Rick Mullaney: A History of the Consolidation Movement

[Metro Jacksonville]

Rick Mullaney: A History of the Consolidation Movement



Corruption, duplication of services, raw sewage being dumped in the St John's River.

A majority of the City Council under indictment, a business climate in crisis, and the humiliating dis-accreditation of our Public School System.

City of Jacksonville General Counsel, Rick Mullaney has an engineer's view of how our Consolidated government works.

Join us as he explains both the legal and historical backdrop that led to our unique and efficient form of Consolidated City Government.

The following is an adaptation of a speech by Mr. Mullaney to the Charter Revision Commission as part one in a three part series on the importance of the Charter Review.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-oct-rick-mullaney-a-history-of-the-consolidation-movement

[buckethead]

Good read! It really sounds like we were/are pioneers within the state. Here's looking forward to the next piece, as well as a prayer that we do not squander the opportunity to build a better city.

[BridgeTroll]

I look forward to the rest of the story...

[aaapolito]

I've seen him explain consolidated gov't at City Hall, and he makes a good sale.  Consolidated gov't definitely gets rid of the multiple layer/ red-tape-laden (city, county, etc) local gov't.

[CS Foltz]

Good information and I have one small question - who took it upon themselves to drop the "Ethics Guidelines" that were in the original Charter? For their time they were very progressive but they were removed about 4 yrs after the Charter revision was inplemented?

[vicupstate]

Jacksonville was a pioneer in consolidation not just in FL but the entire US.  After Nashville, it was the most significant consolidation in the prior 3-4 decades. 

Excellent series.  Kudos to MJ and Mr. Mullaney for doing this.  I will be working on some questions. 

[sheclown]

Very interesting history.  I didn't realize that the schools had become disaccredited.  Not to mention everything else!  What a mess. 

[Steve]

CS Foltz - Jump in tomorrow, and ask your question again in tomorrow's article.  Mr. Mullaney will be on MJ.com throughout the day answering questions.

[mtraininjax]

Mullaney for mayor!

[north miami]

No one thinks higher about Mr.Mullaney than....Mr.Mullaney!
Mullaney for Mayor??....certainly the General Counsel office is a springboard for the post.
When city negotiations such as the Ship Yards come under scrutiny the general Counsel office blames the City Council.Interesting to see the checks and balances.
Speaking of checks and balances..........certainly there were issues with county wide corruption and a long list of other ills.County wide consolodation was indeed an uncommon or untested approach.Did we really need to take that approach to address the problems??Was the approach more a component of boosterism,inferiority complex and zeal for development? No one has ever answered this-likely because we are not to question Consolodation-after all,Rick will probably tell us (correctly) that other areas of the country have recently looked to the Jacksonville model.
Recall the response to Duval County in general a decade after Consolodation.....Orange Park profiled in the national press as among the fastest growing areas in the country......Duval county,with it's JEA and other liabilities lanquished.
There are high quality of life counties that harbor multiple towns with stand alone mayor/city councils.
If we had it to do all over today-would we consolodate?

[mtraininjax]

Just ask all the candidates who got steamrolled by John Thrasher, no such thing as bad publicity.

[YellowBluffRoad]

Great article - I've not seen our unique government's history so clearly described. Thanks!

For Sheclown: Yes, Duval schools were disaccredited in the 60s, though I thought it was due to them fighting desegregation, not due to per-student expenditures. But that's from the recollection of an ex who was starting at Englewood at the time the schools lost their accredidation.  The system-wide reaccredidation push was successful while I was in school in Duval County. I remember them painting the school I was bussed to to ensure they looked ok for the accredidation examiners, but can't recall if I was at R.L. Brown 6th grade center or Matthew Gilbert 7th grade center at that time. All I remember is how long a bus ride to get to those two schools during the DCPS forced busing era.

Hmm, after this great history of City Consolidation is completed, I'd love to see a similar history on the evolution of the Duval County public school system since consolidation.

[mtraininjax]

The J. Turner Butler Boulevard, an expressway opened in 1997, ran across the southern part of Jacksonville. Dubbed by wags as the "road to nowhere" it soon fostered development along its route and in south Jacksonville Beach and in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Opened in 1997? The new JTB, cause many of us remember tolls on it and in existence, ever since I arrived here in 1980.

[heights unknown]

Good thread post; look forward to the succeeding series or posts; however, the question I'm waiting to ask and/or have answered after this series is:  "Has and is consoidation been successful for Jax and if so, how?"  I would like to think that it (consolidation) was and is and continues to be successful, but it appears that some aspects of consolidation have been unsuccessful and have held Jax back in many ways.  We'll see what tomorrow's posts from this series reveals!

Heights Unknown

[stjr]

Schools were disacredited 1964 because the community didn't prioritize education.  People in the 1950's started warning the community of this possibility but business and other community leaders didn't care to listen.  Disacreditation is what it took to finally galvanize the community.  Try getting into a better college from a disacredited school system.  It took years for all the schools, one by one, to be reacredited.

It's better today, but still nowhere near where it should be.  Schools are still woefully underfunded.  We don't stand out as much because the disease has now spread state wide.  The whole State has a problem thanks to Tallahassee double speak and insincerity on the subject.  By the way, how many know that teachers statewide went on strike in 1968, not for higher wages, but for better funding of public schools.  So, this is a problem long ignored by locals and Floridians. It's why Silicon Valley is in California and Research Triangle is in North Carolina while we have minimum wage jobs at mouse-land in Orlando.

How to fix schools?  Make every politician put their kids in public school or they lose their vote on education funding.

As to home rule, much of that is being gutted, especially by Tallahassee, with their medling into property taxes and endless unfunded mandates to the City.  The talk today doesn't necessarily match the walk.

So, what's the theme here?  Consolidation may be good (with room for tweaking yet) but State interference makes it far from a panacea.