Palm Beach Daily NewsLetter to the Editor
The headline of Mr. William Guttman’s op-ed piece, “Referendums not a right found in Constitutions” is totally unsupportable. Amendment 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the first of the Bill of Rights, states, “Congress shall make no law ... abridging ... the right of the people ... to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Florida’s Constitution echoes this in its Section 5, “The people shall have the right ... to petition for redress of grievances.” Is Mr. Guttman blissfully unaware of these parts of the supreme law of the land and of the state, or has he chosen to ignore them to divert us from this inalienable right?
To supplement his knowledge of recent Florida Constitutional history, I suggest he spend a few minutes with the Florida Constitution itself. Section 1 reads: “Political power. All power is inherent in the people.” The majority of his response to my letter of April 24 concerns itself with amending the state Constitution, an issue irrelevant to the two municipal referenda Preserve Palm Beach has had certified by the Supervisor of Elections, and which is the subject of the two cases now in the higher courts. The statute enabling the people to use the aforementioned Florida referendum right is Section 166.031(1), Florida Statutes, which sets forth the 10 percent certified signature threshold for a referendum requirement on a municipal government.
The Florida Legislature has, in my opinion, exceeded its authority by limiting the Constitutional referendum right of the voters of Florida, without their approval, to only those development orders affecting more than five parcels. Four Town Council members have twice refused to allow the voters a referendum on each of the certified petitions and on the compromise petition offered to them at the April meeting. They continue to sue their residents. This high-handed action is exactly the reason for the existence of referendum rights in the Constitutions and the Palm Beach Town Charter.
Laurence McNamara
Treasurer, Preserve Palm Beach
Chairman, Citizens Come First
Excellent letter, as usual, Laurence.
ReplyDeleteI have had a quote on the right side of my blog since inception that came from the Supreme Court of the United States:
Referenda insure all have a voice in land use decisions.
The Court did not take PB County into consideration. We, too, were sued by the City of Lake Worth over a land-use issue on the 5 parcel deal.