by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Work was a significant theme at the third meeting of the City’s Charter Revision Commission Thursday.
The Commission has just begun its work to review Jacksonville’s Charter, which City General Counsel Rick Mullaney referred to as the City’s “Constitution.” And one of its members stated, after a presentation from Sheriff John Rutherford, that some of that work may include reviewing the policies and operation of the City’s Office of General Counsel.
The Commission planned to wrap up its Thursday meeting with “stakeholders in City government.” These meetings were scheduled to find out how branches of government felt the City could be run better as the Commission reviews the document that sets the rule for government in Jacksonville. Rutherford was the first to make a presentation and drew the most response.
“The current Charter structure works well,” said Rutherford. “Having the sheriff as a Constitutionally-elected officer allows the sheriff to exercise a great deal of independence in areas where it is important the sheriff be able to act independently without undue interference or political pressures being exerted by other City entities.”
Although the sheriff is granted some independence, Rutherford recognized the need to work cooperatively with the City in areas including budgeting, human resources, procurement and some legal services.
The sheriff suggested some changes in a few of those areas could benefit the Sheriff’s Office.
“I still think there are areas of the (Sheriff’s) budget that we can cut,” said Rutherford. “Internal Services charges me a 22-cent markup on gas. I think we can cut that. Not all of that, but there are savings we can go after.”
He also mentioned savings in the area of preventative maintenance for the Sheriff’s Office vehicles.
“I have a private provider who told me he can save us $1.5 million on preventative maintenance,” said Rutherford. “I think we should look at that. I’ve approached the mayor’s office with it and they don’t want to do that. I’m going to approach the (City) Council and see if they want to do that.”
Though not scheduled to speak at the meeting, Alan Mosley, the mayor’s chief administrative officer, appeared to respond to Rutherford’s statement on preventative maintenance.
“On the $1.5 million, I want to set the record straight on that,” said Mosley. “We do not fire public sector employees for making efficiency recommendations, we embrace them. Two, the idea of the $1.5 million savings has been presented by the Sheriff’s Office about 12 months ago. It was vetted. The numbers used to reach those assumptions were flawed. The Council Auditor’s Office weighed in on that and agreed they were flawed.”
Rutherford would also like to see the Charter changed to allow the Sheriff’s Office to hire outside counsel to represent the office under certain circumstances.
“We had an unlawful death in the jail when I was the director of corrections,” said Rutherford. “I was attempting to fire the correctional sergeant who made a bad decision which resulted in the death. Clearly, the General Counsel’s Office is going to defend the City in a wrongful death suit. I’m trying to fire a bad employee and it’s in their best interest to say this guy did everything right. There’s a conflict there.”
At the end of the meeting, Deputy General Counsel Steve Rohan, who provides counsel for the Commission, wanted to respond to the sheriff’s request for outside legal help.
“The power of cross examination is a wonderful thing. I can remember a couple years ago a City Council member came in and said, ‘You know there is an inherent conflict between the mayor and the Council, and we can’t trust our lawyers,’” said Rohan.
Rohan explained that the Council member was then asked about the performance of attorneys from the General Counsel’s Office, including Cheryl Peek, Jeanne Miller, Rohan and Peggy Sidman.
“Oh, no they have been wonderful, absolutely terrific,” was the reply according to Rohan. “They have been very loyal to us, very diligent.”
He related that memory to the request he had heard from Rutherford.
“Again today you saw a Constitutional officer coming in and saying, ‘There’s a problem with the structure because I can’t appoint the attorney that I need.’ Cross examination, well what attorney do you have? The attorney I wanted. The attorney that I’ve used for the last 20 years. He’s absolutely wonderful,” related Rohan. “So I think, through the cross-examination process, we’ve seen that maybe some things that appear to be problems are not, in fact, problems.”
A former colleague of Rohan’s, whom he mentioned in his example, is a member of the Commission and had a different view on the operation of the General Counsel’s Office.
“Like Mr. Rohan, I did represent City Council and enjoyed a good relationship with my clients,” said Jeanne Miller, who is now with Florida State College at Jacksonville. “But I, for one, strongly believe that we have a lot of work to do as this Commission on the processes within the General Counsel’s Office.
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