Williston Drops Plan to Appoint Charter Review Committee; Workshop Scheduled Instead

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

Williston City Council members will meet in a public workshop on June 28 to review the city charter instead of allowing a council-appointed committee make recommendations to them, a plan that black residents called biased and the mayor said was unfair at the board’s most recent meeting on May 17.

One of the potential subjects for discussion is the possibility of changing the council to a strong mayor form of government in which the council president’s position would be eliminated and the mayor would sit as a voting member of the five-member council.

The way the city council is set up currently is that the mayor doesn’t have a vote on the city council but oversees the city police and fire departments and can make recommendations to the board regarding both departments. The recommendations aren’t binding but they carry weight.

Former Mayor Jerry Robinson recently interviewed applicants for police chief and recommended Mike Rolls. Robinson felt Rolls was well qualified for the position and the council voted 5-0 to hire Rolls, the city’s first black chief. Robinson didn’t have a vote under the current system.

A city charter defines how the city operates and it outlines the powers, functions, and procedures of city government. If the charter is changed in a substantial way, such as potentially reducing the size of the council and eliminating the council president, it would affect how the city council operates and who oversees the police and fire departments.

City Council President Debra Jones brought the charter review process to the council and recommended the process begin with each council member and the mayor appointing one member of the charter review committee and the council as a whole naming the seventh member. The committee’s role would have been to make recommendations to the council. The council would have decided which recommendations, if any, to place on a ballot for voter approval. But the idea of using a committee has been scrapped.

Jones told the council at the May 17 meeting that rumors circulated she had a personal agenda she was pushing for changing the charter.

“I did not make this up. I heard the rumors that I tried to change the charter, I tried to steal the police department, I tried to steal the fire department. Everyone thinks that. It was not my intent,” Jones said.

Jones said portions of the city charter don’t comply with current Florida statutes and need to be updated. She said at least one job description of a charter official needs to be looked at and possibly tweaked. She said the review committee she recommended would have advised the board on what should be done. She said previous charter reviews were handled in the same manner with an appointed committee making recommendations to the council.

“We brought that forward and all of a sudden people think it’s my doing and I’m trying to ram it down someone’s throat and I’m trying to hijack the police and fire departments,” Jones said.

She said the council currently has a weak mayor form of government in which the mayor doesn’t have a vote on the board. The council president is currently listed in the charter as chief executive officer for the city and signs all official documents.

“The mayor is essentially a figurehead and over police and fire,” she said.

Mayor Charles Goodman saw no value in merging the powers of the mayor and a voting council member into one person.

“My problem with the situation is I believe in separation of powers and that is why I have been opposed to this from the beginning,” he said. “She wants to concentrate the powers of the mayor and president, and I believe it’s too much power in one hand. I believe the mayor is a constitutionally elected officer, elected by the people for specific purposes. I believe that the charter has worked, maybe not as good as some would have liked, maybe you don’t like somebody, maybe you don’t like me, so fine. But the charter has worked with the separation of council and the mayor and it has been tried, tested and I believe it has worked.”

Goodman said he wasn’t opposed to reviewing the city charter but was opposed to using a committee to make recommendations to the council. He said he had researched the matter and requested information indicating there is a multitude of ways used by various cities and towns to review the charter and come to decisions about what needs to be changed, if anything

“There is not a set process for charter review,” he said.

Goodman said he doubted Jones’ decision to bring the charter revision to the board and use a committee to make a recommendation, “happened out of nowhere.” He said if a specific portion of the charter needs to be changed, he believes it is the duty of the council to address those issues, “do a charter review and change the things that need to be changed.” He began to read from the agenda but Jones interrupted.

Goodman said he was trying to read word for word from the agenda. He said he should have the right to continue speaking.

“I tried to do that but you don’t stop,” Jones said.

“That is not fair, that is not accurate and I resent the implication,” Goodman said. “Madam president, that is an inappropriate comment and I would accept your apology.”

“I’m trying to get on with the program is what I’m trying to do,” Jones said, adding she wouldn’t be apologizing.

Albert Fuller, who heads the city’s planning commission, challenged the process of using a committee appointed by council members and the mayor to review the charter.

“The process of selecting the committee is biased and the bias is we have just the members of the council and the mayor selecting the people. That’s not representative of the community. There should be diverse consideration for all the people in the community whether ethnicity or income levels or whatever, all that needs to be considered,” Fuller said.

Regarding the committee, he said anyone who wants to be part of the committee should be able to submit an application.

“They would at least be able to express that they have knowledge of low-income issues, they have knowledge of whatever minority communities we may be working with,” Fuller said. “The idea is the entire community needs to be part of this process starting from the committee.”

Fuller said providing diversity on the committee would ensure all members of the community had equal access to everything the committee was doing.

Businessman Marvin Johnson said when the issue of appointing a charter review committee first surfaced in April he asked if he could be appointed, but was told he couldn’t serve because he wasn’t a resident of Williston. He said he has owned a business in Williston and paid taxes in Williston for 22 years and pretty much knows everything that’s going on in Williston.

“Why can’t I be on it?” Johnson said.

“If you don’t include diversity it’s going to fail from the beginning,” he said.

Wayne Williams said he was concerned when he heard that the process of picking the committee would involve council members who would choose someone that reflected their views and the seventh person on the committee would be selected to ensure diversity.

“That gives me pause because that suggests that the first six are going to be of one race or one group of people who think similar to one another,” Williams said. “I think it is not a Democratic process if we allow that to move forward because the committee should really be the community. It should not represent what the council wants,” he said.

Williams also felt the committee members should apply for the right to be on the committee.

“Your views may not represent the community. When I look at this council, no offense but there’s no person of color, there’s no Hispanic person. The committee should be a representation of the community,” Williams said.

The council’s newest member, Zach Bullock, motioned for the council not to go forward with the committee process that Jones was proposing. Councilwoman Marguerite Robinson seconded the motion.

His motion to scrap the committee process failed on a 3-2 vote. Bullock and Robinson supported the motion. Jones and Councilmen Elihu Ross and Michael Cox were opposed.

There were no other motions made.

But Bullock wasn’t finished. He clarified that he was simply suggesting the council hold a workshop where residents could come to ask questions and make comments and the council could make a decision.

“I think that’s fair,” Robinson said.

Jones argued that the public could come to any of the charter revision committee meetings or council meetings when the charter was being discussed.

“We were voted to represent the people. We should be able to conduct a workshop,” Robinson responded.

Jones gave ground. She said she didn’t think there’s anything in the law that says it has to be anyone other than the council that looks at charter revision. She looked over at City Attorney Kiersten Ballou for confirmation and Ballou gave her a nod that she was correct.

Jones then asked if the council wanted to wait until June or July for a charter revision workshop.

“As long as it’s taken to get going, we might as well start now,” responded Councilman Elihu Ross, drawing laughter.

“Miss Wright, if you will try to pin down a date and we can let the public know if they want to come, they certainly can,” Jones said.

Former Councilwoman Darfeness Hinds said the council doesn’t have to squeeze the entire charter review discussion into one workshop. She said the council could deal with whatever portions of the charter have to be changed in the first workshop and deal with other issues in a second workshop.

“There’s no need to do the entire charter in one workshop,” Hinds said.

“It’s only 12 pages,” Jones responded.

Jones confirmed on Tuesday that a city council charter revision workshop has been set for 6 p.m. on June 28 at City Hall.