by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The City’s Ethics Commission invited City Council members and former members of the Charter Revision Commission to a meeting to discuss Ethics Bill 2010-616 at the request of the City Council, but members of the Ethics Commission and council member Glorious Johnson were the only parties at the table Wednesday.
Council member Denise Lee suggested during a recent City Council Finance Committee meeting that the Ethics Commission and Charter Revision Commission, which had fulfilled its duties at the end of February and is no longer a governmental body, sit down and discuss the different ideas they each had for adding an ethics code to the City Charter.
“What does she think we did for nine months?” said Geoff Youngblood, a member of the Charter Revision Commission who was contacted after the Wednesday meeting.
“A lot of us are left scratching our heads because we did what was asked of us, conducted interviews and research, and submitted our findings on what we thought were the best recommendations for changing the City Charter. That’s why a lot of us didn’t attend the meeting,” he said.
The time between the notice of the meeting and the actual meeting didn’t allow for Charter Revision Commission Chair Wyman Duggan to rearrange his schedule to make the meeting, but he thought the discussion should now be in the hands of City Council.
“It’s the City Council’s role to choose. You’ve got the Charter Revision Commission recommending one thing and the Ethics Commission recommending another,” said Duggan.
“It’s really up to them to decide, and I don’t think, frankly, sending us back to the table is a good use of anyone’s time. It’s their role to make that policy call,” he said.
Instead of adjourning the meeting after taking roll on Wednesday, the Ethics Commission took time to discuss the bill and what the commission hoped to accomplish.
“We set up this meeting to address any concerns City Council members and Charter Revision Commission members had,” said City Ethics Officer Carla Miller. “Subpoena power and not creating more government seemed to be the two biggest issues that people were worried about.”
The bill requests that the City’s support of the Ethics Commission include a “mechanism to obtain documents and testimony in connection with violations of the City’s ethics code.” The bill also requested that the ethics code establish an independent citywide ethics oversight and compliance office.
The lack of attendance wasn’t the only issue that frustrated commission members.
“We need to continue to hammer home the fact that we are just trying to develop a shell of what the ethics code should be in the charter,” said commission member Tatiana Salvador. “What mechanism we are able to use to obtain documents or a civil fine structure will be determined by the City Council after the framework is established.”
The bill’s sponsor, council member Glorious Johnson, could not understand why the process was being held up in committee.
“The grand jury taught me a lot. We have to change the perception that we are unethical legislators,” said Johnson, referring to a 2007 grand jury investigations of alleged Sunshine Law violations by City Council. “Miami has (an ethics code in its charter). Tampa has it. What’s wrong with Jacksonville? What turnip truck did we fall off of?”
The ethics bill is currently being reviewed in the City Council Finance Committee. That committee will have the opportunity to keep it in committee or pass it on to the full council for consideration at the committee’s 10 a.m. meeting Tuesday.
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