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Letters to the Editor

Manatee County needs to draft a charter

From left: Dan Murphy, mayor of Anna Maria, Bob Johnson, mayor of Holmes Beach, Terry Gans, mayor of Longboat Key, Dave Bullock, town manager of longboat key, and William Sharon, mayor of Bradenton Beach, present a funding gap to Manatee County commissioners on Tuesday afternoon, December 6, 2016 at the Manatee County Administration building in downtown Bradenton.
From left: Dan Murphy, mayor of Anna Maria, Bob Johnson, mayor of Holmes Beach, Terry Gans, mayor of Longboat Key, Dave Bullock, town manager of longboat key, and William Sharon, mayor of Bradenton Beach, present a funding gap to Manatee County commissioners on Tuesday afternoon, December 6, 2016 at the Manatee County Administration building in downtown Bradenton. Zack Wittman zwittman@bradenton.com

Manatee County has no charter. Anna Maria City, Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach, Palmetto and Longboat Key do have charters.

The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) tried to draft a charter circa 2002-2005. There were many things wrong with it, including giving more power to the BOCC.

The worst part of the charter was BOCC could overwrite/overrule density and land use amendments to the comp plan. The cities had every right to oppose this document. Autonomy is the right to self-government.

Former County Commissioner Joe McClash tried to compromise with the accord. However, the document was much like a resolution (non-binding).

Registered voters can demand a charter. We need 15 percent of the registered voters in Manatee County, which amounts to 35,000 names signed on a petition. I’m hoping the Women League of Voters will spearhead this event.

When BOCC says “no,” we can appoint “County for Charter Committee” and get it in a referendum on the 2018 ballot. Just to name a few items that we can include in the charter: term limits, recall, Cortez and Anna Maria Bridge controversy, Mosaic mining, annexation, include the citizens on comp plan amendments, campaign finance dispersion and dispersion of the 5 percent resort tax (island should be getting 2 percent).

I urge the readers of this letter to research this on your computers. Please call 941-795-2818 with any questions.

Katie Pierola

Bradenton

This story was originally published December 27, 2016 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Manatee County needs to draft a charter."

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