Volusia County Council to hold hearings on proposed charter amendments

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — The 2026 Volusia County Charter Review Commission adopted its final report during its April 13 meeting, advancing five proposed charter amendments to the Volusia County Council.

The Volusia County Council will now hold three public hearings to provide residents with an opportunity to comment on the proposed amendments.

While the five proposed amendments cannot be changed or removed by the Council at this stage, the Council’s role is limited to holding these public hearings.

The proposed amendments will be placed on the general election ballot and decided by a majority vote of participating voters.

  1. Establishes a County Council structure with five district members and two at-large members, requires the chair to be chosen annually from among the council members, and adds stricter term limits.
  2. Removes Charter restrictions requiring County Council members to be reimbursed for out-of-county work-related expenses and prohibiting County Council members from receiving reimbursement for work-related, in-county expenses.
  3. Updates the County Charter to reflect changes required by Florida’s 2018 Constitutional Amendment 10 affecting various county Constitutional offices.
  4. Removes detailed personnel system requirements from the Charter and instead allows those policies to be set by the County Council through ordinances.
  5. Creates a registry of protected conservation lands, which protects such lands from sale or transfer, and requires a majority plus-one vote of the entire County Council to add properties to such list or remove properties from that list for sale or transfer, while making exceptions for takings by entities with authority of eminent domain and allowing such properties to be used for County purposes.

The public hearings are scheduled during regularly scheduled County Council meetings on the second floor of the Thomas C. Kelly Administration Center

  • Tuesday,, May 19, 2026 @ 4 pm
  • Tuesday,, June 2, 2026 @ 9 am
  • Tuesday, June 16, 2026 @ 4 pm

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