Live blogging the vote for 2012-296, human rights ordinance.

[konstantconsumer]

Yesterday's committee meeting went much better than Monday's.  Guilliford did a masterful job maintaining order.  He needs to teach Bishop a thing or two.  Yarbrough, Redman and Daniels were their normal crazy selfs.  I was actually pretty impressed with Lumb.  He is not supporting the bill but he seemed persuadable and asked some interesting questions. 

[Timkin]

Lumb has people skills.  He can conduct himself without being a total ass .  Redman and Daniels in particular leave a great deal to be desired when it comes to dealing with people PERIOD ( setting this particular issue aside) .

Just because any of these individuals may be Christian, does not give any of them the right or power to discriminate.  They would not want it done to them , but they have no problem shelling it out.  To me that makes each of these people very weak links in our City Council. With this sort of mentality , Daniels by far being the weakest of the links, we will never get anything accomplished.

Ms. Daniels  if you were worth your salt ,you would admit you cannot handle this position ,and STEP DOWN.

[AshleyLauren]

Great summary Ashley.  Was an interesting meeting, and I hope Bill Bishop - chair of Rules - will agree with Gulliford to hold a joint meeting.  I sat in a couple places, mostly surrounded by the "No" group.  They were polite and respectful of those speaking.

One thing Ashley didn't mention, after applause for first speaker (former Council Chair Ginger Soud), Gulliford warned the crowd that if there is another outburst or applause, he will shut down the public testimony.  It worked, everyone kept quiet (except for some murmuring during Daniels' and Redman's excursions into ... wherever the hell they go) for the rest of the speakers.  They did use a lot of time questioning Soud, Halvorson, and the lady from HRC.

Thank you, Charles Hunter!! No one acknowledged my presence,even after I spoke to a few people, I assume because I was not wearing a red or blue sticker and def not those horrid t-shirts, so that made me neutral territory. I felt everyone respected the rules Gulliford set forth, but it is easy to respect the rules when the person in charge cares about what the people are there for; in that regard, Bill Bishop could learn a thing or two for the next Rules Committee. From where I sat, all I got was some huffs and a lot of eye-rolling at CC members. Although, I have to admit I was amongst the very loud gasps when Redman asked, "Do you feel you are male or female?" I am still in shock.

I wish Redman and Daniels were immediately dismissed from their council positions.  Completely incompetent and ignorant of both of them .

I don't think I can agree with incompetent, or maybe I don't want to believe we put incompetent people in positions of power. However, I completely agree with ignorant. The ignorance that has taken place in that room over the last two weeks is astounding. I hope this bill does a lot in terms of people's voting tactics for the next round because we certainly have seen their true colors.

[AshleyLauren]

Yesterday's committee meeting went much better than Monday's.  Guilliford did a masterful job maintaining order.  He needs to teach Bishop a thing or two.  Yarbrough, Redman and Daniels were their normal crazy selfs.  I was actually pretty impressed with Lumb.  He is not supporting the bill but he seemed persuadable and asked some interesting questions.

I agree with Timkin. Lumb definitely has people skills, but (to me) he might be the smartest council member we have. He was the only one that asked questions on Tuesday that appeared unbiased and an attempt at truth-searching. As well as, he seemed genuinely concerned about the acts of discrimination he heard about because the truth is if you are not a LGTB and perhaps you do not have a lot of friends that are then you would not know/understand the horrible things humans are capable of committing towards you. I truly believe Lumb has no idea of the various acts of discrimination that take place on a daily basis. I myself had no idea the horrible things taking place in this city. Yes, I am an educated individual and I know discrimination exists, but I am ashamed of my ignorance of how bad it is out there. Those that live in a bubble can not be blamed for their naivete; however, when the situation is revealed to them and the truth is staring them in the face it is what they do with it that makes them ignorant or not.
I stand behind Lumb because he is the only that appeared to be looking for honest answers about a subject he clearly does not know very much about. I expect Lumb to be in support come time to vote.

Timkin, I am going to add Yarborough and Schellenberg to your list of step downs!

[AshleyLauren]

Stephen, FCN did a piece about Redman's comments. Thought you might want to see the whole thing.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/topstories/article/259131/483/Councilman-said-response-to-public-commenter-did-not-show-him-in-the-best-light

[Tacachale]

Lumb's a bright guy. Like everyone there are instances where his opinions and biases affect his judgment. I wish this wasn't one of those instances, but it is what it is.

Boyer is a wonderful councilwoman.

[finehoe]

Don Redman is such a fool.  What an embarrassment to the City of Jacksonville. 

[AshleyLauren]

Lumb's a bright guy. Like everyone there are instances where his opinions and biases affect his judgment. I wish this wasn't one of those instances, but it is what it is.

