JACKSONVILLE CITY COUNCIL

 

 

CITY COUNCIL AGENDA MEETING MINUTES

 

June 10, 2008

3:00 p.m.

 

City Council Conference Room A

Suite 425, City Hall

117 W. Duval Street

 

 

Attendance: Council President Davis, Council Members Clark, Webb, Redman, M. Jones, Holt, Yarborough, Corrigan, Bishop, Joost, Graham, Fussell and W. Jones

 

Also: Peggy Sidman, Steve Rohan, Dylan Reingold and Shannon Eller – Office of General Counsel; Kirk Sherman and Janice Billy – Council Auditor’s Office; Dana Farris and Carol Owens – Legislative Services Division; Lisa Rinaman, Sherry Hall and Shannon Hewett – Mayor’s Office; Lin White – Dept. of Public Works; Brad Thoburn – Planning and Development Department; Wight Greger and Kelly Boree – Recreation and Community Development Department; Paul Crawford and Joe Whitaker – JEDC; Cheryl Brown – Council Secretary; Sheriff John Rutherford; Dianne Smith, Debbie Delgado, Suzanne Warren, Alison Miller, Susie Loving, Sandra Lane, Tiffany Clark, Meghan Friel, Sarah Balme, Allison Miller, Celeste Hicks, Rupal Wells and Angela Ryan – ECAs; Kevin Meerschaert – WJCT; Joe Adams – Florida Times-Union; Paul Harden – agent; Ken Johnson – office of Congresswoman Corinne Brown; Angela Getter – Edward Waters College; Tom Ingram – agent; Scott Crosby - agent

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:04 p.m. by Council President Davis. 

 

Council Member W. Jones gave the Rules Committee report. 

 

Assistant Council Auditor Janice Billy gave the Finance Committee report.  She noted that Ordinance 2008-27 (dogs in outdoor restaurants) had conflicting amendments.  The PHS Committee amendment incorporates and expands upon the Finance Committee amendment and should be taken up first.

 

Ms. Billy also gave the PHS committee report, noting that all items had been covered by the previous committee reports.

 

Council Member Clark gave the TEU Committee report, noting that Resolution 2008-509 supporting the Knowledge Is Power Program coming to Jacksonville was being recommended for action as an emergency tonight on first reading.  Ken Johnson of Congresswoman Corinne Brown’s office spoke in support of the KIPP resolution and briefly explained how KIPP schools work to address low student achievement.  In response to a question from Council Member Fussell about whether the City had received the information referenced in the resolution, Lisa Rinaman of the Mayor’s Office responded that we had.  She has appointments scheduled with several council members immediately following the agenda meeting to discuss that information and answer questions.  A representative of the local group working to bring KIPP to Jacksonville will be present at tonight’s meeting to answer questions as well. 

 

Council Member Graham gave the RCD Committee report, noting that all items had been previously covered.

 

Council Member Corrigan gave the LUZ Committee report.  He noted that 2008-243 (Alta Drive rezoning) seemed to have been worked out after a meeting of several council members with the developer and neighborhood representatives, but today more e-mails were exchanged calling the compromise into question.  Tom Ingram representing the rezoning applicant/developer explained the substance of the agreements reached in the compromise last week.  Scott Crosby representing the area homeowners stated that the neighborhood had agreed to a series of compromises, but the revised site plan that has been produced to show the agreed-upon compromises changes the shape and location of a lake and therefore does not provide the buffer the community thought they were agreeing to.  He requested a two week deferral to iron out this last sticking point.  The Council President asked Council Member Holt to meet with the two representatives immediately following the agenda meeting to try and craft a compromise that can be approved at the meeting tonight.

 

The President introduced Sheriff John Rutherford to explain Ordinance 2008-428 which adds 40 new positions to the Sheriff’s employee cap to hire new patrol officers.  The Sheriff described how the funding was identified within existing resources in his department for the remainder of this fiscal year.  Thereafter he has a number of potential funding sources in mind to fund these positions in the next fiscal year, including the recently-increased inmate food and medical payment fees, increased wrecker fees, reduced operational expenses (cell phones and maintenance), charging fees to special events that require substantial amounts of traffic control that do not currently pay the fee (i.e. ACC baseball tournament, Monster Truck Show), and privatization of JSO vehicle maintenance.  The Sheriff explained the rationale behind increasing inmate fees and described the mechanism by which they will be collected.  The Sheriff also explained that Council’s funding for Operation Safe Streets ran out on June 4th so that program is on hold until further funding is identified.  President Davis recommended that the bill be deferred for 2 weeks so that all council members could have all their questions thoroughly answered before voting.

 

Steve Rohan of the General Counsel’s Office requested that the public hearing on Ordinance 2008-341 (re-employment of retired JSO officers) be opened and continued to the next meeting to allow for a required actuarial study to be completed before the final vote.

 

Council Member Fussell stated that he would be offering a floor amendment to 2008-315 (hurricane zone maps) to allow for alterations to the official maps if a property owner has competent technical evidence to dispute a property’s inclusion within the zone.  Assistant General Counsel Shannon Eller state that the floor amendment would aid the City in coming to a resolution with the Florida Department of Community Affairs of a dispute over the hurricane zone maps.

 

Steve Rohan introduced 6 interns serving in the Office of General Counsel’s Municipal Law Center for the summer.

 

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:47 p.m.

 

 

 

Jeff Clements, Chief

Council Research Division

630-1405

 

 

                                                                                                                        Posted 6/11/08

                                                                                                                                                                9:22 a.m.