The Bias of Ignorance

If what I am witnessing at recent Planning and Zoning Board meetings is the best this community can do, then perhaps it is time to do away with such a hopelessly biased institution and seek management of the town's affairs elsewhere. The PZB has deteriorated to being a group of appointees who are there because of who they know.


"This is stupid" says a resident after yesterday's PZB meeting. "This is the worst I have ever seen". I know this person has lived on Longboat Key for a long time and is one of the few residents who pays attention to the workings of town government. I see smirks and rolling eyes and yes laughter where no joke is intended.

The PZB meeting resembled the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Some board members looked lost and ill- informed. Other board members minced minuscule concepts unrelated to the question at hand. At times it appeared that several board members were unaware of what was being discussed.

The planning department staff also appeared to be unsure of what was happening. At one point a staff member was questioned about the relevance of his report. His response was that we was telling the zoning board what they wanted to hear as requested at a prior meeting. He referenced the minutes from a prior meeting. Several attendees chuckled. Eyes rolled again.

As usual the chairperson was curt and abrupt and at times looked ill-informed or confused. We all should be thankful that Commissioner LeNoble, and his fellow commissioners, had the foresight to defang this politically appointed clique some years ago.

What is bias of ignorance? It is an unintentional bias that results from not knowing what one is talking about, of being ill informed, or so politically motivated, as to be unaware that severely limited decisions are being made, and never questioned. It is the lack of informed discussion-making at PZB meetings that promulgates still more ignorance based bias.

Anyone attending recent PZB meetings has to confront a rude chairperson who makes it know that she considers meaningful and studied input from residents to be "biased" propaganda as far as she is concerned. At the same time she welcomed a one hour twenty minute presentation by a cell tower lobbyist. The PZB chairperson did not find the lobbyist to be biased. Hmmmm. Who said "Don't confuse me with the facts, I know what I think"?

At two previous PZB meetings dealing with cell tower issues, it was evident that the members of the board were clueless that anything exists except cell towers. For these people Distributed Antenna Systems, Fixed Mobile Convergence and other alternative technologies are foreign words. In the area of telecommunications, where the PZB is concerned, the world is flat. They appear to like it that way if you review the questions put forth by various PZB members. As a body they have been singularly incurious about ways to improve cell phone reception without destroying real estate values and shutting out new and superior telecommunications technologies for years to come.

At the last PZB meeting there appeared to still be considerable ranker about the Commission's reversal of the PZB's recommendation that Moore's Restaurant be forced to sell at the bottom of the real estate market. I am proud that I was one of the four commissioners who voted to uphold the will of the voters, who overwhelming supported the referendum to allow Moore's to be rezoned residential. At that time it seemed that a couple of the PZB members exceeded the bounds of public office and that they should have been reprimanded or removed from the PZB.

We need to find a remedy for what is taking place at PZB meetings. We need to stop whatever is causing the rolling eyes and exclamations of indignation and dismay. The PZB has become a political hack for special interests on the island. Perhaps if the PZB became an elected body it would prevent the political packing that presently permeates what I consider to be a dysfunctional body. Because of their unabashed bias and lack of informed decision-making, the PZB is doing more harm than good in our community.