Annexation negotiations sour; court fight possible
Instead of going along to get along, city and county officials give up on any annexation issue compromise.
By ANNE LINDBERG
Published June 8, 2003
When the county and four cities met last week to mediate their dispute over annexation boundaries, the goal was for each side to give a bit toward a compromise.
Instead, negotiations broke down, with the climactic highlight Pinellas Park council member Rick Butler shouting at county commissioners and begging the mediator to let the case go to court.
"Realistically, please, Judge, let us go to court. Let's get this over with," Butler said at one point, sparking laughter among the elected officials, government staff members and attorneys."
No one was laughing at the end of Wednesday's session when Butler launched into an oration that steadily rose in volume.
The session ended minutes later, leaving attorneys to decide between another mediation attempt or a courtroom.
If the yearlong disagreement goes to court, a judge would decide if Pinellas County commissioners who, saying they wanted to protect the Lealman Fire District from annexations, had the right to shrink Pinellas Park's annexation planning area.
Butler's outburst left some jaws dropping, but others who know him better say the performance was typical.
"Real traditional Rick Butler," county Commissioner John Morroni said.
John Frank, a Lealman fire commissioner and member of the Lealman Community Association, said Butler's loud voice was a contrast from his presence at Pinellas Park council meetings, where he is hard to hear despite sensitive microphones.
"You know Rick, he has a tendency to explode pretty easily," Frank said Thursday.
Frank and others said Butler periodically stood up during the evening, occasionally leaning on the table and pointing his finger at county representatives.
County Commissioner Susan Latvala said Butler was intemperate and sarcastic: "He raised his voice and yelled into the microphone. I was certainly surprised by that kind of behavior."
But worse, Latvala and Morroni said, was the mediation's failure.
"It's fairly apparent that we're going to court," Latvala said.
Morroni said he was frustrated by the lack of compromise because a court case means more tax money will be spent on fighting the battle rather than on items people in cities and counties need.
The dispute between the cities and the county began last June when county commissioners heeded pleas from Lealman activists to halt annexations into their fire district. Lealman stretches between Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg from I-275 to Park Street. Kenneth City bisects the area.
Neighbors argued the repeated annexations by Seminole, Pinellas Park and Kenneth City had eaten into the tax base and were destroying a historical community.
The County Commission temporarily moved annexation boundary lines to protect the area. On Tuesday, the commission is scheduled to revisit that decision.
In changing the lines, commissioners deprived Kenneth City of any annexation planning zone and took away a bit of Seminole's planning area. Hardest hit was Pinellas Park, which had promised not to annex into Lealman.
Kenneth City sued the county. Seminole, Pinellas Park and Largo joined the fray on Kenneth City's side. But state law requires governments to try to work things out before going to court.
For the past year, attorneys and staff members of the county, cities and the Pinellas Planning Council have held peace talks.
During that time, the county did several things:
Restored Kenneth City's and Seminole's planning areas.
Came up with proposed criteria on which to base future annexation decisions.
Sent out postcards to folks in the unincorporated area around Pinellas Park, Seminole and St. Petersburg asking if they wanted to be annexed into a city or remain in the county.
Registered voters and property owners overwhelmingly said they did not want to be annexed.
Butler and other city representatives Wednesday resisted discussing criteria and the postcards. For them, county voters approved an ordinance in 2000 that established the planning areas, so the lines should not have been moved.
Butler took the floor in the meeting's final moments:
"I have a solution. I think the county would probably agree with me on this, I hope. I'm going to make a proposal: We throw it all out. We throw it all out. We start all over again with another referendum because the first vote didn't go the way some people (wanted). ...
"Then I'm going to make another proposal. I'm going to start a campaign. I'm going to send postcards out and ask if those residents are paying too much for their taxes and I'm going to make sure those responses get to you. Okay?
"And then we're going to start a whole new form of government. It's not democracy because democracy started when people voted on these planning lines, not the fact that certain postcards were sent out. The first batch wasn't right because there were only the registered voters as I understand. There was a little problem with that that didn't seem to come out tonight. So if that's your democracy, I don't want to be a part of it. Let me (be) real clear to you about boundary lines: Put them back. Did you get that one?"
The mediator, Pinellas-Pasco Senior Judge Horace Andrews, who struggled for about four hours Wednesday to get a compromise, finally asked if anyone thought they should continue with another mediation. No one did.
