McCarty choice stunts growth panel's integrity

Gov. Bush named Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty to a panel charged with shaping Florida's growth. It ranks among his worst decisions.

During her nearly 15 years in office, Commissioner McCarty consistently has opposed reasonable growth management. She fought a proposal to tie school construction to home building, commenting caustically that parents disliked school crowding only because it meant that their children might be going "to brunch and not to lunch." She routinely expresses disdain for planning, complaining that taxpayers have preserved too much land. Commissioner McCarty championed the decision to put The Scripps Research Institute on the rural Mecca Farms site. She dismissed alternative locations and put together a delicate coalition to deliver the site the governor wanted.

Then there are Commissioner McCarty's ethics problems. After the 2000 election, she became involved in a short-lived, unsuccessful campaign to oust three Florida Supreme Court justices who had issued some rulings against candidate George Bush. Her role led to an election law violation, which she escaped with a $2,000 fine, down from a recommended $450,000. To cover her legal bills, she violated ethics laws by accepting illegal contributions from developers with business before the commission. A yearlong ethics probe is ongoing.

Those in Palm Beach County know how unhelpful Commissioner McCarty has been in a group setting, such as the Criminal Justice Commission. She also has a well-deserved reputation as someone who can't keep her mouth shut. During negotiations with The Scripps Research Institute, she referred to Scripps President Richard Lerner as "arrogant and elitist." She called fellow Republican commissioner Tony Masilotti "scum" when he ran in 1998 and hurled accusations at him last year after he questioned her votes for firms with ties to her husband's bond underwriting firm. She bragged about how her well-orchestrated political attacks against Commissioner Burt Aaronson were designed to give him a heart attack.

But given the first 10 appointments to the 15-member Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida, Commissioner McCarty will fit right in. There's a former aide to Gov. Bush, a lobbyist, a representative of the state's largest landowner and a Brooksville real estate agent named Gary Schraut. Of Mr. Schraut, a political opponent told The St. Petersburg Times, "If you take one person who has been most responsible for (pushing) uncontrolled growth and manipulating growth management, the name that comes to mind is Gary Schraut." In Palm Beach County, the name is Mary McCarty.

So what are Commissioner McCarty's qualifications? Unresolved ethics violations, political allegiance to developers -- especially those who are key Republican donors -- impatience with growth management and delivering Mecca for Gov. Bush. Those qualifications may be good enough for the governor, but they aren't for the public.