TU: Mayor Alvin Brown to embark on reorganization ahead of City Council vote

Please take a look at this.  I personally am very concerned about what appears to be an attempt to centralize power under the mayor office and appoint folks that for all intents and purposes appear to be CZARS.  I do not think the mayor's office should be allowed to turn any of these entities into political footballs with changes in personnel that "see" his point of view politically instead of doing their job or perhaps even favor one class of people over another which seems very popular at the federal level right now (not popular with most people but popular with the politicians).  The city already has enough problems and we don't need an empire maker for Mayor.  Right now, he needs to focus on solving the problems not trying to grease the skids to his re-election or to aid and abett the current president in his bid for re-election by setting our city up in a manner that might be useful for that.  I just do not have the warm fuzzies over some of this, and it is yet another matter that needs to be addressed immediately because the council has rushed this through at Christmas when most people are either away or going away for the Christmas holiday.............that in itself makes me very skeptical!

 

The council supports the mayor's plans for reorganization in local government, but won't vote on them by Tuesday.

Posted: December 12, 2011 - 12:02am | Updated: December 12, 2011 - 6:12am

Smoothing out the rough spots

Mayor Alvin Brown’s plan to reorganize Jacksonville City Hall has met some resistance from City Council members and civic figures in the run-up to a council vote. These are some worries that came up and varying ways they’ve been addressed:

Children’s Commission: Brown’s plan made the commission’s executive director directly accountable to the Mayor’s Office instead of the commission’s board. Skeptics worried that could add political overtones to some agency roles, such as distributing grants. The subject was still under discussion Friday.

Planning and Development Department: The bill proposed making the planning department part of the city’s economic development arm to help businesses speed up construction permitting and approvals. Council members questioned how well a development agency could serve neighborhood needs. Council committees voted to keep planning separate from economic development.

Commissioners: Brown wanted to call high-level administrators “commissioners.” Council members said that was confusing; Jacksonville once had elected city commissioners and elected Duval County commissioners, got rid of both in 1968, and now has dozens of unpaid advisory board members called commissioners. Brown’s staff asked for deference, but council committees voted to change the administrators’ title to “officers.”

Block grants: Some council members questioned whether changes to the Housing and Community Development Division could politicize how federal block grants are spent. Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Hyde said that wasn’t intended and offered to draft new language to show that. A change could be proposed before committees vote next month.

Office names: A panel of ex-City Hall administrators suggested an office Brown would label the Intra-Governmental Services Department could work fine with its old name, Central Services. After Brown’s council liaison, Jessica Deal, explained the reasoning for the new name, council members decided against trying to change it back.


Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown plans to forge ahead with portions of his plan to reorganize city government, even as the City Council puts off approving the plan until at least next month.

The changes the mayor will embark on are mainly internal, such as changing employee responsibilities or physically moving offices.

At the same time, Brown is continuing to press the council for its approval, which he’ll need to change titles, modify who reports to whom and create new departments.

“In order to really move forward,” he said, “they should pass it. I’m not waiting for the council. The citizens can’t wait.”

Since introducing the reorganization plans to the City Council just over a month ago, Brown has pushed for the plans to be passed by Dec. 13, a time frame seen as either ambitious or impossible.

“I’ve said from the beginning that it was a little aggressive to get an entire reorganization of the city done in one [council] cycle,” said council President Stephen Joost. “We’re just doing our due diligence.”

Nevertheless, Brown and his staff have said they thought the plan would be approved at Tuesday’s meeting, the earliest possible date. The fact that the council did not meet that deadline, said both Brown and Joost, should not be viewed as a sign of difficulty in the relationship between the legislative and executive branches.

“When laying out a vision,” Brown said, “not every member catches the vision immediately.”

Much of the Brown’s ideas have the council’s support, Joost said. He anticipates 95 percent or more of the plan passing.

“It’s simply council doing its job,” he said.

The fact that Brown’s plan isn’t being passed on his timetable, say those who watched the process, is in part a result of not having yet forged relationships with all the council and in part the simple fact of being new to the job.

“He’s never been in [city] government,” said former Mayor Jake Godbold. “He has an inexperienced staff. That doesn’t mean they’re not smart, but they’re new.”

On the other hand, said Godbold, who also served as council president: “Every mayor has his challenges with [the] council.”

Brown’s ambitious plan is the sort of thing that council members want to pore over, making quick passage unlikely.

“This is almost like having a charter change,” Godbold said. “He really took on a challenge.”

Mayors come into office convinced they have a mandate, an idea Brown echoes when he says that he’ll start moving ahead with changes in order to “keep my commitment to the citizens of Jacksonville.”

Then, the executive runs into a legislative branch that sees itself with its own mandate.

“We are set up for this very thing to happen,” said former Councilwoman Suzanne Jenkins, who butted heads with then-Mayor John Peyton over courthouse construction issues. “It’s a pain in the rear for both sides. No one enjoys it. But the citizens gain from the process.”

At the end of the day, Brown could also gain from the process, particularly as the administration gears up for putting together next year’s budget.

Work on that officially begins early next year, but some in the administration have already been tasked with finding cuts in their departments.

As the budget process plays out, the relationships built and lessons learned during the reorganization process will come into play.

timothy.gibbons@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4103


Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-12-12/story/mayor-alvin-bro...

