Weekly comments from Dale Martin

Dale Martin
City Manager
Fernandina Beach
October 5, 2018 12:00 a.m.

With mail-in ballots now being distributed, I’ll conclude my summary of the Constitutional ballot proposals under consideration on this year’s ballot.

Question No. 10 is titled State and Local Government Structure and Operation. This question was added to the ballot by the Constitutional Revision Committee (CRC) by a 29-8 vote. The existing Department of Veterans Affairs and a new Office of Domestic Security and Counterterrorism (housed within the Department of Law Enforcement) will be added to the Constitution, if passed. Additionally, the Legislature would commence its session in January of even-numbered years rather than the currently prescribed March (and further prohibits changes to that date).

The key differences regarding his proposed amendment, however, are the portions related to county government. The question seeks to ensure that offices of county Constitutional officers- sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, supervisor of elections, and clerk of the circuit court- remain elected offices. Some counties have established other methods by which to fill those offices, and the amendment seeks to remove the ability of those alternative methods. At first glance, since Nassau County Constitutional Officers are, in fact, elected, this amendment would appear to have minimal, if any, effect upon Nassau County. If I have overlooked an after-effect, I will provide that additional information as soon as possible.

Question No. 11 is Property Rights; Removal of Obsolete Provision; Criminal Statutes. Added to the ballot by the CRC (36-1), and continuing the “bundling” trend of different issues, this proposed amendment is relatively short. Discriminatory language related to property rights is proposed to be removed, addresses the “timing” of criminal actions in relation to any subsequent repeal of criminal statutes (if a crime was committed before the associated statute was repealed, an offender can still be prosecuted and punished), and language related to high-speed trains is removed. Support either for or against this amendment is relatively quiet in comparison to the other questions.

Question No. 12 is titled Lobbying and Abuse of Office by Public Officials (CRC, 30-4; 3 not voting). This is a lengthy amendment that, in short-form, addresses ethics in government. Public officials (for which the proposed amendment provides a definition) would be prohibited from paid lobbying (for which the proposed amendment does not provide a definition) before other governments or agencies. Those same public officials would also be prohibited from paid lobbying before their former governing bodies for a period of six years following their departure from office. The amendment also adds language prohibiting the abuse of public position for personnel benefit.

And finally, Question No. 13, Ends Dog Racing. Despite being added to the ballot by the CRC (27-10), this amendment is not bundled with any other issue. Simply, do you want to end gambling on dog races? Supporters of the proposed amendment include several animal welfare agencies; opponents, kennel clubs and greyhound associations.

And that is how the entire ballot concludes. In total, the Nassau County ballot includes over a dozen elected offices (it may vary due to local elections: in Fernandina Beach, with two City Commission seats contested, sixteen positions will be decided on Election Day) and twelve proposed Constitutional amendments (one ballot question, No. 8, was removed following a legal challenge).

Elections are how we, as a nation, determine our political and governing future. Your actual participation is critical- vote by mail or vote in person, but VOTE. Despite the obvious explosion of social media, we do not govern by Facebook. I encourage you to review and study the issues and candidates. I again congratulate every candidate who, given the toxicity of the general political environment (which thankfully, to-date, has not poisoned our local government), has put herself or himself (and families) into the public spotlight which grows brighter and hotter every second. I hopes that the victors on Nov 6 will humbly accept the challenges for which they have been selected to address.

Thank you all for participating in our national, state, and local government.