A.G. Gancarski
The drama of the week in Jacksonville revolves around the contretemps between the Lenny Curry administration and Planning Commission Chairwoman-elect Lisa King. Drama. From what Florida Politics hears, it extended into City Council offices on a rain-soaked Thursday afternoon, with a certain Republican councilman fretting over King being in the council suite of offices to make her case to council members.
The Curry administration has demanded King’s resignation from the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission wanted to know what was driving the move. Curry’s chief of staff, Kerri Stewart, told them, “The mayor feels like he’d like someone else” in King’s role and that they didn’t “wish to get into a public debate” regarding the reasons.
The Planning Commission responded to thay prima facie argument by electing King, who refused to resign, chairwoman-elect. Meanwhile, a local Democratic activist, sensing vulnerability, is quick to act, asking interested parties to “email all Jax City Council members.”
“The mayor is demanding the resignation of two great people from the planning commission to make room for his GOP party cronies. Lisa King and Joey McKinnon are very well qualified. If they choose not to resign and wish to serve, the council does not have to approve replacements, unless they want to bow and scrape to the Chairman-Mayor,” wrote Jim Minion, who urged people to email council a letter to that effect.
Minion, in what is a long letter, asserts that council doesn’t have to appoint replacements for board members who do not resign, and that the mayor’s objection to the two is that they are Democrats.
It’s notable that the proposed replacement for King was the campaign surrogate for the man who beat her in the May election for City Council, Al Ferraro.
