By Dan Moffett
South Palm Beach council members have come to the conclusion that it doesn’t make much sense to have term limits in a town that has trouble finding candidates willing to serve in the first place.
“We’re not a very large town,” said Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello, “so we unfortunately have a limited pool of people to draw from who want to do this.”
Then there is the learning curve once a council member takes office.
“The town invests a lot of money and the council invests a lot of time, and it takes about two years to get to know what you’re doing on the Town Council,” said Councilwoman Bonnie Fischer. “The fact that we have elections every two years, I think, doesn’t give anybody elected as a novice the time to really get into what they’re doing.”
The town charter limits council members to three consecutive two-year terms. After that, the office-holder must either sit out a term or run for mayor, if he or she wants to continue to serve.
That all could change in March, however. The Town Council wants to put a charter amendment on the ballot for the next election that would remove all term limits and allow council members to run for as many terms as they wish.
“I’m not a big fan of no term limits, because I think when people get into a position, it sometimes becomes more difficult for someone new to come into that position,” Flagello said. “But by the same token, the way the process is supposed to work, if someone is not doing a great job, then the people will come and not vote for that person.”
Last March, South Palm Beach needed no election after no opponents came forward to challenge incumbents Stella Gaddy Jordan and Robert Gottlieb. Competitive races have been relatively infrequent in the town over the years.
Fischer raised the issue of term limits during a workshop on charter changes Oct. 9. Council members considered keeping the three-term limits but increasing the terms to three years, but ultimately settled instead on eliminating limits.
“I understand that bringing this subject up tends to look a little self-serving,” Fischer said. “But this discussion is not because we all want to stay on forever. It’s because it’s good for the town and good for the council.”
Town Attorney Brad Biggs and Town Manager Rex Taylor have told council members the charter also could use some housekeeping to clean up outdated language and provisions.
One recommendation is eliminating the requirement that a candidate for the town manager’s job have 10 years’ experience in municipal management. “Ten years is an unreasonable requirement,” Taylor said.
The council also is likely to eliminate term limits for town boards and change procedures for filling council vacancies.
The final lineup of charter proposals for the March ballot is scheduled to be set at the Nov. 18 council meeting.
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Comments
Just in case you think I am lying about Mary Kate Lemings selective reporting on out of control councils this was reported on in this very edition - apparently it is just poor South Palm beach residents she has no respect for!! Gulf Stream: Town pursues RICO case against litigious residents
The hostilities between the town of Gulf Stream and two litigious residents appear destined to get a whole lot more hostile in the weeks ahead.
And the case the town is preparing against Martin O’Boyle and Christopher O’Hare could ripple through dozens of communities across the state.
LOL
these Council members Clayman, Flagello, Jordan, Gottlieb, Whipple(she's gone) Taylor ,White and Biggs are a bunch of incompetent arrogant buffons with over inflated opinions of themselves.
I am now in Federal court suing all of them. They have abused the residents of this Town by ignoring our Charter which is the Constitution of our little Town since 2003 and continue to do it up to this very day.
Has anybody noticed that our Government has not ye told the Town residents that they are being sued; they certainly should because the Court just denied the Town and sued individuals Summary Judgments against me- that is a sign that I have some serious causes of action against them and they granted me a chance to put in a new complaint- which I am working on now.
The Office of the Attorney General has started an investigation and they are the ones who will investigate the violations of our Charter and violations of Florida Statute.
Charter and State Law Violations
1) No mandatory Citizens Advisory Council sat from 2003 -this is a vetting Council to prevent the wrong residents getting onto boards that were of special interest to themselves, such as Nevard, Robinson and Festino of the Planning Board.
2) 2006 an unconstitutional Ordinace 235 which changed our Form of Government by giving power to the Council to nominate and appoint Board Members which under our Charter is strictly prohibited. We are a weak Council /Strong Manager Town where the only one allowed to chose and appoint let's say the " Planning Board" was the Town Manager - under the provisions of our Charter the Council have absolute no right to vote whether or not they will appoint them- they gave themselves that right !!!! Scoundrels!!
