Correction, March 4, 2025 5:27 pm: An incorrect map was used in a previous version of this story. In addition, the names of two committee members, who joined later in the process, were left off. LkldNow regrets the error.
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After a year and a half of work and meetings, Lakeland’s Charter Review Committee announced to the City Commission on Monday the changes it is recommending be made to the document by which every aspect of the city is governed.
The Charter Review Commission is empaneled every eight years to fine-tune Lakeland’s city charter.
There are nearly 200 sections in the charter that were reviewed, line by line, over the last 18 months.
The major recommended changes included:
- Determining the requirements of selling off any of the city’s utilities, including Lakeland Electric.
- Redrawing commission boundaries.
The biggest change proposed includes new, expanded language regarding the process by which Lakeland Electric, the city water utility and the city wastewater utility could be sold.
The committee did not propose or consider selling Lakeland Electric.
Under the suggested changes, a proposed sale of any of any of the city utilities would require:
- A unanimous vote of the City Commission approving such a sale and authorizing a referendum. In the past, it was a simple majority of the commission in order to put it on the ballot.
- An affirmative vote of two-thirds of the city electors voting in such a referendum. In the past, it was two-thirds of all registered voters.
- That the referendum take place at either a regular city election or a single subject special election, where the sale is the only question to be decided.
Making all the commissioners approve of the sale raises the threshold, but allowing for two-thirds of those who vote, rather than two-thirds of all registered voters, would make a sale easier.
In 2019, voters considered a similar change to the charter, loosening restrictions on selling Lakeland Electric, and turned it down decisively, with 35% in favor and 65% opposed.
Finances: The city-owned Lakeland Electric adds about $33.4 million to the city’s revenue each year. Lakeland Electric pays its own expenses.
Boundaries: The redrawn boundary lines ensure that a nearly equal number of people live in each of the four districts. On average, about 28,000 will live in each district.
Mayor Bill Mutz and Commissioners Stephanie Madden and Chad McLeod are at-large representatives. They can live anywhere in the city and also represent all of the approximately 120,000 people who live within the city limits.
The Charter Review Commission also recommended a change in when a new commissioner would take the oath of office.
Under the current language, the newly elected mayor or commissioner takes office at the January commission meeting after the city election. The committee proposed that a newly elected mayor or commissioner would take office immediately upon receiving a certificate of election and taking the oath of office.
What’s next? The Lakeland City Commission will now consider some, all or none of the proposed changes.
Whatever the City Commission recommends will go before voters in the November 2025 municipal election.
To change the city charter requires a simple majority of the people who vote in the election.
Members of the committee were: Slyvia Blackmon-Roberts, Will Harrell, Jason Rodda, Patricia Steed, Lincoln H. Jacobs IV, Jim Edwards, Terry Coney, Scott Reed, Teddra Porteous, Kimberly Elmhorst, James Ring, Michael Workman, Veronica Rountree, Denise Gilmore, and Frank McCaulley. Harrell and Gilmore withdrew as CRC members and in their place, the City Commission appointed Ellis Hirsch and James Scelfo.
City Attorney Palmer Davis served as an advisor.
To see the proposed changes in the document, go here.
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I’d like to see a review of the City Charter dealing with ethics and the prohibition of commissioners voting on issues that involve them or their family and business associates.