Staff Writer
There have been a lot of discussions lately regarding the future of the City of Jacksonville, and another one began during a meeting of the City Council’s Rules Committee Monday.
Council member Denise Lee is the sponsor of proposed Ordinance 2010-135, which is described as “an Ordinance regarding the Jacksonville Sunshine Law Compliance Act; amending Chapter 15 (Jacksonville Sunshine Law Compliance Act)...to clarify applicability and duties and responsibilities of compliance and to eliminate redundancies and inefficiencies; providing an effective date.”
Lee and fellow Committee members Michael Corrigan and Committee vice chair and Council Vice President Jack Webb emphatically stated that the proposed ordinance was not aimed at ridding City government of the City’s Sunshine Law training or Ethics Officer.
“During the last two years, since I returned to City Council, there have been so many questions about ethics,” said Lee. “Maybe we are at a good point to take a look at what we have done and see how the process is working and if we need to make any changes.”
Some of the changes suggested in the proposed ordinance are changing the frequency of Sunshine Law Compliance Training from every year to every two years and removing the language that includes the City’s Ethics Office and Ethics Commission in the process of conducting the training. Development of the training program would be the responsibility of the Council president, Office of General Counsel, State Attorney, Florida Attorney General and other supporting agencies.
Changing the frequency of the training, Lee explained, would provide a cost savings to the City because it would reduce the cost of printing the Jacksonville yellow-pages-sized training program manual for about 50 people each year. Savings would also be realized through staff time and administrative costs necessary to provide the training on an annual basis.
“I think that is very valid. I think it’s another way to say, ‘hey, we might be able to reduce costs here,’” said Lee. “This change does not delete the training.”
The training may have escaped the delete button, but the same could not be said for the City’s Ethics Officer and Ethics Commission throughout the document. All references to the Ethics Officer and Commission were deleted from the proposed ordinance. This language was created without contacting the Ethics Commission.
“That was an oversight on my part,” said Lee. “It was not intentional. We . . . are not trying to circumvent the Ethics Officer or the Commission.”
Ethics Commission Chair Kirby Oberdorfer sent an e-mail to Rules Committee Chair Art Shad detailing how she had learned of the proposed ordinance on Friday and was concerned that it was being considered without consulting the Ethics Commission or Carla Miller, the City’s Ethics Officer.
“This proposed amendment appears to be in contravention of (1) the obligation of the Ethics Commission and Ethics Officer to develop programs and training on ethics laws, including Florida’s Sunshine Law, detailed throughout the Ethics Code (see example Jacksonville Ethics Code 602.903, 602.1001, 602.1102) and (2) the system of essential cross-checks incorporated into the original Jacksonville Sunshine Compliance Act by the City Council to repair citizens’ trust in City government,” said Oberdorfer in her e-mail.
Lee said she looked forward to working with Miller and the Ethics Commission in reviewing the legislation. The sentiment was echoed by Oberdorfer.
“We appreciate the opportunity to provide our input on the bill,” said Oberdorfer.
Former State Attorney Harry Shorstein was in office when the City revamped its ethics policies after a grand jury investigation into alleged Sunshine Law Violations by the Council.
“It doesn’t bother me to reduce the frequency of the training,” said Shorstein. “There has to be a greater awareness of officials’ responsibility to keep the public informed. I think the Times-Union series and the Grand Jury investigation did that. How long that will last? People have a tendency to forget.”
The bill was deferred one cycle.
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