by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
City Council Vice President Jack Webb and Council member Don Redman are both sponsoring legislation that would move the April 2011 local elections. The thing is, the respective bills move the elections in opposite directions by six months.
Redman’s bill would move the elections to November of 2010, a measure that mirrors a proposal from Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland, who maintains such a move would save $3 million.
Webb says he understands the need to save that kind of money — especially these days. However, his proposal is to move the elections to November of 2011 with the terms of the newly-elected beginning Jan. 1, 2012. Such a move would extend the current terms of Mayor John Peyton, Sheriff John Rutherford, Holland, Tax Collector Mike Hogan, Property Appraiser Jim Overton and six Council members who can’t seek re-election due to term limits.
Redman’s bill will be introduced to Council tonight while Webb said he’ll wait two weeks to introduce his legislation. Both bills are in the form of a local J-Bill and thus require the approval of the State Legislature.
Redman says his motivation is the City’s bottom line in a year where everything outside of public safety is potentially on the chopping block.
“Saving $3 million is the main thing,” he said. “If Jack’s bill is what I think it is, it wouldn’t save $3 million.
“Mine is the one Jerry Holland and I worked on.”
Holland said he’ll hold the elections when the State says to. Logistically, he doesn’t necessarily favor either bill. However, the bottom line is, Holland says, moving the local election to the fall of 2010 when they will coincide with the regularly scheduled State elections will save a lot of money. He also said Webb’s bill doesn’t take into account the Duval County School Board elections.
“If you are going to move the local elections, you need to move all the local elections,” said Holland. “The School Board needs to be there.”
Webb said his primary motivations for moving the elections to the fall of 2011 are keeping local elections separate from the State elections and the State issue of the budget.
“We need to maintain a separation of the State, federal and local issues as a policy decision,” he said. “The issues would be totally drowned out.”
Webb believes a one-time shift to a November 2011 election would allow the Council year to start Jan. 1 each year as opposed to July 1. This, he says, would create a scenario in which the Council Finance Committee would be functioning as a group for several months before having to dissect the budget. His plan also includes the delivering of an advance budget to the Finance Committee by May 1.
“The Finance Committee would have all of May and June to dig through the initial budget before the Property Appraiser has to publish the tax rolls,” he said.
Webb believes this system would allow for a more thorough examination of the budget by Council before Council has to approve the next fiscal year’s millage rate.
“We would be buying two months with the bill,” said Webb, adding while his plan doesn’t save money up front, he believes it will save millions in the long run. “Right now, we don’t have enough time to examine the budget before we have to approve the millage rate.”
Webb said he has spoken to area business leaders about his bill and they are supportive. He also said State Rep. Charles McBurney supports the idea.
“He thinks the issue is intriguing,” said Webb, adding he still needs to meet with the Council Auditor’s Office to iron out the details associated with his budget bill.
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