Like the weather, the local election season is starting to warm up. A tempest that emerged last week in one County Commission race is an indication of just how heated and off-base the campaigns could become if the players are not diligent.
Sure, the flap over whether Paul Pilny, a Republican seeking the seat now held by Commissioner Josh Wooten, did anything wrong by spending a night in a Tallahassee hotel room paid for by Citrus County taxpayers (of which he is one) raises a few interesting questions.
Should he pay the county for his half of the room's rate? Should the night's accommodation be considered an in-kind campaign contribution? And if so, from whom: the county or his roomie for the night, Commissioner Gary Bartell?
Factor in that the harshest criticism of Pilny and Bartell's actions during the trip to the capital for the annual Legislative Day and Florida Association of Counties events is coming from Wooten and fellow Commissioner Jim Fowler, certainly no fans of the pair, and the episode just reeks of political gamesmanship.
Here is my question: Is this the level of debate that we can expect during what is surely going to be a very intense, and perhaps nasty, campaign season?
This is an enormously important time for Citrus County. With three of the five County Commission seats up for grabs, it is not a stretch to say that the future of the county is on the line. This is a time for serious debate on serious topics by serious people.
Instead, the first political debate of the season, the event that is helping to set the tone for the campaigns, concerns who should pay half of a $95 hotel bill.
Of course, the coming months will be filled with substantive conversations on the important issues of the day. Or so we hope. Given the tenor of the most recent commission election and the hard feelings that have lingered among certain board members, the public and the media, it is just as likely that negativity and character assaults will dominate. The candidates, their supporters and the media simply cannot allow that to happen.
There is a strong and disturbing sense of deja vu in this pseudo-controversy. Harken back to 1988 and a different County Commission race with equally high stakes and animus.
Back then, it was Richard Pilny, a cousin of the current candidate, who was running against Republican Wayne Weaver. Richard Pilny ran on an environmentalist platform, and the building and development community, viewing him as a threat to their livelihoods, lined up behind Weaver.
Fueled by their donations, Weaver threw more than $12,000 worth of radio, television, newspaper, billboard ads and direct mail at Pilny in the two weeks before the election. Pilny, by contrast, spent $173.
The deciding issue in that close race? Building permits.
An anonymous caller to the county complained that Pilny had made improvements to his Gospel Island home without the proper permits. The county sent an inspector. Pilny paid a $5 fine and higher fees to get after-the-fact permits for the minor repairs.
Coming just days before the election, the incident was blown all out of proportion by Weaver, who used his ads to paint Pilny as a scofflaw with no respect for county laws. The voters' attention was sufficiently diverted, and Weaver won by 446 votes.
Many see that election season as the high-water mark for environmentalists in Citrus County's political history. Pilny had Weaver, an ex-lobbyist for builders who considered environmentalists "the bad guys," on the ropes. Margaret Longhill, a college humanities instructor, was taking on Commissioner Nick Bryant, a Realtor who often voted with development interests. The two hoped to join Commissioner Hank Cohen, a die-hard conservationist who typically was on the losing end of 4-1 votes on growth issues.
That vision evaporated when Longhill lost in the primary election and Pilny fell to the last-minute blitz. Two years later, Cohen was defeated, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Back then, Citrus County was in the midst of a building boom as families and retirees fleeing urban jungles discovered the virtues of country living. The development community fought hard to defend its gravy train by putting in power commissioners who would see things their way.
Today, Citrus is riding another building wave, only this time there is a greater commercial flavor. Homes are popping up everywhere, but so, too, are chain restaurants, big-box retailers, banks and other businesses.
Now, as then, the trick for voters is to find the right mix of elected gatekeepers who can manage this growth and who will strike the balance between preserving what is unique about Citrus County and the legitimate rights of builders and business owners and their numerous employees to make a buck and feed their families.
The stakes could hardly be higher, and the voters, the candidates and the media must stay focused on the big picture. Certainly, side issues such as this hotel room flap will vie for attention, and they will become part of the overall mosaic being created. They must be placed in their proper perspective.
If it takes Pilny writing a check to the county for his half of the hotel bill to put this matter to bed and to put the focus back on the real issues, then he should do so. It will be money well spent.
