City Council President Greg Anderson is calling a timeout on cellphones during meetings after some of his colleagues have been accused of improper texting while legislating.
Council member Bill Gulliford has an idea that doesn’t go quite as far.
Meanwhile, a watchdog group has filed a lawsuit alleging a lack of transparency.
The flurry of text-related responses the past two days stem from the Sept. 21 budget finale and a seesaw vote from three members who were lobbied by the head of the local fire union to prevent demotions. Money to keep those rankings meant $337,000 had to be pulled from somewhere, with drainage projects being the source — a decision that divided council.
An initial 11-8 vote to keep money in drainage flipped to 11-8 to restore salaries of public safety officers before the end of the night. In between votes, firefighter union head Randy Wyse was busy trying to convince council members to revisit the issue.
The Florida Times-Union first reported on the exchanges, messages that showed Wyse’s lobbying efforts. Sending messages isn’t illegal.
But acting as an intermediary for members on a voting issue violates the intent of the state’s Sunshine Law, said John Winkler, president of the Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County.
Anderson issued a letter to his 18 colleagues Thursday afternoon about cellphones, saying there was “too much at stake to not address the practice, especially when it can potentially be used to promote or defeat legislation during a vote.”
So for now, he’s banning them while they’re on the dais, effective immediately.
Although a hardship for members with families and children, he explained, public trust is “paramount.”
A written policy detailing the plan is in the works.
The Concerned Taxpayers have taken the issue further.
The group and Joseph Strasser filed suit Thursday against council members Aaron Bowman, Katrina Brown, Reggie Brown, Doyle Carter, Garrett Dennis, Reggie Gaffney, Tommy Hazouri and Scott Wilson along with Wyse.
Katrina Brown, Gaffney and Wilson were the three who changed their votes.
The suit lays out alleged Sunshine Law violations relating to the vote and contact with Wyse for most members. Carter and Dennis are cited for another text exchange between each other on another matter.
And the Concerned Taxpayers say Wyse was the liaison and also claim his activity violated collective bargaining rules. The suit alleges his actions were negotiations with de facto bargaining agents — council members — about terms and conditions of employment for 16 firefighters.
The Concerned Taxpayers are asking the court to effectively undo the council action and put the money back into drainage. Additionally, the group seeks noncriminal infractions punishable by up to $500 fines for each defendant, along with attorney’s fees.
Reggie Brown on Thursday evening said he thought the lawsuit was “frivolous and without merit” and singled people out. He claimed other council members received texts, too.
“Everyone that received a text should be listed,” he said. “This is outrageous.”
Bowman said he doesn’t think he did anything wrong and that the suit, along with Anderson’s decision to ban cellphones “unfortunately, is going to rip our council apart for a long time.”
Although he called the cellphone ban an “overreaction,” he said the discussion about cellphone usage will be a good one to have.
Before the ban and lawsuit Thursday, another cellphone-related measure was introduced.
Council member Bill Gulliford filed a bill this week that wouldn’t ban cellphones, but would limit what council members can do while legislating. If passed, council members couldn’t respond to texts from lobbyists or union or city officials while conducting business. And they’d have to report any text messages sent to them about business at hand.
Winkler said the move didn’t go far enough. He liked Anderson’s ban better.
Bowman said the Gulliford bill was a little less invasive.
Unless that passes, though, the texting — and cellphones in general — are dark during business.
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