Philip Zamarron has worked for the City of Jacksonville for 14 years, first with the Sheriff’s Office as a fingerprint technician and then with Legislative Services in City Hall for the past 13 years. Legislative Services assists City Council with virtually all facets of legislation including record-keeping and agenda-setting. He has had many other professions, including a 10-year stint with the postal service. He is also a Vietnam veteran.
His wife also works for the City as a supervisor in the Tax Collector’s Office. He has one son from a previous marriage and two stepdaughters. He also has a one year-old granddaughter. A graduate of the University of North Florida with a degree in business, Zamarron’s hobbies include playing guitar and traveling, especially to the mountains to go camping. He and his wife currently live in Jacksonville Beach but are looking for a house in the Macclenny-Glen St. Mary area to be close to his stepdaughter.
What are your duties?
“Everyone in our office is assigned to a standing (City Council) committee, so I prepare the information that is needed for the two committees that I have. We record the meetings, record the ballots and prepare an agenda. I also give regular assistance to customers that come in to look up old legislation or call the office for assistance. I also look over the Council agenda and I check to see if the recommendations to the committees are in. The other thing I check is to see that legislation is listed in the proper part of the agenda. There is a proper sequence that they have to be in.”
Describe committee week.
“Each committee week is the week before the Council meetings. My first committee meets on Monday, so I immediately start preparing for it and make sure I have enough agendas and count attendance to make sure that we’ll have a quorum (majority number of Council members on the committee so that committee may officially vote on items). We have an agenda meeting a half hour before the regular meeting. On Tuesday, I start getting new legislation. The bulk of it comes in at quitting time Tuesday or early Wednesday morning. Wednesday is my tough day.”
What is Council week like?
“Monday is catch-up day. The main thing I do is work on legislation that is going to be approved for the addendum which is basically late filed bills. What we do after the Council meeting is check every record that was on the Council agenda to make sure everything has been handled to the full extent needed. Then we update all of our electronic files by putting in the votes from the Council meeting. We enter the actions that were taken with those votes, whether it was amended or approved. By entering something in a particular field, it moves that piece of legislation to another database that enables us to electronically prepare other reports including our agendas and matters pending. It also becomes available to people on-line.”
How do you prepare an agenda?
“After all the electronic information is verified as having been entered correctly, our legislative tracking program creates the basic agendas for us. We just format it and make sure that it reads properly. We mark on there whether there are amendments, fact sheets, and bill summaries available for each file so that by looking at the agenda you’ll know what might be available either on-line or in our actual file.”
How are bills assigned to the different committees?
“Legislation is updated each Council year and is initiated by the Council president that designates specifically which type of legislation will be considered by each committee. We provide the initial committee listings to the rules chair who then edits those assignments. That is how they are then placed on the Council agenda.”
What committees are you assigned to?
“The Public Health Services and Utilities (PHSU) and The Military Affairs and International Development (MAID).”
What is the function of a committee?
“We cover the legislation and issues to decide if they need legislation. The function of the committee is to review legislation and make recommendations to the Council. The committees are the levels where they work through the bills as opposed to the Council meetings where they are basically discussing the recommendation.”
What departments do you work with?
“We deal with everyone. We get requests from all departments on a regular basis including the state government and federal goverment. The most common is the Florida Department of Transportation.”
Do you work during the Council meetings and what is your role?
“I used to work all of them and I now work half of them. I handle the roll call machine, which is the ballots, and assist with timing the section of the agenda for public comments and public hearings.”
What is the longest council meeting you’ve ever staffed?
“(We stayed until) 4:30 a.m. about seven years ago. There was one about four years ago that lasted until about 4 a.m. They average about three to three and a half hours now. The Council meetings start at 6 p.m. and I am at work by 7:30 a.m.”
–by Carrie Resch