Iraqi Delegation visits JCCI

A delegation of Iraqi leaders visited JCCI last week as part of “Transparency in Government,” a program administered by the Meridian International Center and sponsored by GlobalJax and the Office of International Visitors.

The delegation included: 

 Mr. Mushtaq Younus Ahmed Al-Azzawi – Director of the Commission on Integrity in Tikrit
Mr. Ayad Ali Ahmed Al-Karawi – Chair of the Legal and Human Rights Committee and part of the Diyala Provincial Council
Mr. Sleman Rasul Esmail Esmail – Manager of the American Society for Kurds (ASK)
Mr. Hayder Fadhil Faisal Faisal – Mayor of Ash-Shamiya, Qadissiyah
Mr. Hussein Ali Talab – Mayor of Siniyah
Mr. Abdulrahman Talib Tayeb Tayeb – Editor in Chief of Hawal Institution and political reporter for Hewal-owned Al Naba’a newspaper in Kirkuk 

Skip Cramer, CEO of JCCI, addressed the functions of JCCI as an organization and how JCCI operates within the constraints of the government to service the community. 

“Our mission is to convene diverse people to improve the quality of life in this region and beyond,” Cramer said. “The problems of the few are the responsibility of all.”

JCCI has three core functions and they are:  

1. To study the community and identify important issues. 
2. To identify possible implementation strategies that may lead to solutions.
3. To provide leadership programs in order to cultivate effective civic advocates within the community. 

The biggest concern among many in the delegation was how JCCI is able to execute these functions within the parameters of the local government. How do you get the government and the people to trust you as an organization? 

According to Cramer, the first step is to develop a sound process based entirely on facts and data. JCCI has the longest-standing continuous report of civic measurements with the data collected in its Community Indicators. Race Relation and Quality of Life reports, all available online, identify where the needs in the community are and take those issues from rhetoric to facts. 

“We don’t get criticism from the experts because we have the experts in the room,” Cramer said. 

The next step is to always remember who you are serving. “We do not own these issues,” Cramer said. A community-based visioning process and a volunteer-based implementation process are what allow JCCI to maintain civic trust and support.   

According to Cramer, public participation is the key to restoring and maintaining public trust and creating a transparent organization. It is also one way to create a more transparent government. 

However, public satisfaction with the quality elected officials spikes, according to the Quality of Life Progress report, during an election as the public is hopeful for new leadership and success and then declines the longer that person has been in office.   

“It is a thankless job to be an elected official in hard times. There’s a balance between streamlined, time-efficient government and its need to be inclusive of everyone,” Cramer said.

Community input and the Sunshine Law, which requires that local government be conducted in the open, contribute to the transparency of Florida’s local government. It is required that every meeting is announced, and media such as the Florida Times Union are watchful to make sure that these events are reported to the public. 

Cramer recognized that there is no common vision in Jacksonville and no one knows what services they want the government to provide. He stressed to the Iraqi delegation the importance of citizens and government working together towards a better vision of the future. 

Al-Karawi and Al-Azzawi furiously scratched notes into their notebooks throughout the presentation while translators tried to keep up with the exchange of many questions and answers.