After Mosaic approvals, elect Manatee County commissioners to halt business as usual

While I admire the perseverance of the hundreds of people who protested the Mosaic mining permit, it was inevitable that you would lose. Perhaps you would have had a better chance if all of you would have brought envelopes full of money to give to the commissioners.

Many of these same commissioners have been running our county for quite some time. A recent Herald news article noted that Mosaic’s attorney had given “contributions” to several of them. You can bet Mosaic gave them all much more. Most people going to court would love to give their jurors a little “contribution” before they voted on their guilt. Even if you all gave them money, Mosaic would have given them more.

Some of these commissioners ran unopposed last election. Perhaps if some of the protesters would run against them next election, you could change the make-up of the commission. Just by saying that you wouldn’t take money from Mosaic or the land developers, another group that owns our commission, due to “contributions,” would you get my vote, and many others.

I’m sure there will be many letters from readers talking about voting them out. This can’t happen if nobody runs against them. I would love to see a true patriot like Ricky Mafera run against one of our hands-out commissioners. He believes in taking care of our county lands, not destroying them.

The old saying, “If you can’t beat them, join them,” comes into play here. Whomever dares to challenge these long-term commissioners would face all the dirty politics, mailers sent out with the developers’ and Mosaics’ money.

If nobody runs against the current group, it will continue to be business as usual. We need to take back our county from the developers... and Mosaic.

This story was originally published March 2, 2017 at 4:23 PM with the headline "After Mosaic approvals, elect Manatee County commissioners to halt business as usual."