Councilors Supporting Rental Ordinance Should be Applauded

Letters to the editor from the pro-short-term rental community unfairly disparaged several city councilors for supporting the short-term rental ordinance.

The letters falsely claim that these representatives of our community - Councilors Folley, Brechnitz, Blonna, and Rola - somehow neglected their duty, when in reality they listened to the majority of Marco voters who are concerned about the erosion of quality of life in our community.

Some claim the ordinance was "changed" after it was voted on. These were mainly technical changes - most were supported by both pro and anti-STR folks- that improved the long-term resiliency of the ordinance. Would short-term rental owners have preferred we kept technical errors in the ordinance? Of course not. No one would. Everyone wanted to see corrections made. Several of them received *unanimous* support of City Council. Casting these corrections as somehow anti-democratic is ridiculous.

It is the short-term rental owners who fail to listen to the will of the people. Despite the majority of Marco residents clearly desiring protections for residents in single-family homes - after years of inaction and after being outspent during the referendum campaign - short-term rental owners are still trying to silence the will of the majority through a series of frivolous and unfounded lawsuits.

STR owners argue city councilors that voted "Yes" exposed the City to these lawsuits against the ordinance, failing to acknowledge their own involvement in supporting - sometimes directly funding - these same lawsuits.

Councilors Rola and Blonna consistently supported the ordinance. And Councilors Folley and Brechnitz made it abundantly clear during the 2022 campaign that they would respect the will of the voters. None of that has changed, yet the manufactured outrage of some STR owners is simply crocodile tears deceptively designed to sow doubt in our councilors that respect the majority of voters.