The Collier County Board of Commissioners considers an anti-health ordinance and resolution at its March 28 meeting. (Image: CCBC)
April 10, 2023 by David Silverberg
Honorable Commissioners:
I am writing to address the misleadingly titled “Collier County Health Freedom Bill of Rights Ordinance” and the “Collier County Health Freedom Resolution” that you are scheduled to consider tomorrow as agenda item 10A.
I very much regret that it appears I cannot be there to speak in person, so this message, which I am also publicly posting online, will have to do.
The objections I expressed to the ordinance at your March 28 meeting have not changed: the ordinance is redundant of state law; it is unnecessarily time consuming; it is unnecessarily expensive; it is unnecessarily divisive; it interferes with the professional and scientific administration of medical measures both individual and for the public as a whole; it is likely to be challenged on constitutional grounds and the county will have to bear the costs of any litigation defending it. Also, it will impede public health measures in the event of another emergency. Lives will be lost because of it.
Additionally, both the ordinance and the resolution, as last drafted, contain significant errors of fact and perception.
As Commissioners McDaniel and LoCastro pointed out at the last meeting, the draft resolution submitted then was angry, accusatory, conjectural and even violent in its language.
Neither the ordinance nor the resolution are worthy of approval and implementation in Collier County. They both should be rejected unanimously by the Board. Alternatively, as Dr. Michael Finkel has suggested, the ordinance could be submitted to a full referendum by the voters in next year’s general election.
Far more appropriate and constructive would be a memorial honoring the efforts of Collier County’s medical and healthcare professionals. They served and protected the county during the worst ravages of the COVID pandemic. Nor should the victims of COVID be forgotten. I elaborated on this in my message of April 2nd and posting of April 3rd.
At the very least Collier County should honor these professionals and victims with a resolution and proclamation expressing the county’s gratitude for their efforts and memorializing their passing and I urge you to pass such a measure.
Once again, I strongly urge you to reject this proposed ordinance and resolution. By doing so, you will be protecting the health of Collier County’s residents and maintaining its reputation in Florida and the world as a welcoming place of reason, rationality and common sense.
Liberty lives in light
©2023 by David Silverberg