Government by the people? Not for Siesta Key

Sorry, we don’t care what the will of the people is. We know what’s best for you minions.

Essentially, that’s the message once again to the leaders and members of Save Siesta Key Inc., the group that keeps trying to incorporate the island with its own town government.

Despite spending thousands of dollars to gather and provide the Legislature with virtually all the information state statutes require and to hire lobbyists to push their case, the power politics of Tallahassee sent House Bill 923 to its death in the most recent legislative session.

That bill, sponsored by Rep. Fiona McFarland, our Republican legislator who represents Sarasota and Siesta Key, would have given the residents of Siesta Key the opportunity to vote on whether to incorporate. It was not a bill for lawmakers to decide whether they want Siesta Key to become a self-governed municipality. It was a bill that would have given the registered voters living on Siesta Key the choice to decide whether to become a new city.

But alas, the philosophical preferences of one lawmaker, that of Rep. Lawrence McClure, R-Plant City, stood in the way of letting the people vote. 

It’s a frustrating, maddening process the way laws are made. The higher you go on the legislative food chain, the worse it is. Washington is the worst; Tallahassee is second worst.

Here is how it works in Tallahassee. If you’re a state legislator and want a particular bill to become law or win the approval of the House and Senate, the most sure-fire way is to win the support of the governor, House Speaker and Senate president before the session begins — preferably during the summer.

If your bill has their spoken support, you can count on that bill moving quickly through the requisite committees to the House and Senate floors. The word gets out to the committee chairs: “The governor wants this.” Or, “This is high on the president’s list.” Or, “This is important to the speaker.” 

In turn, the committee chairs spread the word among their committee members. So, often times the fix is in even before the session begins.

But it’s not all that easy to get the support of the Big Three. Keep in mind, more than 1,000 bills are filed each year.

If lawmakers can’t get buy-in from the Big Three early on, they must wait to see which committees will hear their bills; do their own lobbying; and hope to win the favor of committee chairs to at least bring up the bill in the committee.  

Rep. McFarland knows this game. Prior to session, she had the support of Speaker Paul Renner — that it made sense to give Siesta residents the opportunity to decide their fate. But Renner, unlike his predecessor, gives committee chairs much more leeway in deciding what bills were to be heard.

That’s where the chances for HB 923 ran into the politics of Tallahassee. 

Even though McFarland’s bill made it easily through its first committee, it was then slated to go to the House Ways and Means Committee and then on to the House State Affairs Committee. 

Of the two, the State Affairs Committee presented the toughest challenge. Its chairman is Rep. Lawrence McClure, R-Plant City. He is not a fan of government. 

We reached out to Rep. McClure and did not hear back before deadline. But you can imagine how this played out. Faced with a huge stack of bills to get through his committee and limited time, he had to make choices. One choice was to put HB 923 near the bottom of the committee’s priorities. 

And thus it died.

In essence, one lawmaker decided that rather than let the people decide their fate, he would do that for them.

The question now is whether the indefatigable Save Our Siesta Key group should continue pursuing legislative approval for the right to vote on incorporation, or to consider another option.

One option is to open conversations with the Sarasota County Commission on what it could do to better serve the citizens of Siesta Key. At least, presumably, Save Our Siesta Key would get an audience with lawmakers far more empathetic and sympathetic than those in Tallahassee.