Supporting good leaders, not Hometown Democracy, is best idea

It appears that Hometown Democracy will be coming to a ballot near you during the next election cycle. The strong feelings proponents of Hometown Democracy have are understandable, considering Florida's long history of development abuse and political favoritism. However, this is a bad idea and, if enacted, will cause more headaches than the proponents can imagine.

If the Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment is supported by voters in November 2010, whenever land use issues come up, voters will have to cast a ballot for the final decision. The idea, they claim, is that elected city and county officials are in the back pocket of developers who don't care about how growth affects communities, and that voters should remove power from politicians.

Opponents to Hometown Democracy say that having to vote every time growth issues pop up will devastate new-job development and lead to worse environmental protection.

The bigger problem, we believe, is that if our local elected representatives are so bad, so influenced by developers, then why do they get re-elected? It's up to voters to put leaders on the county commission and city councils that represent them. If voters can't make good decisions on this, what makes anyone think they will make good decisions on growth issues?

We get the quality of elected representatives that we deserve. It's up to voters to elect smart, thoughtful representatives that make the best decisions for us. They should have the knowledge and judgment to take on complex issues such as growth or other matters and show leadership. That's why we have elected officials.

The problem on every level of government is that too many people pay too little attention to what their elected officials are actually doing. Instead, we listen to the campaign baloney and buy their campaign sound bites without really considering if they represented us or special interests. Then they get re-elected.

The last thing we need is to cast ballots on these complicated land use questions. That's why the Hometown Democracy amendment is a bad idea.