'All we really added was layers of city government': Anti-city sentiment still runs in the veins of opponents

After opposing Destin’s incorporation 25 years ago, Dewey Destin then ran for the first City Council out of the same motives.

“The folks that came to Destin back in the good old days came to get away from government telling people what to do,” Dewey Destin told

The Log. “A lot of that sentiment still  runs in my veins, and we figured it would not take long for folks who should not be in control of government to take control of the government. That’s what led me to get involved.”

Before and after 1984, there was strong opposition to incorporating Destin. Voters rejected incorporation in 1973, rejected it again in 1982 and the Dissolution of Destin Incorporation Committee tried to unmake the new city in 1986.

In 1984, Opposition to Destin Incorporation formed in the fall to fight against incorporation, and lost. Three members of ODI, Dewey Destin, Lloyd Taylor and Danny Woodward, went on to run for and take seats on the new City Council; Dewey Destin is now in his sixth four year term.

Councilor Destin said that since incorporation, he and others who share his concerns have “tried to keep the city government from being too interfering in the lives of the local folks. In my opinion, it’s been sliding farther and farther into the dark side, but we’re still in there pitching. Regulations are not something that the folks that came to Destin cared much for ... but it always comes back and finds you again.”

Nevertheless, he said, it’s not like remaining unincorporated would have helped: “We’d have had the same problem, and absolutely no input into it at all. It’s the nature of the beast — it’s nothing in particular about our local agendas, it’s that to take the time and energy to participate in government, most people have a motivation other than civic duty.”

Taylor said his concerns in 1984 had been similar to Dewey Destin’s, that “developers, people that have their own agendas, tend to support candidates that support their agendas.” He added that he wasn’t including the ‘84 pro-incorporation group: “People leading the fight for incorporation were truly gentlemen, they had no agenda.”

He said the city’s “tiering system” of development is a perfect example of what he feared because it allows Tier Three projects to add more units per acre and more height than the city rules allow, in return for a public benefit.

“I would never have voted, ever, ever, for Tier Three projects to violate the rules because they provided a public good,” Taylor said. “I don’t blame the developers for doing it once it was available.”

Taylor said it’s the apathy of the residents that allows things to go on the way they do, though as someone who doesn’t attend most council meetings, he’s no different. He said there’d probably be as much development if the area were still unincorporated, though “we wouldn’t have these monetary expenses at City Hall ... I think we have a lot of high-paid salaries, maybe more than we need.”

Taylor said Destin had better recreation and excellent public-works maintenance crews because of incorporation but many others — police, firefighting, water and sewer — weren’t provided by the city, so they’d be the same regardless.

“All we really added was layers of city government,” Taylor said. “Can you say we made it better, allowing Tier Threes and other developments that took place? I don’t really think we had a great advantage.”