A.G. Gancarski
On Tuesday night, the Jacksonville City Council unanimously approved an ordinance intended to keep a firmer legislative hand on boards and commissions.
The genesis of this bill was the 2013-14 Task Force on Consolidated Government, which found some boards were effectively useless, with sporadic meeting schedules.
The bill amends the ordinance section on Boards and Commissions — to add a new section, entitled Review and Sunsetting of Certain Boards and Commission; Reporting.
The Council will review all appointed boards and commissions every four years, to determine if they are fulfilling their purpose, or even if the boards still have a purpose to speak of. As well, there will be an annual reporting requirement from each board. And the mayor’s office is “encouraged” to “evaluate the effectiveness of boards and commissions created by executive order,” according to an amendment.
If needed, the boards can be enhanced. If no longer needed, the boards can be disbanded.
The bill, co-sponsored by Council President Lori Boyer and Councilman Tommy Hazouri, is a mechanism by which the council can get a firmer rein on non-elected bodies within its purview.
Theoretically, this could lead to interesting turf wars between council members and these boards.
Back in February, Hazouri had mentioned a desire to sunset the TRUE Commission, an independent fiscal watchdog body first enacted by Council ordinance in 1994.
“I never understood the need for it,” Hazouri said in February.
Hazouri is concerned about overreach beyond finance, one seemingly permitted by statute saying that, in addition to financial oversight, TRUE may examine “other areas” as the “commission deems appropriate and within the scope of the commission’s duties.”
One such area TRUE examined was expansion of the Human Rights Ordinance. TRUE was not in favor of it, and they asked for information that can’t be readily quantified, like businesses that decided not to come to Jacksonville because of a lack of an expanded HRO.
