The City Council Rules Committee appeared ready Tuesday to reject Mayor Alvin Brown’s choice of a budget officer before a last-minute deferral postponed a decision for another two weeks.
The committee vetted Brown’s appointments of Karim Kurji as fleet management chief and Glenn Hansen as budget officer. It approved Kurji with a 6-0 vote.
Questions about Hansen’s residence in St. Marys, Ga., and subsequent need of a waiver to be hired left the majority of committee members expressing their intentions to oppose his appointment.
Before the vote, Jessica Deal, Brown’s Council liaison, asked for action to be deferred for a cycle to allow the administration and Council to work on a compromise.
Current law calls for all appointed City employees subject to Council confirmation to reside in the five-county Northeast Florida area consisting of Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties.
Council passed an ordinance last year to require new City employees hired after July 1 this year to live in Duval County.
The waiver is needed for Hansen because he lives in Georgia.
Several Council members, including Clay Yarborough, said while Hansen was “highly qualified for the position,” he couldn’t move past the residency requirement.
Council member John Crescimbeni was one of the dissenting votes of the latest residency bill, but said he was “in a quandary” between his personal philosophy that policymakers should be residents of the city in which they make policy and Hansen’s resume.
Hansen has been with StrategicIntegration in St. Marys, Ga., since 2007, when he retired from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago after 25 years. He served as its general auditor for six years and as senior vice president of the Detroit Branch.
When asked if he would move to Jacksonville for the job, Hansen said the issue was financial. He said he bought a home in St. Marys near the height of the real estate surge and its rapid decline has resulted in its value being diminished by “50 percent of what we paid.”
“The whole thing has to do with financial feasibility, not heart,” Hansen said.
Deal said that the “overwhelming majority” of Brown’s appointments have been from Jacksonville or the allowable area and asked Council to take into account Hansen’s background.
“Hands down, Mr. Hansen’s qualifications represent why the mayor is even willing to bring this to your consideration,” she said.
Rules Chairman Bill Bishop said Hansen was “eminently qualified” and the process was not fair to Hansen. Instead, Bishop took issue with the administration for creating the situation.
“That’s just life. It isn’t fair but it is,” Bishop said of the residency requirement. “If we think it’s a good ordinance, we should keep it. If we think it’s a bad one, we should repeal it.”
After Bishop, Yarborough, Crescimbeni and Council members Matt Schellenberg and Johnny Gaffney voiced opposition or hesitancy on the appointment, Deal asked for the deferral, which Bishop approved.
356-2466