To the editor:

I am a resident of Cape Coral and have lived on the periphery of Sands Park since 2008.

There is now pending before the Florida Legislature House Bill 601. It would preempt local consideration of misconduct complaints against local police officers by citizen-review boards. Any such complaints would be received and processed at the State level only.

Local citizen-review boards (elected or appointed, whatever) could not be established or, if they already exist, continue to have any powers. Local control over “local” police officers would become a joke because Tallahassee is where police misconduct complaints will go, to die. Cape Coral does not have a citizen-review board, handling these matters internally, in the police department, so this bill will not directly impart Cape Coral.

However, the implications of this bill are revolutionary, to say the least.

More fundamentally, this would be yet one more incursion by the State into local affairs, eroding even further whatever pathetic shards remain of the principle of home rule.

This bill continues the assault on home rule by the State, and Cape Coral should be VERY concerned about that.

My party, the Libertarian Party, firmly believes that any proper governmental power is best exercised at the local level, if at all. There are some legitimate governmental powers best exercised at the State level, but this is not one of them.

Local solutions for local problems.

I ask that the City Council instruct its paid lobbyist in Tallahassee to oppose this bill, both in the House and in the Senate.

I also ask they pass a Resolution addressed to the Governor, asking him to actively oppose this bill as it is being considered and to promise to veto the bill if it gets to his desk.

Larry Gillis

Cape Coral