Staff Writer
Charter Revision report formally presented today
Eight months of work by a volunteer citizen commission charged with reviewing the structure of the consolidated City of Jacksonville will be formally handed to the City Council at its 5 p.m. meeting today.
The 15 commission members will only now be able to watch as Council decides what to do with their findings.
We interviewed Commission Chair Wyman Duggan about his thoughts on the process of reviewing the City’s Charter, including issues that developed during the review process.
Early in the process, the Commission developed a list of key issues that they believed needed to be addressed.
The top five areas of study identified in August were Duval County Public Schools, independent authorities, the Office of General Counsel, appointed vs. elected constitutional officers and expanding the role of the ethics officer and the ethics commission.
These issues were discussed with both elected and appointed officials of the local government during the first few months, but Mayor John Peyton was not involved in the discussion until his appearance in front of the Commission in November. The Mayor had been working with City Council to balance the City’s budget and set the millage rate and was not available to meet with the Commission until the fall. When the mayor spoke to the Commission he talked about pension reform, public safety, education and election cycles.
Were you surprised with the mayor’s presentation, considering that then-City Council President Ronnie Fussell gave the commission a broad charge of looking over the City’s Charter “from 50,000 feet,” yet the mayor presented specific issues to discuss?
No. I feel the issues he brought to our attention were already issues of concern to the committee. He talked about pensions, public safety and education. I think he played an important role in elevating the level of visibility of those issues.
You don’t feel he was trying to steer the Commission to those issues?
No, it was a natural progression. We spent our early meetings talking with the constitutional officers and we were well into the review process when he made a presentation. We had already conveyed to him the issues that we were looking at.
There were quite a few pro charter school presentations. Why weren’t there more presentations from local sources or local charter schools?
I was provided a lead on Whitney Tilson, who was a national expert on charter schools, and we were looking for experts who had information that would benefit the commission. There was no formula for how many national experts and how many local experts we wanted to talk to. As they were presented to the commission, they were evaluated and contacted.
One of the messages that was conveyed regarding the local education system was that it was broken or “is in crisis” as it states in the final report. Is that why sources outside of Jacksonville were pursued?
We needed to see what was working in other places. When we compiled our issues list, the issue of schools was at the top of our list. Commissioners wanted to look into alternatives to our current model, which included appointed vs. elected school board members and charter school districts. We also heard from the School Board on four different occasions during our research.
What do you feel the Charter Revision Commission has accomplished?
We accomplished our mandate to review the structure of consolidated government and how it can be improved. I think we covered a lot of topics, which was necessitated by the Commission meeting every 10 years. I know we’ve worked diligently and conscientiously.
Is there one issue you would like to see acted on?
We would like to see it all acted on, but the one issue that has the most long-term affect on our quality of life in the future is education reform.
What advice would you give to the next Charter Revision Commission?
Not to be afraid to tackle the big issues, because the benefit to the community is worth it.
The City’s Municipal Ordinance Code requires a commission of citizen volunteers to be created every 10 years to review the City’s Charter and make any recommendations to improve the operation of City government in a report to be submitted to the City Council eight months after its first meeting.
Commission members
Ed Austin
Jim Catlett
William Catlin
Jessica Deal
Wyman Duggan, chair
Teresa Eichner
Robert Flowers Sr.
Beverly Garvin
Mechelle Herrington
Ali Korman
Jeanne Miller
Mary O’Brien, vice chair
Gary Oliveras
Curtis Thompson
Geoff Youngblood