Naples’ Home Rule is being extinguished by State Senate Bills and power grabs threatening the City’s 100-year tradition of local self-government by the people. 

Three proposals define this troubling trend: Florida Senate Bill 250 and Senate Bill 180, both limiting local governing powers, and the recent push by Senator Passidomo and three Representatives to strip the Naples City Council of its power to appoint commissioners to the Naples Airport Authority (NAA).

The Combined Effect of the State’s Troubling Actions

These Bills represent the silencing of Naples residents.

• On the ground: No authority to enact resiliency ordinances, leading to more storm losses and soaring insurance costs.        
• In the air: Airport governance taken out of City hands and placed into Collier elections dominated by outside voters and PACs.
  
• Over time: Naples reduced to a powerless venue, with decisions made far away from the neighborhoods they impact.
  
• Your Codes and Airport now, it’s a safe bet that this over-reach won’t stop here; what’s next to control, your beaches?
  

What Home Rule Means

Home Rule, is the constitutional right of Florida cities to govern themselves on matters of local concern, unencumbered by state lawmakers. For Naples, it means residents, through their elected City Council, can decide how growth is managed, how neighborhoods are protected, how safety and health standards are enforced, and how the city’s fragile coastal environment is preserved.

Home Rule is the guarantee that those who live with the consequences make the decisions. It is how Naples safeguards its small-scale charm, its livability, and its identity as a world-class coastal community. Local Voices. Local Choices.

The Impact of Senate Bills 250 and 180

Both Florida Senate Bill 250 which became law in 2023, and the more recent Senate Bill 180, were passed ostensibly to facilitate recovery from Hurricane Ian.  Yet they go far beyond the political rhetoric; they prohibit cities from adopting or enforcing local ordinances that regulate zoning, density, intensity, and building design, areas where Naples has always set higher standards to protect its residents.

These State preemptions mean Naples is barred from enacting sensible resiliency ordinances tailored to our coastal geography, to absorb stormwater, and mitigate flooding.  Absent of our local control, more destruction, and higher residential insurance rates will impact Naples families who already shoulder some of the highest risks and costs; real life issues that Tallahassee lawmakers will never personally bear.

These Bills also restrict the updating of our Comprehensive Plan which is the City’s governing document, developed with the resident’s response to our Vision Surveys, intended to align our governance with the residents’ values.  Updating the Plan is in process but threatens to be stalled unless SB 180 is revised or repealed.  The Naples City Council has responded to this serious over-reach by joining 12 other Florida cities in a legal action that demands repeal of SB 180.

The Airport Power Grab

Equally troubling is the proposal to take away Naples City Council’s authority to appoint NAA commissioners and replace appointments with a Collier County-wide airport commissioner election where County voters outnumber City voters  15:1. 

Our City Council has appointed competent NAA commissioners for the last 57 years who have overseen an efficient and financially stable airport. The Airport sits on one square mile of City owned land, your land, 8% of the City’s total 12- square mile land mass, arguably worth Billions of dollars.  The appointment of Commissioners to manage the largest City asset appropriately belongs to the City and its residents.

In proposing this change in management, Tallahassee politicians present no operational deficiency as justification for disenfranchising the local City Council and your voice.  They only want a hand in controlling your land, your asset, your rights.

A County wide election vs. the appointment to this Board by a City Council will open the door to upstate political action committees (PACs) and outside money—and will produce candidates backed by statewide interests, spending freely to control the conversation. Naples residents, already a small fraction of the electorate, will see their voices drowned beneath a wave of paid advertising and PAC-funded messaging and new Commissioners beholden to donors, lobbyists and countrywide politics.

Defend Naples’ Voice and your Democracy Now

Home Rule is a constitutional principle designed to protect communities like ours from being ruled by distant legislators or overwhelmed by outside majorities. To lose it is to lose the very ability to govern ourselves.

Naples residents from every neighborhood should unite and object to Senate Bills which limit our local governing power, and defend the right of the City to appoint NAA Commissioners who will manage our Airport.

Write to City Council and tell them to protect your rights:

Council@naplesgov.com

Write to Senator Kathleen Passidomo and tell her to repeal the Senate Bills that interfere with Local Governance:

Passidomo.kathleen@flsenate.gov

Write to the three Representatives outside the City who designed and voted on the Bill to hold elections outside the City for seats on the NAA Board:

Yvette.benarroch@myfloridahouse.gov

Lauren.Melo@myfloridahouse.gov

Adam.Botana@myfloridahouse.gov

he States Dismantling of Naples Home Rule

Mayor Heitmann will address the latest assault on our City's Home Rule by the State at the upcoming ONA Coffee on November 11th. 

Members may reserve a spot at the coffee register HERE   Not a member?   Join us HERE 

Home Rule is the right of municipalities to self govern without undue influence from the State.  This is the third proposed Senate Bill to weaken our City Council's authority in as many years.

