by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The City Council Rules Committee is at 82 pages of changes to the City’s reorganization ordinance — and counting.
“We are meeting again Monday at 1 p.m.,” said Rules chair Jay Jabour.
Monday’s meeting will be the fourth special meeting of the committee which must approve of the bill before it can be sent on to the full Council for approval. The issue now is time. Council President Daniel Davis has called a special meeting of the full Council for Monday to hopefully iron out the final details of Mayor John Peyton’s $960 million budget. The Council is expected to approve a final budget and reorganization during its meeting Tuesday. Legally, they have until Sept. 30 to finalize the budget, but no one wants the process to reach that kind of deadline.
Thursday, the Rules Committee met for nearly four hours in an attempt to OK the reorganization proposed by the mayor’s office that includes the elimination of some departments, the renaming of others and staff cuts.
“We still need to work on the parks security, department of consumer affairs and the canning kitchen,” said Jabour, who is confident his committee will get the job done, but he understands and appreciates the need to allow all of the members to scrutinize the reorganization to their satisfaction. “Monday is crunch time. I think we are getting there. We are very close. It’s not frustrating, believe it or not. I see the questions coming and they (the committee members) have every right to ask those questions. They were elected by the people and I would never restrict a Council member’s right to question something.
“At the very least, we do need to vet this process. I think we are getting it done.”
When asked if he thought the rest of the committee understood the urgency in passing the reorganization legislation, Jabour said, “I don’t know. I’d like to think so. Knowing the members of the Rules Committee, if they are not comfortable with something, they are not going to let it out of committee.”
Several items were discussed Thursday and most of the committee’s concerns seemed to center on the elimination of certain departments and positions. Chief Administrative Officer Alan Mosley said the reorganization is an attempt to streamline City government while also complying with the State mandated property tax cuts. Mosley said he’s sure the restructuring of City government will assure the best people are in the right positions.
“I am convinced we’ll be able to raise the level of services,” he said.
Under the reorganization plan, several appointed officials will be shifted to new departments and some will be given new titles. Those mayoral appointees require the blessing of the Rules Committee before becoming official.
Thursday, the Rules Committee voted to require all of the appointees to come back before the committee after the reorganization has been signed into law. Committee member Jack Webb said it was hard to tell if the reorganization would result in any changes in the level of responsibility of the appointed official.
“There may be questions as to if that person was qualified for the job,” said Webb.
The current reorganization bill is the seventh under the Peyton administration, but the first that deals with the entire City government with the exception of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Jacksonville Fire & Rescue.
Previous reorganization bills include: a general reorganization in 2003, purchasing (2004), military affairs (2004), parks and recreation (2005), housing and neighborhoods (2006) and human resources and information technology last year.
Jabour said if the Rules Committee cannot reach an agreement before the full special Council meeting at 4 p.m Monday, he’ll ask the committee to reconvene Tuesday before the regular Council meeting.