by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
City Council member Suzanne Jenkins is in an interesting position. In the two years since failing to win the Council presidency, she has been appointed to committees where fiscal and zoning decisions are reached and made public her disapproval of previous Council leadership.
“I’ll admit it,” she said. “I’ve been in an perceived place of weakness. I wasn’t on the power committees or part of the game.
“But listen, when you do this kind of thing you can either ride on the interstate or take the scenic route. I just took the scenic route for a while.”
Now Jenkins is preparing to chair the first meeting of the Government Performance, Audit, Technology and Environment committee Wednesday.
She’s not nervous, though. It’s the committee she created.
“This is what I’ve been wanting to do for some time,” she said. “This is what I would have liked to do had I become president, but it didn’t work out that way.
“I’m very excited about it, because I think this is going to be an opportunity for the Council to establish its own think tank.”
Comprised mainly of the other committee vice chairs, Jenkins said the GPATE committee will spend much of its time exploring citywide concerns and later developing policy changes.
“Many times in the other committees you just barely touch on this kind of thing,” she said. “Just when you start to understand the nature, the root of a particular problem, you move on to another issue.
“With this committee, we’ll have the time to make those necessary changes and, more importantly, make improvements where we have to.”
Jenkins said she will ask all GPATE committee members to list their individual interests and concerns over the next few weeks.
“I want this committee to be as Council inclusive as possible and I want as much input as I can get,” she said. “It’s going to be seven people representing 19. That’s the best way to describe it.”
With any luck, said Jenkins, the GPATE committee may help expedite the formation of the Council’s annual list of priorities.
Those priorities don’t normally surface until November.
“Think about how great it would be to have that kind of information from the beginning?” she said. “Instead of scrambling to put them together later in the year, everyone will be on the same page months before then.”
Jenkins said she already has an idea of what those priorities may include.
“Health care is going to be a big one,” she said. “Programs for our parks, too.
“We’ve been saying we need those kinds of things for years and yet nothing has happened. I think we’ve done a great job of bringing different parks online, but without the right programs they’re going to fail.
“This committee can work toward changing that.”
Jenkins said even the meeting time of the GPATE committee was premeditated. She wanted to hold it as late in the week as possible. With the exception of the Rules Committee, it is the last of all the standing committees to meet.
“By doing it that way, we’ll have most, if not all, of the input from the other committees that we need,” she said. “We can definitely use that kind of information.
“We’ll be able to create a much more productive dialog. We can deliver our bills without going to war.”
Another issue? Jenkins said putting Jacksonville on the wireless map will be critical to its economic success.
“Within the next few years, Jacksonville is going to have to become wired or wireless,” she said. “Those two things may sound like opposites, but they’re not.
“That’s the kind of thing that can promote more economic development and also serve as a powerful support system for our schools.
“Colleges offer online classes now. Without ever getting in a car or riding a bus, we can give the community the opportunity to become more educated.
“That’s so important because we can’t be a city with a digital divide.”
With that agenda in mind, Jenkins knows Wednesday is a big day.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed the past two years. I’ve been able to spend time with my family. I’ve been able to volunteer for a lot of things that couldn’t have otherwise, but it’s time to get back in the game.
“My husband told me that he’s going to miss me and I have to laugh at that because in some ways it’s true. I’m going to be busy but I told him that while I’m on the interstate this year I’d try my best to stay out of the fast lane.
“That’s the best I can do.”