Attending: City Council considers the Jacksonville Ethics Office Budget

This morning the Jacksonville City Council finance committee continued their deliberations on each line item of the city's budget. This morning's agenda begins with the Office of General Counsel, which includes the budget for the City's Ethics Officer.

Council members Yarborough & Joost comment that they want to ensure that the office does NOT report to the General Counsel. Mullaney states "Separated out the LEGAL function of Ethics - into a "Legal Counsel" and kept the non-legal aspects of the ethics office separate from the legal.

Carla Miller confirmed that by statute her office reports to both the Council President AND the Mayor.

Richard Clark stated that he has plans for a "very different" structure for the ethics program in the future. He said that he wants a structure that allows the program to continue for the "long haul".

That is all the discussion regarding the ethics office. Discussion moved quickly to review the general counsel budget issues.

So overall the discussions were very quiet and the overall "feel" of the discussion was supportive and even protective.

The vote (of 9) to approve the budget:unanimous.