Qualifications of the Downtown Investment Authority’s CEO will be the first action its nine-member board – when it is formed – decides before the recommendation is brought back to City Council for approval.
The Council decision was one of many amendments made Wednesday by a joint Council committee to legislation that would create a Downtown-focused authority. It consisted of the Council Finance, Rules, and Recreation and Community Development committees, all of which have the Downtown-focused pieces of legislation on their agendas.
Before the amendment, the authority’s board would develop the criteria to hire its first CEO, but several Council members wanted to include more oversight.
“I want to see some qualifications,” Council Vice President Bill Gulliford said.
Council member John Crescimbeni said it would be “crazy not to set some parameters” for the hire, but wanted to see the administration offer suggestions before the legislation is finalized. The qualifications could be similarly structured to that of the City’s Office of Economic Development executive director but just be more “Downtown-y,” he said.
The joint committee also decided it wanted oversight on the CEO’s compensation package, but bypassed a decision until Don Shea, Jacksonville Civic Council executive director and administration adviser for the Downtown entity, could report back with a package suggestion comparable to those of similar Downtown authority CEOs across the U.S.
The joint meeting was the first of the new Council year and first for its new makeup.
Council member Clay Yarborough, Rules Committee chair, has taken over for former Rules Committee chair and current Council President Bill Bishop in leading the meetings.
Yarborough said that the first part of Wednesday’s two-hour meeting was slow as the committees adjusted and focused on a detailed Land Use and Zoning Committee amendment proposed by Lori Boyer that cleans and tightens much of the bill’s language.
“The first part was a little sluggish but then we picked up. We are getting into the meat of the bill. Council member Boyer’s bill is helpful because it gives us things to look at outside the Council Auditor’s concerns,” he said.
Yarborough said that with two meetings still scheduled before the Council’s budget hearings begin, his goal of completing the Downtown legislation is similar to Bishop’s and can be accomplished.
“We need to get it moving and need to get it done,” Yarborough said.
Shea was the point person for many of the Council’s questions and said following the meeting that while progress was slower than he thought, the Council has addressed valid concerns and that “real progress is being made.”
Boyer, like Shea and Yarborough, said after the meeting she was also optimistic of completing the legislation in the next two weeks and sending it to full Council for a vote.
“I think there is a reasonable expectation it will get out (to Council in the next two weeks). I’m hopeful. We’re getting close,” she said.
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