Boyer is a wonderful councilwoman.

As I am learning this process, and becoming more attuned to the members of our CC, Lori Boyer is not one that has been verbal at the meetings at all. Hopefully I can see these wonderful accounts of her in action soon.

[Tacachale]

Daniels is evidently filing a bill of her own in response to this. It's about as nuanced and well thought out as you'd expect.

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/403455/steve-patterson/2012-06-07/jacksonville-city-councilwoman-kimberly-daniels-files

[finehoe]

Daniels is evidently filing a bill of her own in response to this. It's about as nuanced and well thought out as you'd expect.

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/403455/steve-patterson/2012-06-07/jacksonville-city-councilwoman-kimberly-daniels-files

LOL @ that picture of her.  Her orange jumpsuit makes it look like she is being arraigned before a judge.

[Timkin]

Don Redman is such a fool.  What an embarrassment to the City of Jacksonville. 

Don Redman asks, "Do you feel you are a male or a female?"  to a clearly Female person.   This Screams incompetence for him to have the audacity (and ignorance)  to ask such a question.  Speaks volumes .

Kimberly Daniels has been tripping all over herself since the day she took office and has not improved over time.  Particularly in discussion of this bill , she has , without a doubt , demonstrated Ignorance, Bias, Discrimination, and Most importantly as I initially stated, Incompetence.

I am embarrassed for the City that minds like these , were elected in the first place and represent City Council.   


CM Lumb is probably among the strongest in our Council.  Like Stephen I have great affection for the man, and did prior to him being voted into City Council.   I think he is a great guy.

[Tacachale]

^It would be nice if Lumb would put that strength and greatness toward passing important legislation like this.

[Bridges]

Seems pretty cowardly what happened yesterday.  Doubt anything happens with this bill once Clay takes over.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/article/260647/3/Anti-discrimination-bill-stalls-in-committee

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The push to pass an anti-discrimination bill in Jacksonville is tabled for at least another month.

The bill is officially called the Human Rights Ordinance #296. It is looking to ban discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individuals in regards to employment and looking for housing.

The human rights bill is in two separate committees, the Rules Committee and the Recreation, Community Development, Public Health & Safety Committee. It must get through both committees before it can go to city council for a vote.

Monday, one of those committees chose to do nothing, pushing the time-table back to after the July 16 Rules Committee meeting.

"We just ran out of time again," said council member and Rules Committee vice chair John Crescembeni.

The bill has been a topic of heated public comment in city council meetings.

"We've had 30, 40, 100 speakers who want to talk about this," Crescembeni said. "I've never had any legislation that's generated as much correspondence - telephone calls, emails - as this legislation has."

But there was no action on the bill in the Rules Committee meeting Monday.

Committee chair Bill Bishop was out sick, and other members left early.

Crescembeni said he chose to move it to the end of the agenda, to make time for other business.

"It got put at the end of the agenda today, it was at the end of the agenda two weeks ago," Crescembeni said. "It gets what time is left and that's probably not fair."

Crescembeni believes because there is so much discussion surrounding the bill, it needs a stand-alone committee. But that's up to the committee chair, Bishop.

The next time the bill reaches the Rules committee, the members will be different.

Matt Schellenberg, Johnny Gaffney and Bill Bishop are leaving.

The next Rules Committee chair will be Clay Yarborough.

The bill is also in the Recreation, Community Development, Public Health & Safety Committee, which meets Tuesday.

The bill must pass both committees before it heads to city council for a vote.

[Doctor_K]

Someone should ask Redman if he's ignorant or just plain stupid.

[AshleyLauren]

Doctor K, I am pretty sure lots of people have! Robin Lumb more or less called him that in meeting when he asked the woman if she thought she was a man or woman.

I feel as if they have pushed this to the end of both meetings on purpose. Gulliford practically made it the only order of business in the RCD/PHS committee meeting two weeks ago, but Bishop only heard one side. On another note, what a coward he wasn't even there yesterday!!!  I think the most upsetting part of this entire thing is how little the members care. They will complain about the influx of e-mails, phone calls, and letters but then not even have the decency to stay til the end of the meeting or show at all. For both sides, it has to be disheartening to get off work early or take the day off altogether, show up and sit through their boring meeting for 15 minutes of conversation about a matter that clearly has the whole city on edge. STOP PUSHING IT BACK!! At least make a damn decision and lets move on. I think there should be one meeting planned. Make it a Friday when the whole council has no other engagement. They must show. Everyone asks the questions and poses their concerns. Work on the writing of the bill and come to an agreement not matter if it takes all day. Then the following Tuesday they have to vote on it. Two hours here and two hours there could take ten years.