by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Adjustments to the mayor’s veto power section of Jacksonville’s Charter will be drafted into a J-Bill to submit to the Duval Delegation.
However, the requirement that the mayor develop a strategic plan for the City was voted down in favor of possibly including it in the City’s ordinance code.
The City Council’s Special Committee to Review Charter Revision Commission Recommendations met Monday to discuss recommendations regarding the duties of the mayor, specifically, a mayoral strategic plan and the mayor’s veto power.
City Council and committee members Art Shad, Clay Yarborough, Warren Jones, Bill Bishop and Stephen Joost were joined by City Council member John Crescimbeni as the committee reviewed Article VI, Section 6.05, Mayor’s Veto Power and proposed an amended version.
“This is a little confusing and pretty big, significant,” said Bishop. “We need to take the time to make sure the language is clear.”
Besides removing all the “He” references from the section regarding the mayor and replacing them with “The Mayor,” the committee wanted to clear up which body would be necessary for a two-thirds vote. According to the section, two-thirds of “all the members of the council present at any given meeting are necessary to override a mayor’s veto.
“A quorum is satisfied with 14 members, so 10 members would be a two-thirds vote,” said Bishop. “I just want to make sure this is what we are voting on.”
Also, language was amended to require a two-thirds vote, instead of a majority vote, of the members of the council present at any meeting to override the mayor’s veto of any expenditure in the consolidated budget appropriation.
The committee voted unanimously to approve the amended Section 6.05 and have it drafted in a local J-Bill to be presented to the Duval Delegation for consideration and sponsorship in the Florida Legislature.
The difference between changing the charter and changing a city ordinance is that the former takes an act of the Florida Legislature to approve. An ordinance can be amended by a vote of the City Council.
The committee also reviewed a recommendation to require the mayor to develop a strategic plan for the development of the City within six months of taking office.
Former Charter Revision Commission member Gary Oliveras and University of North Florida Professor Matthew Corrigan spoke in favor of adding the requirement to the City Charter as a tool to help measure the success of a mayor through the achievement of goals set forth in the plan.
“I support this idea vigorously,” said Corrigan. “There doesn’t seem to be cohesion within government these days. Maybe everyone could get on the same page if a strategic plan was in place, so each department knew what was expected of them and the goals the City was trying to achieve.”
The committee voted unanimously to deny approval of the recommendation of the development of a strategic plan.
“I’m as big a fan of strategic planning as there is,” said Bishop, “but mandating a plan doesn’t guarantee the quality of the plan. This is what the election process is about, establishing this plan.”
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