Town Manager? Mayor? Century Council To Begin Deep Dive Into Charter

April 24, 2023

The Century Town Council will begin a deep dive into their charter and needed revisions this week.

The Century Charter Review Committee worked about three years, including pandemic delays, to create a new charter that was submitted to the town council to review and possibly place on an upcoming ballot. The town attorney also completed a differing draft.

In a series of meetings over the next several months, the council will review the old charter line by line, along with the charter review committee’s draft, and perhaps some of the draft presented by the attorney. The lawyer won’t take part at first, in order to save money, but he will review the council’s eventual final draft for legality.

The council has expressed a general consensus against a town manager, instead supporting a strong mayor and council.

A charter review workshop will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Century Town Hall and is open to the public.

The Century town charter is the document that establishes the town, outlines its powers and spells out how it should operate. The charter has not been updated in almost 40 years, and that often creates problems in the operation of the town.

Pictured top: Century council member Shelisa McCall addresses town attorney Matt Dannheisser recently. Pictured inset: Dannheisser explains the charter to the town council. Pictured below: Council member Sandra McMurray-Jackson and council President Luis Gomez, Jr. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.

Comments

4 Responses to “Town Manager? Mayor? Century Council To Begin Deep Dive Into Charter”

  1. Teresa on April 24th, 2023 10:53 am

    Century along with Prichard is the biggest joke as far as town government as I have ever seen. Century for years has misused town funds and not paid utilities that we as residents have had to pay and then turn around and want us to pay for it. UNACCEPTABLE!! PEOPLE OF CENTURY RISE UP. Go to your state representatives and demand change, otherwise the same crooked incompetent people are going to continue running Century to the ground.

  2. RaD on April 24th, 2023 9:29 am

    @SW. Been asking that question for years. The first thing they need is a binding referendum on whether Century should remain a city or return to county rule. Current Florida law requires a minimum population of 5,000 residents before an area can incorporate as a city partly due to the number of small rural cities that were failing. The population of century, according to census information, has never reached 2000. Century was so named around 1901 and did not incorporate until 1979.

  3. Rog in the a.m. on April 24th, 2023 6:27 am

    The Mayor is elected by the citizens. The town manager is hired by the council. He answers to the council, they hired him and they can fire him.

  4. SW on April 24th, 2023 6:04 am

    Why not just cancel it, and disband the city government?