Originally Published: 30 September 2007
The Orlando Sentinel "Florida Capitol View" Column
In the fight between Florida Hometown Democracy and the development industry over how -- and whether -- to control sprawl, no body blow appears out of bounds.
After pushing the Legislature unsuccessfully this year to ban the practice of paying signature-gatherers for citizen initiatives, the Florida Chamber of Commerce is now trying to lure away Hometown's paid signature-gatherers with higher salaries.
"It's a free market," says the chamber's director of ballot initiatives, Adam Babington. "People are going to go where they get paid more to do the work. This is just something that happens in business."
Hometown and the business community are locked in electoral warfare about the group's constitutional amendment proposed for the November 2008 ballot. It would require the public to vote on significant changes to local governments' comprehensive planning documents.
Big business sees this as a mortal threat. Associated Industries of Florida has gone so far as to create a political committee to coax voters who sign Hometown Democracy's petition to revoke their signatures.
But the chamber has taken a different tack, creating a signature-petition group called Floridians for Smarter Growth that sounds as if it's offering the public the same outlet for halting rampant development.
The chamber-backed referendum requirement would kick in only if 10 percent of the registered voters in a given area signed a form asking for a public vote. In Orange County, that would require about 50,000 signatures to force a public vote on a County Commission plan change.
Hometown Democracy co-founder Lesley Blackner calls the Smarter Growth counteroffensive "a dishonest petition that's going to get thrown out by the Supreme Court."
But apparently, it pays well.
Hometown has typically paid its workers 75 cents per voter signature. According to a contract the chamber's signature-gathering firm is having its employees sign, they will be paid $1 per signature.
And Blackner said her gatherers are being offered as much as $4 per signature in South Florida to stop working for Hometown.
Babington and Chamber Vice President David Daniel said they didn't know what their committee consultant is willing to pay to recruit people away from Hometown -- just that it's worth it.
"If their idea's so great, how come they don't have volunteers?" Blackner said last week. "How about all those unemployed real-estate people?"
Sen. Bill Posey, a Rockledge Republican who sponsored the bill banning paid-signature gathering that was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist, says the chamber is simply playing by the rules afforded them.
"If you can't raise one side up to your level, you have no choice but to lower yours," he said.
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