OHPA partisan elections bill faces final committee hearing: An Opinion

Submitted by Mike Harrison

March 27, 2015 1:22 p.m.

House Bill HB 1201, the bill to make elections for the Ocean Highway and Port Authority (OHPA) partisan, now faces its third and final hearing before the Federal and Local Affairs Committee. No date has yet been scheduled for the meeting, but it is likely to be on Wednesday April 1 at 9:00am. Fernandina Observer readers will remember that if the bill is voted down by any of the three committees, it dies there.

The second hearing was before the Government Operations Subcommittee on Tuesday March 24th. I travelled to Tallahassee and spoke against the bill, this time addressing the damage that the proposed change would do to the electoral system both in reducing the pool of qualified candidates for OHPA office, as well as reducing the number of voters who can participate in the election. Port Commissioner Adam Salzburg was also present and simply ‘waived in support’. The vote was 9-3 in favor of the bill, largely along party lines.

Mike Harrison

I had deliberately couched my arguments to reflect that my objection to making OHPA elections partisan is not about party politics, but much more about good governance and reducing the estrangement of the OHPA from the electorate. So it came as a great disappointment to see the vote again go down in a partisan way. It also disillusioned me to hear no questioning of presenters by the committee members, nor any discussion among them before the vote. The only indication of any critical activity came from one member who, when polled for his vote, said ‘Definitely, No!’ This, apparently, is the way democracy works today.

So the bill now moves to the final committee. I will speak again there, but this time I will try to raise the issue above party politics. I’ll appreciate support from anyone else who can travel to Tallahassee to speak. And if you cannot travel, please email your comments to the committee members whose addresses are: