GoofGoof
Premium Member
This still makes no sense to me. So essentially what you are saying is the legislature can at their whim dissolve any county in the state. They then have the authority to create a new non-chartered county that covers all or a portion of the land in the dissolved county and that non-chartered county has no right to self government. So again, why not dissolve Miami-Dade or Orange counties themselves and then reform them as non-chartered counties where the Governor has total control? That can’t be legal. My original question still stands. Even if they did this to the RCID land they would have to carve that land out of Orange and Osceola Counties and put it into a new non-cbartered county which has a major impact to the tax base, especially Orange County. What happens to Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista? These are incorporated cities. Can they just be removed from one county and put into a new non-charter one?Again though, the Florida Constitution allows the legislator to create, abolish or modify counties by (it appears) law:
(a) POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS. The state shall be divided by law into political subdivisions called counties. Counties may be created, abolished or changed by law, with provision for payment or apportionment of the public debt.
There's nothing in this about needing landowners approval to do this.
Regarding commissioners elected by landowners, my interpretation (I could be wrong) is that these apply to chartered counties:
(c) GOVERNMENT. Pursuant to general or special law, a county government may be established by charter which shall be adopted, amended or repealed only upon vote of the electors of the county in a special election called for that purpose.(d) COUNTY OFFICERS. There shall be elected by the electors of each county, for terms of four years, a sheriff, a tax collector, a property appraiser, a supervisor of elections, and a clerk of the circuit court. Unless otherwise provided by special law approved by vote of the electors or pursuant to Article V, section 16, the clerk of the circuit court shall be ex officio clerk of the board of county commissioners, auditor, recorder and custodian of all county funds. Notwithstanding subsection 6(e) of this article, a county charter may not abolish the office of a sheriff, a tax collector, a property appraiser, a supervisor of elections, or a clerk of the circuit court; transfer the duties of those officers to another officer or office; change the length of the four-year term of office; or establish any manner of selection other than by election by the electors of the county.(e) COMMISSIONERS. Except when otherwise provided by county charter, the governing body of each county shall be a board of county commissioners composed of five or seven members serving staggered terms of four years. After each decennial census the board of county commissioners shall divide the county into districts of contiguous territory as nearly equal in population as practicable. One commissioner residing in each district shall be elected as provided by law.
But for unchartered counties:
(f) NON-CHARTER GOVERNMENT. Counties not operating under county charters shall have such power of self-government as is provided by general or special law. The board of county commissioners of a county not operating under a charter may enact, in a manner prescribed by general law, county ordinances not inconsistent with general or special law, but an ordinance in conflict with a municipal ordinance shall not be effective within the municipality to the extent of such conflict.
My interpretation (and I hope I'm wrong) is that non-chartered counties only have the powers that the legislature gives them.
The following table is quoted from a paper written by Aubrey Jewett (who I think is a Poly Sci Associate Professor at UCF):
View attachment 639903
Question on RCID directly: how will they pay off the utility bonds without being able to levy a utility tax? Seems problematic.