A.G. Gancarski
Something had to give.
And it did.
Jacksonville City Councilman Matt Schellenberg, citing the pressures of running a business outside of the council with serving on three standing committees, cut his workload last month by resigning from one of those committees.
The casualty: his position on a new standing committee, Neighborhoods, Community Investment, and Services.
The Mandarin Republican, in his second term, has two other time-intensive committees: Finance, and Land Use & Zoning. Those committees, which now include special committees after the regular meetings, simply create too much of a time impact.
NCIS, in light of Schellenberg’s other work on and outside of the council, is simply “too big a commitment” in terms of time.
Council President Lori Boyer, who made some changes to the committee structure this year to help Council take more of a policy-making role, confirmed Schellenberg had resigned the committee position, and that she had accepted the resignation on Thursday.
“He told me that his business was undergoing challenges,” said Boyer, “and he needed to be able to work on Mondays.”
Boyer was disappointed, and attempted to discourage Schellenberg’s committee resignation, but to no avail.
“I was looking for second-term council members to step up and serve on three committees,” Boyer said.
“I don’t want to encourage this,” Boyer added, “and I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
Her strategy for committees this year involved having first-term members serve as chairs, while the more experienced members served as mentors.
Boyer suggested switching Schellenberg to a Tuesday committee so he wouldn’t have the Monday impact, but that was a non-starter for her colleague.
Schellenberg’s seat, meanwhile, will remain unfilled, raising the possibility of some 3-3 votes and potential quorum issues.
If those arise, Boyer will make herself available; as president of the council, one of her prerogatives is voting in committees if needed for reasons like this.
President Boyer had not gotten a lot of pushback on the ambitious committee structure; worth monitoring going forward is whether or not other second-term council members feel that serving on three committees is too demanding.
Schellenberg, who made a bid for vice president of the council earlier this year, ended up not getting into leadership.
He also has been on the losing side of some votes, including Hemming Park funding and whether or not to permit the Sons of Confederate Veterans to raise a 75-foot flagpole on Moncrief Road in predominately African-American Northwest Jacksonville.
If he makes another run for one of those positions, one wonders if this choice to resign will be a point of concern for council colleagues.