This crew cannot change the Charter when it changes our form of government or changes anything to do with appointive boards without a referendum by the voters of South Palm Beach- Statute 166.021 (4). They screwed us out of our due process to vote! they have been screwing the residents of this TOWN for years!!
3) All Planning Boards, and others, since 2003 are illegally constituted because they were appointed and sat and voted in violation of the Town Charter and the Florida Statutes- I claim that every vote by the illegally constituted Planning Board denying the redevelopment of our only recreation in Town will be found to be illegal, void and ultra vires-the opinion on that will come from the Office of the State Attorney. Nevard who voted it down lives in a 9 story penthouse directly opposite the Inn and had an approximate 125 ft uninterrupted view of the ocean which would have been lost; Deborah Robinson lived directly next door and for most of the time she was voting against the redevelopment she had her Condo for sale - now who in their right mind would want redevelopment going on next door when you are trying to sell your place? Pat Festinos mother lived in the same building as Robinson and would probably have lost her view as well; on April 2010 Planning Board Festiono became the owner of her mothers apartment by quit deed and voted no on the redevelopment on December 9, 2010. Although these three residents had made it perfectly clear in Town Hall Meetings that they were radically against the redevelopment of a hotel (I wonder why) they were cherry picked, nominated and appointed by sitting Council members.
4) From June 2010 until November 23, 2010 I sent multiple texts to Rex Taylor, Whipple and stood up at Town Hall Meetings telling them what they were doing and allowing was illegal- they completely ignored me - my last Public Comment on it was November 23, 2010 -just sixteen days later they allowed the illegally constituted Planning Board sit and vote NO on a new hotel and recreation for the TOWN.
5) I have aksed the court for an injunction on the building of 33 condos on the Inns site until we can sort all of this out legally - the court has given me permission to bring it before the court at a later time. I also believe that the Architectural Board that voted yes on the permit for the Condos is illegally constituted and that the vote should be declared void.
6) I believe and will argue in court that the redevelopment of our only commercial site and recreation should go back to square one and be overseen by a different, new honest government of this lovely little Town.
7) Rex Taylor got almost $18,000 increase in his salary within 18 months- Didn't know that ? That's because the last one approx. $9,000 was not voted on by the Council and not made public that is in strict violation of our Charter the whole council has to discuss it that vote yes or no on it!! Mayor Maurice Jacobson was the only one who signed the document.
8) Rex Taylor did NOT swear a mandatory oath as demanded by the Charter.
9) The Charter states that Rex Taylor should have been given an evaluation every year - he did not have one from 2006 until 2013. Although the Clayman knew the Town was being sued by me and that a lot of the problems were caused by the incompetence of Taylor he gave him a perfect score and stated that the Town could not have a better man for the job!! dumb and dumber!!
10) Whipple destroyed our little Towns history from 1955- 2011-11/5/13 just 6 days before she retired- only problem is that is illegal when you are aware of litigation or pending litigation and they had received my letter of intent to sue months earlier - it was witnessed by Taylor and Alvarez our new Town Clerk - the three stooges!!
11) Illegally joined two boards together in violation of the very strict instruction in our Charter.
Although I have made Mary Kate Leming aware of all the problems in this Town on many occasions she refuses to report them - when I asked her why she said that the Town had control over what she said in HER paper- what a load of rubbish and what kind of reporter is she for the people in her area when she does no investigate reports of maybe multiple possible illegal actions taken by a Town Council and continuing abuse of the residents by the same council.
She had no problem helping in the witch-hunt of our obviously very troubled ex Mayor Marty Millar - the witch-hunt continued until he committed suicide.
It's also very troubling that she has reported on other dysfunctional Councils and Boards in our area just not South Palm Beach - very disturbing!