Mayor Wants Two More Months In Office

 

BY BUDDY NEVINS

 

 

Coconut Creek Mayor Lisa Aronson wants two more months in City Hall.

Under Florida law, Aronson resigned as mayor when she decided to run for County Commission District 2 in northeast Broward. She set her resignation on Nov. 17.

Then the election got mired down in lawsuits over a write-in candidate

The District 2 general election is now scheduled for Jan. 13.

So Aronson wants to delay her resignation until Jan. 9.

 

 

Aronson_Web_BioHeadshot-300x300

Lisa Aronson

 

That would give Aronson two more months on the city payroll. Then she would leave. She has no intention of jumping in the Coconut Creek city election in March if she loses the County Commission race.

“I will not be running for Coconut Creek Commission,” she says flatly.

Aronson is one of five Democrats and a write-in in the race.

Rescinding the original resignation is an interesting question and tests Florida’s Resign-To-Run Law, Florida Statute 99.012.

The law stipulates that any resignation be “irrevocable.”

Yet lawmakers no doubt never anticipated a situation like Broward’s, where the campaigns are bogged down in court and the election delayed.

Below is the relevant portion, followed by the Coconut Creek city attorney’s request for a Florida Attorney General opinion on the matter:

99.0112:

(3)(a) No officer may qualify as a candidate for another state, district, county, or municipal public office if the terms or any part thereof run concurrently with each other without resigning from the office he or she presently holds.

(b) The resignation is irrevocable.

(c) The written resignation must be submitted at least 10 days prior to the first day of qualifying for the office he or she intends to seek.

(d) The resignation must be effective no later than the earlier of the following dates:

1. The date the officer would take office, if elected; or

2. The date the officer’s successor is required to take office.

XXXXX

 

 

September 25, 2014

 

The Honorable Pam Bondi
Attorney General of Florida
Department of Legal Affairs
The Capitol PLO1
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050

 

Re:  Revised Request for Opinion regarding postponement of effective date of resignation of City’s Mayor under resign-to-run-law due to postponement of election date for Broward County Commission District #2 Seat

 

Dear Ms. Bondi:

 

The City of Coconut Creek respectfully requests your opinion regarding whether or not the City’s Mayor can postpone the effective date of her resignation submitted pursuant to Section 99.012(3)(a), Fla.Stat. due to litigation regarding a write-in candidate which postponed the election date for the Broward County Commission District #2 Seat from November 4, 2014 to January 13, 2015.

The pertinent facts are as follows:

 

  1. Coconut Creek Mayor, Lisa K. Aronson, submitted her resignation letter in accordance with Section 99.012, Fla. Stat. to City Clerk Leslie May on June 4, 2014, expressing her interest to qualify for the office of Broward County Commissioner, District #2, during the week of June 16-20, 2014.

 

  • Mayor Aronson’s resignation letter provided that her resignation from her seat as Mayor of Coconut Creek would be effective November 17, 2014, at 11:59 p.m. This date was selected because if elected to the County Commission, Mayor Aronson believed that she would have been sworn in on November 18, 2014. 
  1. On June 26, 2014, a Complaint for Declaratory Judgment and Injunctive Relief against County Commission write-in candidate, Tyron Francois, was filed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court. The case was entitled, “Jennifer Brinkman and Rico Petrocelli v. Tyron Francois; Dr. Brenda C. Snipes, Supervisor of Elections; Ken Detzner, Secretary of State; and Elections Canvassing Commission. The Case No. is CACE14012324.

  

  1. On or about July 17, 2014, the Honorable Circuit Court Judge, Sandra Perlman declared that Tyron Francis was not a qualified “write-in” candidate for the office of Broward County Commissioner for District 2 and opened the Democratic Primary for that office to all registered District 2 voters.

 

  1. On July 23, 2014, an Appeal was filed in the Fourth District Court of Appeals. The Case No. is 4D14-2739.

 

  1. On September 10, 2014, the Honorable Judges Warner, Gross and Conner reversed the decision of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit and remanded the case.

 

  1. Thereafter, on or about September 19, 2014, the Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office notified the City, through its City Clerk, that the election dates for the County Commission District #2 Seat will take place as follows: A closed primary will be held on December 4, 2014, with the general election to be held on January 13, 2015.

 

The City of Coconut Creek requests your opinion based on the lack of prior opinions from the Attorney General’s Office regarding this matter (postponement of resignation due to postponement of election date). Opinion 88-02 provides that a resignation may be rescinded except for those instances in which an individual has resigned pursuant to the resign-to-run law. In this instance, the Mayor has submitted her resignation pursuant to the resign-to-run-law, but her resignation date was based upon the assumption that if elected, she would be sworn in shortly after the original scheduled general election date. Now that the election date is postponed, she would like to postpone her resignation date from November 17, 2014 to January 9, 2015, as a result of the postponement of the general election date to January 13, 2015 as her seat on the Coconut Creek City Commission will remain vacant after her resignation is effective until March, 2015.

