Jacksonville Beach ballot

Jacksonville Beach elections are held every two years on even-numbered years with the offices of mayor and at-large council seats, alternating with the three district council seats.

This year, three seats up, but all are unopposed and so the only qualified candidate is automatically declared council member-elect:

• Council Seat 4, District 1: Cory Nichols (incumbent)
• Council Seat 5, District 2: Bill Horn
• Council Seat 6, District 3: Sandy Golding (incumbent)

Despite that, there will be plenty for Jacksonville Beach voters to consider on the November ballot. There are 16 proposed amendments to the city charter! City Council approved putting these “updates or revisions” of the charter before the voters this year.

Here is a brief summary of the charter amendments:

1. Removing or making neutral all gender specific references in the City Charter.
2. Eliminating/correcting obsolete and outdated Charter provisions and making grammatical and punctuation corrections.
3. Clarifying what constitutes a full term when applying term limits under the Charter.
4. Clarifying that certain Charter provisions and powers are granted and limited by Florida law.
5. Clarifying regular meeting schedule and procedure to call special meetings of City Council.
6. Eliminating compelled meeting attendance by council members and acknowledging supermajority requirements.
7. Establishing primary runoff elections and tie-breaking procedure after general elections.
8. Recognizing Duval Supervisor of Elections authority to establish rules for use of voting equipment.
9. Establishing filing fees and election assessments for candidates based upon percentage of office annual salary.
10. Amending City Manager removal procedures, establishing deadline for final action approving removal.
11. Making failure to cooperate in Council or Manager investigations grounds for termination, providing exceptions.
12. Amending City Attorney removal procedures, establishing deadline for final action approving removal.
13. Changing City Attorney compensation to salary and benefits to be set by contract.
14. Requiring the City Attorney to review all ordinances and resolutions of the city.
15. Creating Initiative and Referendum procedure allowing citizens to adopt or repeal certain types of ordinances.
16. Providing for periodic review of the City Charter.

Read more about the proposed amendments and the complete title and summary of each in the ordinance that City Council passed authorizing them to go on the ballot.