FENWICK ISLAND – Officials in Fenwick Island will not move forward with changes to the town’s charter that would reinstate votes to trustees and their spouses in municipal elections.
The Fenwick Island Town Council met with town solicitor Mary Schrider-Fox in a workshop last Friday to revisit voter qualification changes one last time.
The workshop comes nearly one month after the town council rescinded a proposed first reading on a charter change that would give trusts two votes in municipal elections.
While the changes would not affect residents, Councilwoman Julie Lee said the revisions would have reinstated voting rights for trustees and their spouses.
She explained trustees and their spouses were given the opportunity to vote in municipal elections prior to a 2008 charter change that has since classified trusts as an artificial entity. These artificial entities are given one vote through a power of attorney.
Lee said the intention of Friday’s workshop was to find a more palatable solution that would appease both residents and non-residents.
“We just keep hitting roadblocks along the way,” she said. “I’m hoping in some way during this conversation … we can figure out a way to reinstate votes for the trustees and spouses of the trustees that lost their vote in 2008.”
Councilwoman Vicki Carmean advocated for a simple charter change at the workshop.
“My goal in instituting a change is to keep things as simple as possible …” she said. “It (the last contested election) became a convoluted game and it cost the town some money and a lot of time and a lot of bad feelings and I don’t want to see that.”
Lee clarified that the town spent a lot of time and money in recent elections to ensure non-residents with property in trust were compliant with the town’s voting laws.
Schrider-Fox explained the town will always spend time and money to look into deeds during contested elections.
“No matter what, you are never going to cut out staff time,” she said. “Every time you have a contested election, it’s going to cost the town a little bit of money because questions will come up like this.”
Resident Richard Benn argued that trustees’ votes should be reinstated.
“The town was chartered on the foundation that this was a resort town and there would be people who’d want a say on what goes on in the town as property owners,” he said.
Councilman Richard Mais argued only legal residents should be able to vote in municipal elections.
“It’s very, very complicated and a simple solution is to let legal residents vote,” he said. “It goes back to the fundamental rights of voting, one person, one vote. When we are letting non-residents vote, they are getting two votes, they vote in their local community and they vote here and I think that’s wrong.”
Resident Mary Ellen Langan asked how many non-residents held trusts in Fenwick Island.
“How many people are we talking about?” she said.
Mayor Gene Langan replied there were 34 non-resident trusts.
“That’s not a handful,” he said. “That’s a lot.”
Lee, Carmean and Councilman Roy Williams were in favor of moving forward with a charter change that would reinstate votes to trustees and their spouses, but Gene Langan, Mais and Councilmen Bernie Merritt and Gardner Bunting opposed further discussions.
“After listening to Mary, I think it’s a Pandora’s box of compliance issues,” Merritt said.
While all agreed a clearer definition of “bona fide resident” should be added to the charter, the council voted 4-3 to end the discussion.
“As of now, we are just going to drop this,” Gene Langan said.
