Rep. Joel Rudman wants to make it easier to recall corrupt officials. Who would it target?

For the third year in a row a Santa Rosa County-based state representative is seeking passage of legislation that would simplify the manner in which corrupt local elected officials can be removed from office.

Dr. Joel Rudman, R-Navarre, is sponsoring House Bill 209, titled "Recall of County Commissioners." It seeks to incorporate language into the Florida Constitution that would expand the right to recall local elected officials to 47 of Florida's 67 counties.

A chief lobbying arm for the bill is Recall Florida, an entity co-chaired by Santa Rosa County residents Carmen Reynolds and Chance Johnmeyer.

Though there has been some speculation that the bill could be used to target specific elected officers, particularly supervisors of election, Reynolds said nothing could be further from the truth.

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"This is a cause that should unite every citizen. The intent is to extend to the citizens their First Amendment right to have a redress of their grievances," Reynolds said. "This negates 'let's get a group together because we don't like so and so.'"

Rudman, who Reynolds said was in Tallahassee Tuesday seeking a Senate sponsor for his bill, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

In 1968, legislation was passed that allows Florida's 20 chartered counties — those mostly heavily populated counties which had adopted charters by which to govern, as well as Jacksonville/Duvall County, the state's single municipal county — to petition to remove an elected official.

State statute 100.361 provides in those counties for the removal of public officials for seven specific infractions: malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, a permanent inability to perform official duties or a felony conviction involving moral turpitude.

Rudman's bill, according to Reynolds, simply extends the provisions of the existing law to include the 47 counties not presently covered under 100.361.

"We're looking to resolve that inequity," she said. "It's very logical that it should apply to all counties. Currently it does not and that's the purpose of this bill."

If HB 209 does make it through the Florida Legislature, state voters will be required to amend the State Constitution to memorialize bill language in statute.

The bill, as written, targets only county commissioners, amending language to open up recall procedures for "any member of the governing body of a municipality, or charter county, or non-charter county."

Reynolds said Recall Florida favors giving citizens the power to petition for recall of any elected constitutional officer, and, because bill language is not clear in some areas, has asked Rudman for clarification on the scope of HB 209.

"Realistically it should extend to not only county commissioners, but all elected officials," she said.

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In 2021 and 2022, Jayer Williamson, who represented District 3 in the Florida House before Rudman, had introduced similar bills. Neither fared particularly well, with Williamson's 2022 effort moving through two subcommittees before dying in the House State Affairs Committee.

Like Rudman's bill as presently written, Williamson's HB 1399 would have provided the ability to petition to recall only county commissioners guilty of an enumerated infraction. But on the Senate side of the legislative aisle during the same 2022 session, Sen. Joe Grutens had proposed companion legislation that, had Williamson's bill been incorporated into it, would have extended the petition recall provisions to all county constitutional officers.

A group called Democracy Docket that identifies itself on a website as "a progressive platform for information, analysis and opinion about voting reform" has alerted its followers to the dangers it sees posed by HB 209.

"This would allow recalls in all 67 counties," Democracy Docket states. "Supervisors of Election all across the state would become subject to frivolous recalls for merely doing their jobs."

Alex Mosca, the spokesman for Mark Earley, Leon County's Supervisor of Elections and the head of Florida's Supervisor of Elections association, said, as written, Rudman's bill "doesn't have any impact on election administrators."

"We will keep an eye on it," Mosca said.

Paul Lux, the supervisor of elections in Okaloosa County and a past president of the FSE association, said after reviewing Rudman's bill he considers it "clearly still a work in progress" that addresses just limited portions of the section of statute it purports to amend.

The existing law governing charter counties provides 30 days for citizens to circulate a petition for recall and turn in signatures to an "auditor or clerk" of the given municipality "or his or her equivalent."

The signatures would then be verified by the Supervisor of Elections.

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State Statute 100.361 dictates that signature seekers meet a high threshold, based upon the population of the municipality in which the petition is being circulated, of signatures to move forward in a recall effort.

For municipalities with 500 electors or less, a petition must be signed by 50 electors or 10% of voters, whichever is higher. In municipalities of 500 to 2,000 the standard is 250 signatures or 10%, whichever is the greater number. In communities with 5,000 to 10,000 population the law calls for 500 signatures or 10%, whichever is greater and in cities or counties with populations greater than 10,000 the statute states 1,000 signatures or 10% of electors, whichever number is higher, must be obtained.

Lux said someone who hasn't previously run for office and attempted to obtain enough petition signatures to get on the ballot without paying a fee probably doesn't realize just how difficult it is to pull together the numbers needed to succeed. And candidates have far longer than 30 days to work.

"We have, to date, had one successful recall petition drive, and that was in Laurel Hill with a population of fewer than 500. To get to 10% they needed about 34 signatures," he said. "In a smaller municipality, the petition drive works very, very well. In a larger municipality it's a daunting task to say the least."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Florida Rep. Joel Rudman wants to make it easier to recall officials