The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) voted Tuesday to stop investing in corporations and to continue with its charter amendment referendum that will appear before voters in November.
During commissioner comment at the end of the meeting, Commissioner Ken Cornell made a motion that directs staff to eliminate corporate investments from Alachua County’s investment policy.
The motion comes after public commenters spoke against the BOCC owning stock in Lockheed Martin. Commenters spoke against the company while asking the BOCC to issue a ceasefire resolution for the war in Gaza.
Florida law prohibits counties from removing individual corporate investments for anything other than fiscal factors. But Cornell’s motion will do away with all corporate investments.
He said the motion not only deals with investments into the military industrial complex but any companies that don’t align with the BOCC’s values.
The motion received unanimous support, with Commissioner Chuck Chestnut absent.
Chair Mary Alford said the county has only been investing in corporations for the past four or five years.
The BOCC also continued down the path to put a single-member district question on the November ballot. The BOCC wants to reverse the decision made at the 2022 election when a ballot proposal, initiated by state legislators, passed and changed Alachua County to a single-member district system.
The ballot question will read as follows: “Shall the five members of the board of county commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, be elected by all electors within the county at large?”
A “Yes” vote will reverse the single-member district system into an at-large system. A “no” vote will keep the single-member district system approved in 2022.
An at-large system would mean every voter in Alachua County would vote for each member of the BOCC. A single-member district system would mean citizens only votes for the BOCC member who represents their district.
The Tuesday vote authorizes staff to advertise the upcoming ballot initiative.
County Attorney Sylvia Torres said staff recommends advertising on its website, now approved for legal notices, while also using newspaper legal notices.
“Theoretically, just the legal notice on the webpage should be enough, but because that’s new, if this is important to you, what we’re suggesting is that you also notice it in the newspaper,” Torres said.
She recommended the BOCC advertise through both sources for three different deadlines provided by state statutes and the county’s charter.
Commissioners said the 2022 ballot initiative left voters confused. Several commissioners said voters they’ve talked to didn’t realize that they couldn’t vote for everyone on the BOCC.
For the upcoming election, Cornell said the single-member district system means voters in his district won’t have a voice since his seat isn’t up for reelection.
State legislators started the 2022 ballot initiative after saying voters in Alachua County felt underrepresented and had asked for a change to single-member districts. The initiative passed with 51.5% of the vote.
However, the BOCC advocated against the change in 2022. The commissioners have said that disinformation before the election confused voters who didn’t want single-member districts.
