by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Many contributed to a promise kept.
City Council President Jack Webb thanked all involved in helping enact new ethics legislation for the City Tuesday night at the next-to-last meeting of the current Council year.
Almost a year ago, Webb promised to bring the ethics code back to the City’s Charter and said he was pleased to contribute to the passing of three bills that set the structure for ethics for the local government.
“I would like to thank the Council for all of their work this year in making the promise come true that I made when I was sworn in as president, that we would restore ethics to the charter and move forward these bills,” said Webb.
He thanked several people by name, including Council members Art Shad, the bills’ sponsor, and Denise Lee, chair of the Rules Committee, as well as City Ethics Officer Carla Miller.
“Mr. Shad, thank you for your hard work. Ms. Lee, thank you for your hard work. Ms. Carla Miller and all the members of the Ethics Commission, thank you for your hard work and dedication to the City of Jacksonville,” he said.
Ordinances 2011-167, 2011-197 and 2011-232 passed unanimously 17-0 after strong debate previously at both committee and Council levels.
The deliberation was evident when Council was faced with two different amendments to 2011-197, one from the Rules Committee and another from the Finance Committee, on how to select the director for the Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight.
The Rules Committee amendment suggested that the Ethics Commission develop a list of three candidates for director that would be sent to the mayor, who would send his selection to the Council for confirmation.
The Finance Committee instead suggested the Ethics Commission be allowed to select its own director, with the choice subject to Council approval. Shad proposed a floor amendment that was similar to the finance suggestion and ordinance 2011-197 was passed with the floor amendment.
Council member John Crescimbeni said having the Ethics Commission select its director makes the commission more independent.
“I am an advocate for having an independent ethics commission,” said Crescimbeni.
“I think it is the funny little key to what this community desires and deserves. For us to allow someone else to pick its director erases that independence,” he said.
Ordinance 2011-167 created structure, including selection of the Ethics Commission’s nine members. Six elected officials — the mayor, Council president, sheriff, chief judge of the Circuit Court, state attorney and public defender — will choose one member each. Those six members will then select three more.
The ordinance also addressed qualifications for members and directs that subpoena requests must be authorized by the chief judge.
“It’s a new era for ethics in Jackson-ville,” said Miller. “The City Council really stepped up and gave the citizens what they have been asking for in an ethics commission.”
The Council also was visited by Fourth Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Donald Moran, who wanted to discuss proposed ordinance 2010-766. The bill would create a $50 court fee that would benefit Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.
Council voted to postpone a vote on the ordinance until its June 28 meeting.
The ordinance was developed by Council member Kevin Hyde to assist JALA with funding after it experienced budget cuts at the state level and lower-than-expected funding from the Florida Bar Foundation.
The ordinance would require that an additional court cost of $50 be imposed by the court when a person pleads guilty or no contest, or is found guilty of, or adjudicated delinquent of, any felony, misdemeanor or criminal traffic offense under the laws of the state.
If a person is determined to be indigent, defined as an individual whose income is within 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, then the fee would not be imposed.
The funds from the court fee would be used to provide free legal services for the disadvantaged through JALA, including services to domestic violence victims, the mentally ill or disabled, the un-deremployed or unemployed, residents facing landlord/tenant issues or homelessness, foreclosure-related educational, mediation and defense programs, and the elderly.
“I think it’s important that you understand that not all of our criminals are criminals. We have an awful lot of people that go astray of the law that are good, decent people that are struggling,” said Moran, who appeared before Council on behalf of the circuit judiciary.
Moran talked about people who appear in court for criminal traffic offenses, which would be assessed the new $50 fee under the ordinance, and how they are already having trouble paying the $458 in fines that judges are required to levy.
Moran said it would “be creating criminals because people just can’t pay the fines.
“I’m not speaking against Legal Aid. As I said at meeting months ago, if Legal Aid is important to the community, then the community should pay for it.”
356-2466