- November 20, 2024
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The tension between the city of Palm Coast and Flagler County Supervisor of Elections Kimberle Weeks continues to tighten.
Nearly two years after voters in Palm Coast approved to move City Council elections to even years to coincide with county, state and federal elections, Weeks wrote a letter addressed to Palm Coast Mayor Jon Netts, the City Council and City Manager Jim Landon. In the Nov. 18 letter, Weeks expressed concern that the city didn’t abide by Florida statutes during that 2011 referendum.
The reason for changing the election years, which is stated in the referendum, was to increase voter participation and to decrease the financial burden on the city’s taxpayers.
According to Weeks’ letter, Chapter 166 of the Florida statutes states that “the governing body of the municipality shall place the proposed amendment contained in the ordinance or petition to a vote of the electors at the next general election held within the municipality or at a special election called for such purpose.”
Instead, Weeks said, the city placed the referendum on primary election ballot Sept. 13, 2011.
Weeks continues: “The fact that the city may not have complied with requirements outlined in Chapter 166 (of the) Florida statutes and used the language on the ballot ‘should the charter be amended’ instead of ‘shall the charter be amended’ one could believe the ballot item was intended for straw polling purposes.”
Weeks says in her letter that she brought this issue to the city’s attention on Sept. 3, 2013.
There is no deadline for the city to file charter amendment modifications with the Secretary of State after passage by the voters.
Weeks expressed more concerns in the letter.
“To clarify that all laws have been followed, and to be able to move forward, it is being requested at this time that the city of Palm Coast immediately obtain a Formal Opinion from the Attorney General to confirm that proper measures were taken to modify the city charter to allow city municipal elections to be held with other scheduled elections beginning in 2014,” Weeks wrote.
Prior to elections in the city, the City Council and the supervisor of elections must enter into an interlocal agreement. Weeks wants to get the matter resolved before making such an agreement.
On Tuesday morning, Palm Coast Attorney Bill Reischmann itemized Weeks' concerns and then said, “These are non-issues."
That attitude is shared by City Councilman Bill Lewis, who took it a step further in a Nov. 21 emai to Landon. Lewis wrote: “Miss Weeks appears to be on a mission that is being manipulated by some other force. To me the scope of her concern and the depth of her inquiry is beyond the interest of the average Supervisor of Election. My feelings is that there is someone else involved in this venture other than herself. I do not know if she is an attorney but it is quite apparent to me that she is getting legal guidance. If this is the case, then we feel that we must have our legal advisors treat hear as another legal adversary engage her in like manner and bring this harassment to a final conclusion.”
Weeks said in a phone interview Monday that she’s “just trying to do the right thing.”
“I don’t want to put the taxpayers in a position when we spend a lot of money on something that we don’t need or that could be avoided,” Weeks said. “And I don’t want the voters to lose confidence in the ethics of this office.”
But, as supervisor of elections, why didn’t Weeks get this elections issue resolved in 2011?
“It’s not my responsibility to know (Palm Coast’s) charter and to know what they need to do to make sure they maintain their charter,” Weeks said. “But it is my responsibility to make sure they follow ... the elections portion of their charter.”
Landon said Tuesday that “it’s hard to fathom the supervisor of elections refusing to allow our two seats to be on the (ballot).”
Weeks isn’t required to run city elections.
Still, Landon and staff are making alternative plans in case the trouble persists. Reischmann said he is confident the city administration could conduct an election without the supervisor.
“It would just make no sense to have two separate elections going on at the same time,” Landon said. “If (Weeks) refuses, then we will be prepared, and we have already started that preparation to make sure this important governmental function is carried out in a logical manner as best we can — hopefully with the assistance of the supervisor of elections.”
— Brian McMillan contributed to this report.