Further, while Opinion 75-34 seems to suggest that a municipal officer who resigns in order to comply with the resign-to-run law may be eligible for appointment to fill the vacancy created by [their] resignation…, the Charter of the City of Coconut Creek does not provide for vacancies to be filled by appointment when the election is scheduled to occur in less than one hundred and eighty (180) days (March 10, 2015) from the date that the seat became vacant. Also, Mayor Aronson still desires to run for the Broward County Commission District #2 Seat and thus is not requesting to rescind her resignation but rather to merely delay the effective date of it in order to make it effective closer to the new date of the general election.

Thank you very much for your consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,

 

Terrill C. Pyburn

CITY ATTORNEY

 

cc:    Lisa Aronson, Mayor

 



23 Responses to “Mayor Wants Two More Months In Office”

  1. Floridan says:

    Sounds like a reasonable request.

  2. Coconut creek eagle says:

    Buddy if she is not currently seeking re election for her mayor seat…. Who is? I was under the impression she was just elected?

    Also what salary is she gaining over The two months she wants extended?

    FROM BUDDY:

    She was elected, but she is resigning. Ms. Aronson told me that her replacement will be picked in the March, 2015 election and that candidates are already running. I don’t know who they are.

    According to the Sun-Sentinel in March, 2014, the salary for the mayor is $31,179 annually.

  3. ummentioned says:

    What happens if there is a runoff for her seat that keep the seat vacant until March she will ask for that too.?

    Just another politician whose sole income is derived from their salary as an elected official. She is just trying to squeeze more money from tax payers on the way out the door.

    Don’t be so sure she is not running. Look at her financials that city salary is a significant amount of her household income. By remaining on the dais she is still an incumbent. Wouldn’t bethe first time someone went back on a no run promise due to the pull of the people to run again.

    FROM BUDDY:

    There is no runoff for this race.

  4. Ha Ha Ha says:

    The law requires that the resignation date be no later than “The date [her replacement] would take office”. If that is what she wanted to do, she could have easily specified in her resignation letter that the resignation is effective “on the date my successor takes office” – and that language would have automatically handled the change in the election date.

    Foolishly, she instead specified a fixed date in her resignation letter. And it’s irrevocable, so tough luck for her.

    Let this be a lesson for future officeholders – if your job is to make laws, then you should actually understand them yourself and then govern yourself accordingly.

  5. Creekgirl says:

    I sincerely feel sympathy for ALL the candidates in the District 2 County Commission Race. Not only will this delayed election will be a hardship for all five candidates, District 2 will not have a vote on the County Dais until after January 2015 and will be disenfranchised every single time the County takes a vote from mid November to mid January.

    The fact that Candidate and Commissioner Lisa Aronson used the City of Coconut Creek’s City Attorney and City taxpayers monies to solicit an opinion from the State Attorney Bondi (instead of paying from her own pocket for an attorney to represent her/her campaign in the matter) clearly show her willingness to use taxpayer resources to “financially” benefit her campaign.

    What complete and utter ARROGANCE!!!

  6. Irrevocable says:

    3 words for you madam mayor: not our problem.

  7. Just saying says:

    Yes, you’re right Floridian, it does seem like a reasonable request. In fact, shouldn’t the taxpayers also be concerned that Charlotte Rodstrom postponed her summer vacation and spent $30k of her husbands money for an election that they thought was in August? Or how about Carmen Jones who took time off work to campaign unnecessarily? And of course Mark Bogen who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to campaign for an August election, and even moved several of his cases to other attorneys? Shouldn’t it seem reasobable that they all be justly compensated? In fact, shouldn’t they each have a government employee writing letters to the attorney general on their behalf? After all, nobody could have predicted such an unreasonable delay in Lisa Aronson’s ability to continue feeding at the public trough.

  8. Salary? says:

    What is her city salary?

    Is anyone running for her seat?

    These are the important questions

    FROM BUDDY:

    Aronson told me there were candidates for her seat. According to the Sun-Sentinel in March, 2014, the salary for the mayor is $31,179 annually.

  9. same old lisa says:

    Isnt this the same lisa who took the interim job at the dekegation which was openedbecause sandy harrisneedto retirefor a period if timpeto enable harris to doubledip?

    Same aronson who swore she woud immediately quit the delegation when she fufiled for dist 2? Then did so a couple of months later she quit.

    No doubt lisa ia all about the money and will say what she has to say to get it.

