An elected official had two public jobs. She decided she could handle only one
An Islamorada Village Council member announced her resignation effective immediately Tuesday, saying her other role as a governing board member of the South Florida Water Management District takes too much of her time to commit to both posts.
“It was a very hard decision,” Cheryl Meads said Tuesday morning. “It took the entire holiday to make it.”
In February, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed her to the water management district board for a three-year term. She said the job has become too time consuming and requires too much in-state travel to devote the time and energy it takes to represent Islamorada.
The district is the state’s main agency overseeing Everglades restoration and water quality.
DeSantis, who last year signed an executive order to spend $2.5 billion over the next four years on Everglades restoration and protection projects, appointed Meads after he asked the nine board members appointed by his predecessor, Rick Scott, to resign.
The call for their resignation came two days after DeSantis’ election in November 2018 when they extended a lease to sugar farmers on land the state designated for a 17,000-acre reservoir designed to filter polluted Lake Okeechobee discharged water before it flows down through the Everglades.
Meads, 60, said that DeSantis’ commitment to Everglades projects, as well as a federal spending bill signed by President Trump in December that earmarks $200 million for restoration work, has increased the workload on the water management district board, and the number of times it meets.
“We need to get things done, because who knows who the next governor will be,” Meads said.
Meads’ four Village Council colleagues will appoint a replacement to finish out the remaining 11 months on the dais, said Mary Swaney, Islamorada’s public information officer. Council members serve two-year terms. This was Meads’ second term.
The council has 30 days to fill a vacant seat, Swaney said. The council will meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Village Hall at Founders Park, mile marker 97, and appointing Meads’ replacement will likely be a topic.
This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
