One chapter of Bradenton Beach litigation is nearing an end.
Or is an appeal in the works?
City attorney Ricinda Perry told city commissioners March 5 that Judge Edward Nicholas of the 12th Judicial Circuit Court ruled earlier that day in favor of the city in litigation surrounding ballot questions that were petitioned by a grass-roots group to change the city charter.
Keep Our Residential Neighborhoods’ charter proposals were:
- Prohibit the construction of a multilevel parking garage anywhere in the city;
- Require city commission vacancies be filled by election;
- Prevent construction within setbacks;
- Install a certified public manager as chief executive officer of the city.
KORN founders Reed Mapes and John Metz collected petition signatures for the initiatives in 2018 for that year’s general election.
However, the city declined the petitions and the signatures were not submitted to the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office for verification. The city cited concerns with the legality of the initiatives and the proposed ballot language, which exceeded the state’s allowed word count for ballot questions.
KORN sued the city in July 2018, seeking to force submission of the voter-signed petitions to the SOE for verification and placement on the 2018 ballot.
In September 2018, Judge Lon Arend ordered the city to submit the signatures to the SOE and also that verified initiatives go on a 2019 ballot.
The city complied and submitted the petitions in August 2019. The SOE verified three of the four initiatives, but KORN’s city manager initiative failed.
Metz later submitted additional signatures to the SOE to meet the 10% threshold for the city manager initiative.
However, in September 2019, Elections Supervisor Mike Bennett told the city in a letter the initiatives failed to comply with state law and none would appear on the 2019 ballot.
Robert Hendrickson, KORN’s attorney, filed a motion to enforce the court’s finding, arguing the judge’s order required the city to amend the initiatives to comply with state law.
He also filed for sanctions against Perry and the city, requesting the city be held in contempt and required to pay $5,000 for his fees.
At a December 2019 hearing, Perry argued that she refused to change the language because Hendrickson had advised against changing wording and she had received no response when she sought changes to the wording from Metz and Mapes.
She also established that KORN’s ballot question that would prevent construction within setbacks would be illegal and would cut the city off from state and federal grants for stormwater drainage improvements.
Additionally, Perry said the city had addressed many of KORN’s concerns by amending the land development code to prevent parking garages and forming a charter review commission to consider a city manager and commission vacancies.
What’s new
The March 5 hearing, continued from December 2019, began with questions for Perry and city engineer Lynn Burnett at the witness stand, followed by final arguments.
Perry later said Nicholas found the city complied with Arend’s ruling on the merits and properly submitted the ballot questions and petition signatures to the SOE. He denied Hendrickson’s motion to enforce the ruling.
Nicholas also denied Hendrickson’s sanction requests.
“Congratulations, Bradenton Beach: you did what you were supposed to do, and you upheld your law,” Perry told city commissioners at their March 5 meeting. “And the city prevailed once again.”
However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Perry said Metz and Mapes can appeal.
“There may not be total, complete finality on this, but the ruling is favorable for the city,” Perry said.
She added that the city is not able to pursue reimbursement of its attorneys’ fees and costs.