Republican men discuss charter amendments

The Republican Men of Clay discussed three amendments to Clay County’s Charter during their Oct. 19 meeting at Santioni’s Italian Restaurant in Fleming Island.

As one of 20 charter counties in the state, Clay voters set the rules by which the county operates and decides such issues as the terms and salaries of elected officials, redistricting, and the organization of county government. Non-charter counties adhere to state law regarding those matters.

On the Nov. 8 ballot, voters will decide on three changes to the charter and vote on whether to renew a one-mill property tax levy to fund safety and security for students and to provide operating expenses to the school district.

One charter amendment would add an annual cost-of-living adjustment to commissioner salaries. A second would remove the current three-term limit on constitutional officers, like the sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, supervisor of elections and clerk of court. A third amendment would change the meeting frequency of the charter review commission from every four years to every eight years.

After the meeting, Republican Men of Clay President Mike Cella said he is opposed to the annual cost-of-living adjustment and the reversal of term limits for the constitutional officers.

“My conviction is that we should have term limits,” he said. “We’ve got term limits for the governor, term limits for his cabinet, term limits for legislators and term limits for county commissioners, at least here in Clay County.”

Cella added that he was pleased when the legislature passed State Rep. Sam Garrison’s bill to place term limits on school board members, and the governor signed the bill into law.

Cella, himself a county commissioner, said he and the majority of the club’s members are voting yes on changing the county’s charter review commission frequency from every four years to every eight.

On whether to renew the school board’s one-mill property tax levy, Cella said the school board knows better than he does if it needs the additional funding. However, he stressed that school district leaders should explain to voters in detail where the security money is going.

“We did that with impact fees,” Cella said of the board of county commissioners. “We had to show where we were going to spend that money. And just last year, when we raised the millage rate by 0.5 mills, we told the voters where it was going: strictly for monies for public safety, both fire and law enforcement, as well as getting some of our county employees to that $15 an hour mark which was mandated by state statutes.”

When asked if school district leaders have adequately made a case for the renewal of the one-mill assessment, Cella said he has not seen it.

“I can’t say that I’ve looked really hard for it, and they may have,” he said, “but I haven’t seen where they have explained what they are doing with the money.”