House Democrats, wary of their own experiences, oppose county term-limits

TALLAHASSEE — House Democrats on a committee advancing term-limits for some county officials complained Wednesday that term-limits had drained “institutional knowledge” from the Legislature and would do the same at the local level. The proposed constitutional amendment, HJR 785, sponsored by Rep. John Wood , R-Winter Haven, passed the House Community and Military Affairs Committee. The resolution would allow charter counties to impose term-limitations on county commissioners and other constitutional officers like sheriffs and property appraisers. Wood said the joint resolution would help overturn a “wrongly decided” Florida Supreme Court case from 2002 that found charter counties couldn’t impose term-limits on constitutional officers. Additionally, a Broward County circuit court ruled in 2010 that voter-imposed term-limits for county commissioners were unconstitutional. That ruling has been appealed to the state Supreme Court, and will be heard later this year. Currently, 10 of the state’s 20

charter counties have term-limits. But some local government officials and Democrats argued it would ultimately lead to what has happened in Tallahassee — an shift of control to the un-elected interest-groups that write all the bills, finance the candidates, and drive the agenda. “It has empowered the lobbyists,” said Rep. Scott Randolph , D-Orlando. Rep. Mark Pafford , D-West Palm Beach, said “no one here has been around more than seven years,” and the shift had fueled the dependency on interest-groups for huge campaign checks. But other Republicans on the panel said the public supported term-limits for lawmakers, and would they would do the same at the local level. “As a populist issue, I think the people very much appreciate term-limits,” said Rep. Matthew Caldwell , R-Fort Myers.

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House Democrats, wary of their own experiences, oppose county term-limits

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