Talk of deconsolidating Jacksonville heats up city meeting

A city meeting about possibly creating a Citizen Review Board got heated on Friday when talk of deconsolidating Jacksonville came up.

City Councilman Reggie Brown said Jacksonville’s consolidation decades ago continues to disenfranchise minority voters.

“We have to be fair with the citizens,” said Brown.

Brown asked the city’s general counsel to draft proposed legislation that would add a referendum to your ballot changing Jacksonville’s charter, allowing the city to take steps toward deconsolidating.

“If we are really going to talk about the reason that we consolidated the city in the first place, it was because the minority population was growing rapidly and we wanted to reduce that population so they couldn’t control the city. And that’s not a reason to consolidate the city. I think we’ve grown beyond that and we’re ready to build bridges,” said Brown.

Brown said some separation between Jacksonville’s neighboring beach municipalities would return power to city voters.

Right now people who live in Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach can still vote in certain Jacksonville races like mayor and sheriff, but Jacksonville voters don’t have a say in the beaches’ mayoral and police chief races.

Brown pointed out that voters living in the neighboring beach municipalities tend to be more Caucasian than the rest of Jacksonville.

“It’s not working for those in the inner city or those -- the population of Jacksonville that I would consider mostly ignored,” said activist organization The Kemetic Empire Chairman Diallo-Sekou.

Some worry this is a distraction from other issues.

“I do, however, want to stay focused. There is a need for the citizens advisory board and I don’t want to go off willy nilly with regard to an all or nothing political agenda,” said Northside Coalition Director Ben Frazier.

General counsel will now write up legislation for a referendum that Brown or another council member could propose to the full City Council.

Cox Media Group