04/24/2019 CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE MEETING
CITY OF CLEARWATER
APRIL 24, 2019
Present: Michael R. Mannino Chair
Richard Adelson Committee Member
Kathleen Agnew Committee Member
Marilyn Kagan Committee Member
Kelly S. Kelly Committee Member
David Lillesand Committee Member
Marita M. Lynch Committee Member
Bruce Rector Committee Member
Mike Riordon Committee Member
Sean Schrader Committee Member (departed 5:10 p.m.)
Becca Tieder Committee Member (arrived 4:34 p.m.)
Absent: Darryl James Henderson Vice Chair
Michael D. Anderson Committee Member
Also Present: Pamela Akin City Attorney
Rosemarie Call City Clerk
Nicole Sprague ORLS Coordinator
The meeting was called to order at 4:30 p.m. at the Clearwater Main Library, 2nd Floor
Conference Room.
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 10, 2019 Charter Review Committee Meeting as submitted
in written summation by the City Clerk.
Committee Member Rector moved to approve the minutes of the April 10, 2019 Charter
Review Committee meeting. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously.
Discussion ensued regarding placing items on future agendas. Chair Mannino said a
document will be provided at the next meeting outlining council direction, items the committee
wants to address, and items brought to the committee by the public. The City Clerk said she
has outlined meeting dates so the committee can come to closure on some topics and keep on
time.
3.1 New Business
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3.1 Presentation by Dr. Scott Paine
Dr. Paine provided a Powerpoint Presentation regarding voting systems.
In response to questions, Dr. Paine said any system of voting that allows all to
participate is a better system. In a municipal election with a lot of candidates who choose to
run, there is a challenge for people to vote sincerely, they vote for the candidate they like that
has a better chance to win versus the candidate they really want. He said he didn't know if
implementing districts would make a difference in voter turnout.
Discussion ensued regarding the different types of voting systems. In response to
questions, he said district structure and type of voting system will interact; there are not a lot of
studies on the correlation. He said regardless of the voting system and population, once you
have a situation with multiple candidates, the conversations turn to strategic voting versus
sincere voting.
Regarding districting, Dr. Paine said because it will be in the charter, council ultimately
approves the districts prior to the next election. The City Attorney said consultants would be
utilized and the process of districting would be outlined in an ordinance in the absence of state
guidelines. Dr. Paine said a good example of the discretion in district boundaries is the state
house and senate districts and the congressional districts. In some cases, the district lines are
driven by region or ethnicity and there are some districts that do not represent the population at
all.
Staff was requested to proivde a map that shows public, private, and non-profit land
ownership in the downtown.
In response to questions, the City Attorney said there is probably no information on other
municipalities transitioning to districts; the transition is a different issue and will be tricky. She
said if districts are implemented, staff will figure out how to transition.
In response to a question regarding a population distribution map, the City Attorney said
she will provide a link to a website where demographic information is available, it also includes
socio-economic data. She said the last charter review committee did not recommend districts.
4. Public Comment
Bill Jonson thanked the committee for their conversation and this large group of people
represent the citizens better than five members of Council. He suggested that those not
contributing to the conversation should feel comfortable to do so.
Lisa Lanza said there were three years when the charter review committee made
recommendations that ended up in ordinances. In 2013 and 2017 there were two big
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referendums that were recommendations from Council, not the charter review committee. She
said she was in Coachman Park on Easter and it was loaded with Hispanics, most people who
are Hispanic that live in Clearwater are not registered to vote.
5. Adiournment
The meeting was adjourned at 6:05 p.m.
Attest:
City Clerk
air, Charter Revie ommittee
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