Kevin Meerschaert
The Jax Young Voters Coalition wants to make sure voters remember to flip over their ballots and vote on the two issues to be decided in the March city election.
The first is a referendum that would give the inspector general’s office the authority to investigate complaints and provide oversight regarding the city’s constitutional officers such as the mayor, sheriff, property appraiser and tax collector. Currently, such investigations would first occur in-house.
Just ahead of sitting down to watch the first televised mayoral debate, held Thursday night, members of the coalition gathered at the Three Layers Café to hear from Jacksonville Ethics Commission member Rhonda Peoples-Waters.
Peoples-Waters said the I.G.’s office monitors contracts and will make recommendations for improvements. Detractors have concerns about the costs of the office, but Peoples-Waters said the issues and problems discovered by the I.G. often save cities money in the end.
She pointed to the inspector general’s office in Palm Beach County that has identified over $20 million worth of unneeded government spending in the first four years of operation.
The second ballot question is a nonbinding straw poll that asks voters whether they think all city employee appointees of the independent agencies and employees of constitutional officers should be required to live in Duval County.
That debate has been going on for years. Supporters say the employees should be part of the community they represent, but opponents say it would prevent qualified potential employees who live just outside of the city, like in Clay or Nassau counties, from being hired because they would be unlikely to move such a short distance to be eligible to work in Jacksonville.
