Bill Bishop: No quid pro quo on mayor’s race, no ads on arena
Bishop and Brown are two of five people worth watching in 2016 in Jacksonville politics.

Bill Bishop Alvin Brown

Jacksonville City Councilman and third-place mayoral finisher Bill Bishop again denied any quid pro quo was discussed with either Mayor Alvin Brown or Lenny Curry before awarding his endorsement to Brown last week.

“I get a kick out of that,” said Bishop during an appearance on WJCT’s First Coast Connect.

“What I first said is I won’t endorse at this time, and I’m running again in 2019. When I left the race, I said to my supporters, ‘do your homework.’ Then I realized, I too had to decide who I’m going to vote for. And after thinking about it, talking to them both and just seeing the lay of the land, I decided Mayor Brown was in the best interest of the city for the next four years.”

He continued, “Lenny can say anything he wants. There was no quid pro quo. I guess you can ask Lenny how many jobs he’s promised to people on his campaign. This is politics. He’s going to say what he wants because he didn’t get an endorsement, I suppose.”

Bishop, a moderate Republican, received 17 percent of the vote in the city’s First Election in March. His endorsement was sought by both mayoral candidates, who are in a tight race leading up to the May 19 runoff.

Says Lenny Curry campaign spokesman Brian Hughes, “Lenny was asked about his conversations with Mr. Bishop and answered as has been reported. At the same time, it’s interesting to note that while Bishop’s been asked three times about the conversations, he’s never said ‘no that’s not what happened.’ We also see news that many of Alvin’s endorsers are those who have received city taxpayer dollars or jobs, so it’s legitimate to ask, ‘What is Alvin’s campaign costing taxpayers?'”

Bishop rebuts criticism he has flip-flopped by first being vocal in his criticism of Brown’s time in office, then switching gears with his endorsement of the incumbent.

“He now has four years of experience in office, and Lenny has none. There’s a number of big-ticket issues that are still there. Even though the mayor and I did not agree on how he handled pension reform, the process and a number of pieces of the agreement that he proposed, he has in fact done more than anybody in the last I don’t know how many years to get us somewhere. And most of what was in his proposal was good stuff for the city. And I think rather than start all over again, I want to see this thing brought in for a landing, and I think he and his team are the best ones to do it.”

Meanwhile, Bishop also says he’s elated at this week’s opinion from the city’s Office of General Counsel that a law firm sign on the exterior of Jacksonville’s Veterans Memorial Arena is illegal.

“That all started when I drove down the expressway one day coming into town and saw the picture of three guys up there and thought, ‘What act is coming this weekend?’ And the closer I got I realized, it wasn’t an act, it was an advertisement. I found out it was a sponsorship deal that SMG had sold. I said, ‘I want those things down; they’re not supposed to be there.’ Nothing moved on it, so I filed legislation to make sure that never happened again.”

The Jacksonville City Council will consider an amended bill on the matter when it meets Tuesday.

“Where we’ll bring it in for a landing is the ordinance will be changed to keep the arena in the Sports Complex overlay, but to make any signage restrictions match those downtown under the downtown overlay,” he said.

“The arena is not the football stadium. The arena is a different sort of animal. Architecturally, the arena is a very fine design and it’s a civic monument. If we’re going to stick billboards all over that, where does it stop? Let’s stick them on City Hall, let’s put lawyer ads on the courthouse. I mean at what point do we stop this nonsense and uglifying our city?”

Worth noting: Bishop is himself an architect, vice president and principal of Akel, Logan, Shafer, a 50-year-old Jacksonville-based architectural and planning firm.

Melissa Ross

In addition to her work writing for Florida Politics, Melissa Ross also hosts and produces WJCT’s First Coast Connect, the Jacksonville NPR/PBS station’s flagship local call-in public affairs radio program. The show has won four national awards from Public Radio News Directors Inc. (PRNDI). First Coast Connect was also recognized in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014 as Best Local Radio Show by Folio Weekly’s “Best Of Jax” Readers Poll and Melissa has also been recognized as Folio Weekly’s Best Local Radio Personality. As executive producer of The 904: Shadow on the Sunshine State, Melissa and WJCT received an Emmy in the “Documentary” category at the 2011 Suncoast Emmy Awards. The 904 examined Jacksonville’s status as Florida’s murder capital. During her years in broadcast television, Melissa picked up three additional Emmys for news and feature reporting. Melissa came to WJCT in 2009 with 20 years of experience in broadcasting, including stints in Cincinnati, Chicago, Orlando and Jacksonville. Married with two children, Melissa is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism/Communications. She can be reached at [email protected].



#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories