Happy Birthday Jacksonville !!

[vicupstate]

36 years ago, on Oct. 1 1968, the city of Jacksonville and Duval County officially became one. This landmark event forever changed Jacksonville's future. It became the largest city in land area in the US, and the largest city in Florida by population. The slogan "The Bold New City of the South" was adopted, and is still in use.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAX!!

[Urban_Legend]

Happy Birthday! My, how you've grown!

[Fruit Cove]

is it really all of duval county though? Jax beach was its town/city. anyways happy birthday city?

[vicupstate]

In the same election in which consolidation was approved, Baldwin, Jax Beach, Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach voted for status as independent cities within the consolidated government.

What this means is, each of those cities has a mayor, council, city administration, etc. Residents of those cities pays taxes to the independent city that they live in. However, they also pay taxes to the consolidated government. They vote and are represented by the mayor, at-large and respective district JACKSONVILLE citycouncilmen.

In effect, they pay taxes to the consolidated gov't for mostly "county" services, and pay taxes to their independent city for most "city" services. In effect they are residents of two cities simultaneously. For example, the last mayor of Jacksonville actually lived in the independent city of Neptune Beach.

[Fruit Cove]

pretty cool system

[Fruit Cove's friend]

Happy Birthday

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is a cool system.

[wolfdawg54]

I live at the beaches and I think the system is really neat. It is great for Jacksonville! Does anyone have the most recent population totals to show the growth since the new borders of Jacksonville were developed?

[Brickell]

Anybody know the history behind the consolidatoin? Why did they feel they had to? Does Duval County exist as an entity any more or does the City of Jax handle all former county services. I'm wondering how they handled that legally. Courts and School systems are done county wide for example.

[vicupstate]

It would take a long post to even begin to cover how consolidation came into being. I will look around the net to see if I can find an existing source for you to read.

In a nutshell, there was a tremendous amount of duplication and corruption in the local government during the early to mid 1960s. There were actually TWO Jacksonville governing boards. The City Council and the Board of Commissioners were the names. They each oversaw different services that normally would just be under ONE city council. Of course there was the Duval County Council as well. This made for a lot of inefficiency, duplication, and slowed progress. Also, graft and corruption thrived in this environment. Several councilmen and commisioners were convicted during this period. Just prior to consolidation, a new Mayor (Hans Tanzler) and council was elected overwhelming on a reform platform. On top of all that, the school system was in shambles to such a degree that I believe all of the high schools lost their state accrediation.

A group of business and community leaders led the charge to draft a new charter to create a single consolidated government. The state legislature had passed enabling legislation back in the 1930s. Jacksonville made efforts then to consolidate, but it did not succeed.

After a long hard-fought campaign, that included the Tanzler's support, the pro-consolidation forces, succeeded in getting the voters of Duval county to approve consolidation by a 2-1 margin.

The School Board is called the "Duval County School Board". The consolidation charter reorganized that board, but kept it independent of the city council. The Board of Commisioner's and the Duval County Council became extinct under the new charter.

The City of Jacksonville has all the powers and responsibilites of both a county and a city. Therefore, the courts system and all other countywide services are administered by the city.

Consolidation is something that Jacksonville is known for nationwide, and particularly in the South. Just recently, Louisville KY officials were in town to get pointers on how to implement their own newly approved consolidation. Over the years, Columbia SC, Charleston SC and Charlotte NC have often looked at consolidation. Each time they have referered to Jacksonville as a positive model.