Palmetto voters will decide proposed changes to city charter

PALMETTO -- Palmetto voters will have one more thing to decide on the Nov. 8 general election ballot as the Palmetto City Commission approved proposed changes to the city charter made by a citizen-led review committee.

Charter review chairman and former city Commissioner Alan Zirkelbach said the committee "had a number of spirited conversations" during the review, including term limits and changing qualifications for elected officials. Term limits were ultimately dropped but the committee did agree to propose changing how long someone must live in the city and in one of its three wards before they can run for office.

Currently, potential candidates have to live in the city 365 days for at-large seats and mayor, and 180 days to represent one of the wards. For consistency, the review committee recommended dropping the ward residency requirement.

While the language opens the door for a candidate to move into a ward up to qualifying day, language now requires a sitting ward commissioner to live in the ward throughout their term.

That was enough Tuesday to win the support of Ward 3 Commissioner Brian Williams, who initially resisted

the change because it was a return to previous charter requirement that eliminated the ability to move into a ward just to occupy a seat at the dais.

At-large Commissioner Tamara Cornwell was not convinced, however.

"Ward commissioners know your neighbors," said Cornwell, while citing Vice Mayor Harold Smith as an example. "He brings things up that people wouldn't be comfortable calling me about but will call him. The comfort of the ward is that the intimacy is much smaller than what would occur at large. There would be no reason to have wards, if that is your consideration."

Zirkelbach said all that matters is citizens who want to serve should have the opportunity.

"A lot of you run unopposed, so I don't know if people in the wards feel like they are being cut out of things," he said. "Being opposed can be a good thing. The character of the city is very small. The collective thought process was that the only requirement should be that you live in the city for a year. It's a small city and all of you should know the city. It's four square miles. All of you are acting as an at-large commissioner in some manner."

Other proposed changes include extending the charter review process from five years to 10, but the commission can order a review sooner, as needed.

The committee's only other hot topic was outlining a better way to appoint a vice mayor and ensure the selection would be someone who can handle the responsibility. As a former vice mayor, Zirkelbach said holding the position shouldn't be about taking turns.

"When I became vice mayor, my jaw dropped when I found out how much I needed to do" if something happened to the sitting mayor, he said. "We thought it was important to have whoever is appointed to have some clarity of what the expectation is. In reality, you are really appointing a potential mayor and that's something I don't think is crystal clear to everybody."

Mark Young, Herald urban affairs reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7041 or follow him on Twitter @urbanmark2014.

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 11:17 PM with the headline "Palmetto voters will decide proposed changes to city charter ."