1. Idea Exploration

   The Charter Review Commission (CRC) shall compile a list of all ideas or issues submitted to the CRC through January 11, 2000. The items on this list will be the items under consideration for placement on the ballot by the CRC.

2. Narrowing the Ideas
   1. Legal review will be requested for each list item to help narrow ideas or issues on the list to those which are within the purview of the CRC .
   2. CRC will vote on each of the list items to determine if the item should remain on the list. An affirmative vote by more than one-half of the CRC members present at the meeting will retain an item on the list for further discussion and/or research. An affirmative vote does not necessarily imply support for or against the merits of any issue, idea or item and is solely intended to indicate an interest in further discussion or research of the item. Items that do not receive more than one-half of the votes of the CRC members present at the meeting will be removed from the list and will therefore be removed from consideration by the CRC as a potential ballot item.
   3. Indepth discussion and/or research will occur for each of the items on the list. The discussions of these items must be individually listed on the agenda of a CRC meeting which is published at least seven (7) days prior to that CRC meeting.
   4. CRC members may propose ballot items that address one or more of the items from the list promulgated in step 2b. A proposed ballot item does not need to contain proper legal language or intended final wording but should clearly identify the idea, concept, points and intended position on the issue(s) it addresses.

3. Selection of Proposed Ballot Items to Present at Public Hearings
   1. A list of the proposed ballot items from step 2 will be presented to each CRC member along with the complete text of each of the proposed items.
   2. The CRC will vote as follows to determine which ballot item proposals it will pursue.
      1. A weighted vote will be taken to determine a ranked list of the proposed items. Each CRC member will be given 100 votes that they can assign in any amount to one or more of the proposed items. The total of all CRC votes cast to each item will determine the ranking of the items. The item with the most votes will be ranked highest.
      2. The CRC will then vote on each individual item on the ranked list, beginning with the highest ranked item, to decide if that item will be selected. An affirmative vote by more than one-half of the total membership of the CRC will select an item for referral to the public hearings.
      3. Following the vote on each proposed item, the CRC will then vote to determine if it will continue the selection process. In the event that multiple proposed items share the same ranking, each item within the same ranking will be voted upon according to step 3b.2 before the vote on whether or not to continue the selection process is held. An affirmative vote by more than one-half of the total membership of the CRC will allow the CRC to then vote on the next highest ranking item on the list according to procedure in step 3b.2. A vote of one-half or less of the total membership of the CRC will end the selection process.

      It is the intent of the procedure in step 3b to provide a means for the CRC to limit the number of ballot items being referred to the public hearings while, at the same time, insuring that those items of greatest interest to the CRC have a prioritized opportunity to be one of the limited, selected ballot items. This procedure gives the CRC the flexibility to determine where the limit on the number of selected items will be drawn and with the knowledge of which items have and have yet to be selected.

   3. The selected ballot items will be forwarded to legal staff for proper crafting of "final-draft" ballot language.
   4. The CRC will hold a vote on each of the selected ballot items to accept the "final-draft" ballot language and forward the item onto the public hearings. A vote of more than one-half of the total membership of the CRC will adopt the final-draft ballot language and forward the item to the public hearings. The CRC may also vote by more than one-half of the membershp of the CRC to return an item to legal staff for modification to its language and the item would then return to the CRC for another vote as described in step 3d.

4. Final Submission of Ballot Items

   Following three (3) properly noticed public hearings the CRC will hold a final vote on each of the intended ballot items and any amendments or changes that are proposed as a result of the public hearings. A vote of more than one-half of the membership of the CRC will forward the item for ballot submission.

History

1. Idea Exploration
   1. The Charter Review Commission (CRC) shall compile a list of all ideas or issues submitted to the CRC through December 31, 1999. The items on this list will be the items under consideration for placement on the ballot by the CRC.

2. Narrowing the Ideas
   1. Legal review will be requested for each list item to help narrow ideas or issues on the list to those which are within the purview of the CRC .
   2. CRC will vote on each of the list items to determine if the item should remain on the list. An affirmative vote by more than one-half of the CRC members present at the meeting will retain an item on the list for further discussion and/or research. An affirmative vote does not necessarily imply support for or against the merits of any issue, idea or item and is solely intended to indicate an interest in further discussion or research of the item. Items that do not receive more than one-half of the votes of the CRC members present at the meeting will be removed from the list and will therefore be removed from consideration by the CRC as a potential ballot item.

