by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
After tomorrow’s meeting of the Charter Revision Commission there will be a month left for the Commission to submit its report to the City Council before it goes into hibernation for another 10 years.
The Charter Revision Commission is created every 10 years to review the City’s Charter and suggest any changes that could help government operate better. Fifteen citizen volunteers were appointed by former Council President Ronnie Fussell to serve on the Commission and its chair, Wyman Duggan, is proud of the work it has done.
“I feel that we took Ronnie Fussell’s charge to us very seriously and we have conducted a thorough review of the issues we have identified as the issues we wanted to look into,” said Duggan. “I feel we have carried out our mandate.”
The Commission identified key areas it wanted to discuss when it began in the fall. The 15-member Commission submitted ballots to identify the areas of the Charter they deemed necessary for review. Those areas included Duval County School Board and independent authorities (JEA, Jacksonville Aviation Authority, Jacksonville Port Authority and JTA, etc.), Office of General Counsel, appointment of constitutional officers and ethics officer/commission each received five votes.
One of the first votes taken by the commission was to support Council member Don Redman’s legislation that would move elections of City Council and Constitutional Officers to the gubernatorial cycle in November. The move was deemed as a cost savings measure at $3 million each election cycle.
In an ongoing debate over elected versus appointed positions for Constitutional Officers and the School Board, the Commission voted to leave the sheriff’s position as elected. The Commission and the School Board are both awaiting an opinion from the OGC on whether or not the City has the authority to change the School Board seats from elected to appointed.
Another discussion focused on the role of the OGC and how it dealt with serving two government entities in the same case. The sheriff and Supervisor of Elections both remarked about how they would like to be able to hire outside counsel when they have a difference of opinion with the City. History lessons revealed that, before consolidated government, every agency did have its own counsel and the City ran up some hefty legal bills. The Commission voted to take the OGC off the table as an issue of discussion.
The Commission will continue its discussion of the role of the Ethics Commission and the City’s Ethics Code when it hosts Philip Claypool, executive director and general counsel for the Florida Commission on Ethics tomorrow. It will also continue to gather information on the issue of elected versus appointed School Board seats when it hears from Leslie Jacobs, an education reform advocate from New Orleans who has served in both elected and appointed roles in education.
The Commission meeting is tomorrow at 9 a.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall.
356-2466