By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Florida State Sen. Blaise Ingogolia of Hernando County has drawn the wrath of Levy County Commissioner John Meeks for proposing a bill that would term-limit county commissioners and school board members to a maximum of 8 consecutive years in office.

            Under Senate Bill 1110, introduced by Ingogolia, Meeks and County Commission Chairman Matt Brooks would be allowed to serve a total of six more years in office, assuming they are re-elected in 2024 because they have already served two of the eight consecutive years they are allowed.

            Ingogolia, a homebuilder from Spring Hill, who has also introduced legislation to eliminate the Democratic Party, is no lightweight in Florida politics, having served four years as chairman of the Republican Party in Florida.

            The 2023 Florida Legislature started its session on March 7.

            Meeks defended his opposition to the term limits bill in the March 7 county commission meeting.

            “What will be perceived by the media, I’m sure, as me trying to protect my job. Really, it’s not the argument I have against this whole premise,” Meeks said. “My whole premise is you are limiting the choice of the voters by placing term limits on anyone who is elected to the county. I am a firm believer that local governments and especially smaller governments that we have in Levy County, the municipal governments, and county government – we have term limits. It happens every four years. It’s called an election. If you’re not doing the job effectively, you won’t be doing it much longer.”

            Meeks said placing term limits on county commissioners and school board members limits the choice for voters as well as sends the county in the wrong direction as far as leadership and what the future might hold for the county.

            “The quickest way to turn North Florida into South Florida is to limit who can sit on this board. That is my firm belief. It don’t have nothing to do with this job, it don’t have nothing to do with the money that comes from this job, it doesn’t have anything to do with sitting up here and getting to be on this side of the table verses being on that side of the dais, it has to do with limiting the choice of the citizens of this county and all of the counties,” Meeks said.

            He added, “I just feel it’s an attack on the citizens, especially in rural areas where our pool for potential candidates maybe isn’t as big as in other places.”

            In Levy County, members of local pioneer families who have been living in Levy County for two to five generations generally hold positions on the Levy County Commission and Levy County School Board. People who are transplanted from other areas of the state or country often don’t stand a chance of being elected to the two boards because they lack local family ties.

            Hiring practices in county government often follow the same unwritten rules, though not always. If an applicant for a county government job is from a longstanding pioneer family, and they know someone on an elected board, or they know someone working in county government, rightly or wrongly, they are probably more likely to find employment in county government.

            Whether those practices would change by term-limiting county commissioners and school board members to allow new blood on the elected boards is uncharted waters. It’s never been tried in Levy County and it may change nothing or it could change everything.

            It’s not that old families don’t make good leaders. Most would qualify as salt of the earth good people. They often make good elected officials because they know the county’s history and they know the local culture. They know every tree, every landmark, and every turn in the road, political, or otherwise.

            Attempting to change the political chemistry of the two boards through term limits would be interesting to watch if nothing else, and it could encourage much higher turnouts in county elections as the old families tried to retain control of what has always been theirs and the newcomers worked to plow new ground.

            The passage of the term limits bill is by no means certain. It will go through legislative committees first and may never emerge for a vote of the House and Senate. It may die the way many pieces of legislation falter and fall in the political processes of Tallahassee – it could just go away – or it may grow legs and survive.

            Meeks, a member of one of those old Levy County families, along with his cousin, Rock Meeks, who also serves as a county commissioner, would like to see the bill die in Tallahassee.

            Time will tell.

———————–

Board of County Commission Regular Meeting March 7, 2023; Posted March 10, 2023