Owners of manufactured homes have statewide lobbying power through the auspices of FMO, which retains a lobbyist in Tallahassee to oversee what goes on in the state legislature.

Readers of this column know that I have been critical of the Polk County Commissioners for their lack of understanding of the manufactured home industry. To the best of my knowledge, not one of the commissioners has an in-depth knowledge of manufactured housing in the county. I have also been critical of the Polk Vision Committee, as their steering committee does not include one person with a background in manufactured housing.

County commissioners throughout the state are confronted with issues related to manufactured housing on a regular basis. It is estimated that there are more than 900,000 manufactured homes in the state and growing. There are more manufactured homes in Florida than any other state. The central section and Tampa Bay area have more manufactured homes than any other part of the state. For example, in Polk County there are more than 68,000 manufactured homes, which represents 34 percent of the 200,000 homes in this county. That means that most likely there are about 136,000 manufactured home residents in Polk County. The same could be said for most of the other counties in the state.

The question is: Who speaks for these residents, who represents their interests with the county commissioners, the city governments, the zoning and planning commissions and all the other governmental bodies that impact on the lifestyle of manufactured housing? Who is going to educate commissioners and other governmental agencies that affect manufactured housing? The answer is there is no representative body set up to lobby on behalf of manufactured home owners, community owners, manufacturers, installers, and vendors related to the industry.

Recently, I sat down with Bruce Parker, a former Polk County commissioner. This long-time Floridian has spent a great deal of his life as a volunteer in community affairs and has devoted time and talent to governmental affairs.

Parker said that, in his experience as a Polk County commissioner, there are several very strong groups impacting votes on important issues: Groups like the county builder/construction industry, Polk Vision, the chambers of commerce, and the Committee of 100. These large, influential groups carefully monitor issues that impact their goals and lobby hard to assure favorable outcomes. They sometimes have the power to decide elections since they support candidates that they feel can serve the interests of their organization.

Parker said the county commissioners had issues affecting manufactured housing frequently and he readily admitted that none of the commissioners when he served had any background or in-depth knowledge of the industry. He further stated that, in general, there is a bias against manufactured housing because of the lack of understanding. Generally, the industry is viewed as full of mobile/trailer home parks that could or should be replaced with stick built homes.

I recommend that in large counties like Polk, Hillsborough, Pinellas, etc., the industry leaders establish a manufactured housing commission. This commission of volunteers should be comprised of representatives from manufacturing, FMO, FMHA, HOA presidents, installers, insurance and other vendors to the industry.

The first task a manufactured housing commission should undertake would be an educational campaign directed to all county, city or governmental officials in their area. They should also direct educational effort to every facet of the media, print and otherwise.

Why educational? Major problems arise when government officials are asked to make decisions impacting our industry and they have no background or knowledge of it. How can they make an informed decision without a background in our industry?

I am convinced that if industry leaders in each county or region would establish a commission of manufactured housing leaders they could and would make a dramatic impact on decisions impacting us. Let's face it. If elected officials recognize the unification of voters, they will listen.

Do you think that the wishes of 138,000 voters in Polk County, or a block of voters in other areas, would be ignored if the commissioners knew that they are unified? I doubt it.

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