Oldsmar charter proposals rejected

Two possible referendums to change certain hiring and firing practices would have been too confusing for voters, the Oldsmar City Council is told.

By ED QUIOCO

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 23, 2000

OLDSMAR -- The City Council wanted to hold a referendum to change the way it hires and fires certain city officials, but it held off Tuesday night because of the risk of creating some Palm Beach County-style ballot confusion.

The council was faced Tuesday night with asking voters to decide on two referendums, either of which would change the requirements for hiring and firing the city manager, city clerk and city attorney. Council members shot down both proposals after being warned that placing both amendments on a ballot would cause too much confusion.

"We are obviously not going to send something to the electors that will create massive chaos," Mayor Jeff Sandler said Wednesday. "You could have ended up with an inconsistent vote, in which case you would be completely lost."

Currently, Oldsmar's governmental blueprint, the City Charter, requires that four of the five council members have to approve hiring and firing any of the three officials. In order to change that requirement, voters would have to approve a charter amendment.

The first proposal would have asked voters to change that requirement from a four-fifths vote to a simple majority or a three-fifths vote.

The second proposal, which would have appeared on the same ballot, would have asked voters to change the requirement to two three-fifths votes taken two weeks apart. The theory behind this proposal was to give council members a 14-day cooling off period to ensure that the vote was not made in the heat of the moment.

After doing some legal research, City Attorney Tom Trask told council members that placing both referendums on the same ballot would be too confusing. That's because voters would be faced with two alternatives instead of one. One possible result would be that voters might approve both, leading to uncertainty as to which would apply.

"It is now my belief that we can't do this," Trask said. "The reason I say that is because the attorney general's opinions are coming back with significant language dealing with the fact that the ballot has to be clear and unambiguous."

Simply put, Trask said, "Do not adopt both of them."

That meant council members had to choose to send only one of the proposals to voters. They failed to get consensus on either one, meaning the current requirement of a four-fifths vote stands.

"I'm not really comfortable with either one of them," council member Ed Manny said. "But the second one would be more to my liking."

The first proposal, which would have simply changed the requirement from four-fifths to three-fifths, failed by a 2-2 vote. Council member David Tilki was not present at the meeting. Sandler and council member Ed Richards voted yes, and Manny and council member Brian Michaels voted no.

The second, more complicated proposal failed by a 1-3 vote, with Michaels casting the sole "yes" vote.

The proposal to change the charter got its start in May with a volunteer panel called the Charter Review Committee, which proposed a handful of changes, including the three-fifths vote. At a meeting earlier this month, council members decided to throw in the second proposal with the 14-day cooling off period.

Sandler and Richards argued Tuesday that making council members vote twice to fire charter officials would make it tougher. The 14-day period between votes would be an invitation for political maneuvering, Sandler said.

"It makes it even more difficult to remove a charter official to have to do the vote twice," Sandler said.

Sandler and Richards said they were speaking from experience. Both of them were on the council, along with Manny, when they voted to fire City Clerk Cheryl Mortenson three years ago.

That vote came during an emotional meeting. Sandler described the experience as "gut-wrenching."

"Something I don't think we want to do is make a bad situation worse," he said.

- Staff writer Ed Quioco can be reached at (727) 445-4183 or at quioco@sptimes.com.

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