In addition to deciding which four will sit on the Islamorada Village Council, voters heading to the polls will also weigh in on a pair of referendums, for term limits and a pay raise.
Earlier in the year, council members mulled and eventually passed two ordinances to send the questions of term limits and council pay increases to referendum at the Nov. 5 election. Specifically, voters will decide whether they support council members serving eight cumulative years before having to move on and if council members should see their pay rise from $1,000 to $1,500 a month.
Currently, council members can serve eight consecutive years, which equates to four two-year terms, before having to step away. A termed-out councilperson could step away for a year, two years or more, make another run for office and serve another eight years.
Council members originally expressed support to make the question of term limits retroactive.
The proposal passed via a 3-2 vote during a Nov. 7, 2023 meeting. Vice Mayor Sharon Mahoney, councilwoman Elizabeth Jolin and councilman Henry Rosenthal supported the term limit referendum. Two days later at a Nov. 9, 2023 meeting, Rosenthal asked council members to reconsider the previous vote to send the term limits question to voters. Sure enough, the council voted 3-2 for a reconsideration in December.
During council’s meeting on Dec. 14, Gregg asked fellow council members to eliminate the retroactive part of language within the referendum.
“This has an impact on those who might want to serve in the future,” he said.
Rosenthal reversed course from his prior vote and told council members at the Dec. 14 meeting that he didn’t support sending a term limit question of eight years retroactive to the voters. He said the proposal wasn’t fair to council members who previously served and could be affected by the new proposal. Rosenthal went on to say his first vote went along with the dissension seen and faced within the Islamorada council and community in recent times.
“That is not pulling us together as a body,” Rosenthal said. “I don’t care if they’re (council members) here 150 years, the public will make that choice.”
Mahoney commended Rosenthal for changing his mind and “pulling everyone together.” Council members voted 5-0 to alter language to eight cumulative years that wouldn’t be retroactive.
If approved by voters in November, the new eight-year cumulative term limit would begin once the newly-elected council is seated.
As for the council pay referendum, voters will essentially be asked if they support a $500 monthly pay increase for council members from $1,000 to $1,500. Compensation was originally set at $300 until 2005, when the council approved an ordinance to pay council members $1,000 per month. The new pay took effect in March 2006 following voter approval and has remained at $1,000 since then.
The referendum also includes language that council members would be entitled to a cost of living adjustment that village staff receive annually.
