The Clay County Charter Review Commission compiled a list of potential charter initiatives and agreed to order them for future meetings while asking staff and retained counsel to help identify subject-matter experts and to prepare background materials.

Commission members proposed multiple initiatives during an extended discussion. Recurrent, high-priority themes included commissioner compensation, the CRC meeting cycle, and county commission composition and elections. Members also raised issues including the auditor role, limits or zoning for marijuana dispensaries, protections for green space and tree preservation on new development, and transportation funding.

Commissioner compensation and salary methodology was one of the most-discussed items. Speakers noted that the charter currently specifies a commissioner salary that has not changed in many years; a member said the $37,000 figure was set in 2006. Several members asked whether the charter should continue to specify a fixed dollar amount or instead reference a statutory formula or another independent body to set compensation. Courtney Connor and staff were asked to gather prior ballot language and historical records from earlier attempts to change commissioner pay.

A second recurring theme was the CRC meeting cycle. Multiple members proposed moving the charter review schedule from every four years to every eight years, citing the administrative burden of frequent reviews and examples from other counties. A related governance item concerned the number and structure of county commissioners. Members asked the CRC to consider whether the county should keep five single-member districts, expand the commission to seven members, or investigate countywide versus district elections and the implications of redistricting as population changes.

Other initiatives raised in the meeting included:
- Auditor role: whether the clerk of court's statutory auditing responsibilities (referenced in the meeting as Florida Constitution Article V, Section 16 and Florida Statute section 28.12) create redundancy with any county-auditor language in the charter and whether the charter should be revised accordingly.
- Marijuana dispensaries: options for limiting the number or restricting locations within the county, and whether such limits can be framed in charter language or are governed by state statute and local land-use codes.
- Environmental and development standards: proposals to require preservation of trees or minimum green space on new lots.
- Transportation and roads: concerns about road capacity, funding for resurfacing and bonded road projects, and whether voters would accept a ballot-led funding mechanism similar to prior conservation/millage initiatives.

The commission also set two process decisions in the meeting: members agreed to organize future agenda items in the order they appear in the charter (preamble, article 1, article 2, etc.), and the chair will work with retained counsel, Glenn Taylor, and county staff to create an ordered agenda for the initiatives and to identify subject-matter experts. Suggested subject-matter experts included Clerk Tara Green (comptroller/auditor matters), former county attorney Mark Skruvy (historical context), Chance Irving (charter history/legislative context), and Lasekiya Hodges (Sunshine Law/history), among others.

Public comment: One member of the public, Helena Cormier, spoke during public comment and supported revisiting commissioner compensation and suggested a voter-directed funding approach for road improvements similar to the county's conservation millage initiative.

Formal procedural votes recorded during the meeting and relevant to CRC operations included the earlier acceptance of minutes and CRC decisions to add an invocation and a pledge of allegiance at the start of future meetings. At the meeting the commission accepted the prior meeting minutes by motion and voice vote. Later in the meeting members moved to include an invocation (with an identified volunteer to lead) and to include the pledge of allegiance at the start of CRC meetings; both motions passed by voice vote.

Next steps and timeline: The commission asked staff to research prior ballot language on commissioner pay, to gather historical context, and to bring recommended subject-matter experts. The chair said she would coordinate with counsel to create an ordered agenda of initiatives for upcoming meetings. The commission set the next meeting for November 17 at 5 p.m.

Ending

The CRC compiled an initial list of initiatives and set a process for staff and counsel to prepare background materials and experts. The commission did not adopt charter language at this meeting; it only created a list of potential topics to study and ordered them for future sessions.