A.G. Gancarski
While some journalists were in Jacksonville City Council chambers marinating in stormwater and solid waste discussions, there was other action on the #jaxpol scene, as Nate Monroe reports in the Florida Times-Union.
Former mayor John Delaney and former mayoral candidate (and JAX Chamber Chair Elect) Audrey Moran were among a few dozen civic leaders who have advocated for the Human Rights Ordinance during a Thursday meeting at the River Club.
“It is very fair to say the consensus in the room was (that) we’re going to let the mayor roll with it,” Delaney said. “The community is ready, on both sides, to have this discussion.”
Delaney was way out in front on this issue three years ago, and Mayor Alvin Brown did not follow the Republican’s lead block. As the current University of North Florida President told me in June, he’s still committed to the struggle.
He “counted ten votes” on at least a modified version of the HRO in June. A “fully-inclusive” version, meanwhile, might be more of an open question.
“There’s work to do with the identity component,” he said, adding that “television normalized the popular perception” of gay people, and may do so sooner than later with the transgendered.
Delaney cited the groundswell of support for gay marriage, which is now the law nationwide, as significant.
“There’s never been a social issue with that level of change.”
The man most likely to introduce a HRO bill if Curry drags his feet, former Mayor and current At-Large Councilman Tommy Hazouri, told me a few weeks ago that protections for the transgendered community are essential.
“Transgendered [protections are] key to the whole bill. If you don’t have it, you don’t have a bill,” Hazouri said, before asking “why should anybody be excluded?”
Protecting the whole population is the moral thing to do, and it jibes with economic development goals.
“If [passing the bill] is about competition, we should tear down every wall. If someone moves down here,” Hazouri added, “they don’t want to feel they’re moving backward.”
“Jacksonville can’t be a great city,” Hazouri continued, if it continues to allow discrimination.
“Lenny wants to do it, after budget,” Hazouri said, referencing the “very thorough” report from the General Counsel that explained “where we are and what we can do.”
“My hope is that the mayor will take the lead,” Hazouri added, under the aegis of his administration tagline One City, One Jacksonville. Phrases like that, he added, can “sometimes haunt you” if you don’t follow through with them.
Delaney told Monroe that “the mayor has committed to lead on it. He hasn’t committed to the conclusion.”
A question that didn’t make it into Nate’s piece: how does the loss of Maria Mark, the Equality Florida backed incumbent in Atlantic Beach who was the embodiment of a pro-HRO type candidate, factor into the realpolitik?
In any case, here’s a guarantee: if Lenny Curry doesn’t commit to the conclusion Tommy Hazouri wants (read: a fully-inclusive bill), there will be fireworks.
