Charter commissioner Bruce Conque will make a presentation Monday evening to his fellow commissioners in which he'll detail a consolidation plan that has been in place in Jacksonville, Fla., for more than four decades.
Charter commissioner Bruce Conque will make a presentation Monday evening to his fellow commissioners in which he'll detail a consolidation plan that has been in place in Jacksonville, Fla., for more than four decades.
The Consolidated City of Jacksonville, like Lafayette Consolidated Government, uses a mayor-president and consolidated council form of government. But when Duval County consolidated in 1968, the city of Jacksonville took in all unincorporated areas of the county and established service districts urban and rural for services such as police and fire protection, drainage, roads and other infrastructure. Duval County comprises five incorporated municipalities, including the county seat, Jacksonville. Conque, a former City-Parish Council member, has been studying the Jacksonville model for several months.
Commissioners are also scheduled to hear from Ed Abell, chairman of the 1991 charter commission that recommended consolidation, as well as Cajundome Director Greg Davis, a member of the charter committee that met last summer; Davis is an advocate of repealing the Lafayette Home Rule Charter and returning to separate city- and parish forms of government that existed pre-consolidation.
The commission has been meeting since August. On Nov. 1 the nine-member panel is scheduled to begin deliberations, which will likely last until late March, at which time the commission is tasked with making recommendations about the Lafayette Home Rule Charter.
The charter commission meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. in the council auditorium.