GUEST OPINION

The News Press and Mayor Jim Humphrey are attempting to force Warren Wright to breach his confidential settlement with me and a developer we sued. If Warren Wright gives in to this outrageous effort to interfere with my contract rights, I lose.

If Warren Wright reveals the terms of his confidential settlement contract with me and the developer, it is void.

Jim Humphrey has put political pressure on Wright to breach his settlement contract. Humphrey had his own lawyer confront Wright in a City Council meeting without advance warning. The goal was to have the council join in pressuring Wright breach his promise to keep the settlement confidential. The Mayor and his private lawyer have persuaded The News Press to join in his effort to interfere with the settlement contract.

The News Press for their part of this coordinated effort has demanded that Wright breach his contract and threatened him with jail if he refused. They have filed suit and publicly announced that Wright could be forced to pay their fees, a form of overt economic intimidation.

The settlement agreement the Mayor and The News-Press seek to frustrate arose from a legal challenge to a decision by the Humphrey appointed Board of Adjustments in Fort Myers. These out-of-control administrative boards granted variances from virtually every development rule the city's laws apply to a site on Billy's creek in Fort Myers.

These variances from the rules applied to all other others in the same zoning district, dramatically reduced setbacks, permitted much greater height and three times the density available to others. Variances of this kind are supposed to be minimal in degree and allowed only for specific hardships greatly frustrating reasonable use of the property. The alleged hardship in this case was only that the developer's needed more density to make the profits they wanted.

Substantial changes to development regulations of this sort are usually the providence of elected officials, implemented through changes in zoning laws. But our city's lax zoning laws and growth management practices allow dramatic changes to be adopted by unelected officials. A person aggrieved by this sort of action cannot appeal to his elected representative. There is no other remedy, but to go directly to court, as Warren Wright and I did.

What happened in the Billy's Creek case is not isolated.

In my own McGregor Blvd neighborhood our rogue Board of Adjustments has approved a similar set of variances for a downtown developer. No neighborhood in Fort Myers is immune to this sort of thing.

Following the only course open to him, Warren Wright filed suit as an individual to protect the future home site he acquired well before he entered politics. The Mayor's claim that he did this as a councilperson is disingenuous. The pleadings and transcripts clearly show he did not and could not sue as a councilperson.

I joined this suit for a different reason. I have devoted a significant part of my adult life to helping land use regulations in this area strike the proper balance between private property rights and the public interest. Striking that balance is the essence of the growth management challenge. The planning, zoning and adjustment procedures of my city are a mess. They can only be cleaned up by electing new people and by court challenges.

Unfortunately, the power of concerned citizens to sue their government when it acts illegally is limited. The courts have set a high hurdle called "standing to sue." This hurdle was set very high by appellate courts years ago in order to limit the courts' workload.

Relaxing these barriers is essential to balanced growth management today. Local governments have become especially vulnerable to the political influence of the growth industry. To provide balance in the system, concerned citizens need the opportunity to attack improper actions favoring unrestrained development. Because this kind of litigation is very expensive, the old barriers are no longer needed and are too onerous. Relaxing them a bit on appeal was my goal.

I am not a wealthy person. I am just a retiree with a heart condition who cares about how growth is managed. Faced with an expensive court battle to make a point that provides no direct personal benefit and an advantageous settlement, I chose to settle. By agreement I gave up my right to take my issue to a court with the power to make new law. Now Jim Humphrey and The News-Press want to interfere with that legal contract, leaving me with nothing for my public concern and efforts.

That is just too much to ask merely because The News Press is suspicious and believes that public officials have no right to privacy in their personal affairs. That is certainly too much to give up just because Jim Humphrey has a longstanding political vendetta with Warren Wright. ¦