Will the ETHICAL Leaders Please Step Forward?

Mr. Ronald Littlepage, in his opinion piece in Sunday's Times-Union asks for something we really need here in Jacksonville: leadership.

He claims that Jacksonville is stuck in the doldrums; Mayor Peyton is a lame-duck (and one who appears to have just had enough of politics) and our City Council's leadership cadre, in Mr. Littlepage's words "isn't exactly visionary."

Mr. Littlepage is a master of understatement. The fact is, from a leadership perspective, we are in pretty rough shape.

What shocks me the most about Mr. Littlepage's piece is that he ignores ethics completely. He calls for leaders to step forward, he discusses who some of those future leaders might be, and how they might address solving some of our problems, but he skirts around the real problem: the vast majority of our politicians seem to be out for themselves, and the Ethics Commission, the only watchdog we have, is chained up & muzzled so it can't protect our interests. Never mind that the politicians are supposed to be looking out for our interests.

I completely agree with Mr. Littlepage that we really need some leadership here. I do have to question why it is that he seems to be ignoring the ethics issue. Unless he doesn't see these kinds of things as a problem?

Whether he does or doesn't, I can tell you that I do. A number of my friends and neighbors do, too.

If you, like me, want to send a message to our leaders, please sign the Trail Ridge Petition, asking for a Conflict of Interest Investigation. If our elected officials won't act ethically, it's our duty as citizens to put them on notice.

Jacksonville's Toothless Tiger

Today's post is about Jacksonville's Toothless Tiger - Carla Miller, the City Ethics Officer (and her compatriots in ineffectivness, the Jacksonville Ethics Commission).

I'm want to make this clear up front - I'm NOT attacking Ms. Miller on any sort of personal level. I think she's made it clear that she takes her job seriously and believes in what she's doing. She's a fomer federal prosecutor, she's been all over the world helping cities develop ethics program...she knows her stuff. The problem is that she can't do her job properly even if she wants to! Because here in Jacksonville, "politics as usual" means that that last thing anyone wants is the Ethics Officer to go around enforcing any sort of decent standarss!

The Florida Times-Union has put out two interesting pieces in the last few days. I apologize, readers, for taking so long to get to them, because they're pretty important pieces. The first details an akward, embarrasing moment for this city and the second explains how we've come to this situation.

While you should absolutely read both of those stories, I'll sum up for you. The Jacksonville Ethics Commission is a 9 member board and the members are appointed by the Mayor, City Council President, School Board, etc. Each of those members owe their position to someone - the person who appointed them. The Commission has no full-time staff and no real budget. They don't have any real power to go initiate investigations. If the Florida Times-Union has it correct, Ethics Officer Carla Miller doesn't even report to the Commission - her bosses (plural!) are the Mayor and The City Council.

Even if - IF - either the Commission or Ms. Miller WANTED to do an investigation, they'd be stuck in the gates. No money, no staff, and the fact that at any given moment they have a natural conflict of interest themselves - do they serve their bosses, the city, the taxpayers? Or do they just do the best they can to cover their own behinds in an ugly situation?

Again we come to my favorite topic, Jack Webb and Trail Ridge. As I'm sure you know, City Council VP Jack Webb has done a real good job of making it look like he sold his vote - and his influential voice - to Republic Services, the billion-dollar waste management company that wants to operate the Trail Ridge Landfill. You'll see in various posts here and in all kinds of news stories at the Times-Union that both Webb and Republic look really bad - it's hard to see how this wasn't some kind of a premeditiated, back-room smoking-a-cigar kind of deal between them.

At the most recent meeting of the Ethics Commission, the best our theoretical "watchdogs" could do was resolve to "invite" Mr. Webb before them at their next meeting. INVITE? To come have some tea? And maybe a biscuit or scone, too?

Our watchdog is a toothless tiger. Impotent. Useless. Not because they're bad people, and not because they don't want to do their jobs. It's because the City of Jacksonville won't give them them the tools and independence to do their job. After all, they sure wouldn't want any investigations going on - politicians might lose their seats and big businesses with their lobbyist pals might lose their big paydays.

Mayor Peyton, City Council - give our Ethics Commission and Ethics Officer the tools and freedom they require to do their job!

Ethics Commission, Ms. Miller - please, 'invite' Mr. Webb a little harder and make sure you get to the bottom of this Trail Ridge story!

A Comment Worthy of Response

I received a comment from my old pal, "Anonymous". Normally, A's comments aren't worth the time to respond to, but this time Ol' Anon has actually come through with a good one.

The comment, which was posted under my earlier story "What Garbage" below, is as follows:

Why exactly should Republic withdraw from the bidding process ?

Leaving us the taxpayers what ? NO competition for a $750 "Deal" that Peyton would LOVE to see go to his pal Paul Harden's Client ? (i.e. waste management)

What problem are you trying to solve exactly ?

A transparent bidding process is the ONLY thing between Jax and the "Shaft" as you so eloquently put it.

So why would you want ANY potential bidder removed from the process ?

Okay, my old buddy Anon clearly has misunderstood me. I don't mind - in fact I'd say I support - a bid process. But as you say, Anon, it has to be a TRANSPARENT bidding process.

The all-too-cozy relationship between Jack Webb and Republic - which is CLEARLY spelled out in the Times-Union here, here and here has tainted that process.

