In addition to voting for a new mayor and deciding on four city council races on Nov. 2, St. Petersburg voters have a number of charter amendments on their ballot to consider – including one that would change how members of the city council are elected.

Currently, city council members are elected in primary elections only by voters in their districts, with the top two finishers then competing citywide in the general election. But Charter Amendment 1 would change all city council elections to single-member districts only. It’s a change that its supporters say would empower minority voters in St. Petersburg to have a stronger voice and presence on the council.

“How fair is that the entire city gets a say on who represents our neighborhood?” Amendment 1 supporter Corey Givens Jr. asked a voter he was speaking to as he canvassed a neighborhood in South St. Pete on Saturday “I feel that neighborhood leaders know best our issues we face in this community. Somebody who lives downtown doesn’t know what’s going on in the district, so I definitely think that this will give stronger voices to people who live in this community.”

The voter he was speaking with said that he agreed with him, and Givens Jr. then handed him a postcard urging him to vote “yes” on Amendment 1.

There are seven charter amendments on the Nov. 2 St. Petersburg municipal election, but the proposal to change the way that city council members are elected is getting the most attention.

St. Pete’s current system of having citywide elections for all eight of their city council seats in the primary and then making those elections citywide in the general election is a different system than the one used to elect representatives on the Tampa City Council, the Hillsborough County Commission and the Pinellas County Commission, among others.

All three of those governments use a hybrid system, with residents voting on a council member or commissioner from their own district, and then getting the opportunity to vote for “at-large” candidates who run city or countywide.

Fueling the argument for advocates is a study done by the ACLU of Florida and the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund that revealed that over the past 15 years, Black candidates for the City Council have lost every runoff general election against a white opponent in St. Pete.

“It’s not fair that people who do not live in a majority Black district have a say on who represents that majority Black district,” says Givens Jr.

Critics of the measure say that the system is working well right now, noting how the board has two Black public officials on the current council, Deborah Figgs-Sanders in District 5 and Lisa Wheeler-Bowman in District 7 (both of whom oppose the measure).

Pinellas County Commissioner Rene Flowers served on the St. Pete City Council from 1999 to 2008. She says that being elected citywide makes council members more accountable to the entire community.

“If you only run in District 1, why would you have to work to make sure that things are equitable for District 7?” she says.

The Rev. J.C. Pritchett disagrees. 

“I’m not afraid that someone being elected from a single-member district will all of a sudden, not have relationships or not have interests that are citywide,” he says, comparing it how state representatives are elected from specific districts but go on to represent the entire state when they serve in Tallahassee.

Pritchett served on the Charter Review Commission earlier this year, reviewing potential changes to make elections more equitable in the city. He says the nine-member commission looked at various options, including adding or reducing the number of the members of the council, before coming up with the proposal to that would make city council candidates elected in their individual districts, instead of citywide.

Advocates also say that running in one’s district vs. running citywide can also limit the spending on elections. Flowers admits that running citywide is inevitably more expensive, but says that the money needed to run in local elections will continue to increase with more candidate creating political committees alongside their regular campaign accounts. “Individuals are getting funds from outside of our community, because politics on a global and national perspective play a major role in local politics,” she says.

Spectrum Bay News 9 asked both mayoral candidates where they stand on the issue.

Ken Welch doesn’t support the charter amendment.

“I support a mix of single-member and at-large districts, similar to the 4/3 model utilized by the Pinellas County Commission and the School Board,” Welch said in a statement. “This model balances local, neighborhood-level representation with the requirements for broad, city-wide perspective.”

Robert Blackmon did not respond to our question.