by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The calendar may still be months away from reaching Christmas Eve, but the City’s Ethics Commission presented its idea of what it wants to be in the future to the Charter Revision Commission Thursday.
The Charter Revision Commission is meeting twice a month to discuss changes it and the public would like to see in the City’s Charter, the set of laws by which the City operates. The commission will present a report to the City Council in February detailing the changes that could improve the way government operates. It has listened to City staff, Constitutional Officers and the public for ideas to improve function of government and the Ethics Commission was the first group on the agenda Thursday.
“There is this constant growth pattern of what we do for ethics in this community,” said City Ethics Officer Carla Miller, referring to the creation of a City Ethics Code during the creation of consolidated government in 1968 to its removal in 1972 and the creation of an Ethics Commission in 1992.
“Trust in government with all national statistics is down,” said Miller. “That, I’m sure, does not come as a surprise to you. These statistics were done before the financial crisis. You can imagine the amount of hostility and distrust, nationwide, citizens are feeling, and that spills over to what people are feeling locally.”
The Ethics Commission presented a resolution to the Charter Revision Commission requesting six amendments be considered for the City’s Charter including: reinstate the Ethics Board into the Charter; provide the Ethics Commission with “jurisdiction over ethics and conflict of interest laws for all officers and employees of the consolidated government, including independent agencies and boards”; provide authority to subpoena witnesses and documents; supply a dedicated funding source for the Ethics Commission; allow the commission to hire staff; and develop a structure for membership of the commission that promotes impartiality.
“We are a volunteer board just as you are. We have zero budget and zero opportunity to go out and hire staff to keep continuity on a day-to-day basis to help us get our job done,” said Braxton Gillam, chair of the Legislative Subcommittee of the City’s Ethic Commission. “That was the first problem that I noticed as a member of the commission.”
Gillam also addressed the commission’s request for jurisdiction over ethics issues regarding independent authorities.
“In dealing with some of the complaints that we’ve received we really don’t have the authority to deal with those issues broader than just the City of Jacksonville government,” said Gillam. “Independent authorities haven’t been within our structure. By placing the Ethics Commission and code back in the Charter that helps us, primarily, with the opportunity to educate all the people in city government on a consistent basis. So everyone is getting the same information and the same training.”
The JEA’s ethics program was lauded by both the Ethics Commission and other independent authorities as “the flagship program” that others strive to duplicate. CEOs from three of the City’s independent agencies — Jim Dickenson of JEA, Steve Grossman of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority and Rick Ferrin of the Jacksonville Port Authority — were on hand to discuss ethics programs and the idea of being included in the Ethics Commission’s jurisdiction.
“We are proud of our ethics program, which is part of our enterprise risk management program. We have an employee hotline and a very effective internal auditor program to investigate those complaints and that reports to me and the finance and audit committee,” said Dickenson. “(Development of a citywide ethics program)...We would like to be involved in how that program moved forward.”
The development of that program would be after the Charter Revision Commission decided to request that the Charter be amended to reflect that action, and some Charter Revision members weren’t convinced the request could be fulfilled with current budget constraints.
“I endorse what you are doing. Your goals and objectives are terrific,” said Jim Catlett, commission member. “I am a fiscal conservative, and we have just gone through an excruciating examination of government and how to contain costs. The City Council and the mayor are scraping for nickels. Frankly, I am hard pressed to ask them to set up another bureaucracy when we are trying to reduce bureaucracy.”
Miller responded by pointing out that what the Ethics Commission was requesting could be accomplished by utilizing resources already in place.
“We have the resources within the city. We’ve got the puzzle pieces,” said Miller. “It’s putting the puzzle pieces together in the most efficient manner that needs to be done to make this effective. I think we can probably do it with no increase to the budget.”
The City’s Inspector General and Ombudsman offices were two resources that the Ethics Commission would look into utilizing, Miller said.
356-2466