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Century Gives Final Approval — With No Details — To Charter Changes For The November Ballot
September 18, 2024
The Century Town Council Tuesday night gave final approval to three charter amendments for the November 5, 2024, general election ballot.
As we reported early this week, the town submitted the charter questions to be placed on the ballot without a final approval, and the ballots were printed.
Escambia County Supervisor of Elections Robert Bender and Chief Deputy Supervisor of Elections Sonya Daniel attended the council meeting Tuesday night and sat quietly in the back of the room.
Bender said they attended the meeting to answer any questions. However, the county’s top two elections officials were never even verbally acknowledged during the meeting by Mayor Luis Gomez, Jr. or the town council.
When the town council gave first approval in July to the three ordinances to place the items on the ballot, they contained the ballot language and details on the exact changes to be made if voters approve. By the second approval Tuesday night, details on the charter changes to be made had disappeared from the ordinances.
Bender said following the meeting that he has required signed copies of the approved charter change ordinances for review. He said he expects any decisions regarding the ballot changes to come quickly because vote-by-mail ballots have upcoming statutory deadlines.
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. In recent years, the town sat a charter review committee to create a new draft charter, and the town council set about reviewing those changes. There were several snaps along the way, from the pandemic to wrong documents, which delayed the process.
What are the three chanter questions on the ballot?
The exact ballot questions for voters were not actually approved Tuesday night.
The ballot questions that were submitted without final approval were as follows:
Question 1:
TOWN CHARTER AMENDMENT PROVIDING FOR TOWN PURCHASING TO BE GOVERNED BY COUNCIL-APPROVED PURCHASING POLICIES
Amending the Town of Century Charter to remove specific bidding, contracting, purchasing, and expenditure requirements and procedures from the Charter, and provide that Town bidding, contracting, purchasing, and expenditures will be governed by Town ordinances, policies, and procedures adopted by the Town Council. Shall the above-described amendment be adopted?
Question 2:
TOWN CHARTER AMENDMENT CONCERNING MAYOR’S EMPLOYMENT AUTHORITY
Amending the Town of Century Charter to expand the Mayor’s powers to select, appoint, suspend, and remove town employees and appointive administrative officers, by limiting the requirement for Council approval of such actions solely to the selection, appointment, suspension, or removal of the Town Clerk, Town Attorney, and Town Manager. Shall the above-described amendment be adopted?
Question 3:
TOWN CHARTER CLEANUP AMENDMENT
Amending the Town of Century Charter to correct scriveners and codification errors, and to conform charter provisions to the requirements of the Florida Election Code. Shall the above-described amendment be adopted?
NorthEscambia.com will provide more coverage before the election on the specifics of each ballot questions.
Pictured: Escambia County Supervisor of Elections Robert Bender and Chief Deputy Supervisor of Elections Sonya Daniel sit quietly in the back of the room at a Tuesday night Century Town Council meeting. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
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