NEW SMYRNA BEACH — Two weeks after rejecting a special election for the seven recently proposed charter amendments, the New Smyrna Beach City Commission Tuesday, Aug. 26, reversed its decision.
Debate as to whether the proposed changes would go to voters either in a 2025 special election or be included in the 2026 general election ballot had been ongoing since the city’s Charter Review Committee presented its final report in July.
While the initial 4-1 vote on Aug. 12 to send the measures to 2026 passed — with the board’s majority citing the potential extra costs to taxpayers and raising concerns over some of the proposed items — everything changed when City Manager Kevin Cowper read a letter from the committee’s chairman, Mark Billings, urging commissioners to reconsider.
“We voted to have an early election and bring this issue to the public now,” Billings wrote in the letter. “Each item that was presented was recommended by an overwhelming majority of our committee members. As such, I feel a duty to share with you that it seems the most appropriate course of action is for the wonderful residents of our great city to decide, at the voting polls, the utility and value of each of the seven proposed edits.”
Those changes are in the New Smyrna Beach Charter Review Committee’s final report, presented to the City Commission for the first time in July after three months of work.
The seven proposed amendments to the city charter include:
After a long discussion, the vote again ended 4-1. Mayor Fred Cleveland and Commissioners Jason McGuirk and Brian Ashley, who had previously voted against the special election, changed their votes. Commissioner Valli Perrine, who initially voted in favor of the idea, kept her support, while Vice Mayor Lisa Martin opposed again.
NSB Commission reverses decision, approves special election for charter review
Commissioner Ashley said he “didn’t realize, and (I) maybe came across as a little unconcerned with the time and effort that the charter committee had put forth.”
“I’m thinking maybe now we should possibly reconsider and talk about bringing that vote closer,” Ashley said.
Vice Mayor Martin kept her position, saying “nobody has yet explained to me the urgency behind doing (a charter review).” She pointed out that the last charter review committee, assembled in 2020, suggested that the next review take place in 2026.
Ashley argued that “even though it is a smaller turnout” when comparing special elections to general elections, “more attention can be devoted to the items that we want the public to vote on” — a point Commissioner Perrine used during the previous meeting to support a special election.
Commissioner McGuirk, who also voted against the special election citing the potential costs, agreed, saying he, too, was open to changing his mind.
Mayor Cleveland addressed concerns about the cost of a special election, which would fall around $48,000.
He referenced the proposed amendments to the city’s primary election rule, which requires a runoff election between the top two candidates even if one contender has earned more than 50% of the vote.
The resulting extra months of campaigning, he argued, are just as wasteful.
“While the expense of this to the city is $48,000, the expense to the citizenry … . We remain the only city in the county to do (primary elections) in this manner, so the tens of thousands of dollars that get spent, and time and effort by that citizenry campaigning … all of that time and effort is down the tubes.”
Before the board’s initial rejection, the special election was proposed for November 2025. After the City Commission’s decision to reconsider, a date has yet to be determined, according to City Attorney Carrie Avallone.
City spokesman Phil Veski wrote in an email that the city set a tentative special election date for Nov. 4, 2025.
Each of the seven proposals still need to come back to the City Commission for final approval before they are sent to the special election ballot.
The first reading for each charter amendment proposal could take place during the board’s next meeting on Sept. 9 at 6:30 p.m.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NSB reverses decision, approves special election for proposed charter amendments
Reporting by Brenno Carillo, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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