Martin County Commissioner Sarah Heard on Growth, Water Quality, and Traffic

Anywhere you go in the State of Florida, business owners and every day citizens are likely to know  about Martin County.  Martin's relatively contained growth, low density, undisturbed natural resources, and  water activities/access make the county a much sought after destination for vacationers, new residents, and businesses alike.

Your Florida Business Forum Podcast host Sam Yates recently sat down with District 4 County Commissioner Sarah Heard to discuss some of the basic qualities of life in Martin County that are impacted by Commissioner Heard's  leadership. 

You will learn of the various goals and issues for the long time, dedicated to the public Commissioner.

It was a frank conversation with honest answers that were refreshing in today's sometimes charged world of politics, that gave an inside look at how political leaders at all levels can learn from basic governance.

Commissioner Heard's appearance is part of a developing series of episodes by Republican  elected office holders in and representing the residents and businesses of Martin County . Local, State, and Federal office holders will have the opportunity to be featured here on The Florida Business Forum .

Transcript

Sam Yates: 0:06

Hello everyone and welcome to another informative episode of the Florida Business Forum Podcast. Let's open the Florida Business Forum floodgates and let the information begin to flow. Here's your Florida Business Forum information guru and Anchorman Sam Yates. Hello, everyone, the information floodgates are indeed open. And I'm proud to say today I'm in Stuart, Florida, the headquarters for the Martin County Commission, and my special guest is Martin County Commissioner Sarah herd. And why is she so special? Well, she is my Commissioner for District Four right here in Martin County, Florida. Commissioner, welcome to the program.

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 0:46

Thank you very much.

Sam Yates: 0:48

You know, as I travel around the state, I chat a lot about people and things going on here in Martin County. And it seems that Martin County is very well known where ever I go in the state for a variety of different reasons. And I want to touch on some of those reasons as we go through the podcast today. But right off the bat, I want to get to know about you tell us a bit about yourself.

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 1:10

I'm not from here. I'm originally from Southern Illinois, a farmer's daughter, granddaughter, sister, I attended University of Illinois and Texas a&m University. I'm minced. I've been in Stewart since 1987. Because my husband Jeffrey is from Florida. He's from Boca Raton, Florida, which is why we live in Stuart, Florida. So we moved back, we moved here in in 87. Jeffrey was a Delta pilot, and we could live anywhere. And we chose to live here because we at that time, were avid wind surfers, and also offshore fishermen. So Martin County afforded us the ability, the unique ability to do both of those things very, very well.

Sam Yates: 1:58

Now, I know you have some priorities when it comes to governing on a local basis. So tell us about your priorities.

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 2:05

My two top priorities here. I've been a commissioner since 2002. And my platform, primarily since 2002. And today is growth management, and clean water.

Sam Yates: 2:19

And for transparency, I want to let everyone know that I am a member of the Republican Party, a member of the executive committee, in fact, so my appearance here today on the podcast, and my discussions with you are separate from the Republican Party, but in many, many ways they are intermingled in the beliefs of what goes on in our community. Because it's a very staunch Republican community. Is that a fair assessment? Yes, agreed. Okay, that is a background fiscal responsibility. How does that tie in with your activities and your beliefs?

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 2:57

It's it's an absolute backbone of my beliefs. And I think that in order to remain viable, we have to be we have to protect our environment, we also have to have to exercise extraordinary fiscal restraint.

Sam Yates: 3:10

How's Martin County fearing? Are we doing okay?

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 3:14

We're doing very well. overdevelopment creates big problems. And we have used regulation here very successfully, in order to maintain small government. And we have largely been very successful in limiting the size of our government.

Sam Yates: 3:33

You know, I do consult with the Martin County taxpayers association on a pro bono basis, because I believe that our taxpayers are integral in everything that happens in the county. The taxpayers association is an organization among the oldest in the state, if not the oldest, and nothing happened in years past without the Martin County taxpayers association getting involved. And so we're trying to perhaps go in that direction, again, because the taxpayers association is important. taxpayers need to keep an eye on what's happening with the many different organizations within the community and one that comes to mind right off the top of the bat, is the Martin County Business Development Board. Are we getting a good return on that organization? And I guess perhaps a bit of explanation from you would be an order because I know what the business development board is all about. But give us an overview from your perspective of the Business Development Board of Martin County.

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 4:34

It's a private organization that is supposed to be funded in part by Martin County and in part by the private sector in order to maintain and and entice development, business development, Martin County. We pay them $450,000 A year in order to do their job, and I've never been an advocate for that. I think that if we do need, if we feel the need to have a business retention attraction department, that it should be housed in the county, to make sure that our regulations are as transparent as possible and as helpful as possible to attract the kind of business that we want here. And

Sam Yates: 5:22

I think that's a fair assessment. And it leads me to another topic, the accolades that you yourself have received or doing just that keeping an eye out, not only as someone who gives us the regulations and maintains those regulations at a county level, but a real pit bull of a watchdog, you have a lot of accolades,

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 5:43

you have, and they've come from all kinds of places and their community service awards, public service awards, community steward awards, from environmental organizations from 1000, friends of Florida, from the Woman's Club, from the garden club from all kinds of of organizations within and outside of Martin County, the care about good government and public service.

