REDINGTON SHORES – Sixteen amendments to the town charter for Redington Shores is on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.
The charter changes are a result of recommendations from the first charter review committee to be appointed in Redington Shores since the 1950s.
Though town attorney James Denhardt has said most of the amendments deal with “housekeeping issues,” which update the charter to conform with state statutes or to eliminate outdated language, a few make significant changes.
Amendment No. 5 says town officials and employees cannot engage in personal financial transactions or other activities that conflict with their official duties in the public interest.
State statutes define what activities are prohibited. Charter Review Committee member Dave Eldridge said he considers passage of this amendment to be especially important, considering some incidents that have occurred in the past.
Amendment No. 8 requires persons wanting to run for a seat on the Board of Commissioners be a town resident for at least a year. The previous residency requirement was six months.
The review committee spent the most time discussing Amendment No. 12, Eldridge said, which removes bidding procedures from the charter and places them in a separate ordinance, where they can be more easily changed.
That section also expands bidding requirements to allow for “piggybacking” on existing county and other contracts, a process that can result in a better price or speedup of work needing to be done.
To avoid another 50 year plus lapse in reviewing the town charter, Amendment No. 13 requires the appointment of a charter review committee at least every 10 years.
Amendment No. 14 would remove a current cap in the charter of 2.0 on the town millage rate. This is being done to conform with state statutes, which have already removed the cap. The rate has been at 2.0 for the past three years, but could have been raised to any rate deemed necessary by the town.
Voters may want to make note of the amendment numbers and descriptions above, as the wording on the ballot does not always spell out the changes being made.
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