May 2 is D-Day for corrupt Pinellas County pols

May 2 is approaching and four Pinellas County commissioners are scared. In December, a circuit court judge refused to dismiss the suit against them for violating their legal term limits. Now they face a judge again on May 2 in what could be the final hearing of the case. Both sides are again asking for summary judgment.

 

In 1996, 73% of Pinellas voters passed 8-year term limits but these renegade commissioners refused to insert the term limits amendment language into the charter as required by law. Then when term limits went into effect 8 years later, they refused to step down.  After all, the language isn't in the charter!

 

Citizens were outraged and, after friendly court decisions around the state including a unanimous Florida Supreme Court decision that term limits are constitutional, they filed suit. The three plaintiffs on the people's side represent diverse political, ethnic, professional and geographical faces of Pinellas County. This is appropriate as term limits are not a Republican versus Democrat issue but one of the people versus the arrogance of unchecked power.

 

And nowhere is that arrogance more on display than in this West Coast Florida county, home of St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Shortly after the adverse decision in December, the commissioners doubled their legal team adding four additional lawyers. Yes, that's right, they spending an enormous amount of the people's money to fight the clearly expressed will of the people. And why? To directly benefit themselves.

 

Wow. Is it any wonder people everywhere love term limits?

In addition to lawyering up, commissioner Ken Welch publically declared in February that he is seeking another position in local government and may not serve his full term. One of the reasons, he said, is that the judge may decide he cannot serve his full term. One would hope part of the reason also is that he knows resigning is the right thing to do. Fellow scofflaws Karen Seel, John Morroni and Susan Latvala should follow Welch's lead.

 

Citizens are invited to attend the hearing at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 2 at the Pinellas County Courthouse, 315 Court Street, Courtroom C, Clearwater. Because of citizen interest, the venue might change to accommodate spectators.

Contributions are needed to defray legal costs for the single lawyer on the citizens' side. Please help. Right now, the lion's share of the cost is being handled by just one man, plaintiff H. Patrick Wheeler. Donations can be made payable to and mailed to Save Pinellas, c/o 1028 Peninsula Ave., Tarpon Springs, FL 34689.

For more detail on the case, go here.

 

Of Florida's 20 charter, or "home rule" counties, 12 have term limits. Miami-Dade voters just approved 8-year limits last November. In all but one of the dozen, the popular term limits laws are respected and enforced. It is hoped that on May 2 the citizens will triumph and a decade of political corruption in this beautiful county will be swept away.

(Pictured, the three plaintiffs Maria Scruggs, H. Patrick Wheeler and Beverley Billiris.)

Powerful term limits foe arrested in stolen identity scheme

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune called him "the most powerful political player in Sarasota County politics," but former county GOP Chair Bob Waechter has earned a new and far less flattering tagline after his arrest this month in an indentity theft scheme apparently aimed at embarrassing political opponents.

The Sarasota Sheriff's office said Waechter was charged with the criminal use of a stolen identity for allegedly buying  a prepaid debit card  to make campaign donations to Democrats in the name of a rival Republican.

 

See the full story from the Herald-Tribune here.

Veterans of the battle in Sarasota County over their popular voter-approved 8-year term limits law recall Waechter as a vocal opponent of term limits who championed a new referendum in 2011 to abolish the 8-year limits and replace them with new 12-year limits after a 12-year waiting period. The commission retreated from that plan after a public outcry.

Term limits "put the county at risk of losing a very experienced county commission," he told the Tiger Bay Club in October 2011.

"A lot of things have changed since 1998," when voters approved 8-year term limits with 68% of the vote, Waechter said.

Indeed they have.

Judge: Pinellas term limits has merit, will proceed

Pinellas county commissioners who refuse to comply with Pinellas County's voter-approved 8-year term limits law are in denial. They had hoped for a summary dismissal as the citizen's case as 'frivolous.'

 

But on Nov. 28, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge John A. Schaefer refused to dismiss the suit, suggesting that citizens may be correct that Commissioners Ken Welch, Susan Latvala, John Morroni and Karen Seel are serving on the Pinellas Commission in violation of the county charter.

 

In 1996, some 73 percent of Pinellas voters approved an 8-year term limits law which, according the Pinellas Charter, went into effect on Jan. 1, 1997. This gave commissioners an additional eight years in office before the term limit kicked in. However, commissioners refused to insert the term limits language into the charter and eight years later commissioners refused to leave.

Commissioners justified their rebellion by claiming county commission term limits are unconstitutional, citing a 2002 case in which the Supreme Court of Florida found term limits on constitutional officers to be unconstitutional.  Relying on this interpretation, they simply ignored a local Pinellas court decision in 2000 to the contrary without even bothering to appeal it!