If you read those linked stories, it is clear - I mean it is FACT - that Jack Webb was a very vocal proponent of the competitive bid process and a vocal opponent of Peyton's plan. It is a FACT that Webb was pursuing Republic as a business client. And it is a FACT that after Webb spent all that time working toward a competitive bid that would benefit Republic, Republic called HIM to hire him and his firm.

And then...Webb told nobody. Not the Mayor, not his colleagues on the City Council, not the Ethics Commission.

Republic told...nobody.

They kept it a secret. If there was really no conflict, if there was really no ethics violation, why would they keep it a secret?

There's no actual proof - yet - that Republic (in a premeditated and planned way) bought themselves a City Councilor to push their agenda. But it sure looks like they did, even to those of us who aren't rocket scientists or brain surgeons. In fact, in his story on JaxPolticsOnline.com (here), Abel Harding talks about how really bad this looks.

In answer to Anon's question, I'll say this. The problem I'm trying to solve is that I don't want politicians and big business getting together to further their interests rather than the interests of us, the taxpayers. Republic and Webb were doing just that, and the fact that they did it in secret (until the Times-Union found evidence of their misdeeds) just shows that they aren't interested in transparency or competition at all.

Republic should be disqualified from the bid process, both as punishment and as a warning to anyone who'd try to do what they did.

Stay tuned for more on this story...

Incentives, TARP and Abel Harding

I'm going to step away from Ethics & Politics for a minute (sort of) to give a shout out to Abel Harding.

Mr. Harding, you may know, is the editor and founder of the excellent blog, Jacksonville Politics Online. He is now working for the Florida Times-Union as a columnist, and I strongly urge everyone to check out his work. He's a smart guy and he's got some strong insight into both business and politics.

His post in today's Times-Union discusses not just the price we all (as US taxpayers) pay in the fall of CIT, but also the price paid especially by Jacksonville and Florida taxpayers.

Mr. Harding notes that the Jacksonville City Council approved a JEDC plan to award a $3,000 tax credit to CIT for every job created in Jacksonville by CIT. While I understand that a City needs to do what a City needs to do to bring in good jobs & industry (and this was in 2006), in hindsight, it seems like the JEDC & City Council's bet wasn't a good one.

There's no real ethical dilemma here - but this is a good opportunity for us to remember that it's a good idea to think twice before awarding tax breaks, cash incentives, or other deals to large businesses who may not be as strong as they'd like one to believe.

In any event, I hope you all check out Mr. Harding's columns in the Times-Union and check out his blog as well. He's a smart guy, and worth reading.

A Long Time Ago, a Landfill Not So Far Away

 As promised, here is Trail Ridge Debacle (The Quick Version) - Part One.

Trail Ridge, of course, is the landfill where all of the trash from Jacksonville goes. At issue is the question of who gets to operate the landfill when it expands. The whole site is 978 acres - but so far, only 144 acres have been used. The 144 acre portion is running out of capacity, so it's time to expand the landfill using more of the land on the site. Currently, the landfill is operated by Waste Management. Republic Services, a major competitor of Waste Management, would like to take over.

Waste Management believes that the contract they signed in 1991 gives them the right to operate the entire landfill, although that is disputed by a number of people.

Republic Services, along with a variety of people and organizations, contend that, when the city-owned landfill is expanded, the contract to operate the landfill should be put out to a public bid (and in the interest of fairness, I should probably state that I don't really disagree with a public bid).

Seems simple, right? How could this go so wrong? Oh, in so many ways. Each side lawyered up, hired big gun lobbyists, and lined up whatever insiders & influential friends they could to fight for their position.

As you'll see in future posts, both sides pulled some pretty nasty manuvers to try to get their way. As you'll see from those above links, this political horror story starts out just like so many others: a lot of money to be made, and a lot of money to be made off of deciding who makes that money.

What Garbage - Jax Politics as Usual

The Trail Ridge Landfill debacle is going to be a pretty popular topic here at Angry Jax, because it demonstrates in clear detail everything that's wrong with Jacksonville politics.

This is such a huge topic - and there's so much media on out there about it - that it could take you a week to read all of it. Have no fear! I'll be happy to tell you all the story (the quick version!) over the next few posts, with links to some of the more exciting news stories written on the subject. Note that almost all were written by Miss Tia Mitchell of the Florida Times-Union, who has been all over this since the beginning, and done a real good job covering this debacle.

Over the next few posts, I'll bring y'all up to speed on the history of the project, the players, and why we need to take some action here. In the end, you'll see why City Council VP Jack Webb needs to resign and why Republic Services needs to withdraw from the competitive bid process.

We're Angry, All Right

I started this blog because I was really, really fed up. Like the character "Howard Beale" from the excellent film Network, I don't want to take it anymore.

Every election season, politicians tell us how they're going to work for us and our interests. We pick the one we like and elect him or her. They go to City Hall, or the county offices, or the State House, or off to Washington, and then - surprise! They actually work for their own interests, or those of their influential friends with big wallets. We, the taxpaying voters, get the shaft.

And then, two or four years later, those same people come back, tell us everything they've done in 'our' interest, and ask for us to vote for them again. And...we do! And they go back to their offices and continue to work for their pals, not for us.

Not anymore. Well, not if we can help it! AngryJaxVoters is here primarily to talk about the lack of ethics and morals within the politics of Jacksonville, but we'll be reaching out to the State and Federal levels from time to time as well.

Get educated! Get a voice! Get ANGRY!