Sam Yates: 6:07

Commissioner, I know you're recently reelected, and we're hoping that you stay around a long time. So we want those accolades to continue to mount up, and I'd love to see them stacked up here in your office. Thank you. I think the last time we bumped into each other was at the ribbon cutting for FIPS Park. And that was one of the reasons that put me on the path to get together with you. Because during that ribbon cutting, I heard a conversation that the park is now connected to sewer and now you live adjacent to Phipps Park, and we do not have sewer in our neighborhood. Now, that is not the reason I'm here today. But it was a little baffling to me when I followed up with a question to our officials in charge of water and sewer in the county. And the explanation that I got was, well, you're going to get sewer, but it's going to take 10 years, that just didn't seem like a good figure. To me.

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 7:08

It doesn't sound right to me. And I'm looking into it. Sam, it seems to me that there's there are provisions within the sanitary sewer element of the comprehensive plan that say that when there is service within a certain distance of your development that you in some cases, it makes it more efficient. It makes it cost effective. It makes it practical to tie into extend, or else it's mandatory. So I'm looking into whether or not we can expedite the extension of water and sewer to your neighborhood because it makes perfect sense to me.

Sam Yates: 7:40

And I don't raise the question about the sewer connections for any other reason than to say that you really, really have an open door policy, whether it's me coming in with this question or someone else coming in with a question. The door is open. You and I have had conversations over the many past years on a variety of topics. But anyone literally anyone can have access and speak to you. Correct.

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 8:06

I welcome that. Yes.

Sam Yates: 8:07

How do they go about that? What's the best way for them to reach out to you?

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 8:11

Well, how most residents, at least my neighbors reach reach me is they stopped me on my morning jogs and walks through the parks in Martin County. But you can reach me at s herd at Martin dot F l.us. Or at my phone number is 2212358. I'm at the administration building happy to meet with you at any time.

Sam Yates: 8:35

I'm also on the board of directors for the Gold Coast Builders Association. And as you and I sit here in Tallahassee, there is a different discussion going on legislation that is going to impact not only builders and homeowners throughout the state of Florida, and I know the county as a whole has taken a stand on one particular bill that threatens to take away some of our local control. Tell us about it.

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 9:00

I think you're talking about Senate Bill 102. And it's it's um, it does, it takes away home rule and preamps our authority. And it does that by mandating that if a developer proposes a development that has 70% affordable housing in it, that we we must approve it, we must approve it and commercial we don't allow any residential development and commercial right now. And also Furthermore, it would be mandatory that it be approved, there will not be a public hearing, it will be approved by staff. And then if a certain percentage of it is is affordable, then it becomes tax exempt. And if it meets a certain threshold, it becomes tax exempt for 36 years. So this bill is going to really take away a lot of our home all ability authority wishes or what can be done about that. We're opposing it you know if you If you believe strongly that you don't want to see Tallahassee making these decisions for us, get in touch with our with our legislators and tell them how you feel good lead

Sam Yates: 10:11

into another topic near and dear to me. I hear it all over the state and that is attainable housing. And I'm smiling because I use the word attainable not affordable. There's a big difference there. But attainable housing should be something that is good for everyone and a goal of everyone

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 10:32

and Martin County has done we've we've taken advantage of ship housing, which is a state grants, we've taken advantage we've we've built affordable, attainable housing on Martin County owned land, we've we've we make extraordinary efforts in order to create attainable housing in Martin County. For our

Sam Yates: 10:53

audience, there is a website called Holmes for all that I have a hand in keeping it up to date. So if you're interested in what's going on about attainable housing, in Florida, and in our Treasure Coast, Palm Beaches in particular, check it out. Overall, though, I think Martin County has a reputation for four storey height limitations going back many years to the days that I used to cover to cover the commissioners as a reporter, Martin County is doing a great job of making sure there is a fair balance. I know there was recently a state ruling against one of the items that the commissioners that you voted on, it was not a real strong vote by the Commission. It involved development down in the Hobi Sound area.

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 11:38

That's correct. Rural density, land use amendment, and there was a it created urban development in agricultural lands, there is no question. That's what that did. And a citizen litigated against that, and it went went to an administrative law judge, and the judge ruled in favor of the against the county. And that's being examined, evaluated now to see what kind of cure is possible. But that's one of the reasons why we've kept our taxes low. And our we've kept our development compact. And we only provide urban services inside the urban service boundary. That's why our taxes are low. It protects our environment, and it keeps our taxes low. And it provides an unbelievably high quality of life for our residents. A lot

Sam Yates: 12:27

of people look at what's going on around us and they see development, they see things being built more traffic coming in. Now, that's not necessarily anything that happened recently, a lot of those projects were in progress for quite a number of years. But we do need a lot of growth. And a lot of that is happening now.