  10. Chaz Stevens, Genius says:

    And I want a three way with Brittany Spears…

    How does it feel to want?

  11. Creek says:

    Josh Rydell a successful attorney who lives there with his wife and kids is running. New to politics. He had Avery well attended kickoff. He has all the important endorsements.

  12. Coconutz says:

    Steve Harrison and Josh Rydell are the only current candidates for her seat

    Apparently the commission is split in there support

  13. Commissioner Angelo Castillo says:

    Buddy,

    The resign to run law is purely and indisputably a self-serving law concocted by state legislators, to whom the law does not apply, for the exclusive purpose of discouraging city or county leaders from running against them.

    It serves only to protect the incumbency of state legislators though disguised in flowery bullshit about conflicts of interest, which somehow seem to magically disappear when applied to state leaders.

    Want a better, more responsive and dedicated Florida Legislature?

    Get rid of these pointlessly self-serving and abusive laws. Make legislators earn their re-elections by what they deliver. Give them as much stronger competition for re-election to office, as much competition as we can muster.

    Do that and watch them perform better for you. Do it not and watch them continue to produce mediocrity.

    Good public policy is to encourage NEVER discourage people from running for office. Encouraging competition is always good public policy. Discouraging competition always enures to the benefit of the status quo. And the resign to run law is the poster child for that conclusion.

    Peace.

    Angelo

  14. FTL Voter says:

    What part of “irrevocable” does Aronson not get? The plain meaning of the law is pretty darn clear. I’d guess she is more worried her fundraising will dry up once she is off the commission and no longer voting on lobbyist projects.

  15. Commissioner Angelo Castillo says:

    PS : Resign to run likewise protects county commissioners from potential challenge by city officials, though that was probably a unintended consequence.

    AC

  16. Gravitas says:

    Lisa was always a great at inside jobs, sec to Larry Smith, executive director to this and that. She also was a good city commissioner. This run for cc showed her flaws. She is a wallflower, never memorable, but in fairness nice. She just didn’t have the charisma to go to the next level. Does this matter? Furr is as interesting as watching paint dry but Sue and Barbra created a great msg. Unfortunately Lisa brought in the campaign manager for more. Barry Harris

  17. truth says:

    That is absolutely false that resign to run does not apply to the legislature. However, it applies to them less because their terms are often shorter than most other offices (every 2 years).
    Resign to run does not apply to any elected official (local or state) running for federal office. Kristin Jacobs is a County Commissioner who took advantage of this and retained her seat after she lost her congressional race.

    FROM BUDDY:

    You are absolutely right. I printed the law in the post. Here is the relevant passage, clearly stipulating it applies to every office, except federal ones:

    “No officer may qualify as a candidate for another state, district, county, or municipal public office if the terms or any part thereof run concurrently with each other without resigning from the office he or she presently holds.”

  18. Count LF Chodkiewicz Chudzikiewicz says:

    l. Ignorance of the Law is NO excuse, it can only influence “sentencing”

    2. Mayors and Commissioners in Florida were never meant except in large cities like Miami to be “full time jobs”, which is one of the reasons Florida, unlike most States, have City Managers who actually run Cities. The same really should apply to County Commissioners.

    3. The weasely, greedy, selfishness of the Mayor in, let us be honest, small and unimportant Coconut Creek, Florida is at best TASTELESS and TRAILER PARK TRASH.’

    Frankly I expected a little more class from a Mayor, even in South Florida.

  19. Commissioner Angelo Castillo says:

    Truth:

    Good correction, your point about elected officials running for federal office and about the differences in terms, and as you say it does affect state officials less. Well stated.

    Under any circumstance, resign to run is a pointless and elitist law that basically exists to protect incumbents. Florida would be better served without it, encouraging rather than discouraging runs for office. That is the better policy.

    Angelo

  20. Señor Censor says:

    Thank you Anjello the consummate double dipping politician for all your blather, that being said i suggest that you run for another position to keep you occupied.

  21. Coconut Creek Resident says:

    https://www.facebook.com/ourcoconutcreek

    This is one of the individuals running for the Mayors seat, and by the pictures it looks as though she (Aronson) is supporting his campaign.

  22. Real Deal says:

    @20: I think maybe your mother was double dipped. With a baboon possibly to produce you. Jerk.

  23. just saying says:

    so on the Nov 4 resignation date she is also off broward planning council because she holds that seat an an ‘Elected’ Appointee, not a ‘Citizen’ appointee.
    Aronson willbe a regular citizen with nopolitical power.
    And it will stay that way
    until the district election date is a done deal, votes counted and no more lawsuits so victor can be sworn in.
    who may or not be aronson.