Jacksonville Councilman wants to freeze half of Sheriff's budget

[thelakelander]

Definitely don't see this happening in Jax:

A Jacksonville City Councilman wants to freeze nearly half of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office's $484 million budget and require the Sheriff to appear before the council in six months to receive the remaining portion, which he said could give council members more time to develop a better understanding of the agency's financial needs and better position them to receive information from the agency.

The plan, which was proposed by Councilman Garrett Dennis and will be voted on by the council Tuesday, has already attracted opposition from council members and Mayor Lenny Curry, who have described it as an attempt to defund the police and vowed to defeat it. A Curry aide said the Mayor would consider vetoing the budget if Dennis' plan passed, which would be an unprecedented action.

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/local/2020/09/22/jacksonville-councilman-wants-freeze-half-sheriffs-budget/3493648001/

[marcuscnelson]

Good on him for giving increased accountability the college try.

[Steve]

Here's the thing: I agree there needs to be accountability, especially given what seems like a culture of law breaking INSIDE the department. But, dropping this at the 11th hour seems like a political stunt by CM Dennis.

If he wanted budget accountability, the Mayor presented the budget in early July. Bring it up then.

[MusicMan]

Almost half a billion dollars? Damn. And we still have a really high violent crime rate, don't we? 

[Steve]

^No argument something needs to change. But this wasn't the way to do it.

Personally, I think he was trying to do this to start the conversation. But I don't believe this is the right way to do it.

[thelakelander]

The Jacksonville City Council passed Mayor Lenny Curry’s $1.33 billion budget relatively intact Sept. 22, but not before a nearly two-hour debate over the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office $468 million in funding.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/jacksonville-city-council-approves-dollar1-33-billion-2020-21-budget

[sandyshoes]

As I have never needed to contact a city council member, can someone explain to me how a council person represents each of us?  Do they meet with individuals or groups.  Are they supposed to remain neutral and not take sides with said individuals or groups?  I'd like to have a full understanding of how things get done.  Again, I've never had to contact anyone so I have zero knowledge of the workings of such. Thanks.

[Steve]

As I have never needed to contact a city council member, can someone explain to me how a council person represents each of us?  Do they meet with individuals or groups.  Are they supposed to remain neutral and not take sides with said individuals or groups?  I'd like to have a full understanding of how things get done.  Again, I've never had to contact anyone so I have zero knowledge of the workings of such. Thanks.

In theory they should work just like a Representative in Congress. They absolutely can take sides on issues and they serve (in Jacksonville's Government) a very similar role to Congress in terms of checks and balances with the Mayor (they pass bills that go to the Mayor to sign, he can veto which can be overridden with 13 of the 19 council members, etc.). The one difference is there's a total of 19 - 14 district ones (which represent a district of about 70k people if I remember right) and 5 At Large members, who all represent the entire city but have to live in one of 5 geographic groups. As an example, Matt Carlucci is the At Large council member for Group 4. He had to live in Group 4, but the entire city voted on him and represents every citizen in Jacksonville.

My understanding is the number of council members was done as a way to accommodate the 5 members of the Duval County Commission, the legislative body of the Duval County government prior to Consolidation in 1968. I believe also that the At Large Groups (thereby ensuring that the 5 At Large Members lived in different parts of the city) came later.

I bring up Carlucci as I find him hyper responsive, in a good way. He's answered almost every single email I've sent him and he is very engaging. Some on the other hand are not as responsive. Council Members are technically part-time employees and are generally paid as such, making nowhere near the mayor's salary (I believe it's around $50k for council members and $65k for the Council President). All are allowed a full time assistant, and most council members utilize them. The most recent example of one not having an aide was John Cresembeni.

[Bill Hoff]

+1 for Dennis's strategy for renaming Hemming Park to JWJ Park. A cold blooded stroke a genius to suggest emergency bills to rename other parks.

-1 for Dennis's strategy for creating conversation & better accountability at JSO. Handed his political opponents an easy win on a platter, and looked a bit silly doing so.

Win some, lose some, I guess.

[marcuscnelson]

To be fair, I didn't expect anything related to the police to have passed. The numbers weren't there to touch that part of the budget no matter what. I've been in his position before.

[Charles Hunter]

Steve is right about the change in how the At Large members are selected.  I don't remember when the change took place, but it was in response to a trend of most of the 5 At Large members coming from the same part of town (San Jose / Mandarin, if I recall).

Here is the City Council section of the COJ website: https://www.coj.net/city-council.aspx

To find your District Council member enter your address on this page: http://maps.coj.net/CouncilDistrictSearch/
Sadly, it does not tell you who "your" At Large member is.

[Steve]

Steve is right about the change in how the At Large members are selected.  I don't remember when the change took place, but it was in response to a trend of most of the 5 At Large members coming from the same part of town (San Jose / Mandarin, if I recall).

Here is the City Council section of the COJ website: https://www.coj.net/city-council.aspx

To find your District Council member enter your address on this page: http://maps.coj.net/CouncilDistrictSearch/
Sadly, it does not tell you who "your" At Large member is.

Well, your At Large Councilman is all 5 of them. Everyone votes for all of them and they all represent everyone.

Now, you can pull a map of the At-Large Groups and assuming you can find where you live on a map then you can see who is the one that lives in your group.

[Steve]

+1 for Dennis's strategy for renaming Hemming Park to JWJ Park. A cold blooded stroke a genius to suggest emergency bills to rename other parks.

-1 for Dennis's strategy for creating conversation & better accountability at JSO. Handed his political opponents an easy win on a platter, and looked a bit silly doing so.

Win some, lose some, I guess.

See, this is my problem. I didn't like the process in which we arrived at JWJ Park. Regardless of how great of a person JWJ was, the process to rename something that has had it's name for 130 years shouldn't happen in the manner in which it did.

Now to be fair, Becton didn't help this process either, but frankly, I don't think Becton brings a lot to most conversations unfortunately.

This is going to sound strange, but I actually think Curry and Dennis are cut from a very similar cloth. They both have very different views on policy for sure, but neither of them have shown to be very good collaborators and seem to want to do everything themselves. This is a huge personality issue with both men.

[marcuscnelson]

This is going to sound strange, but I actually think Curry and Dennis are cut from a very similar cloth. They both have very different views on policy for sure, but neither of them have shown to be very good collaborators and seem to want to do everything themselves. This is a huge personality issue with both men.

So populism. You're saying they're both populists who tend against delegating. I can see how that could be considered a negative. For me, in my own experience, I've been burned by "collaborators" who were only seeking benefits for their convenience and don't actually want to do anything beneficial for citizens more times than I'd like. So I can see how people like Dennis would get fed up and roll up their sleeves. There's no value in being a "team player" if what the team wants is wrong.

[Charles Hunter]

Steve is right about the change in how the At Large members are selected.  I don't remember when the change took place, but it was in response to a trend of most of the 5 At Large members coming from the same part of town (San Jose / Mandarin, if I recall).

Here is the City Council section of the COJ website: https://www.coj.net/city-council.aspx

To find your District Council member enter your address on this page: http://maps.coj.net/CouncilDistrictSearch/
Sadly, it does not tell you who "your" At Large member is.

Well, your At Large Councilman is all 5 of them. Everyone votes for all of them and they all represent everyone.

Now, you can pull a map of the At-Large Groups and assuming you can find where you live on a map then you can see who is the one that lives in your group.

Yeah, that's why I put "your" in quotes in referring to At-Large members.  Thought it would be easily understoond shorthand for
Sadly, it does not tell you who the At Large member who resides in the same At Large Residence Zone as you.