State: Court hears arguments to overturn term limits

TALLAHASSEE -- It has been five years since Pinellas County voters placed eight-year term limits on the sheriff and other constitutional officers. But the legal challenges grind on.

The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in an appeal filed by three Pinellas County officials who say term limits for their offices are an unconstitutional expansion of home-rule powers granted to counties by the Legislature. They argued that the five officers affected -- sheriff, clerk of court, property appraiser, tax collector and supervisor of elections -- derive their powers and qualifications from the state Constitution, not the county charter.

The case was brought by Pinellas Sheriff Everett Rice, Clerk of Court Karleen DeBlaker and former Tax Collector Fred Petty against Eight is Enough in Pinellas. All three were in court and emphasized later that what's at stake is the Constitution -- not their careers.

"It's not a personal issue with me," said Rice, who will not run again when his current term ends in 2004. "It's simply trying to protect the independence of the office of sheriff. Term limits is not the issue."

The trio's lawyer, Sarah Richardson, a senior assistant county attorney for Pinellas, said a county can't impose term limits on sheriffs or clerks, whose qualifications are spelled out in the state Constitution, unlike county commissioners whose qualifications are specified in the county charter.

Richardson said only the Legislature, not voters, can initiate changes in terms of office of constitutional officers. She compared the Pinellas case to the 1995 case in which Arkansas' term limits law was ruled as inapplicable to members of Congress on the ground that states cannot specify qualifications for members of Congress beyond what is required by the U.S. Constitution.

Eight is Enough in Pinellas, a political group, launched the 1996 petition drive to impose the same eight-year limit on county officers that apply to the governor, members of the state Cabinet and Legislature. Voters responded enthusiastically: 72 percent of them approved the measure.

"We certainly think it is within the home rule powers of the county charter to impose term limits," countered Michael Hooker, an attorney for Eight is Enough in Pinellas.

"The state has no universal interest in how a particular county deals with its local officials," Hooker wrote in an argument with the state's high court. "Whether the county implements term limits for its elected county officials has no impact on any other county or the state-level governing bodies. . . . The state does not have a uniform interest in assuring that each county chooses its local officials in the identical manner."

In a related case also heard Wednesday, Henry Cook, the former clerk of court in Duval County, is trying to strike down an eight-year term limit on his old job in Jacksonville. Cook, 72, left office in 1998, and said he won't run again.

Cook argues that the court clerk is an officer of the judicial branch and is exempt from term limits -- an argument rejected by the 1st District Court of Appeal, which last year upheld the voter-approved term limit provision.

The appeals court reversed the trial court, which agreed with Cook that the term limit clause "prescribes additional qualifications or disqualifications" for the position.

Chief Justice Charles Wells said the issue is whether a county can use its home rule powers to impose rules on political offices. "The ultimate question has to come down to whether there can be an additional disqualification or qualification for office," Wells said.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk