As expected, the Board of County Commissioners officially rejected a proposed Charter Amendment for inclusion on November's ballot. The amendment, sponsored by Citizens for Term Limits and Accountability Committee, called for the elimination of two at-large seats scheduled to be added to the BCC.

CTLAC's petition had been certified by the Supervisor of Elections Office, and the group collected and had varified more than 5,500 signatures of Clay County voters who wanted the issue to go to voters in November. After that, though, it was discovered that the title of the proposed amendment contained more words than Florida Statutes allow.

Barbara Kirkman, the supervisor of elections, admitted her mistake in certifying CTLAC's petitions, but said she could not recommend the Board OKing an improperly-worded amendment on the ballot. She did, however, remind the BCC that the Clay County Charter allows the Board itself to place an amendment issue on the ballot, and suggested that would be an equitable remedy for her office's part of the mistake.

Several citizens spoke about the issue before Kirkman even addressed the Board. And once everyone else was finished talking, Commissioner (and new four-year Chairman-in-waiting) Rob Bradley and County Attorney Mark Scruby cited a couple of legal cases supporting him not recusing himself from the vote. Scruby also gave his opinion that the BCC should act quickly in response to the Supervisor of Election's mistake, and that the Board should reject the petition.

When the five Commissioners actually began discussing the issue, it didn't take long. Chairman George Bush defined the issue quickly: "This deals only with the rejection of the petition certification for ballot."

That was done quickly and unanimously, as expected.

And that was the end of the issue. There was never any discussion of the equitable option Mrs. Kirkman, the Supervisor of Elections' attorney and CTLAC members suggested, which is the BCC using its own authority to place the issue before November's voters. It was as if they couldn't wait to move on to the next important issue - the County Attorney's business because he had to leave the meeting. They even went through that in record speed, even cutting off Scruby during each of his three issues and quickly taking their votes.

Then they talked about whether Clay County should continue charging Duval County residents who use our local libraries. They didn't have time to talk about fixing a government mistake that invalidates the desires of 5.500 petition signers, but the possibility (later defeated in a 4-1 vote) of cutting library fees for out-of-towners gets plenty of time.

Michael S. Mann

michaelsmann@comcast.net [1]