by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
While much of the city is still cleaning up after Hurricane Frances, City Council president Elaine Brown said wants to assemble all of the public offices that played a part in preparing the city, repairing its damage and returning things to normal.
“This isn’t a round table, it’s our version of a workshop, really,” said Brown. “Basically I’d like to get everyone together so that we can determine what we did right and what we could maybe do better if there happens to be a next time.
“That’s the theme.”
A location or date has been determined, though Brown said the list of invites is long.
“I think it has to be so that we can get all of the information we need,” she said. “Ideally we’d have someone from Public Works, the mayor’s office and Chip Patterson (from the City’s Emergency Operations Center) present.”
Others in attendance may include representatives from Gov. Jeb Bush’s office and JEA. Brown said the public will also be able to attend and voice their concerns.
“Absolutely,” she said. “The public may also e-mail us prior to workshop if they chose to because we want to be sure we’re communicating with them.”
Communication, said Brown, will be among the most prominent items on the still-open agenda.
“That may actually be the biggest subject,” she said. “And when I say communication, I’m talking about both internal and external.”
One issue Brown said she had during Hurricane Frances was getting “up to date information.”
“That’s extremely important,” she said, “because we have people calling us who desperately want to know what’s happening.
“But I don’t want to criticize anyone, that’s not what this is at all about,” said Brown. “I just feel like now that we’ve had our brush with something like this, we can use it as an opportunity to examine the things we have in place.”