Yes. Forming a municipality transfers ownership of the local government functions to the local community, simplifying and localizing the administration. Voters elect local citizens as leaders to manage and oversee these functions. Government lite aims to simplify the delivery of services to support these functions by contracting most of these services to the existing providers and managing these services contractually.

Our county provides two functions for unincorporated areas. The first is the typical constitutional county function ― social services, sheriff, emergency management, disaster recovery, transportation, elections, etc. The second is local government function ― comprehensive planning, zoning and planning, code enforcement, land use, parks and recreation, and ordinances to maintain a certain level of order. Municipalities within Florida counties have the ability to manage these local government functions for themselves.

Addressing a local issue through our county-wide administration requires buy-in from three out of five county commissioners, all with priorities spread across a population of 320,000 and 875 square miles of land. These same issues addressed through a local municipality require buy-in from locally elected leaders focused on a population of 23,000 within 32 square miles. Leadership with a vested interest in the well-being of the local community of Perdido could more readily address local issues.

Our current county government structure, providing both county and local government functions, is understandably complex and bureaucratic. A government-lite municipality provides the local government function through a simple, responsive administration, requiring only a handful of employees. A government-lite town would both simplify the county governance of Perdido, as well as Perdido’s own local governance.