by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
City employees including members of the City Council and their assistants will return to the Main Library for the second annual Sunshine Law compliance training session on June 5.
Making the City and its practices more transparent to the public is one of the goals of the training but transparency is still a little blurry to the City’s Ethics Commission. One of the commission’s members, attorney Braxton Gillam, searched for an answer as to what the commission’s responsibilities are for the compliance training by asking Ethics Commission liaison John Phillips of the Office of General Counsel.
“I think your responsibility would be at least that if we were not doing this training, then (the Ethics Commission) would say we should be conducting the training,” said Phillips. “I understand that (City Ethics Officer) Carla (Miller) feels left out of the program, but from a substantive point of view, having sat through this training myself, I can assure you that this is not only the most comprehensive Sunshine Law training in the State of Florida, it is the most substantial Sunshine Law training on Earth.”
Miller objected to Phillips’ interpretation of her feelings.
“The Ethics Officer doesn’t feel one way or the other,” said Miller. “The Ethics Officer wants this office to be sustained in a way that it gives credibility to this commission and this office. I have no particular feelings other than the advancement of this group and the advancement of the citizens of Jacksonville. There are very qualified people speaking at this training.”
The Jacksonville Sunshine Law Compliance Act became law in June, 2007. It was a result of Council members being accused of having meetings between two or more Council members where City business was discussed without posting prior notice for the meetings or recording minutes of the proceedings. The Compliance Act was created to address the community’s concerns. It was developed to “to ensure compliance with the Sunshine Law, F.S. Ch. 286, and to create procedures, methods, best practices and education that will enhance compliance with open meeting laws and enhance and maintain public confidence and transparency in the legislative practices of the City Council.”
One section of the Compliance Act requires continuing education and training to maintain compliance with the Sunshine Law. This section caused some confusion among the members of the Ethics Commission, because it thought it had a bigger role in developing the training.
The legislations states, “Council Members shall receive, and the City’s Ethics Office and the Office of the General Counsel, with the assistance of the Jacksonville Ethics Commission and other supporting agencies, shall provide annual training on Government in the Sunshine and open meetings laws.”
This portion of the Compliance Act caused Gillam to make a motion in support of having Miller represent the commission as a speaker at the training. The motion was approved 8-1.
The commission also recognized Folio Weekly contributing writer Marvin Edwards with a letter of appreciation for his contributions to the Ethics Commission’s recent investigation of complaints from citizens about public records requests. Edwards wrote an article for Folio Weekly titled “Stadium Scam,” which detailed the multi-year effort it took to get public record requests completed regarding documents related to the renovations to Jacksonville Municipal Stadium prior to the Jacksonville Jaguars moving in.
The next meeting of the Ethics Commission is June 29 at 5 p.m. in City Hall.
356-2466