Palm Beach Gardens Election – March 13

FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.  THE SIENA OAKS HOA BOARD DOES NOT TAKE A POSITION ON THE BALLOT QUESTIONS!

On March 13, there will be a Palm Beach Gardens Election with four ballot questions related to the city charter. There are no candidates on the ballot this year.

The polling place for Siena Oaks is Allamanda Elementary.

You may have heard there is controversy about misleading wording on some of the questions, and a city resident has filed a lawsuit to throw out some of the questions. If it is successful, voters will be told that the results will not count. It is too late to change the questions and absentee ballots have already been mailed.

It is difficult to tell from the ballot language what a yes or no vote really means, but here is a synopsis:

A YES on question 1 replaces much of the charter language to “clean it up” and bring it into line with state law. It also drops the requirement for city manager annual review, lets him (or her) live outside the city, throws out the votes for a candidate when they drop out of a race late, removes the requirement for charter reviews and many other things that go beyond “fixup”.

A YES on question 2 extends council term limits from the current 2 terms of 3 years (6 total – adopted in 2014) to 3 terms of 3 years (9 total).

A YES on question 3 allows council members to run again after their term limits are reached if they wait three years.

A YES on question 4 drops the requirement for “majority wins” (50% + 1) in council elections. In a race with 3 or more candidates, the candidate with the most votes wins – even if it is only a small percentage of the votes cast.

For the actual ballot language see: SAMPLE BALLOT

With no candidates on the ballot it is expected to be a low turnout – perhaps 1000 voters or so. Keep in mind that when term limits were adopted in November 2014 – 20,000 people voted and over 16,000 voted for 2 terms of 3 years. If you think it is unfair for a handful of people to overturn the will of 16,000, then GET OUT AND VOTE ON MARCH 13.

For more information, see: PBGWatch.com

Fred and Iris Scheibl
1029 Siena Oaks Circle West