BCC Chairmanship

Ladies and Gentlemen, as of today I am running as a write-in candidate for the elected Chair of the Board of County Commissioners.

There were a number of factors that lead me to decide to run, the first of which I must credit to some statements made here on MCS when Harold Rutledge became the first announced candidate for the position.

"Congratulations to Commissioner Rutledge for filing. Now we need a quality candidate to run against him."

There will be, given the historic success of signature petition drives by Citizens for Term Limits and Accountability Committee, a proposed Clay County Home Rule Charter Amendment on November's ballot that, if passed, will reverse a Charter Amendment voters adopted in 2006.

Two years ago, a Charter Review Commission met in public over the course of many months before proposing an Amendment that kept the five current County Commissioners who are each elected only by the residents of their individual districts, and add two Commissioners elected by the entire county. One of those new Commissioners would become Clay County's first four-year Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners. Passage of this year's proposed CTLAC admendment would keep things as they are, and eliminate those two at-large additions, and the four-year chairmanship, before they are established.

or, The Other Amendments 

Possible amendments to the Clay County Home Rule Charter, our local constitution, get discussed frequently here at MCS. No one, though, has brought up two proposed amendments making the petition-signing rounds, even though the petitions were initiated by Citizens for the Protection of Voters' Rights, a political action committee whose formation was announced on this website.

One of CPVR's proposals affects the formula used to determine County Commissioners' salaries, establishing equal pay for all Commissioners, including the new four-year chairman, assuming there is one after the election.

A BIG thanks to MCS for today's editorial. It is so very gratifying people are seeing Clay County for what it is: an emerging county needing adequate representation and leadership.

The editorial observation that a five-member commission cannot adequately create committees to foster communication about county issues is a viable consideration as the county continues to grow and worthy of public consideration.

And again, as the Charter Review has long held: five single district commissioners and two at-large commissioners symbolize both a legislative House and Senate.

Rob Bradley must feel like he's at, or pretty darn close to, the very center of the Clay County political universe.  Over the past couple of years, every single major local political issue has orbited around him.

Rob's been the attorney for both Keystone Heights' and Orange Park's municipal governments, and the nephew of local judge, so he was already a local political astronaut.  What took him toward the center of the universe and started everything spinning around him was his appointment to the most recent Charter Review Commission.

The most controversial proposal that came from the CRC was one that called for the addition of two new members to the five-member County Commission, including a four-year chairman elected by voters instead of rotating the chairmanship yearly among the Commission members.  Voters agreed, so let's skip that controversy for the moment and just accept the fact for now that, in the local political universe orbiting Bradley, it's a good idea.

It appears members of CTLAC are out to undo what voters elected in Nov. '06: to add two at-large seats.

That's pretty ironic since members of the group pled with the CRC to keep the five-single districts. Which we did. They argued that voters had overwhelmingly chosen five-single districts from their initiative and to change so soon was to undermine what the electors had done. We didn't change anything. We added two at-large seats.

Well now, if the shoe isn't on the other foot. We haven't even had an election of those commissioners and they're out trying to tell you that you didn't know what you voted for when you voted for the 5-2.

Every fourth Monday, local chairs of Clay County Republican clubs and members of the Republican Executive Committee (REC) meet in the chambers of the Town of Orange Park.

Last night, Commissioner Rob Bradley was the speaker. And he did a great job.

At the end of the meeting, the chair of the REC always lets candidates introduce themselves and have a few minutes to address the crowd.

Commissioner Harold Rutledge was there. He, along with Commissioner Bradley, have filed for the new countywide Chairmanship. I think what we're going to hear over the next year is a phrase Comm. Rutledge used on more than one occasion: "Thanks for sending Rutledge to the Rescue."