Joost: ‘They are on the right track’
City Council President Stephen Joost said Tuesday he had several questions about Mayor Alvin Brown’s pending reorganization legislation, including how economic development will be carried out.
An organizational chart in the administration’s documents shows a “Chief Economic Development Officer” reporting directly to Brown and taking responsibility for an office of economic development; planning and zoning; a Downtown Development Authority; public, private partnerships; and sports and entertainment.
It does not refer to the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, the nine-member panel that meets to review proposed economic development deals and sends them to Council for approval.
“I’m waiting on more information on what the JEDC is going to be, how are we going to do economic development and is that really going to be streamlined,” Joost said Tuesday.
Joost said that approving an economic development deal now takes up to 11-12 weeks if not longer. First a deal is vetted at the JEDC, which generally meets monthly, and then it enters the general six-week Council approval cycle.
“The way we set it up takes too long. We are in competition with other cities,” said Joost, who is serving a second term as the At-Large Group 3 Council member.
“I completely agree with the mayor that it does take too long to get something approved.”
Joost said he met with Brown’s Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Karen Bowling a week or two ago for an outline of the reorganization plan, which was released to the Daily Record on Friday and has been distributed to Council members.
“I think in a lot of ways, they are on the right track,” Joost said.
Clark: ‘Devil is in the details’
City Council Finance Committee Chairman Richard Clark said Tuesday he was encouraged about the pending City reorganization plans by Mayor Alvin Brown.
“He certainly is trying to shrink the size of middle management, which is good,” said Clark, a second-term District 3 Council member who received the City documents that included a streamlined organizational chart.
Clark said the actual reorganization plan, expected to be introduced to Council in early November, will be reviewed closely.
“The devil for us is going to be in the details,” said Clark. “Not the big picture stuff, but what is the implication of what he is trying to ask people to do.”
Clark referred to an item in the reorganization documents that calls for each City department to recommend a 15 percent cost reduction. He wants to know how such cuts would affect each department, such as the City Fire and Rescue Department and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
“Everybody knows the mayor wants to be able to run this City with his vision and I think we all agree with that concept. For us, especially for those of us who have been here awhile, we need to make sure we understand the implications of the decisions we make,” he said.
Clark said while he is supportive of the reorganization effort, “I am certainly nowhere in a position to be able to make a carte blanche, ‘let’s go do it.’ We still have to take a real hard look to make sure we are still going to be able to do what we need to do.”
Clark would like to see a vision for the parks system. “I don’t think we have one. I don’t think we have a road map where we want to get to,” he said.
Clark said if the reorganization legislation is introduced Nov. 8, which the administration proposed in a time line, he would be “very surprised if we got it done this year.”
He said the plan would require a similar level of scrutiny as the annual City budget.