Fire District rep takes part in Tallahassee legislative trip
In an effort to stay ahead of any possible impactful legislation at the state level, a Pine Island Matlacha Fire Control District commissioner recently made a trip to Tallahassee to take part in the process.
Commissioner Jamie DeLacey said whenever legislation is introduced, it makes an appearance on the agenda prior to a meeting.
“I came to realize after a couple of years that it was too late to do anything by the time we talked about it-most of the decisions had already been made by then,” DeLacey said.
This year, she thought she would try to get ahead of issues that might pertain to local special districts by asking local fire chiefs if anyone might be traveling to Tallahassee for open legislation.
“One of the fire chiefs out of Bonita said, ‘Yes, we go every year, we find it to be of great value and if you’d like to come with us this year, we’d love to have you sit in on our meetings.’ He said a lot of times the representatives and senators just get bombarded with people trying to access their offices,” DeLacey said.
After finding support from her own district, coupled with curiosity about the process, she said she reached out to each Lee County representative, prior to the trip, to let them know she looked forward to getting to know them better and opening up the lines of communication.
“Once I got up there, (to Tallahassee) I was very fortunate to sit in on Chief Craig Dewitt’s scheduled meetings. We got to meet with Sen. (Kathleen) Passidomo, Sen. (Jonathan) Martin, we got to meet with (Rep.) Adam Botana. Not only was Chief Dewitt there, but he also had a number of other fire chiefs from our special districts there,” DeLacey said.
Tice, Lehigh, and Bayshore Fire all had fire chiefs in Tallahassee, she said, adding that she was honored to have been allowed to sit in on their pre-scheduled meetings.
“It was very beneficial, because I could see the due process and the kinds of questions they were asking and the kinds of relationships they were interested in obtaining. It was very eye-opening,” DeLacey said.
Showing up to get a birds-eye-view of these representatives in their milieu was admittedly the right decision on the part of DeLacey, as she said, this can only do the job of letting everyone know the Matlacha Pine Island Fire control District is interested in any upcoming Bills or legislation concerning out special district. She’s a bit too late this year to ask for any kind of appropriations, she said, but her goal was to simply get the wheels in motion for next year, she said.
“When I went up there, I let everyone know, we are our own animal-our fire district is not like any other,” DeLacey said.
To reach PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com, please email