## Facts

- Broward County voters approved a 2000 charter amendment imposing term limits on county commissioners.
- The amendment limited commissioners to three consecutive four-year terms and excluded specified pre-2000 service and certain partial terms from the limit.
- In 2010, William Telli, a Broward County resident and voter, sought declaratory relief alleging the term-limit provision was unconstitutional because it imposed an additional qualification/disqualification for county office.
- The circuit court ruled for Telli, relying on *Cook v. City of Jacksonville* to hold local term limits unconstitutional as an additional qualification.
- The Fourth District reversed, holding the Florida Constitution permits charter counties to impose term limits on county commissioners.
- The Florida Supreme Court accepted review to resolve whether charter-county term limits for commissioners violate the Florida Constitution and to address the effect of *Cook*.

## Issues

1. Whether a charter county may impose term limits on county commissioners by charter amendment under the Florida Constitution.
2. Whether local term limits are unconstitutional “additional qualifications/disqualifications” for county office, requiring a state constitutional amendment.
3. Whether to maintain or recede from *Cook v. City of Jacksonville* insofar as it restricts local authority to impose term limits on county offices.

## Decision

- The Florida Supreme Court approved the Fourth District’s decision and held Broward County’s charter term limits for county commissioners are constitutional.
- The Court concluded the charter amendment was a valid exercise of charter-county home-rule authority and did not conflict with any express constitutional limitation or general law identified in the case.
- The Court receded from *Cook v. City of Jacksonville* to the extent *Cook* treated locally adopted term limits as impermissible additional qualifications in this context.
- Although it rejected the Fourth District’s narrower rationale, the Court affirmed the result on broader grounds by revising the controlling constitutional analysis of term limits and local power.

## Legal Principles

- Florida charter counties possess broad home-rule authority to exercise powers of local self-government not inconsistent with general law or applicable constitutional constraints.
- Where the Florida Constitution does not prescribe exclusive qualifications for a local office or expressly preempt local structuring of that office, charter provisions may regulate the structure of local government, including imposing commissioner term limits.
- Term limits for county commissioners may be treated as a structural governance choice within charter-county authority rather than an impermissible added qualification/disqualification for office.
- Stare decisis does not bar receding from precedent when the court determines a prior constitutional interpretation was incorrect and improperly limited constitutionally contemplated local self-government.

## Conclusion

The Florida Supreme Court held that Broward County’s charter-based term limits for county commissioners are a permissible exercise of charter-county home rule under the Florida Constitution, and it receded from *Cook* to the extent it supported treating such term limits as unconstitutional additional qualifications.


Telli v. Broward County, 94 So. 3d 504 (Fla. 2012)