I think ballot issue number 4 in our upcoming March 8th election is the most important ballot issue to get right.
I think getting it right means passing Issue 4.
Several people have asked me to explain Ballot Issue 4.
Ballot Issue 4 states (Ballot Title):
Revision of Section 7.04 of City Charter Governing Initiative and Referendum Proceedings
That really doesn’t tell you much so let’s look at the Ballot Summary, the 75 words that the State of Florida allows and requires as the description of each ballot issue.
“Shall Charter Section 7.04, governing initiative and referenda, be revised to change the petition signature requirement from 10 percent of total electors to 10 percent of total electors in each district, specify a 90-day time period for petition submittal, delete suspension of ordinance upon filing a referendum petition, and require petitions to advise voters the election will be held at the next regular election unless a special election is called?”
What does this mean?Let’s look at it piece by piece and figure it out.
First off, “initiative and referenda” are terms that are used to describe the voters’ mechanism to place items on our ballots that can, if approved, create municipal ordinances (initiatives) OR the voters’ mechanism to place items on our ballots that can, if approved, repeal municipal ordinances (referenda).These tools give voters direct input into our municipal government.
Not all cities allow this to happen.Florida State Law requires that Cities have a process to recall (fire) their elected officials but there is no requirement to allow voters to create or repeal City Laws (ordinances).Even those cities that do allow initiative and referenda usually limit the topic of voter proposals.Most cities exclude taxation, budget, salaries, etc.
So, St Pete Beach allows direct voter input with no limits.I think that is pretty damn cool in terms of voter involvement ability.
So what changes are YOU considering?
Currently to put something on the ballot, voters need to gather a number of valid signatures equal to 10% of our registered voters.Let’s look as some numbers from the Pinellas county board of elections:
Districtvoters10% District 1 1671 voters168 District 2 1713 voters172 District 3 1886 voters187 District 41531 voters154 Total 6801 voters681
So to get something on the ballot to create a new ordinance, or repeal an old one, 681 voters must sign a petition.
YOU are being asked if YOU want to change the law to require 10% of the voters from each district to sign a petition.What does this mean?
If you agree, then 168 voters from district 1 and 172 voters from district 2 and 187 voters from district 3 and 154 voters from district 4 must sign the petitions.That is a still a total of 681 petition signatures.So why change?
Suppose a group of residents want to create an ordinance that restricts city funds for road improvements to Gulf Blvd ONLY for the next 5 years in order to make our town pretty for tourists.
No money for side streets and no money for Pass-a Grille.Under the current situation, if 681 signatures can be gathered from districts 1, 2, and 3 that initiative would be able to place an item on the ballot to vote on.That doesn’t seem fair to me.
If you vote YES on issue four, we change our City law so that 10% of voters from EACH district must sign.This will allow one district to say no to other districts by not signing the petition.Without this change any one District could easily get run over by the other three.
WHAT ELSE?
Currently, there is no time limit on collecting signatures.Someone could have started in 2001 and be collecting a minimal amount of signatures every year with the objective being able to put an item on the ballot in 2015. This makes no sense to me; times change, state laws and requirements change, economic conditions change.It seems to me that enacting a time limit on signature collection helps to ensure that voter initiatives are focused, timely and relevant as opposed to potential disruptive harassment of the rest of the citizenry as we have now.
WHAT ELSE?
We have mostly been talking about initiatives; putting something on the ballot to CREATE an ordinance.Now let’s talk about referenda; putting something on the ballot to REPEAL an ordinance. Currently, when the required number of signatures is gathered in an effort to REPEAL an ordinance, that ordinance is held in abeyance!It is invalidated! Stopped!That does not make any sense.
It means that 10% of the city can negate an existing ordinance without a vote.So, if you don’t like Section 6-5 of our City’s General Ordinances and can get 681 people to sign your petition you will be able to STOP our prohibition of alcohol on our beaches, without a vote, until the next election. Perhaps you could only get people from District 2 and District 3 to sign your petition.Currently, this is how the broken process “works”.
Then, if you lost when everybody in town voted, you could challenge the ballot language in court and get roughly another two years of alcohol on the beaches.
Alcohol would be permitted on the beaches in every District.
If you lost the court case then you could start the whole broken process over again.
Basically 10% of the people can declare a law inoperative as opposed to the normal majority that would be required at the polls.You could do that year after year after year.
This makes no sense to me.Vote YES on our March 8th Ballot Issue 4.
If you vote yes, you give each district the ability not to get run over by the other three.
If you vote yes, you put a 90 day limit on the time allowed to gather signatures to ensure timely, relevant initiatives.
If you vote yes, you end the ability of 10% of the people to nullify an ordinance without a majority vote.
I think this ordinance, which did not exist when our City was originally created, was poorly written and needs to be changed to give our City a more logical and better set of Ordinences.
The foregoing opinions are mine and mine alone.Please do your own research.