Public sounds off on school tax

Jacksonville City Council members got an earful Tuesday about a proposed half-cent sales tax referendum for schools that will go on the ballot if the City Council agrees to put the choice before voters.

Dozens of people spoke during almost two and a half hours of public comments that overwhelmingly urged City Council to give Duval County voters a chance to vote on a sales tax.

Darlene Miller, who has children in the public school system, said that while she has heard comments from City Council members questioning whether the district has a plan for using the sales tax money, council members should ask themselves if they've gone to School Board sessions and community meetings when the plan was developed.

She said the City Council voted to spend $18 million to buy out the lease for The Jacksonville Landing's owner in order to tear it down without having a plan in place for how to use that property.

"All the School Board is asking for is a special election," Miller said. "Just remember one thing when you take this up — this is about our children and what's best for them and their education. Nobody else matters in this except for the children."

Latrice Carmichael said she has gone to open house and teacher appreciation events at schools when the air conditioning wasn't working.

"We can’t keep putting Band-Aids on the school system. Allow our kids to go to school and send them to buildings that look like this," she said while gesturing at City Hall. "Put this on the ballot in November of 2019. We don’t want to have to wait."

The School Board, which has been working for months on developing a master plan, put the finishing touches on it during a board workshop Tuesday morning. The school district then hand-delivered copies of "A Bold Plan for DCPS" to the City Council's office at 3:30 p.m.

City Council member Tommy Hazouri, who is a supporter of putting the referendum on the ballot, chastised the board for getting copies of the master plan to City Council so close to the start of the council meeting. He said it would have been better for council members to have a few days to read the report before the public hearing.

"Shame on the district for doing it that way," Hazouri said.

Sixty-eight people filled out public comment cards for the Tuesday meeting of City Council.

The public hearing kicked off a busy two-week period when council will decide whether to accept, reject or amend the Duval County School Board's request for a special election on Nov. 5 for the proposed referendum.

In other Florida counties, school boards have not had to convince county commissions to put referendums on the ballot because a provision in state law says that if the school board votes for a referendum, it "shall" be placed on the ballot by the county commission.

But in Duval County, where the Jacksonville City Council acts as the county commission, the Jacksonville Office of General Counsel ruled in May that City Council can decide whether it will allow a sales tax referendum for schools to go before voters.

The Office of General Counsel's opinion also says that if City Council decides to put the referendum on the ballot, the council will get to choose the election date for that referendum.

Mayor Lenny Curry and some City Council members have objected to a special election because it would cost in the range of $1 million and likely have low voter turnout.

Jacksonville resident Tim Miller criticized this stance. "Some of you voiced concern about a low turnout," he said. "Well, there are some of you who were elected in elections with low turnout." Miller asked if low turnout election results made a city council member less of a city council member.

Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed a bill approved by the state Legislature that says any local sales tax election after Jan. 1, 2020, must be held on a general election date. That change in law means that if the School Board's request for a November special election isn't approved by the City Council, the next possible date would be the November 2020 presidential election.

School board members in attendance included Superintendent Diana Greene, chairwoman Lori Hershey, and vice-chair Warren Jones.

Prominent Democrats, including Senate Democrat Leader Audrey Gibson and Rep. Tracie Davis, made comments toward the end of the hours-long meeting.

"It seems kind of strange to ask you all to let us vote," Gibson said. "There should be no fear in what the people do and there should be no fear in putting the question on the ballot."

City Council member Reggie Gaffney has invited schools Superintendent Greene to a meeting slated for 1 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall to discuss the sales tax referendum. That public meeting will give City Council members an opportunity to hear directly from Greene and ask questions about the proposed sales tax, which would last 15 years, and how the district would use the tax proceeds for school construction, renovations and technology.

The next stop for the referendum legislation will be meetings of the council's Finance Committee and its Rules Committee on June 18. Then the legislation could go before the full City Council on June 25.

If the legislation does not stay on the schedule, it would slide into July when a new set of City Council members takes office.

David Bauerlein: (904) 359-4581