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South Indian River Water Control District Regular Meeting Nov. 9, 2011

The meeting was held at the District Headquarters to finalize the refinancing for the Egret Landing debt. This deal will save the Egret Landing community about $600,000.00 over the remaining time of the loan. The other major issue, brought up by the District’s attorney Mr. Capko, was that the Supervisor of Elections for Palm Beach County doesn’t want to handle the District’s elections anymore. The Supervisor of Elections office has several problems with our elections. The first complication is our elections are for all landowners and not just registered voters. To vote in a District election you don’t need to be a registered voter, just a landowner. You don’t need to live here, you don’t need to be a citizen, and you could even be a convicted felon. All of this makes verification for the elections office quite different from their normal duties. The other big problem they have is they don’t “conduct” the election; they only tabulate it for us. The problem that has arose is when landowners have called the District office for questions regarding an election, whether it’s for Board Supervisors or a landowner initiative such as road paving, they had sometimes been told by District staff to ask the elections office. The elections office has no purview over how or why a District election takes place, only to count the votes. The District has addressed these issues with more information available on its website, and with providing better answers for people who call in. A couple of Board members wouldn’t mind removing the elections office from the process. In that case an auditing firm would be contracted to handle our elections. Mike Danchuk and I would like to retain the elections office in this process. We both felt that the Supervisor of Election’s office had a needed level of legitimacy for our elections. Mr. Capko assured us that an auditing firm would be completely above board. Other Special Districts like ours regularly use auditing firms for their elections. Landowners present at the meeting said they would feel most comfortable with the Supervisor of Elections Office handling the SIRWCD elections. To remove the Supervisor of Elections would require a change in law by the Florida Legislature. I urge landowners to think about this and contact the Board members and share your opinions / concerns.