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Comment by DURWIN WALTER DAVIS on December 14, 2011 at 3:40pm

Our "city council" has a living example to follow, our federal congress; both "houses", senate and H-R.  They've sent all of their duties and responsibilities to the executive branch.  Where do you think all of those "secretaries of unrestricted regulation" came from?  I believe in Rick Perry's attitude, halve their salary and send them back to work in the private sector.  Thanx to the 545 theives-in-resience, all we need is a KING.  We don't NEED no stinkin' legislatures with their junquetts all over the globe.  Especially the H-R!!!  They have nothing to do with treaties!!!  That's only for the Lords and Monarchy; not the people, taxpayers or otherwise.  Its stupid for individuals to contribute to H-R members.  Plug up the system with the House of Lords.

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on December 14, 2011 at 1:50pm

 

Mike, they voted 16 to 1 to give Brown control over everything but the children's commission which was removed from the bill. You are right Mike, and the thing that Tony didn't seem to realize when he was trying to convince me it was a great idea because this is how it used to be is that if having the mayor have total control was such a grand idea, they wouldn't have moved away from it to start with, now would they?  For some reason, some council in the past decided it was not a good idea and they changed it and got rid of the mayor as the middle man, so now instead of making things more stream lined, we have actually added another layer that is wholly political.  But here we go again as the mayor is now in charge to use all the boards and the rest for he and those he supports for whatever political purpose will advantage them while those who recieve our money will continue to.............as far as I am concerned, we might just as well have shut them down for all the good they will be to the residents now!

Comment by Chuck Morrison on December 14, 2011 at 1:50pm

"Checks and Balances" was designed into our system by the Founding Fathers who were quite familiar with the effects of tyranny based upon their collective experiences.  Monarchies and dictatorships can be very efficient, but does anyone other than obamacrats want another dose of Stalin or Pol Pot?

Comment by Mike Reed on December 14, 2011 at 1:24pm

This can be discussed, rationalized, justified, explained or sugar coated however you want to portray it. Bottom line is when you take the power away from a council, commission, or board then give it to an individual, it's not the way our form of government was designed to function. At that point it turns from a Representative Republic to Tyranny. That's the very thing that is happening at the Federal level. We can't lose that at the State or Local level.  Our Government is designed to try its best to do the work of the people. One man can't here all the voices needed to do that. One man will cater to his buddies, ( It's human nature). I don't want that of a Mayor from either side of the isle.  

Comment by DURWIN WALTER DAVIS on December 14, 2011 at 9:29am

Tony; I understand the question of, "who are the experts"?  I understand your pointing out the "appointees" of previous regimes, whom I think are experts at deferring to the point of obscurity, to help in the "cleaning and gleaning" of the JAX TAXPAYERS.  I continue that this ALVINISTIC regime is filled with the losers of judge and bugsy moran and their moles carried over from the mullaney machine. These are "experts" of "government skim operations" and have agents provoquetuer in the city council.  I'm just praying if we have another instance of council embezzeling brought for that the palestinian princess won't be bought off like the rabbi who preceeded her.

 

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on December 14, 2011 at 7:52am

Tony, there are some instances where this mayor is "taking over" something or several somethings he knows zero about period and putting in a middle man so to speak by saying he will decide what comes from these commissions and boards to be put before the city council.  I am not in favor of that.  Tony, we will have to agree not to agree on this as I do not plan on changing my mind.  In at least one instance, having the mayor makes decisions would be a disaster since he is purely a politician and could use our tax dollars in relation to this commission to buy votes for federal candidates.  I don't dislike this mayor, but I don't want any mayor/politician using my tax dollars in a manner that helps him, his political party or his friends.  All the people on these commissions and committees are vetted by the council and most have experience in or training to work in the areas where they are; the mayor does not and in fact, this mayor, has very little of anything that passes for experience doing anything.  That said, I don't dislike him, I just don't think he should be allowed to turn everything in the city into a political entity to be used by him in a political manner along with our tax dollars and don't want him making the decisions about what goes before the council for every thing in Jacksonville that our tax dollars fund.

Comment by Tony Bates on December 13, 2011 at 11:34pm

From a historical perspective and our current government structure - less consider the following comments concerning the current Mayor from a previous post;    take over from a group of experts and decide what should be done or even appoint his buds because they believe what he beleives politically. I guess my next question might be, do you even know what some of these people do???? and you really want the mayor running these things even though you don't know what they do or what their function is????  

 

First - who was this group of “experts” that the current Mayor took over from?.  

The people who are gone were prior Mayors (Delany/Peyton) APPOINTEES.  Were these buddies of a prior Mayor?  We heard that same talk by Peyton distracters. This is no “power grab” only the normal transition of a new administration. These are- not - civil service / permanent positions. The government is designed that way. This gives a new Mayor the power to put his own people in place (buddies ??) and not have to deal with an entrenched bureaucracy.


I, personally, am comfortable with this process and especially if the Mayor elected is one of my choosing. This Mayor has done nothing new in “‘cleaning house”. 

Comment by DURWIN WALTER DAVIS on December 13, 2011 at 8:26pm

If the reference is that ALVIN is the WOLF, that almost certainly makes the majority of the City Council a pack of Coyotes.

Comment by Patricia Faunt on December 13, 2011 at 4:23pm

He thinks like Obama.  I think he's a wolf in sheeps clothing.  Watch him closely.

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on December 12, 2011 at 6:10pm

Amanda, I can agree with you on some things, but NO, I do not think someone who has (almost like Obama) never had a real job take over from a group of experts and decide what should be done or even appoint his buds because they believe what he beleives politically.  I guess my next question might be, do you even know what some of these people do???? and you really want the mayor running these things even though you don't know what they do or what their function is????  Please try to remember he doesn't know what they do, what their function is and that he is first and foremost a politician?

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