Email sent to CRC - Residency Requirement - E. Glasser 6-6-23Below is an email from Ellen Glasser for your review.
Thank you,
Donna
From: Ellen Glasser [mailto:glassere@comcast.net]
Sent: Tuesday, June 6, 2023 12:25 PM
To: Bartle, Donna <dbartle@coab.us>; Gabriel, Jason <jgabriel@coab.us>
Cc: Elected Officials <electedofficials@coab.us>
Subject: Residency Requirement
Donna:
Please forward to CRC members,
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Greetings CRC members:
After last month's meeting, I thought about the discussion and vote
regarding residency requirements (and investigations) to run for office.
I understand that our City Attorney has been asked to weigh in on some
things.
Atlantic Beach is already an outlier with its 2 year term for Mayor.
Mr. North's comments with info from the National League of Cities - and
the AB Mayor being at a disadvantage - certainly hit home for me. I do
wish I had been more vocal when it was on the ballot and was closely
decided, in the interests of our long term future. So be it; it did go
to the voters.
But, moving on - with unanimity to extend the residency requirement to
4 years, if passed by voters, AB will again be an outlier. Other than
input from public speaker Jack Rowan, you did not consider much data.
Getting data on best practices on the front end of meetings might be
helpful. I am very concerned that this action may just limit the pool
of good candidates and having a 4 year requirement may not take into
account some of the kinds of things that happen when life gets in the
way - like military service, education, jobs, marital status, etc. The
question about continuous residency was not fully answered, nor was
district residency.
Here is a quick Google search for residency requirements in Duval
County (requirements are even looser for some state and federal
offices):
Jax Beach - 6 months
Neptune Beach - 6 months
Jax Mayor - 1 year
Sheriff, Sup. of Elections, Tax Collector, Prop Appraiser - 183 days
(establishes primary residency)
COJ City Council - 183 days
School Board - 183 days
Judges - reside at qualifying
On review, the CRC approach seems narrow in my view, and I hope you
would reconsider this before sending this recommendation to the
Commission. What is the problem you are trying to solve, and does this
solve it? I would suggest elections are the solution to whatever the
problem and that you not lengthen residency requirements IMHO.
Regards,
Ellen Glasser