JACKSONVILLE
CITY COUNCIL AGENDA MEETING MINUTES
April 22, 2008
3:00 p.m.
City Council Conference Room A
117 W. Duval Street
Attendance: Council
President Davis, Council Members Clark, Redman, W. Jones, M. Jones, Fussell, Gaffney,
Yarborough, Bishop, Webb, Joost and Graham
Also: Peggy Sidman, Steve
Rohan, Dylan Reingold, Shannon Eller, and Tracey Arpen – Office of General
Counsel; Kirk Sherman and Janice Billy – Council Auditor’s Office; Dana Farris
and Carol Owens – Legislative Services Division; Lisa Rinaman and Sherry Hall –
Mayor’s Office; Lin White and Bob Williams – Dept. of Public Works; John Crofts
and Bill Killingsworth – Planning and Development Department; Ebenezer
Gujjarlapudi and Fred Forbes – Environmental Resource Management Department; Robert
Phillips – Supervisor of Elections’ Office; Dianne Smith, Debbie Delgada, Stan
Johnson, Tiffany Clark, Suzanne Warren, Celeste Hicks, Sandra Lane, Meghan
Friel, Alison Miller and Jenny Huxford – ECAs; Annette Hastings – Tourist
Development Council; Rachel Welsh – Staff Services; Kevin Meerschaert – WJCT; Beth
Kormanik – Florida Times-Union; Paul
Harden – attorney; T.R. Hainline – attorney;
The meeting was called to
order at 3:00 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 on Ordinance 2007-401 (courthouse construction), the
Finance Committee’s amendment encompassed the Rules Committee’s amendment and
added Mr. Joost’s provision that the proceeds from the sale of the existing
courthouse and City Hall annex properties on the riverfront will be applied to
the whole courthouse complex project.
Ms. Billy reported that the
PHS and RCD committee items were covered by the two previous reports.
Council Member Clark gave the
TEU Committee report.
Council Member Yarborough gave
the LUZ Committee report, noting that the committee had had a very short
meeting the previous week. Two bills not
already so marked on the preliminary agenda are being requested for postponement
to May 13th – 2008-245 and 2008-238.
Assistant General Counsel
Peggy Sidman stated that several Council Members have requested a floor
amendment for 2008-299 – the Animal Care and Control animal holding time
ordinance. Council Member Graham stated
that this is a very emotional issue and he expects a large number of speakers
will want to address this issue from both sides. Ebenezer Gujjarlapudi, Director of the Environmental
and Resource Management Department, distributed a fact sheet about the bill to
dispel some misinformation that seems to be circulating in the general
public. The intent of the bill is NOT to
hasten euthanasia of animals picked up by or dropped off in the custody of
Animal Care and Control, but rather to speed up the time in which adoptable
animals can be moved out of the shelter and into the adoption system.
Council President Davis
expressed his desire to change the rules regarding introduction of bills by the
Council President at the request of some other person or entity so as to make
it clear who the real initiator of the legislation is. He has received several calls in the past few
days regarding bill 2008-260 (sale and purchase of secondhand recyclable
metals) from persons who, upon seeing “Council President” on the introducer
line, think that he is responsible for the bill. Deputy General Counsel Steve Rohan stated
that the situation could be resolved.
Assistant General Counsel
Dylan Reingold requested that the public hearing on 2008-192 (
The group was reminded of the
shade meeting scheduled for 3:30 p.m. to discuss the issue of challenging water
withdrawals from the St. Johns River in
President Davis requested the
Council to take action as an emergency tonight on resolution 2008-309
supporting the construction of a CSX Railroad integrated logistics center in
The group extended its best
wishes to
There being no further
business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:18 p.m.
Jeff Clements, Chief
Council Research Division
630-1405