by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Pricey local elections are quickly becoming a hot topic and more than one legislator has an idea of how to curb costs.
City Council member Warren Alvarez introduced legislation earlier this month that would show the Council’s support of a J-Bill seeking to align general consolidated government and gubernatorial elections beginning in 2006.
That bill, J-Bill 3, is being sponsored by State Rep. Stan Jordan.
The Council will hold a public hearing on the matter tonight at its regular meeting.
“I do think that this is an issue that we should be looking at because elections are very costly,” Council member Michael Corrigan said. “I think that we’re all open to looking at a solution.”
Every solution but one.
A resolution that would have supported putting an end to mid-term elections to fill vacant City Council seats was filed and quickly withdrawn last week. However, it could come back and some are already speculating as to whether that would be a good idea.
Council member Glorious Johnson, who has offered several bills of late to amend a litany of City administrative policies, sponsored the resolution. If it had passed it would have encouraged the Duval County Legislative Delegation to support a gubernatorial appointee as a mid-term replacement for Council members who step down early rather than hold a special election. That replacement would not be eligible to run for the next Council term.
Recent special elections to replace Council members Faye Rustin and Jerry Holland — both of whom ran for Supervisor of Elections when John Stafford resigned — cost taxpayers more than $1 million.
Johnson’s bill, if it had passed, would have done little more than encourage the Duval County Legislative Delegation to sponsor a Jacksonville Bill in Tallahassee. None agreed to add their name to such a bill.
And now that the proposal has been derailed, several Council members questioned about it said they thought letting Gov. Jeb Bush pick a Council substitute would do more harm than good.
“I’d have to study it a lot more, but I don’t like that idea at all,” Council member Sharon Copeland said. “Yes, I’m sure we could save a lot of money by waiting until the next general election, but I don’t agree with it. This is local government and to let the governor make that decision takes away from that.”
Council President Kevin Hyde said he expected Johnson’s bill would have been met with a fair amount of resistance.
“At the very least I would think that a lot of questions would have come up in committee,” Hyde said. “Elected office is a highly selective and revered position and people, I’m sure, want to make sure they have the right to choose. That’s what the elections process is for.”
Johnson’s bill would have made Gov. Bush’s selection ineligible for immediate re-election, but Council Vice President Michael Corrigan said it would still put the affected district in an awkward position.
“District Council members are as close as you can get to the issues, they’re the ones knocking on doors, so I think it would put the system in jeopardy if we went ahead and let that decision rest in Tallahassee’s hands,” Corrigan said. “Yes, special elections are a costly unbudgeted expense, they’re budget busters, but I think we can look to other methods to fix the problem.”
Council member Lad Daniels agreed.
“I think we can accomplish what we need to on this locally,” he said. “There is no need to get the governor involved.”