People Are Asking ... How do we recall the Key Colony Beach City Commissioners?

RECALL ELECTIONS IN KCB

In broad strokes, it will take two petition drives and two separate elections run by the Monroe County Supervisor of Elections to recall a City Commissioner.

We must form a formal Recall Committee and submit the petition language to the City Clerk. That committee needs enough "boots on the ground" to get a couple hundred signatures on the petitions twice. And then that committee will need to run a successful Get-Out-the-Vote effort. A wise committee will also have great candidates to replace the recalled Commissioner(s).

RECALL ELECTIONS
THE TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

The Florida laws governing the recall of elected local officials are found in Florida Statute Annotated §100.361. Not all elected local officials are eligible for recall in Florida. Those eligible must have been elected to a governing body of a municipality or chartered county. Monroe County is not a charter county but Key Colony Beach is an eligible municipality.

A recall cannot begin until the targeted official has served at least one-fourth of his or her term. The term of office of each KCB City Commissioner is four (4) years. It appears that Mayor Trefrey and Commissioner Harding are eligible now. Commissioners Vickery and Raspe may be eligible (they were first appointed to fill an unexpired term) but they may immune until this November.

The Recall Committee must provide grounds for the recall. The seven allowable grounds are "malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties, and conviction of a felony involving moral turpitude."

Some background information; KCB had 790 residents as of 2020, according to the United States Census Bureau, and 758 residents in 2023. There are about 760 registered voters.

A recall requires two successful petitions. For the first, the recall committee needs to collect signatures from 10% of the registered voters. We think it would be smart to have 100-125 signatures.

When the petition forces a recall, the city clerk must "...serve upon the person sought to be recalled a certified copy of the petition. Within 5 days after service, the person sought to be recalled may file with the clerk a defensive statement of not more than 200 words."

The clerk then prepares a "Recall Petition and Defense" form. This time, the recall committee needs to collect more signatures from 15% of the electors. We think it would be smart to have about 150 signatures.

The recall target gets 5 more days to resign in writing. If that Commissioner resigns, the remaining members of the governing body fill the vacancy created, meaning they do what they've done so many times already: appoint the replacement. Business continues as usual.

If the recalled commissioner chooses to fight it out at the polls, the election itself follows normal rules.

Following a successful recall, candidates attempting to succeed the official recalled for his or her unexpired term shall be voted upon at (another) special election not less than 30 days or more than 60 says after the recall election.

The financial cost of a recall drive is relatively small to the committee (postage, some charges from the clerk for petitions, and the like). The financial cost of a recall drive is not trivial to KCB because the municipality will have to pay for at least one and possibly two special elections.

Here is the current Florida Statute, Title IX, Section 100.361 on Municipal recall.