Disagreements have resurfaced between Mayor Alvin Brown and the Jacksonville Children’s Commission leadership about the group’s autonomy.
In a letter dated Monday addressed to City Council member Bill Gulliford, commission Chairman Ken Wilson asks for assistance in the commission’s efforts to appoint and hire its executive director. The position has been vacant following former executive director Linda Lanier’s retirement March 9.
Wilson said the matter has evolved as a “conflict of opinion” between the commission and executive branch over the appointment and hiring.
“The Mayor’s office as our executive branch of government believes they should appoint and hire the Executive Director of the Children’s Commission. The JCC board on the other hand feels very strongly that it should carry out its responsibilities as directed in the original legislation establishing the JCC,” Wilson wrote in the letter.
Council decided during earlier hearings about Brown’s reorganization efforts to allow the commission to remain autonomous after Brown sought more control.
The mayor appoints the 11-member commission board, which sets policies and makes final decisions on the commission’s funding and strategy and grantmaking, according to the commission’s City website.
The commission, not the mayor, “shall employ and fix the compensation of an executive director” and “may employ such other persons as may be necessary to effectively conduct and accomplish the affairs and duties of the Commission,” according to the City’s ordinance code.
The commission board voted April 18 to offer the interim executive director position to Jill Dame with a starting date of May 7, but a commission assistant was notified May 1 that processing for the position was on hold until Brown authorized it, according to a timeline accompanying the letter.
Dame began work May 7 as an “an advisory volunteer to the board,” and not yet as an authorized agent or officer of the City, according to the timeline.
The letter said the positions of executive assistant to the director and the interim executive director need to be filled so that a permanent executive director can be found.
Gulliford distributed the letter to members of the Council’s Recreation, Community Development, Public Health and Safety Committee, which he chairs, and said he didn’t like the tone behind the action of not following the existing law.
“It appears the law is being ignored and it seems like it’s orchestrated,” Gulliford said, based on his first reading of the letter.
Several Council members suggested they could attract the administration’s attention by delaying passage of legislation that the executive branch considers important.
Council member John Crescimbeni referred to a recent Council resolution urging the administration to remove the Equestrian Center from a current facilities management Request for Proposal as an example of not being heard.
“The sound that you hear is sabers being rattled. They remain in their scabbards, but that can change,” said Council member Robin Lumb.
He said it was important that both sides “find a way to go forward together.”
Gulliford asked Jessica Deal, Brown’s Council liaison, for a speedy response about the issue.
A call to the administration Tuesday seeking comment was not returned.
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