The only trouble with the constitutionality excuse is that the Supreme Court never ruled on the issue of county commission term limits and when it did, in May of this year, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that, yes, county commission term limits are constitutional and always were. The Supremes even went so far as to overturn their previous split decision on constitutional officers. Oops.

Following the Supreme Court ruling, three Pinellas residents connected with Save Pinellas filed a suit to compel compliance with the term limits provision in the charter.

In yesterday's decision, the judge ruled that the Supervisor of Elections must be dropped from the suit and other minor changes, but that the core of the complaint had merit. It  is unlikely there will be any resolution of this until at least Spring 2013.

If the lawsuit is successful, the governor would have to appoint four new people to fill the vacant seats until the next election.

2012 ELECTIONS: Florida joins national term limits sweep

Term limits won nearly everywhere they appeared on the ballot in the United States and Florida was part of the national trend.

Across the nation, term limits won in approximately 97% of the jurisdications where the idea appeared on the ballot, with voters either establishing new limits or protecting existing ones from attacks by incumbent politicians.

The big news in Florida is that the largest county in the state overwhelmingly adopted 8-year county commission term limits. Miami-Dade is the 12th of Florida's 20 charter counties to adopt term limits.

Meanwhile in Pinellas County commissioners continue to use taxpayer money to defend themselves from that county's voter-approved 8-year term limits law. But a judge will entertain a motion this week (Nov. 28) to summarily rule against the commissioners.

If you know of any other term limits measures in Florida on Nov. 6, please pass the info along and I will update the list:

BROOKSVILLE, FL -- Weaken 8-year term city council limits
28% YES
72% NO -- TERM LIMITS WIN!

DUNEDIN, FL -- Places 8-year term limits on mayor and city council
YES 70% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 30%

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FL -- Establish 8-year county commission term limits
YES 77% -- TERM LIMITS WIN!
NO 23%

MIAMI HERALD: Vote YES on county term limits!

The Miami Herald this week urged Miami-Dade residents to make their home the 12th of Florida's 20 home rule counties to embrace county commission term limits.

Under the headline, "Term Limits Should get the Nod," the Herald editorial board notes that of the seven charter amendments Miami-Dade citizens will be considering in November, the first -- eight-year county commisison term limits -- is the "most important."

They are right.

Nearly all of the large counties in the state -- including Orange, Hillsborough, Broward, Palm Beach Duval and Pinellas -- have taken this step.  While a good reform in any county, it is most important in the larger ones where special interests are larger, more powerful and more entrenched.

Term limits help ensure more competitive elections, offer greater citizen participation, bring real-world experience to the commission, spread power more equally across the single-member districts, sever the cozy relationships between special interests and incumbents, increases transparency, reduces corruption and increases the pool of those with an intimate knowledge of local government.

In other words, term limits bring government closer to the people.

Voters have turned down term limits before, because the commissioners linked them to other serve-serving measures and term limits reformers urged voters to reject the crooked package deals. But this time, the charter amendment calls for two 4-year terms and then county commissioners are not eligible to run again. That's all.

No tricks. No small print. You know what to do.

d more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/09/3042181/miami-dade-charter-changes.html#storylink=cpy

House candidate Hasner makes 'commitment' to term limits

As mentioned earlier, Adam Hasner has made term limits a central issue in the battle for Florida's District 22 House seat. In his standard campaign brochure, Hasner lists as commitments "supporting Congressional term limits, opposing Congressional pay increases and refusing a Congressional pension."

 

 

He reiterates these commitments on his website here.

South Florida House contestants Hasner, Frankel spar over term limits

Term Limits are showing up as a key issue in yet another Congressional race, this one in South Florida's 22nd House district.

In one corner is the term-limited former mayor of West Palm Beach, Lois Frankel, who launched a series of political machinations in 2010 to overturn the city's voter-approved 8-year term limits law. Failing in the face of a public uproar, she announced her candidacy instead for the U.S. Congress.



In the other corner is term-limited former Florida State House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, who worked in a term limited legislature and concluded that the U.S. Congress should be term limited too. Hasner is a signatory of the U.S. Term Limits pledge to cosponsor and vote for Congressional term limits if elected. Beyond this he has pledged to limit his own terms and includes his support for the popular reform prominently in his campaign literature.

In this clip above, Hasner makes his case for term limits. Frankel starts to make a case against, but careens into babble when she accidentally starts to undermine her own argument. Michele Kirk of South Florida's BIZPAC Review tells the full story here.

Polling shows this one to be close, with Democrat Frankel a few points ahead in this Democrat-leaning district. Given the popularity of term limits in Palm Beach County, Hasner is heading into the finish waving the term limits flag which has proven effective in 2012 for other upstarts with credibility on this issue. And Hasner's got that.

Stay tuned!