by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
While Jacksonville was abuzz with preparations to host “Monday Night Football” and the mayor urged businesses to let employees leave early Monday so they could prepare for the game, at least one group stuck to the task at hand in City Hall.
The City Council Special Committee to Review Charter Revision Commission Recommendations dropped the gavel on its last meeting at 5 p.m. Monday and it deliberated the issues of requiring a fiscal impact statement for pension plan changes and for operation of future Charter Revision Commissions.
The former was presented to help the City Council better understand the total cost of a proposed benefit change to a pension plan.
Under the proposed new section to the Charter, the City Council Auditor would conduct a benefit analysis of any proposed changes to pension plans. That analysis would include “immediate, 1 year, 5, 10, 20 and 30 year costs or savings that would be associated with the proposal.”
“We just want to know what we are getting into,” said City Council member Stephen Joost.
“Adding more transparency to the process, I’m for,” said City Chief Financial Officer Mickey Miller. “To add this to the charter, I’m against it. This level of detail would be more appropriately added to the city code.”
The committee of Chair Art Shad, Clay Yarborough, Warren Jones, Bill Bishop and Joost was unanimous in recommending support of drafting an amendment to address the issue.
The committee also discussed the operations of the next Charter Revision Commission, which convenes every 10 years to review the rules by which the City is governed.
The Charter Revision Commission suggested the time it has to submit a report on its findings be extended to 12 months from eight.
“I wish someone was here from the Charter Revision Commission so I could ask them about this,” said Bishop. “Why 12? Why not 16? What is the reason for this and where would it stop?”
The General Counsel’s Office explained that the commission felt it could better prepare the voluminous amounts of information for its report to the City Council with a little more time.
The amendment to the City’s ordinance code proposes to also include requiring members of the commission to participate in a workshop covering the history, organization and contents of the City’s Charter and related laws.
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