branch or one individual. Conservatives fight to uphold the separation of powers as defined in the U.S. Constitution. Liberals fight to centralize power into one bureaucratic state or one individual. The Florida Statutes are clear in the separation of powers granted to county governments.
Okaloosa County is a Non-Chartered, Commission-Administrator form of government. From the Florida County Government Guide, “this means the duties of the commission and the administrator are largely governed by state law and administrators are legally kept on a fairly short leash. Chapter 125.74, Florida Statutes, reads: ‘It is the intent of the Legislature to grant to the county administrator only those powers and duties which are administrative or ministerial in nature and not to delegate any governmental power imbued in the board of county commissioners…’ Statues make clear that administrators are not to engage in policy making. They must only faithfully execute the decisions made by the commission.” So, the statue is clear, administrators are not to make decisions but, on 6 August 2019, the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) gave the county administrator decision making authority, oh my!
The BOCC voted 3-2 to adopt an amendment to the existing Eminent Domain Ordinance authorizing the administrative staff to acquire private property valued at less than $10,000 dollars without the BOCC’s knowledge or concurrence. The stated purpose for this action was to streamline the acquisition of private property in order to expedite the building of the Crestview Bypass. Prior to this ordinance passing, only the BOCC could authorize the acquisition of private property, at any value, for public use.
Three commissioners pushed back on two fronts. District 4 Commissioner Trey Goodwin III spoke first and stated he was “worried we’re off-shifting some policy making decision that’s supposed to be in the board.” He also said “I’ve had some concerns about how much oversight we’ve delegated going forward.” He then made a motion to amend the ordinance to lower the purchase price to $10,000 dollars, and under, in order for the county administrator and county attorney to have decision making authority to purchase real property (the original proposal was $50,000 dollars). District 2 Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel then backed Commissioner Goodwin’s motion and added “the buck stops with us, we’re in charge of policy.” District 1 Commissioner Graham Fountain stated he had no problem with the dollar amounts and wanted the taking of private property streamlined in order to expedite the Crestview Bypass. He did say he would not support the ordinance unless the statement requiring the county attorney’s concurrence was removed from the ordinance. Commissioner Fountain’s position was that the attorney is advisory only and does not have decision making authority.
Although all three of these commissioners declared they had a problem with giving decision making authority to the county administrator and the county attorney, they ended up giving decision making authority to the county administrator only, under the guise that the tracts of land would be valued at $10,000 or less. They did not uphold the separation of powers between their legislative branch and the executive branch as specified in the Florida Statues and proved, once again, their liberal progressive leanings.
District 3 Commissioner Nathan Boyles was in opposition to the three commissioners but only because he wanted the limit to be set to $50,000 dollars or higher. He argued there was no difference between $10,000 dollars and $50,000 dollars and that they came up with the $50,000 dollar limit because the administrator already has the authority to approve spending up to $100,000 dollars. What he didn’t elaborate on was the administrator is allowed to spend up to $100,000 dollars on items already consented to by the BOCC. In the case of this eminent domain ordinance, there is no BOCC consent, just the county administrator deciding the county needs to purchase a particular piece of private land and what price the county will pay for it. Commissioner Boyle’s position was that by lowering the limit to $10,000 dollars, the BOCC was not streamlining the process for building roads but encumbering it with unnecessary bureaucracy, a truly liberal position. He voted in opposition to the amended ordinance for these reasons, joining him in his vote was District 5 Commissioner Windes who made no public comments on this issue at all.
There can be no amount of money that rationalizes the giving up of legislative power to the executive branch in Okaloosa County. There can be no project so important that it rationalizes “streamlining” the bureaucracy in order to meet an artificial timeline driven by grant funding such as the Crestview Bypass (see previous post on this blog, Okaloosa County’s Crestview Bypass, the Proverbial Cart Before the Horse ).
Our form of government is supposed to be slow and cumbersome by design, preventing it from taking individual freedom from the people. One man, totalitarian dictatorships are highly streamlined and efficient but grant few, if any, individual freedoms to their populace.
“Streamlining” the bureaucracy means concentrating power into one branch and, in this case, it’s the executive branch which is the county administrator. One individual with sole decision making authority to take private property on behalf of the bureaucratic state, oh my! Toto, we’re not in conservative Okaloosa County anymore.
Post Script: On September 17,2019, the BOCC adopted Ordinance 19-08, amending Ordinance 19-07, establishing procedures for acquiring real property. The BOCC reversed their earlier decision and granted the county administrator decision making authority to purchase real property valued up to $50,000 dollars. In section 18-22, para D, “Prior to acquisition of real property under this section, a notice of intent to acquire the real property shall be sent to the Board of County Commissioners. If within 3 business days of the sending of the notice of intent to acquire the real property, a member of the Board of County Commissioners may request that it be placed upon the Board’s agenda for review, in which case it shall be placed upon the Board’s next available agenda. If no request is received within the time period set forth, then the county administrator may proceed with the acquisition of the real property.”
You can contact the author at dlnorris@theparadisepatriot.com