On Tuesday, October 27th, the Jacksonville City Council voted 13-5 in favor of an amendment to oppose J-Bill Resolution 2009-622. The J-Bill sponsored by CM Clark, CM Webb and CM Redman was a measure to move our 2011 local elections to the state ballot in 2010. The resolution failed in the Rules Committee twice this year and again in the full Council. However, because the Reso was amended to oppose it, the Council can bring it back to rescind the amendment and vote to put the measure on the ballot as a referendum by Council fiat. I have not heard of any public demand to do such an institutional and structural change to our local elections, but the Supervisor of Elections and a few members of City Council believe that they know better.
There is another measure, J-Bill Reso 2009-716, sponsored by CM Jack Webb, which has currently been withdrawn. Reso 2009-716 seeks to reschedule 2011 elections from the Spring to the Fall and have those elected in November 2011 take office in January 2012 rather than July 2011 as they do now. This would not be a institutional change to local elections and would keep them local.
My goal here is to encourage CM Webb to reintroduce his J-Bill and to stop the City Council from going around the people to force 2009-622 onto the Ballot without consideration of 2009-716. Please join me.
I have a correction to make. CM Jack Webb was never a sponsor of 2009-622. He is the sponsor of 2009-716. The two bills are mutually exclusive and would not be mutually sponsored. My apologies to Councilman Webb.
Sunday's T-U editorial opposes the move of local elections to state cycle and supports move to Fall 2011. The Times-Union and I don't agree on very much, so I am encouraged by this editorial.
http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2009-11-15/story/local_elections_a_smarter_way
Two new ordinances have been drafted dealing with the issue of moving local elections. Ord 2009-893 is the bill designed to move local Spring elections to the Fall of 2011. Ord 2009-894 is the measure to eliminate local election cycle and move the local ballot onto the State/Federal elections, but not until 2018. Both Ordinances seek to make the issue a referendum to the voters on the 2010 ballot.
These measures will be introduced tomorrow (Tues. Nov. 24th) to the full Council as a first read. The bills will be put on the Rules Committee agenda slated for Dec. 7th at 9:30am. I don't know yet if there will be public comment in Committee. Stay tuned. Best, Jim