by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The idea was to recognize superior ethical practices, and, by doing so, educate the public on how to follow the examples.
But criticism of its first awards has the City’s Ethics Commission rethinking the “City of Jacksonville Ethics Commission Annual Award for Excellence in Ethics.”
In 2009, after reviewing nominees, the Ethics Commission decided to present one award to an elected official and one to a private citizen.
“(City Ethics Officer) Carla Miller had received some comments about the honorees we chose for the awards that we issued for the first time last year,” said Braxton Gillam, chair of the Ethics Commission.
Miller spoke at the Monday meeting via telephone and detailed the comments.
“The first two awards went to a journalist from Folio Weekly (Marvin Edwards) for the story he did on the finances of the Super Bowl host committee and (City) Council member Clay Yarborough,” said Miller.
“There were several comments from other council members saying, ‘Oh, is this what’s going to happen? You are going to give it to one elected official, whoever supports you in your legislation? Like a payback?’”
No criticisms were presented about Edwards.
Miller admitted she didn’t support the awards idea when it was presented last year.
“I was never a fan of having the award. I’ve read some blogs that say it’s a dangerous area to get into,” said Miller.
“We have to really focus on the purpose of giving an award like this, how we want to continue it and what kind of criteria we have for doing so,” she said.
“Unless you have really good criteria, it’s just going to lend itself to criticism,” she said.
During the initial discussion, Miller persuaded the commission to award the ethical act rather than the person, “to preserve the integrity of the award.”
Commission member Mary Swart provided background about the award.
“I think last year we were sort of floundering, trying to come up with a way to present ethics in a positive mode within the City of Jacksonville,” said Swart.
She said former commission member Scott Shine “came up with the idea during that time to give an ethics award.”
Working with the Office of General Counsel, Shine developed the criteria for the award, which included: “This award will be presented to a member of the community whose works provide an example of superior ethical practices, who labors to advance the culture of ethics and who provides inspiration to others to the ongoing journey of ethical practices.”
The award could be “presented to any member within the local community including citizens, public officials and city employees.”
“Scott had a good idea, and I still think there are sound reasons for having the opportunity to gather that information and evaluate the candidates,” said Gene Filbert, commission member and former chair.
“If there are no outstanding individuals or organizations nominated, there is no requirement that before we move on in 2011, we have to check that box on the list,” he said.
Commission members understood the criticism, but still wanted to move forward with the award.
“I understand the concern that you might be awarding someone who has worked with you, but the people who work with the commission are, in part, advancing ethical practice within the City government and I don’t know that we wouldn’t want to recognize that,” said Kirby Oberdorfer, member and immediate past chair of the commission.
New chair Braxton Gillam looked at the criticism as business as usual.
“I do understand we have been criticized. We get criticized a lot, and that usually doesn’t drive how we do our job. We try to do the best we can with what our thought process is and not be steered by the criticism,” said Gillam.
The commission voted unanimously to move forward with advertising for nominations for the award. The nominating subcommittee was charged with developing and disseminating an advertisement for nominations and developing a schedule for nominations, review of applications and presentation of awards.
356-2466