One of the figures being bandied about last night...

by many at the meeting was the ratio of 80% of CRAs in the state/nation, what have you, that are solely run by elected officials and 20% of CRAs are made up of appointed/non-elected members.

I took the time today to go to an official source and put together a spreadsheet listing all 201 redevelopment agencies in the state of Florida and their composition. You can click the title for a link to the spreadsheet.

The results: 26% appointed; 66% elected officials; 9% a hybrid of the two.

While the numbers are still in favor of elected officials acting as CRAs, it is not as one-sided as reported during the meeting. The figure used last night also didn't consider hybrid boards, which is what it sounded like we were headed for if the motion to dissolve the CRA passed. For what it's worth, it is the least popular option of the three.

I believe the moral to the story here is that it really depends on the goals of the community and how open elected officials are to points of view that may be different than those of their own.