A.G. Gancarski
Lenny Curry‘s campaign yesterday issued a lengthy policy document just in time for early voting. At first glance, it hearkens back to policies from former Mayor John Peyton, while bringing in some new ideas as well. Developing the now-familiar themes of the Curry plan — emphases on public safety, expanding economic opportunity, improved educational opportunities, and strengthening neighborhoods while continuing the current administration’s efforts to develop downtown — the plan provides more specifics on what the Republican would do were he elected, and gives a hint as to the themes he will address in upcoming television debates.
Coming just days after the Times-Union editorial board snubbed Curry in favor of Bill Bishop, the release of this document reminds voters that Curry thinks seriously about policy, even as those on the other side contend that the plan rehashes much that the current Administration already does.
The first section, devoted to Public Safety, is prefaced with a quote from the Roman emperor Cicero (similarly to how subsequent sections feature quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela). It essentially proposes a return to Peyton-era policies, such as restoration of the Jacksonville Journey, the return of JSO manpower levels to 2011 numbers, and bringing back the Community Service Officers program.
In this section, he pledges for the first of multiple times to collaborate with Nikolai Vitti, the Duval County School Superintendent who just had his contract renewed early, after a lot of agitation from community power brokers to make that happen, to institute Out of School Suspension Centers. He also advocates mechanisms against blight and drug crime activity, via collaboration with the Sheriff’s Office and the Jacksonville Housing Finance Committee (by imposing Crime Prevention through Environmental Design principles, which can be described loosely as structuring the physical environment to control behavior).
Curry’s plan to “expand economic opportunity” is interesting, in that it pledges to make Jacksonville “Jobs City” in Florida; one of the signature achievements of the Brown administration has been a sharp decrease in the official unemployment rate. Curry seeks to “bring jobs to neighborhoods where they are needed,” which suggests that there will be aggressive initiatives to bring jobs to the Northwest Quadrant and other areas where economic development has been stymied, with many residents being forced into underground economies to survive.
To accomplish these ends, the candidate vows to improve the local transportation network and make conditions more favorable to small businesses. He pledges to streamline the permitting process, and work to eliminate regulations that are unduly burdensome to business — goals that one would expect from a candidate with such strong business community support.
If elected, he would join the current bipartisan consensus in favor of river dredging to expand JAXPORT, vowing to “participate in recruitment efforts with JAXPORT leadership.” He pledges, also, to make “JAX Chamber TRULY a partner with the city’s economic development team,” a phrase laden with some meaning given that the Chamber endorsed Curry over the incumbent Mayor for reasons that the Brown and Curry camps disagree about.
Regarding education, he believes that STEM education is the future, and supports “parks and community center based after school programs” in programs like robotics, computer science, and other STEM curricula. His plan includes close cooperation with Vitti, again, as well as collaboration with the Jacksonville Children’s Commission, which he believes should make STEM central to after school and summer enrichment programs.
Interestingly enough, he also advocates the return of the Mayor’s Book Club — a John Peyton era initiative — as well as ensuring that “every Duval voluntary pre-K program is great.”
“Making sure every child, in every neighborhood, in every part of town, succeeds in equal measure is critical,” Curry writes.
His plan for neighborhoods involves bolstering the roles of Citizen Planning Advisory Councils and “requiring the city webpage to clearly track and report Capital Improvement Projects.” In this section, he uses a quote from Nelson Mandela: “it always seems impossible until it is done.”
“In our city, we’ve had times of greatness in the past because of leadership. In order to build a better tomorrow, we must believe in ourselves, the power of our potential, and our ability do better. We must harness the efforts, ideas, and abilities of one another and for Jacksonville. We have never been short on ideas or ability,” writes Curry.
The Brown campaign, irked by the Florida Times-Union posting an article about the plan, issued a heated response early Sunday morning that says that the plan essentially is a rehash of what they’ve done for the past four years — and that they didn’t get a forum to respond within the Times-Union piece. Below, a statement from Fabien Levy:
When party boss Lenny Curry had a chance to serve taxpayers and move our city forward as a member of the Housing Commission he was absent for the vast majority of meetings so he could play party politics. If he played politics then, why would we expect him to do anything different now? Mayor Brown has put Jacksonville first and has shown real leadership by helping to create 36,000 jobs and making Jacksonville the number one city to start a new business. He’s invested in downtown and ensured our kids have greater access to opportunities. For Lenny Curry to now come up with this plan two weeks before an election just shows how weak his commitment to Jacksonville really is.
The email provides a couple of dozen links to articles and COJ websites that establish the Mayor’s own work in the areas that Curry targets in his plan. It cites initiatives like RenewJax, Learn2Earn, and Community Empowerment Days, while describing the Mayor’s lobbying for JAXPORT harbor deepening and his administration’s development of JaxScore, “a matrix to enhance efficiency and accountability in City of Jacksonville operations.”
The email also describes the Mayor’s work in education, including establishing the Office of Education Commissioner and the Education Summit that happened last week.
Going further, the email points to the success of redevelopment of Brooklyn, his creation of the Downtown Investment Authority, and the work the Mayor has done to drive corporate relocation and to encourage businesses to move downtown over the years, which has brought “thousands of new businesses to downtown Jacksonville.”
