A.G. Gancarski
Those paying attention to the Jacksonville mayoral campaign know that former local Southern Christian Leadership Conference Chairman Juan Gray has been part of the narrative. As a high-profile Bill Bishop supporter, he has castigated Mayor Alvin Brown for his “political rope-a-dope“ strategy for months now.
Yet a story the WJAX-TV news operation ran Friday did not mention his support for Bishop while reporting a letter that Gray sent to city council and discussing what the reporter called “deep concerns about Brown’s tenure.” What Action News Jax did, instead, was broadcast Gray’s claims without context.
“I have been disappointed and felt I had to do something to voice my disappointment and not go along with four more years of promises,” Gray was quoted as saying. His “failure of connection to black community, a nice voice of what he will do, shall do and should do, but unfortunately nothing ever happens.”
Action News Jax helpfully provided a link to the letter, which makes a series of claims:
Brown dashed our hopes and wounded our dreams by his subsequent following actions: The mayor was conveniently not in town when President Obama visited Jacksonville. He said nothing during the shooting of Travon Martin and the situation of Marissa Alexander. The mayor was silent about David Bauerline story of “no management” of the Northwest Fund by Terrance-Asanta Barker. He approved Karen Bowling as the highest paid city official at $210,000 dollars. Mayor Brown`s staff is loaded with political cronies that include Mario Rubio, Anthony C. Hill, Michelle A. Barth, Mia Jones and Angela Spears just to name a few. The tax payers are asking the mayor “what`s the return on investment for this crew”? This collective banner of red flags formed the foundation for distrust of Mayor Alvin Brown.
Gray goes on to contend that “Mayor Brown promised the Northwest four years ago he would make improvements. But unfortunately, he has joined the ranks of the past Mayors who have made these same promises since Consolidation.” He added that “the sobering true facts suggest that Brown forgot his base and ignored his basic supporters. The central faults attached to Mayor Brown include his lack of leadership, avoidance to accept accountability, failure to speak on contemporary and critical issues.”
Gray certainly has the right to make such claims. Some people agree with them. But to not identify Gray as a prominent supporter of Bishop, who has this letter posted on his website, is tantamount to offering free advertising for the Bishop campaign. Moreover, it’s free negative advertising, of the sort that the Bishop campaign has derided in televised debates and elsewhere in recent weeks.
Interestingly, there is a bit of back-story as it relates to Gray and the SCLC. As Opio Sokoni posted to the group’s Facebook page, Gray’s time with the SCLC has not been without controversy:
It is my strong position that we as an organization immediately file a complaint with the State Attorney’s Office on former board member Mr. Joseph Gates for taking funds from the SCLC of Jax and refusing to give us funds or radio station equipment after repeated requests. Mr. Gates was our newest board member who was recommended to be on the SCLC of Jax board by the former chairman — Dr. Juan P. Gray. We were all excited and Gates was voted onto the board. In our next meeting, Mr. Gates told us that he would assist in purchasing the radio station equipment. He asked us to give him the funds that we had already raised. We came up with more funds to equal $5,000. On July 29, 2014, we gave Mr. Gates a cashier’s check (No. 21339638) for $5,000 to immediately purchase the radio station equipment. Mr. Gates (and his wife) signed and cashed that check two days later. Gates told the board that he would put in his own money to assist with the purchase …
… he had not done so. Six (6) months later, as President, I demanded that Mr. Gates give the full amount of the funds back to the SCLC of Jax. I took note that Mr. Gates found various ways to not provide an accounting of the funds or equipment to the full board. When the board became adamant about the money or equipment, Gates began using Dr. Gray to speak for him. He stopped coming to board meetings and cancelled several meetings with me to either produce the money or equipment. I knew we had a major problem. I expressed that to the board.
The board acted by removing Dr. Gray as the chairman for this and other reasons. Next, Dr. Gray and Mr. Gates were removed completely from the board.
On March 8, Sokoni himself posted to the group’s Facebook page that he was resigning from the SCLC presidency.
