Scott Powers
BusinessForce, the political action arm of Central Florida’s chambers of commerce, has voted unanimously to support all three proposed charter amendments Orange County voters will consider in the November election.
Two of the amendments are the Orange County Charter Review Commission’s reaction to a recent judge’s ruling that threw out an earlier charter amendment, approved by voters in 2014, that has become a hot partisan fight between Republicans and Democrats in Orange County.
The other proposal is related to the same partisan fight that first erupted in Orange County in 2012, but deals with how citizens can get proposed charter amendments on the ballot without going through the Orange Charter Review Commission.
The judge’s ruling had stipulated that the 2014 charter amendment vote was invalid because it made the county’s six constitutional officers — sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, comptroller, clerk of courts and supervisor of elections — non-partisan posts. The judge ruled that their jobs were created under the state constitution and Orange County did not have authority to change the way they are elected.
Sheriff Jerry Demings, Tax Collector Scott Randolph and Property Appraiser Rick Singh, all Democrats, had sued in 2014 to stop the vote. The vote went on and voters approved it with 71 percent approval, but so did the lawsuit. In May, Circuit Court Judge Keith White agreed with the plaintiffs and threw out the results of the election.
This year, those officers all are running in partisan races.
Two of new proposed charter amendments are another attempt at making the races non-partisan, first by transferring their status to being charter officers under county rule, rather than constitutional officers under state rule.
The third proposed amendment places new framework on what citizens must do to raise petitions seeking charter amendments on the ballot, to assure all areas of Orange County are represented in the issue.
“BusinessForce supports greater clarity, transparency, fairness and accountability in the charter’s citizen initiative petitions process that is used to shape public policy,” Robert Agrusa, executive director of BusinessForce, stated in a press release. “BusinessForce would like to thank each of the charter review commissioners for their dedication, commitment and service to this volunteer service board and we strongly urge Orange County residents to vote in favor of these important reforms.”
BusinessForce is the political arm of the Central Florida Partnership, a coalition of chambers of commerce centered on Orlando.
