Attorney sues JTA over public records request

[thelakelander]

this is getting to be a big mess....

Jacksonville bus shelter flap widens
Three City Council members facing conflict questions

A split vote on a controversial bus shelter advertising plan a few months ago has come back to haunt the Jacksonville City Council, with two more members now facing questions about possible conflicts of interest.

At least three council members voted without disclosing their working relationships with parties on either side of the hotly contested bus shelter issue.

Earlier this week, the Times-Union reported that council Vice President Jack Webb, an attorney, had been hired by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority to help with collective bargaining issues.

The JTA had pushed the council to change city law to allow the shelter ads, a stance Webb supported in the October vote on the measure, which passed 10-6.

On Wednesday, there were more revelations of potential conflicts:

• Councilman John Crescimbeni is the paid part-time executive director of Scenic Florida, the statewide affiliate of a Jacksonville nonprofit that lobbied against the bus shelter ads. He took that position, too, voting “no” in October.

• Councilman Bill Bishop is a vice president and board member of Scenic Florida. He also voted against the measure.

Council President Richard Clark said he’s concerned that several of his colleagues now appear to have close ties to the parties involved in the bus shelter debate â€" and voted without making those facts public.

“In the spirit of full disclosure, those are things people want to know,” he said.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-02-10/story/jacksonville_bus_shelter_flap_widens

[CS Foltz]

CRC thinks we don't need "Ethics Guidelines" Incorporated into the Charter? What is wrong with this picture?

[stjr]

"Jacksonville City Councilman Jack Webb has removed himself as the council's liaison to the Jacksonville Transportation Authority."

Jack Webb was on 89.9's First Coast Connect call-in show this week and was totally castigated for his conflicts on the City Council.  I am thinking this motivated his desire to remove himself from JTA.  Kudo's to him for finally doing the right thing. Unfortunately, there are many others selling out to JTA's antics.  JTA practices of misleading and less than forthright information, along with many of their motives in planning and executing our transportation projects, need to be further scrutinized.

Webb steps down as Jacksonville City Council's JTA liaison
He was criticized for not disclosing that the transportation agency was one of his clients

   * By Tia Mitchell
   * Story updated at 11:53 AM on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010


Recently, Webb, an attorney, was criticized for voting in favor of a controversial JTA-backed bus shelter advertising bill without disclosing beforehand that he had taken on the agency as a client.

The General Counsel's Office has said Webb did nothing wrong by voting on the matter, has no conflict of interest and, therefore, was not required to disclose the business relationship prior to the vote. However, the news led to debate about what business and personal relationships council members should make public prior to voting on issues of high-interest.

Council President Richard Clark replaced Webb with Art Graham, who recently rejoined the council as an appointee of Gov. Charlie Crist.

In this role, Webb attended monthly board meetings, and his mission was to foster open communication between the City Council and the JTA.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-02-25/story/webb_steps_down_as_jacksonville_city_councils_jta_liaison



Nice summation of the bus shelter issues in this post on the T-U site:

What a failure...
Submitted by ConcernedJacksonvillian on Thu. 2/25/2010 at 12:30 pm]

If the idea behind having a "City Council liaison" to the JTA is "to foster open communication," then it has been a miserable failure.  When the bus shelter advertising bill was before the City Council, JTA reprentatives proffered false and/or misleading information in support of the proposal (I am thinking primarily of the inaccurate bus stop and ridership figures, as well as the inflated maintenance costs presented to the Council).  Furthermore, JTA's general counsel is partnered with Clear Channel's local attorney (but don't worry - the City Council was assured that they have a "no discussion" policy - too bad Folio Weekly reported last week that doucments obtained via a public records request showed that the two attorneys did, in fact, discuss the bus shelter advertising bill).  Additionally, improperly registered or unregistered lobbyists were quietly working on Council Members and other Jacksonville officials behind the scenes.  Meanwhile, JTA refuses to respond to a citizen's public records request regarding the bus shelter advertising proposal until that citizen takes the agency to court.  And, all the while, the City Council's liaison to the JTA is actually being paid by the JTA.  Does any of this sound like "open communication" to anyone?

[thelakelander]

I wonder will Crescimbeni and Bishop follow suit?

[tufsu1]

I wonder will Crescimbeni and Bishop follow suit?

especially since their potential conflict of interest is in OPPOSING bus shelter advertising!

[Doctor_K]

Are Council members elected or appointed?

[stjr]

I wonder will Crescimbeni and Bishop follow suit?

Time will tell. But there is a distinction between Webb and the others.

Webb actually is being PAID by JTA for services he renders to them.

Crescimbeni and Bishop are merely members/volunteers of a nonprofit that had no financial stakes in the bus shelter debate.  Maybe like a U.S. Senator voting on gun control and being an NRA member or on environmental legislation and belonging to the Sierra Club.