Brevard County Commission declines to move on term limits for constitutional officers

Term limits for constitutional officers in Brevard County will not come to a vote this year after the proposal failed at Tuesday's meeting of the Board of County Commissioners.

District 1 Commissioner Rita Pritchett proposed the idea to limit constitutional officers to three four-year terms. It would have included the Tax Collector, Property Appraiser, Supervisor of Elections, Clerk of Court and the Brevard Sheriff.

Tuesday, Pritchett made a motion to have an attorney panel review the plan, the first step toward getting the item on November's ballot for voter approval.

But no other commissioners seconded her motion, so the item died.

Pritchett herself filed on Monday to run for the Tax Collector seat against incumbent Lisa Cullen, a long-time veteran of the department who has served as its head for the past 16 years.

More: Term limits for Brevard County constitutional officers could be on the ballot this year

Commissioner John Tobia, who is running for the Supervisor of Elections position, recused himself from Tuesday's vote ahead of time, while Pritchett did not, saying that it was not a conflict of interest.

Several constitutional officers spoke out against the proposal, saying that they were different than most elected officials in that they don't set policy, but rather act a managers of their offices carrying out complicated procedural tasks on behalf of the county.

"This is not a policy making office, but a management office," Clerk of Courts Rachel Sadoff said, asking commissioners to give the proposal more thought before bringing it to a vote.

Property Appraiser Dana Blickley said emphatically that the jobs constitutional officers handle require skills and training that those without direct experience might be lacking.

"It's not just necessarily the institutional knowledge to do the constitutional duties we're prescribed to do, but once in a while it's having institutional knowledge, skillset to read the law, wherewithal to follow the legislative process... and to be able to catch mistakes so our property owners and our constituents don't pay a price for that," Blickley said.

Cullen said the charter review process would be the proper forum for such a proposal.

Once every six years, a charter review commission seeks public input and suggest changes to the county charter. Voters ultimately have to approve any changes,

The commission last met in 2022."I would urge this to go through charter review. I’ve been through several of those and the public does get engaged. Brevard County citizens… they get it," Cullen said. "If it goes through that, then let’s have a vote on it."

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Proposal for term limits on Brevard County constitutional officers fails