Florida Justices Hear County Term Limits Cases
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) -- The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments in a challenge to the constitutionality of local term limits in Broward County, which would have an effect on term limits for a number of local commissions.
There are at least 10 counties whose charters have term limits for county commissioners, including many of the most populous - in addition to Broward, Palm Beach, Duval, Hillsborough, Orange, Polk, Sarasota and Volusia all have term limits. At issue is whether term limits can be put in place in any way other than changing the constitution.
Broward has a 12-year term limit in its charter, but a circuit court agreed that term limits could only be put in place through a change to the state constitution.
Last year, the Fourth District Court of Appeal disagreed because the office of county commissioner in a charter county isn't an expressly authorized constitutional office.
In January, voters in Miami-Dade, the state's largest county rejected term limits linked to a pay raise for commissioners. A new proposal without a pay raise will be on the November ballot.
"The News Service of Florida contributed to this report."
