Board Policy - Section Number: 01.23.00.00

Purpose

To require that all proclamations and certificates of commendation, other than requests for routine, non-controversial, and/or sensitive proclamations, go through an internal review process prior to appearing on a Board of County Commissioners’ meeting agenda and to set a limit on the number of Commissioner-sponsored proclamations and certificates of commendation to two per Board meeting, unless authorized by the Chairman.

Policy

A. The Board of County Commissioners hereby requires that the following guidelines be followed when reviewing and approving all proclamations and certificates of commendation which may appear on the agenda of the Board of County Commissioners:

• All proclamations which are routine and non-controversial, including proclamations to commend children and all honors and awards for employees and volunteers, shall be pre-signed.
• All other proclamations and certificates of commendation shall be prescreened to preclude proclamations which are controversial or sensitive because they address matters of political controversy, ideological, or religious beliefs; one’s individual conviction; or address matters which do not serve a public interest. Copies of precluded proclamations shall be forwarded to Commissioners’ staff for review and reconsideration. In order for a proclamation that falls in this category to be scheduled on an agenda for presentation by the Board of County Commissioners, at least six (6 Board members must sign the proclamation.
• No proclamation shall be given to any candidate. The BOCC should not present a proclamation to any candidate, defined in Section 97.021(6), Florida Statute as:
• (6) “Candidate” means any person to whom any one or more of the following applies:
• (a) Any person who seeks to qualify for nomination or election by means of the petitioning process.
• (b) Any person who seeks to qualify for election as a write-in candidate.
• (c) Any person who receives contributions or makes expenditures or gives his or her consent for any other person to receive contributions or make expenditures, with a view to bringing about his or her nomination or election to, or retention in, public office.
• (d) Any person who appoints a treasurer and designates a primary depository.
• (e) Any person who files qualification papers and subscribes to a candidate’s oath as required by law. However, this definition does not include any candidate for a political party executive committee.
• Any proclamations and certificates of commendation involving a department, service, and/or employee under the County Administrator shall be presented at the BOCC’s quarterly award ceremony.

B. In addition, there shall be a limit on the number of proclamations and certificates of commendations which may appear on the agenda of the Board of County Commissioners.

• No more than two (2) Commissioner-sponsored proclamations and certificates of commendation shall be presented at a Board meeting, unless authorized by the Chairman.
• The scheduling of these Commissioner-sponsored proclamations and certificates of commendation shall be on a first come, first serve basis.
• However, proclamations or certificates of commendation that are time-sensitive shall be given priority and the other requests shall be scheduled for the next Board meeting.
• In the event there are more than two Commissioner requests for proclamations and certificates of commendation, and the additional request is for a proclamation or certificate of commendation that is time-sensitive, the Commissioner(s) with honored requests shall be given an opportunity to voluntarily defer their presentation to the next Board meeting to allow the time-sensitive item to be presented at that meeting.
• In the event a Commissioner opts not to defer their item, the Commissioner sponsoring the additional time-sensitive item may make a motion at the anticipated Board meeting to have it added to the Board’s agenda that day and the Board, by a supermajority vote, may waive this policy to allow more than two proclamations to be presented at a Board meeting.

This limitation shall only apply to proclamations and certificates of commendation presented at a Board meeting and shall not apply to those that are being presented outside of Board meetings.

Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the County Administrator to ensure compliance with Section A of this policy. The Administrator may delegate this responsibility to the Director of Communications and Digital Media.

It is the responsibility of the Board Chairman to ensure compliance with Section B of this policy.