Charter Review Commission completes work
This is the final installment of the series about the Charter Review Commission’s work. The report has gone to the Council and the ball is now in their court to do with it what they will. Below is the coverage of the last few “Substantive Changes” we dealt with, as well as a few “Clerical Changes.”
– Article XII Initiative and Referendum Section 12.01: The charter currently requires at least 25 percent of the town’s qualified voters to petition the council to propose an ordinance or require reconsideration of one, and to force the issue to a referendum in the next municipal election if the council fails to adopt it. With give-or-take 5,100 registered voters, that means 1,275 signatures are needed. We’re proposing lowering that requirement to 15 percent of the voters, or 765 signatures, still a lot, but more easily attained. Considering the percentage of voters who actually care enough to vote (25 percent, maybe?), this seems more realistic. I don’t see this lowered requirement as opening the door to a lot of frivolous petitions.
– Section 12.02 of the same article deals with bridge tolls. It says: “The council may impose road or bridge tolls only after approval of the electors, as provided by general law.” No, they can’t. This was a feel-good statement added during a period of great controversy several years ago when that issue was hot. It totally ignores the fact that the State owns the bridge and the County owns the road and if anybody is going to impose tolls, it would be they. One hopes that the Town would have input into such a decision, but the fact is that the town has no legal say. We’re proposing deleting the section as it is meaningless.
– Articles XV, XVI and XVII are also candidates to be totally deleted and here’s why:
Article XV deals with the initial transition for the incorporation of the Town. Section 15.12 states, “Upon completion of the transition phase as contained herein, those sections of the charter relating to the transition shall be eliminated.” Well, the transition has been complete for some time, so we’re just doing what this section directs us to do eliminate it.
– Article XVI Independent Special Districts. There are no independent special districts wholly within the limits of the town boundaries. Sheriff, fire, mosquito control and other services all extend beyond the town. The section is irrelevant and serves no purpose in the charter.
– Article XVII Revenue Sharing. This is about our dealings with those external services and is thoroughly covered by Florida law. It is not needed in the charter and eliminating it will shorten and simplify the overall document.
– There are four “Clerical Changes,” which clarify some intentions without altering them. There’s some ambiguous language in defining the territorial boundaries of the town, and we’ve fixed that. A couple others are deletions of verbiage that dealt with the transition and should not be there any longer. The last one makes the document gender neutral. There were some sections which read “him/his.” If you’ve been paying attention to our town government and have any sensitivity about these things, fixing this will make sense. If you don’t understand the need, you could be raising issues of “domestic tranquility” in your home that the founding fathers never considered.
That’s it. The plan now is that the Commission hopes to sit down with the Council at a workshop meeting in the near future to discuss the report. After that, there must be two public hearings about the proposed changes before the Council adopts, rejects or modifies them. Then, whatever they decide goes on to a ballot in March 2016. If any of these proposals have rung your bell on any side of them, these hearings will be the time for you to sound off about it. Voter apathy is the quickest way for things to go differently from what the public wants. When this stuff comes up, I urge everybody to inform themselves, make reasoned decisions about them and vote them up or down. Don’t wait ’til something changes that you don’t like and complain about it after it’s a done deal.
The completed report showing the existing charter wording and the proposed changes right next to it will be posted on the Town website (I hope sometime soon) as well as the Commission’s worksheets containing the pros and cons for each of them. This group has worked calmly, reasonably and with no other intention than making Fort Myers Beach better. It’s been a pleasure serving with them.
— Jay Light is a member of the Charter Review Committee. This is the one before last installment of the series about the CRC. The final one will appear in the 3-18-15 issue.