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 12:46

Here. It's we've we've never seen growth, like we like we're experiencing right now. The traffic is unbearable. I've never seen anything like it. Our population is supposed to be 160,000 people. And it seems to me like there are 250,000 of us on the roads that I used to do come back and forth to work every day. So there needs to be a balance. Absolutely. And it's becoming quite imbalanced right now. And I know it's because it's winter. You know, there are a lot of snowbirds here. But also, I fear that we are becoming the new California. And then our it's going to be more and more and more crowded and more and more and more expensive.

Sam Yates: 13:32

Well, I'm going to echo in there if you don't mind. That's one of the comments that the the Martin County Sheriff's Office dept chief deputy John Boudin second, thank you. Recently I was speaking to one of the groups or recently he was speaking to one of the groups. And he said I'm going around the county. And the number one question that I get is what's going on with traffic. And to that end, he said, you know, we react to it, because that's what we're supposed to do as law enforcement. And he said in the last year 2022, more than 7100 and some change tickets were written by the Martin County Sheriff's Department alone, so they are aware of the traffic situation. So if you're in traffic right now, somewhere, whether it's in Martin County or anywhere in the state, be aware that odds are law enforcement is aware of it, and they are addressing it.

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 14:28

And also another thing is that we used to while we when we had the Department of Community Affairs, I'm sure that you remember this venerable organization. Concurrency traffic concurrency was a requirement. If a developer proposed to build a development that exceeded road capacity, we could require that developer to add that additional capacity. When the developed when the Department of Community Affairs was disbanded, that concurrency requirement went away and we no longer have the ability to require The developer pay for the additional impacts he's creating.

Sam Yates: 15:03

Now back to the Martin County Sheriff's Department. You know, when we were off Mike prepping for the program, we were talking before the program. And I do a lot of work up in Brevard County with the the constitutional Sheriff there. Wayne Ivey, great guy. We talk a lot about crime as it relates to senior citizens. And in one of the reasons recent meetings with the chief deputy, I asked the question how we're doing here in Martin County, are we seeing a significant increase in crime against seniors? And his answer was no. So I think our Sheriff's Department is doing a great job, a wonderful job, and our crime stats reflect those lower numbers.

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 15:41

I completely agree with you. It's it's Martin County is definitely the safest place to be in Florida.

Sam Yates: 15:49

By the way, I want to say to the chief deputy, if by chance, you're thinking of running for the position of Sheriff, we'd like to help you make that announcement. So if you're going to make an announcement and want to make it on the Florida Business Forum, we are open to do just that. We hope that you do because we like the way things have been going on here lately. Now, before I run out of time, I try to keep the program to around 15 to 20 minutes. My question is, can you come back for another episode?

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 16:20

I'd love to thank you. Great.

Sam Yates: 16:22

I want to say I'd love to see these become a regular thing, because there is a news vacuum that exists. And I think programs like this encourage more people to get involved and seek out alternative sources of information because disinformation is is rampant. And many, many times we see from our elected officials and outreach, trying to make sure they correct the bad news that is out there. And I commend them for that. So My door is always open for you to be on the program, whether in this particular podcast, or whatever the podcast is, I think we have and I still consider myself a journalist an obligation to let our various publics know what is going on. So the door is always open for you because we have that obligation.

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 17:12

I completely agree. One of the things that has always made Martin County so different is that our residents participate in local government. And they were able to participate in local government because we had two local newspapers that covered local government, we no longer have newspapers that are covering local government. So we have this massive influx of new residents, and they don't have any access to information.

Sam Yates: 17:36

And we're seeing in our local publications to circulation may be growing slightly according to the publications, but our population is growing faster. So I actually questioned whether or not the circulation figures are correct and growing. But there is a need there. So again, anytime my door is open, and I'll come back and sit down with you. And I'll also be reaching out to ask you to be on the program to two way street. Before we wrap up though anything I've not covered that you would like to make sure

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 18:05

we cover I don't think so it's a privilege to serve. Thank you,

Sam Yates: 18:08

Commissioner Sara heard it is my privilege to let your voice be heard as well. And no pun intended. That just came out and I'm going Sam did you just say that

Commissioner Sarah Heard: 18:19

the campaign slogan mine you're welcome to use it anytime.

Sam Yates: 18:23

You know, Commissioner. That's exactly why it stuck with me all these years. So it the campaign slogan worked very, very well. Commissioner thank you for being here. I'm Sam Yates with the Florida Business Forum Podcast until our next episode. Have a great day everybody. The Florida Business Forum is dedicated to showcasing Florida businesses and CEOs of all sorts to promote their business or not for profit in the only business forum of its type in Florida. Thanks for tuning in. And remember, the Florida Business Forum is now accepting guest applications. Have a great day everyone and stay tuned for more business