LAKELAND — A neutered draft of changes to the Lakeland City Charter may not be worth a special election commissioners said Friday, while more substantive changes should be brought before a higher turnout general election.
Either way, the previous commission's desire for a spring election on a project it initiated appears as though it will be unfulfilled. The topic will be further discussed at the first reading of the ordinance during Tuesday's City Commission meeting.
The last commission had stripped the two most controversial amendments from an earlier draft: one would strictly limit terms for elected officials to three, 12 years, and another that would make it possible, though very difficult, to sell Lakeland Electric.
The previous commission had forwarded the package of edits of the Lakeland City Charter for consideration by the members who took their seats earlier this month.
Amid the remaining amendments, many updating language for clarity or for consistency with state law, the only one with any juice is one that would tie commissioners' pay increases with pay increases given to the city's nonunionized employees.
"The way it stands right now I don't think there is anything that rises to the level of risk for vetoing the whole thing," City Attorney Tim McCausland told commissioners, referring to the group as mostly "housekeeping."
If the commission does want to put the amendments on the ballot, it should decide to do so soon, McCausland said, so Lakeland can piggyback off of municipal elections in April, saving money.
Commissioner Michael Dunn said he didn't believe the package of charter edits warranted an estimated $70,000 price tag for holding a special election.
Others agreed.
Commissioner Scott Franklin said that if the edits were largely "wordsmithing" rather than substantive changes to law, it can wait for the next general election, and if it was substantive, it should wait.
Franklin added that he believed the Lakeland Electric amendment made sense, though took extra care to state he was in no way for selling the utility in the foreseeable future.
"In no shape, form or fashion am I in favor of selling Lakeland Electric," Franklin said, "absolutely not." But as the CEO of a risk management company and a former naval aviator, he said he liked having options.
"We don't know what circumstances are coming down the line in the future" that would make Lakeland Electric a less attractive, or even damaging, asset for the city, he said.
Commissioner Stephanie Madden said she agreed with the assessment, framing it as a way to give voters more power over the utility.
Under the current charter, two-thirds of Lakeland's entire electorate — not just those who chose to vote — would have to affirm the sale of the utility, a practical impossibility when a banner election brings slightly more than 20 percent of registered voters to the polls.
Under the proposed change, five of seven commissioners would need to vote to put a sale on the ballot, the sale would need to get a 65 percent vote by voters who show up and the question would have to be placed on a general election.
The edited charter was created by the last city commission starting in 2015 by a group of 15 appointed residents. The commission at the time was split on the strong mayor issue and the creation of the Charter Review Committee emerged as something between a compromise and proxy battleground over the strong mayor initiative.
Joe Mawhinney, the chairman of the Charter Review Committee, agreed with the assessment that non-substantive changes can wait and substantive changes should be put to the wider general election audience.
Even with the two hot button issues included in the group of changes, "I don't think anything we recommended is so critically time sensitive that it needs to be rushed to the attention of voters for a decision," Mawhinney said.
If the Lakeland Electric and term limits issue is to be included, Mawhinney said he recommended they be voted on separate from the more mundane changes, which he said constitute important document cleaning arrived at in a diligent manner.
He said he understood when he undertook the roughly 14-month process of revising the charter there was a chance that the more substantive issues would be stripped from the final ballot item.
"We were simply a review committee that was advisory in nature and our purpose was to make recommendations to the commission on areas of the charter. … We always did it with the thought it was up to the commission to decide," he said.
The commission could also hold a mail-in election, sending ballots to all Lakeland voters, but it would increase the price of the election by about twice, City Manager Tony Delgado said.
Christopher Guinn can be reached at Christopher.Guinn@theledger.com or 863-802-7592. Follow him on Twitter @CGuinnNews.