This item is being placed on this agenda due to its time-sensitive nature. Courts expect challenges to ballot language to be filed at the earliest practicable date.
On May 9, 2018, the Florida Constitutional Revision Commission ("FCRC") filed Proposal 6005, now named Amendment 10, with the Florida Secretary of State. Amendment 10 is comprised of four previously independent and unrelated FCRC proposals that were grouped together by the FCRC's Style and Drafting Committee. Amendment 10 would: (1) make the Department of Veterans Affairs permanent; (2) create an Office of Domestic Security and Counterterrorism within the Department of Law Enforcement; (3) change the annual legislative session commencement date in even-numbered years from March to January; and (4) most importantly for purposes of this agenda item, eliminate the right of charter counties to abolish certain constitutional offices and to transfer certain duties from those offices. Voters would be presented with a ballot title (not exceeding 15 words) and ballot summary (not exceeding 75 words) to inform them of the various changes proposed by Amendment 10.
Broward County has, by Charter, eliminated the office of tax collector and transferred the functions of that office to the Department of Finance and Administrative Services. Broward County has also transferred to the County Administrator the Clerk of the Circuit Court's role as ex officio Clerk of the County Commission, and transferred the Circuit Court Clerk's duties as auditor, recorder, and custodian of all County funds to the Department of Finance and Administrative Services and the County Auditor. Amendment 10 seeks to nullify these Broward County Charter provisions.
On June 7, Volusia County filed a lawsuit challenging Amendment 10. If directed to do so, the Office of the County Attorney will file an independent challenge, focusing largely on the assertions that Amendment 10's ballot title and summary are misleading and fail to inform voters of Amendment 10's chief purpose.
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