Chiefland Commission Wants to Extend Terms of Office to Four Years; Voters Will Have Final Say

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

Chiefland City Commissioners Monday set in motion a process that will eventually lead to city voters deciding whether commissioners should serve four-year terms instead of two years.

The city charter must be amended to change the length of the term commissioners serve. A referendum question asking voters whether they think the change should be made will appear on a future election ballot.

Commissioner Norman Weaver brought up the issue in a previous meeting and made the motion to place a referendum question on a future city election ballot.

Weaver argued that requiring commissioners to run every two years forces them to spend a great deal of money trying to win re-election at the end of their two-year terms.

“Every four years, as opposed to every two years, gives you a chance to be productive instead of using the last three or four months to win your seat again. That’s my opinion. I’d like to see it moved to four years,” Weaver said.

Commissioners voted 4-1 to place the issue on a future election ballot but haven’t decided whether to place the referendum on a November ballot, an annual city election ballot, or hold a special election.

Commissioner Rollin Hudson voted against the motion. Mayor Chris Jones asked if he had an opinion.

“I really don’t have one. I tried to do it years ago and Mayor (Teal) Pomeroy said I want them to vote for me every two years so I know if I’m doing right or wrong,” Hudson said.

“That’s the way I feel about it,” said resident Alice Monyei.

“I just let that go. I said that’s a great idea and I just hushed,” Hudson said.

Pomeroy passed away in 2016 in a scuba diving accident on the Suwannee River.

Jones said he had never thought about extending the terms of office for commissioners to four years until Weaver mentioned it, but he agreed with Weaver that it takes time to get things done on the board and it’s nearly always more than two years.

He smiled as he recalled that it took Hudson about a decade to get two public sidewalks constructed on State Road 345 in south Chiefland. The Florida Department of Transportation paid for the sidewalks but its funding and engineering program required years of waiting until construction took place.

Hudson developed the habit of asking former city manager Mary Ellzey and current City Manager Laura Cain every year to check on the status of the sidewalk. He stopped asking when the project was moved to the top of the DOT’s five-year construction list.

The COVID-19 economic shutdown in 2020 may have delayed the project for a year or two.

Cain said she had never placed a charter amendment on the ballot. She asked City Attorney Norm Fugate how it was done. Fugate said the board would have to approve the wording on the ballot and there would have to be some language saying the board would work their way into four-year terms. The two-year terms of commissioners currently are staggered so that three are elected at the same time, and two are elected the following year.

The same type of staggered approach would have to continue with four-year terms. If voters passed the measure, depending on when it was passed, commissioners would have to decide how the staggering of terms works. Currently, the city holds an election every year.

“Are you going to continue with the annual elections or are you going to go to every other year and stagger them, so you have to figure out the details of that,” Fugate said. “When you do that, this board will have to adopt an ordinance to put the charter amendment on the ballot. You will have to decide which election it falls on. You can do it on a regular city election, on a November election or you can have a special election for the purpose of a charter amendment.”

He said that the referendum question on the ballot will ask voters to say yes or no on whether to change commissioner terms to four years.

Monyei reminded commissioners that she was part of a citizens’ group that wanted to amend the entire charter. She said the effort failed when the commission showed no interest in amending the charter.

“All of a sudden it’s something to your benefit and you want to change the charter,” Monyei said. “That’s not right. If you’re going to do it at all don’t just piecemeal it, this here or there because it benefits you. That’s not right. You need to do the whole job. Leave it the way it is or take care of the whole thing.”

Jones responded to Monyei as an individual.

“Ms. Monyei, I’m going to speak to you not as a commissioner. I am speaking to you as an individual. Any decision I make is going to be based on whatever is beneficial to the community and whatever I feel is best for the community,” Jones said. “That is how I make my decisions.”

Jones said he believes the current city charter provides the community and the city with good legal protection. He said that’s the reason for the charter and that’s his opinion.

“When God calls for me to leave whether it’s two years, four years, six years, or eight years, frankly that’s my time. This doesn’t pay my bills. I do this because of the community,” Jones added.

Monyei continued expressing her views.

I am a registered voter. I vote for you. You guys work for me. My opinion matters too,” Monyei said. “What I say is the charter needs to be amended totally. Don’t pick and choose the little pieces that benefit you. I want to hold you accountable. Four years is too long. You can sit up there and kick back and do nothing and then when it comes time to vote, you get out in the neighborhoods and talk to everybody. The thing is if we want you up there, you’re staying. If not, you’re out. Four years is too much.”

Commissioner Lewrissa Johns asked if the board should discuss the full charter and look at whether changes are needed and if something should be added to the motion to make that possible.

Fugate said the motion passed 4-1. If the board wanted to make another motion regarding the entire charter, it was the board’s choice. Jones agreed another motion would be needed.

Johns said she doesn’t want to make big changes to the charter, “just verbiage.”

Commissioner Lance Hayes asked if the city commission would serve as the charter review committee.

“You can be. It doesn’t have to be,” Fugate responded.

Hudson urged caution.

“The charter’s like the constitution, right? You’d better be very careful and think long and hard about what you’re tinkering with and what you’re doing, Hudson said.

Monyei asked how the city commission changed the charter when it moved the city election to the first week of April without giving voters a chance to cast ballots.

Cain said changing the city elections date was done by ordinance. Fugate said it was a legal change.

“You are allowed to amend without having to go to voters to change the date of elections, so they did that,” Fugate said.

He added that voters can place referendum questions on the ballot by circulating a petition.

Monyei asked if a voter petition could stop the referendum question to extend city commissioner terms to four years.

“Can a petition stop what they are doing now?” she said.

“No, it will be the voters,” Fugate responded.

“I’ll get them out. Hold on to two years,” she said.

Commissioners didn’t decide whether to review the entire charter. The city’s charter provides the basic structure for operating city government.

Monyei didn’t say what specific changes she wants made to the city charter other than she wants to look at changes to the total charter.