Sarasota County Charter Amendment Question One
QUESTION ONE: CHARTER AMENDMENT TO AMEND SECTION 7.1 CHARTER PETITION PROCEDURES
Shall the Charter be revised to add requirements for a petition form, legal sufficiency review, fiscal impact statement, and a presentation to the Charter Review Board for all charter amendment petitions, as well as requiring 10% of registered voters from each district to sign the petition rather than 10% of registered voters countywide?
Overview:
The Sarasota County Charter, which is similar in function to a constitution for local governments, can be amended through several different methods, including proposals from the Florida Legislature, the Sarasota County Charter Review Board, by ordinance of the County Commission, and by citizen-initiated petition. The amendment must then be approved by voters in a referendum for them to take effect. The Charter amendments proposed for the November 2022 ballot were proposed by the Charter Review Board and by ordinance of the County Commission.
The citizen-initiated petition process allows citizens to propose an amendment by petition. Currently to place a citizen petition amendment on the ballot, signatures from at least 10% of registered county voters must be gathered and submitted to the Supervisor of Elections between Jan. 1 and April 1 (a 90-91 day period) with an additional 30 days allowed for gathering additional signatures if the Supervisor of Elections rejects some of the initial signatures.
The two proposed amendments on the November, 2022 ballot were put forth by the Charter Review board in 2020, two years after the county commission proposed restrictive measures for charter amendments on the November 2018 general election ballot. The 2018 amendments, passed by voters, increased the number of required signatures for citizen petitions to 10% and imposed the shortest time period of any charter county in the state for collection of voters’ signatures for citizen-initiated charter amendment petitions.
Question One would require that:
· A petition be signed by at least 10% of the registered voters within each commission district in Sarasota County, rather than by 10% of registered voters county-wide.
· A petition would be reviewed for legal sufficiency by the County upon the collection of validated signatures of 1% of the registered voters of the county, which signatures may be collected prior to Jan. 1 of the year of next the general election. If the County finds the petition is not legally sufficient, it will not be placed on the ballot. There is no definition of legal sufficiency in the proposed amendment.
· A petition would need a fiscal impact statement prepared by the county.
· A petition sponsor would be required to present the proposed amendment to the Charter Review Board, unless there are no CRB meetings held.
A YES Vote would:
· Impose the strictest parameters of all the charter counties in Florida for how citizens can petition for amendments to the Charter.
· Potentially result in minority rule by giving an outsized amount of power to one district should it garner fewer than 10 percent support while the others obtained overwhelming support.
· Potentially prevent a regional group of voters from bringing attention to issues of relevance to the entire county.
· Potentially make the citizen initiative process for amending the county charter confusing.
· Potentially prevent most citizen petition amendments from reaching the ballot at all.
· Potentially help voters better understand county charter amendments that are being proposed, and give voters a platform to voice their opinions on amendments ahead of Election Day.
A NO Vote would:
· Keep in place the current citizen-led petition process for amending the Sarasota Charter.
Supporters of Question One:
· The Charter Review Board
· The Sarasota County Commission
Opponents of Question One:
· The League of Women Voters of Sarasota county
· The Democratic Party of Sarasota County
· The Republican Liberty Caucus of Sarasota County
· Control Growth Now
Link to Sarasota Charter Review Board Amendment details: https://bit.ly/3ER4fcr
League of Women Voters of Sarasota County Position: The LWVSRQ opposes Charter Amendment Question One. The citizen initiated petition process to amend the charter has already been significantly restricted by charter amendments put forth by the County Commission and passed by voters in 2018. The League opposes any limits on a citizens’ abilities to be architects of their own Sarasota County Charter.