City Council President Bill Bishop says it's time to vote Jacksonville gay rights bill up or down
The budget hearings set to start in August are like a storm on the horizon for Jacksonville City Council members.
Before it hits, council President Bill Bishop wants to clear the decks of two other big votes ? a bill that would add gays to the city?s human rights ordinance and a bill creating a downtown investment authority.
The anti-discrimination bill has generated thousands of emails, letters and phone calls to council members since it was introduced in May. Bishop said one way or the other, it?s time to decide before the budget takes priority.
?Vote it up or down,? Bishop told council members. ?We?ve got a lot of things to deal with, and that is one that would be nice to not have on our plate for very much longer.?
But council committees didn?t vote last week to move either the gay rights or the downtown investment authority bills forward for a full council vote Tuesday. That means the earliest the council could vote is Aug. 14, unless Bishop pulls them out of committee and onto the council floor for a vote, as he has the power to do.
The council?s ability to finalize action on those bills will foreshadow its capacity to grapple with Mayor Alvin Brown?s proposed budget, which already has come under sharp criticism by Sheriff John Rutherford for cuts to his department.
Finance Committee Chairman John Crescimbeni said he agrees with Bishop?s game plan.
?The budget process is going to be very cumbersome this year,? he said. ?We?re going to spend so much time on the budget that we?re going to need to get the other items wrapped up before we launch that.?
The council took its traditional two-week summer break the first half of July, so last week was the first time Bishop and his new roster of committees were in action.
Three of the council?s black members ? Warren Jones, Denise Lee and Reginald Brown ? did not attend the meetings, continuing their protest of the racial makeup of the rules and finance committees.
Bishop appointed one black council member to the rules committee and one black member to the finance committee. Jones said that is token representation. He wants Bishop to add another black council member to each committee, expanding the size of each to eight members.
?I hope that there will be some type of resolution,? Jones said.
Bishop was out of town late last week and not available for comment on what he will do in response.
His direction for the council to move forward pending legislation did not result in any immediate breakthroughs. There was no discussion, much less votes, by committees on the human rights legislation.
Rules Committee Chairman Clay Yarborough said with the new committees in action for the first time and council members just coming off summer break and, chairmen opted to wait until the next round of meetings Aug. 6-7.
?As far as a timeline for that, it just depends on how the discussions go,? Yarborough said. ?The last time it was brought up before the recess, there was a lot of discussion and it kept getting deferred. I?m not sure when that will come to finality. I definitely agree that if we have that going on during the budget, that can serve to be a distraction from the budget.?
He said there is a ?high likelihood? legislation for a downtown investment authority can be ready for a council vote Aug. 14.
Don Shea, executive director of the Jacksonville Civic Council, said he was ?mildly disappointed? that committees didn?t vote last week on creating a downtown authority.
?On the other hand, I saw an awful lot of effort there,? he said.
Shea has worked with the mayor?s office for passage of the bill and said he?s confident it will just take one more meeting of the joint committee to finish.
He said he agrees with Bishop that council should take its stand one way or another on the human rights ordinance bill. Shea supports it.
?My gut instinct is we?ve probably public-hearinged it to death,? he said, ?and it?s time to put it to a vote.?
david.bauerlein@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4581
johnny knox johnny knox monday night football monday night football bonjovi bonjovi antonio brown
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.