04/23/2015 CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE MEETING
CITY OF CLEARWATER
April 23, 2015
Present: Brian J. Aungst, Jr. Chair
Nino Accetta Committee Member (Arrived 5:50)
David E. Allbritton Committee Member
Jane D. Bongo Committee Member
Dirk A. Curls Committee Member
Rosemarie Kibitlewski Committee Member
George Mantzaris Committee Member
David Loyd Committee Member
William Sturtevant Committee Member
Absent Bud Elias Vice Chair
Karen Cunningham Committee Member
Leann J. DuPont Committee Member
Konrad McCree, Jr. Committee Member
Also Present: Pamela Akin City Attorney
Nicole Sprague ORLS Coordinator
The meeting was called to order at 5:48 p.m. at City Hall.
To provide continuity for research, items are in agenda order although not necessarily
discussed in that order.
2. Approval of Minutes
2.1 Approve the minutes of the April 9, 2015 Charter Review Committee Meeting as submitted
in written summation by the City Clerk.
Committee Member Sturtevant moved to continue the approval of minutes of the April 9,
2015 Charter Review Committee meeting. The motion was duly seconded and carried
unanimously
3. New Business
3.1 Forms of Government Presentation by Dr. Scott Paine
Dr. Paine provided a PowerPoint presentation titled "Municipal Institutions Matter."
In response to questions, Dr. Paine said there are many variations to the two main forms
of government, Council/Manager and Mayor/Council. There is no law saying what a form of
government is to look like so hybrids of both forms have been created; over time Charters get
tweaked. He said there are so many variations, that forms of government are hard to study as
Charter Review 2015-04-23 1
there are rarely two municipalities with the same restrictions encompassed in their Charter, and
there is no credible research saying one form is better than the other. There are no statistics
regarding the number of municipalities converting from one form to another and there is no good
data regarding a correlation between the size of a city and its form of government.
In regards to districting, Dr. Paine said districts are more common in larger cities and
district lines are redrawn every ten years, coinciding with the census. Districts must be the
same size in population. He explained there are hybrids of district and at -large systems.
Dr. Paine said term limits ensure turnover and competition among council seats as well
as keeps the leaders challenged and accountable. Term limits can also shift power to the
professional staff as they are there longer than the elected individual, and it limits time to make
changes and follow through. In response to a question, Dr. Paine said term limits is a way to
rotate the people that are able to hire and fire the city manager and set policy.
In response to a question, Dr. Paine said giving a council the ability to hire and fire
department directors or ratifying a hiring decision creates a council of six city managers which
would create a hard environment to work in.
Discussion ensued regarding the Sunshine Law. In response to a question, Dr. Paine
said if a city wants a councilmember to negotiate with private businesses for economic
development purposes, the meeting would have to be publicly noticed. Typically, private
companies would not want to negotiate in public.
In response to a comment, Dr. Paine said restricting campaign contributions will
encourage political action committees to form so that money can be contributed through
different organizations.
Discussion ensued regarding the agenda for the next meeting. It was suggested that the
committee focus on the Real Property issues. Additional speakers are being scheduled to
speak to the committee regarding forms of government. In response to a comment, the City
Attorney said the committee should present all their recommendations to Council as they are
looking for their honest opinion. She said a Charter Review Committee has never made a
recommendation to Council to change the form of government.
4. Citizens to be heard regarding items not on the agenda: None
The meeting was adjourned at 7:39 p.m.
Attest:
City Clerk
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