Should the Duval Soil and Water Conservation District Board Continue
1. Question for Duval soil and water board: To
be or not to be?
Source URL: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-07-09/story/question-duval-soil-and-water-board-be-or-not-be
By David Hunt
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson has denied the Duval Soil and Water
Conservation District board’s death wish.
At least for now.
For the past several months, the board’s core duties as an advocate and educator on
conservation and erosion control have been overshadowed by several members’ desire to make
the board — which started in 1953 — a thing of the past.
Critics say the board became unnecessary over the years as Jacksonville grew more urbanized
and farmland shrunk. Supporters say the board still has an important voice as residential growth
encroaches on natural resources.
Discussion reached a high point in April with a 3-2 vote in favor of sending Bronson a resolution
asking for his blessing to dissolve.
That drew immediate criticism from the Association of Florida Conservation Districts, which
pointed out that perhaps the members who think the board has lived past its useful life should
step aside for new members who could reinvigorate it.
Board members are not paid, but their elections have the potential to cost taxpayers thousands
of dollars, board member Austin Cassidy said.
Each candidate is entitled to have a listing in the candidate statements announcement that the
elections supervisor mails to Duval County’s registered voters, which totalled 526,518 as of
Friday. Cassidy reasoned that the number of candidates would fill up one page in the candidate
statements, and each page costs taxpayers an estimated $32,580.
“I can guarantee you that the people running for this board will spend more on the election than
the board itself has to spend,” Cassidy said. He added that he’d be in favor of converting the
board into a nonprofit entity that would act independent of tax dollars unless it successfully
competed for the money.
The board was getting $44,100 in city public service grants as recently as 2006 but has not
gotten any of that in the past several years. What’s left is less than $5,000 in a budget that
some think is far too small to launch an educational campaign.
Question for Duval soil and water board: To be or not to be? http://jacksonville.com/print/427165
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2. Although the board technically has taxing authority, it’s never used it.
“There are Little League teams with larger budgets out there,” Cassidy said, “and they don’t
require a publicly elected board of supervisors to manage them.”
Still, with elections slated for November — and seven candidates on the ballot — Bronson
decided to hold off granting the board’s request to dissolve unless it’s also the wish of the new
members.
Soil and water conservation districts throughout the U.S. date back to the Dust Bowl days. The
statute that created Florida’s was put on the books in 1937.
Richard Budell, Bronson’s Agricultural Water Policy director, said part of the trouble is that
Florida law does not allow the board to be dissolved without a public hearing and review of the
statewide Soil and Water Conservation Council.
Convening that board also comes with a price tag. Budell said the council hasn’t met in several
years because of budget constraints. The Agriculture Department is on the hook to pay for the
members’ lodging, meals and mileage. Budell said that makes each meeting cost state
taxpayers an estimated $3,000 to $4,000.
Dissolving Duval’s board has become a campaign platform for those running for the job. There
are three seats open with no incumbents registered to campaign for re-election.
Candidate Phillip Laibe wrote Budell an e-mail June 17 saying he supports small government
and, if elected, will carry on the fight to terminate the board.
Candidate Chelsi P. Henry said she’s running to ensure the board has a future — something
she finds especially important to protect water sources locally and even globally.
She also said the board could prove itself more useful by getting into the business of managing
public conservation lands, a move that would help programs like Florida Forever that have felt a
budgetary pinch in recent years.
“I’m not discounting or discrediting the things being done now, but there is more work,” Henry
said. “There are simple things that can be done, like just teaching people about conservation.”
Finding new duties won’t be easy, City Councilman Clay Yarborough said. He served on the
board from 2001 to 2007 and now supports dissolving it.
The problem, he said, is the concept of the board dates back decades. Now, he said, the
Department of Environmental Protection has a larger profile and the St. Johns River Water
Management District has taken over water quality and erosion control issues with a much bigger
budget.
“I don’t want to see [the board] continue just for the sake of continuing,” Yarborough said. “And
that’s hard for me to say since I served and learned a lot from serving.”
david.hunt@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4025
Links:
Question for Duval soil and water board: To be or not to be? http://jacksonville.com/print/427165
2 of 3 1/8/2011 8:36 PM
![Although the board technically has taxing authority, it’s never used it.
“There are Little League teams with larger budgets out there,” Cassidy said, “and they don’t
require a publicly elected board of supervisors to manage them.”
Still, with elections slated for November — and seven candidates on the ballot — Bronson
decided to hold off granting the board’s request to dissolve unless it’s also the wish of the new
members.
Soil and water conservation districts throughout the U.S. date back to the Dust Bowl days. The
statute that created Florida’s was put on the books in 1937.
Richard Budell, Bronson’s Agricultural Water Policy director, said part of the trouble is that
Florida law does not allow the board to be dissolved without a public hearing and review of the
statewide Soil and Water Conservation Council.
Convening that board also comes with a price tag. Budell said the council hasn’t met in several
years because of budget constraints. The Agriculture Department is on the hook to pay for the
members’ lodging, meals and mileage. Budell said that makes each meeting cost state
taxpayers an estimated $3,000 to $4,000.
Dissolving Duval’s board has become a campaign platform for those running for the job. There
are three seats open with no incumbents registered to campaign for re-election.
Candidate Phillip Laibe wrote Budell an e-mail June 17 saying he supports small government
and, if elected, will carry on the fight to terminate the board.
Candidate Chelsi P. Henry said she’s running to ensure the board has a future — something
she finds especially important to protect water sources locally and even globally.
She also said the board could prove itself more useful by getting into the business of managing
public conservation lands, a move that would help programs like Florida Forever that have felt a
budgetary pinch in recent years.
“I’m not discounting or discrediting the things being done now, but there is more work,” Henry
said. “There are simple things that can be done, like just teaching people about conservation.”
Finding new duties won’t be easy, City Councilman Clay Yarborough said. He served on the
board from 2001 to 2007 and now supports dissolving it.
The problem, he said, is the concept of the board dates back decades. Now, he said, the
Department of Environmental Protection has a larger profile and the St. Johns River Water
Management District has taken over water quality and erosion control issues with a much bigger
budget.
“I don’t want to see [the board] continue just for the sake of continuing,” Yarborough said. “And
that’s hard for me to say since I served and learned a lot from serving.”
david.hunt@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4025
Links:
Question for Duval soil and water board: To be or not to be? http://jacksonville.com/print/427165
2 of 3 1/8/2011 8:36 PM](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)