Stuart and Martin County should pump brakes on budding feud over Brightline

USA Today

27-01-2025

Stuart and Martin County should pump brakes on budding feud over Brightline | Opinion In our social media-driven culture, arguments never end if neither side is willing to admit to being wrong.
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Watch a Brightline qualifying train move through Stuart for the first time
A Brightline qualifying train moves through downtown Stuart for the first time on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022.
Leah Voss and Lina Ruiz, Treasure Coast Newspapers
After a couple of weeks of posturing, Stuart and Martin County officials seem to be on the verge of a serious feud over a proposed Brightline train station.
Things started heating up earlier this month, when Martin County Administrator Don Donaldson sent Stuart officials a letter, asking the city to write a letter of support for a federal grant application for funding that could cover most of the station's costs.
In his letter, Donaldson suggested the city had a contractual obligation to support the grant application.
At a meeting a few days later, the Stuart City Commission discussed the letter, but took no action to support the application.
'War'? What is it good for?
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Based on the way Donaldson's letter was worded, commissioners speculated the county might file a lawsuit to force the city to cooperate.
At least one city commissioner seemed to welcome that sort of confrontation.
"I'm tired of being strong-armed by the county," Stuart Vice Mayor Christopher Collins said. "This has nothing to do with us, and if you want to go to war, so be it."
There are other options available to the county, including trying to resolve the dispute through the Florida Government Conflict Resolution Act, which encourages governments to settle their differences without going to court.
Or the county could retaliate in other ways, such as refusing to support future grant requests initiated by the city.
In short, there's the potential for this situation to get really ugly, really fast.
While journalists are sometimes accused of stirring up conflict to boost their audiences, this one is hoping cooler heads are going to prevail.
Time to look at the bigger picture
Collins' remarks were inflammatory and, frankly, a little juvenile.
It would be understandable if Martin County commissioners wanted to give Collins — and perhaps one or two of his feistier colleagues — a lesson about the usefulness of tact and consensus-building in political situations.
I continue to think the Stuart commission majority made a shady and unethical decision to back out of a previous commitment it had made to support the station before last fall's city elections. The people opposing the Brightline station at this point seem to be doing so mostly out of spite.
Yeah, it would be great if Brightline were willing to contribute some portion of the station's construction cost. Yeah, it would be better for Stuart to have a true commuter rail service with numerous stops on the Treasure Coast and South Florida rather than an express service, like Brightline, with only a few stations between West Palm Beach and Orlando.
Sometimes in life, though, you have to play with the cards you're dealt. Brightline's point of view is the company has invested billions of dollars already in tracks and other infrastructure along the route and would be responsible for all future maintenance and operating costs for the Stuart station. That's no small commitment.
And there's no commuter rail system in the picture right now. There might be one later, but the chances of that could improve considerably if a Stuart station is built as a starting point.
Plus, here are a couple more points that Brightline critics apparently need to be reminded over and over: 1) Brightline didn't ask for a Treasure Coast station; our community's leaders did. 2) Not having a station in Stuart won't mean Brightline trains will stop rumbling through the Treasure Coast. They'll still keep coming, without local residents getting any benefit from them.
But I don't think logic matters to some of the diehard critics any more. They've spent years opposing Brightline's plans, dating back to before the train system was expanded through the Treasure Coast, and they just can't admit the trains haven't had the negative impact on the community some feared.
In our social media-driven culture, arguments never end if neither side is willing to admit to being wrong.
Lots of reasons to avoid conflict here
If this does devolve into an all-out political brouhaha, my money is on Martin County to win. County officials have the resources and, even with a couple of newcomers coming aboard, greater political savvy to make the lives of Stuart officials miserable in ways Collins and his allies may not have imagined.
I hope it won't come to that.
So far, Martin County commissioners have played the adults in the room by stepping into the breach when Stuart backed out of its commitment to Brightline. Here's hoping they will continue to take the high road, for many reasons.
As Stuart City Commissioner Laura Giobbi pointed out, a coerced letter of support might have little value, anyway.
Might the Federal Railroad Administration be less inclined to look favorably on the grant application if it isn't supported by both the city and county? Well, maybe.
There are lots of other factors that could derail the grant application, too. I don't think anyone knows yet how the new U.S. Department of Governmental Efficiency is going to view transportation grants, if the goal is to strip the federal budget down to its bare bones.
Even with the support of U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, who seems to be on good terms with President Donald Trump, getting federal grant money for the Treasure Coast could be a much tougher proposition in the years ahead.
If the county sues the city, it's likely to affect cooperation between the two governments in other areas besides Brightline. (This is a point Stuart commissioners might also want to consider during their discussions about suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over water management policy for Lake Okeechobee.)
Martin County commissioners represent all the residents Stuart city commissioners do — plus all the county residents who live outside the city limits.
Ergo, Martin County commissioners can't hurt Stuart officials without also hurting about 20,000 of their own constituents.
No need to rush karma here
I believe Stuart commissioners will get a comeuppance at some point not too far in the future if a majority of them continue to act recklessly. However, Martin County commissioners don't need to wield the political axes that chop them down to size.
During my eight-year foray into state government, I had an opportunity to work for (now retired) Tennessee Comptroller Justin Wilson, one of the smartest people I've ever met. Wilson was well versed in a vast array of subjects, including investments, the law, government budgeting and — perhaps most importantly — how to handle tricky political situations.
I remember his advice once when someone was trying to bait me into a petty fight.
"Remember that if you wrestle a pig, you'll both get dirty," Wilson told me. "But only the pig will enjoy it."
I'd share that advice now with Stuart and Martin County commissioners. I'll leave it to them to figure out who is the pig in this analogy.
This column reflects the opinion of Blake Fontenay. Contact him via email at [e-mail] or at 772-232-5424.