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Town of Century Asks Voters To Amend Charter

Voters in Century will consider three amendments to the town charter when they vote in the general election.

What’s a charter?

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 over 40 years, and that often creates problems in the operation of the town. (Pictured left: The first portion of the original 1979 Century town charter, which created the Town of Century, Florida from the Town of South Flomaton, Florida. Click to enlarge.)

One of the big problems for the town has been a spending limit for the mayor of under $200 without council approval. And over recent years, there has been a lot of tension and even a stalemate between the mayor and council over hiring employees. The mayor can’t hire employees without council approval, even down the lowest level employee.

Mayor Luis Gomez, Jr., by his own admission, violated the town charter earlier this month by exceeding his spending limit by $161,590. And he says it saved the town a nearly $200,000. Gomez informed the council after-the-fact- that he approved an insurance proposal for $161,790 without council approval to avoid a $134.883 increase in premiums and choosing a cheaper policy to save $190,173. The town has yet to completely fulfill a public records request related to the insurance issue to verify the mayor’s claims.

The charter has other issues with outdated provisions not following changes in a current state law.

How did the recommended changes come about?

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 snafus along the way, from the pandemic to wrong documents, which delayed the process.

The volunteer charter review committee spent about three years creating a draft of a completely new charter from beginning to end. The town attorney submitted another draft build around a town manager and no mayor, but the council later shelved that version.

Now, the town had scrapped the full charter review committee recommendations made by the local citizens’ committee, instead opting for three changes of their own, but not a complete re-write.

Early this year, the town placed the three charter amendments on the ballot, without ever formally approving them. That caused the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections Office to become involved and force the town to give final approval before the SOE finalized ballots. (Pictured left: The original signature page from the 1979 Century town charter.)

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 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 at the meeting 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 with no further explanation about the ballot items.

This week, the town did not respond to a NorthEscambia.com request for more information on the charter ballot questions, or interviews.

What are the items on the ballot?

Here are the items appearing on the ballot for voters that live inside the Century town limits. The exact wording is available in the sample ballot pictured left (click to enlarge).

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? [Click for pdf.]

The first amendment to the town charter would allow town purchasing to be governed by purchasing policies approved by the council.

Currently, the charter requires the town to receive bids and award contracts for expenditures of $500 or more. The mayor can also approve expenditures of up to $200. The mayor has a limit of $500 in an emergency situation, and most notify the town council president immediately. There is no current charter provision that allows the mayor to spend more than $500 under any circumstances without council approval.

If the amendment is approved, the current requirement to receive bids and the mayor’s spending limit will be removed from the charter. Instead, the town council will be able to set purchasing guidelines and limits, making whatever charges at any point they see fit.

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? [Click for pdf.]

The second amendment to the town charter would allow the mayor to hire, and fire, employees at will. The mayor would only need to the council’s approval to hire, or fire, a town clerk, town attorney, and town manager.

Currently, the charter requires the mayor to recommend and seek the town council’s approval to appoint or remove any town employee. Without conical approval, the mayor cannot hire, terminate or suspend any employee.

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? [Click for pdf.]

The third proposed amendment will amend the charter “to correct scrivener and codification errors” and confirm charter provisions to Florida Election Code.

Scrivener’s errors, by common definitions, are typographical errors, misspellings, omitted words or other common errors–essentially clerical errors or typos.

While the mayor and council members are currently elected for four year terms, charted language that states two years terms would be changed to reflect four years terms of office. Language requiring that voters register and qualify with the town clerk would also be removed, as voter registration is now handled by the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections. A requirement that voters reeside in town limits “on election day” would be removed, as would requirements that the town clerk keep registration books.

A current provision as outline for allowing charter changes by voters would be replaced to conform to wording in Florida Statutes.

Otherwise, the town has not specified what would be changed in the charter as “scrivener and codification errors”, nor have they specified who will have the authority to make changes, if any, in the future.

NorthEscambia.com photo and images, click to enlarge.