Consolidation Task Force

[edjax]

I see per Daily Report that Gulliford has requested Lori Boyer to lead a task for to review all aspects of consolidation.  Noting it has been 45 years and perhaps some changes are needed.  The committee will have community involvement.  Wonder if anything substantial will come from this review?  I think with Boyer leading the review it will be handled in a thorough manner and has some potential for change. Perhaps better for urban core?

[edjax]

Here is the article.



Friday, June 28, 10:01 AM EDT
by David Chapman, Staff Writer

Incoming City Council President Bill Gulliford will create a task force to review "all aspects of consolidation" of City government to determine if changes are needed.
Council member Lori Boyer will lead the citizen-driven group that Gulliford said will comprise up to 30 members of the public who will study the issue and make recommendations for legislative action at the end of a nine-month review.

If City Charter changes are needed, Gulliford said the group could make suggestions for a possible referendum.

"It's been 45 years come this October and we really haven't given it an in-depth look," Gulliford told Boyer during Thursday's noticed meeting.

The review will include the City's relationship with its independent authorities, City ordinance code related to consolidation and overall "what works, what doesn't and what can be improved," Gulliford said.

Gulliford told Boyer over the Council's July 1-12 summer break, he will create suggested parameters, targets and questions to provide preliminary guidance, though he expects the scope to expand "light years" when citizen input begins and the impact to be "very, very significant."

"Honestly, I have been amazed at the enthusiasm met with people who want to jump on board," he said.

Boyer said, after the meeting, she will review Mayor Alvin Brown's transition reports because some of the work possibly was done in that process. She also will review historical information about consolidation and study what parts of the City ordinance code intermingles with the Charter.

Gulliford said he has ideas for some of the task force members and asked Boyer to begin thinking of potential members. He said he hoped to see a diverse group involved and include members from the nonprofit and business communities, as well as those who aren't in agreement with how consolidation has worked.

"It's going to be work and we have to expect that those on it are going to do work and do work outside those meetings," Boyer said.

She said she would expect the group to meet at least every two weeks.

The task force will be bound by the state Sunshine Law, meaning discussions and meetings will be public.

Gulliford suggested that an educational series of meetings could lead to subcommittees that focus on specific topics, similar to the structure of a Council Special Committee on Solid Waste he chaired.

He said he hoped to hear "passionate debate and discord" to spur any changes for the better and said during the meeting he could have created "100 questions about consolidation" he would be interested in, such as questioning the need for 19 Council members.

Gulliford and Boyer will again meet after the Council break to further solidify the task force and its scope.

"It will be absolutely intriguing as a process and rewarding as an outcome," Gulliford said.

He will talk about the task force during his comments at 4 p.m. today at the Council leadership installation ceremony, where he will be sworn in as Council president for the 2013-14 year that begins Monday.

dchapman@baileypub.com

[urbaknight]

I think the city needs to go back to the pre-1968 boundaries. Screw consolidation! It has resulted in everything being stretched too thin. (police, fire, rescue, the libraries, too much sprawl) It's time to cut the suburbs free. They can surly afford to take care of themselves.

[CityLife]

From the Daily Record today:

Some think that when Gulliford appointed Council member Lori Boyer as chair of his consolidation review task force, he is setting dead aim on trying to dismember consolidated government, something Gulliford doesn't seem interested in denying.

He told the Leader that the County government might be better managed by a hired staff instead of an elected mayor and said he wants the review group to consider "depoliticizing the mayor."

Like the pension reform task force, the work of Gulliford's consolidation review group will be interesting to watch over the coming months.

Having had 2 Mayors in a row that don't quite seem to know how to run a city, this would be a fantastic move imo. I've personally witnessed how much better and more efficiently government is run by city manager types vs. politicians.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=539942

[Tacachale]

^Meh. Then they're just beholden to the council that appointed them rather than being elected. This may be appealing to some city council members, but is the council's track record better enough that it would make a difference?

[CityLife]

^Meh. Then they're just beholden to the council that appointed them rather than being elected. This may be appealing to some city council members, but is the council's track record better enough that it would make a difference?

That aspect can be negative and it does potentially enable power brokers to get their guy in place (through council members), but at the same time, it does generally lead to professional level management which we seem to be seriously lacking at the mayoral level. I know we've had some bad luck with council members lately, but they are the ones that see day to day operations, talk with departmental directors, scrutinize the budget, etc. If anyone should know when a mayor/city manager is performing poorly, its council. Ideally, we would be able to entrust them to hire a highly skilled and competent manager and demand results.

