Stuart voters could decide in November whether future city commissions must obtain voter approval before selling or entering into long-term leases for city-owned baseball fields.
On Aug. 3, the city commission approved to move the item forward to a second reading.
The proposed charter amendment would apply to city-owned recreational ball fields, including Guy Davis and Sailfish ball fields, and would require a public referendum before those properties could be sold, conveyed or leased for more than one year.
City Attorney Lee Baggett read the proposed ballot language during a recent City Commission meeting.
"The city commission shall not sell, convey, or lease for more than one year, including any renewal options, any city-owned real property containing recreational ball fields, unless first approved by the voters through a public referendum held under charter section 9.04 procedures for vacating public streets or abandoning right away," he said.
Baggett said the measure is not tied to any current proposal involving the ball fields, but is intended to protect them in the future if voters approve the amendment.
"No one is trying to sell or convey or lease the ball fields, either Guy Davis or Sailfish ball fields. This is just a mechanism in place to protect the ball fields from being sold or leased for more than a year from this point going on into the future, not currently, but after if it passes by referendum in November," he said.
Commissioners also discussed revisions to the wording that would appear on the November ballot.
Commissioner Eula Clark said she wanted the language to be more consistent, particularly in how leases are described.
"I know that it has the word approving ballot language up there, but it would be on the general election ballot itself where they would come. So it would be after the word election, if necessary put the word ballot, that's one thing. But just to be consistent, when we describe it and we talk about it and we give the reason why we want to do it, we say long-term lease," she said. "But then in the language itself and in the ordinance, we just say lease. So we just need to decide if we're going to say sale or long-term lease."
Baggett agreed to make those revisions, along with grammatical corrections and other changes carried over from earlier drafts.
Commissioner Campbell Rich also questioned why leases were included in the referendum language when the city has not historically leased the ball fields.
Baggett said the language is intended to address long-term leases rather than the annual user agreements the city has with local recreational leagues.
"I would assume that was what the city and the folks that brought forth the waterfront properties to lease more than 10 years. That's what they were thinking because a lot of our leases for restaurants or like the marina or some other properties that the city has owned and leased, it's been long-term 30, 40, 50 years, 100 years. So I think that's the kind of lease that is probably covered under that, not user agreements, use agreements with various leagues, recreational leagues that have a 90-day termination clause in it," he said.
Commissioner Laura Giobbi said the proposal would not affect those user agreements because they are renewed annually and can be terminated with 90 days' notice.
"We want to leave that lease agreement language in there just because the city currently doesn't lease it or hasn't in the past. We're trying to protect the fields so it would be going into the future, there would be no leasing. And it's my understanding that the user agreements are, as you said, 90-day termination and they're usually annual, year to year, so they wouldn't be affected," she said.
The City Commission is scheduled to discuss the proposal again during a special meeting Aug. 17 to meet the Aug. 21 deadline for placing the referendum on the November ballot.
The city-owned baseball fields have been a fixture in Stuart since the 1940s. Previous proposals to redevelop the property were abandoned following public opposition in 2018.