Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse March 3 stood down his fact-finding mission to implement a county charter government.
The move came two days after Kruse attended a meeting hosted by the city of Anna Maria with a city attorney, Wade Vose, via Zoom, who detailed the ramifications for the city of a charter county government.
A charter county is a county with a unique set of laws that forms the legal basis of its government. Resembling state or federal constitutions, charters and amendments must be approved by 50%-plus one of county voters. According to Kruse, 80% of counties in the state are charter county governments.
The municipalities on Anna Maria Island are governed by charters.
Holmes Beach Commissioners Jayne Christenson and Jim Kihm, Bradenton Beach Mayor John Chappie and city leaders from other municipalities attended the March 1 meeting via Zoom, as did League of Women Voters of Manatee County president Alice Newlon.
Anna Maria called the meeting after a Manatee County Council of Governments forum Feb. 2 in Palmetto. There, Kruse announced his intent to explore what it would take to establish a county charter.
He has said he intended to give county residents a greater voice, as Manatee is the second largest in the state without a charter government.
But Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy told The Islander March 2 that a charter county government “takes away our ability to control our destiny. We’re safeguarding what we’ve got.”
Vose, at the meeting, said the county could preempt a city’s ability to govern and enforce ordinances.
If a provision is put in the charter prohibiting the county from overriding city ordinances, it easily could be repealed by a simple majority, according to Vose.
The state dictates that under a county charter government, a county needs only a vote of 50%-plus-one by the electorate to enact a proposed change to the charter.
“The major fear of the municipalities is preemption of their regulations and ordinances by the county, especially land use preemption,” read a March 2 email from the League of Women Voters of Manatee County to members. “The state has dictated that a charter county must have 50% +1 person to change the charter and this restriction makes it too easy to change the charter.”
Asked his reaction to the league perspective, Kruse, who represents District 7, told The Islander March 2 it presented a worst-case scenario that he didn’t foresee.
County commissioners are too busy to want to take over municipal issues, Kruse said March 2.
But March 3, Kruse sent an email to The Islander stating he had done “further research on the 50% threshold” and determined he would stand down on “charter discussions for Manatee County until we can more comfortably ensure, through legislation, that the municipalities are adequately and permanently protected via verbiage and vote thresholds currently unavailable in Florida.”
He also sent an email to Murphy and other mayors “to allow everyone to put this to rest at this time. I truly have no ill-intent with the municipalities,” he wrote. “Honestly, the last thing my stretched-time needs is more land use meetings and oversight. I’m of the belief that government runs best the closer it is to the community it governs.”
Murphy told The Islander March 4, “I’m happy he’s come to the realization that it’s not good for the island or the county.”
Before the March 1 meeting, the LWV had gone on the record as being in favor of a county charter.
Afterward, the LWV withdrew support but maintained that a charter government could be beneficial for the county with the right conditions.
“If the state regulation required 60% or 66% (of voters to approve a charter amendment), it would be one thing,” Newlon said March 4 in a phone interview with The Islander. “But at 50%-plus-one, it’s too easy.”
And that ease of amending a charter, Newlon said, is concerning for the possibility it presents for developers to influence a county board.
“Money’s a powerful thing,” Newlon said.
County government
Manatee County is governed by the commission-administrator form of government. The voters in Manatee County elect the seven-member board of commissioners. The board is responsible for adopting ordinances and county policies. The county administrator is hired by the commissioners and is responsible for the county’s day-to-day operations and manages the various county department directors. The exception is those department directors with their own authority who are elected by voters, including the sheriff, clerk of the circuit court, tax collector, supervisor of elections and property appraiser.
