pinion Editorial: Governor has Easy Choice for School Board Appointment

With the recent passing of Manatee School Board Member Mary Cantrell, Florida Governor Rick Scott will appoint an interim board member to serve until a special election is contested in August of 2016 to fulfill the remainder of her four-year term.

Among those applying for the appointment to the District 3 seat (which includes much of east Manatee County) is former board member Julie Aranibar, who Cantrell defeated in a runoff election last November. Aranibar had the most votes within District 5, where she won 10 of 14 precincts, but because Manatee School Board elections are contested countywide, she ultimately lost the race.

We feel she is the obvious candidate to fulfill Dr. Cantrell’s term. Not only was she the choice of voters in the district she would represent, but her very recent experience on the board would mean she could hit the ground running. School districts are complex organizations, and their oversight requires knowledge of a wide array of fields. There is typically a steep learning curve for new board members and a less experienced appointee would likely spend most of the 12 months of the appointment learning on the job, which would not be the case were Aranibar appointed.

The Manatee County School Board is in the midst of a tenuous recovery, following a serious financial crisis brought about by the malfeasance of a past administration and the weak board oversight that enabled it. After serving on the sales tax accountability committee, Aranibar ran for the seat in 2010 on the notion that the district was not accurately portraying its fiscal realities. She turned out to be right and along with current member Karen Carpenter, who was elected the same year, deserves much of the credit for the truth being brought to light and the turnaround that followed.

The credibility Aranibar earned in her one term of service would be very valuable for a board that remains mired in public skepticism, especially as the school district prepares to ask the public for no less than three sources of additional tax funding next November, including an extension of the half-cent sales tax option.

While campaigning in 2014, Aranibar proposed ceding the board’s oversight of a future sales tax fund to a third party, such as Manatee County Clerk and Comptroller Chips Shore in order to increase public confidence that the funds generated by the tax would not be used in ways inconsistent to the pledge made to taxpayers when they authorized the current tax option. Her understanding of these complex fiscal issues and commitment to being a good steward of the public’s money were the primary reasons we endorsed Ms. Aranibar in 2014.

Critics claim that she has been a polarizing board member, but she seems to have gained most of her detractors by upsetting a status quo that led to the district’s deep financial problems. When Aranibar was elected in 2010, the district was plagued by systemic cronyism, widespread financial mismanagement and an overall absence of accountability that ultimately brought it to its knees. Aranibar recognized these problems, fought to enact change and left office with the district in much better shape than when she arrived. We see the fact that she was willing to ruffle feathers in order to get there, rather than playing politics in a way that would have better ensured her political longevity, as a strength, not a weakness.

Interim appointments are the purview of the Governor with almost no guidance or limitation. However, Governor Scott ran for office in 2014 on a promise to improve public education in this state. If he makes a political appointment rather than one born of thoughtful pragmatism with the best interest of Manatee County students and taxpayers in mind, it will be a betrayal of that promise.

As we see it, the Governor has an opportunity to appoint a loyal member of his party with proven experience and legitimate credibility to the office, who was the first choice of constituents in the district in question, when they went to the polls just over eight months ago. We hope he takes the opportunity to do so.