Today was the Okaloosa County Commissioner’s Floating Structure workshop and it went exactly as expected! Those speaking up concerned about the new ordinances they are deliberating on (although the term deliberating gives them too much credit. Deliberating means “to engage in long and careful consideration” and they are hardly doing that because after this workshop it’s clear they have their own agenda and their minds are made up.) One of their “concerns” was the damage the structures are doing to the environment. Ken Wampler admittedly said “We are not environmentalists”  yet they qualified themselves as experts the moment they used environment as an excuse for their ‘moving the structures out nightly’ ordinance. To “protect the environment”. Not once concerned about the hundreds of boats that anchor daily.  Then he said it was “for the good of the will for everybody”? Huh? Is it for the environment or the good of the will for everyone that the structures move nightly? Does this make sense ... to anyone?  Then they talked about putting in a new ordinance to limit the amount of vendors because obviously free enterprise means nothing to them. How about grandfathering in the licensed vendors from this year? Their response, we can “do a lottery”or “maybe even a first come first serve” scenario. Anything to make it hard for the vendors. Like making them mobile daily isn’t hard enough. Another way to force some to close their businesses because they have families and responsibilities and can’t risk waiting to see if the business they’ve had for years will be allowed to operate next season. The funniest part of the entire meeting was when a representative from the Tourist Development Council spoke (urged by Commissioner Fountain) to say Crab Island isn’t a major tourist draw! What?!?! It’s not the only draw but it’s definitely a major one. She definitely got laughed at with that. Then they tried to say that they are not trying to close Crab Island as suggested on social media. I don’t know about you, but wanting to get rid of the Vendors on Crab Island is ultimately a kick in the face to Destin and it will be felt. The Tourist Developmental Council representative did say that one of the reasons tourists didn’t like coming to Destin was due to the inhospitable behavior of the locals. Isn’t this exactly how the Commissioners are acting by wanting Crab Island more for the locals to enjoy? Commissioner Boyles (District 3) actually said the floating obstacle courses take up too much space. Space the locals could use and enjoy. That’s showing some great tourism hospitality. Sounds just as silly as referring to the Vendors being bigger than starter homes. Have they even been to Crab Island and seen the sizes of some of the boats out there? Apparently not!  You can google an aerial shot of Crab Island and it’s hard to even tell the vendors from the boats. There is a personal agenda going on with all of this. The real question is, is any of this legal?  Now that the structures are no longer structures and will become vessels in order to move nightly, can they legally do this? If anyone has legal advice or knows someone who can help them, please leave a comment. The Vendors appreciate you signing the petition. They deserve to be treated fairly and like any legal land business. This has gone over the top! Thank you for taking the time to read this too. You won’t see this side of it with the media. (Strangely enough, nothing has been posted about this meeting yet. Usually the news station that records it, Channel 3WEAR posts the video within hours of being there. Nothing yet.) Again thank you and keep sharing!