LAWSUIT ON CHARTER PETITION DRIVE CAN CONTINUE

For the past several months, a group led by local activist and Lakeland City Commission candidate Dewey Smith has been pushing a three pronged petition drive to change Polk County's charter. The changes would 1) make the traditionally constitutional officers such as sheriff, clerk of the court, property appraiser, supervisor of elections, and tax collector in effect department heads which would come under the direct supervision of the County Commission, 2) impose term limits on said officeholders, and 3) cut their salaries. County Commissioners have set the first two measures for inclusion on next November's ballot; the salary proposal failed to gain enough signatures.

The proposed changes came under fire from a group known as The Polk Committee for Effective Government, which has filed a lawsuit claiming that the petition drive was reek with fraud and asked that the petitions be voided.

The Lakeland Ledger reported:

Dewey Smith, 77, was indicted Feb. 24 and charged with violating campaign contribution laws and submitting fraudulent signatures.

Smith's lawyer, Johnnie Byrd, Jr. of Plant City (Yes, friends, THAT Johnnie Byrd), had filed a motion to dismiss an amended complaint by Polk Committee for Effective Government as being too vague in its allegations of fraud.

But Circuit Judge John F. Laurent wrote in his Thursday order that "the seminal and maybe the only remaining issue is the alleged fraud associated with the petition initiative . . ."

Laurent denied Byrd's motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

On April 19, Laurent denied Polk Committee for Effective Government's request to stop Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards from accepting the signed petitions in the drive.

Polk Committee for Effective Government had claimed Edwards should not have accepted signed petitions after a one-year deadline had expired. Laurent concluded Edwards had acted rationally and had not abused her discretion.