Read a letter from Mayor Heitmann objecting to a recently proposed Legislative Bill to upend our City Council's management of our Municipal Airport  HERE

Unless the Bill is repealed or defeated it will go on to the House and the Senate for approval over the next few months. 

See two prior ONA Bulletins with more information about this Bill:

  HERE  HERE 

In a unanimous decision Council moved to Lobby the State and to identify an Attorney to provide counsel on their opposition to a new Senate Bill which dilutes Home Rule.  if passed, the Bill will change how members of the Naples Airport Authority (the NAA) are appointed.   

Home Rule is the constitutional right of a municipality to govern without undue interference from the State.  Council unanimously objected to this Bill, which is a third Senate Bill by the State in as many years, removing governing power from our local officials.  The Bill subordinates our local residents to special interests, to Collier County and to the State. 

LOCAL VOICES LOCAL CHOICES

The NAA manages the Naples Municipal Airport and is comprised of City residents appointed by Naples City Council.  The Senate Bill replaces the authority of City Council to appoint City residents to the NAA.  It calls instead for an election by Collier County voters and opens up the NAA seats to County residents. The Bill limits those who can run, and requires County candidates be seated on the NAA over City residents.  The move diminishes the power of our elected officials and, by default, the citizens. 

When the Bill is approved, the voice of the City Resident Voters shrinks from 100% to 5% in the management of the City’s wholly owned, largest asset, The Naples Municipal Airport. 

ASK THE STATE – WHAT IS NEXT?

The State has taken control of our land and zoning codes.  With this Bill authority over our Airport will have been upended.  The Senator uses the rationale that the County uses the Airport (too).  However, the County uses our beaches as well as our Airport. 

Can Senator Passidomo convince us that control of our Beaches is not next? 

WATCH THE VIDEO SEGMENT OF THE SEPTEMBER 24TH CITY COUNCIL MEETING WHERE THE BILL WAS DISCUSSED:

Listen to comments by the Vice Major and his motion to identify a firm that could provide legal advice HERE

Watch the full hour-long conversation to fully understand the issue and to learn how your individual City Council members have reacted HERE

ON SEPTEMBER 24^TH COUNCIL AGREED ON THE FOLLOWING:

• This Bill will move quickly through the House and on to the Senate for approval over the next five months.
  
• Council was blindsided; notice of development of the Bill was never shared with City Council, making it impossible to discuss it in the sunshine as full body with citizen engagement. 
  
• The Naples Municipal Airport is the largest City asset.  It is fully located in, and owned by the City of Naples. It should be managed by the City residents as it has been for 57 years.   
  
• The Naples Municipal Airport was intended to serve our community without disrupting or causing detriment to our City; this is enshrined in our Vision Document. 
  
• The Bill dilutes the City’s voice by 95%.   If those in the County are allowed to vote on the management of our largest asset, 400K County residents will over-shadow the 20K residents in the City. 
  
• The City provides services exclusively to the Airport; the County does not.
  
• The County has previously expressed that they have no interest in the Airport.  There is no rationale given for this move to now have the City give up control of its management of the Airport to the County. 
  
• This is not the first time those with State influence have asked the State to control City Council; some groups using that influence have advanced legislation over the last three years that edges out our community at large. 
  
• Initiatives to talk to the State seem reasonable, but the City has attempted to get clarity on other Bills threatening Home Rule (SB 250 and 180) without a response.   We cannot stand on hope alone that they will talk to us.
  

Council needs to fight for our community.  A grass roots movement by our citizens is also needed.  

WHERE ARE THESE STATE POWER GRABS COMING FROM AND WHY? 

Special interests in the community have gone to the State and used their influence to ask the State to control City Council; those who want their way and will disenfranchise democracy and the City residents to get it.    

Mayor Heitmann objects to the idea that those with more clout at the State level should undermine our community at large.   Listen to the Mayor’s comments in this six-minute clip of the recent Council Meeting HERE

CITIZENS MUST JOIN COUNCIL IN PROTECTING THEIR RIGHTS:

Now that legislators have placed the Bill for approval the City must not negotiate a compromise to the Bill.  The Bill must be categorically repealed. 

Tell your City Council that no level of over-reach is acceptable; to object wholly to this Bill.  Write to:  Council@naplesgov.com 

Write to Senator Kathleen Passidomo and tell her to repeal this and the other Senate Bills that interfere with our Local Governance:  Passidomo.kathleen@flsenate.gov

Write to the three Representatives outside our District who designed and voted on the Bill and tell them you object to their interference in our local City Issues. 

Yvette.benarroch@myfloridahouse.govLauren.Melo@myfloridahouse.gov   

Adam.Botana@myfloridahouse.gov