 |
||||||||
 |
|
|||||||
|
||||||||
|
 |
Voters' will swept aside for officials' 'principle'
© St. Petersburg Times The sheriff and the clerk of court of Pinellas County, Everett Rice and Karleen DeBlaker, must be proud. By fighting the taxpayers . . . By using the taxpayers' own money against them . . . By appealing, time after time . . . Rice and DeBlaker finally won a 4-3 ruling from the Florida Supreme Court last week that throws out term limits for them, as well as for the county property appraiser, tax collector and elections supervisor. Rice and DeBlaker will tell you they were acting out of "principle." They will tell you that neither one of them is going to run again, so they have nothing to gain personally. But the real "principle" at stake was this: The voters had to be taught who's the real boss. Back in 1996, the voters of Pinellas County approved an eight-year term limit for the County Commission, and the five other elected officials listed above. Term limits passed with 72 percent of the vote. Pinellas' elected officials were distressed. A terrible mistake surely had been made. The sun must have been in the voters' eyes. So several of the county's elected officials went to court. They lost at the trial level. They appealed to the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland. They lost again. The lower courts stated the simple fact: There is no law, and nothing in the Florida Constitution, to stop the people of Pinellas County from imposing local term limits. Pinellas County is what is called a "charter county." There are 17 of these in Florida, out of 67 counties in all. Being a charter county means that you have a local "constitution" that is approved by the voters. You can even get rid of the job of sheriff or clerk, if you choose. Pinellas has a "limited" charter, which means we still need the Legislature's approval for certain things. When it comes to the sheriff and the other officers, for example, we can't change their "status, duties and responsibilities" all by ourselves. But the lower courts were crystal clear: Term limits did not violate that rule. The voters of Pinellas County had acted entirely within their rights. It should also be clear by now, however, that the Florida Supreme Court is a slot machine -- you file your briefs and pull the lever. Never, ever stop appealing. Rice and DeBlaker stuck it out, even as the other politicians in the case gave up. Finally, they hit the jackpot. Last Thursday, four of the court's seven justices voted to throw out Pinellas County's term limits for the sheriff and the other four officials. (Term limits still seem to apply to the County Commission, but that might take another lawsuit to settle.) To arrive at this result, the justices had to perform mighty contortions. They had to rule that because the state Constitution explicitly includes term limits for the governor, Cabinet and Legislature, by implication it forbids term limits for the county-level posts created in the Constitution. They had to rule that term limits were a form of "disqualification" for holding office. Because the Constitution already contains a specific list of disqualifications (including, interestingly enough, mental incompetence), nothing else can be added. Chief Justice Charles Wells was joined in this strenuous exercise by justices Major Harding, Barbara Pariente and Fred Lewis. Three of the seven justices -- Harry Lee Anstead, Leander Shaw and Peggy Quince -- disagreed entirely. Their dissenting opinion stands on much firmer ground. Anstead wrote that the dissenters could find "no legal justification" for the majority's conclusion. Oh, well. The umpires voted 4-3 to call the runner safe, so he is safe. That's life. Under this wacky ruling, we mere voters can abolish the jobs of county politicians altogether -- but by gum, we had better not be so uppity as to try to limit their terms. So if anybody now wants to start a new petition to abolish the offices of sheriff and clerk of court in Pinellas County, I'll sign it. -- You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
|
Times columns today Robert Trigaux Ernest Hooper Howard Troxler Bill Maxwell John Romano From the Times Metro desk |
