Update: See this
panel discussion hosted by the Herald Tribune at Holley Hall for further discussion of Single Member Voting.
Guest Column to the Herald Tribune
Muntz: Don’t make petition drives harder
By Kindra Muntz, Guest Columnist
Posted Aug 27, 2018 at 5:15 AM
Don’t let the Sarasota County commissioners silence your voice: They propose to muzzle the voters by making it practically impossible for citizens to get county charter amendments on the ballot by petition initiative.
For over two years, voters of all political parties, as well as independents, have signed petitions to put a Sarasota County charter amendment on the ballot to change County Commission elections to single-member districts. Voter approval would result in commissioners being elected by the voters in the district they seek to represent, not by voters all over the county. [For more info, see
SingleMemberDistricts.com]
Passage would, according to some estimates, cut campaign costs by 80 percent (there are five districts) and empower neighborhoods. That will give grass-roots candidates a chance against the candidates chosen and bankrolled by big development interests in expensive countywide campaigns. (Do you think it’s cheap to pack everyone’s mailboxes with all those glossy flyers?)
On June 22, the
Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections submitted the last of the 15,096 petitions needed to put single-member districts to a vote this November. That’s 5 percent of registered voters at the last general election, as required by the county charter. On Wednesday, the County Commission will conduct a public hearing to put it on the ballot.
But wait! The commissioners are not happy that voters have achieved this milestone. They don’t like this referendum, because some of them might not be re-elected if the voters in their district have their way.
Commissioners also opposed previous initiatives when voters found a need to make an end-run around the politicians. Charter amendments placed on the ballot by petitions brought mandatory recycling to Sarasota County when the commission refused to do so; instituted paper ballots in county elections (to be able to confirm machine counts, in an initiative by Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections that led to adoption of paper ballots statewide); required that any comprehensive plan amendment to increase land-use density or intensity be made by a vote of no fewer than four of the five commissioners.
On Wednesday, the county commissioners will consider their own charter amendments that would severely restrict the ability of voters to again petition for needed changes to protect the public’s rights and interests.
What would their amendments, if approved by voters, do? Double the petition requirement for any citizens’ initiatives in the future to 10 percent of voters. Instead of the 15,096 petitions voters we had to gather for the single-member district amendment, we would have to collect more than 31,000 petitions! (And more as our population grows.)
That would make it nearly impossible for volunteers to meet the requirement and too expensive even for paid petition help for all but the very wealthy, such as big developers.
They would also restrict the time to gather petitions to 1½ years, limit when voters can submit them, and more.
Only seven of Florida’s 20 charter counties have a 10 percent petition requirement.
We encourage all concerned voters in Sarasota County to attend the
public hearing at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, August 29, at 1660 Ringling Boulevard in Sarasota, to support our single-member district amendment and oppose the County Commission’s amendments to double petition requirements. Wear a red shirt if you can, so the commissioners can clearly see our supporters.
Don’t let them make it more difficult to petition your government. Don’t let them silence your voice.
Be ready to vote in November and say “yes” for single-member districts and, unless commissioners abandon their amendments, “no” to doubling petition requirements for citizens’ initiatives.
Kindra Muntz is president of the
Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections (SAFE) and
Single Member Districts.
