Sensible to have DeSantis, Cabinet hear local government's comprehensive plan appeals?

Gov. Ron DeSantis had a typically busy agenda this past week. There were fresh attacks from rival Donald Trump to address. A presidential campaign announcement to plan. A stack of bills left over from the Florida Legislature’s recently completed session to evaluate.

In the middle of all that, he and his colleagues on the Florida Cabinet had to hear a land-use case that basically boils down to whether putting a convenience store in a rural area violates Martin County’s comprehensive plan.

Mind you, the Cabinet members spent less than 20 minutes with the Martin County case before overturning an administrative law judge's ruling. For comparison, a typical episode of “Law & Order” lasts more than twice that long.

And that’s exactly the problem. The Cabinet has no more business hearing appeals of local land-use cases than Florida would have hosting a mountain-climbers convention.

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The way the system is set up, people who wish to challenge changes to a local government's comprehensive plan first take their cases to a state administrative law judge. If either side wishes to appeal the ruling, the Florida Cabinet, sitting as the Administration Commission, is the next stop.

From there, cases can be appealed to one of the state's district courts of appeal. Then, presumably, if some state constitutional issues are in question, they may be taken up by the Florida Supreme Court.

The second step in this process, the Administration Commission hearing, seems unnecessary and out of place. The Cabinet members are part of the executive branch of government, not the judicial branch. So, right there, there's a separation of powers issue.

Because Cabinet members aren't part of the judicial branch, they may have little to no legal training or experience interpreting matters of law.

Among the current Cabinet members, DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody have law degrees, while Agricultural Commissioner Wilton Simpson and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis do not. There's no requirement the governor hold a law degree, although that is one of the prerequisites for serving as attorney general.

Therefore, at any given time, the Administration Commission might be hearing administrative law appeals with only one member who is actually a bona fide attorney.

In the Martin County case, the Administration Commission offered no explanation for why it was overturning the judge's decision. There wasn't any discussion of the legal points that will be at issue if the case advances to the Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach.

While the case may seem trivial to the rest of the state, and probably the Cabinet members as well, it could have a huge impact on how Martin County's rural areas are developed. It was the subject of hours of discussion before the Martin County Local Planning Agency and the Martin County Commission. Before the administrative law judge issued her ruling, she conducted a full-blown hearing with testimony from experts and reams of documentation.

In contrast, the Administration Commission allowed five minutes each for attorneys representing the county and the plaintiff to make their cases (three minutes for their initial presentations, plus two minutes for rebuttals) as well as three minutes for an attorney representing a developer with a vested interest in seeing the comprehensive plan amendment upheld.

Then, without further discussion, the Cabinet members shot down the judge's ruling, much as they had done in January when a similar case involving plans for a Costco store in Stuart was before them.

This process has been in place for many years. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be changed.

There's a relatively easy legislative fix here: Just eliminate Administration Commission hearings and have district courts of appeal directly hear challenges to administrative law rulings.

Especially since the Legislature just approved a law making the losing side responsible for paying both sides' legal fees in comprehensive plan amendment cases, even when the losing side's case is determined to have merit. Such a change would be fairer for everyone to get cases resolved more quickly.

Judicial appeals ought to stay within the judicial branch of government. And frankly, Cabinet members ought to have bigger issues to consider. Unless streamlining government is just a talking point and not an actual goal.

Editorials published by TCPalm/Treasure Coast Newspapers are decided collectively by its editorial board. To respond to this editorial with a letter to the editor, email up to 300 words to TCNLetters@TCPalm.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: With new law, why do DeSantis, Cabinet keep hearing land-use appeals?