In our current situation, our mayor seems to be absolutely clueless and doesn't have to answer to anyone for two years. And even then, he will be wasting an entire year campaigning and governing for show, instead of governing for the future. Additionally, the city manager structure allows continuity (if properly performing), which can ensure that long range goals and visions are carried out, instead of 4 years of this, 8 years of that, 4 years of this, and so on.

Also, when I said it would be a fantastic move, I didn't mean that the move away from a strong mayor would be fantastic, just that evaluating it for Jacksonville would be a good move.

[spuwho]

Libraries and Parks definitely need to be split out.

I would easily vote for a referendum to tax me for libraries and parks separately from COJ.

I don't really care if the city wants to stay consolidated, actually it provides the potential of control of sprawl, though that may be the problem.

[urbaknight]

Libraries and Parks definitely need to be split out.

I would easily vote for a referendum to tax me for libraries and parks separately from COJ.

I don't really care if the city wants to stay consolidated, actually it provides the potential of control of sprawl, though that may be the problem.

I say DOWN WITH CONSOLIDATION!!!

[Jax101]

I think the city needs to go back to the pre-1968 boundaries. Screw consolidation! It has resulted in everything being stretched too thin. (police, fire, rescue, the libraries, too much sprawl) It's time to cut the suburbs free. They can surly afford to take care of themselves.

Consolidation practically saved this city, downtown would be worse than Detroit without consolidation,  riverside/Avondale would be ghettos. Independent life building? Bank of America tower? Forget it, they would have never been constructed without consolidation. Our resources are only streched thin because we aren't willing to spend the money necessary to run a city of this size.

[icarus]

I actually went back to the beginning and reread this thread a second time.  Is there a link or any specific information in regards to what they hope to accomplish in reviewing consolidation?

I remember studying this topic and remembering that amongst other things Atlantic beach had the highest property tax rates in the state for a time because it maintained its own police, fire and city services post consolidation.

It seems like some of the comments made here could be more adequately addressed by a review of how the existing consolidated services are managed versus attempting to create duplicative services. Call me crazy but that seems like we'll end up spending more money on administration then services.

[heights unknown]

They'll probably recommend the doing away of consolidation and erecting new borders for Jacksonville; thus the population will be around 330,000 rather than almost 900,000.

Heights Unknown

[heights unknown]

I think the city needs to go back to the pre-1968 boundaries. Screw consolidation! It has resulted in everything being stretched too thin. (police, fire, rescue, the libraries, too much sprawl) It's time to cut the suburbs free. They can surly afford to take care of themselves.

I think that would be too costly, and might take time to return back to 1968 boundaries. I say keep consolidation, but ensure that it works FOR the city instead of against it.

HU

[John P]

I think the city needs to go back to the pre-1968 boundaries. Screw consolidation! It has resulted in everything being stretched too thin. (police, fire, rescue, the libraries, too much sprawl) It's time to cut the suburbs free. They can surly afford to take care of themselves.

Consolidation practically saved this city, downtown would be worse than Detroit without consolidation,  riverside/Avondale would be ghettos. Independent life building? Bank of America tower? Forget it, they would have never been constructed without consolidation. Our resources are only streched to thin because we aren't willing to spend the money necessary to run a city of this size.

+1,000,000

The mayor is too concerns with keeping a campaign promise than doing whats best for the city.

[CityLife]

I think the city needs to go back to the pre-1968 boundaries. Screw consolidation! It has resulted in everything being stretched too thin. (police, fire, rescue, the libraries, too much sprawl) It's time to cut the suburbs free. They can surly afford to take care of themselves.

Our resources are only streched thin because we aren't willing to spend the money necessary to run a city of this size.

A city of this size population wise or land mass wise? Are you saying that you don't think its significantly more expensive for Jacksonville to pay for police, fire, roads, schools, etc in a sprawling city than a more compact one? Because I've directly heard the opposite from JSO leaders...and a universal argument against sprawl is the increased cost of services, so...

[Tacachale]

^It's Both. Jacksonville isn't any more sprawled out than other Florida metros that don't have the same problems funding their services we currently do (in fact, our own suburban counties don't seem to have that problem).