Proposal 55 unanimously passes second committee; CRC meetings continue this week

The Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) Local Government Committee met in Tallahassee last Friday and unanimously passed CS/Proposal 55 by Commissioner Frank Kruppenbacher with a 7-0 vote. Thank you to the Honorable Tiffany Moore Russell, Esq. (Orange), for speaking in support of Proposal 55 and to the Honorable Tara S. Green (Clay) for being available for information and for waiving in support. Additional thanks to the Honorable Marcia M. Johnson (Franklin), FCCC President, the Honorable Kathleen Brown (Liberty), the Honorable Gwen Marshall (Leon), the Honorable Tim Sanders (Jefferson), the Honorable Brent X. Thurmond, CPA (Wakulla), and the Honorable Billy Washington (Madison) for attending the meeting and waiving in support of the proposal. And a special thanks to the Honorable Carolyn Timmann (Martin) for her continued service on the CRC.

The full video recording of Friday’s meeting is available from The Florida Channel’s video library dedicated to the CRC; please click on this link to view. The presentation on Proposal 55 begins at about the 1:12:00 minute mark.

Having passed its two committees of reference, the next stop for the proposal, which seeks to provide a mechanism to address Clerks’ recurring budget deficits, is the full CRC where a majority vote of the entire commission (not just those present) is needed to send the proposal to the CRC Style and Drafting Committee. Once the proposal returns from Style and Drafting, it will take 22 votes of the entire commission to place the proposal on the ballot. The timetable for consideration by the full commission has not yet been determined.

The CRC will hold committee meetings in Tallahassee this week as well, beginning on Wednesday. A full schedule of committee meetings, including dates, times, and locations may be found in this week’s CRC Interim Calendar.

Of interest, the CRC Local Government Committee is scheduled to consider Proposal 28 by Commissioner Hank Coxe (co-introducer Commissioner Roberto Martinez) during its meeting Friday morning, February 2, beginning at 9 a.m., EST. This proposal, which amends sections 14 and 16 of Article V to require the state, rather than counties, to fund the cost of communications services for trial courts and to designate the Clerk as the official records custodian for court records, previously passed the CRC Judicial Committee with a 6-1 vote.

To watch any of this week’s CRC meetings live via The Florida Channel, navigate to the website using the provided link, select the “Live Streams” tab from the menu on the right-hand side of your screen, then scroll down to select the stream for the committee meeting of interest.

As a reminder, the CRC will hold its next round of statewide public hearings beginning next Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale. Please see www.flcrc.gov for additional information.