Commissioners change Sun 'n Lake voting rules

A crowd of about 100 people stood up and cheered the Highlands County commissioners Tuesday morning when they voted unanimously to change the voting rules at the Sun 'n Lake special district.

Under the new electoral system, SNL residents will have a much more powerful voice at the ballot box.

In the past, one large corporate owner of vacant lots was able to control the election of a three-seat majority on the five-member SNL Board of Supervisors. With the new rules, that is no longer possible.

"I think this represents a major victory for the small landowner and the residents of the district," said Dick Miller, who lost election to the SNL board in January due to the old voting system.

"This change will provide a much more level playing field in future elections," he said.

Two SNL officials said the district's board will consider a lawsuit to overturn the county commission's action.

Asked if the SNL board will sue to keep the old voting system, attorney Michael Wynn said, "I certainly think they are going to have to consider it, because there is a potential violation, from the action taken here today, of the equal protection clause of the Constitution."

Al Grieshaber Jr., general manger of SNL, gave a similar answer to the same question after the commissioners' vote.

"It's one of the options that could be chosen by the board of supervisors after discussion," he said.

That discussion will take place at 3 p.m. today at an SNL board meeting.

Joan Doll summed up the sentiments of SNL residents who urged the commissioners to pass the voting change.

"I have no real say," she said, referring to the old voting system. By refusing for years to change the voting system, she said, the SNL board "has taken away the true meaning of belonging to the community."

Two of the SNL board seats are elected in a popular election and three by landowners.

Under the old voting system, a landowner had one vote for each lot owned. With an average of four lots per acre, large landowners had about four votes per acre.

Commissioners adopted a new system of one vote per one acre owned for the landowner seats, with the owner of a home or condo getting one vote if their lot is smaller than an acre.

In effect, the new rules reduce the voting power of a large owner of vacant lots by about three-fourths.

Grieshaber unsuccessfully tried to convince the commissioners to reject the voting change because, he claimed, it violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. He called allocating votes per acre owned instead of per lot "the equivalent" of denying someone the right to vote "based on race, color, gender or religion."

Macbeth advised the county commissioners that the change they made raises no question about violating the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.

"The question is what is fair and equitable," he said.

Macbeth said state law clearly requires that landowner seats in a special district be elected based on one vote per acre owned, with each homeowner getting a vote if he or she owns less than a 1-acre lot.

Tom Kosty, an SNL resident who has been campaigning for electoral reform, said the new voting rules still leave a large landowner with substantial voting power.

For example, in the last election, National Recreational Properties, a corporation based in California, had 2,022 votes, based on its 2,022 lots. That corporation will still have about 500 votes under the new electoral system. Kosty said NRPI will still have substantial voting power, but can no longer control an election, as it did three months ago.

In January, NRPI gave all its votes to incumbent SNL Supervisor Frank Guglielmi. That alone gave Guglielmi a victory over Miller by a margin of 2,568 to 1,514. If the voting rules adopted by commissioners Tuesday had been in effect for that election, Miller would have won by a vote of 1,513 to 1,012.

In the past, Kosty said, a candidate could ignore SNL residents and have an assured election victory with only the support of the largest landowner. From now on, he said, a candidate "could not ignore the residents of the district."

The only question posed by a county commissioner about passing the voting change for SNL came from Commissioner Don Bates.

"I'm a little surprised," he said, "that it took this long to get this far."