After its last-ditch attempt to receive public input at an additional meeting, Fort Myers Charter Review Advisory Board was met with a similar lack of public involvement at its Jan. 29 meeting. Ultimately, the board unanimously recommended 13 proposed changes to the city charter for City Council consideration.

The board separated each proposed change into two tiers, with tier one being the changes most important to the board. “The message is we want all of these things, but we’ve tried to give direction at least among them on what’s most important to us,” board member Matt Simmons said.

Tier one had eight proposed changes, including management of city elections by the Lee County Supervisor of Elections, residency requirements for high-ranking staff, no walk-on agenda items with monetary considerations except during a governor’s declared state of emergency and term limits of two consecutive four-year terms for the mayor and City Council members.

Another proposed change in tier one includes the mayor and City Council salary and stipend. The board recommended all forms of compensation are subject to annual review and can be adjusted by Council on an annual basis during budget hearing discussions.

Proposed changes to the powers and duties of the city manager included shifting power from the manager to Council to appoint a city clerk, chief of police and fire chief.

Fort Myers Housing Authority wrote a letter to the board opposing the proposed changes to the residency requirement of high-ranking staff.

Interim City Clerk Mary Hagemann read the letter, dated Jan. 29 and signed by attorney Justin T. Stockman, into the record. The letter stated the housing authority is a separate and distinct public body separate from the city and is not subject to the city’s rules and regulations, including the charter. Generally, the letter requested the removal of the housing authority from any refence in the proposed changes.

The letter also addressed the proposed residency requirement, stating how the current local labor market makes it difficult to obtain qualified individuals to work for the city’s respective agencies.

“Because of this, many of the potential applicants for these positions may have to come from out of the area and accordingly will need to locate housing,” the letter read. “The hiring process is further frustrated because our area is also experiencing a significant housing shortage, requiring those individuals to then have a limited geographical area to find housing could have an unintended negative limiting impact on searching for and obtaining qualified staff.”

Considering Stockman’s letter, the board removed language involving the Housing Authority director but left in language of housing authority board members, with an asterisk indicating the need for the advice of Council as to the legality of what the board suggested.

“The spirit of what we’re trying to do is be Fort Myers first,” Vice Chair Sawyer Smith said. “To be on the Council, to be the mayor, you live in the city. To be an advisory board [member], like every one of us, the Council was very clear that every one of us had to live in the city.”

The eighth proposal in tier one was amending the city’s charter to incorporate aspects of Lee County Home Rule Charter, Article IV, B. Amendments and Revisions by Charter Review Commission.

“We discussed this process and the extreme lack of participation that we’ve had in it, which I think we’re all very disappointed,” Smith said. “We agreed at the last meeting that we ought to consider recommending to our Council that they follow the same rules that the county does.”

The board has met 20 times since April and has consistently seen a lack of public participation and attendance, having an average of a couple of council members, staff and one or two residents attending meetings. Smith said following the county’s home rule charter amendment process would give the board more teeth with the opportunity to go straight to the voting ballot in decision making.

“I think it’s a really healthy way to create checks on power and get people involved in the process,” Simmons said. “If there is a supermajority that agrees on something, to be able to move something directly to the ballot is meaningful.”

After discussion, the motion to adopt Lee County’s amendments and revisions by Charter Review Commission was unanimously approved for Council consideration. The one exception was reducing the number of electors from 15 to seven and requiring a 5-2 vote rather than a 15-12 vote to move an item directly to the voters. A simple majority on an item would move to Council for further consideration. The county’s language also would be modified to be applicable to the city.

The board suggested which of its eight tier one items should be on the ballot during primary or general elections. Ultimately, high ranking staff, walk-on items, term limits and stipends were recommended to go on general election ballots, while the rest were recommended for a primary ballot.

The five proposed changes in tier two included simple language changes in the charter, wards and boundary change notices and allowing Council to appoint a temporary city manager if the manager is temporarily absent.

The proposed changes will be on Council’s Feb. 20 regular meeting agenda for consideration, in which it will decide which proposed changes will move forward to the ballot.