Respecting the Will of the People

MY 2020 PLATFORM

In 2020, I ran for City Commission in the City of Fernandina Beach. Although I lost, I believe that along with my many supporters, I boosted awareness of environmental issues in the City. Here was my campaign pledge:

If I am elected to serve the people of the City of Fernandina Beach, I will work with my fellow Commissioners to find solutions to our issues, listening always to the Will of the People. I pledge to foster:

Our small town values: Working with born-and-raised residents who remember how it was; preserving and restoring the Fernandina way of life.

Environmental sustainability: Working with City staff and activist citizens from Amelia Tree Conservancy and Conserve Amelia Now as well as the North Florida Land Trust to strengthen our environmental policies and enforcement.

Financial sustainability: Working with the City Manager and volunteers from our local Chamber of Commerce and the newly formed citizen group Common Sense to find cost savings and to foster long-term financial planning (For my answers to the Nassau Chamber of Commerce, see this link: https://www.islandchamber.com/alexandra-lajoux.html For my answers to another set of questions, from the League of Women Voters, see My answers to the questionnaire are here: http://onyourballot.vote411.org/race-detail.do?id=22337063)

MY MISSION

My mission to Respect the Will of the People began in 2019 when our community was threatened by a large development project. Here is the letter I wrote our City Commission about that project.

June 19, 2019

Dear Commissioners:

Last night I attended a meeting of the Fernandina Beach City Commission as you began deliberations on the Auto-Centric concept of developer Steve Leggett. After nearly three hours of listening, I came away inspired.

One citizen’s comment was particularly thought-provoking. He said that valid governments require the “consent of the governed.” That sent me back to read the Declaration of Independence. This divinely inspired document asserts the existence of “certain inalienable rights” including the “pursuit of happiness.” Further, it states that “to secure these rights, Governments are  instituted” deriving their “just powers from the consent of the governed.”

The courageous founders of America also noted here that when a government becomes “destructive of those ends,” it is the right of the people to change government in such a way as “most likely to effect their  safety and happiness.”

The Leggett project will not effect our safety and happiness; indeed, it will affect these in a negative way. This is why a vast majority of residents on this Island are rising up against it.

As a Fernandina Beach homeowner who has collected 137 signatures so far in my neighborhood and beyond (as of the date and time of this letter), I found that all but two people I have approached have been eager to sign the petition (one appeared distracted; another said  he opposed the project but would write an email instead).  I have heard similar stories from other volunteers.

I hope that proponents of the plan will start their own petition drive to see how many people support this development. I believe that they will find this to be an uphill battle, because this initiative does not have the consent of the governed.

I am confident that the Fernandina Beach City Commission will vote no on this matter. Commissioners Ross and Lednovich have strong records as conservationists, so that is a start. In addition, Commissioner Kreger, Vice Mayor, noted during the hearing that this is not a matter of the private sector exercising its property rights; rather, it is a lease for lands owned by the City itself. He urged other Commissioners to consider this fact. The Mayor other Commissioners were also attentive to the scores of people from all parts of the political spectrum expressing their valid concerns.

In closing, I would like to borrow words from another great American document – Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.

I pray that this Island, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth. That goes for our precious Fernandina Beach culture and ecosystem too. Please vote no on the Leggett proposal.

Alexandra Lajoux

Fernandina Beach FL 32034