Subject:
Title
Amendment to BCC-97, Board Meeting Rules and Procedures, Clarifying Notice Requirements when an Item is Continued to a Subsequent Meeting
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Fiscal Impact:
None
Dept/Office:
County Attorney’s Office
Requested Action:
Recommendation
It is requested that the Board amend Board policy BCC-97, Board Meeting Rules and Procedures, to clarify that when consideration of a proposed county ordinance, resolution, or other action is continued to a subsequent meeting, no further notice is required.
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Summary Explanation and Background:
Earlier this year, in the case of Testa v. Town of Jupiter Island, 360 So. 3d 722 (Fla. 4th DCA 2023), the Fourth District Court of Appeal held that when a local government postpones a public hearing on the proposed enactment of an ordinance, the notice for the first meeting is not effective for the later meeting date. Rather, the subsequent hearing must be noticed in the same manner as the initial hearing.
This holding in the Testa case broke from other legal precedents and longstanding practice. Nonetheless, most local governments in Florida took a conservative approach and began advertising postponed or continued public hearings in the same manner that the initial hearing was advertised. On March 21, 2023, the Board amended subsection III.E.2 of BCC-97 to reflect this new practice.
Subsequently, the legislature adopted, and the governor approved, Senate Bill 170, which became Chapter 2023-309, Laws of Florida. Among other things, SB 170 legislatively addressed the Testa holding by amending section 125.66, Florida Statutes, to provide as follows:
(7) Consideration of the proposed county ordinance or county resolution at a properly noticed meeting may be continued to a subsequent meeting if, at the scheduled meeting, the date, time, and place of the subsequent meeting is publicly stated. No further publication, mailing, or posted notice as required under this section is required, except that the continued consideration must be listed in an agenda or similar communication produced for the subsequent meeting. This subsection is remedial in nature, is intended to clarify existing law, and shall apply retroactively.
The proposed amendment to BCC-97 aligns Board policy with the recently amended statute and restores the Board’s longstanding practice prior to March of 2023.
Clerk to the Board Instructions:
Please forward signed original to the County Manager’s Office.