Come Together: The Story of Jacksonville's Consolidation -- Part 8

The Duval County Local Government Study Commission continued its report with its definition of the purpose of government, that is: to meet the needs of the people, with responsiveness and adaptability.  Jacksonville's mayor-council-commission form had been designed around checks and balances, but the system had become unbalanced, and failed to serve that basic purpose of meeting the needs of the citizens.  

The commission dissected the basic ills of county government, finding that the county in Florida was basically "an adjunct of the state."  The county had little authority to act independently, and was dependent solely on ad valorem taxes for revenue.  The failure of that arrangement was brought painfully home when the county's high schools were disaccredited for lack of funds for proper operation.   The city had more authority and more sources of revenue.  In addition to ad valorem taxes, there were license fees, cigarette-tax rebates from the state, utility taxes, and service fees. (Blueprint for Improvement, 15)

They then examined alternative forms of government, dismissing them in turn. 

1,  The Miami "metro" model.  The original idea was to have the county handle countywide problems and needs, leaving each municipality to handle its own situation.  This was not a good model for Jacksonville and Duval County.  (Blueprint, 19)

    a.  Dade County had some 27 municipalities other than Miami within its borders, none of which equalled Miami in size, but some had significant populations.  Duval County had only four other municipalities, none of which approached Jacksonville in population or size.

    b.  The "metro" model resulted in jealousy and fighting between the municipalities and the county.  It was seen as a threat by the other municipalities.  Arthur Snyder, former mayor of North Miami said in 1967, “You are taking away government by the people on its lowest grass-roots level.”  Metro government was therefore "doomed to failure," Snyder declared. (Mohl, 35).

    c.  The current county government retained significant powers under a new arrangement of partial consolidation implemented in 2007. (Miami-Dade, 1) 

2.  Annexation.   Annexation had last been used in 1931, when the City of Jacksonville annexed the City of South Jacksonville, which became characterized as the Southside area of Jacksonville.  Annexation was not a good solution. (Blueprint, 19-20)

    a.  It would have to be done piecemeal.  It would not be feasible to annex the entire county at once.

    b.  Annexation proposals had been voted down by the voters in 1963 and 1964.  Another annexation proposal, certainly of the entire county, was not likely to pass.

3.   Realignment of functions to reduce duplication.  At best, this would be a partial solution.  However, it would be unsatisfactory.  (Blueprint, 20)

     a.  It would still leave too many layers in city and county governments.  

    b.  Jacksonville and Duval County governments had a track record of not working well with each other.

4.  Intergovernmental agreements or extra-territorial jurisdiction.  Los Angeles County, California, was the Study Commission's example.  The county provided services to the city under contracts.  The cities received state aid and had home-rule powers, and were more flexible as a result.  Florida had none of these.  (Blueprint, 20)

5.   Independent authorities.  These bodies could have one or more functions.  Jacksonville already had five independent authorities:  the Expressway Authority, the Port Authority, the Hospital Authority, the Housing Authority, and the Air Improvement Authority.  They had flaws that made the creation of more of them considered to be not a good idea.  (Blueprint, 20)

    a.  These boards were appointed by the governor, so there was no citizen control.

    b.  They would be nearly completely independent.  The county would have budget authority over them.  Financing was not mentioned in the Commission's report.  Would these boards have to depend on ad valorem taxes?  What would happen to county tax rates?

    c.  They would create additional layers of authority, with little accountability to the voters.

    d.  They would involve duplication of routine functions.

 What about consolidation?  That's next, in Part 9.

 References:

Duval County (Florida), Local Government Study Commission, Blueprint for Improvement, 1966. (Jacksonville: No publisher, 1966).  Online resource of the George W. Simons, Jr., Planning Collection, University of North Florida Thomas G. Carpenter Library, Special Collections and Archives.  UNF Digital Commons: https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/simonsflorida/8/, page 15. (Accessed 13 May 2025)

Miami-Dade Government, "General Information on Miami-Dade County."  Online: https://www.miamidade.gov/finance/library/bond-book/2017/introductory/general-information.pdf, page 1. (Accessed 24 May 2025)

Raymond H. Mohl, "Miami's Metropolitan Government, Prospect and Retrospect," Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 63, No. 1, page 35.  Part of the American Studies Commons and the United States History Commons, University of Central Florida.  Online: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3709&context=fhq. (Accessed 24 May 2025)

 

 

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