There is a lot of detail you need to know on this Ethics issue. I'm going to give a little now- and then try to prepare more tonight and Saturday. I'll try to figure a way to get it to you as briefly as possible.

PART 1

 Over the past couple of days The City Council Rules Committee Chairman Bill Bishop has told me he is going to defer the appointment of the INDEPENDENT Office of Ethics Compliance Oversight Director (OECO) - Carla Miller.  HE MUST BE PERSUADED TO CHANGE HIS MIND. This decision must not stand.  We will need you to call or e-mail (both if you can) Councilman Bishop and tell him not to delay this appointment.  WBishop@coj.net - 630-1392- Assistant: Suzanne Warren

Please call - Please write -       “ "   Do not delay the appointment of the Independent Ethics Commission’s selection as their Director of ECO ” "      Please cc: or let me know that you have contacted Councilman Bishop. - tonybates@juno.com -    For now I need 50 people willing to make this effort

Do not make this effort until you have received thru PART 3. There is another important issue concerning Ethics that you might decide to handle in one communication. I’ll get that to you with follow up in Part 3.

For those of you that I mail to personally about government issues and are reading this on this site you may have or will received this info for the second time. My apologies.

From: tonybates@juno.com [mailto:tonybates@juno.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 9:27 PM
To: Bishop, Bill
Subject: Fw: What happened to the Funding???

More than 6 months have past since all the work on the Ethics issues was codified. Finally the recommendation from the Ethics Commission for Director of the Office of Ethics, Compliance & Oversight(OECO) is scheduled for consideration by the Rules Committee at its next scheduled meeting (Feb 7,2012 ?) Bill 2012-10.   Still in "limbo" is funding for the Director.

If necessary will you sponsor ,or sign on as a co-sponsor, of legislation that will clarify that the funding approved in the 2011-12 budget was intended for OECO or, if necessary, initiate a transfer of funds so that this office can begin its intended function?.

Tony Bates
Coalition Jax

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---------- Original Message ----------
From: "Bishop, Bill" <WBishop@coj.net>
To: "'tonybates@juno.com'" <tonybates@juno.com>
Subject: RE: What happened to the Funding???
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:25:17 +0000

Tony: For a variety of reasons, we currently have two competing ethics offices. We have the new system that was put in place last year, which was not funded in the current budget, and we have the old system which was not repealed with the net legislation but was funded in this year's budget. I have requested a meeting with the administration to sort this out. Until this happens, both appointments will be defered in Rules. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Bill

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 Bill,

I feel it was clearly the public's intent (and Council's) that the independence of Ethics oversight be established and that was codified by Council both in the Municipal Code and the Charter.

The Ethics Commission was given the authority to recommend their choice of Director of Office of Ethics Compliance Oversight(OECO) and that was Carla Miller. What are you hoping to accomplish by delaying her appointment? Is there objection to the Commission's recommendation?

I did suggest to members of the Rules Committee that the confirmation at the next Rules Committee might be a good place to raise the funding issue.

As far as I am concerned the Mayor's office of Ethics is now purely administrative and only requires a few hours a month to over see all those "Ethics Officers" that are suppose to be through out the bureaucracy. That funding should be part of the Mayors budget. Then you(Council) control the size of that office through the Mayors budget.

I have been trying to persuade the Ethics Commission to reconcile all the old reference(s) to Ethics in the Code and Charter with the new additions to the Code and Charter of last year. I hope you will raise the profile of that issue.

The OECO Director is an independent stand alone issue. That needs to be filled under current law and I see no reason to delay that while you make the necessary changes to the old law that conflicts with the new.

" Councilman " thanks for you attention to my -e-.

Tony

From: "Bishop, Bill" <WBishop@coj.net>
To: "tonybates@juno.com" <tonybates@juno.com>
Subject: RE: What happened to the Funding???
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:38:49 +0000

The council and the mayor need to reconcile the issue of two competing ethics offices. i have asked the administration to meet with me on this. as it stands, the mayor and ethics commission each have appointed acting ethics officers as is their right under existing legislation. the ethics commission's is for 180 days and the mayor's is for 60 days. until they agree to meet and resolve this, it will remain thus. fyi - a major reason we have this situation is because Carla did not want to include repealing the old ethics office in last year's legislation and no one else thought about it. i have offered to work with all of the parties involved to solve this but i'm not going to spend a great deal of time working on this solo.

Sent from my Droid Charge on Verizon 4G LTE "tonybates@juno.com" wrote:
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Bill,

Can I have 10 minutes of your time on this issue. I'll have more if you need me but you can get up and go if you give me the first 10 max(maybe 5).

A place and time of your choosing. If your going to eat lunch -you eat - I talk.(I can't eat anymore anyway).

This is an important issue to many in the public.

Tony

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Suzanne: Please set up a meeting with Mr. Bates for the next council day.

Bill

Sent from my Droid Charge on Verizon 4G LTE "tonybates@juno.com" wrote:

Tony,

Can you meet with Cm. Bishop on Tuesday, February 14 at 2:00 p.m. here in his City Council office?

Suzanne
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Suzanne,

I need to deal with this no later than Tuesday of next week so that I can determine how to move forward with this issue. I accept that the Councilman is very busy and if time is not available I will proceed on bases of the Councilman's last response.

As you  see the Councilman put me  off till Feb 14^th - -a week after he has made his decision  - I along with Connie Benham went to his office and was only able to talk with his assistant - She got the Councilman on the phone- and she told me he still did not even have 5 minutes for me between
now and Feb 14^th.      WBishop@coj.net - 630-1392- Assistant: Suzanne Warren