The Wellington Village Council on Tuesday approved the second and final reading of an ordinance that provides a mechanism to appoint a resident to the village’s Election Canvassing Board in the event that there is only one member or an even number of members.
The ordinance is one of several charter amendment referendum questions that will appear on the March 15 ballot.
Wellington’s current canvassing board members are the village clerk and whichever council members are not on the ballot. If all council members are running, that leaves only the clerk, which the new ordinance seeks to rectify.
If there’s only one council member in addition to the clerk, that also poses a problem because the two could disagree, resulting in a tie and no decision.
Councilwoman Anne Gerwig pointed out that the question will be moot for the upcoming March election since it is a presidential primary and the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board will be the agency with that responsibility.
She added that there is a push in the state legislature to move all municipal elections to the fall.
“If that’s the case, we would never have a canvassing board of our own,” Gerwig said. “I think we need to be united against that. This has been hard enough, just moving to a presidential preference primary election. If all of our elections were moved… it’s really going to negatively impact us.”
Councilman John McGovern agreed, saying that the municipal election’s appearance at the bottom of a large ballot would diminish the voters’ ability to distinguish what is important to them locally.
“It becomes very difficult when we don’t run our own elections, because we lose authority,” Gerwig said. “Hopefully, this will solve our problems when they occur here, with an even number of persons serving.”
Councilman Matt Willhite asked whether the village’s canvassing board would have the ability to observe this year’s election process, although members would not have official status.
“Will our clerk have any say at what happens at our election process?” he asked.
“The clerk will attend the things that she normally attends on behalf of the village, but it really is going to be the county who is the certifying body,” Village Attorney Laurie Cohen said, although she expects that county election officials would probably look to the village clerk for insight on a locally related issue.
Willhite, who would have been the only member of Wellington’s canvassing board other than the clerk, asked if he would also have no duties or responsibilities. “I believe that is right,” Cohen said.
Vice Mayor John Greene made a motion to approve the ordinance, which carried 5-0.
Other March referendum questions approved at an earlier council meeting are:
• Filling of council vacancies: If a vacancy occurs in the office of a council member, and fewer than 180 days remain in the term, the seat will remain vacant until the next regularly scheduled election. If a council vacancy occurs with 180 days or more remaining, a special election would be called. Council vacancies are currently filled by council appointment.
• Equestrian Preserve Area protections: Whether the charter should be amended to include a provision protecting the Equestrian Preserve Area. Currently the charter does not make reference to the Equestrian Preserve Area.
• Prohibition of hotels in the Equestrian Preserve Area: Whether commercial transient occupancy uses other than bed-and-breakfasts, such as hotels, motels and rental apartments, should be prohibited in the Equestrian Preserve Area.
In other business, the council approved an ordinance prohibiting members of the canvassing board from campaigning during the election.
After watching the Charter Review Committee labor through their numerous meetings and carefully discuss concerns; this Council decided that just 3 Amendments were important and 2 of them are about the Equestrian Preserve (but, ofcourse!).
What is most concerning is that 2 lawyers on the Charter Review and 2 lawyers on the Wellington Council dias couldn’t come up with a sufficient wording on Filling Council Vacancies!
Let’s hope Wellington residents pass that Amendment, so that only Wellington voters will vote for Council members when there is a vacancy and not the sitting Council.