THE LOBBYISTS ARE COMING! Term limits a crucial defense against degenerating school board politics

Last year, the Orlando Sentinel revealed that candidates the Orange County school board were raking in campaign contributions from the building industry. At the same time, a school building boom is under way in Orange County, with plans to open 13 new campuses by 2020.

 

A representative of the Florida School Boards Association admitted such contributions were "quite typical," and indeed they are. There has always been a battle between parents and local special interests to hold the attention and favor of school board members. Due to the phenomenon of "concentrated benefits and dispersed costs," local special interests too often win out.

 

In response to entrenched incumbency and special interest relationships, there are two efforts to put 8-year school board term limits on the statewide ballot in November 2018. One is via legislation introduced to the legislature and another via the state's Constitution Revision Commission process.

 

But there is a new wave of soft and not-so-soft corruption emerging in our nation's school board politics that make this reform even more urgent. A new crew of lobbyists are coming, with hands full of cash to establish relationships with incumbent school board members who statistically are unlikely to lose their low-turnout elections.

 

TAKE ACTION:

To voice your support for a school board term limits referendum, you can contact the Constitutional Revision Commission (CRC) here.

 

As the Economist put it in their Nov. 11 issue, elections to choose school boards "have historically been sleepy, low-turnout affairs. But in recent years they have become contentious, serving as proxies for the rancorous debate between advocates of education reform and teachers' unions." The Economist pointed to recent big money campaigns earlier this month near Denver and Las Vegas that have drew in $1.65 million and $15 million, respectively. In Florida, we saw a 2016 Collier County race swamped with special interest money to the tune of more than $350,000.

 

This is dangerous as once a candidate is on the board and has demonstrated they are reliable to special interests, the financial contributions come pretty much automatically. Such contributions are a good investment for lobbyists, as well over 80% of incumbents are regularly re-elected. Many run unopposed and elections are not even held.

 

Eight-year term limits will improve our school boards in several ways:

 

• Term limits will encourage regular, open-seat elections.
• Term limits encourages independence by the board, as term limits will regularly sever the relationships that grow between special interests and incumbent school board members.
• Term limits improve citizen access to the process, both in running for office or working on meaningful campaigns.
• Term limits encourage new faces and fresh ideas. Incumbent members often have their heels dug in over past political battles or are wedded to the special interests they have relied on for reelection.
• Term limits mandate rotation in office which expands the circle of citizens with intimate knowledge of how the school board works.
• Term limits encourage transparency and discourage corruption, both soft and hard.

 

Florida has term limits on its governor, lt. governor, state cabinet members, legislature, its largest counties and too many mayors and council members to count. It is time to bring this simple, effective and popular reform to our school boards.

Florida families cheer twin efforts to enact school board term limits

 

The times they are a-changin!

There are two efforts afoot right now to reform Florida's school boards, empowering parents above politicians, severing special interest relationships and opening parental access to the process. If either is successful, Floridians will be able to vote for 8-year term limits on their school board members in November 2018.

The first is emerging from Florida's Constitutional Revision Commission. The CRC is a 37-member body created to review the Florida state constitution and suggest amendments to be placed on the ballot for public approval. To make its way to the 2018 ballot, 22 of the 37 must vote approve the term limits amendment by May.

TAKE ACTION:

To voice your support for school board term limits, please go here.

Simultaneously, Florida State Sen. Gregg Steube of Sarasota is introducing a bill for the 2018 legislative session starting Jan. 9. The goal and language of the bill is nearly identical with that of the CRC proposal. If approved, it would allow voters to approve 8-year school board term limits on the November 2018 ballot.

"We have school board members all over the state who have been there well longer than two terms," Sen. Steube told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "I think we need some fresh blood."

On the CRC, the proposal comes from commission member Erika Donalds, a Collier County School Board member and past president of the Florida Coalition of School Board Members. Donalds has seen the need for term limits first-hand.


"Serving in office too long makes you more loyal to the institution as opposed to representing the people that put you there," she told the Naples News. She pointed out many board members have held their positions for decades.


And not all school board members are as public-spirited as Donalds.


One reason why some Florida school board members cling to their positions and oppose term limits is simply naked self-interest. Unlike states like Texas, Florida pays all of its school board members for what is essentially a part-time job. In Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Orange Counties, the salary is $44,443 annually. Compare this to school board members in New York, Houston and Chicago where school board members serve without pay. In fact most school board members nationwide do so as a public service, rather than a job, according to the National School Board Association.

Across the country, only 2% of school board members earn more than $15,000 a year. In Florida, they all do.

