by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
One stated that it needed some tweaks, while another explained why it is fine the way it is.
Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland and City General Counsel Rick Mullaney have different opinions on the future of the City’s Charter and both were before the City Council’s Charter Revision Commission Thursday to discuss their function within City government and what could be done through the City’s Charter to improve the way they carry out their duties.
The Commission has been asking each speaker if their position should be elected or appointed, and Holland, who is a constitutional officer elected by the people, felt the current process should remain.
“Obviously, being a constitutional officer, I’d rather be elected rather than appointed, so that is no surprise,” said Holland, who is also a former Council member for Dist. 3. “There’s a cost obviously between being appointed and being elected. Very seldom does an appointed position hold an office making less than an elected position.”
To give the Commission examples of the argument over who should be elected and who should be appointed, Holland recalled a discussion from his days on the Council (1999-2005) that involved the issue of whether or not the City’s General Counsel should be an elected position.
“My first and immediate response is ‘No.’ Because that is one, in many ways, that shouldn’t necessarily be giving their opinion based on how they ran for office,” he said.
The City’s General Counsel is currently appointed by the mayor and voted on by the Council, but Holland would like to see that process get “tweaked.”
“I and I know some of the other constitutional officers feel differently about the process,” said Holland. “We think it should be a process of a vote where the mayor gets two votes, the constitutional officers get one vote, School Board gets one vote and the independent agencies would get one vote.”
This process would give the constitutional officers and other stakeholders in City government a voice in the selection of the General Counsel, Holland explained.
The Commission also asked Holland to lend his voice to the discussion on changing the date of the City elections, which includes two different proposals.
“The issue is, should local elections be separate from state and federal elections?” said Holland. “We, as you are aware, hold ours after the gubernatorial cycle. The cost for us to hold City elections is approximately $3 million. That cost will go up, it won’t go down.”
Council member Don Redman introduced a Resolution at Tuesday’s Council meeting asking for Council support of a J-Bill that would move the scheduled April 2011 City elections to November 2010 to coincide with the gubernatorial elections, with the main reason being a savings of about $3 million by combining the elections. Council member Jack Webb is developing legislation that would move the April 2011 election to November 2011 to help give Council two more months to review the City budget and to keep local elections separate from state so citizens can focus on local issues.
“I recommend moving the election to the fall Gubernatorial cycle,” said Holland when asked by Commission member Ali Korman. “Not just for the cost savings, but to increase voter participation. Usually, our most contested races are during the Gubernatorial primary.”
The second speaker at Thursday’s meeting was General Counsel Rick Mullaney and he was asked to talk about the role of legal services under the City’s Charter and the role of legal services in consolidated government.
“I hope I can give you some insights that very few people have into how this works,” said Mullaney. “I think I’m going to tell you some things over the next 20 minutes that you’ve never heard before — an insight on how this works, how difficult it is to work, but also why it’s the best system in the state of Florida.”
Mullaney explained that his staff of 40 lawyers provide centralized legal service to all sections of City government through six departments and 11 areas of practice. He also discussed how those lawyers are considered to be some of the best in the state by their colleagues.
“Yet, you are going to hear, ‘Yeah, but...’” said Mullaney. “There’s a ‘Yeah, but we want our own lawyer’ going on out there and I want to explain to you why that is.”
Requests for outside counsel have come from different agencies within the City government, with the most recent being Sheriff John Rutherford at the last Charter Revision Commission meeting. Rutherford stated his General Counsel was “great,” but on some occasions he would like to have someone outside of the City government represent his office. Mullaney explained that consolidated government eliminated separate in-house counsels for each agency and allowing that practice would defeat what the City has built.
“In fulfilling that responsibility to unfold the charter and the rule of law over time the General Counsel are going to issue legal opinions and conduct their business in a way that is going to make the General Counsel extraordinarily unpopular with their clients,” said Mullaney.
This may be the reason why some agencies would like to seek outside counsel, he added.
Mullaney admitted to producing legal opinions on contentious issues including special relief legislation, competitive bidding and auditing of the Property Appraisers Office.
“I am not here to complain about the extreme unpopularity the General Counsel will have in doing their job,” said Mullaney. “What I am suggesting is that doing the job is part of making (consolidated government) work.”
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