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County Vacates Recently Passed "Resign To Run" Ordinance Ordinance Was Adopted In Violation Of The County Charter |
September 3, 2015 |
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Recently, Ann McFall announced that she would not be seeking re-election as Volusia County's Supervisor of Elections. Lisa Lewis, the spouse of former Volusia County Councilman, Dwight Lewis - is a current employee of the Volusia County Department of Elections. The Volusia County Charter currently mandates that a Volusia County employee must resign their employment to be able to run for an elected position. Lewis secured the services of local attorney Alex Ford to petition the Volusia County Council to modify the "resign to run" restriction within the County Charter. Last month (August 2015), the County Council acted on Ford's letter to county officials, and passed County Ordinance 2015-13 on a 4-3 vote, amending the county's merit system, thus allowing Lewis to run for the Office of Supervisor of Election without mandating her resignation.  |
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Unfortunately (or fortunately - depending on where you may stand on the issue) County Attorney Dan Eckert failed to properly realize that per the County Charter (Section 1009) - any change to the County's Merit System requires a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the full County Council. Therefore, a 4 (for) to 3 (against) vote failed to carry the proposed modifications to the county's resign to run mandate. Due to his oversight - Eckert sent the above listed email to all County Council members advising them that County Ordinance 2015-13 had to be voided. |
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In June of 2012, VolusiaExposed.Com expressed concerns that Dwight Lewis' (spouse of Lisa Lewis) assignment to both the County's Personnel Board and the County Growth Management Commission was a violation of the County Charter (Section 1003). Initially, Mr. Eckert disagreed with our position - but he eventually came to agree - that Mr. Lewis' assignment to both positions was a violation of the County Charter. (see email to right of page --->) Article 1 Article 2 Might we suggest that our county officials, to include the members of the County Council, take the time to actual read the County Charter - or is that asking too much? Now here is our question. Do you (our readers) think that county officials are too stupid to know their own charter - OR do they believe we (the public) are too stupid to catch them knowingly violating the charter? |
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