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Century Puts Charter Changes On The November Ballot. But Wait, They Were Never Approved.
September 16, 2024
The Town of Century has placed three charter amendments on the November 5, 2024, ballot. But there’s a big problem.
The town never formally approved addling the charter change questions to the ballot.
That’s put sample and vote-by-mail ballots for voters inside the Century town limits on hold while lawyers talk about a problem that make simply just work itself out this week.
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, that delayed the process.
Now, the town had scrapped the full charter review committee recommendations, insteading opting for three changes (more on that below).
How did the Century charter get on the ballot without approval?
The three Century charter questions are already on the ballots for Century precinct voters that live inside the town limits — already there on printed sample and vote-by-mail ballots. (left, click to enlarge). It’s the same General Election two-page ballot that all Escambia County voters will receive, plus one additional page that will go only to voters that live in the town.
The town council voted to approve the three questions for the ballot at their July 2 meeting; the approval came as three ordinances. That was step one, but ordinances require a second reading and a final vote to become official.
Escambia County Supervisor of Elections (SOE) Robert Bender said the town had been given a deadline of the week of the August 20 primary to submit the ballot items for the November election.
The town had a regular meeting scheduled for August 20, but they rescheduled the meeting and d two workshops because the council chambers were being used for primary voting under an agreement with Bender’s office. The meeting was rescheduled for the following day, August 21. The charter ballot ordinances were on the agenda for that night, but the vote was deliberately delayed until September 17 –after the SOE deadline — at the request of Mayor Luis Gomez, Jr.
“Madame president, I would like to have those three items tabled until September 17,” Gomes said with no explanation. He did not tell the council about the deadline imposed by Bender’s office, nor did he disclose the council that the charter changes had been submitted for the ballot two days prior.
Without any discussion, the town council unanimously approved the mayor’s request.
What happened after the mayor requested a delay?
“We received the changes for the ballot on August 19,” Bender said Friday afternoon after the incomplete approval was discovered. “We thought they (the town) had met before the August 20 primary and had approved them,” he added, saying his office though the town met prior to the meeting that originally set for August 20.
At 11:45 a.m. on August 19, Century administrative assistant Mallory Walker sent an email (pictured below) to the Supervisor of Elections Office with the subject line “Town of Century Ballot Questions for November 5, 2024 Election”. The email, copied to Gomez and interim town manager Howard Brown, simply stated, “Attached you will find 3 Ballot Questions in English and Spanish translation for the November 5, 2024 Ballot. Please confirm you have received this email and the attachments.” An attachment contained a copy of all three ballot questions, with nothing indicated that approval by the town council was still pending.
“Now, it’s already on the printed ballot because of that,” Bender said Friday afternoon. “Our attorney is making contact with the town’s attorney.”
Now, the three charter questions are on the town council’s agenda for Tuesday night, the date requested by Gomez back on August 20.
What’s next?
Most issues on the a Century council agenda typically have a “recommended action” coming from the mayor or the appropriate staff, and the council moves forward with that recommendation or takes other action. On this Tuesday’s agenda, there is no “recommended action” listed; only agenda items that state “Motion to pass”.
For now, Bender’s office is holding the vote-by-mail and sample ballots for voters in the town of Century to see what happens with the vote Tuesday night. If final approval is granted by the council, the process will continue to move forward. If the ordinances fail to pass, Bender said his office is prepared to shred the paper ballots that contain the charter amendment questions. If they should pass in some altered form, Bender said his office will reprint the page in-office with the approved changes.
The SOE is facing a deadline of September 21 to send vote-by-mail ballots to “Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act” (UOCAVA) voters, according to the Florida Division of Elections. The deadline period to send vote-by-mail ballots to domestic voters is September 26, 2024 – October 3, 2024.
“We are just waiting to see what action Century takes,” he said, “but we will make the deadlines.”
What are the three chanter questions on the ballot?
The exact ballot questions for voters won’t be determined until Tuesday night, if they are approved at all by the council.
The ballot questions that were submitted without final approval are 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?
At this point, the text above is the only information that will appear on the ballot. Once the ballot questions receive final council approval and move forward onto the ballot, NorthEscambia.com will provide more coverage before the election on the specifics of each ballot question and the ordinance behind them.
NorthEscambia.com photo, images, click to enlarge.
Comments
12 Responses to “Century Puts Charter Changes On The November Ballot. But Wait, They Were Never Approved.”
The council needs to vote NO.
This is ridiculous.
Why does the FL delegation let this continue unchecked?
I have been watching the shenanigans of the mayors office for quite some time. Who has the the lawful oversight into the doings of the town leaders, and why hasn’t the state officials staged a surprise visit to look into the books and records of these people? Just asking….
Vote No.
And the Mayor should be turned over to the FL Ethics Committee and removed from office.
Super Mayor rides again.
Meanwhile in Clowntown Century…they need some serious experienced help.
Meant to say criminal asset forfeiture.
I guess this is where we say ” you can’t make this stuff up’. The incompetencies continue although I do believe the actions were deliberate and self serving for the mayor and his cronies. ISN’T IT TIME TO REVOKE THE CHARTER?
Gomez is attempting to become the Maduro of Century by consolidating power in the Mayor’s office allowing him to run roughshod over the council and do business as he sees fit. I am hopeful Senator Broxson and Representative Salzman continue to pay attention and are doing something behind the scenes to decharter the city of Century.
If the plain reading of these charter amendments are correct
I wouldn’t trust this mayor/council to change bidding requirements to something
They come up with on their own and I certainly wouldn’t give the mayor the right to hire or fire and potentially create his own fiefdom of cronies and buddies if he chose to do so.
Isn’t this election fraud? Trying to steal an election/ballot measure?
Is obvious Gomez and King Brown from South Florida are trying to take all the power and all the control of the cash.
How long will the shenanigans continue? Time for handcuffs. Time to revoke the charter.
I’m smelling some rats. I’d say just vote ‘no’.
I See nothing wrong with the way it was. Too much power
leaning toward the Mayor, Manager etc. without council input and involvement.
Just saying
Will these illegal actions by this administration ever stop? It’s past time for cuffs and chains. Major prison time and civil asset forfeiture.