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Carla Miller, city of Jacksonville ethics officer, has put great effort into laying the foundation for a strong ethics department. November 23, 2010 the city council unanimously passed a city charter amendment on ethics.
Now, there are two bills, 2011-167 and 2011-197, before the city council to establish an Independent Ethics Compliance and Oversight Office. Why is this so important? Currently the ethics office consists of individuals appointed by both the mayor and city council members. The bills before city council remove this appointment authority from the mayor and the city council. The appointing entities would be the Dean of Florida Coastal Law School, the Director of the University of North Florida Ethics Center, the President of the Jacksonville League of Women Voters, the President of the Perkins Bar Association, the Director of Jacksonville Community Council Inc. (JCCI), and the President of Florida State College Jacksonville.
The call to action:
- call/email the members of the Rules Committee and urge them, priority members need more encouragement, to move these bills out of committee so that they may be presented before council for a vote.
- Denise Lee (priority) EDLee@coj.net 630-1385
- Stephen Joost (priority) Joost@coj.net 630-1396
- Bill Bishop WBishop@coj.net 630-1392
- Richard Clark (priority) RClark@coj.net 630-1386
- John Crescimbeni JRC@coj.net 630-1381
- Art Shad (priority) AShad@coj.net 630-1382
- Clay Yarborough Clay@coj.net 630-1389
If this legislation is not passed during this session, it will face a new rules committee, new council president, new council members, and a new mayor. Though the legislation will not start over, the process will. Since the director is appointed "at the pleasure" of the mayor, the new ethics director will be appointed by Mayor elect Alvin Brown.
Here is 2011-167 as amended in rules committee on May 25th.
2011-167%20Subcommittee.05.25.Amendment%5B1%5D.doc
The next meeting on this legislation is tentatively scheduled for next Thursday June 2 at 1pm in council chambers.
Ethics bills (in the pending legislation category):
http://citycirc.coj.net/coj/cojBillSearchNew.asp?type=PL
Ethics office:
http://www.coj.net/Departments/Ethics-Office.aspx
Jacksonville City Charter and Municipal Codes:
http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=12174&stateId=9...
Jacksonville Community Council Inc. survey on what Duval citizens think: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JCCItopics
Views: 78
Comment
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Comment by Debbie G on May 30, 2011 at 5:54am
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Tentative meeting scheduled for Thursday June 6 @ 1pm in council chambers for rules committee on the ethics bills.
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Comment by Patricia M. McBride on May 21, 2011 at 1:17pm
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JL, although the bills currently on line do not say so, Carla said there are going to be 3 citizen of Duval County positions on this commission. If anyone is interested, they should file the application to be considered.............
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Comment by JL Gawlik on May 21, 2011 at 1:14pm
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Will do what i can. Thanks Debbie for all of your hard work.
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Also, on the ethics homepage there is a 1 hour training course available for anyone.
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Comment by Tom Wing on May 20, 2011 at 4:03pm
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Thank you for your response. I am touched with your concern. I will support you in your effort to have more honesty in local government by having an independent ethics compliance and oversight commission. I always like to research where other similar organizations have had success in other geographical areas. Thanks, Tom W
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Thanks Debbie. Tom when I read this what happens is that it stops the mayoral appointment and does not allow anyone who is currently holding public office from being on the ethic commission. It defines how people will be chosen to sit on the commission and it needs to get through before the next mayor takes office. We do not want a mayor putting anyone on this coucil and this is nothing against Brown; it is ANY Mayor!
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Tom, I would not post such a call to action if the issue had an air of redundancy or duplication to it. This is to remove the authority for appointing the ethics officers from those individuals that may or may not be investigated at any point in time. The fear of retribution or retaliation from those who have appointed you to the office should you have to investigate them is removed by enacting this legislation.
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Tom, please do get involved, and please read the bills as you will find, most likely, as I did that you wish to make some comments. I found 1 area I felt needed improvement and said I felt the criteria to exclusive when it should have been inclusive........................so please guys don't just rubber stamp this if you write (read the bills first......they aren' t that long)!
You can send your Email of approval with comments to: ethics@coj.net and they will forward it to all parties involved.
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I wish I knew more about this proposed ethics committee. Is it yet another duplication of what is already a layer of institutionalized bureaucratic oversite that has heretofore been essentially controlled by local politicians that has been unsuccessfull? Can it be a replacement mechanism for the existing agencies already in existence in order to cut the financial impact that is anticipated with the creation of this new oversight bureau?
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