When a City Council-created task force begins its review of consolidation later this summer, I hope the first topic they review is how and why Jacksonville voters in 1967 overwhelmingly approved a consolidated form of government.
Newly sworn-in Council President Bill Guilford used his installation Friday as a platform to introduce the initiative, saying he wants Council member Lori Boyer to lead a citizen-driven panel that will turn consolidation upside down and inside out.
The goal is to produce suggestions for legislative action — and even ballot consideration for the 2015 elections.
Gulliford has given Boyer and her yet-to-be-named task force nine months to complete its work, which is about half the time the state Legislature gave the Local Government Study Commission chaired by J.J. Daniel to design the new government and write the charter that would forge the services of the old county and city governments.
The commission's consolidation proposal was entitled "Blueprint for Improvement."
Gulliford is probably correct that it is time for a review after 45 years, although numerous Charter Revision Commissions have taken a look at consolidation over the years.
Mayors, including Mayor Alvin Brown, also have tinkered with government structure through reorganizations.
I would imagine the majority of Duval County residents either were not yet born or did not yet live in the county back in 1967. Chances are, there will be several members of the task force who weren't.
That's why I think it is important to understand all of the issues that drove the decision.
Task force members should know why a group of civic leaders — and there were giants among the group — undertook the mission that was much like a local revolution more than 45 years ago.
The list of reasons for changing the government in the early '60s is long.
At the time, government corruption seemed to be a core value.
Eleven city and county officials were indicted on close to 150 counts of bribery and larceny.
Others were forced to resign.
Many of those running the two local governments were considered inept and incompetent, which is why the Daniel Commission instituted standards and demanded professionalism in the new government.
In the first wave of department heads and appointed officials, Mayor Hans Tanzler reached into Jacksonville's large cadre of retired military officers for the City's new leadership.
Before consolidation, local law enforcement behaved more like the Keystone Cops than professional police.
Private ambulance companies chased wrecks, with ambulance drivers even fighting over injured victims.
The St. Johns River in Downtown was being used like a giant toilet, as 20 million gallons of raw, untreated sewage directly flowed into it every day.
Economic growth was dead, population was moving to the suburbs, the tax base had collapsed and property taxes were continually rising.
One year before the commission began its work, 15 public high schools were disaccredited.
Gulliford was right when he said that one reason voters approved consolidation was anticipated cost savings. There is no question the two governments of five decades ago were inefficient, duplicative and wasteful.
Although consolidation was about much more than saving money, I am convinced that was a promise that motivated voters.
It really was about leadership. And, I think that 45 years later it is still.
Back then, people like Daniel and the others had conviction to match their vision. Together, they created a government that improved operational efficiency and reduced costs.
Most importantly, they gave us a solid blueprint that requires and demands strong leadership if it is to function as intended and at its very best.
I'm not sure leadership is something that, if broken, can be fixed by the Boyer Consolidation Review Task Force.
Are harsh cuts in services ahead?
In his speech, Gulliford closed with a quote from the great poet Robert Frost:
"The woods are snowy dark and deep…"
He could have been projecting the journey the Council Finance Committee will face over the coming weeks.
The budget Brown will present July 15 will probably, indeed, be "dark and deep."
Right now, the Brown administration has its departments, including the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, searching for 14 percent in reductions from their operating budgets.
That's a whopping amount, especially when you layer it on top of lean budgets from recent years.
Shutting branch libraries, closing swimming pools and boarding up fire stations are just a sampling of what Brown is threatening, especially if the Council decides to postpone or reject his pension reform proposal.
At what point do City leaders and residents stop accepting the sacrifice in services that impact quality of life and impair economic growth, rather than finally increase revenue?
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