Jax Council Rules Committee spikes ethics proposal

The Jacksonville City Council Rules Committee had an active agenda on Tuesday, highlighted by term limits, texting, and other hot button issues.

The most interesting thing on the agenda: a bill they all voted against.

• Rules came together and downed a measure to increase the statute of limitations on ethics complaints from 2 years to 5 years, which would have accorded with the state standards. Tommy Hazouri was curious as to the ethics director’s motivations. She noted that a citizen complained about a matter that was outside the statute of limitations, and that the Ethics Commission recommended it. Hazouri: “two years is still plenty of time … we don’t have to keep adding. I’m all for you; I’m all for ethics,” yet “no significant policy reason” is driving this legislation. Everyone agreed with him, and the bill was spiked unanimously.

In other action …

• The bill to increase maximum number of consecutive terms from 2 to 3, from Rules Chairman Matt Schellenberg, had been deferred in Monday committees, yet was pushed through in Recreation, Community Development, Public Health and Safety on Tuesday morning (a committee where Schellenberg serves). The bill would put this on the ballot as a referendum in the November election, and it would apply to Constitutional officers also. Councilman Jim Love sought, via amendment, to restrict the bill from Constitutional officers, and exempt those who had served a full term already from this bill. Considerable discussion followed on the amendment, with new Council member Anna Brosche noting that for many veterans on Council, “the rubber didn’t meet the road until year 3” and that extending terms doesn’t mean people are guaranteed re-election. Love stood his ground, saying that term limits give an opportunity to “new blood.” Schellenberg’s take: voters are smarter than Council gives them credit for, and can vote out people they are unhappy with. A lot will happen before this bill is in its final iteration.
• 2015-697, in a substitute form introduced to Rules, was brought forth. Councilman Bill Gulliford summed up the bill as “if you get a text on a particular item, you don’t respond to it, and you report it within 48 hours. This way we can be big boys and girls and turn our phones back on.” Ethics Director Carla Miller called the Gulliford bill a “good compromise” between the  ban that Council President Greg Anderson and the freewheeling texting on budget night. A question to be resolved: will Council staff be covered in this prohibition? With the bill deferred, there are two more weeks to resolve these questions, including the language of the bill and the extent of the staff that will be allowed to text, and God knows what else.
• 2016-15, adjusting the supplemental share plan for the Police and Fire Pension Fund, was approved as it was on an emergency basis in two other committees. This bill, said executive director of the fund Beth McCague, would “clarify intent” of the legislation, pooling two discrete funds into a shared pool. With fewer fire fighters than police officers, the current iteration privileges fire over police. Schellenberg called current safety officer pensions “extraordinary” and expressed incredulity over the fund not putting $3 million more toward the unfunded liability. McCague noted the share plan was part of the pension reform package of 2015. Schellenberg found the idea of a holiday bonus incredible given the unfunded liability burden.
• Mike Weinstein, called up to address a $400 million reduction in estimated state sales tax, noted that year over year the number will still be up. The Lenny Curry administration was, he said, “very conservative” in its estimates, and thus is “well beyond” said estimates. “We’re in good shape,” Weinstein said.
• Parking meter revenue came up; broken meters have resulted in a loss of revenue of almost $8,000 a month. The broken meters are the electronic ones, by and large, and they had not been problematic for four years, until they went out “en masse” in late 2015. Battery replacements have followed. Out of 547 meters, 110 are out; 56 of those meters will be replaced, with replacement units coming next week.
• W.C. Gentry, a notable Curry endorser during election season, was approved to return to the Jax Journey Oversight Committee as part of a wave of such appointments being considered. The full Council votes on it Tuesday.