Charter Review Group Wants 'New Blood' In City Politics

How do you get “new blood” in city politics?

A citizen group hopes some of its recommendations will spur some interest.

The group's recommendations could potentially make hiring and firing certain city staff more difficult, open up the possibility for paying public officials more, and limit how long a person can serve in a public seat.

“The premise behind this is that this would allow new blood, additional people to have a legitimate chance at running. ... In the case of everybody sitting on the commission, when you ran for an open seat ... there were multiple candidates in that race, whereas we saw this last time against the incumbents ... there was nobody that ran against them," Bill Francisco, charter review committee member, said.

“The task of the commission is to be a legislative and a governing body; the real job of managing the city rests with the city manager. With that thought in mind, I say to myself, 'what is the unwritten task?' And it seems to me, the unwritten task is to really foster people to come forward into public service,” George Nigro, charter review committee member, said.

The charter review committee meets every five years, as required by law, to scrutinize the city charter, or the city’s governing document. 

All of the recommendations below were presented in a report to city leaders on Jan. 5 and were unanimously supported by the charter review members.

Commissioners will discuss the group’s findings at its next meeting and ultimately decide which, if any, will make it to the final deciders — the citizens of Dunedin — in November. 

CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS:

1) First-time public officials should have formal training before beginning service.

2) A sentence mandating that holding office is a “public service to the community and is not actual compensation for services rendered” should be removed, so as to .

3) It should be formally written that the vice mayor may not serve consecutive terms in his or her seat, so as to encourage rotation.

4) The commission must reach a super majority (or 4 out of 5 votes) instead of a simple majority (3 out of 5 votes) to hire and fire important positions like the city clerk, city auditor and city attorney.

5) Public officials should be held to before either sitting out a term or running for another seat.

6) Added clarification on the definition of a “conviction,” in a portion of the charter that addresses when an official must forfeit his or her office.