Thursday, March 18, 2010

Relaxing gift rule sends wrong signal

I have long been an admirer of County Commissioner George Neugent's approach to governance. He has always put the common interests of the community above special interests seeking to finagle regulations. I am, therefore, puzzled at George's recent attempt to ease restrictions on gifts to public servants. In this age, when enormous and unfair advantages can be so easily obtained by special interests, it seems a particularly inept moment to signal any kind of relaxation of what are already too permissive restraints.

I hope that he will recognize the psychological signal that his proposal will send and that the commission will reject support for it, recognizing that it will serve to heighten the public sense of an appearance of impropriety.

But what entirely surprised me was the support from County Attorney Suzanne Hutton when she made the astounding suggestion that "at the very least it would make things cumbersome." May we ask cumbersome to whom? Certainly it would make it more cumbersome to those special and private interests who seek to scam the system. Does not the county attorney recognize that all regulation is designed and intended to make governing more effective by making it, at the very least, more cumbersome to those who seek to evade regulation?

George Neugent is making an ill thought out suggestion that can but generate future expensive litigation. Attorney Hutton's job is to apply her legal training to oppose anything that would make the work of the commission less transparent, and not to base her advice on what how cumbersome it might be.

Reese Palley

Key West

Let legislators know libraries are essential

I stop by our public library at least twice a week. I see a lively, friendly resource for many people: Parents and children sharing the joy of learning with free books and videos, the unemployed working on resumés and getting contact information for jobs and working on job skills, locals who don't have a functioning computer or broadband looking up Web sites, people tutoring people and the many, many community groups that use the meeting room. Hundreds of questions are answered every day, and the first open day after a holiday weekend will find 500 people stopping in for one reason or another.

Those of us who use the library know the state budget is seriously stressed. Funding has already been cut by over a third, from $33.4 million in 2001 to $21.2 million today. Local funding has been deeply cut in the past three years and more reductions are coming in 2010-11. Many libraries report cuts exceeding 30 percent. Monroe County has done the best it can cutting days open and staff -- how much more can they cut?

This comes at a particularly bad time for Floridians who are turning to their public libraries for help during these challenging times. Committee vote in both House and Senate is coming up. I believe most members of the House and Senate Transportation and Economic Committees hope to fund the libraries at last year's level, but it will be a battle. Public input will give them ammunition to justify that decision.

We can write our support for our libraries and find e-mail addresses at this Web site: http://bit.ly/8Zk53l.

I plan to let them know how, particularly in these times, we need our libraries to be funded at the current level. It is an investment we cannot afford to cut from the budget.

Karen Beal

Key Largo

Aren't there enough tourists here already?

As far as the nude beach option being discussed, is there a problem with the amount of tourism Key West now has? Can the island really benefit by introducing more people that a nude beach would attract to this small spot on the map? I don't benefit from the tourist dollar, so I don't know the numbers. I am just wondering. Whenever I am here, it seems that there are plenty of tourists already.

It has always been my opinion that the island is full enough with what is already here. When will it be enough? As I sit offshore and watch the amount of traffic, walkers, and bikers streaming by, I wonder what it was like here before all the madness, when this was a sleepy little paradise. With the traffic pouring in every day, and the cruise ships regularly docking, and planes landing every hour, when will we be satisfied that there are enough tourists already? I'm just wondering.

Roger Carnes

Princeton, Minn.