Charter ballot language changed

At its committee meetings yesterday, the Pensacola City Council made several changes to the ballot language for the referendum on the proposed new charter. The Council also decided to conduct a mail-in referendum with ballots due back by November 24.

For more information on the proposed new charter, including a side-by-side comparison of the existing and proposed charters, see http://progressivepensacola.com/charter.

The new ballot language, as approved by Council yesterday, is:

CITY OF PENSACOLA CHARTER REPLACEMENT QUESTION

Shall the City of Pensacola replace its current Charter with a completely revised Charter providing for:

• A Mayor-Council form of government, replacing a Council-Manager form of government;
• A nine-member Council with two at-large seats and seven district seats;
• Four-year staggered terms of office instead of two-year terms of office;
• Term limits of three consecutive terms;
• Recall, initiative and referendum

as described in Ordinance #____ ?

Also of note was Council’s decision not to pay for return postage in the mail-in referendum. That means that voters must get their own stamp in order to mail the ballot in and have their vote counted. It saves the City money, but will certainly result in lower voter turnout in a special election which is already likely to have low turnout.

The vote not to pay return postage passed by a 8-1 vote, with Councilwoman Jewel Cannada-Wynn dissenting, and Councilman Larry B. Johnson absent for the vote. The revised language was approved 9-1, with Councilman P.C. Wu dissenting. The City Council will formally consider the ordinance enacting the proposed charter pending a referendum at Thursday evening’s regular Council meeting.