County turning over new leaf?

Thursday, September 14, 2006

For virtually all of his 18 years as a county commissioner, Ray Judah has
been finding himself on the losing end of 4-1 votes. Most of the times he
wound up on the short end it was during zoning hearings or growth management
discussions, with him pushing for more restrictions on growth and more
emphasis on the environment.

Those days could be gone. Judah says the losing 4-1 votes have been too
numerous to count.

"For the first time in 18 years, with the change in November, I will finally
have the opportunity to work with a majority of commissioners who take
seriously the job of managing growth and protecting the environment," Judah
said.

The new commissioner for District 5 is Frank Mann. Mann helped push through
manatee-protection legislation when he was a Florida state senator in the
early 1980s. His campaign TV commercials talked of the need to protect
special places from chainsaws and bulldozers.

Mann points out his father was a builder, as is his brother.

"I've been a strong protector of the environment and a supporter of
environmental issues my whole career," said Mann. "I don't see that as a
threat to builders and developers."

Mann said he has noted that when Judah loses commission votes, it tends to
be on environmental and growth-management issues.

"I think it's possible we'll be seeing less of that," he said.

In District 2 newcomer Brian Bigelow pulled off a shocker, unseating 16-year
incumbent Doug St. Cerny. Bigelow still faces opposition on the November
ballot in the person of unaffiliated candidate Gerard David, but no
unaffiliated candidate has ever won a Lee office.

Bigelow preached environmental protection and growth management during his
campaign as well.

"Assuming for the sake of this conversation that I'm on the board, I see a
sea change," Bigelow said.

Bigelow said he's known Mann almost his entire life. He said Mann is
ideologically aligned with him and Judah, and believes Commissioner Bob
Janes feels the same.

"Mr. Janes comes from the greenest part of the county," Bigelow said of the
Sanibel Island resident.

Janes praised both Mann and Bigelow but said he's not so sure there'll be a
huge change, because he doesn't think the current board is that far right of
political center.

"I've always had board support for the human service stuff," he said. "There
was support for Babcock Ranch and those things and of smart growth they've
been very supportive."

Janes said he sees himself as a moderate.

"I think these commissioners are problem-solvers," he said. "Whether that's
conservative or liberal depends on the issue."

Bigelow stressed he's not about halting growth.

"Growth is not managed by stopping it," he said. "Growth is managed by
planning it."

That sounds reassuring to Michael Reitmann, executive director of the Lee
Building Industry Association, which endorsed St. Cerny.

"If I judge by the ads that ran on TV, then apparently it was changed
significantly," Reitmann said of the board makeup. "But I'm not going to
take ads into account. They were to get elected."

Reitmann said he expects to be able to work with the new commissioners as he
has with the current ones.

"I look forward to working with all the elected officials," he said. "I'm
very optimistic. We've all got the same goal, which is to make this the best
possible place to live and still maintain the economy."

Cullum Hasty, political chair for the Calusa Group of the Sierra Club, says
his group got two of its three commission picks in the primary. Sierra Club
members liked Bigelow, he said, and endorsed Mann and District 4 loser Andy
Coy, who failed to win back from incumbent Tammy Hall the seat he held for a
decade.

"I think it's a more environmentally friendly commission now," said Hasty,
who's also a member of the Bonita Springs Local Planning Agency and the
county's Conservation 2020 Committee, which oversees county spending on
environmental lands.

"I think a lot of stuff's going to change," he said. "I'm encouraged by it.
I think the board's going to be tinted a little greener."