Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/92622
Sarasota News Leader and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way. November 9, 2012 It stipu- lated that if a company received $100,000 or more in government subsidies and employed more than 50 people, it would have to pay $10.70 per hour or more. At the time, Florida's minimum wage was $7.25. After passage of the amendment, Walmart withdrew its plans. Three business-oriented city charter amend- ments were approved by voters. A measure prohibiting the city from investing in deriva- tive financial products was approved 56/44. Another measure banning use of "certificates of participation" unless approved in a general referendum was also approved 54 percent to 46 percent. And a measure requiring a Saraso- ta City Commission supermajority approval of any contracts (including leases and franchise and pension plans) for a duration of longer than 10 years was approved 56 percent to 44 percent. The fourth amendment approved by voters would extend the time citizens have to ful- fill the requirements for a successful petition drive. The measure would double the amount of time, pushing it to 180 days from 90, to get the minimum of 3,295 signatures of registered city voters, a figure based on the percentage of the number of total city voters. OBSERVATIONS Roughly 20,000 city voters turned out for the presidential election, showing that the bat- tle for the top elected position in the United States brings the greatest number of voters to Page 14 the city polls every four years. And the four- page ballot was the longest in city and county history. While some precincts reported lines at the 7 a.m. opening time, none reported lines at the 7 p.m. closing (unlike Lee and Miami-Dade counties, where people who arrived before 7 p.m. were still waiting at 10 p.m. to vote). Ear- ly voting helped to smooth the flow. The voting on the city charter amendments may indicate better than any candidate polling how clearly voters understood their choices. Cynics might say that by the time voters got to the end of their long ballots, they would be marking "yes-yes-yes" or "no-no-no." Yet, city voters rejected three of seven measures, and those certainly were the most complicated of the seven issues. Despite the summary language on the ballot, it was clear something about each of those rejected amendments gave voters pause. By margins of more than 2,000 votes — not an in- significant number — citizens opposed them. The margin of loss for the "housekeeping" amendment was 4,600 votes; not a single pre- cinct in the city supported it. For the "breakup the clerk" amendment, only three of 18 pre- cincts supported it; in precinct 115 in north Sarasota, nearly twice as many people voted against it as supported it. The point is that city voters in the November 2012 election were not blindly filling in their ovals as they reached the end of the ballot. Their decisions clearly were measured.