The Hillsborough County Emergency Policy Group (EPG) has served as the de facto legislature for Hillsborough County during the coronavirus pandemic. This group has been responsible for, among other things, the curfew in April and the more recent mask mandate. Unfortunately, the structure of this group fails to ensure either separation of powers or proportional representation.
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Hillsborough County already has a legislature, the Board of County Commissioners, directly elected by the people. The structure of the commission, with both single-member districts and at-large commissioners, allows all of Hillsborough an opportunity for proportional representation. The commission has met virtually during the pandemic.
The Hillsborough EPG, which has also met virtually, includes the mayors of Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City (which municipalities together account for less than half of the population of Hillsborough County), as well as the sheriff (elected countywide), the school board chair (elected by the school board, which is made up of five single-member districts and two countywide seats) and three of Hillsborough’s seven commissioners (two from single-member districts and one elected countywide).
Unincorporated Hillsborough County receives no representation at all from any municipal official. The population of unincorporated Southeast Hillsborough County alone is comparable to the population of Tampa and, like Tampa, vastly exceeds the populations of Temple Terrace and Plant City combined. In all, approximately two-thirds of Hillsborough residents do not live in an incorporated municipality and are therefore disenfranchised on the EPG (and every other countywide body with ex officio members representing municipalities but not unincorporated areas). Residents of Southeast Hillsborough have voted in elections for only three of the EPG members: the sheriff, one commissioner and the school board chair. (The former two are elected countywide, the latter, the school board chair, just happens to be from southeast Hillsborough County at this time, which is an unusual occurrence.)
Although the EPG exercises legislative power, two of the members (the mayor of Tampa and the sheriff), are elected and serve in purely executive roles. Two more members, the mayors of Plant City and Temple Terrace, serve in hybrid roles (they have city-manager form governments), while only half of the EPG, the three county commissioners and the school board chair, serve in primarily legislative positions. Nonetheless, this group exercises legislative powers that some members may enforce in their roles in law enforcement and municipal government, leading to separation of powers concerns.
The legislative power should be exercised by a body duly constituted and subject to traditional democratic principles of separation of powers and proportional representation. If swift action is required in an emergency, it should be exercised by a duly elected or appointed executive who represents the entire jurisdiction. Under no circumstance should legislative power, emergency or otherwise, be exercised by an ad hoc quasi-legislative group. Nor should such a group include executive branch officers or fail to provide proportional representation to all communities under its jurisdiction.
The mixture of executive and legislative concepts on the EPG has resulted neither in the quick action possible by an executive nor in the traditional checks and balances and proportional representation expected of a legislature. Intergovernmental working groups should function as such, and provide feedback, recommendations and a forum for cooperation, they should not act as ad-hoc legislatures whose edicts carry the force of law.
As the Tampa Bay Times has previously noted, “Hillsborough is one of just a few Florida counties that has delegated emergency powers to another body. ... In Pinellas County, the county commission still acts as the equivalent of the emergency policy group.” The EPG structure thus finds support neither in traditional constitutional principles nor in common practice.
On Tuesday, the Hillsborough County commission voted unanimously to advance a planned ordinance change abolishing the group entirely. It is right for the commission to permanently revest emergency power in a regularly constituted and representative government body operating according to normal democratic principles, even in times of crisis.
Rep. Michael Beltran, a Republican, represents District 57 (southeast Hillsborough County) in the Florida House.
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July 23, 2020 at 06:01AM
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Let’s do away with Hillsborough’s Emergency Policy Group | Column - Tampa Bay Times
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