Lawmakers want to allow certain counties to vote on 8-year term limits for commissioners in FL

Crowd gathered for the Orange County Commission meeting on Sustanee, via Save Orange County

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Voters in certain Florida counties could go to the polls in November to decide if they want to reduce term limits for county commissioners to eight years, even as some elected officials in small jurisdictions continue to insist that this is going down the wrong path.

The measure passed in the Florida Senate Rules committee Monday night.

That is a change from a previous form of the measure, (SB 438) which limited which counties could weigh in on the matter. Republican Blaise Ingoglia, the bill sponsor, says he made that change in reaction to opponents who say that the public should have a say on the matter. Ingoglia represents Citrus, Hernando, Sumter counties and part of Pasco County.

If those counties did vote term limits of eight years for county commissioners this November, the measure would go into place in November of 2026. The measure also says that a county commissioner who terms out of office after serving two four-year terms must sit out for two years before running for a different district seat or at-large seat of the country commission.

The Senate bill also says that if that county does approve that referendum this November, a county commission candidate who also wins a third term in office in that same county would be grandfathered in and allowed to serve that third four-year term.

As has been the case in previous committee meetings on this measure, the strongest opposition comes from county commissioners themselves from some of the state’s smaller counties.

“You’re trying to fix a problem that we don’t have,” said Columbia County Commissioner Rocky Ford, from North Florida. “As much as you all don’t like Washington D.C. comin’ to Tallahassee and tellin’ y’all how you all have to do things in Florida, we don’t think Tallahassee should tell us how to do our home rule county.”

“SB 438 is a solution looking for a problem that doesn’t exist,” added Marion County Commissioner Kathy Bryant. “In my 14 years serving Marion County, out of more than 8,000 emails that have come into my office, there has not been one asking for term limits for county commissioners.”

Despite the changes he made to the bill, Ingoglia couldn’t get full buy-in from the Senate Rules Committee. Pinellas County Republican member Ed Hooper said he could support the measure if it included term limits of 12 years, but not 8.

The measure now goes to the full Senate for a vote.

The House equivalent (HB 57) has already passed in its assigned committees and is now awaiting a vote in the full Florida House. But there will have to be further negotiating between the two chambers, as the Senate version is now different than the House version.

“What’s in here today may not be the final product on the floor,” Ingoglia told committee members before they moved to approve the measure.

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