For most, it's not until you have passed away that the accolades are offered on your behalf about your lifelong accomplishments.
For Bill Scheu, kind words have followed his good works for the past 30 years.
Scheu, 67, has established himself as one of those unusual people who simply inspires confidence, projects fairness and quietly elicits the very best from people around him.
Under several mayors and difficult circumstances, Scheu has been a "go-to guy" and responded with quiet humility to tackle and resolve some big issues.
Now, Scheu heads into Wednesday's first meeting of the Jacksonville Retirement Reform Task Force, once again marching into a briar patch, causing Mayor Alvin Brown and others to hedge their bets on what a task force will decide about Brown's reputed $1.2 billion pension reform proposal.
After enduring widespread criticism of the proposal from the Jacksonville Civic Council and The Florida Times-Union, Brown has asked Scheu and 10 other high-profile business and civic leaders to review and comment on the reform, which was agreed to behind closed doors by the mayor's administration and the police and fire unions.
City Council President Bill Gulliford has said he thinks Brown is losing confidence in what he once bragged was the end-all, be-all mother of pension reforms by naming this new task force.
Both the Civic Council and the Times-Union have criticized Brown's proposal as kicking the can down the road another 20 years. Brown's plan does not call for meaningful participation from current police and fire employees or produce financial returns for another decade.
Frank Denton, Times-Union editor, and the newspaper have filed suit against the City alleging the agreement was negotiated in secret instead of the public — a violation of Florida's Sunshine Law.
While Brown asked the Civic Council for advice about his proposal, I don't think he anticipated such a formal, negative response from the 50-plus member group of politically active business leaders.
Instead, the Civic Council spent six weeks studying Brown's reform — also in private — and determined that current workers need to participate more.
"This means additional revenue and some changes to the plan for existing employees should be considered," wrote Civic Council President Steve Halverson in a letter to Brown and Gulliford.
Brown's request of the new task force is more open, direct and formal.
Its meetings will be public, unlike Brown's pension negotiations or the meetings of the Civic Council.
The members of the Scheu-chaired task force are impressive and have strong credentials.
Looking over the list of its members, there is no one there who will just go along to get along.
Scheu has said that none of the members would have accepted the mayor's request if they thought the outcome already was written.
I find it interesting that City Council member Greg Anderson, Finance Committee chairman for this Council year, is among those on the panel.
Anderson, an executive with EverBank, will have his plate full this summer just peeling the onion that is the deficit-laden budget, which Brown will present July 15 to Council.
Brown wants the task force to finish its work by mid-August, a full month into the finance committee's budget work.
Should the task force determine any changes — from pension tweaks to implosion — are required, I'm wondering if it will become Anderson's role to lobby his committee colleagues and the Council on the recommendations.
And, what happens if this new task force of business leaders agrees with its Civic Council peers and concludes Brown has put together a bad deal for taxpayers, one that should be much better?
What then? Will it be back to the drawing board?
Does it mean Gulliford and Council members will be forced to make budget decisions this summer to close libraries, shutter fire stations and jeopardize public safety with more cuts?
Or, will they find a way to raise more revenue?
Scheu is like a modern day Don Quixote, except he does not simply chase windmills. He often catches them.
Let's hope this new quest, for the sake of taxpayers and public services, doesn't have windmill blades that are spinning too fast.
Gulliford blunt about mayor, consolidation changes
Don't expect Gulliford to ditch his beach provincialism just because he's leading the 19-member legislative group.
In an interview with the Beaches Leader after his swearing-in, Gulliford made it clear: "Whatever I can do for the Beaches I will."
That includes taking the City to court if the two-year battle over landfill tipping fees between the City and Atlantic and Neptune beaches communities is not resolved.
The City says the two beach communities owe hundreds of thousands of dollars for using the Trail Ridge Landfill. The two beach cities contest that.
"If it goes to court they can just thank the administration (Mayor Alvin Brown)," Gulliford told the paper.
Gulliford, who announced in his swearing-in that he wants City government consolidation reviewed, has had his fights with the Jacksonville government.
As Atlantic Beach mayor in 1993, Gulliford sued the City for "double taxation."
He was a little more pointed in his criticism of Brown.
"I don't think he is leading. He's not keeping his word," Gulliford told the paper.
"He can find photo ops, babies to kiss and ribbons to cut, but he can't find an hour to meet with the mayors at the Beaches as he promised and have meaningful conversation," he said.
Some think that when Gulliford appointed Council member Lori Boyer as chair of his consolidation review task force, he is setting dead aim on trying to dismember consolidated government, something Gulliford doesn't seem interested in denying.
He told the Leader that the County government might be better managed by a hired staff instead of an elected mayor and said he wants the review group to consider "depoliticizing the mayor."
Like the pension reform task force, the work of Gulliford's consolidation review group will be interesting to watch over the coming months.
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