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City Dissolution Closer To Vote

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BY KLINT LOWRY

The Suncoast News

Published: January 29, 2009

PORT RICHEY - Residents may finally get to decide whether they want to dissolve their city.

On Tuesday, the Port Richey City Council asked City Attorney Michael Brannigan to draft such a question for a special referendum to be held in the near future.

The council vote was 3-2, with Mayor Richard Rober and Councilman Steve O'Neill voting against moving forward on the dissolution question.

The discussion at Tuesday's meeting played out like a sequel to the marathon discussions at the council's Jan. 13 meeting, where city officials considered how to proceed with a petition signed by 225 residents to put the dissolution question to voters.

Disbanding the city has been the political equivalent of an active volcano in Port Richey for most of the decade, always simmering in the background, erupting every few years. There was a petition in 2004 that stumbled over procedural issues. Another attempt made it to the voters in the form of a straw poll in 2007 and was rejected by 53 percent of those who voted.

At the Jan. 13 meeting, Brannigan said this year's petition likely was doomed to the same fate as its predecessor in 2004. He said there were procedural problems with how the signatures were gathered.

The council voted Jan. 13 not to proceed with a referendum, but members conceded that whatever technical problems existed with the petition, it was proof that residents wanted the issue put to a public vote.

On Tuesday, council members said they had heard that message over and over again in the past two weeks.

"I've never been so beat up over an issue as I have with this one," said Councilman Phil Abts.

He was reminded that when he ran for office a year ago, he promised he would let the people's voice be heard on the dissolution issue if it was brought to him. Being on the council has given him a different perspective on the issue, though, he said.

"To go back on your word versus the way that you feel six months later is two totally different things," Abts said. "When I was campaigning, I did give my word to those people that I would allow a vote if they asked for a vote. Now I feel differently, but I have to be a man of my word."

Councilmen Perry Bean and Mark Hashim said the city needs to respond to the spirit of the petition even if the document is flawed.

"I do believe that the petitioners in full faith have done what is required of them," Bean said. "We have a clear mandate here. They've told us what they want us to do, and whether you agree with it or not, we have a responsibility to do what they're asking us to do.

"The bottom line is: We as a council have a duty to the citizens," Hashim said. "Who do we think we are if we deny them?"

On that note, Bean proposed and Hashim seconded a motion to have Brannigan "draft a properly worded, fair and unbiased referendum question allowing the citizenry to vote on whether to dissolve the incorporated city of Port Richey, to be placed on a special ballot as soon as possible, following instructions from the supervisor of elections."

Taking that action eliminates the procedural issues with the petition and has the same result as a successful petition drive, Brannigan said.

Hashim, who had been on record as being for dissolution when he ran for council in 2007, has publicly softened his stance during the past year. Before Tuesday's vote, he said that if council members were to put dissolution to the voters, they needed to host educational workshops so voters could make an informed choice.

"We could have someone come in and make a presentation of this is what would happen if we stay the way we are, this is what happens if we go with the county, and these are the steps that need to be taken," Hashim said. "If we educate, then people will vote, and then however they vote should satisfy everybody. After all, this is a democracy."

O'Neill, who was on the council during the 2007 straw poll, agreed with that idea.

"The only discussions have been: We do or we don't," O'Neill said. "There's been no discussion of impact. There's no discussion other than police and fire cost. There's no numbers thrown around."

Brannigan said he planned to have a draft of a referendum question ready for the council's Feb. 10 meeting.

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