{"id":419261,"date":"2026-10-05T14:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T14:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/419261\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T14:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T14:50:08","slug":"mayoral-term-limits-new-checks-on-mayor-could-go-before-tampa-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/419261\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayoral Term Limits, New Checks on Mayor Could Go Before Tampa Voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

After spending months studying Tampa<\/a>\u2019s charter, the city\u2019s Charter Review Advisory Commission sent City Council a set of recommendations for changing the rules that divide power inside City Hall. Council is now working from a different package, strengthening some of the commission\u2019s proposals, dropping others and advancing changes commissioners considered but chose not to recommend.<\/p>\n

Mayoral term limits are one of the clearest examples, with Council voting 5-2 on Oct. 1 to advance a restriction the commission had considered and left alone. The timing gives the proposal an immediate political backdrop. Former Mayor Bob Buckhorn is running again<\/a> eight years after leaving office, doing what the proposed change would prevent a future two-term mayor from doing. The restriction would not apply retroactively to Buckhorn\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

Garrett Greco<\/a>, a Charter Review Advisory Commission member who hosts The Tampa Bay Developer and is now running for City Council<\/a>, put the larger split more simply in a Sept. 30 interview with TBBW. \u201cThe council clearly had plans of its own,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Before Council met, Greco was pushing members to strengthen the inspector general proposal, which commissioners had narrowed to win enough votes to send it forward. \u201cWhat we put forward was a compromise. I compromised to help get that passed so it could be in front of City Council, and I\u2019m going to tell them to go further,\u201d Greco said. \u201cI\u2019m going to tell them to get stronger for an independent inspector general that can be dynamic and surgical and have the power to actually dig and find inefficiencies to make a better government.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is what Council did Oct. 1, unanimously advancing a stronger inspector general with authority to operate outside both the mayor and Council and launch investigations, audits and reviews without waiting for a complaint. The office could subpoena information, require cooperation from city officers, employees and contractors, refer matters outside City Hall and retain independent counsel. A selection committee would nominate candidates before five council members made the appointment. A five-year term, a five-vote removal threshold and a budget submitted directly to Council would give the office additional independence.<\/p>\n

Council went beyond the commission again when members considered giving themselves the power to remove certain mayoral appointees, rather than limiting their role to confirming them before they took their jobs. The commission had recommended restoring Council confirmation of certain appointments. The proposal before Council went further, allowing five members to remove an officer after giving the mayor and officer an opportunity for a public hearing.<\/p>\n

The debate over removal quickly turned to the people who would have to work under that arrangement, with Councilman Charlie Miranda warning that City Hall could have a harder time recruiting senior administrators if their jobs became more political. Councilman Luis Viera was open to removing an appointee through something closer to impeachment, but not simply because five council members wanted the person gone. Councilwoman Lynn Hurtak<\/a> came at it from the other side. Department heads work with Council too, she argued, and members need some recourse when residents bring them problems they cannot get fixed. Council did not settle the issue. Members voted 4-3 to send the proposal back to outside counsel Kent Tinkler and have him define what would justify removal and how the process would work.<\/p>\n

Council also advanced several changes that would let members act without the mayor\u2019s approval, including a five-vote executive-order override, greater authority over certain budget changes and more control over Council staffing. Five members could override a mayoral executive order and prevent the same order from returning during that mayor\u2019s term without majority Council consent. Councilman Bill Carlson questioned whether that authority should be limited to orders that violated the charter or intruded on Council\u2019s authority. Hurtak pointed to the years-long fight over control of Tampa\u2019s police review board. Council directed Tinkler to draft the broader five-vote override.<\/p>\n

Greco\u2019s objection to Council\u2019s approach was clearest on a proposal he did not even support, after he cast the commission\u2019s lone vote against creating a special zoning hearing master. Commissioners had spent hours discussing the idea with attorneys and other experts before recommending it, and Greco still believed they had reached the wrong answer. \u201cThe reason why I\u2019m not that big on a special zoning master is because we still have a broken and antiquated land development code that still creates a ton of contention in our local government,\u201d he said. \u201cI look at it like a Band-Aid and not a full fix. I don\u2019t really see it as a real solution. I think the real solution is to get serious about land development policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greco\u2019s concern was less about where Council landed than whether members had fully engaged with the work commissioners had already done before getting there. \u201cI sort of wish Council would have at least talked for a few minutes each about their thoughts,\u201d he said. He had pushed Council to go further than the commission on the inspector general and opposed the commission\u2019s own recommendation for a zoning hearing master, so he was not asking members to simply adopt its work. \u201cI don\u2019t know that Council has necessarily considered the work,\u201d Greco said. \u201cI think they kind of know what they were going to do with or without whatever our recommendation was \u2014 rightfully so, as Council has that express authority in the charter.\u201d Greco later underscored that Council has the final say, saying he supports members exercising the authority the charter gives them over what moves forward.<\/p>\n

None of the charter changes reached the ballot Oct. 1, when Council instead directed Tinkler to draft separate ordinances and ballot language for the changes members want voters to consider. If Council advances them, voters could separately decide questions involving mayoral term limits, the inspector general, the executive-order override and whatever removal process emerges from the next draft. Council scheduled its next charter update for Oct. 15 at 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

The commission had also recommended stretching Tampa\u2019s formal charter review cycle from every eight years to every 12, a proposal Council left behind while moving ahead with other changes to the city\u2019s governing document. For Greco, that recommendation grew from the same question now hanging over the broader debate, how readily Tampa should rewrite the rules that distribute power inside City Hall. \u201cA stable government is one that has solid rules that everyone knows that can be adopted through time,\u201d he said. \u201cRules can still be changed. City Council writes ordinances and all that. But we just figured the city\u2019s charter is the city\u2019s constitution. You shouldn\u2019t change it that often.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to watch the Charter Review Advisory Commission\u2019s meetings and see how commissioners developed and debated the recommendations now before City Council.<\/p>\n

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