- Columbia county Charter commission D ecember 18, 2001 5: 30 P.M . The Columbia County Charter Commission met in a regularly scheduled meeting at the Columbia County Courthouse. ORD ER The meeting came to order. Rick Bicknell opened with prayer, and the Pledge of AJlegiance to the American Flag followed. ROLL CALL Sandy Markham, Deputy Clerk for DeWitt Cason called roll. Members Present: Wilton Terrell, Emory Bailey, Richard Weizenecker, Ray Walker, Leandra Johnson (Chairperson), Jim Poole, Mike Null, Ed Parker, Dave Rountree, Seeber Johnson, Mario Cappock, Ozell Graham, Tom Brown and Rick Bicknell. Members Absent: Delton Turberville was not present due to a work conflict. Leandra Johnson announced her expectation of his late arrival. MINUTES Leandra Johnson advised that Delton Turberville requested, by way of email, that the Commission delay the approval of the minutes. The request was granted. GUEST SPEAKER At the request of Ed Parker, Dewey Smith was invited to be a guest speaker. Chairperson Johnson noted that Smith was a former delegate to Democratic National Convention Chairman of the Rules Committee for Florida. He is also known throughout Polle County as a citizens activist and also serves as Chairman of the Polle County Home Rule Charter Commission. She noted that Polle County is the only known committee to utilize the county charter to reduce commissioners' salaries by fifty percent. She recognized that Mr. Smith's knowledge of charter government is such that he was invited in June 2001 to speak to the Polle County Charter Commission about four different charter related topics. Smith is co-founder of Citizen's Law Enforcement Watch and is a Veteran of World War II. Mr. Smith opened by recalling a quote of John F. Kennedy - " In giving rights to others which belong to them, we give rights to ourselves and to our country. " , .,,. .
Smith spoke regarding his experiences as a citizen activist in the Florida county charter process. He was of the opinion that the charter commission started in Poll< County with a group of citizens who were tired of being treated second class. These same citizens were also concerned with the long term problem of snafu elections, and corruption. They felt that by creating a county charter it might be possible to hold county politicians accountable. He gave a history of the commission, and addressed a few of it's trials and triumphs. He addressed their newly appointed charter commission and explained that they each had strong political ties. Specifically, the Tax Collector and his largest financial contributor were appointed to serve. The Sheriff's Chief Executive Assistant, who was also the departmental Information Officer was appointed also. There was also a school board member, a former City Mayor, and other former political candidates, aspirants and supporters. After the commission was appointed, they were briefed by the county attorney. Shortly afterwards, the commission heard presentations from Attorney Kurt Spitzer and Attorney Ken Van Assenderp; both who claimed to be experts on charter government. In the meantime, Attorney Allen Watts was hired. Smith stated that following the appointments, the Poll< County Commission heard from a string of agenda' d politicians who he felt was prejudice against charter government. He also mentioned that there were citizen representatives (Attorney Phillip Kuhn and Russell Hancock) who were given the opportunity to address the commission for a limited time. He noted that they were the most qualified independent experts possibly in the State of Florida. Smith voiced that he would take this opportunity to say some of the things they were not allowed to say. They were: Citizens were given initially, three minutes to speak at meetings. Later they were given five minutes each. The record keeping was extremely inadequate. He felt some of the commissioners had denied Christ. Smith moved on to say that a proposed charter document started to take shape. He mentioned a section titled "Powers Reserved for the People." According to Smith, this section was designed to give the people the ability to hold the politicians accountable. It also was supposed to guarantee the citizens' right to decide issues for themselves through initiatives and ballot referenda. If written properly, the people could rely on their own ordinances and amendments, which they would be able to write. This is also the section that tax cap powers, recall, ordinance and amendment powers were suppose to be possible. He mentioned that the citizens of Poll< County learned from consultant Spitzer that because of a successful court challenge in another charter county, capping and freezing taxes was not possible. They also learned that the requirements for recall under a charter, had to be the same as those of the state, which was impossible. He therefore felt that the promise of being able to cap, or freeze taxes, and recall politicians was a bait and switch con. He expressed feelings of betrayal, but added that ordinances and amendments through the initiative process were possible. However, the challenge was to get the charter commission to make the petition requirements low enough to be practical. He noted that he had provided several exhibits in the binders presented. (See the attached binder). Exhibits included the text he was reading from, a copy of the August 30, 1988 Ledger Editorial relating to items he was discussing, and finally, a copy of the . ,r;- ""> '
Columbia County Grand Jury Handbook and a verbatim transcript, in full context of the statements made to the commission by Ken Van Assenderp on November 20, 2001. He was of the opinion that the honors bestowed on a grand jury and the honors bestowed on a charter commission are very similar. He feels that a charter commission should have the same virtues as those outlined for a grand jury. He suggested the commission make themselves familiar with the book. Smith encouraged the Commission to ask themselves questions such as: Are we resolved to having the best charter no matter the time, or funds it takes to do so? Do we have an office accessible to the public with telephone, facsimile, internet, staff, etc.? Does a professional stenographer record and maintain detailed minutes. Will we hire court reporters when needed? Are we operating under the latest edition of Robert's Rules of Order? Has a commission repository for all communications relating to charter commission business been established? Has consideration been given to hiring a professional consultant and attorney, and has consideration also been given to retaining state and national independent experts to challenge the prejudicial opinions that the consultant, attorney and other partisans are sure to inject into the proceedings? In the course of our studies, will we hire an independent scientific survey company t<i learn what the people want most, and have the courage to act upon it? How much is an accurate written accounting of our involvement in this historic event, and the full truth worth to the future generations? Have we hamstrung the citizens and ourselves by agreeing to the supermajority two thirds vote rule? He referenced Ken Van Assenderp's presentation at the November meeting. A verbatim transcript of Assenderp's presentation was provided to the Commission by the Polk county based Citizens for Truth in Government Association. Smith recalled a statement of Assenderp • "With the exception of a charter county being able to set utility taxes, there is no other difference between what we have now, and a charter county." Smith advised the Board that he disagrees with the statement, as does Carl Strang, a former charter commissioner and current charter review commissioner. According to Smith, per Car l Strang, under a charter, the very structure of county government can be changed by bringing the so-call "constitutional officers" under the charter as charter officers. He added this is not something that can be done under state home rule. He paraphrased that Strang said "This is also something that the constitutional officers would have us believe is not so; but it is so. The constitutional officers, along with their lobbyist (such as Assenderp), speak against it because to be brought under the charter would mean that they would lose their power. It would mean that they would be held accountable, not just at election time, but all during their tenures of office, and could also mean having their high salaries drastically reduced." He spoke regarding the ordinance and amendment petitions. He feels that the Polk County Charter might be an instrument for good, if the commissioners would set the
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