<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1234Xk_1H4BI7MT00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1234Xk_1H4BI7MT00" width="1762" height="1176" ><figcaption>Is the Stuart Council putting all of their eggs in one basket? A backyard chicken survey will be going out to city residents. Pixabay/For Hometown News</figcaption></figure>STUART – The residents here anxiously awaiting the backyard chicken ordinance approval to legalize their laying hens running afoul of the law may have to delay the legal construction of any new coops or chicken runs as the wheels of government here have slowed to a crawl and are now focused on a backyard chicken survey questionnaire instead.Back in early June, the City Commission majority approved the backyard chicken ordinance on first reading after its members directed Stuart Development Director Jodi Kugler in February to draft that ordinance.The Community Redevelopment Board heard it first in May, with its majority members voting to recommend approval.The Commission ended the June 8 meeting with a 3-1 vote for approval. Commissioner Campbell Rich cast the lone dissenting vote, and the Board was slated to hear the second reading on June 22.During that subsequent discussion, however, Commissioner Rich wanted to tap the brakes until after the August Primary Election when the Board would have a fifth member. His colleagues ultimately agreed to kick the coop until Sept. 14.The addition of Commissioner Merritt Matheson’s added viewpoint brought no progress, however, with Commissioner Sean Reed suggesting new restrictions and Matheson broaching the idea of a backyard chicken survey sent to residents.That notion has since grown wings and taken a long-distance flight. The Board struggled to determine the parameters of that survey on Sept. 22, waiting another month to finally give its unanimous approval on Oct. 26.Communications and Digital Marketing Manager Misty described the survey questionnaire that evening.“We’re still proposing an online survey,” she said. “We’ve got five questions. The survey will be done in English and Spanish, [and] a paper survey available at customer service. We will be using the utility billing account number on the survey to make sure it is a City of Stuart residence. It will be going out on our November utility bills and info bits. Utility bills are built or sent in four cycles: The first one would be Nov. 7, and then each week thereafter, we go out to another set of households. We would go ahead and have it on the website and also promote it on social media, a news release and then our city kiosk.”Guertin subsequently suggested a Jan. 10 deadline for survey responses, emphasizing that the questions were “fill in the blank, just yes and no questions.”“The only thing required is the utility account number,” she concluded. “That way, if there’s any duplicates, we can sort those out. For anyone that does a handwritten copy at the Utility’s customer service, we would go ahead and enter those in manually.”The Board discussion afterward revealed frustration by some members because the utility bill method would not elicit responses from individual condominium and apartment dwellers because the City of Stuart Utility Department sends only one bill to the homeowners’ association or management company for the entire development. That would mean only one vote for potentially dozens of property owners or tenants. City Manager Michael Mortell admitted that was a problem with using utility bill account numbers as verification.“That’s the difficulty of doing it through a utility bill,” he said. “At the last meeting, there was discussion about not including multifamily townhouses or apartments, but I don’t know if that was for the purposes of the survey or the purposes of the actual ordinance. Because if it’s a survey, you’re probably looking for all of the residents of Stuart to respond. I also think there would be a way to get emails for registered voters potentially.”Commissioner Rich immediately resisted the utility bill method.“This is so skewed – it makes no sense,” he said.Commissioner Matheson also opposed excluding the opinions of multifamily residents.“I’m OK with one per household,” he said. “I’m not okay with one per entire apartment or condo building. We’re trying to get input from a diverse group because this can affect all of us.”Matheson then suggested the voter I.D. method.“We only accept one vote per address, but at least then you get the apartments,” he continued. “So, we move forward with this, but we just eliminate the line item that says you have to enter your utility bill and change it to an address. And then we pursue the voter registration emails.”More than once Board members bogged down on differences, prompting Mortell on two occasions to suggest keeping the status quo, meaning looking the other way for current contraband chicken coops in the city.“We can just leave it the way it is,” he said.That sentiment was further aggravated by Commissioner Rich’s description of his recent visit to Miami where he witnessed what his ride-share driver described as “chicken gangs” invading the streets.“We have an opportunity to not fix a non-problem,” Mortell insisted.“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Mayor Eula Clarke chimed in.Commissioner Matheson ultimately made a motion to approve the survey utilizing email addresses obtained from public voter records and eliminating the need for a utility bill number. Commissioner Sean Reed seconded that motion, which led to a consensus of March 1 as a new response deadline. That motion passed unanimously.By press time, the first Info Bits utility bill notification on the survey will have gone out to some city residents.</div></body>

Block Source: hometownnewstc.com

Misinformation

Clickbait

Old or repetitive news

Explicit content

Location not relevant

STUART – The residents here anxiously awaiting the backyard chicken ordinance approval to legalize their laying hens running afoul of the law may have to delay the legal construction of any new coops or chicken runs as the wheels of government here have slowed to a crawl and are now focused on a backyard chicken survey questionnaire instead.

Stuart’s chicken debate lays another egg

NewsBreak

STUART – The residents here anxiously awaiting the backyard chicken ordinance approval to legalize their laying hens running afoul of the law may have to d

Stuart’s chicken debate lays another egg

Comments / 1