Longboat Key Charter Review committee starts with elections

Election changes represented a lot of the “low-hanging fruit’’ that Longboat Key’s Charter Review Committee started picking last week as it began working through ideas that ultimately might go before voters next year.

The task facing the five-member group: Develop a list of changes to the town charter, which will be passed up to the Town Commission for ballot consideration.

Town Manager Dave Bullock said he hoped to have a ballot proposal ready by October in time for the March 2018 election.

 It’s a process that takes place once every 10 years.

Charter Commission member Phill Younger suggested retooling how the Town Commission is set up, increasing the number of seats elected at-large and reducing the number of geographic districts. There are currently two at-large commissioners and five who represent districts.

 “We often have uncontested races because we have very narrow districts,” Younger said, adding that each commissioner represents the entire town regardless of district.

In the most recent election, George Spoll was elected without a challenger, filling the District 2 seat left open by Jack Duncan, who was term-limited but resigned after surgery in late 2016.

Chairwoman Pat Zunz proposed adding a year to the terms of commissioners and reducing the term limit from three to two.

The commission also added to its list of recommendations a proposal to hold runoff elections in the event no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. Currently, in a race involving more than two qualified candidates, the town must hold a preliminary election. The two candidates with the highest number of votes in the preliminary election then move on to a general election.*

Among the charter revisions suggested by the town staff:

• Removing all references to setting Town Commission meetings at 7 p.m.  
• Removing the topic of permanent advisory boards — like the Planning and Zoning Board, Code Enforcement Board and Zoning Board of Adjustments — from the charter and including them in the town’s code of ordinances instead.

In addition to Zunz and Younger, who are both former town commissioners, the committee consists of Bill Cook, Alan Pryor and Ted Salisbury. Salisbury, a Canadian citizen, was not present last week and participated in the meeting by telephone. The committee started with seven appointed members, but Dave Brenner resigned and Randy Clair was chosen to fill an empty seat on the town commission. 

The committee’s next meeting is planned for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 10, at Town Hall. 

*A print version of this article incorrectly describes the town's current election process. It has been updated to reflect the correct information.