A proposed charter amendment on the Nov. 5 ballot in Hollywood was wrongly worded, forcing city officials to not count any votes on the measure.
Instead, the city will adopt the ordinance to allow city residents to decide on the sale or lease of some city-owned properties until it can be placed on the ballot again in November 2026 for voters to approve or reject it.
The inaccurate language of Charter Amendment 6 prompted City Attorney Doug Gonzales to resign. Gonzales had held the position for seven years.
City officials posted on its website that the amendment language “on the ballot is incorrect and does not meet the intent of the Charter Review Committee.”
The city’s charter review committee had passed an ordinance that said that for specific city-owned sites to be sold or leased for 50 or more years they must be approved by a majority of voters. Those sites include parks, golf courses, historic property and property east of the Intracoastal Waterway. Leases from 20 to 50 years would still require five of seven commissioners to approve. That ordinance would have required a majority of voters to approve for it to take effect.
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On the official ballot, Charter Amendment 6 read completely differently — instead saying that a “yes” vote would the “remove referendum option” for properties sold and that properties leased in excess of 50 years would still require commission approval.
"The vital information was left off, and it changed the meaning and the intent of the city charter review committee," Hollywood spokesperson Joann Hussey told CBS News Miami.
“Language should have indicated ‘requiring the approval by a majority vote of the city’s electors,'” wrote city officials, who said that the ordinance will be adopted “as if it was already passed by voters.”
It will then remain in effect until it can be “reconsidered by voters during the next general election scheduled for Nov. 3, 2026.”
