FORT PIERCE – A citizen group calling itself Take Back Fort Pierce (TBFP) has proposed petition language that could require all Fort Pierce City Commission members to be elected by a majority of votes cast citywide.

Currently, only voters who live in District 1 can vote to elect the two District 1 city commissioners and the same applies for the pair of District 2 representatives.

The proposal would still require candidates running to represent Districts 1 and 2 to be legal residents of those geographic areas, but winners would be the candidates from those districts who receive the most votes cast citywide.

Unaffected would be the election of the mayor who may live anywhere in the City of Fort Pierce and is elected by a plurality of votes cast across the city.

In addition, Take Back Fort Pierce also is proposing other city charter changes that would:

• Define and separate the job responsibilities of the city manager, clerk and attorney, each a charter employee who is hired by and reports to city commissioners.

• Reform the city’s purchasing process to include experts in various fields, not involved in the competitive bidding, with helping to evaluate proposals. It would also restrict city employees to comprising 20 percent of members of the committees that score the bids. Critics have claimed the city’s bid proposals are written by employees who may be unfamiliar with project requirements and that the scoring committees often lack evaluation qualifications.

• Mandates “immediate dismissal” for any city employee “intentionally providing inaccurate or misleading information to the city commission.”

• Allow “any citizens with standing on an issue that includes testimony from a city employee…to respond to that testimony…regardless of where that issue appears on the agenda.”

Charles Wilson, a well-known Republican political activist, nephew of Mayor Linda Hudson and TBFP spokesperson, said the group is “tired of waiting” for these charter changes and will pursue citizen-initiated action.

According to Wilson, it will take petitions signed by 2,177 registered city voters to require the city commission to put the measures on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.

“We’re not going to leave it up to you what the charter says,” said Wilson, who did not disclose how many people are involved in the TBFP initiative.

City Clerk Linda Cox said she is researching the petition process, including filing deadlines.