TALLAHASSEE --- Floridians could be asked later this year to prevent state and local elected officials from naming buildings and other facilities after themselves.

A proposed constitutional amendment advanced last week by the Florida Constitution Revision Commission would prohibit city, county and state lawmakers from naming taxpayer-funded structures after currently elected officials. The proposal also would require stand-alone bills when facilities are named after former elected officials.

Critics contend the proposal is a solution in search of a problem.

But Constitution Revision Commission member John Stemberger, an Orlando lawyer, called his proposal (Proposal 37) a “small” way to improve the public perception of lawmakers.

“I think the public’s stomach turns when we name projects after ourselves as public officials,” Stemberger said of his proposal, which the commission approved in a 20-13 vote. “When we name projects, be they scholarships or whatever it is, after members who are in leadership, I think it raises ethical issues. It forces the members of that legislative body to make a decision as to whether they’re going to oppose leadership or do something that leadership wants.”

The proposal was one of 25 to survive a round of voting last week by the commission, which gathers every 20 years to review and propose changes to the state Constitution.

Stemberger’s proposal remains subject to a final vote by the commission. If it ultimately appears on the November ballot, it would need 60 percent approval from voters to pass.

State lawmakers each year consider numerous naming proposals for such things as roads.

Stemberger’s proposal advanced before Gov. Rick Scott signed into law Friday a measure (HB 382) that names 38 roads and bridges across the state after 41 people and families, along with a portion of Interstate 75 in Collier County as the “Submarine Veterans Memorial Highway.”

The bill also applies the name “Nona and Popa Road” to a section of the San Juan Street Extension in Anastasia State Park in St. Johns County to honor grandmothers and grandfathers who take their grandchildren to state parks.

All the individuals honored in the bill, including former state Sen. Greg Evers, a Baker Republican who died Aug. 22 when his truck ran off a road, are dead.

House leaders had removed two names from the bill, refusing to include the names of living people before voting.

Stemberger said he didn’t want his proposal to require people to be dead before they can be honored.

“You’re not really not honoring that person, then everything becomes a memorial,” Stemberger said. “I think this is a good practice, I think it just needs to be done in a way that is above reproach.”

As for why the measure is needed, Stemberger said Jacksonville in 2005 spent $9,000 on a granite obelisk honoring community “legends,” which included the likeness of then-City Councilwoman Pat Lockett-Felder. The inscription under Lockett-Felder’s name read, “Still Working for the People.”

Constitution Revision Commission member Chris Smith, a former Democratic state senator from Fort Lauderdale, said the proposal steps on legislative and local decision-making, when the commission should be focused on bigger issues that impact the “rights of people.”

“This seems to be a local personal beef making it to the Constitution,” Smith said. “If Jacksonville wants to name every park after every commissioner, fine, that’s Jacksonville’s problem. Let Jacksonville do that. That’s their problem. But don’t tell Riviera Beach that they have to do this. Don’t tell Fort Lauderdale that they have to do this. Don’t tell Niceville that they have to do this.”

Commissioner Arthenia Joyner, a former Democratic state senator from Tampa, said she couldn’t remember any speakers calling for the proposal at public hearings the commission held across the state.

But Commissioner Tom Lee, a Republican state senator from Thonotosassa, said the proposal is an opportunity to send a message about how government operates.

“This concept establishes a value in our state, a guiding principle, that we believe you should wait to name these monuments to your public service after yourself, or to have your colleagues do the same,” Lee said. “I don’t see any real damage that’s done from that. I like the idea myself. I’ve seen how some of these naming things get done. The quid pro quos that take place, that result in bills passing, sometimes don’t always result in the best naming of things.”