ANNA MARIA – During its second meeting, the Anna Maria Charter Review Committee discussed three potential amendments to the city charter.
Similar to the state constitution, the 20-page Anna Maria charter sets forth how the city government is structured and how the city is governed. The charter establishes which city actions require a city ordinance and how citizen-initiated voter referendums are initiated. The charter establishes the duties of the city clerk, city treasurer and city attorney and includes a detailed description of the city’s physical boundaries and corporate limits.
State law requires a city charter to be reviewed at least every five years. The Anna Maria charter was last reviewed in 2019. The city charter can only be amended and revised with the approval of the city’s registered voters.
Chris Arendt chairs the committee that also includes Stevie Coppin, Scott Isherwood, Pat Olesen and Chuck Wolfe.
During the committee’s Feb. 23 meeting, the members discussed three potential amendments to the city charter.
Arendt noted the conveyance or lease of any city-owned property requires a city commission-approved ordinance. Regarding the conveyance of city property, Arendt said the Holmes Beach charter requires a four-fifths supra majority support of the city commission and the approval of the city’s registered voters in order to sell, vacate or give away a city-owned property. The Bradenton Beach charter includes similar language.
The Anna Maria charter does not require city voters to approve a proposed conveyance of city property. The committee is considering, but has not reached formal consensus, on proposing a charter amendment that would add that requirement to the charter.
Wolfe suggested including in the conveyance amendment language a provision that would also require voter approval for any city-owned structures or properties leased to another party for 25 years or more.
The city currently leases space on the City Pier to the City Pier Grill operators and to Mote Marine. Using essentially rent-free leases, the city also has long-term leases with The Center, Island Players and the Anna Maria Island Historical Museum for the use of those city-owned properties and structures.
The committee is considering proposing an amendment pertaining to the scheduling of special city commission meetings called in addition to the regular commission meetings that generally occur twice a month.
The charter currently provides that a special meeting may be called by any city commission member and when practical, with no less than 24 hours’ notice given to the public and the other commissioners.
Isherwood expressed concerns about a commission member theoretically acting as a “loose cannon” and abusing or over-using the ability to call special meetings. The committee is still considering proposing an amendment that would allow the mayor, the commission chair or a majority of commission members to schedule a special meeting, instead of a single member.
The commission discussed and is considering a potential charter amendment that would increase the non-voting mayor’s two-year term in office to a four-year term, while likely leaving the voting commission members’ terms at two years.
Seeking input from the mayor, the commission will invite Murphy to its Friday, March 8 meeting in hopes of getting his thoughts on four-year mayoral terms versus two-year terms. The committee also welcomes the city commissioners to attend the March 8 meeting to share their thoughts about two-year terms versus four-year terms. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m.
During the Feb. 23 meeting, Coppin shared her concerns about the charter’s use of gender-specific pronouns such as “he” and “she.” Coppin said the gender-specific pronouns are not keeping with the times, are grammatically awkward and should be replaced with non-gender-specific language. The committee reached no consensus on this matter and agreed to revisit the topic at a future meeting.
When the committee completes its review of the charter, the committee’s suggestions will be presented to the city commission for consideration. The commission can then support or reject any or all of the proposed charter amendments being placed on a future ballot. The commission can also propose charter amendments of its own to place on the ballot.
