- April 28, 2024
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Flagler Beach’s commissioners apparently are not in favor of giving the mayor a vote on the commission or changing the commission’s makeup or the length of the mayor's and commissioners’ terms. But they might be in favor of expanding the mayor’s veto powers.
At the end of a special workshop on Feb. 15, the commissioners agreed to add an agenda item to a future meeting to discuss the possibility of initiating a charter review process that could look into expanding the mayor’s veto.
“If we’re going to look at the charter, let’s look at the whole charter,” Commission Chair Eric Cooley said.
The city is required to convene a charter review commission every 10 years. A charter review was last held five years ago. Commissioner Rick Belhumeur noted that charter review can be done any time.
The special workshop was scheduled after Cooley requested a discussion in December on giving the mayor a vote and possibly putting the question on the March ballot to let voters decide. The city currently has five commissioners plus a non-voting mayor. If the mayor were to have a vote, the commission would have an even number of voters. To prevent tie votes the city would have to eliminate or add a commission seat. Changes could also affect term lengths. Currently the mayor and the five commissioners serve three-year terms.
But at the beginning of the workshop, Cooley stepped back from his proposal. Instead of giving the mayor a vote, he suggested expanding the mayor’s veto power. Currently, the mayor can veto only ordinances and resolutions. It’s a solution, he said, that eliminates rewriting the whole charter.
He proposed expanding the veto to include any action or consent item. He said frequently there are decisions made outside of resolutions and ordinances and they can be manipulated.
Let’s say you have unscrupulous folks who want to bypass a potential veto, they would just bring things forward that’s not a resolution or ordinance.”
— ERIC COOLEY, Flagler Beach Commission Chair
“Let’s say you have unscrupulous folks who want to bypass a potential veto, they would just bring things forward that’s not a resolution or ordinance,” he said.
Commissioner Scott Spradley said that after talking to citizens, he found there wasn't much interest in giving the mayor a vote or reducing the size of the commission. He asked Cooley, why he was suggesting changes now with the commission facing stormwater issues, a demolition and rebuild of the pier, issues with A1A and a new hotel.
Cooley said the time is right with Mayor Suzie Johnston’s term ending and Patti King, who ran unopposed, set to be sworn in as the new mayor on March 21.
The mayor currently has five days to veto an ordinance or resolution. Four of the five commissioners can override the veto at the following business meeting.
City Attorney Drew Smith suggested adding guardrails if the mayor’s veto is expanded beyond resolutions and ordinances.
As an example, he said, the five commissioners could agree 5-0 to apply for a grant that is due in two weeks. The mayor could veto the decision the next day, and by the time the commission would meet again to override the veto, the deadline for that grant would have passed.
While expanding veto powers was a new proposal, the commissioners and most of the speakers during public comment were not in favor of changing the current system.
Don Deal, the city’s former Planning Board chair who also chaired the last Charter Review Commission, defended the mayor’s veto power, noting that in the early 2000s a voting bloc of three commissioners voted to eliminate parking on the east side of A1A. Deal and former commissioner John Feind said the city would be in trouble if the mayor were to become a defacto commissioner with no veto power.
“The early 2000s were a very chaotic time,” Feind said. “The commission was known as the freak show.”
Deal said three-year terms eliminated the possibility of three commissioners coming in at the same and establishing a voting bloc.
Linda Provencher, a former Flagler Beach commissioner and mayor, said she never had to use the veto, but it was nice to know that it was there. Johnston said she also never felt the need to use the veto.
In preparation for the agenda item, Smith asked the commissioners to think about what kind of votes the mayor’s veto could include.
