by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
The City Council held a special meeting on Aug. 19 in an effort to show its support of the reinstatement of Cecil Field as a U.S. Navy master jet base. Less than two hour’s notice was given before the meeting and, according to the City’s leaders and legal opinion, there was no other way to notice the quickly-called meeting.
According to Florida’s Sunshine public record and open meeting laws, any meeting between elected officials from the same office must be “reasonably noticed” before it can take place.
Typically that notice can come via a press release or newspaper advertisement. However, Council President Kevin Hyde said there just wasn’t enough time get the word out to the general public ahead of time.
That morning, Hyde, Mayor John Peyton and Gov. Jeb Bush met with representatives from the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. At that time, Hyde said Bush and Peyton made verbal agreements that they would make the funds available to reconvert Cecil Field, now Cecil Commerce Center, back into a Naval base.
“But that wasn’t enough,” Hyde said of the $200 million gesture. “We had to have something on the record, something tangible that showed we were prepared to do what we had to do.”
Virginia officials, Hyde said, offered similar written support for Oceana Naval Air Station that was to be introduced on the record during a special hearing in Washington, D.C. the following morning.
“That was a big reason behind us having to move quickly,” he said. “All of this was happening at 11:15 a.m. and shortly after I was on the phone trying to assemble my colleagues for a 2:00 p.m. meeting.
“We had to move quickly.” And according to the Sunshine laws, moving quickly was an option.
Steve Rohan, an attorney in the City’s General Counsel’s Office, said the law makes provisions for “emergency and circumstantial” situations.
“The statutes aren’t clearly defined, but certainly we looked at the national impact of the issue and at what rights might be infringed upon by meeting on short notice,” he said. “It was our understanding that we had enough community support to move forward.”
Rohan admitted that some Westside residents might disagree with converting Cecil back into a Naval base, but there would likely be a time at a later date for those grievances to be aired.
“Did we take property? No. Did we appropriate public dollars? No,” he said. “All we did was express the Council’s wishes through a resolution, not an ordinance.
“We simply made a statement of will and anyone who wants to speak out about it will have the opportunity to do so in the future.”
Council member Lad Daniels, a longtime military voice on the Council, praised Hyde’s quick thinking.
“I admire his being able to unite us on this very timely issue,” he said. “Kevin was right to do it the way he did and our rules allow him that ability.
“We were elected to represent the wishes of our constituency and work on their behalf. The overwhelming support to bring back Cecil is out there and we moved forward knowing that because we had to.”