3. Proposal of Ballot Items
   1. CRC members will each submit a written, initial position statement on each of the list items. Position statements may be as brief --such as "for", "against", or "undecided"-- or as elaborate as the individual member wishes to make and must be submitted in written form as part of the official record.
   2. Indepth discussion and/or research will occur for each of the items on the list. The discussions of these items must be individually listed on the agenda of a CRC meeting which is published at least seven (7) days prior to that CRC meeting.
   3. CRC members will each submit a post-discussion, written position statement on each of the list items. Position statements may be as brief --such as "for", "against", or "undecided"-- or as elaborate as the individual member wishes to make and must be submitted in written form as part of the official record.
   4. CRC members may propose "early-draft" ballot items that address one or more of the list items. An "early-draft" ballot item does not need to contain proper legal language or intended final wording but should clearly identify the idea, concept, points and intended position on the issue(s) it addresses.

4. Selection of Proposed Ballot Items to Present at Public Hearings
   1. A list of the proposed ballot items from step 3d will be presented to each CRC member along with the complete text of each of the proposed items.
   2. The CRC will vote as follows to determine which ballot item proposals it will pursue.
      1. a weighted vote will be taken to determine a ranked list of the proposed items. Each CRC member will be given 100 votes that they can assign in any amount to one or more of the proposed items. The total of all CRC votes cast to each item will determine the ranking of the items. The item with the most votes will be ranked highest.
      2. the CRC will then vote on each individual item on the ranked list, beginning with the highest ranked item, to decide if that item will be selected. An affirmative vote by more than one-half of the members present at the meeting will select an item for placement on the ballot and referral to the public hearings.
      3. Following the vote on each proposed item, the CRC will then vote to determine if it will continue the selection process. In the event that multiple proposed items share the same ranking, each item within the same ranking will be voted upon according to step 4b.2 before the vote on whether or not to continue the selection process is held. An affirmative vote by more than one-half of the members present at the meeting will allow the CRC to then vote on the next highest ranking item on the list according to procedure step 4b.2. A vote of one-half or less or the members present will end the selection process.

      It is the intent of procedure step 4b to provide a means for the CRC to limit the number of ballot items being referred to the public hearings while, at the same time, insuring that those items of greatest interest to the CRC have a prioritized opportunity to be one of the limited, selected ballot items. This procedure gives the CRC the flexibility to determine where the limit on the number of selected items will be drawn and with the knowledge of which items have and have yet to be selected.

   3. The selected ballot items will be forwarded to legal staff for proper crafting of "final-draft" ballot language.
   4. The CRC will hold a final vote on each of the selected ballot items to accept the "final-draft" ballot language and forward the item onto the public hearings. A vote of more than one-half the CRC members present at the meeting will adopt the final-draft ballot language and forward the item to the public hearings. The CRC may also vote using the same majority to return an item to legal staff for modification to its language and the item would then return to the CRC for another vote as described in step 4d.

5. Final Submission of Ballot Items

   Following three (3) properly noticed public hearing the CRC will hold a final vote on each of the intended ballot items and any amendments or changes that are proposed as a result of the public hearings. A vote of more than one-half of the CRC members present will forward the item for ballot submission.

Submitted by Susan Wright, chair, 11/19/99
on behalf of the Rules Subcommittee:

Frederick Peterkin

Clay Martin

Mark Stowe

Rodney Estes

Note: the above procedure was e-mailed to the Charter Review Commission by Susan Wright, Rules Subcommittee chair, on 11/19 with the following information:

The Rules Subcommittee met on 11/16 to discuss procedure for the narrowing and selection of proposed ballot items. Our recommended procedure is included. This recommendation was composed by me following the subcommittee meeting according to the discussion and decisions of the subcommittee. It was decided that a copy of our recommendation would be provided to the CRC in advance of our next CRC meeting so that you will have a chance to read it and be prepared for a discussion of this recommendation at the 11/23 meeting. The other members of the subcommittee have therefore not reviewed nor proofed this text of our recommendation and due to sunshine restrictions cannot respond directly to me with any corrections that they feel might be needed prior our Tuesday meeting.

A formatted copy of our recommendation is attached as a wordperfect document and is also on the web at http://grove.ufl.edu/~swright/crc/rules.html . An unformatted text copy appears below. DJ was to send this out to you but is out of town and, therefore, I am sending it. Please do not reply to me regarding this message. Hold your responses until our meeting on Tuesday.