Keep in mind that school board members do not 'run' the school districts. That is the job of the school superintendent, generally an experienced professional who can be seen as the full-time CEO of the school district. Under the super you'll find numerous other levels of full-time professionals. This is the management team that 'runs' the district.

The school board's job is (in most districts) to hire and evaluate the superintendent, set priorities and approve the budget. But most of all, they -- as elected officials -- are there to represent parents, students and other citizens in an otherwise bureaucracy-driven process that is most attentive to the education industry and the state politicians who make the appropriations decisions.

Without term limits, mutually beneficial relationships form over time between the entrenched incumbents and these special interests. The school board members get paid handsomely and re-elected forever and the lobbyists, unions, politicians and bureaucrats are happy.


However, what about the children and their parents?  Where do they fit in?


The fact is, too often they don't.


We can change that next November, but first we have to get this idea on the ballot. We have two chances. Let's get to work.

Term limits coming to Pompano Beach?

Even as self-serving council members in Palm Beach Gardens try to gut their voter-approved term limits, citizens in other South Florida cities move forward undaunted to try to improve their local representation with term limits.

Petitions are now being circulated to put 8-year term limits and other reforms on the November 2018 ballot in Pompano Beach, Fla. Pompano is a city of about 100,000 on the Atlantic ocean just north of Fort Lauderdale in Broward County.

The grassroots effort is sponsored by a local group of activists called Citizens for Good Government. To put the proposal on the ballot, they need 6,208 valid signatures by April 1. To reach this goal, the group has set a goal of 8,000 signed petitions.


The group has published a website and a Facebook page, so it is easy to find the campaign and get involved.

Registered voters in Pompano Beach are encouraged to request petitions from the new Pompano Beach Term Limits website to sign and get signed by family, friends and associates.

Important note: You can print and copy petitions yourself for circulation. But city regulations require that the petitions be printed on both sides of one sheet of paper. Two-page petitions will not be counted as valid.


The petitions have started circulating and the group has a couple hundred in hand. The group needs contributions and volunteers, quick!  Please forward this info to everyone you know in Pompano Beach.

SELF-SERVING! Palm Beach Gardens council declares war on the 79%

Citizens in Palm Beach Gardens spent time, money and effort to put term limits on the ballot for the city council. Voters approved the measure with 79% of the vote in a general election in November 2014. It was a case of grass roots democracy for which the city can be proud.

 

The council, however, was furious and took the citizens to court -- and lost. Now the new council is working to put a new term limits measure on the ballot gutting the newly enacted term limits, making them the longest and weakest in the county.

 

Worse, since they know they cannot win an honest, straightforward vote, they aim to put the anti-term limits measure on the March 2018 ballot where it would appear all by itself. Whereas 20,000 people voted in the general election in November 2014, the council expects maybe 1,000 or even less to vote in March. 

PBG residents, please go here to send a quick email to the council and tell them:

Hands off our term limits!

Consider:


*  Palm Beach Gardens has 6-year term limits, just as Boca Raton, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach. West Palm Beach and Wellington have 8-year limits. The council is discussing 9- or even 12-year limits, making them the weakest term limits in the county.


*  Palm Beach Gardens city council is the second-highest paid council in the county. They are nominally paid about $30,000 -- but this figures balloons to $62,000 or more with all the perks and reimbursed expenses factored in -- for this part-time job. It includes an FRS pension too. Sadly, this is may be a key reason why council members are so adamant about retaining their positions.


*  The Palm Beach Gardens Charter warns against corrupt referendum shenanigans in Sec. 26-7(a) Calling of Election: “Except as otherwise provided in the law or city charter, an election issue shall be held in conjunction with a regular state, county or city election.” In spite of this clear direction, the council currently aims to place the referendum alone on the March ballot.


*  There has been no discussion of time already served of being counted under the proposed weaker limits. Hence, the new council may really pushing for 12-year (or even 15-year) limits for only themselves. This is a far, far cry from the 6-year limits that citizens proposed and approved with 79% of the vote.


*  Under the current six-year term limits, incumbents can sit out one term and then run again. That is, they are consecutive, not lifetime, limits.


*  Whereas the campaign to put the term limits measure on the ballot took time, money and hard work on behalf of citizens, the well-paid council can place the issue back on the ballot via an effortless vote, forcing citizens to sacrifice more time, money and hard work after winning handily as recently as 2014. And, yes, the council will be spending the citizens’ tax monies on a special election to thwart them.


The conflict of interest inherent in this new council-led anti-term limits proposal is clear as day. They have their seats and their new perks and they aim to keep them, voters be damned!